{"id":708505,"date":"2026-04-11T22:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708505\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T22:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:57:18","slug":"toronto-makes-intriguing-contract-decision-right-before-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708505\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto makes intriguing contract decision right before NBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/toronto-raptors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto Raptors<\/a> are converting two-way guard AJ Lawson to an NBA contract ahead of the playoffs. Before hosting the Brooklyn Nets with <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/nba-stories\/nba-news-postseason-seeding-scenarios-hawks-raptors-magic-76ers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">playoff implications on the line for the Raptors<\/a> in their regular-season finale, Lawson will be available.<\/p>\n<p>Lawson and the Raptors are tied with the Orlando Magic for sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings, as his <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2043058924895551935\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">two-way contract was converted<\/a>, per ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Toronto Raptors are converting two-way guard AJ Lawson to a standard NBA contract for the remainder of the season and the playoffs, Todd Ramasar and Mike Simonetta of Life Sports Agency told ESPN,\u201d Charania reported. \u201cThe hometown product is in his second season in Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AJ Lawson has averaged 6.7 points on 42.0% shooting and 2.6 rebounds in 49 games throughout the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Darko Rajakovic reacts to Raptors&#8217; loss to Kings<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3764485\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Raptors-head-coach-Darko-Rajakovic.jpg\" alt=\"Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic reacts during the first quarter against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/toronto-raptors\/raptors-news-rj-barrett-blunt-message-ugly-kings-loss\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Darko Rajakovic says the Raptors&#8217; poor start to games<\/a> has been an underlying issue. He addressed it after a 123-115 loss to the Kings, then the Raptors dropped only two of their last five contests, including a 112-95 defeat to the Knicks on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Raptors&#8217; Rajakovic <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JLew1050\/status\/2039535416072663071\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">addressed his team&#8217;s approach<\/a>, per TSN&#8217;s Josh Lewenberg.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were trying, we were fighting back, we cut down the lead, but when you don\u2019t approach the game from the start with the level of intensity and attention to detail that you need to have, this is the outcome,\u201d Rajakovic said.<\/p>\n<p>The Raptors (45-36) trail the Hawks (46-35) by one game in the Eastern Conference standings. The 76ers are also in the mix with the eighth-best record (44-37).<\/p>\n<p>The Toronto Raptors are converting two-way guard AJ Lawson to an NBA contract ahead of the playoffs.  Before hosting the Brooklyn Nets with playoff implications on the line for the Raptors in their regular-season finale, Lawson will be available.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Raptors are converting two-way guard AJ Lawson to an NBA contract ahead of the playoffs. Before&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-708505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-raptors","11":"tag-toronto","12":"tag-toronto-raptors","13":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}