Why DeMar DeRozan isn't leaving the Raptors

No, he's not joining the tire fire that is the Brooklyn Nets, or returning to his hometown to play in Kobe Bryant's enormous shadow.

DeMar DeRozan is going to stay put with the Toronto Raptors, where he's spent the entirety of his career, when he becomes a free agent this summer.

This isn't the Vince Carter era. It's not even the Chris Bosh age. The days of star players migrating south are over. The Raptors are embracing their cold northern outpost, their charming global ambassador, and their identity as Canada's team.

The Raptors under general manager Masai Ujiri have revamped their stature around the league, and players have no problem staying with the team. Kyle Lowry turned down offers from the Heat and Rockets to stay put last summer. His good friend will soon follow suit. DeRozan couldn't have made that any clearer in his recent interview with Sportsnet.

"That's one thing you can never question: my loyalty to the city," he said. "How much I really love and appreciate the team and the organization ... I've always stressed that this is where I want to be my whole career."

Related: Raptors' DeRozan: 'Toronto is all I've known'

The only reason DeRozan doesn't already have a contract extension in hand is because the rules for extending players wouldn't allow him to earn anywhere close to the full maximum. Otherwise, this wouldn't even be a conversation.

"A lot of times they don't understand how contracts work or things like that," DeRozan said, by way of not-so-subtly explaining why he hasn't yet put pen to paper.

Moreover, the Raptors are headed up by Ujiri, who's spoken at length about the tricky maneuvering necessary when it comes to stars on expiring deals. He saw how the Bosh situation blew up in predecessor Bryan Colangelo's face, and he himself had to deal Carmelo Anthony when it was clear Anthony wanted out of Denver. Ujiri's standing pat, which means he's confident DeRozan wants to stay.

This current iteration of the Raptors, the squad that sits second in the East thanks to top 10 production on both ends of the floor, is built around DeRozan and Lowry. And given the age of its core pieces, the team is built for both the present and future. The Raptors will be DeRozan's to lead for many years to come, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

The more interesting question is whether the Raptors should retain DeRozan, at a price close to (or at) the max.

That answer was unclear as recently as November, when DeRozan was struggling with his jumper and making boneheaded gaffes in crunch time. He's improved significantly since then, and has even joined the All-Star conversation, but there remains a real risk in building around a high-usage, middling-efficiency guard who can't hit threes.

Two strong months, even if they've constituted the best sustained stretch of DeRozan's career, don't change the equation. Re-signing DeRozan for $25 million per year will cap the Raptors out this summer, which would solidify this core (essentially the same one that's been bounced in the first round of the playoffs the last two years) going forward.

Surrendering flexibility, however, still beats the alternative. If the Raptors let DeRozan walk, Ujiri would only have roughly $15 million to make an addition. That's how much it cost for a decent starter like DeMarre Carroll last year, and now the cap has jumped and every team has space. There's no sense in swapping out DeRozan for a lesser player just to massage the cap.

Even if they end up capped out, Ujiri will still have options. He can rely on internal development from the likes of Jonas Valanciunas, Terrence Ross, Bruno Caboclo, Delon Wright, and Lucas Nogueira (all signed to cost-effective long-term deals), or trade those prospects, along with any or all of the four first-round picks they own in the next two drafts, to grab a star.

League executives pitched a hypothetical deal to ESPN's Zach Lowe, in which the Raptors would get Marc Gasol. They could try to spring DeMarcus Cousins loose. Maybe work a sign-and-trade for Nic Batum (who was once rumored to have interest in Toronto). Either way, it's not like the Raptors will be stuck.

This is a relatively young team trying to make the difficult leap from good to great. And while DeRozan's raise will likely make that even more difficult, it still makes much more sense to build with him than without him. Keeping a 26-year-old who has a near-spotless health record, never complains, wants to lead, and improves every year, is the logical play for Ujiri and company.