Everything Off Season

[Kagemusha]

So Morey continues to say he's not trading Simmons or Embiid. Harden for Simmons seems to make a lot of sense for Philly from a roster perspective, but from a management perspective I wouldn't be at all surprised if Morey has had enough of trying to build a contender around James Harden. Who says he wants to sign up for that again? Been down that road.

Perhaps Morey's idea is to trade for James at the deadline for anyone but Ben and Joel.
They can give their picks to Houston for the next 5 years.

[DogeLover1234]

The way Harden is behaving is leaving a really, really bad taste in my mouth. Even though it was unlikely to begin with, I don't think the Raptors should trade for Harden anymore. I'm all for trading for distressed assets just like Masai did with Kawhi, but Kawhi's issues were not the same as Harden's are.

I like to imagine the first time Nurse talks to Harden and says, “As you know James, we pride ourselves on being a defense first team.” Just to see what happens.

I think a certain amount of the Harden stuff is blown up in the media cause its like watching a car wreck but it doesnt off put me too much. Think more than anything, hes a guy who loves to party and wanted a last hoorah before the season - if he gets covid he just misses training camp, dont think he cares. Whats worse is trading all our picks and Lowry or Pascal.

[The Great One]

Thoughts on this? Chr1s1anL

[GOLDBLUM]

Can anyone get the ESPN player ranking 100-50 on here? Behind a paywall. Apparently DeMar is #82 this year. I want to get mad about this today

Wonder how he'll feel about 82...

[S.R.]

Can anyone get the ESPN player ranking 100-50 on here? Behind a paywall. Apparently DeMar is #82 this year. I want to get mad about this today

[The Great One]

I just have to say, I don't want Harden on my team. He's not that dude.

[S.R.]

So Morey continues to say he's not trading Simmons or Embiid. Harden for Simmons seems to make a lot of sense for Philly from a roster perspective, but from a management perspective I wouldn't be at all surprised if Morey has had enough of trying to build a contender around James Harden. Who says he wants to sign up for that again? Been down that road.

[G__Deane]

The problem is that other teams may not want to give up assets for an unhappy player that won't show up for practice or be a problem in the locker room. He may also bolt as soon as he is eligible. Remember nobody else was willing to give up anything of value for Kawhi except for Toronto. Worked out great for us, but that's due to Kawhi being a pro and doing his job despite not getting his wish to go to LA. No regrets from Raps fans in making the Kawhi deal, but I wonder what the feeling would have been if we didn't win it all and Kawhi left like he did?

I think most fans would be OK that they took a shot that didn't work out but understand we weren't going anywhere with DeMar/Kyle anyway. It would take away a bit of the small likelihood that Giannis would come here too imo, Kyle would be a bit less well thought of (traded by now?) and Masai would be less of a small g god, having simply drafted OG/Pascal and .... Bruno Caboclo.

Funny how things work out.

[LJ2]

Well, does he have a no-trade clause or something? I may be wrong but If he doesn't have a no-trade and Houston wants to ship his ass out of there they should be able to send him to wherever they want (which would be the team giving the best return, regardless of what Harden thinks). Kinda like what the Spurs did when they shipped Kawhi who was disgruntled there. Now, if he has a no-trade clause and will only waive it if the trade is with Philly/Nets, then yeah it's harder for the team.

The problem is that other teams may not want to give up assets for an unhappy player that won't show up for practice or be a problem in the locker room. He may also bolt as soon as he is eligible. Remember nobody else was willing to give up anything of value for Kawhi except for Toronto. Worked out great for us, but that's due to Kawhi being a pro and doing his job despite not getting his wish to go to LA. No regrets from Raps fans in making the Kawhi deal, but I wonder what the feeling would have been if we didn't win it all and Kawhi left like he did?

[inthepaint]

The problem for Houston isn't that Harden wants out. It's that he doesn't want to go anywhere but the Nets or Philly. He'd already be traded if he was open to going to a team that has some assets Houston wanted.

Well, does he have a no-trade clause or something? I may be wrong but If he doesn't have a no-trade and Houston wants to ship his ass out of there they should be able to send him to wherever they want (which would be the team giving the best return, regardless of what Harden thinks). Kinda like what the Spurs did when they shipped Kawhi who was disgruntled there. Now, if he has a no-trade clause and will only waive it if the trade is with Philly/Nets, then yeah it's harder for the team.

[Demographic Shift]

I don't know if Tatum has It. You see what he can do - pretty well anything. But he doesn't impose himself on games consistently enough. He doesn't lead his team. He reminds me a fair bit of AD, all the talent in the world but got a feeling he might need to be a 2nd banana.

He is still young, we'll see.
​​​​​

Unfortunately that SOB is going to be in our division for the next 10 years.
Now that Hayward is gone... He and Brown are the guys.
To me.. Brown is the guts of the team but Tatum will be the guy they go to to put up points when the Chowders need them.
I give the nod to Pascal on defense and to Tatum on offense.
If Pascal can close the gap on offense with a more fluid ISO game... We are going to be in business for a long time.

[G__Deane]

That's tough to do with a 72 game season.

They won 53 out of 72 last season....exact same number of games planned for this year.

[LJ2]

How many people are betting the over this year?

That's tough to do with a 72 game season.

[Jclaw]

We could copy and paste the same comments here every pre-season. The Raptors, essentially a perennial 50+ win team in the current era.....

How many people are betting the over this year?

[LJ2]

The problem for Houston isn't that Harden wants out. It's that he doesn't want to go anywhere but the Nets or Philly. He'd already be traded if he was open to going to a team that has some assets Houston wanted.