The Toronto Raptors, a team which has fallen into bad times since Chris Bosh left to join LeBron James in 2010, is ready to roll the dice and trade anyone on its roster except promising center Jonas Valanciunas.
According to Marc Stein of ESPN, Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri is willing to trade anyone on the roster except the 22-year old center. This means that the Raptors are open to trading swingman Rudy Gay who was acquired last season from the Memphis Grizzlies.
"Anyone but [Jonas] Valanciunas," Stein quoted his source as saying.
Valanciunas was the fifth pick of the 2011 draft and posted average of 8.9 points, 6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks as a rookie last season.
Gay has yet to sign an extension with the Raptors. The explosive Gay is making almost $18 million this season and has a player option next year worth $19.3 million. Despite his 18 points per game career average, Gay is thought to be not a franchise-type player who deserves such amount of money.
The Raptors also have on its roster veteran point guard Kyle Lowry and shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, who just received a four year, $40 million contract extension last year from then general manager Bryan Colangelo. Lowry will be a free agent at the end of the season.
The Raptors have not been in the playoffs since the 2007-08 season, when Bosh was the face of the franchise. Last year, they were a miserable 34-48 which was good for ninth place in the Eastern Conference.
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