The Greek (Nigerian)freak

[Gonzz]

Masai’s Idea of bringing in Jannis’s Younger brother has met a roadblock. As Dan was suggesting our chances of getting him on waivers were dependent on nobody else claiming him. The Lakers got to claim him before us and have given him a 2-way deal.

[Hotshot]

Spoken like a player coming off a single season of true success. Let's see where his mindset is at after another year of coming up short.

Masai will be like: "Come to the Raptors and I will make you the King of Canada and the entire continent of Africa"

[LJ2]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...cent-potential

Spoken like a player coming off a single season of true success. Let's see where his mindset is at after another year of coming up short.

[suspenders]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...cent-potential

So you're saying there's a chance...

[Scraptor]

"As long as that we are all on the same page and we are all focused on that goal, why not play for the Bucks 20 years, why not play 25 years? Why not, after playing, be a member of the coaching staff or a member of the front office? But we got to have the same goal. We got to have the same principles. ... We got to focus on winning a championship.

"I want to be a part of a winning team," Antetokounmpo continued. "As long as we have the same mindset and same approach to the game, there's no reason for me to move and not be like Steph [Curry], not like be like Dirk [Nowitzki] or Kobe [Bryant] or Tim Duncan."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...cent-potential

[Hotshot]

I don't know where the Raptors would be in anybody's list, but there is something to be said for marketing what is unique about Toronto to any players that might listen. Masai referenced it in his after championship presser. Toronto can aspire to be "The World's Team" simply by virtue of being outside the US. By purposefully targetting international players and fans, it might be possible to get into their heads. Just as some current stars were fans of the Raptors during the Vince years, and imagined about playing for the Raptors, it might give you a slight advantage. With strong role players, which the Raptors seem to be able to find/develop, one mega star was enough to get it done this past season. Two could be enough to get it done in the future. Even a 1A and a 1B.

Add in the normal desire of a rising Canadian star to play in their home country and the Raptors have two pathways towards harvesting a great player that might go some way to countering the "playing in a foreign country" meme that has making the rounds in the NBA since day 1.

Toronto is in better position than any other team to attract Canadian and African born players (largest growing market in the last 4-5 years)

We know most top American born players do not have the Raptors in their list of top 5 destination.

The only way we can keep top American players (top 25) long terms is by drafting them. When you get them young ,they can in time consider Toronto a 2nd home and love it here.

If you trade for one, accept that they might be gone to their top 5 destination once their contract is up.

This is why you need to draft well and be flexible. Small market teams like the Pacers and The Jazz always managed (despite of less desirable location constrains) to have good teams throughout their history (even though they never won the chip').

This is why you need to have top management and coaches at your disposal (just like San Antonio done over the years and what finally Toronto has).

This is why you need to have a plan of a specific type of players you want to have on your team (cooperative personality type, team oriented guys, who play hard especially defense) . This is why Masai said a "Hard no" to bringing a guy like Westbrook who had the potential to destroy this program.

[NeedTristanThompson]

I'd kinda prefer Raptors fans don't go the way of Lakers and Clippers fans, obsessing over another player's star with a kinda entitled attitude about it (not calling out anyone here, just an attitude I've seen from Raptors fans elsewhere). If things line up for Masai to make a pitch to Giannis, great. If not, 2021 is still a really good draft class that's worth clearing space for.

Orrrr like Celtics fans who will now NEVER get Anthony Davisssss

You have to give yourself a chance to acquire Giannis for all the reasons mentioned in this thread so far.. but it's going to be really hard. First Giannis is not your typical super star.. he doesn't want to team up and he's a self made man. He seems to be very loyal to the Bucks and the Bucks have been doing a lot to make him want to stay for the long term.

Yeah, doesn't he seem like a Demar type? I mean hard to know for sure, but that guy's publicly said "loyalty is in his blood" and stuff like this, and even TRIED TO SAVE Jason Kidd's job...

[Shredder]

They just paid middleton more than Kawhi! They are not in great financials to improve. If they don't do it soon, their chance might not come. We should definitely keep him in our sights, but not bet the farm he is coming.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

nvm

[golden]

A lot may depend on the development of Siakim and to a lesser extent, OG. If you think about it, Pascal is probably better than anybody on the Bucks roster other than Giannis (there may be some homerism there). The Bucks are locked into a surrounding cast of Bledsoe/Middleton/Lopez for the next few years. If they don't achieve much next year, it's not like they have many ways to improve. We might be looking pretty good.

We need to lower our expectations on OG. If he becomes a much less expensive Otto Porter, that’s a home run.

[Jclaw]

A lot may depend on the development of Siakim and to a lesser extent, OG. If you think about it, Pascal is probably better than anybody on the Bucks roster other than Giannis (there may be some homerism there). The Bucks are locked into a surrounding cast of Bledsoe/Middleton/Lopez for the next few years. If they don't achieve much next year, it's not like they have many ways to improve. We might be looking pretty good.

[planetmars]

You have to give yourself a chance to acquire Giannis for all the reasons mentioned in this thread so far.. but it's going to be really hard. First Giannis is not your typical super star.. he doesn't want to team up and he's a self made man. He seems to be very loyal to the Bucks and the Bucks have been doing a lot to make him want to stay for the long term.

They had a 60 win season last year.. if it wasn't for some bounces in game 3.. Bucks would have been to the finals not the Raptors. They basically brought the band back minus Brogdon (who will be a loss) but did get Wes Matthews as a replacement (yeah that's a big drop off.. but he's still a pretty solid pro).

The East got much worse overall. No Kawhi in Toronto.. no Butler in Philly. Boston took a move back or sideways. Indiana got better but they still have to get Dipo back healthy which is a question mark or else they are still fairly irrelevant. Nets won't have KD for a year.

If the Bucks in the next two years make the finals which you could probably place the odds at 50/50 at this point.. than why would Giannis leave? He's not Kawhi where his sole mission was to get to LA. Giannis does not need to get to Toronto. He loves it in Milwaukee. He's going to get the super max in Milwaukee.

If Jason Kidd was still coaching there, and they were a first round flame out than I'd feel far more optimistic. I just don't see it happening unfortunately.

Again I think we need to have the room for one max contract in 2021.. it would be stupid not too.. but I'm not really feeling the Giannis to Toronto movement much anymore.. not with the Bucks being as successful as they were under Coach Bud. Fingers crossed though

[G__Deane]

Tampering doesn't exist anymore. League officials trying to enforce anti-tampering is like mall cops trying to defuse a nuclear warhead.

How soon we forget....

[Quirk]

One can hope.

Sadly, I feel RJ will be in more in the line of Wiggins, and Bennet than like Kawhi, but in general, yes, the best long term solution is to invest in local talent development.

[Puffer]

During the finals, RJ Barret was interviewed and they asked him "so which team do you have?" and he says, "well I'm from Toronto, so the Toronto Raptors!".

Maybe... just maybe, we'll have situations where a group of elite Canadians will just tell their current teams "f' ya'll, I'm going home".

One can hope.