TORONTO -- Free agent-to-be DeMar DeRozan talked about loyalty and camaraderie on Saturday, making it clear that he wants to re-sign with the Toronto Raptors. It was music to general manager Masai Ujiri's ears.
"That's the first thing you want to hear," Ujiri said Monday. "And when you hear that -- we heard it from Kyle [Lowry] -- you like that about your players. And then I have to figure it out, we have to figure it out, what we do. But our No. 1 goal is to bring DeMar back here. And we feel great that he wants to come back to our organization."
Ujiri acknowledged the difficulty of bringing every component of the team that made it to the Eastern Conference finals back next season. Toronto center Bismack Biyombo is also an unrestricted free agent who raved about the organization, but it does not have his Bird rights. If both are to return, Ujiri will need to get creative.
"We are still evaluating everything," Ujiri said. "But the basics, I think, whether you look at DeMar or Biyombo or whoever it is, we're proud of those guys and we want to bring them back. Sometimes those things are challenging and difficult, but again I said it's our jobs to figure it out. When we are in the playoffs, we are helpless, we just watch. And now we can start to work."
DeRozan is expected to command a maximum contract starting at $25 million. Ujiri did not directly say he was willing to offer him that amount.
"I think that question is for later," he said. "We'll have those discussions. Our organization I think has showed that we want to win, but those are, I think, negotiations that we will have with DeMar and his agent. And we'll see where it goes."
Ujiri said that he has always had permission from ownership to go into the luxury tax, but that isn't particularly relevant yet. Since the Raptors do not have cap space, they cannot simply re-sign Biyombo and then go over the cap to sign DeRozan. Even if he was willing to give Toronto a bit of a hometown discount, it would not make much of a difference to its big-picture plan. Realistically, that means he will get a maximum contract or something extremely close to it.
Given that Ujiri said DeRozan is his top priority and DeRozan said he'd like to spend his whole career with one organization, there is clearly motivation on both sides to get a deal done in early July. That was always the most likely outcome for the two-time All-Star, and both he and the front office want to build on the best season in franchise history.
"I spoke to him yesterday and his eyes were still red," Ujiri said. "You can tell. He said he felt empty the next day, which was telling. Speaking to him and Kyle, it almost felt like we had a game to play still. And that game is not there. So there's that hunger. You like that. And then now it's my part to figure it out."
