With the 2023-24 season in the rearview for the Toronto Raptors, there are plenty of questions to answer.
One of them being Gary Trent Jr., as he is a free agent this summer. Despite all the roster fluctuation, Trent Jr. put together a nice season for the Raptors.
He averaged 13.7 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 steals on 42.6 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from 3-point range. As playoff teams look to bolster their rosters following the postseason, he could see himself garnering a ton of interest.
While Toronto does not want this rebuild to last long, one can imagine Trent Jr. wants to be a part of a winning situation. Michael Grange of Sportsnet believes the guard will receive plenty of interest at the full mid-level, which would start at $12.4 million.
It can be assumed that the Raptors will try to keep Trent Jr. around for a reasonable price. Head coach Darko Rajakovic is clearly a fan of the 25-year-old and applauded his play, via Grange:
“Gary is an amazing human being. I have so much appreciation for his consistency. He’s a hard worker. He’s a high-level competitor. He brings it every single day…and I think that he improved, and he got better as a player as the season went on. Not just being a catch-and-shoot threat, but he improved his finishing. He improved his scoring off cuts. Defensively, he did a really good job when he was assigned to guard (as an) on-ball defender. He showed a lot of good stuff.”
As free agency approaches, more rumors will surface about the potential market for the former Duke Blue Devil.
Darko Rajakovic shares high praise for Gary Trent Jr.
This is not the first time the rookie head coach has had high praise for the veteran guard. While the team did not win many games, Rajakovic commended Trent Jr.’s improvement this season.
More must-reads: