Why Patrick Patterson's new deal is good for the Raptors

With the re-signing of Patrick Patterson, General Manager Masai Ujiri continues the process of keeping together a 48-win Raptors team that enjoyed a franchise-record regular season and reinvigorated a rabid fan base in the postseason.

Two days after agreeing to terms on a four-year, $48 million contract with Kyle Lowry, the Raptors have reportedly agreed to a three-year, $18 million deal with Paterson.

$6 million per season isn't a discount by any means when dealing with a young player coming off of what most consider a career-year-five-months. But it's certainly not an overpay, either, for a 25-year-old, stretch-four who's a more capable defender than most stretch-bigs. And a look at Patterson's brief career numbers indicates his performance in 48 games for the Raptors was no fluke.

If anything, it was his poor start to the season in Sacramento that's the outlier, as the table below suggests:

Patterson's poor rebounding rates for a 6'9" power forward improved this past season in both Sacramento and Toronto, but his scoring, shooting and usage with the Raptors were much more in line with his previous season and career numbers than they were to start the year with the Kings.

Even if his three-point proficiency tails off a bit to match his career rate, the Raptors should still feel pretty confident that they've locked up a young big man who can reliably space the floor with his three-point range without giving much up defensively, for three of his prime years. Patterson can competently play the role of third big man in Toronto behind Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson, and can provide some insurance for the Raptors with Johnson frequently playing through injuries and entering the final year of his own contract.

If Ujiri and co. want to retain fellow restricted free agent Greivis Vasquez as well, they'll be left with little flexibility in 2014-15 to go about improving that aforementioned 48-win team that probably overachieved in a terrible and injury-depleted (Rose, Horford, etc.) Eastern Conference - Although trading Steve Novak in a salary dump helps in that regard, as they should be able to use most of their full Mid-Level Exception in addition to re-signing Vasquez now. But the key here is that no one is expecting the Raptors to contend for anything significant yet next season (other than a return trip to the playoffs and maybe another division crown), the East will likely remain weak for at least the next couple of years, and the team still has plenty of long-term flexibility at its disposal.

The Raptors are currently in line to have Patterson, Lowry, All-Star DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, Terrence Ross, Lucas Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo under contract for the 2015-16 season while still having maximum or near-maximum cap space next summer, when perhaps they will be ready to add a big name piece that helps them transition into a more formidable contender.

In the meantime, in locking up Lowry and now Patterson, without overpaying the pair in what has otherwise been a free agent market of excess, and in adding Lou Williams and high upside Brazilian youngsters Nogueira and Caboclo, the Raptors might just be up to the tough task of matching their surprising success of last season in the short term while maintaining their flexibility and ability to dream big in the long term.

Considering that just over a year ago, a perennial afterthought of a Raptors team was looking at the possibility of paying the combination of Rudy Gay and Andrea Bargnani over $30 million in the 2014-15 season - Patterson, Williams and the expiring Chuck Hayes will combine to earn less than Gay next season while Lowry earns just $500K more than Bargnani - it's intriguing to think of what Ujiri can do in another year's worth of time with a good team and more flexibility to work with.