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　　The bounce of the ball. The rattle of the rim. The roar of the crowd. These are the sounds that distract you from the most important part of the NBA’s opening week: confirming your spreadsheets now that we have rosters locked in.

　　Or, locked in for now, rather. Because everything will look a little different by the Feb. 11 trade deadline, and there’s always some room for two-way and end-of-roster churn. For the most part, though, we know how things will look until at least Dec. 15 — the unofficial start of trade season due to trade restrictions for recently signed players — and the Toronto Raptors are in a particularly inflexible spot until they’re ready to make some big decisions mid-season.

　　Let’s take our annual look at some of the Raptors’ start-of-season roster choices and where things stand from a cap and trade perspective.

　　Why did the Raptors only keep 14 players on their main roster?

　　The Raptors are in a very tight salary situation. Because of the specific mechanics of the Kawhi Leonard trade, they are “hard capped” at the first apron for the season.

　　What does that mean? The short(-ish) version: the NBA has a number of loopholes for exceeding the salary cap (and luxury tax), but certain transactions lock you in to a maximum team salary. In Toronto’s case, taking on more money than they it out in the Leonard deal means it can’t spend past the first apron, which is set at $209 million for the season. Unlike the luxury-tax line, which you can exceed and then duck under later, under no circumstances can the Raptors cross that $209 million number this year.

　　While the Raptors only have $201.2 million committed in actual salary right now, the apron amount includes bonuses that could be earned later, bumping their number to $208.1 million. Pretty tight!

　　That proximity to the apron explains two moves.

　　The first is signing second-round pick Jaden Bradley to a four-year deal beginning at the league minimum this season. (Only the first season is guaranteed, and the fourth year is a team option, so it’s a very team-flexible deal beyond this year if Bradley turns out to be A Guy.) A team’s own second-round pick counts for slightly less against the tax and apron than a free agent would, even if they have the same base salary. Because of that wrinkle, Bradley was the only player in the entire league the Raptors could fit in under the apron level and still roster 14 players. Their only other option was to enter the year with 13 players, but you can only do that for 14 days at a time, up to a total of 28 days during the season; something had to give eventually, and Bradley was the easiest to plug in.

　　The second is leaving the 15th roster spot open. Again, Bradley was the only player who fit as the 14th player. Toronto simply doesn’t have room to fit a 15th player right now.

　　Once February rolls around, the Raptors will have room for a 15th player, with the flexibility to sign 10-day contracts, convert a 2-way player, or sign a free agent. They can also open up more wiggle room via trade, as we’ll discuss. For now, it’s 14 guys.

　　Can you explain that bonuses thing one more time?

　　Some contracts contain bonuses, and the league declares these likely (if the player/team achieved them last year) or unlikely; likely bonuses count toward the cap hit, while unlikely bonuses only count toward the tax if they’re achieved. Unlikely bonuses, however, count toward the apron no matter what, so that teams can’t “accidentally” end up above their hard-cap level.

　　RJ Barrett ($3.6 million based on all-star, all-NBA and all-defence), Immanuel Quickley ($2.5 million based on a combination of player honours and team playoff success), and Jakob Poeltl ($500K based on team playoff success) all have unlikely incentives that make their salary for the apron higher than their salary for the cap.

　　This is why you might see some confusing numbers like the Raptors barely being over the luxury tax yet being close to the first apron, even though those levels are almost $9 million apart.

　　Could they make a trade to loosen things up?

　　They could, but NBA trades before Dec. 15 are pretty uncommon. Teams entered the season with their roster as it is for a reason and usually want 20-25 games to evaluate. More importantly, about 30 per cent of the league isn’t trade-eligible until Dec. 15 (or Jan. 15 in some cases) due to restrictions around trading players you just signed.

　　This is probably the Raptors’ NBA roster until closer to trade season, when more players become available and teams have a better sense of their needs.

　　What does that mean for trades later in the season?

　　The big thing to remember is that the Raptors can’t exceed the first apron at any point. Right now, they’re less than $1 million away from it. So any hypothetical trade you’re cooking up can only bring back about $1 million extra, and you’ll need money left over to fill out the roster if it’s a two-for-one kind of trade (or you just want a 15th player).

　　In short, any Raptors trade will have to be very close to salary neutral, or actually shed salary.

　　That throws a wrench in some of the bigger, more star-driven trade machine scenarios, as the Raptors would almost certainly have to trade a starter to bring back a meaningful piece. I’m not ruling that out; they’ll just be threading a tight needle as far as players who are obvious upgrades, good fits and don’t make more than whichever starter you’re sending out. There are, of course, good players who don’t earn much, but teams tend to hold on to those players very tightly.

　　The Raptors are already down two first-round picks and four second-round picks in the future, leaving them with two tradable firsts and three tradable seconds, if they have to sweeten a deal.

　　Why might the Raptors duck the luxury tax in a win-now year?

　　I know, I know. You don’t trade for Kawhi Leonard and then pinch pennies.

　　However, any time you are close to ducking the luxury tax level, you have to at least explore it. And the Raptors are only a little more than $1 million over the tax line.

