Report: Otto Porter to join Raptors on 2-year deal

The Toronto Raptors are doubling down (heck, maybe it’s tripling down at this point) on their Vision 6’9” experiment! Yahoo’s Chris Haynes reports today that Otto Porter, Jr. will join Toronto on a 2-year deal (with the second year a player option).

Financials have yet to be reported, which tells me the team is probably still trying to make other moves, and those moves may determine exactly how much Porter’s deal is worth, or which exception the team is using to sign him.

Porter spent last season with the Golden State Warriors, winning the title as a key bench player (and sometimes starter — like in the Finals!). He averaged 8 points and 6 boards a night on 46/37/80 shooting splits; in a stat I find hilarious, Porter took all of 17 shots in the Finals, with 16 of them coming from downtown. And he hit 9 of them!

Random silly stat aside, Porter has proven to be reliable from downtown, which of course is a huge need for the Raptors as currently constructed; he’s shot 39.8% from three-point range for his career. Unfortunately, he’s never done it at high volume — he’s only cracked 4.5 attempts per game once, back in 2018-19. Still — we’ll take reliable, at this point!

The other concern with Porter is health. Porter played just 95 games in the three seasons from 2018-2021, and those absences were mainly related to his back — a notoriously difficult type of injury to manage. Still, he played 63 games last season with the Warriors, averaging 22 minutes a night, so hopefully that’s behind him (and we can’t discount the positive impact Alex McKechnie and Toronto’s medical staff may have).

As for his fit with the Raptors, well...

The Raptors sure do know what they like, don’t they?

Porter and the Raptors have some history, of course, dating back to Porter’s time as a member of the Washington Wizards. Porter was a big part of Washington’s first-round sweep over Toronto in 2015; he was then on the losing end (and dealing with a knee injury) when the Raptors defeated the Wizards 4-2 in the first round in 2018.

In another random tidbit, Haynes also mentioned that Porter’s wife is from Toronto, implying that may have influenced his decision. If that’s now a factor in free agency decisions, I guess Stephen Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are on the horizon, right? Grant Hill as an assistant coach?? Happy wife, happy life, etc.? Make it happen, Masai!