Inbound Players This Off-Season: Love, Rubio, Mayo...

[Apollo]

This thread is dedicated to players you would like to see the Raptors make a play for this off-season. I'll start by throwing out a name:

Kevin Love

How long will the Wolves bring this guy off the bench? Would they consider an unorthodox center like Andrea Bargnani as a solution to their center spot? I know Kevin Love would fit the Raptors more so than Bargnani.

[JYD18]

Raptors would be getting ripped off if they traded Bargnani for Love. Minni would need to include draft picks or more players/ take on a bad contract.

On a side note, I'm not worried about the Raptors next year. Lots of expiring which in today's market mean a lot. Everybody else beside Turk is tradeable.

[Apollo]

How would it be a rip off? Love is three years younger than Bargnani and is posting 15 and 11 in only 28 minutes a game. He going to be a beast in the middle for the next decade.

Anyway, who would you pick? You didn't name a player.

[TheR3dMenace]

If Bosh decides he doesn't want to re-sign I would be happy with a sign and trade for David Lee

[Apollo]

Yeah, Lee would probably be a piece that could be swapped in for Bosh without much team visible team decline. Turkoglu might actually play better with Lee in the lineup because he would require the ball in his hands less than Bosh does.

I would like to see more coming back than just Lee though.

[mo-sales]

Lee is the worst move that the raptors could make out of any realistic scenario in the NBA. Over-inflated stats, bottom tier defensively, guaranteed to be overpaid, slow and white.

Bargs for Love would be money. I would love to see Ariza, he seems to regressed in Houston, Pietrus as well.

[Apollo]

Ariza is a guy who wants to take lots of shots despite not being able to shoot... Lee might be the best option the Raptors get in free agency if it comes down to S&T. Hard to tell what's going to happen there.

Bargs for Love would be money. I would love to see Ariza, he seems to regressed in Houston, Pietrus as well.

Year team rebounding would go from bottom of the league to upper half over night.

[JYD18]

How would it be a rip off? Love is three years younger than Bargnani and is posting 15 and 11 in only 28 minutes a game. He going to be a beast in the middle for the next decade.

Anyway, who would you pick? You didn't name a player.

I can't see Love's numbers getting much higher. He's undersized, not athletic, injury prone and from what I witnessed last game, doesn't have much of a scoring touch.

Bargnani has steadily improved and still have more room for improvement, is a better post defender and is playing out of position at the five.

If Bosh leaves, I would like to see Tyson Chandler come. He would address the two glaring weaknesses on the Raptors: defense and rebounding. Bargnani would also be able to move over to the 4 and have a bigger role in the scoring. This may also help out the Turk because he would get more ball. This being said, they would also need a vet who is good in the locker room to motivate the team.

[Apollo]

JYD, the Raptors don't need a guy in the middle with lots of scoring touch. They need a guy who works are night in, night out, does the dirty work and gets the job done. Love will guard guys, rebound and score to the best of his ability always. You'll never hear him admit to be lazy because he's never lazy. He's going to be a strong leader in the league one day soon but I can't say the same about Bargnani. Love has got lots of room to improve on offense if he wishes to polish that part of his game. Even if he doesn't he's still going to be more valuable to a team actually wanting to win a championship than Andrea Bargnani will be.

If you call 6'10, 250lbs undersized then there is no point in even debating his size.

No way in hell Bargnani is a better defender than Love.

I like Chandler but speaking of big men with no offensive abilities...

[INFO]

Kevin Love is an interesting name if we decide to rebulid, i love a good Bruin.
Ariza is a chucker.

If we have the money, how about Matt Barnes (if he opts out)? he would be a improvement on Wright

I just noticed everyone i mentioned is from UCLA... huh..

[JYD18]

@Apollo

I really don't think Love is 6-10. His listing is a lot like Kryptonate's 5-10 listing.
Even if Love is a better defender than Bargnani, he still wouldn't help with the club's weakness and that is defending long athletic players and fast guards. A shot blocker like Chandler would help that and possibly limit this teams incessant need to leave three point shooters wide open

[Apollo]

@Apollo

I really don't think Love is 6-10. His listing is a lot like Kryptonate's 5-10 listing.

Love standing next to 6'10" T-Wolves GM Kevin McHale:


Love standing next to 6'10" Al Jefferson:

Even if Love is a better defender than Bargnani, he still wouldn't help with the club's weakness and that is defending long athletic players and fast guards. A shot blocker like Chandler would help that and possibly limit this teams incessant need to leave three point shooters wide open

Wait, Bargnani and Chandler can guard fast guards? I think you're really underrating Kevin Love by the way...

[JYD18]

Wow, didn't realize he was that tall. Looked up his draft class and it said undersized for his position and with my crappy stream last night seemed that way too.

Bargnani and Chandler can't guard fast guards but the duo would be shot blocking hell in the middle as Chandler is one of the premier shot blockers in the league and Bargnani gets his hands on more shots than Love (1.3BPG vs 0.4BPG). This would shore up the interior defense and limit the drive and kick due to the over-helping that our wings are currently doing.

I'm not saying Love is a bad player, but if Bosh is gone and we need to acquire a player, I wouldn't want to have two 4's in Love and Bargnani, I would rather have a great defender that addresses the weaknesses of the squad than another slow white guy where we will still be torched by athletic players.

[Apollo]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Here's a funny stat.

Bargnani shoots four threes a game, Love shoots two threes a game. Bargnani shoots 37% from three point range and Love shoots 39% from three point range. Love's three point effeciency is better than the Toronto Raptors efficiency of 37%(Ranked 4th in the league).

[JYD18]

Interesting. I don't know what to make of that stat. On one had you would want him to shoot more and add that to his game. On the other hand, he is a great rebounder and I would probably rather have him on the inside fighting for offensive boards where he is averaging over 3 per game.