　　Ducking the tax doesn’t necessarily mean taking away from the roster in a meaningful way. There are small, loophole-ish deals you can make in the back part of the season to trim your bill, like trading a player with a guaranteed minimum contract away and replacing him with a minimum signing. While both players make the minimum, the second player would only count toward the tax for the prorated amount of that salary (for how long they were on the team), while a full-year player counts for the whole amount. That can be a difference of $1.6 million or so against the tax, because unlike the aprons we discussed, the only thing that matters for luxury tax is where you sit on Game 82. Or if you make a more substantial trade, you just do your best to take a little less money back and duck below the line.

　　This is obviously not the most important goal for the Raptors at the trade deadline. Making the team better is.

　　I only point out the tax proximity because, A) you might as well try if you’re close, and B) there are future implications. Those future implications are pretty notable at this point in Toronto’s build.

　　Come on, do I really care about the luxury tax?

　　Maybe! Teams that spend into the luxury tax constantly will eventually pay “repeater” penalties, where their actual luxury tax charges are higher. The money is real, and even if you don’t care about the team’s profit margins, they are likely working under a rolling multi-year budget during their competitive window, and saving a bit on the tax today should let you spend deeper into the tax tomorrow. In theory.

　　That theory will be tested soon. Leonard and Jamal Shead have both received extensions this fall, giving the Raptors $186 million in committed salary for next year already (for eight players), and $190.2 million the year after that (for even more players). Those numbers don’t include a new contract for Barrett, who is extension-eligible until June 30 and will otherwise be an unrestricted free agent this summer, or Walter, who will be eligible to sign a rookie-scale extension this summer. Even with a rising cap, it’s going to get really tight, really soon.

　　It is very likely that at some point during Leonard’s three years under contract, the Raptors will be a luxury tax payer, and probably a deep-tax team in at least one of those years. Being mindful of the tax this year, when you’re close, should improve your ability to be a deep-tax team later.

　　Of course, all of this could be moot if the Raptors go on a deep playoff run, because some of those “unlikely” incentives will kick in and push them into the luxury tax, anyway. I think everyone will be just fine with that.

　　What about the two-way players? Is this why the Raptors only kept two?

　　This one is purely a personnel decision.

　　Two-way players don’t count against the cap, tax or apron, so there was no cost to keeping a third (and there’s very little cost to switching players out during the season and trying new players in those slots).

　　Instead, the Raptors decided to take a look at the players who got cut around the NBA this week, exploring if one of those names was interesting as their final two-way. Whether it’s intriguing Exhibit 10 cuts you want to pluck from another G League program or a failed first-round pick you’d like to buy low on, there’s a logic to keeping a spot open and seeing who you could convince to join your development system.

　　I would imagine the Raptors add a third by Sunday, as Raptors 905 training camp begins Monday.

　　Whoever they sign will join Malachi Smith and Nate Bittle. Smith had a great camp and is a really cool story as a multi-year G Leaguer who’s developed his way to the cusp of the NBA. Bittle, meanwhile, is obviously thought highly of, considering the Raptors kept him through a medium-term foot injury while cutting a few other injured camp hopefuls.

　　So will two-ways just fill the 15th roster spot?

　　This can be a part of the solution to carrying just 14 players. However, teams that don’t have a full 15-man roster are allowed to have their two-way players active for fewer games, so the league has partially closed that loophole. If the Raptors have a full NBA roster, each two-way can be active up to 50 games; if they only have 14 NBA players, that number is capped at 90 total games for all their two-ways combined.

　　Are the other camp cuts headed to Raptors 905?

　　That is the hope, and new Raptors 905 general manager Scott Brown Jr. has a pretty good leg up based on how the Raptors handled their camp invites.

　　Tyreke Key, Tyson Degenhart and AJ Hoggard were all Raptors 905 players who were given Exhibit 10 deals for camp. That gave them a chance to compete for a two-way spot or, if they end up going to the 905, they can receive an additional $91,000 on top of the $46,350 G League salary. Because those players were with 905 last year, the 905 still holds their rights.

　　Nimari Burnett and Jalen Celestine were also given Exhibit 10 deals that give them a top-up on their G League base salaries. As rookies, that allows the 905 to effectively call dibs on them as “affiliate players.”

　　Chucky Hepburn and Trey Jemison were two-way players who were waived in camp due to injury. Neither has G League rights held by a team, despite G League experience, because they were NBA two-way players. Still, the Raptors smartly kept their guarantee amounts small enough that they can be made Raptors 905 affiliate players if they choose to sign into the G League.

　　And finally, the 905 acquired the G League rights to Jamarion Sharp in a trade this week.

　　If all of those names opt to play in the G League (and get healthy), rookie head coach Noah Lewis has a pretty good foundation to start building from.

　　The G League draft is Saturday, with the 905 selecting 27th overall, and training camp begins Monday. They open their season Nov. 6, with the home opener in Mississauga on Nov. 11.

　　I didn’t read all that. What’s most important?

　　*The Raptors are very close to the first apron, where they are hard-capped. This is why they only kept 14 players (until at least February), and it will limit their flexibility in trade.

　　*The Raptors are barely above the luxury-tax line, so they may try to shed a bit of salary at the deadline. That will not be a bigger priority than improving the team.

　　*Barrett is eligible to sign an extension any time. That impacts the future cap situation significantly but has no impact on this year.

　　*Raptors 905 should be pretty good, health willing.

　　Aren’t you excited to have to learn all this stuff for an MLB salary cap, too?

　　I will fight you.