Everything Kawhi Leonard

[white men can't jump]

Man if we added Giannis I think we could keep opposing teams under 10 points a game.

Add Davis too and the other teams go into negative scoring. Like they'd be so scared they'd just turn around and score on their own basket.

Sorry, I should have said Davis OR Antetokounmpo.

I mean, I'd love to add both, but I think adding either one to Kawhi gives us a chance to be the best 2-way team in the league as long as we're healthy, and adding both would be pretty tricky.

The biggest question mark if we land one of those guys is the succession plan for Lowry. Maybe FVV or Delon is still around to slide into the starting spot. Maybe Lowry can keep being effective longer than expected with the way he's playing now (less physically reckless on offence, though still takes a lot of charges on D).

While both their teams are perfect in this early going, they're exactly the kind of teams that fail to put a legit contender together. So I am expecting that one or both could be traded before their contracts finish.

[G__Deane]

Stroman and Bautista took in the last Raptors game. Why is he back in town during the off season?
Hot take: Jays just signed their new Manager and are going to hire Joey bats as their new batting instructor ...... could do worse

[sanyo]

Stroman and Bautista took in the last Raptors game. Why is he back in town during the off season?
Hot take: Jays just signed their new Manager and are going to hire Joey bats as their new batting instructor ...... could do worse

Batista actually has a house here as well (besides Florida) and his wife loves Toronto. I know this cause I know one of the guys who work in their clubhouse and he tells me lots of stuff...but yeah so not surprised he's here.

[planetmars]

Assuming Kawhi resigns, there have been talks of signing another start player in the summer of 2020. If you could pair any star in the league with Kawhi, who would it be?

Personally it would be AD.

Giannis and Davis are both free agents in 2021 not 2020. So it's not like we can grab them. Most notable free agents that summer is Kyle and I'd say Jamal Murray (but he'll be an RFA). KD and Kawhi are potentially available too.. but both will opt out this summer.

2020 seems like a stinker free agent pool. Guys with cap space that summer are going to blow their wads on guys that are not really worth it (in my opinion). 2019 and 2021 are the hot summers.

My preference is that if Kawhi resigns, than in 2020 we get the band back on 1 year deals (if possible) and then see what happens in 2021. That's a lot easier said than done though.

If we have a shot at Davis or Giannis before 2021 than it would be via trade. Milwaukee and NO are both looking good early in this season. If they continue to do well even next year, I doubt you'd see the Bucks or the Pelicans trade them early.

[DanH]

Giannis and Davis are both free agents in 2021 not 2020. So it's not like we can grab them. Most notable free agents that summer is Kyle and I'd say Jamal Murray (but he'll be an RFA). KD and Kawhi are potentially available too.. but both will opt out this summer.

2020 seems like a stinker free agent pool. Guys with cap space that summer are going to blow their wads on guys that are not really worth it (in my opinion). 2019 and 2021 are the hot summers.

My preference is that if Kawhi resigns, than in 2020 we get the band back on 1 year deals (if possible) and then see what happens in 2021. That's a lot easier said than done though.

If we have a shot at Davis or Giannis before 2021 than it would be via trade. Milwaukee and NO are both looking good early in this season. If they continue to do well even next year, I doubt you'd see the Bucks or the Pelicans trade them early.

Davis has a PO for 20-21 and will certainly opt out.

[planetmars]

Davis has a PO for 20-21 and will certainly opt out.

Damn.. I always make that mistake. Was looking at the wrong row in Basketball Insider's salary table for the Pelicans. It's Holiday who's a free agent in 2021 not Davis.

Well then.. we go after Davis in 2020 :-)

[inthepaint]

Damn.. I always make that mistake. Was looking at the wrong row in Basketball Insider's salary table for the Pelicans. It's Holiday who's a free agent in 2021 not Davis.

Well then.. we go after Davis in 2020 :-)

Yeah I like the flexibility we've got for the next couple of years. In the summer of 2020, JV, Ibaka, Lowry, FVV and Miles are all UFA's.

--If we do well this year and Leonard re-signs next summer, we can run it back for the 2019-2020 season (just tweak/balance roster as needed).
Then in the summer of 2020, we let the 2 or 3 least productive UFA's walk to gain cap space, re-sign the others, then go hard after Davis. On the 2020-2021 season, hopefully GSW will finally be running into cap troubles or hitting some sort of decline and we're contending.

--If things go sideways and Leonard walks, then one way we could go in the summer of 2019 is trade the 2020 UFA's as valuable expiring deals for high picks and salary fillers, and be bad in the 2019-2020 to elevate our own 2020 pick. Then go hard after Davis on the summer of 2020 with high quality prospect/picks around him for 2020-2021. The problem here is that Davis will probably want to go to a contender in 2020, so our best chances to get him is actually by retaining Leonard and staying strong.

[Puffer]

Great story on the tortuous history of the Raps and how Kawhi is here to set that strait. Hard to believe the article went as in depth as it did in our past struggles without even mentioning the name Il Mago.

https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/to...m_campaign=tan

This is a great f*****g article. Had me so pumped up.

[Kawhisexual]

I don’t miss demar at all ☺️

[LJ2]

Are there any stats or ranking of Kawhi's defence this season? Has he been playing D at an elite level or "just" good?

[DanH]

Are there any stats or ranking of Kawhi's defence this season? Has he been playing D at an elite level or "just" good?

Practically impossible to judge defence on such a small sample - defensive numbers are often heavily influenced by noise even with a full season's worth of data.

His raw box score defensive numbers are a little down (STL%, BLK%, DBPM). Has a slightly positive on-off DRTG swing (which is impressive as the bench has been very good defensively in spite of their offensive ineptitude). Again, though, way too early to be looking at stuff like DFG% (if you ever find value in that, which I mostly don't).

[golden]

This is a great f*****g article. Had me so pumped up.

Nah. Enough looking back at past failures like insecure George Costanza's waiting for something bad to happen. This franchise has been top notch for more than a half decade since Masai & Leweike got here.

[LJ2]

Practically impossible to judge defence on such a small sample - defensive numbers are often heavily influenced by noise even with a full season's worth of data.

His raw box score defensive numbers are a little down (STL%, BLK%, DBPM). Has a slightly positive on-off DRTG swing (which is impressive as the bench has been very good defensively in spite of their offensive ineptitude). Again, though, way too early to be looking at stuff like DFG% (if you ever find value in that, which I mostly don't).

Alright thanks. I realize it's a really small sample but thought there might be some comparison to draw from his past seasons. Eye test shows he's been really good, but I don't know if it's been in the conversation of what he's done in the past.

[SkywalkerAC]

I hope Kawhi is really happy being rested - feels listened to like he wasn't in SA? - otherwise I just don't get the rest.

[Hotshot]

I hope Kawhi is really happy being rested - feels listened to like he wasn't in SA? - otherwise I just don't get the rest.

Its not like he chosen this. This was the Raptors higher ups decision, maybe he isn't 100% still and they are being cautious. As long as he plays like 70 games and ready to go at the playoffs then I am good.