Along the lines of this thread in the trade proposal forum, Dump your sh!t for prospects & picks!, I really think it is time to go the route I so often argued against.
Lets face reality, even though BC refuses to acknowledge it, a lack of talent is a major problem in Toronto. There is not an all-star on the roster.
There are 3 routes to get an all-star calibre talent:
Let look at each:
Free agency: "I have decided to bring my talents to north of the 49th parallel." Ummm no. Not happening. The only shot Toronto has at anything in free agency is by overpaying role players.
Trade: And what exactly is Toronto's assets going to return? Pau Gasol 5 years ago would have been phenomenal. Today he is just a huge improvement over Bargnani with a short shelf life remaining.
Draft: Well now. Looky here. I think this is the answer. Luckily for Toronto they are already bad without trying. The problem of course is 2013 is a weak draft and they might not even have a pick. So it is time to be the receiver of other teams sh!t for prospects and picks. Guys who have come through the San Antonio system (Presti, Ferry) or in OKC under Presti (Cho, Hennigan) have been taking this route. It really is the way to go.
Toronto is pretty lucky to be honest. They already have some young talent - it is just no killer elite talent. This is no big deal though, keep playing and developing that talent in a defense, rebound, work your ass off, accountible 4-way-tie-for-first-priority culture. Get back as many assets (1st ROUND DRAFT PICKS) as possible for other teams junk that has an expiration of no later than 2015-16. Go through the next 3 drafts (2.5 years) looking for as much TALENT as possible. Go in to the 2015 trade deadline with serious expiring contracts and/or 2015 free agency period with as much cap space as possible before extensions are needed for your own guys.
The catch to all of this is the Raps may never draft that all-star/franchise talent, but you know what? Wouldn't you at least like to have the hope and promise of the draft and possible greatness year in and year out while watching crappy basketball versus what we are watching now (which is crappy basketball with no draft promise or greatness)??
I'm not advocating tank, lets be clear on that. The Raptors are already bad, they don't need to tank. I'm advocating using the only means available over the next 2.5 years to get legitimate, young all-star talent on the roster.
What do you think?
**EDIT**
Just to clarify (and this will be put in the original post as well):
What do I mean by blow it up?
The Raptors are actually ahead of the game on this process. They already have 3-4 decent young players. Another 2-3 drafts with multiple draft picks should do it. And if it does not, well, they'll be no worse off than they currently are: 2nd worst team in the league.
Lets face reality, even though BC refuses to acknowledge it, a lack of talent is a major problem in Toronto. There is not an all-star on the roster.
There are 3 routes to get an all-star calibre talent:
- Free Agency
- Trade
- Draft
Let look at each:
Free agency: "I have decided to bring my talents to north of the 49th parallel." Ummm no. Not happening. The only shot Toronto has at anything in free agency is by overpaying role players.
Trade: And what exactly is Toronto's assets going to return? Pau Gasol 5 years ago would have been phenomenal. Today he is just a huge improvement over Bargnani with a short shelf life remaining.
Draft: Well now. Looky here. I think this is the answer. Luckily for Toronto they are already bad without trying. The problem of course is 2013 is a weak draft and they might not even have a pick. So it is time to be the receiver of other teams sh!t for prospects and picks. Guys who have come through the San Antonio system (Presti, Ferry) or in OKC under Presti (Cho, Hennigan) have been taking this route. It really is the way to go.
Toronto is pretty lucky to be honest. They already have some young talent - it is just no killer elite talent. This is no big deal though, keep playing and developing that talent in a defense, rebound, work your ass off, accountible 4-way-tie-for-first-priority culture. Get back as many assets (1st ROUND DRAFT PICKS) as possible for other teams junk that has an expiration of no later than 2015-16. Go through the next 3 drafts (2.5 years) looking for as much TALENT as possible. Go in to the 2015 trade deadline with serious expiring contracts and/or 2015 free agency period with as much cap space as possible before extensions are needed for your own guys.
The catch to all of this is the Raps may never draft that all-star/franchise talent, but you know what? Wouldn't you at least like to have the hope and promise of the draft and possible greatness year in and year out while watching crappy basketball versus what we are watching now (which is crappy basketball with no draft promise or greatness)??
I'm not advocating tank, lets be clear on that. The Raptors are already bad, they don't need to tank. I'm advocating using the only means available over the next 2.5 years to get legitimate, young all-star talent on the roster.
What do you think?
**EDIT**
Just to clarify (and this will be put in the original post as well):
What do I mean by blow it up?
- fire management
- trade current veterans (Bargnani, Calderon, Kleiza, Amir) for worse contracts, like the worse of the worst in the league, for draft picks
- realize the current building process of the team is a giant FAIL and its ceiling is mediocrity if all goes according to plan.... for the love of sweet baby jesus the Raptors are the 2nd worst team in the league 21 games in!
- play the youth (DD, ED, TR, JV)
The Raptors are actually ahead of the game on this process. They already have 3-4 decent young players. Another 2-3 drafts with multiple draft picks should do it. And if it does not, well, they'll be no worse off than they currently are: 2nd worst team in the league.
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