Everything 2017 Off-Season

[suspenders]

If we don't resign Lowry for whatever reason, can we not sign another point guard to take his place...?

I.e.... Patty Mills?

[KeonClark]

If we don't resign Lowry for whatever reason, can we not sign another point guard to take his place...?

I.e.... Patty Mills?

Wed have room for one good signing...if we also have our power forward depth chart set as siakam-??? And our small forward depth chart set as carroll-bruno

Be afraid

[TrueTorontoFan]

If we don't resign Lowry for whatever reason, can we not sign another point guard to take his place...?

I.e.... Patty Mills?

I don't now if we have the cap space to get him.


My question is with this core + making some changes to the bench (trading JV or Demarre) is it possible that we actually do better by changing up our offence. I think changing our coaching style even if it isn't changing the coach himself in addition to getting other players that can shoot may actually lead us to being more competitive in the post season. We needed to get someone like Bogdonavich like the Wizards got so we can consistently keep up with the firepower of the big guys.

Serge was alright but we need one or two players that can come off the bench and reliably give us like 8-12 points a night.

I definitely think we should not resign 2pat as much as I like the guy. Unless he comes on the CHEAP CHEAP and we can use him in a trade.

Again though to get that fire power through trade we may have to trade someone like norman powel. I think the defence wasn't the problem so much as the offense . The defence kept us in to a lot of games post all star break.

[Cody73]

Didn't see the presser, but it seems Masai is at a situation where he isn't sure what to do. He wants to see us get a championship, but he's not sure if sticking with the core or retooling on the fly is the right decision.

As for what I sense:

1. Decisions have to be made on Lowry & Ibaka. One or the other is coming back for sure, he's just not sure which guy is the right guy at this moment.

2. Tucker will be back. Patt will not be back. This moves Siakam into the rotation full time next year unless we draft a PF at #23.

3. Masai wants to move on from Casey. Management doesn't.

[Primer]

If we don't resign Lowry for whatever reason, can we not sign another point guard to take his place...?

I.e.... Patty Mills?

If Lowry leaves it's going to be the CoJo and Delon show next year at PG. SF and PF are both much bigger issues than PG, even with Lowry gone. Carroll, Bruno, and Siakam are the only SF/PF under contract.

[tDotted]

[magoon]

Yes you need a superstar, most likely. But put it this way: the league has say a half dozen superstars right now. Only lebron and durant were chosen ones who went early and lived up to the hype. The others (curry, westbrook, Harden and leonard) were drafted 7, 4, 3 and 15 and we're not expected to be this good. So racing to the bottom is not the only way. Shrewd drafting, player development and good ol fashioned luck is huge

First off, Westbrook and Harden being drafted fourth and third is early. If you get drafted in the top five of any year, as a general rule there's a good shot of being at least an All-Star player at some point in your career because the top five is where the most highly touted prospects get drafted.

Second, everybody knew Curry was a lights-out shooter when he was drafted. He dropped because he was recovering from ankle injuries and there was serious concern that he was going to be hobbled permanently, and that concern wasn't even that unreasonable because he lost a ton of games to ankle injuries in his first three seasons. The reason his current contract is so cheap is because Golden State was able to negotiate an excellent deal BECAUSE of his injuries.

That leaves Kawhi, who was already an excellent defender but there was question if he could learn to shoot and pass. If he had been drafted anywhere other than San Antonio, he probably doesn't become Kawhi Leonard as we know him today.

[KeonClark]

Didn't see the presser, but it seems Masai is at a situation where he isn't sure what to do. He wants to see us get a championship, but he's not sure if sticking with the core or retooling on the fly is the right decision.

As for what I sense:

1. Decisions have to be made on Lowry & Ibaka. One or the other is coming back for sure, he's just not sure which guy is the right guy at this moment.

2. Tucker will be back. Patt will not be back. This moves Siakam into the rotation full time next year unless we draft a PF at #23.

3. Masai wants to move on from Casey. Management doesn't.

The much respected zach lowe estimated the MLSE budget as 5 million over tax (not over cap), or roughly 127 million. You can ideally bring everyone back minus pat, and shed cojo and carroll. But mostly I agree.

I also think casey is only now for the first time ever on the management teams hot seat. He'll get another crack, but could be a mid season casualty.

For the first time ever I think masai is liking posts in the #firecasey camp

[special1]

Naw, the list is not that long if the whole idea behind tanking is you need to really get serious with acquiring true superstar talent to win a championship. The problem is how narrow the definition of superstar really needs to be.

Lebron, Duncan, Kobe, Shaq, and Michael Jordan have won 20 of the last 26 championships. If you're talking about best odds possible, you are really talking about finding a LBJ/TD/Kobe/MJ level of talent. For everybody else, it's a looooong shot. A guy like Paul George is a great player and nowhere near that level. Shaq never did it unless he was beside Kobe or Wade. Dirk, one of the greatest NBA scorers of all time, basically admitted they found a window between Kobe's Lakers and Lebron's Heat and any earlier or later and the Mavs wouldn't have been good enough for a championship. That's the kind of crack everybody else gets at it, something like that or like the Celtics getting three HoF players together one offseason and it's enough for one ring, or the 04 Pistons gettin 4 All-Stars together and perfect synergy with a HoF coach and it's enough for one ring. Hakeem is one of the greatest centres of all time, HoFer, could only win when MJ went to play baseball. It takes a lot more than a Paul George or Anthony Davis to win.

