Opinion | What kind of a splash will the Raptors make in NBA free agency?

The Raptors don’t need to hit a home run in the NBA free agency season that begins Thursday night and no one should expect that they will.

Management quite likes the core group as it exists today – with Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes, Gary Trent Jr., OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa a solid foundation – and vice-chairman Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster are most likely to tinker on the fringes after they deal with their own free agents Chris Boucher and Thaddeus Young.

They don’t have a ton of money to go shopping with — the so-called salary cap “mid-level” exception of just over $10 million, the biannual exception of about $4 million they may or may not want to use this summer — but since they don’t have a ton of needs, they should be able to get bit pieces that will help.

Good thing, too.

The history books are not littered with stories of the great Raptors free-agent signings.

DeAndre Bembry. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Stanley Johnson. Aron Baynes. DeMarre Carroll.

And that’s just recent history. Going back to Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Kapono and — yikes! — Hakeem Olajuwon is not a lovely stroll down franchise memory lane.

All were defensible and logical in the moment. In recent years, they were low-risk gambles to augment existing rosters that never panned out and exemplify the gamble that each summer season presents.

And as they head into this summer’s buying season — teams can begin chatting with free agents Thursday at 6 p.m. ET, although it’s folly to think there’s been no back-channel discussions already taking place — history would suggest more misses than hits may be coming.

That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try.

There is major need for shooting and backups at least at shooting guard and small forward.

Depending on how they feel about the long-term viability of Malachi Flynn or Dalano Banton, adding some point guard depth behind the over-worked VanVleet would be high on the priority list.

Who should they get? Who can they get?

Impossible to say.

Almost every team has the same money to spend playing on the edges and if it comes down to playing time and rolls, the Raptors may not be hugely attractive as almost every starting spot is spoken for.

It’s one thing to think they could upgrade at shooting guard or find another centre but for the money they have, that’s unlikely.

It will be finding good backup fits at the right price and the right terms for Toronto, the same situation they’ve been in for several summers now.

They do most of their major roster upgrades and alterations in trades, not in flashy free-agent acquisitions.

The other job facing Ujiri and Webster is what to do about their own free agents who can be signed for any amount without regard for salary cap space.

Boucher, who slid into a well defined role last season with the Raptors, is their highest priority. It’s unclear how many other teams would be looking at him and that would play in Toronto’s favour. The Raptors giving him a raise on the slightly more than $7 million he earned last season and giving him the responsibility he had should be enough to keep him.

Young, the team’s other free agent, is a more difficult decision to be made. How a 34-year-old forward fits into their longer-term plans is dicey; if there is an upgrade to a younger model in the same role, it’s something the Raptors have to look at. It’s not that Young wasn’t valuable in his few months with the Raptors; it’s where he fits into the bigger picture that’s in question.

League-wide, it’s hard to see the next few days being truly explosive.

The New York Knicks have created cap space to go after Dallas guard Jalen Brunson and maybe another player, the Detroit Pistons have more than enough room to throw a maximum-value offer at restricted free agent centre Deandre Ayton of Phoenix but those might be the most significant moves that are coming.

And if Bradley Beal re-signs in Washington and Zach LaVine sticks around in Chicago, and both are highly likely, the air will go out of the big name free-agency balloon awfully quick.

It will be left to play in the periphery, find adds that complement what teams have rather than replace pieces, and that’s where the Raptors will be operating.

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