Joe Wieskamp was set to be guaranteed money today, but the Raptors have decided to let him go.
The Toronto Raptors make yet another domino fall in the offseason, this time waiving Joe Wieskamp just one day before his $1,927,896 deal guarantees.
By doing this, the Raptors don’t lose anything in what’s called ‘dead cap’ – players who are still being paid contribute to the overall cap of the Raptors, for example if Thad Young was to be waived on Jun. 30, the Raptors would’ve had $1million lost in dead cap. In Wieskamp’s case, it was effectively lose nearly $2million or nothing.
I suspect that decision was easy. Despite not usually putting much stock into Summer League performances, Wieskamp’s guarantee date was moved until after the Vegas tournament, so you’d have to think he was given one final chance to prove himself.
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t.
Despite scorching for 27 points in his last dance, Wieskamp averaged 13.5 points, 1.5 rebounds, 0.2 assists, 0.2 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover in 23.9 minutes. For someone entering his third year, you have to dominate in most of your games.
Wieskamp is back to what a large percentage of NBA players do… hop around teams, hoping they are the correct fit for him. He’s already been at San Antonio, Milwaukee, and Toronto (playing in the G-League for each team) and another outfit may be calling Weezy in the near future.
His future isn’t with the Raptors, though. For the Raptors, it opens up a roster spot and leaves them approximately $3.6million underneath the pesky luxury tax. It isn’t quite get the calculator time out yet, but we’re close.
Toronto will now start to finalize which players will feature in training camp and preseason, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Raptors call Summer League players from other teams.
That’s where we’re at, and everything is slowly revealing.
