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Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
2022 Free Agents - Isaac Bonga
Summary
In the '19-'20 season, Bonga played over 1100 non-garbage time minutes, per Cleaning the Glass. However, those minutes decreased in '20-'21, and he mostly fell out of the rotation as the Wizards improved their depth at the wing. After signing with Toronto in 2021, Bonga played even fewer minutes, getting less than 50 minutes of non-garbage time during the '21-'22 season.
At 6'9", Bonga could potentially be a two-way impact player if he can develop his offensive game. His outside shooting percentages aren't terrible at 34% from three, but he's not generally a threat from out there. He also doesn't finish very well at the rim, as he doesn't have the craft and creativity off drives that he needs in order to be efficient in the paint. Improving those two areas would be key for his development, and that's before thinking about improving areas such as ball-handling and playmaking.
At only 22 years old still, Bonga is an intriguing free agent, but still needs to develop his game in order to become a rotation-level NBA player. After only being able to get a lightly-partially guaranteed minimum from the Raptors in 2021, Bonga might be looking at non-guaranteed offers as a free agent this summer, and may need to fight hard for a final roster spot in training camp.
Cap Considerations
Bonga will be an unrestricted free agent with a $1.8 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Raptors could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $2.3 million. This should be enough to retain Bonga, since he settled for the minimum of $1.7 million to come to Toronto. Alternatively, the Raptors could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception to re-sign Bonga if he demands more than $2.3 million.
Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Bonga as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. Since he signed a minimum contract in 2021, teams will hope to get him at the minimum in 2022 too, and he may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.
Potential Teams: Rockets, Magic, Jazz, Raptors, Bulls
Predicted Contract: 1-year, $1.9 million (non-guaranteed) with the Rockets
Last updated: 6/19/2022
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