Everything 2018 Off Season

[jimmie]

check the world wide wob twitter feed for the latest "SMH" tweets from NBA players (Lillard and PG and a Morris so far). Oh well, it's not like they said much good about us before.

https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob?r...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Yeah, well, we'll see how it plays a year or two from now when Leonard is no longer in Toronto and, with bags of money in hand, Masai tries to find a new All Star free agent to come join the young guys. Might be more difficult than it would have been had he stuck to the "loyalty and family" brand that helped turn the team into a league darling in terms of culture -- until this morning.

Will Giannis (the obvious #1 target) be interested by then/ Will Ujiri be able to convince another target? We'll see.

Of course, if he convinces Kawhi to sign an extension, it's a huge success.

[Apollo]

pic.twitter.com/Y2Da7C3aBJ

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) July 18, 2018

I just threw up in my mouth a little

That tweet is a little surreal. Go big or go home though.

The way LeBron manhandled the Raptors a few months ago appears to have been as critical a turning point as some of the biggest pessimists were suggesting at the time. No they didn't blow it up, but they're now all in on this season with one very possible outcome being a a breakthrough to the finals and/or a major rebuild.

[Ebonhawke]

One downside to the trade - the Everything 2019 NBA Draft thread is going to be quiet again this year.

[A.I]

One downside to the trade - the Everything 2019 NBA Draft thread is going to be quiet again this year.

I’ll take more game threads over 2019 draft thread.

[Apollo]

It'll be a really interesting press conference when Masai sits down to talk about this. The Raps front office is getting killed out there right now. Sure, sports is a business, but if they really promised Derozan he wouldn't be traded less than a week ago, that's bad juju and players will remember. Ujiri risks being branded a hypocrite for pushing the Raptors brand as all about loyalty, family, continuity. And it'll be a lot worse if he can't get Kawhi to stay.

Its bad for business if true. Its kind of bad for business anyway because rarely do these things get cleared up at the same volume they're tossed into the spotlight.

[Ebonhawke]

I’ll take more game threads over 2019 draft thread.

But.. how can we argue that Player A is superior to Player B, when all we've seen of either player is highlight reel clips of both of them on Youtube?

[Apollo]

Our general fan base is livid. Yes, the same fan base after every loss that would shout "trade DeRozan! Trade Lowry! Duck these choke artists! Raptors are a b league team that doesn't have a star!"

Maybe or maybe the outspoken people are the common fans who don't look past all-star appearances, division titles, record setting seasons, COY awards, etc.

[Hotshot]

Our general fan base is livid. Yes, the same fan base after every loss that would shout "trade DeRozan! Trade Lowry! Duck these choke artists! Raptors are a b league team that doesn't have a star!"

Our fan base is a bit schizophrenic. Things will calm down in a few days once reality sets in and accepted. Heavens forbid if Kawhi doesn't give it all, the fan base is very much anti-primadonna (exhibit A: Turkoglu & Carroll) and if you don't play hard you are going to get boo'd.

[MixxAOR]

Our general fan base is livid. Yes, the same fan base after every loss that would shout "trade DeRozan! Trade Lowry! Duck these choke artists! Raptors are a b league team that doesn't have a star!"

They are in it to hate on Raps. Fucking trash fans

[Shaolin Fantastic]

This is the first time the Raptors have ever had a championship caliber roster.

(Again assuming Kawhi is actually healthy and gives a fuck).

[KeonClark]

This is the first time the Raptors have ever had a championship caliber roster.

(Again assuming Kawhi is actually healthy and gives a fuck).

Imagine in 2015 hearing the raps starting lineup would be

Kyle Lowry
Danny green
Kawhi Leonard
Serge ibaka
Jonas valanciunas

You'd say no way stfu let's plan the championship parade

Then they say oh wait forgot to mention golden state made the monstars

[MixxAOR]

If I was a GM i would've traded Derozan to Memphis for Parsons and 4th pick. JESUS CHRIST lmao

[Shaolin Fantastic]

If I was a GM i would've traded Derozan to Memphis for Parsons and 4th pick. JESUS CHRIST lmao

I mean that trade wasn't bad either if the plan was to tank and rebuild. Nothing wrong with that.

[KeonClark]

I mean that trade wasn't bad either if the plan was to tank and rebuild. Nothing wrong with that.

Yet that 4th pick had like 3% chance of ever being Kawhi Leonard

[Primer]

Yeah, well, we'll see how it plays a year or two from now when Leonard is no longer in Toronto and, with bags of money in hand, Masai tries to find a new All Star free agent to come join the young guys. Might be more difficult than it would have been had he stuck to the "loyalty and family" brand that helped turn the team into a league darling in terms of culture -- until this morning.

Will Giannis (the obvious #1 target) be interested by then/ Will Ujiri be able to convince another target? We'll see.

Of course, if he convinces Kawhi to sign an extension, it's a huge success.

No free agent is going to give a shit that we dealt Demar for a league MVP candidate a year or two prior. We didn't do him dirty, we sent him to the best coach in the league and one of the most historically winning franchises is all of sports. We also sent him there on a near max deal, so he got paid too. If DD wants to blame someone he should blame himself for shitting the bed in the playoffs year after year necessitating this kind of deal.

Has there ever been a free agent who said he signed somewhere because of their loyalty family brand?