Toronto Raptors: Masai Ujiri teases potential surprise signing

The recent flurry of news and activity involving the Toronto Raptors may not be quite finished yet, as Masai Ujiri hints at a post-trade deadline surprise.

It’s been an interesting few days for the Toronto Raptors. They moved up to 12th place in Forbes’ annual NBA franchise valuations, the Bruno Caoclo era is finally over and there are rumors Vince Carter could return to Southern Ontario.

To top it all off, the Boston Celtics lost on Friday night, meaning Toronto is now in first place in the East. For what it’s worth, this is the latest into the regular season the Raptors have ever held top spot in their conference.

Have you caught your breath? Good, because the recent flurry of news and speculation doesn’t appear to be quite over yet, at least not according to Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri.

With the trade deadline out of the way, attention now turns to the buyout market and players looking to get out of the remaining term of their contract. As Sportsnet‘s Michael Grange notes, players have until Mar. 1 to do this, if they wish to be eligible for the playoff roster on another team.

In this respect, Ujiri has teased at the possibility of the Raptors making a surprise signing. As reported by Grange, he said:

"“We made a list (Thursday), but I can’t tell you. I’m not allowed to mention names anyways, but it’s open. I think there are going to be a couple of surprises. You never know and there are a couple of obvious names that are out there. We’ll see. We’ll continue to discuss with our coaches and we’ll see what we need.”"

Understandably, Ujiri is not in a position to divulge further information. However, thoughts immediately turn to who the Raptors are potentially targeting.

We’ve already mentioned Carter (although I’ll admit I have my reservations about going down this path). Other possibilities include Channing Frye, Marco Belinelli and Joe Johnson.