Everything Norman Powell

[G__Deane]

LMAO, my goodness I will never understand how some of you get out of bed each morning with such a bleak outlook on things. You might be !00% right but geesh, it can't be healthy to always look for the negative in things. Keep your heads up guys, we're seeing a lot more positives from this roster than we did to start the season where all the new contracts of consequence looked terrible. All the guys that matter are looking like they are worth their deals now, and we have a couple of unexpected players stepping up huge and looking like good rotation pieces (I say unexpected, but I've come to expect this organization to develop rotation ready players every season).

The rolls eyes emoji still represents something?
I haven't had a negative day in my life, I live a charmed one lol

Sarcasm, attempt at humour, yes.

But this franchise and a lot of its fans needs to move off the "just happy to have a franchise/be competitive" mode; we left that behind two years ago.

Great city, lots of dough re me, top notch Management and Coach (some would say best in the NBA)
So why should we be content with going back to just competitive and really, no realistic shot unless a few others teams have injuries or inexplicably crater?

We have every ingredient here to challenge for the Finals year after year. Except elite players that want to play/stay here.

[KeonClark]

I can see us heading towards the narrative from where we were targeting Giannis to one where we had to pony up too much for Pascal, Freddy, OG, now Norm and soon Boucher that we can't afford an elite guy

Who you tryna save cap space for? In 25 years our biggest signings are demarre Carroll and a 90 year old olajuwan.

theres 1 path back to contender for this team: let this best trader in the nba find his big trade.

[LJ2]

I can see us heading towards the narrative from where we were targeting Giannis to one where we had to pony up too much for Pascal, Freddy, OG, now Norm and soon Boucher that we can't afford an elite guy

LMAO, my goodness I will never understand how some of you get out of bed each morning with such a bleak outlook on things. You might be !00% right but geesh, it can't be healthy to always look for the negative in things. Keep your heads up guys, we're seeing a lot more positives from this roster than we did to start the season where all the new contracts of consequence looked terrible. All the guys that matter are looking like they are worth their deals now, and we have a couple of unexpected players stepping up huge and looking like good rotation pieces (I say unexpected, but I've come to expect this organization to develop rotation ready players every season).

[G__Deane]

I can see us heading towards the narrative from where we were targeting Giannis to one where we had to pony up too much for Pascal, Freddy, OG, now Norm and soon Boucher that we can't afford an elite guy

[Dr Hannibal Lecter]

So it seems like Norm is gonna be our starting SG, unless u can get top notch all star 2 replace him, but Masai is either gonna have 2 move him 2 get that or his gonna have 2 pony up and retain his services..20 million per for 4 years, my guess..80 million..Lowry will be gone, writing is on the wall, listed house, not playing, not in shape, thumb injury. Raptors play better without him, which is crazy..but the facts are there..so yeah, he would be amazing asset 2 any team of a championship aspiration.

[G__Deane]

You're tired of having really good players other teams will pay a premium for to pry away from Toronto?

Think of it this way: if it were 2008, Siakam and FVV would have signed elsewhere already, OG and Powell would be signing somewhere else this offseason, Baynes would be making $18 million a year and Matt and Jack would be going on about how Malachi Flynn was the future of the Raptors....

When have other teams had to pay a premium to pry players away from Toronto? It's more us paying the premium to keep them here .... or watching them walk.

I said what I was tired of; the high water being signing our own.
No need to (mis) interpret my words for me

[S.R.]

Other teams with year over year success go through this, too. The Spurs were a farm team for the league for 20 years. They got role players and coaches PAID. But they always had the next guy in the pipeline to keep rolling and avoid overpays. Raptors dealing with that a bit.

[slaw]

I'm kinda tired of always having "one of the top FA available" to be honest and always being sold on what a win it would be just to get our own back

You're tired of having really good players other teams will pay a premium for to pry away from Toronto?

Think of it this way: if it were 2008, Siakam and FVV would have signed elsewhere already, OG and Powell would be signing somewhere else this offseason, Baynes would be making $18 million a year and Matt and Jack would be going on about how Malachi Flynn was the future of the Raptors....

[G__Deane]

I'm kinda tired of always having "one of the top FA available" to be honest and always being sold on what a win it would be just to get our own back

[DogeLover1234]

Still prefer to trade Norm tbh. Hes a great piece for literally any team so should be a huge market for him. Hes become a professional scorer who doesnt hurt you anywhere else - like a Tobias Harris or TJ Warren. Thatll get him paid for sure, just not sure I believe he’ll become the playmaker to elevate his game to the next level. Hes the classic, what are you giving me when your shots not falling guy, and to pay that guy hes gotta either be a really good scorer or your teams gotta be good enough he can have off nights - id just prefer to cash in while you can.

