Everything 2018 Off Season

[golden]

Who is left out there to fill our back up C spot? We are pretty thin at this point.

Anybody know the status of Festus Ezeli? He had a bad injury a few years back, but he was a great backup for the Warriors when healthy. Should be recovered by now.

[Other Scott]

I think a lot of you are being harsh on Demar reading the whole thing.

He WAS an extremely hard worker, there's never been any question of that. He constantly tried to improve every aspect of his game and was relentless in practicing. You guys are talking about effort on defense as if he didn't give his all in games, and I call bs on that. Maybe more of that effort went to the offensive side than it should have, but basketball players aren't endless reserves of energy to dedicate to both ends of the floor, those "hustle plays" look fancy but do have a cost in energy you can dedicate to other parts of the game. There's a reason Kyle Lowry has to be kept to 30-35 minutes per game or he's completely toast by the end of the year.

It's clear he's upset about being misled, and that's pretty much the extent of it:

So whether it's something I like or don't like, I'm going to accept it if you come to me and let me know beforehand. But don't make one thing seem like another thing and catch me off-guard and do something else. That was my whole problem. I understand how the game works, how the business works. My mindset was that I was always going to be in Toronto my whole career, but I was never naive. Just let me know. That's where my frustration came from. And I think it showed. From the fans to even myself -- it just caught me completely off-guard.

By just giving me the say so of letting me know something's going on or it's a chance. That's all I wanted. That's all I wanted. I'm not saying, 'You don't have to trade me' or ... just let me know something is going on because I sacrificed everything. Just let me know. That's all I asked.

Also,

Then he should just stay classy and say nothing, or just spew sports cliches (... it's a business, blah, blah, blah). He didn't have to grant ESPN a full-blown interview.

Screw this. I want players to be honest and let me know how they really feel. If they're not going to do that or if we're going to encourage them just to speak in cliches than we shouldn't have them talk to the media at all.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

I would've absolutely done it for either of those guys, and I feel like the ceiling of the Raptors currently is higher than what it would've been after trading either of those guys for Kawhi. Specifically replacing DeMar with Kawhi is a big deal for the Raptors.(not to mention what trading Jonas+Jak would've done to the frontline)

That actually makes no sense.

You realize as much switchability as we have on the wings now, we're still starting two guys who are defensive liabilities at their positions (Ibaka is a liability at the 4 and ok at the 5 but a sub-par rebounder there, JV is a liability at the 5). DeRozan wasn't the only bad defender on the team.

At the end of the day DeMar was a guy who worked really hard and got the #1 option role here but wasn't good enough for it. He was here 9 years and very loyal to the team and fanbase, and said multiple times he wanted to retire here. Maybe we should give him a little benefit of the doubt on being upset (not to mention the other issues he's dealing with) about being moved on.

[golden]

I think a lot of you are being harsh on Demar reading the whole thing.

It's clear he's upset about being misled, and that's pretty much the extent of it:

Also,


Screw this. I want players to be honest and let me know how they really feel. If they're not going to do that or if we're going to encourage them just to speak in cliches than we shouldn't have them talk to the media at all.

Disagree. It sounds like he's more upset that he and Casey are being blamed for the repeated playoff flameouts (3 out of last 4 post-seasons ended in sweeps). I think that's where most of this is coming from. The need to protect his reputation as a player.

We saw the same instinctive lashing out by DeMarre Carroll last off-season. Their value is under attack and the reflex action is to protect it.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

...So the "manly" thing was to post a few memes and not say anything???

Y'all don't make sense.

Masai gets his own press conference to shape the narrative. DeMar was going to get flooded with questions at Team USA camp if he didn't sit down and address this, and now he's a child?

I'm not saying I agree, or disagree with DeRozan, but he has the right to his perspective. He was emotionally invested in the team (something the Raps have NEVER had). That's going to come out. I think some of y'all need to ask yourself, "What does being a man, actually look like?" He could just bottle it all in until he explodes, OR, he can communicate his feelings. It's all fresh. He probably hasn't fully flushed out his thoughts on what happened. Homey feels spurned. MAYBE his team should have sat with him before the interview, flushed things out, shaped things to be more PC. BUT THAT'S NOT DEMAR.

Petulant child...Do you even know what those words mean? The man invested years, probably lost some money being up here instead of going to the US, and was regularly assured that his sacrifice would be reflected back to him with loyalty. It wasn't. If him being comfortable with his emotions, at a time like this, makes you feel less of him, that's something you have to reflect on.

I can like the trade, be confident the Raps will be better with Kawhi and Green, realize that if I was Masai I would have been just as ruthless, and still understand that.

No the players should just shut up and know their place.

[Barolt]

That actually makes no sense.

