Announcement
Ujiri is trying to get in the draft, who you want?
-
Draft scuttle: Raptors currently have no picks but I'm told they intend to acquire at least one by Thursday night. Second-rounder at worst
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 22, 2013
Hardly a secret as Wolstat points out:
Masai made it pretty clear last week in various interviews that he'd love to get in draft.
— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) June 22, 2013
Comment
-
Matt52 wrote: View PostDraft scuttle: Raptors currently have no picks but I'm told they intend to acquire at least one by Thursday night. Second-rounder at worst
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 22, 2013
Hardly a secret as Wolstat points out:
Masai made it pretty clear last week in various interviews that he'd love to get in draft.
— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) June 22, 2013
like @ESPNSteinLine, have also heard Raps likely to acquire a pick by Thurs night. trying not to get my hopes up, but you know...ROOKIES.
— Holly MacKenzie (@stackmack) June 22, 2013
Comment
-
Matt52 wrote: View PostDraft scuttle: Raptors currently have no picks but I'm told they intend to acquire at least one by Thursday night. Second-rounder at worst
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 22, 2013
Hardly a secret as Wolstat points out:
Masai made it pretty clear last week in various interviews that he'd love to get in draft.
— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) June 22, 2013
Mamba Mentality
Comment
-
-
JordanMariam14 wrote: View PostGUYS. And girls if there are any.
Dennis Schroeder, or Myck Kabongo?
Who would you rather have as our backup PG?
And is there a way we can get the Mavs' 13th?
If not what picks are we able to get in this draft? (1st and 2nd)
Comment
-
JordanMariam14 wrote: View PostGUYS. And girls if there are any.
Dennis Schroeder, or Myck Kabongo?
Who would you rather have as our backup PG?
And is there a way we can get the Mavs' 13th?
If we want Dallas' pick, then we probably have to do slightly better than that, and I don't think we can. The Rudy trade killed our money flexibility that lets us satisfy Dallas' needs.
If not what picks are we able to get in this draft? (1st and 2nd)
So, to answer those questions in order:
1. Unlike many teams, we already have our center for the foreseeable future in Jonas, and if we can't get Bennett then we aren't going to use the pick on a low-end power forward because Amir is a decent starting PF and it's a pretty deep position around the league so it can be had more easily than most. What we want is either a starting point guard (if we trade Lowry) or a backup (if we keep him), a starting shooting guard (if we trade DeMar) or a backup (if we keep him), and maybe a starting small forward (if we trade Rudy). So the major candidates, reading through this thread, are (in rough draft order) Otto Porter, Victor Oladipo, Anthony Bennett, Trey Burke, Michael Carter-Williams, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, CJ McCollum, Dennis Schroeder, Giannis Adetokunbo and the Kabongos. I'd add Ricky Ledo and Nate Wolters to that list (both before the Kabongos but after everyone else).
2. There are two theories towards trading away players right now: get rid of only the trash (Bargnani, Kleiza, maybe Fields), or do a more full-scale rebuild (which would involve trading one or more of Rudy, Lowry, DeMar or Ross as well as aiming to extract value from Bargnani/Kleiza/Fields). (We also still control the draft rights to Tomislav Zubcic, don't forget, and he's starting to look like a viable PF project.)
If we can get a pick straight-up for Bargnani without taking garbage back (which is possible, but unlikely), it'll be a second-rounder to a team that's willing to gamble on him. Ditto Fields. Kleiza's expiring contract means we take on some garbage and maybe get a low pick in exchange. Lowry went for a first-rounder last time; he probably still can go for such this time, but not a high-end pick. DeMar has a lot of value around the league and as such would probably be an asset+pick in trade. Rudy has the most value, but his salary means we pretty much have to accept that we take back at least some trash (and hopefully a decent player) along with the picks he would bring us.
And, of course, there is always the option of simply buying a low-end pick outright with cash or with Zubcic's draft rights. Second-rounders this year are not valued terribly highly.
3. Looking at what we want and what we can do: we can probably get Myck Kabongo via a simple cash-for-second-rounder trade; if we traded away Bargnani and took back nothing to get Kabongo, I would consider that a major coup. We can also likely get a Kabongo-enabling pick in any trade involving one of our Big Four tradeable assets (Rudy/Lowry/DeMar/Ross) as a little side benefit. So I think we should strongly look towards getting Kabongo: he has a lot of upside as a pass-first floor general, and his upside is all the more impressive when you compare it to how little we would have to give up to get that pick. The fact that he is Canadian is important too: we should want good, young Canadian players playing for the Raptors.
Given all of the arguments for Kabongo, I tend to be very less interested in the higher-up PG prospects in this draft. Burke and MCW are both going to be moderately expensive and you come up against the question of how much you want to expend for someone who may well not be any improvement over Kabongo - or Kyle Lowry, for that matter.
Anthony Bennett, Victor Oladipo, Otto Porter and Trey Burke: are probably not gettable unless you're willing to trade Rudy (who I think is the only asset we have who can get us a top-four pick right now; none of the top-four teams are going to be interested in our other assets unless we take some of their trash). I'd be willing to do a Bennett-for-Rudy trade to Cleveland or Washington, but I don't think Orlando or Charlotte go for it: Orlando has Tobias Harris and Charlotte has MKG, and neither is in win-now mode. Cleveland and Washington, though - they both want to make the playoffs and neither one of them has a top-quality small forward. That might be doable. But in order for them to take on Rudy's salary, we'd have to take back some trash salary from either team: Cleveland probably sends us a mix of Alonzo Gee, Marrese Speights and Tyler Zeller, Washington sends us Trevor Ariza and Jan Vesely or maybe Nene. That's painful (especially Nene), and I don't think Cleveland or Washington particularly WANT to give up their picks - especially Washington, who can just get Otto Porter themselves anyway, since Porter already has a lot of Rudy's game for 1/8th the price once you pay him.
KCP and Schroeder: They're players whose picks are gettable but I'm not sure what we offer Portland/Detroit/Minnesota/Philly/OKC/Dallas. Portland might want some reasonably priced bench players - Ross? Acy? - but I don't think they'll give up the chance to draft another talented young role player. Detroit is rebuilding and won't want to ship picks, especially when they might not get a 2014 pick (Charlotte has it top-8 protected). Minnesota is interested in DeMar but they're also the most likely to draft KCP, who obliviates their need for DeMar. OKC doesn't want any of our assets. Dallas: see above. And Philly can't trade their pick this year because their 2014 pick is traded on a protected basis.
Adetokoubo, Ledo and Wolters: Now we're in the 20s. There are options here: Cleveland's #19, Utah's #21, Brooklyn's #22, New York's #24. Cleveland and Utah would probably trade their second picks in this draft relatively cheaply. New York and Brooklyn both have lots of players they would like to unload for Lowry and/or Kleiza's expiring contracts: are we willing to take on Marcus Camby or Steve Novak for a few years? Maybe we trade both Lowry and Kleiza to Brooklyn for Gerald Wallace? That's probably what it takes here, because New York and Brooklyn are so overloaded with salaries that rookie exemptions are one of the few ways they can add to their rosters at all.
So, to sum up: Myck Kabongo and Giannis Adetokoubo are the most obtainable players for us in this draft. We can get them relatively cheaply. If we're willing to expend more serious assets, we might as well go big and aim for Anthony Bennett.
Comment
-
connected wrote: View PostWe could send Lowry for the Utah's 14th
Lucas for the Mav's 13th
then let Schroeder / Larkin / MCW (2 of the 3 drafted back to back) battle for the starting spot@Chr1st1anL
Comment
Comment