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Raptors All-Star guard Fred VanVleet ‘declines $22.8m option to stay in Toronto and will enter free agency this offseason’
- The All-Star guard averaged 19.3 points, 1.8 steals and a career-high 7.2 assists
- He previously made comments that he felt he outplayed his current contract
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
Toronto Raptors point guard Fred Van Vleet has declined the player option in his contract worth $22.8 million and is set to hit free agency, according to multiple reports.
The 29-year-old guard averaged 19.3 points and a career-high 7.2 assists last season, which ranked him in the top 10 in assists-to-turnover ratio. He also ranked third in the league with 1.8 steals per game.
He has played his entire seven-year career in Toronto and was a pivotal part of the Raptors’ 2019 NBA finals victory. VanVleet also earned his first All-Star nod during the 2021-22 season.
VanVleet had been playing on a four-year $85 million contract he signed in November of 2020.
Back in January he told ESPN: ‘I felt like I’ve outplayed that contract thus far. So just trying to get myself in a position to put the cards in their hands. They got to make a decision from an organization standpoint.’
Raptors PG Fred VanVleet has declined the player option in his deal and will test free agency
The 29-year-old All-Star guard averaged 19.3 points, 1.8 steals and a career-high 7.2 assists
Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic is set to become the new head coach of the Raptors
He also added that he was ‘not going to make it easy on them (the Raptors), and they’re not going to make it easy on me, either, and that’s the way it’s going.’
VanVleet was reportedly offered a four-year deal worth $114million but he and the team mutually decided to wait on coming to a final decision.
TSN also reported back in January that VanVleet was eyeing a deal in the range of the four-years and $140 million that the Miami Heat gave to Tyler Herro in October.
VanVleet has come a long way since going undrafted out of Withita State and is expected to have a robust market from both rebuilding teams that are expected to have large amounts of salary cap space such as the Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic, as well potential sign-and-trade interest from contending teams such as the Lakers.
He is also said to be open to returning to Toronto on a larger contract, but his previous comments make it seem like that move may not be a likely option.
Although Toronto did qualify for the NBA Play-In Tournament, the Raptors are a team set to go through an adjustment period after recently agreeing to hire Darko Rajakovic after the departure of now 76ers head coach Nick Nurse.
