What star will be available this season?

[DanH]

They gave up Joseph to duck the tax (and clear playing time for Wright and VanVleet). Nothing to do with Miles, as they never needed to use Joseph except to preserve their MLE if possible (turns out it wasn't).

I never thought they should be pursuing a trade in-season this year, so I couldn't care less about the restriction on the 2019 pick. Need to give this group a shot, unless an obvious upgrade is there for limited cost (ie, not a draft pick).

If you think Carroll would look how he does on the Nets if he was still here, hey more power to you. Enjoy your fantasy land. It was never going to happen here.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

They gave up Joseph to duck the tax (and clear playing time for Wright and VanVleet). Nothing to do with Miles, as they never needed to use Joseph except to preserve their MLE if possible (turns out it wasn't).

I never thought they should be pursuing a trade in-season this year, so I couldn't care less about the restriction on the 2019 pick. Need to give this group a shot, unless an obvious upgrade is there for limited cost (ie, not a draft pick).

If you think Carroll would look how he does on the Nets if he was still here, hey more power to you. Enjoy your fantasy land. It was never going to happen here.

It was never going to happen here because of the system we were playing. Before this season most of us would've said that team-oriented basketball and ball movement was never gonna happen here either, but lo and behold it's happening. The system now is one that role players can thrive in and Carroll would've looked much better in it.

Again, we can say hindsight is 20/20, but even at the time I did not like how we approached the offseason. More focus on cutting costs than actually setting ourselves up in the best way possible. Too many assets given up just to save money.

[TrueTorontoFan]

[IMG]

Ohno Imout GIF from Ohno GIFs

[/IMG]

Ohno Imout GIF from Ohno GIFs

[S.R.]

It was never going to happen here because of the system we were playing. Before this season most of us would've said that team-oriented basketball and ball movement was never gonna happen here either, but lo and behold it's happening. The system now is one that role players can thrive in and Carroll would've looked much better in it.

Again, we can say hindsight is 20/20, but even at the time I did not like how we approached the offseason. More focus on cutting costs than actually setting ourselves up in the best way possible. Too many assets given up just to save money.

They didn't like Carroll so they dumped him, they didn't need Patterson, and they wanted Tucker but he went to a lower bidder. The context for all of this being that they had half a 905 team they wanted to give NBA minutes to and these guys, along with CoJo, were in the way. And even without those 4 outgoing guys on the roster this year, Casey is still rolling 12 deep and winning games. It's disingenuous to try to rephrase all that as cost cutting.

This team has been around the top 1/3 of the league for payroll for years, unwillingness to spend is one criticism I don't get.

[MixxAOR]

JV for Dedmon and Ilyasova?

[tDotted]

Trading that bum Carroll was the best move of the offseason.

[DanH]

JV for Dedmon and Ilyasova?

Why?

[planetmars]

Why?

Can't speak for MxxAOR but Ilyasova is an expiring contract and he can give you some shooting (although he's been terrible this year).. and Dedmon makes only about $6.3M for one more year after this one. It would be a salary dump without having to give up a pick and getting a center that can rebound and block shots. Basically a Baby Biyombo.

Dedmon is injured and out for like 2-3 weeks though.

Masai should be able to do better than this, but it's not a bad deal if we're trying to save money.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

If they just trade JV for a salary dump like that I'm going to be very fucking annoyed.

I'm sick of this team making moves just to save money or duck the tax. I'd rather have him on the team coming off the bench than just dump him to save MLSE money next year.

[KeonClark]

It was never going to happen here because of the system we were playing. Before this season most of us would've said that team-oriented basketball and ball movement was never gonna happen here either, but lo and behold it's happening. The system now is one that role players can thrive in and Carroll would've looked much better in it.

Again, we can say hindsight is 20/20, but even at the time I did not like how we approached the offseason. More focus on cutting costs than actually setting ourselves up in the best way possible. Too many assets given up just to save money.

This has been broken down player by player and been proven false multiple times and you still keep saying it

[3inthekeon]

If they just trade JV for a salary dump like that I'm going to be very fucking annoyed.

I'm sick of this team making moves just to save money or duck the tax. I'd rather have him on the team coming off the bench than just dump him to save MLSE money next year.

And the year after unless you believe he won't exercise his option.

[3inthekeon]

This has been broken down player by player and been proven false multiple times and you still keep saying it

I posted this earlier, but here's an outsiders take. It's mostly about how the team is faring (though written around the time of OG replacing Norm with the starters). The last section does deal with our path forward.

This is where strong production of their youngsters provides both opportunities and frustrations with how the front office proceeds. This season, they’re ducking the luxury tax by about $2 million and are a crisp $8 million below the tax apron. That number should balloon up over the next few seasons; after incorporating Norman Powell’s new extension to their salary sheets, the Raptors appear over the luxury tax before dealing with impending restricted free agents Lucas Nogueira, Fred VanVleet and Bruno Caboclo. Things won’t get much cleaner in 2019-20, with the Raptors already up against the tax and having to deal with Delon Wright’s new contract that summer.

Toronto is currently hard-capped, meaning they cannot exceed that tax apron until July. But Cory Joseph’s trade to the Pacers in the Miles-Joseph pseudo-swap this summer created a $7.63 million trade exception that fits perfectly with the $8 million below the hard-cap they are. Should Ujiri decide to be aggressive in chasing a top spot out East, he could use that spot to absorb a cagey veteran on an expiring deal to boost Toronto’s playoff depth and chances. Both Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli from Atlanta could be available for a reasonable price. Lou Williams could return to his old stomping grounds if the Clippers continue their free fall and decide to strip down their assets. Other veterans like Thabo Sefolosha and Brandan Wright could be available for very cheap prices.

The benefits of all those players mentioned above: zero guaranteed dollars next season, allowing Ujiri to compete now while ducking the tax later. The way he structured his team’s salary situation has been nothing short of genius, and the play of all their youngsters buys him some time to figure out which buttons to press moving forward.

Oops forgot link

https://bballbreakdown.com/2017/11/2...ense-thriving/

[Puffer]

"The way he structured his team’s salary situation has been nothing short of genius, and the play of all their youngsters buys him some time to figure out which buttons to press moving forward."

This guy needs to attend the "Shaolin Fantastic School of Team Management" for a semester to REALLY understand this stuff. I mean, he might look smart out there in the basketball world, but all of us RR insiders understand the truth care of SF.

[3inthekeon]

"The way he structured his team’s salary situation has been nothing short of genius, and the play of all their youngsters buys him some time to figure out which buttons to press moving forward."

This guy needs to attend the "Shaolin Fantastic School of Team Management" for a semester to REALLY understand this stuff. I mean, he might look smart out there in the basketball world, but all of us RR insiders understand the truth care of SF.

Be careful Puffer or you might end up on the dreaded IGNORE list along with Demo and the guy who wrote that article. And I'm guessing me soon, if I'm not on it already.

[KeonClark]

Be careful Puffer or you might end up on the dreaded IGNORE list along with Demo and the guy who wrote that article. And I'm guessing me soon, if I'm not on it already.

Hopefully there's room for 2 keons, because a mild sarcastic jab almost landed me in the bad boy section too