Everything 2018 Off Season

[GOLDBLUM]

Holy F. I posted a feel good photo of Kawhi and JT's jerseys expecting a few high fives to celebrate one of the best off-seasons in MLSE history.... and this board rages on that. LOL. I guess all that pent up venom that would have been unleashed on Casey, DeMar and Masai if they ran it back, had to go somewhere. Anyways, 2 days closer to training camp.......

I started us down this road by suggesting that while they’re both great gets, Kawhi is the more elite player, which I prefaced by saying I didn’t want to draw the ire Leaf fans. Just another opportunity to point out how truly ecstatic we Raps fans should be on this Raptors discussion site. Not sure if you just expected nothing but high fives because everyone here might be from TO. While I live in TO now and proudly, gratefully, lovingly call it home, I was born and raised in Calgary, and not surprisingly am a Flames fan, (though I’ve now adopted Toronto as my team in the east, and am hoping for great things from them. I expect they’ll fair a lot better than my Flames, that’s for sure.) Your assumption that celebrating the Leafs will elicit nothing but appreciation is partially misguided though as I’ve seen a number of people here say over the years they don’t hail from TO. People talk about it and it’s true - The Raptors are Canada’s team. As far as basketball fans in Canada go, Raps have got the whole country behind them, (except for T-Rex, depending on which way the wind blows.) That can’t be said about the Leafies.

And not to continue stoking the fire, but I was curious and just doing a search for ‘top NHL players.’ NHL.com has a detailed ranking on their site right now. Tavares is ranked 10th best center, by their measure. That may be putting him low, maybe not, but that’s where they have him. And that’s not including wingers, D-men and goalies. Kawhi... he’s pretty unanimously in the top 3 best players in the league, hard to put him much lower than top five when he’s on his game and it’d be borderline ludricous not to have him in your top ten.

I’m thrilled for the Leafs and think they can be real contenders this year ... I’m just saying HOLY EFFING SH*T — we got one of the top, top players in the game on the Raps this year, in a superstar driven league.

At the end of the day, these two leagues/games are apples and oranges. I appreciate this dialogue though in the extreme doldrums of the off-season, not trying to hate.

[Hotshot]

Devin Booker will undergo hand surgery on Monday and is out indefinitely, as first reported by 98.7 FM Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Q5CwpEzOLf

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) September 10, 2018

[MixxAOR]

Devin Booker will undergo hand surgery on Monday and is out indefinitely, as first reported by 98.7 FM Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Q5CwpEzOLf

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) September 10, 2018

tanking started early

[Machine]

When is Media Day for the Raps? And is it in Toronto or Vancouver? I know training camp starts on the 25th in Vancouver.

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[Machine]

When is Media Day for the Raps? And is it in Toronto or Vancouver? I know training camp starts on the 25th in Vancouver.

Sent from my SM-N960W using Tapatalk

Nvm J lew got me...

The Raptors are expected to hold an introductory press conference for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green on Fri. Sept 21, with Media Day (Sept 24) and the start of training camp (Sept 25) the following week.

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[The Great One]

Kawhi Leonard and John Tavares should never be put in the same sentence EVER again.

One is a true franchise player, a top 2 player when healthy, former Finals MVP. And the other is just an overrated, overhyped bum.

[DanH]

Kawhi Leonard and John Tavares should never be put in the same sentence EVER again.

One is a true franchise player, a top 2 player when healthy, former Finals MVP. And the other is just an overrated, overhyped bum.

One is a true franchise player, a top 2 player when healthy, former Finals MVP. And the other is just a very good, star level centre, one of the top 20 or so players in the league, but no era-defining superstar on his own merits, added to an already good, young and improving team as a free agent, which is exciting.

Anyone who tells you that Tavares is more than that is indeed over-rating him. Anyone who tells you he is less than that, for example that he is a bum, is over-correcting.

[KeonClark]

Kawhi = Erik Karlsson if were going player to player

Tavares = maybe like Damian lillard

[planetmars]

Why would the Leafs get a center when their problem is with defense? I could be wrong though (I don't pay too much attention to hockey anymore like I once used to).

[The Great One]

Kawhi = Erik Karlsson if were going player to player

Tavares = maybe like Damian lillard

Kawhi Leonard = Evgeni Malkin
Tavares = CJ McCollum

[KeonClark]

Kawhi Leonard = Evgeni Malkin
Tavares = CJ McCollum

Erik Karlsson > Evgeni Malkin

I think I hear Joey coming were going off topic lol

[golden]

Erik Karlsson > Evgeni Malkin

I think I hear Joey coming were going off topic lol

Tbh, nothing's off topic at this point in the off-season. We're doing the board a great service grasping at anything to keep it alive.

[The Great One]

Erik Karlsson > Evgeni Malkin

I think I hear Joey coming were going off topic lol

Malkin is a top 3 player. EK is probably top 5-10.

1. McJesus
2. Crosby
3. Malkin

[S.R.]

Malkin is a top 3 player. EK is probably top 5-10.

1. McJesus
2. Crosby
3. Malkin

Hockey is hilarious. Pittsburgh has two MVP calibre players in their primes and they lose in the 1st or 2nd round just as often as they make it to the 3rd or 4th.

Put 2 of the top 5 players in the NBA on the same team and they're going to the 3rd or 4th round every year.

[DanH]

Why would the Leafs get a center when their problem is with defense? I could be wrong though (I don't pay too much attention to hockey anymore like I once used to).

Because there were no top-20 players who were defence available to sign as free agents? If you have a chance to put together the strongest centre lineup in the league, you take it.

Also, there is a common misconception that "defencemen" play defence, and forwards play offence, but both impact both ends, and moving on from Bozak, Komarov, and especially JVR and replacing them with speedy depth and Tavares (who has developed into a very solid two-way forward, versus the pure offensive force he was early in his career), should help the defence by leaps and bounds. Matthews hopefully playing the full season would help too.

Same goes for removing Polak from the lineup. They will still be praying for a bounce back season from Zaitsev, but with Dermott playing all year and hopefully giving Hainsey a lower workload, and players like Carrick and their other young options taking minutes from Polak, they should be improved on the back end as well.