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Well the National Basketball Association tried, but just like Major League Baseball they where unsuccessful to come to an agreement with the Canadian government to allow the Toronto Raptors to play home games in that country. This comes as no surprise as Canada has had much stricter Covid-19 guidelines than the United States since the start of the outbreak.

Luckily with the regular season a month and a day away from starting the NBA was able to find the Raptors a temporary home to at least start the 2020-21 season. The hope is that the Raptors will be able to return to paying games in Toronto at some point during the 2020-21 season.

As for now the Raptors will be playing their home games in Tampa Florida at the Amalie Arena which is the home of the Stanley Cup winning Tampa Bay Lighting. The arena can hold 20,500 people for basketball games and while Florida is one of the states that is allowing fans at events there is limited capacity; so there won’t be 20,500 at any Raptors home game.

So do we have to start calling them the Tampa Bay Raptors?

With the draft over and done with NBA free agency started yesterday and while there where quite a few signings there where no real big name players that changed teams.

The biggest signing was actually a resigning as De’Aaron Fox inked a five year $163 million dollar extension with the Sacramento Kings. This deal will keep Fox in Sacramento until 2026 and his contract includes a clause that could make it worth $195 million dollars.

Fox was the 5th pick in the 2017 draft and is coming off his best season. Fox averaged 21.1 points per game, 6.8 assists per game and 1.5 steals per game. Fox played very well in the Kings short residence in the NBA bubble, but it seems as though he has established himself as the face of the franchise.

One other very interesting signing kept Montrezl Harrell in Los Angeles, but instead of playing for the Clippers he’ll be joining the world champion Lakers.

Harrell who was the NBA’s 6th man of the year last season signed a two year deal with the Lakers for $19 million dollars.

Apparently Harrell was offered more money to play for the Charlotte Hornets, but choose to stay in Los Angeles, but with the Lakers.

The move came as a bit of a surprise as most thought that the Lakers would be looking at add a player like Serge Ibaka or Marc Gasol.

While Harrell wasn’t the signing that people expected the Lakers to make he should fit very well with Dennis Schroder in the pick and roll game. Schroder was acquired by the Lakers earlier in the week through a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Harrell will also help fill the void left by Dwight Howard who’s leaving the Lakers to sign a one year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.

The other big news coming out of free agency wasn’t a signing. It was the news that Gordon Hayward would be turning down his $34.1 million dollar option with the Boston Celtics to enter free agency.

Hayward seems to have made his intention clear that he’d like to sign with the Indiana Pacers, but there is a possibility that he’ll resign with the Celtics. The New York Knicks have also expressed interest in signing Hayward, but it seems unlikely he’d sign there.

It seems as though the Pacers don’t have the salary cap space to sign Hayward to the contract he would require; so don’t be surprised if this ends up being a sign and trade deal between the Pacers and the Celtics.

Hayward is from Indiana; so by signing with the Pacers he’d be returning not only home, but to the state where he played his college basketball. Hayward played his college basketball at Butler in Indiana.

What do you think of these free agent moves? Do you think any of them will have a big impact on the upcoming NBA season?

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