Who Should Be Traded?

[MixxAOR]

lmao it's true

damn i'm down and who is that?

[inthepaint]

Exactly. The shitty thing is the "Except the Nets"...they are steamrolling right now. But Harden is a playoff flake, Durant seems to always have leg injuries or covid or what have you, and Kyrie is a combustible element waiting to blow.

To me the toughest/worst matchup for us in the East is boston. In some ways they're built like us. Good coach, no real Centre powerhouse, athletic wings with good 3pt shooters and really defence-oriented. The difference is that their backcourt is lengthier (especially when Kemba is out), which is why I think Norm with one of Fred or Kyle works better against them. If we had more of that last playoffs rather than those tons of inefficient shots from Fred from the logo we would have beat them. Fred had no choice though cuz we were too short and their perimeter D's length was taking everything away, with nothing inside from Siakam/Gasol to make up for it on that series.

I was tempted to jump on the tank after the 2-8 but after things settling down, I feel like we can be competitive against any team in the east, including the Nets (unless they suddenly improve the D several pegs) - just have to figure out the Celtics.

[GOLDBLUM]

damn i'm down and who is that?

Parked your tank in the garage for the winter?

[The Claw Reborn]

Ding-dongs....preach Brad preach lol

[MixxAOR]

Parked your tank in the garage for the winter?

It's too late for that. I'm not insane. I still don't think this team is a contender. it is what it is. It'll be interesting if and how management will pull themselves out of this

[GOLDBLUM]

It's too late for that. I'm not insane. I still don't think this team is a contender. it is what it is. It'll be interesting if and how management will pull themselves out of this

Tank was never in the cards.
Not even when you were manning the turret early on

But hey...

[golden]

Tank was never in the cards.
Not even when you were manning the turret early on

But hey...

Tank was definitely in the cards. The biggest difference right now is finding out just how badly the rest of the East sucks this year. Bucks, Heat and Celtics are much worse than expected. Young teams that started out fast have fallen off badly. And then there’s COVID messing with everything so nobody knows what’s real this year. Other than the Nets, the East is a whole lotta meh and worse, when it initially looked like most teams had improved.

[Puffer]

...the East is a whole lotta meh and worse, when it initially looked like most teams had improved.

That is certainly what the narrative was at the start of the season. Notably the Celtics, Heat and Hawks had moved ahead of the Raptors according to some folks. Growth from within was denigrated unmercifully. Over half a season to go and we will all know better in a few months. In the meantime, I'm enjoying Raptors basketball again.

[DanH]

Anyone who doesn't follow Brad on youtube needs to get on that. Does defensive breakdowns of the Raps and really helps pick out things they do system wise and just how effective guys like OG, Siakam and FVV can be on that end.

[DanH]

As ever, since Philly would clearly not trade Embiid or Simmons for Lowry, it's simple. They can come with an offer of expirings plus Thybulle, Maxey and an unprotected 1st rounder or they can not bother calling. And all that even depends on if Lowry wants to head there.

[Jclaw]

Forget Drummond, forget Cousins...Bring up Ellenson! Just hit a buzzer beater for the win (k...1.8 seconds left but still clutch). Worth a free look?

[inthepaint]

Forget Drummond, forget Cousins...Bring up Ellenson! Just hit a buzzer beater for the win (k...1.8 seconds left but still clutch). Worth a free look?

He had the look in training camp this year, didn't quite workout. What I find when I watch chunks of g-league games is there are guys that are pretty good fundamentally on the offence, good shooting form, rebounding instincts etc. The biggest drop off from Nba to g-league is team defence. Defences on the nba (rotation, switches, doubles, traps, mixed zones etc) have become super complex in the past 4 to 5 years. I think that is because offences evolved a lot with a lot more 3's, pace & space, so defences also had to naturally evolve to keep up.

That didn't happen in the g-league though. Things usually look wide open inside and outside, so guys with a least some nba burn (like Ellenson) often go off, and rookies like Flynn look like Dame Lillard from time to time but then when they come back to the nba things are tougher. Ellenson is alright though, he's only 24, bigs sometime take longer to peak, he may get another shot in bigger league.

[chris]

Tank was definitely in the cards. The biggest difference right now is finding out just how badly the rest of the East sucks this year. Bucks, Heat and Celtics are much worse than expected. Young teams that started out fast have fallen off badly. And then there’s COVID messing with everything so nobody knows what’s real this year. Other than the Nets, the East is a whole lotta meh and worse, when it initially looked like most teams had improved.

for whom? a bunch of bozos on an internet message board discussing hypotheticals as armchair GM's? because i'd bet a pretty large sum that raptors management did not turn to each other at any point in the first 10 games and say "cleveland is gonna be a problem, we better hit the reset button now."

tanking with this squad and this coach especially is a complete non-starter. you'd have to fire nick. he could probably coach the 905 to the play-in. nobody knows that better than management.

and i don't think the way the east is shaking out is particularly surprising at all. i had the bucks in a tier of their own and a second tier 6 teams deep that could finish in any order. turns out it's the nets in their own tier, but a bunched up group in the next tier is exactly what's shaping up. the middle class is currently a little larger and there's been some weirdness with scheduling and covid, but i would guess that top 7 will separate themselves a bit and that miami will join it at some point. the raptors being right in the thick of it in a reasonably open east was pretty predictable, is my point. they were bound to take a bit of a step back without replacing ibaka or gasol, but the team and the coach are too good not to be in the middle of things.

[TomAmnot]

So apparently Mavs are testing the market for Kristaps. Did not think he was a possibility, but could he be a good option to go along with OG and Siakam in the frontcourt? With Boucher as their primary backup/6MOY, of course.

[saints91]

I it wasn't for the injuries, they wouldn't be trading him. I have the same concerns, but ya he would pair well.