I don't think you can say at the moment if there's ever been a more important offseason. It's possible that after it's finished, it becomes the most important offseason, depending on what moves are made.
I do think the team is coming to a fork in the road, though. A DeFork, you might call it. Masai has to decide whether to go forward with DeMar for the next 5 or 6 years, or whether to cut loose. Now, say Masai makes that decision this summer and trades him (which I doubt), then yes, this it may end up being the most important offseason in team history, based on the impact it has on the future course of the team.
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The last thing I'll say before I put you on ignore is that I think you should get some professional help for an addiction to online forums. You clearly have an unhealthy relationship with this site and some of the screen names that come and go on it. It'd be nice if I could post around here without your nonsense.
I don't think you can say at the moment if there's ever been a more important offseason. It's possible that after it's finished, it becomes the most important offseason, depending on what moves are made.
I do think the team is coming to a fork in the road, though. A DeFork, you might call it. Masai has to decide whether to go forward with DeMar for the next 5 or 6 years, or whether to cut loose. Now, say Masai makes that decision this summer and trades him (which I doubt), then yes, this it may end up being the most important offseason in team history, based on the impact it has on the future course of the team.
That is fair.
I asked the question because raps have been one of the worst teams in league since it's inception.
Now you have 2 near 50 win seasons and so many question marks.
Most years Raps are just trying to be average so the options the team has are to be bad (usually wins out) or average.
Now they actually have the option of continuing to be above average (looking at whole season) to pushing into good territory (not quite at contender).
So basically does the same core come back and go with what we know or are we going to see uncharted waters next season?
Going to be an interesting off season to say the least.
The intention in starting the thread was not based about future moves or outcomes but rather looking at this year in relation to expectations and possibilities in previous off seasons.
Josh Lewenberg: Masai is excited about the team's flexibility, affordable contracts & draft picks, says this is the first time they've had this many options Twitter @JLew1050
Good answer. In hindsight not locking up TMac was a massive fork in the road for the Raps franchise that we've never recovered from.
Raptors situations in the past have led to significant rule changes. McGrady was one such.
In the time of mcgrady there was no restricted free agency or the ability of an original drafting team to retain the player. McGrady wanted out and there was nothing that raps could have done - other than trade him first.
Overall, I don't agree that this is necessarily the most important off-season, but it could be the one with the most options in franchise history.
All the past big off-seasons, were largely built around what moves can be made to make the playoffs. Whether high draft picks (Bargnani and the false hope of 2006 Draft), big trades (Jermaine O'Neal), or attracting free agents (Hakeem and Turkoglu); all had the potential to be as equally important off-seasons in terms of changing the fortunes of the franchise. That said, most of the previous off-seasons had really one direction for the team to go.
This year is a bit different because even if Masai does nothing (re-signs everyone, retains Casey, makes zero trades), we would still field a team that would be reasonably competitive and likely make the playoffs. Not sure that has ever been said about this team before.
But Masai has lots of options that would be met with general acceptance to a certain degree. Trading Lowry and DD now would be a huge statement, and while some would criticize the decision, it would generally be accepted more than trading Bosh while he's under contract. Conversely, Babcock basically had to trade VC, Masai doesn't have to trade KL or DD.
So I think Masai has more options in terms of the direction he could go this off-season, but I don't think the off-season is necessarily any more important than any other.
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2001 was, and still likely is, the most significant offseason in team history because that group had a prime VC. In retrospect, that offseason was a disaster of epic proportions but, as it was happening in real time, it seemed like the Raptors had solidified themselves as an Eastern Conference contender.
I'll agree that the next two offseasons are important as I have been saying since BC was still here that this current iteration of the team was eyeing 2015/2016 as the key period to do something big and try and find a player or two to take the roster over the top. I still believe that given everything that has transpired with Masai.
2001 was, and still likely is, the most significant offseason in team history because that group had a prime VC. In retrospect, that offseason was a disaster of epic proportions but, as it was happening in real time, it seemed like the Raptors had solidified themselves as an Eastern Conference contender.
I'll agree that the next two offseasons are important as I have been saying since BC was still here that this current iteration of the team was eyeing 2015/2016 as the key period to do something big and try and find a player or two to take the roster over the top. I still believe that given everything that has transpired with Masai.
2001 was definitely important, but being able to retain Butch Carter and T-Mac in the 2000 off-season would have set the franchise up for multi-year runs at championships, by being able to build around 2 elite young players and an innovative young coach. Trying to build around only 1 elite player (VC) was much more difficult and by 2001, even retaining VC was moot with a limited ceiling (i.e. treadmill team).
Too bad that Butch got temporary insanity and the Raps over-promoted Vince to the point of alienating T-Mac.
I love this board. We're all fans of the same team, that all at the end of the day want the exact same things, but we get left alone without supervision for 5 minutes and we're smacking each other with dicks.
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I love this board. We're all fans of the same team, that all at the end of the day want the exact same things, but we get left alone without supervision for 5 minutes and we're smacking each other with dicks.
I am sorry about smacking my dick around.
I really don't like Fully. Stems from Fantasy Basketball and he knew exactly what he was doing as evident by his edited posts. As said in thread, this wasn't a difference of opinion. It was a guy putting words in my mouth who I don't like - and trust me, the feeling is mutual. You'll notice the exchange was very short on my part with quick attempt to keep the thread on track and clarification.
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