Everything Terence Davis

[KeonClark]

Or they're trying to see what they really have in Morris in anticipation of his FA instead of the guy they already control?

Then they're still stupid. He's a 30 year old 9 year vet, and a fairly productive bonehead.. We know who Marcus Morris is. If anything you jack up his value in the summer by putting up better raw numbers with more shots. Good for Marcus Morris, no doubt.

[bertarapsfan]

Or they're trying to see what they really have in Morris in anticipation of his FA instead of the guy they already control?

Ahh yes make sense. See what you have in a 30 year old morris brother with 8 years experince, who just recently fucked over another franchise instead of letting you young rookie develop and get late game shots. Your already a bad team so why let you future of the franchise get late game shots when their are no expectations? And instead give those shots to a guy looking to grab one last big deal, I'm sure he will show your franchise loyalty after her just reneged on a contract this past summer with a well respected franchise.

[KeonClark]

TD is #9 on the Rookie ladder.. so he is making noise:
https://www.nba.com/rookie-ladder

But that's a big ladder to climb to get to the top. I still think Zion will be the favourite by season's end. If not him Morant will probably get it.

Zion will need considerably better stats than Morant to get to #1 with less than 60 games played. Like Lebron in his rookie year "only" average 21/5.5/5.5...like even if Zion came close to that, is it enough to beat Morant with 60-70% of his games played? I doubt it. Morant is flirting with 20 ppg to go along with 6 assists, in one of the least talked about markets in the league

[G__Deane]

The knicks are letting Marcus Morris take the crunch time spots when he is on a 1 year contract... Ja is getting the ball in his hands in key moments. Ya great plan Knicks let a 1 year guy whose looking for a better contract elsewhere next season take the crunch time shots at expense of your number 3 pick. Great strategy...

Or they're trying to see what they really have in Morris in anticipation of his FA instead of the guy they already control?

[planetmars]

TD is #9 on the Rookie ladder.. so he is making noise:
https://www.nba.com/rookie-ladder

But that's a big ladder to climb to get to the top. I still think Zion will be the favourite by season's end. If not him Morant will probably get it.

[bertarapsfan]

If Barrett had a different team around him he'd have a chance but the Knicks have Morris, Portis and Randle running the show in NYC all the way to 4-11.

Morant is in the perfect spot with the perfect team for a ROY nod.

The knicks are letting Marcus Morris take the crunch time spots when he is on a 1 year contract... Ja is getting the ball in his hands in key moments. Ya great plan Knicks let a 1 year guy whose looking for a better contract elsewhere next season take the crunch time shots at expense of your number 3 pick. Great strategy...

[bertarapsfan]

No. It will likely be Morant, maybe Nunn or Barrett, or maaaaybe Zion if he's incredible when he returns

Im surprised how few ppl are talking about Nunn as a ROY canidate. IMO he is even with Barrett for 2nd behind Ja right now.

[slaw]

No. It will likely be Morant, maybe Nunn or Barrett, or maaaaybe Zion if he's incredible when he returns

If Barrett had a different team around him he'd have a chance but the Knicks have Morris, Portis and Randle running the show in NYC all the way to 4-11.

Morant is in the perfect spot with the perfect team for a ROY nod.

[bertarapsfan]

I don't understand how he keeps getting called "not a point guard." I get that he's not Nash/Stockton, but the PG position has really evolved and how is this guy any different than half the guys playing the position now who score and defend as well as or slightly better than they pass? Guy's averaging 5 assists per 36.

He looks like jrue holiday type to me. Has good enough passing to play the PG. but also has the size and shooting to play off ball at the 2 spot.

[S.R.]

I don't understand how he keeps getting called "not a point guard." I get that he's not Nash/Stockton, but the PG position has really evolved and how is this guy any different than half the guys playing the position now who score and defend as well as or slightly better than they pass? Guy's averaging 5 assists per 36.

[KeonClark]

Can TD win rookie of the year ?

No. It will likely be Morant, maybe Nunn or Barrett, or maaaaybe Zion if he's incredible when he returns

[RaptorsVictim]

Can TD win rookie of the year ?

[Puffer]

This from the "Black Box" story from this week:

"Davis averaged 12.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists over the past week. He shot 53.8 percent from deep on a beefy 4.3 attempts per game. He is an excellent passer, considering he’s not a point guard (yet), and he’s a rookie."

This really caught my eye. I wonder how many players have averaged that kind of a stat line in a week of regular season play over the last few seasons. That is solid rotation territory. Add in the fact that he is doing quite well on the defensive end, and there are not a lot of rookies in the lottery that can match, is my guess.

I am totally pumped about what he can do in the next few weeks, and also by the ability to rotate Kyle, Fred and Terrence so as to have two quality , competent guards on the floor at all times without running anybody into the ground. The Kyle and Fred "wear and tear" problem would appear to be solved. Matchups will dictate the ability to always filed two of the three, but this is a solid backcourt lineup that 80% of the teams in the league would love to have.

[DanH]

There are pros and cons with getting these undrafted guys as free agents. Instead of having a 4-5 year rookie contract we get 2. So after 2 years we may have to pony up north of $15M to keep him and we won't have his RFA rights to match.. if we drafted him than he could be on a small rookie deal for 4 years with the right to match any other offer when they become free agents.

For the player though its very empowering. They get rich sooner and are totally investing in themselves. And those are the kind of athletes that Masai and his front office love. The guys that believe in themselves.

Well, it's not so stark as all that.

First off, getting guys in the 2nd round is no better than undrafted. Exact same contract options. Slightly different cap hit in hard cap/tax scenarios but it's not a meaningful difference.

We also do indeed have RFA rights to these undrafted free agents. Any player not drafted in the 1st round is an RFA any time they hit free agency until they accumulate 4 years experience in the league (at which time they are UFA). So their free agency can come sooner depending on the contract they sign, but the UFA is only one year earlier (first round picks are UFAs if they play out their 5th year QO).

Terence Davis, for example, will be a free agent in summer 2021, with a $2 million cap hold (and QO). Very cheap to hold onto while making other moves, and then can re-sign him to go over the cap. They have his early Bird Rights, meaning they can offer him the Norman Powell contract (scaled up a bit to the current salary cap) that summer. It also means he is a Gilbert Arenas free agent, so other teams are limited to offering a contract at the Mid-Level Exception for the first two seasons, with a huge raise available in the 3rd season (if that team has the cap space for the average annual value of the contract). But the Raptors would be free to match any such offer.

It's worth noting that with smart use of exceptions, the team can also offer these 2nd rounders and undrafted free agents three years, which gives them full Bird Rights after their 3rd year while retaining RFA matching rights. They could even offer 4 years, but the player would go straight to UFA. They did so with Thomas and Hernandez.

But yes, it will be good to get some more 1st round picks in the pipeline, to allow for longer term cheap deals. Selling picks the last couple years made perfect sense for the shot they took, but they are happily back in line to have a 1st rounder every season now.

[007]

Nuggets don't have a big need for guards. They're pretty stacked there.

The success these late or undrafted players are having in Toronto has as much to do with scouting as it does with the Raptors' player development system.

I don't see how Davis' success so far has a ton to do with our player development. He's only been here for a few months, I'd say the biggest reason he's been effective is because he's an already good, confident player that knows how to fit in this system. That's on the scouting to find a player with the talent and mindset to fit into the Raptors organization.

If a couple years from now he's starter quality, then yeah that's another big win for our internal development