Everything Off Season

[KHD]

I suspect that Masai and Bobby have a plan A, B, and C with options red black and blue for each one. These two guys, who you believe are guilty of "bad management" got a championship last year, and managed a team that finished 2nd in the league last season. And somehow have forgotten to run a team? Given the choices that they suddenly have lost their marbles or you don't understand what they are doing, I'll take the answer behind door #2.

It's frustrating when things don't go the way you had hoped, but the truth is there are a lot of moving pieces in the NBA. When players are turning down more money to go to locations that offer something they prefer, management doesn't have much to do with it.

i'm pretty confused by the sky is falling narratives from some people right now. While keeping gasol or ibaka would have made this upcoming season a bit more fun, both were inconsequential to our longer term plan.

[planetmars]

i'm pretty confused by the sky is falling narratives from some people right now. While keeping gasol or ibaka would have made this upcoming season a bit more fun, both were inconsequential to our longer term plan.

It's the decision by the front office to chase a guy like Giannis, when most Raptor fans are pessimistic in nature and don't think we have any shot at him. So when we lose a player like Serge and arguably take a step back to chase a foolish dream makes fans panic and upset.

It's pretty funny because similar fans will always question Masai for not being able to land a whale and keep him. Yet they also don't want to give him the chance to try apparently.

[Apollo]

My two cents on this thread: You can't sit there, and applaud the team culture, and indulge in the enjoyment of the Championship that was won under Ujiri's leadership and risk-taking and then now go off at him for his leadership and risk-taking now... Well, you can but you've lost all credibility with me if you do.

[planetmars]

Michael Grange reporting that Baynes, Bembry and Boucher all got non-guarantee deals in their second year. They were not team options. Giving us some more flexibility.

[DanH]

It's the decision by the front office to chase a guy like Giannis, when most Raptor fans are pessimistic in nature and don't think we have any shot at him. So when we lose a player like Serge and arguably take a step back to chase a foolish dream makes fans panic and upset.

It's pretty funny because similar fans will always question Masai for not being able to land a whale and keep him. Yet they also don't want to give him the chance to try apparently.

By all accounts Serge and Baynes are largely equivalent players, decent production, can shoot, mediocre impact guys who can soak up some minutes but aren't going to drive success. Losing Gasol is what hurts, but the clock may well have been ticking on him anyway, depending on how much of his struggles in the bubble were projectible.

There's not much downside to the moves they've made. Heck, Gasol almost certainly took less to go elsewhere (although maybe not all that much less) to chase a ring so that was maybe never on offer. And they need to see what their younger options at C can do at some point.

[DanH]

Michael Grange reporting that Baynes, Bembry and Boucher all got non-guarantee deals in their second year. They were not team options. Giving us some more flexibility.

Yeah, I thought that was likely the case. The guarantee dates will be key - if the Raps managed to get them pushed to after a likely Giannis/other star decision point, that would be ideal.

[Rudy Bargnani]

The thing is the Raptors were over the cap when Van Vleet signed. So really it’s not like there were other big free agents they could have made a move for. The question then becomes was it worth it to lowball Serge and let him walk for the possibility of a max contract offer to someone next year. You may think Serge raises our ceiling enough to make that trade-off not worth it. I think it’s a measured risk and I’m willing to give Masai the benefit of the doubt. Miami did the exact same thing with letting Crowder walk for nothing. It’s not as if we could have offered $20 mill to another free agent.

[S.R.]

It's the decision by the front office to chase a guy like Giannis, when most Raptor fans are pessimistic in nature and don't think we have any shot at him. So when we lose a player like Serge and arguably take a step back to chase a foolish dream makes fans panic and upset.

It's pretty funny because similar fans will always question Masai for not being able to land a whale and keep him. Yet they also don't want to give him the chance to try apparently.

