Winners and losers from Serge Ibaka signing with Toronto Raptors

Power forward Serge Ibaka has agreed to a three-year deal worth $65 million to return to the Toronto Raptors. Who won and lost in his free agent signing?

After spending only 23 regular season games in an abbreviated season with the Toronto Raptors, power forward Serge Ibaka has signed a three-year, $65 million deal to stay put. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first broke the news of Ibaka’s signing with the Raptors.

Ibaka was in the final year of his contract initially signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was shipped to the Orlando Magic before the 2016 NBA Draft. After 56 games in Orlando, he would go to the Raptors to help in their playoff push. While Ibaka is handsomely paid and with job security in Toronto, let’s take a look at who won and lost in his free agency signing with the Raptors.

Winner: Serge Ibaka

Ibaka is the obvious winner in this free agency signing. He was looking for a long-term deal worth his market value. Though he’s not a max player, Ibaka is a top-tier power forward and a versatile one at that. He can protect the rim like a traditional center, as well as make 3-pointers from the corner like a stretch four.

He and his daughter can call Greater Toronto home for the next three seasons. It was a tumultuous 2016-17 NBA season for Ibaka and his family, as he was traded twice before his impending free agency. He opted for stability and playing for a contending team he truly believes in. The biggest winner of this signing is Ibaka, no question.

Loser: Masai Ujiri

Masai Ujiri may be a revered front office executive for the Raptors and the Denver Nuggets before that, but signing Ibaka for a good bit of coin on a long-term deal could prove costly for the Raptors’ financial flexibility down the road.

The Raptors already have star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan on the books for top-dollar for the next four years. With the growing speculation that Toronto will also bring back star point guard Kyle Lowry on a long-term deal, the Raptors have the bulk of their salary cap fixated on three players.

Is Ibaka worth three years at $65 million? Sure, but he’s not a perennial All-Star like DeRozan and Lowry are. Ujiri’s best hope is that in a depleted East that Ibaka can play like a top-12 player in the conference and make his first All-Star squad.

Winner: Cleveland Cavaliers

An under-the-radar winner in the Ibaka signing is the Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland remains the best team in the Eastern Conference and Toronto didn’t exactly get better by re-signing Ibaka. While Ibaka is a great player for the Raptors, he’s just not the guy that will get Toronto over the Cleveland roadblock as long as LeBron James plays professional basketball in Northeast Ohio.

Essentially, this deal for the Raptors is to tread water in the Eastern Conference as a top-four seed for the foreseeable future. Toronto can only hope that Cleveland wains in the coming years and that the Boston Celtics continue to be painstakingly patient in their rebuild. Otherwise, the Raptors have kneecapped themselves as a fringe conference finals team in the weak East.

Loser: Jonas Valanciunas

The biggest loser in this deal might be Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas. In a way, Toronto trading for Ibaka is a telling sign in Valanciunas’ finite ceiling as a professional. Sure, Toronto was terrible at the four before the Ibaka trade, but Valanciunas was supposed to be a cornerstone for the club at the five. Now it looks like he could be on the trading block sooner than later.

Because Toronto will be tied up in DeRozan, Ibaka and Lowry contracts, Valanciunas and often-injured small forward DeMarre Carroll are the team’s two best trade assets. That’s not great for Ujiri or the Raptors organization if they feel they need that one piece to be championship-caliber.

Unless Valanciunas develops a great, low-post rapport next to Ibaka, expect his trade value to plummet. He might lose playing time if Toronto head coach Dwane Casey feels the need to see what he has in second-year center Jakob Poeltl out of Utah.