Everything 2018 NBA draft

[Apollo]

Level of Confidence

Last night was a total disappointment for many, myself included. We received some truths though which is positive. We know for certain now that NBA teams do not value DeMar & Kyle any more than we do, which means we shouldn't have to discuss any more one sided Raptors mock trades. 75 cents on the dollar should be the fair goal, I think.

That said, given Masai's aversion to risk, given the cap number and given the league's lukewarm opinion of the value of the Raptors core, what's your level of confidence in this off-season being a success for the Raptors? Success is however you define it, I'm talking any truly positive outcome here. To me this team feels like its in a slightly better situation than just before Arenas' Wiz & Horford's Hawks fell off. They were pretty good teams, but not great and their GM's didn't pivot in time to avoid getting run over...

[Apollo]

Draft grades are in:

Loser: Toronto Raptors
For as much that was made about Toronto potentially looking to bolster its roster or hitting a mini-reset button to shake things up after being swept by the Cavs in the playoffs, the Raptors were a non-factor on draft night. And by non-factor, I mean they made zero moves to move into the draft, kept their current roster intact, and now enter free agency in the same situation they found themselves after Cleveland ran them off the floor in the second round.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2...s-takes-a-hit/

[Apollo]

The Raptors were a non-factor on draft night. And by non-factor, I mean they made zero moves to move into the draft, kept their current roster intact, and now enter free agency in the same situation they found themselves after Cleveland ran them off the floor in the second round.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2...s-takes-a-hit/

[saints91]

Sounds about right. Masai certainly is a patient GM.

[saints91]

Hard to be a fan of it, but I think he makes smart moves as well as smart no moves.

[Apollo]

Hard to be a fan of it, but I think he makes smart moves as well as smart no moves.

At some point he's going to have to take a risk to get ahead. None of the top teams got there without rolling the dice at times and winning.

Ainge is the prime example of this. What he's done the last 15 years in Boston is no fluke.

[saints91]

It’s true!

If the Raptors are going to make moves it’s going to be when teams know they aren’t going to get LeBron, Georgia or Kawhi. If Philly strives out, they’re going to want a Lowry.

The trade I want out of draft night is

Derozan to the Clips for SGA, Tobias Harris and a sign and trade for Avery Bradley.

[saints91]

Masai has to start putting his stamp on this team.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Masai has to start putting his stamp on this team.

Nah.

Another year with the same guys, coaching change, more culture-change rhetoric and staying under the tax to save MLSE money.

Woot.

[Apollo]

Eric J--- I mean Bryan Colangelo must be proud of his guys. They won 59 games. Hinkie's only won 52 games.

[slaw]

Nah.

Another year with the same guys, coaching change, more culture-change rhetoric and staying under the tax to save MLSE money.

Woot.

Not a single roster player was traded in the entire league last night but you keep pounding that nail....

[Demographic Shift]

Not a single roster player was traded in the entire league last night but you keep pounding that nail....

It’s easy to be a cynic/defeatist .....that’s why there are so many of them.

[Apollo]

It’s easy to be a cynic/defeatist .....that’s why there are so many of them.

Its fair to criticize. Masai needs to do something to warrant the boo birds to settle down. They just got embrassed last month.

[DanH]

Yeah, guys, we thought there would be player movement at the draft, but the Raptors not getting any bites is not a commentary on the value of their players. NOBODY moved last night. It was the most boring draft in the history of the NBA, with only a few pick for picks swaps, most in the 2nd round. Literally a record setting lack of player movement.

It's probably the LeBron freeze. Until teams know where he's going, they aren't going to move assets for secondary stars. Throw in the Kawhi uncertainty, and the new CP3 trick where LBJ could opt in, and no team is out of the running, and any team that would want to add DD/KL would only be doing so a) if they missed on the bigger names or b) if they landed one and wanted them to complement that star. In either case, they'd want to hold onto assets and cap space to chase the big names first. I definitely underestimated the degree to which this would freeze the entire league. But such is life.

July will open up a lot of possibilities. As will LBJ's opt-in date (June 29th), which could take a lot of teams out of the running for him, meaning the hope isn't gone to move Powell before his extension kicks in either.

Nice that the Raps got a highly ranked undrafted guy. I like what I'm hearing about him. And after FVV, the expectation for every one of these camp invites will reasonably be set at "6th man finalist in second year."

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Not a single roster player was traded in the entire league last night but you keep pounding that nail....

I'm sorry but I don't think swapping Casey for Nurse gets us from swept by the Cavs to beating an improved Philly and/or Boston and LeBron if he's still in the east.

Standing pat is just really not acceptable to me.

If the only move this summer is to dump Norm somewhere to pay FVV, then that's really going to be piss-poor.