Keeping the leftovers of the championship roster together was a) never going to be possible (it never is, guys leave - hell, Dwight and Rondo just left LA) and b) that's how you BC your roster and overpay middling players and run out of cap space and flexibility. The team had Kawhi for 1 season only and had to immediately pivot to how to get a new superstar on the team. They've got a plan for a shot at that and they're sticking to it. No, Giannis might not work out. But the best alternative was really overpaying Ibaka and losing cap space? Or blowing up the team that just had the highest win % in franchise history? Really?

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[G__Deane]

Keeping the leftovers of the championship roster together was a) never going to be possible (it never is, guys leave - hell, Dwight and Rondo just left LA) and b) that's how you BC your roster and overpay middling players and run out of cap space and flexibility.
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Dwight Howard is in Philly with Embiid now. Tony Bradley (6'10) formerly of Utah is backing up Howard, interested to see how that stack's up. 3 big C. Embiid has always reminded me of Dwight Howard in attitude

[S.R.]

Dwight Howard is in Philly with Embiid now. Tony Bradley (6'10) formerly of Utah is backing up Howard, interested to see how that stack's up. 3 big C. Embiid has always reminded me of Dwight Howard in attitude

Dwight is weird. His redemption storyline in LA was weird. He is who he is, and he was that guy in LA last year, too. He's just been bouncing around on mediocre teams and last year he was in the spotlight in LA and people actually paid attention - even though last year was pretty much the lowest production of his career across the board.

I'm guessing he's back off the radar and will be playing minimal minutes for peanuts in Philly. We won't hear much about Dwight again.

[slaw]

My two cents on this thread: You can't sit there, and applaud the team culture, and indulge in the enjoyment of the Championship that was won under Ujiri's leadership and risk-taking and then now go off at him for his leadership and risk-taking now... Well, you can but you've lost all credibility with me if you do.

There is that. The other disconnect is that the people who seem unhappiest about this offseason in Raptorland are the championship-or-bust crowd and who want to be back in title contention straightaway. If that is what you care about, then you should be absolutely thrilled with the Raps' approach as getting a top-5 guy is the only way to have the opportunity to be in title contention over a number of years. It seems very counterintuitive to me that people who just want to win titles aren't happy but maybe I am missing something...

[Apollo]

There is that. The other disconnect is that the people who seem unhappiest about this offseason in Raptorland are the championship-or-bust crowd and who want to be back in title contention straightaway. If that is what you care about, then you should be absolutely thrilled with the Raps' approach as getting a top-5 guy is the only way to have the opportunity to be in title contention over a number of years. It seems very counterintuitive to me that people who just want to win titles aren't happy but maybe I am missing something...

Good point and then there's the fact that what he's doing now is consistent with his history in Toronto. He only forces the issue when the time is right. If he did a swing for the fence type trade right now, what would he have gotten? Probably nothing to gets them into legitimate contention.

[golden]

Bringing back bruno would be also very nice since our PF spot is thin

lol. You are relentless.

[golden]

There is that. The other disconnect is that the people who seem unhappiest about this offseason in Raptorland are the championship-or-bust crowd and who want to be back in title contention straightaway. If that is what you care about, then you should be absolutely thrilled with the Raps' approach as getting a top-5 guy is the only way to have the opportunity to be in title contention over a number of years. It seems very counterintuitive to me that people who just want to win titles aren't happy but maybe I am missing something...

We are the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, except that we lost our Dirk (i.e. Kawhi) and we didn't drop off that much. Even so, if Siakam, Gasol and FVV played up their potential, we'd have at least made the ECF this year and the favorites to knock off the Heat to make it back to the Finals. And the Raps were the one team that was the nightmare matchup for the Lakers, like the Heat were for the Bucks.

And in contrast to the Mavs, we have a few decent young pieces that puts us in position for a quick rebuild. We just need to land our superstar, and even though there's plan for that, people are unhappy. Next season is when all the elite pieces are in play, but people want us to make Colangelo type moves to fill up our cap with B & C-listers this season? It's weird.

[Kagemusha]

Speaking of culture, what's the deal with the interest in Markieff Morris?