[Jclaw]

Having such a solid franchise is a catch 22. We develop lesser names into max deals.

So well put...Pascal, Fred, OG..now Norm...and I'm sure someone is going to throw money at Boucher in a couple of years

[KeonClark]

Having such a solid franchise is a catch 22. We develop lesser names into max deals.

[Jclaw]

[KeonClark]

Norm's cap hold is about $16M and I'm sure we'd want Boucher back.. maybe Bembry. We're basically capped out and can only use the mid-level exception to get someone else. That's about $10M. It's what LAC paid for Serge and what LAL paid for Harrell.. so we can get a quality player but not an all-star back.

To go that route we'd have to do it via trade like we got Kawhi and Gasol. Which means eventually we'd have to look at moving Norm, OG, Fred or Pascal for that upgrade. As long as we keep the contracts reasonable and we continue to find gems in the draft.. we'll have the assets for that all-in move again. It just doesn't have to be right away.

We're built more like Utah/Denver/Indiana than Brooklyn/LA/LA. We are not a free agent destination. So we have to wait for the next disgruntled star and figure out a way to get them here. I think Beal is next. KAT is probably close too.


We better not fumble our mid-level money though next summer. Our front office needs to do a better job at finding/luring good free agents. And I'm not even talking stars. Too many bad signings including guys like Carrol, Baynes, McCaw, Stanley, etc.

Yeah, the one knock on Masai is his free agent signings. He's arguably the best trader, and drafter in the NBA. But he's never had a single home run signing as a GM.

• Aron Baynes – two years, $14.3 million (2020)
• DeMarre Carroll – four years, $60 million (2015)
• Cory Joseph – four years, $30 million (2015)
• Jared Sullinger – one year, $6 million (2016)
• Tyler Hansbrough – two years, $7.5 million (2013)
• Stanley Johnson - two years, $7.5 million (2019)

Even in Denver, he found Kenneth Faried and Evan Fournier in the mid 20s picks, but never a had a single quality singing. Interestingly, he's acquired Demarre Carroll twice.

It's actually crazy, Masai has only ever picked in the 20s (discounting the #9 pick acquired in the Bargs trade) and the amount of quality of players he's found in those spots

2011: No 22- Kenneth Faried
2012: No 20- Evan Fournier
2013: No pick
2014: No 20 - Bruno (OK fine)
2015: No 20 - Delon Wright
2016: No 27 - Pascal Siakam
2017: No 20 - OG Anunoby
No picks until Malachi Flynn

I would LOVE to see what he could do with actual early picks in the draft, he's 5/6 for quality pro players selected 20 or later.

[planetmars]

So if we re-sign Powell and Lowry walks, we have a core of Pascal, OG, FVV, Boucher and Powell.
Assuming Norm lands on 17-20M in a new contract, that puts the Raps at 90-93M for the core.

It effectively trades Kyle's 30M for a bump for Norm from 10 to 20M ....

If this roster is mid playoff team as is, it can't be argued it's better without Lowry.
But we'd have his 20M difference freed up. What can we do with it besides run it back and be middling because even if we signed Kyle back for 20M we'd have the same team salary?

I'm ready to start Fred and Norm. Who can we add next season for the 20M?

Norm's cap hold is about $16M and I'm sure we'd want Boucher back.. maybe Bembry. We're basically capped out and can only use the mid-level exception to get someone else. That's about $10M. It's what LAC paid for Serge and what LAL paid for Harrell.. so we can get a quality player but not an all-star back.

To go that route we'd have to do it via trade like we got Kawhi and Gasol. Which means eventually we'd have to look at moving Norm, OG, Fred or Pascal for that upgrade. As long as we keep the contracts reasonable and we continue to find gems in the draft.. we'll have the assets for that all-in move again. It just doesn't have to be right away.

We're built more like Utah/Denver/Indiana than Brooklyn/LA/LA. We are not a free agent destination. So we have to wait for the next disgruntled star and figure out a way to get them here. I think Beal is next. KAT is probably close too.


We better not fumble our mid-level money though next summer. Our front office needs to do a better job at finding/luring good free agents. And I'm not even talking stars. Too many bad signings including guys like Carrol, Baynes, McCaw, Stanley, etc.