[Smith] Sasha Vezenkov wants to leave the NBA to return to Europe. It’s not that simple, however. And the Toronto Raptors are the ones who control this situation.

28 comments

1. Let him go back if he wants but he shouldn’t expect to get fully paid. Raptors will let you leave as long as it doesn’t hurt the salary cap

2. Just let him go. There’s no point in forcing him to stay if he prefers to be in Europe. It’s not like he is going to make or break this teams development timeline anyway. I’m not sure why this is being downvoted, lol.

3. If he wants to go so bad he can accept a buyout for zero dollars.

   If he doesn’t want to play, he should leave the money.

4. Honestly dont care how this goes… either he leaves and we can get a roster spot, and can do 2-1 trades

   or he stays and either becomes irrelevant or plays well

5. 

6. Unfortunately for this dude, we’re a rebuilding team that needs every opportunity to improve. His $6.6MM salary is a great fit for trades we may want to pursue this season – and there’s nothing to be gained for Toronto if we waive him.

   He can play for us, he can holdout, or he can give back 90%+ of his salary, but there’s no fucking way we should just waive him and eat the cost.

7. I can’t imagine taking another job and expecting my old employer to pay me $6.7m to work somewhere else.

8. Let him go, don’t waste a spot on a guy who has no interest in playing here.

9. From a Raptors perspective is it better to have $6 million off the books and a roster spot or on the books since it’s an easily tradeable contract for matching or other trade scenarios in the next 1 to 2 years. Pay him to sit at home if it’s better as a tradeable contract.

10. Should send this guy to the war front and let him rot. Utter rubbish getting paid in millions and still wanna go back to Europe what is this

11. If he’s released how many two way and roster spots do we have?

12. If he leaves and his contract is terminated, we somehow turned McDaniels into Mitchell and two seconds lol that’s great!

    Him leaving also allows us to use the entire MLE

13. 

    Masai to Bobby about Sasha

14. It looks like he was looking to leave before he was traded. Did the Kings know and, if so, did they withhold this information? Could they be held in breach of contract or something? Not that we want McDaniels back but maybe we could squeeze a draft pick or something out of them.

15. The main issue that is highlighted in the piece is that even if Vezenkov and the Raptors agree to a buyout he still needs to clear waivers, where he can be claimed by another team which reinstates his original contract. Same thing if he is straight up waived. To play anywhere in FIBA jurisdiction he needs a Letter of Clearance from Raptors or whatever team claims him on waivers, so he can’t just walk away.

    This issue normally doesn’t come up since buyout/waived player contracts are generally bad contracts that noone wants to pick up, but Vezenkov’s contract is not out of line with his potential value and includes a team option for another season. It’s a fairly attractive contract if a team can convince him to stay in the NBA, so the Raptors run a risk of letting go of Vezenkov for nothing and have another team swoop in and claim him.

16. If he does not want to play for us. He can leave for 0 dollars. Up to him.

17. I think this story is being over reported….

18. Wouldn’t surprise me if the second round pick the Kings threw in at the last minute of the trade was compensation for having to deal with this headache.

    “here’s another draft pick. He’s your problem now.”

19. Now if he wants to leave the NBA and will accept a buy out, couldn’t we use him as trade bait to a team in the tax to then buy him out and save a lot of money? For example to GSW for GP2 and an ATL 2nd so they can duck the 1st apron?

20. It’s silly that the man signed knowing he has an NBA contract in the first place. If he wants to leave he gotta give every cent back.

21. If we took his contract knowing these risks, it makes the two second round picks we got as compensation in the deal a lot more reasonable

22. Dude needs to shut up. He signed the contract – now live with it.

23. Sure, forfeit your salary.

24. Does this guy not understand what money is?

25. Just let him go.

    Not a talent to lose sleep over.

26. So many people here are saying the Raptors should play hardball and refuse to let Vezenkov leave or only let him go if he pays back 100% of the buyout… But think about what “playing hardball” would do to the Raptors’ reputation in Europe.

    Right now, they have a very good reputation, but they might be seen as a hostile organization if they refused to let Vezenkov go back home and play for Olympiacos.

    Is preserving that reputation worth paying a couple million to a guy who doesn’t want to be here? Probably.

27. He has the same value to Toronto as he had in Sac. A human trade chip. Once 2 months have passed he can be added to brown and Boucher and we can bring back a player up to 40m+ in salary.

28. Ok, can someone answer this – IF Vezenkov agrees to a buyout where he gives up 100% of the salary and somehow clears waivers, does Raps still have to eat his 6.6 mil as dead cap?