Raptors shuffle bottom of roster with flurry of recent moves as season winds down

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With the season all but over and injuries mounting, it appears the Raptors will give some fringe prospects a look to see if any might be worth keeping around.

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That doesn’t include prized rookie Gradey Dick, of course, though his workload and what will be asked of him will only increase given star forward Scottie Barnes is probably lost for the season due to a broken finger.

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The team said Monday that starting centre Jakob Poeltl and sixth man Bruce Brown will not play on Tuesday when New Orleans is in town and don’t expect the team to rush either back with nothing left to play for (unless you believe a miracle run to the NBA play-in looms around the corner, though team president Masai Ujiri once said: “Play-in for what?”)

Team scoring leader RJ Barrett is also playing through some knee soreness that has led the Raptors to rest him at times for parts of back-to-back games.

Toronto announced on Monday that forward Mouhamadou Gueye has been signed to a two-way contract while diminutive point guard Markquis Nowell was waived for his Raptors 905 teammate.

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Gueye, who stands 6-foot-9, averaged 14.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 31.5 minutes in 21 games (all starts) with Raptors 905 this season. He played in one game with the Raptors after signing a 10-day contract.

Nowell, 5-foot-8, signed a two-way contract with the Raptors back in July after going undrafted. Nowell averaged 15.3 points, 8.9 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 33.1 minutes in 20 Showcase Cup and regular-season games (all starts) with Raptors 905 this season, but battled injuries.

In the past week, the team had converted guard Javon Freeman-Liberty’s two-way deal to a standard NBA contract and then signed guard DJ Carton to a two-way deal.

Carton had averaged 20.8 points and shot 43.4% on three-point attempts for Iowa of the G League. His 10-day contract with Toronto had expired last Friday. Carton has appeared in three games with the Raptors, scoring 10 points in 22 minutes.

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Toronto also has centre Jontay Porter signed to a two-way contract and perhaps the most interesting of all the recent shuffling was Monday’s signing of guard Jahm’ius Ramsey to a 10-day contract.

Ramsey, 22, is a 6-foot-4 guard who went 43rd overall to Sacramento in the 2020 NBA draft. He played in 32 games for the Kings, but has impressed in the G League, shooting 43% from three this season, the same mark he shot in his lone year at Texas Tech.

Besides his scoring tough, Ramsey also has a good reputation as a defender and averaged 8.2 rebounds along with his 22.2 points for Oklahoma City’s G League team in 18 games this season.

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