I think the dishonesty with tanking talk is you talk about getting "a" superstar as producing results that you only really get from having a Lebron/Kobe/Duncan/MJ.

Again, I'm not against it at some point but I wouldn't jump on the option so quickly. The Raptors do need to get better, I'd give the in-house talent + the management a couple more years to try to find other ways to improve this roster + the postseason results.

Great post.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KeonClark]

First off, Westbrook and Harden being drafted fourth and third is early. If you get drafted in the top five of any year, as a general rule there's a good shot of being at least an All-Star player at some point in your career because the top five is where the most highly touted prospects get drafted.

Second, everybody knew Curry was a lights-out shooter when he was drafted. He dropped because he was recovering from ankle injuries and there was serious concern that he was going to be hobbled permanently, and that concern wasn't even that unreasonable because he lost a ton of games to ankle injuries in his first three seasons. The reason his current contract is so cheap is because Golden State was able to negotiate an excellent deal BECAUSE of his injuries.

That leaves Kawhi, who was already an excellent defender but there was question if he could learn to shoot and pass. If he had been drafted anywhere other than San Antonio, he probably doesn't become Kawhi Leonard as we know him today.

Harden was a 6th man with immense talent, but was projected as option 3 on a champion, not a dominant record breaking point guard leading mediocre players to 60 wins.

Curry was a lights out shooter. So was fredette, Reddick, hield etc etc. He was projected to play second fiddle to Monta freaking Ellis at first. Now he's a 2 time mvp and projected top 3 point guard of all time.

Yes they were drafted high but luck and development played a huge huge role. Far greater things were expected out of greg Oden, darko milicic and Andrew wiggins

[Shredder]

It's going to be an interesting summer. I think it starts and ends with Kyle. If Kyle resigns I think the idea will be to bring back everyone except PP. For CBA alone, if we pay market value for everyone currently on the team, we can then trade them (later in the season) if it's not working. If we let them walk we can't just add players without cap space. Signing almost everyone allows us to potentially receive a comparable player back if a trade arises. Yes they would be in the tax, but I think this ownership group understands that good team=playoffs=ratings=$$$.

Personally I would hope this would happen with a new coach. With his record as our coach I can't sit here and say he is a bad coach, but I can definitely say he is not a great coach. It be cool to see what the current squad(essentially) could do in a different system.

In a perfect world we would be able to trade a mix of JV, DC, and some of the young guys and picks to get back a sharp shooting small forward (someone like Carroll was supposed to be).

With all that being said, if Kyle decided to sign elsewhere, I think the plan would be to have a fire sale. Get rid of anyone over 25ish and start stock pilling picks and young talent. I think you still want to do this with a new coach. The defensive minded, offensive oblivious current regime is not the current NBA. Look at the rockets. I'm not saying we need to hoist up 60 3's a game, but iso minded ball doesn't win in the playoffs. Not with our talent, at least.

[TrueTorontoFan]

Harden was a 6th man with immense talent, but was projected as option 3 on a champion, not a dominant record breaking point guard leading mediocre players to 60 wins.

Curry was a lights out shooter. So was fredette, Reddick, hield etc etc. He was projected to play second fiddle to Monta freaking Ellis at first. Now he's a 2 time mvp and projected top 3 point guard of all time.

Yes they were drafted high but luck and development played a huge huge role. Far greater things were expected out of greg Oden, darko milicic and Andrew wiggins

Lol darko hahahahahahahaha


I think hindsight being 20/20 Wiggins projects well but I think he is really just a better slightly more athletic demar.

[The Great One]

I've been seeing a lot of George Hill's name here a lot. Question, is he really that much better than Joseph?

[KeonClark]

I've been seeing a lot of George Hill's name here a lot. Question, is he really that much better than Joseph?

Well he can shoot, and he's long, and he can run an offense. So yes

[LJ2]

It's going to be an interesting summer. I think it starts and ends with Kyle. If Kyle resigns I think the idea will be to bring back everyone except PP. For CBA alone, if we pay market value for everyone currently on the team, we can then trade them (later in the season) if it's not working. If we let them walk we can't just add players without cap space. Signing almost everyone allows us to potentially receive a comparable player back if a trade arises. Yes they would be in the tax, but I think this ownership group understands that good team=playoffs=ratings=$$$.

Personally I would hope this would happen with a new coach. With his record as our coach I can't sit here and say he is a bad coach, but I can definitely say he is not a great coach. It be cool to see what the current squad(essentially) could do in a different system.

In a perfect world we would be able to trade a mix of JV, DC, and some of the young guys and picks to get back a sharp shooting small forward (someone like Carroll was supposed to be).

With all that being said, if Kyle decided to sign elsewhere, I think the plan would be to have a fire sale. Get rid of anyone over 25ish and start stock pilling picks and young talent. I think you still want to do this with a new coach. The defensive minded, offensive oblivious current regime is not the current NBA. Look at the rockets. I'm not saying we need to hoist up 60 3's a game, but iso minded ball doesn't win in the playoffs. Not with our talent, at least.

If they trade JV, there better be a vet C they are planning on bringing in. Poeltl is not ready to start and Noguera isn't of the calibre.