You realize as much switchability as we have on the wings now, we're still starting two guys who are defensive liabilities at their positions (Ibaka is a liability at the 4 and ok at the 5 but a sub-par rebounder there, JV is a liability at the 5). DeRozan wasn't the only bad defender on the team.

Jonas isn't as bad defensively as you think, and Ibaka is fine in a more limited role. With the massive upgrades on the roster in terms of point-of-attack defense, you don't need as much from your bigs.

The truth is, because the Raptors were forcing guards and wings to guard out of position so often to cover for DeMar, our point of attack defense constantly suffered which meant we had to ask our bigs to help far more often than they should've, which meant that Jonas and Serge had to do things they aren't fit to do. You upgrade that defense, you need them to help less often and in better situations when it does come, and they'll be improved players on that end as well.

[KeonClark]

I really don't like the way a lot of NBA fans look at players. And it's no different here.

What we are witnessing here is human nature. Raptors fans 90% are gonna side with Masai doing whatever it takes to improve the team. This was one such move. Demar is upset he got dealt so is still going off about it, but he's (NATURALLY) putting himself ahead of the team. Fans are starting to (NATURALLY) taking offense to that a little bit, as in "Hey! The Raptors are trying to win here, why can't you understand that?"

[DanH]

That actually makes no sense.

You realize as much switchability as we have on the wings now, we're still starting two guys who are defensive liabilities at their positions (Ibaka is a liability at the 4 and ok at the 5 but a sub-par rebounder there, JV is a liability at the 5). DeRozan wasn't the only bad defender on the team.

Ah, and if we kept DeMar, those issues wouldn't be there with the frontcourt at all, yes? Or, wait, no, they would all still be there, except worse, because we'd be signing minimum salary players to fill those spots. Right.

DeMar wasn't the only bad defender on the team. JV ain't great, Serge is just OK, and Miles is probably as bad as DeMar. But DeMar was the only unplayably bad defender on the team in this year's playoffs. Except maybe Poeltl, who really struggled in what was essentially his rookie playoff run, and hey, he went too.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

It's hilarious seeing how many people are eager to throw this guy in the fire right now.

And I say this as the first person here to even propose the idea of trading DeMar to the Spurs for Kawhi. Doesn't mean you just trash the guy now that he's gone.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Also with regards to the interview itself. People should remember Haynes has basically made it his mission (like most of ESPN) to make Toronto look bad and steer Kawhi to LA. If you pay attention to the interview, every time DeMar makes a positive comment Haynes cuts it short and doesn't follow up with questions. Any time DeMar had something negative to say he emphasized that.

[G__Deane]

If DeRozan was a player you wanted to keep and he walked in free agency or demanded a trade you'd be pissed and probably slag him off. Like we all did with Vince and Bosh.

But a player can't do the same? Shake.

Reverse that and say DD walked as a FA and Masai does an ESPN interview saying DD had all these flaws and didn't give his all, wouldn't take his defense seriously and had told Masai that he was going to re-sign and now he feels betrayed..... how would Masai look? Not professional, I can tell you that.....

[DanH]

It's hilarious seeing how many people are eager to throw this guy in the fire right now.

And I say this as the first person here to even propose the idea of trading DeMar to the Spurs for Kawhi. Doesn't mean you just trash the guy now that he's gone.

All the arguments about his defence and effort existed before he was traded - this isn't hindsight criticism, it's reiterating why there were so many suggestions (like yours) that he should/would be traded.

As for the rest, it's like when Bosh left. Him leaving, that was hard, but entirely foreseeable and smart fans blamed Colangelo's incompetence. But then he decided to sling mud on his way out the door - never a good look for a player. Heck, it's not a good look for an owner either - Dan Gilbert is still a punchline for his ridiculous response to LeBron's Decision, even though many fans hated the way LeBron went about that. This DeRozan stuff is reminiscent of that sort of crap. Now, there are key differences, and DeMar is being significantly more classy and his actions are significantly more defensible than Bosh's, but you can see why fans would respond badly.

[Barolt]

It's hilarious seeing how many people are eager to throw this guy in the fire right now.

And I say this as the first person here to even propose the idea of trading DeMar to the Spurs for Kawhi. Doesn't mean you just trash the guy now that he's gone.

Yeah, because Dan and I haven't been posting these exact arguments here for 3+ years prior to the trade?

[MixxAOR]

Trading Derozan is also a way to get out of his contract. If Kawhi leaves we can start a rebuild.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Reverse that and say DD walked as a FA and Masai does an ESPN interview saying DD had all these flaws and didn't give his all, wouldn't take his defense seriously and had told Masai that he was going to re-sign and now he feels betrayed..... how would Masai look? Not professional, I can tell you that.....

Masai DID have a press conference.