Team run it back

[SkywalkerAC]

Why does it have to be championship or bust? It's not in the NCAA - where making the tournament, sweet 16, elite 8, and final 4 are all celebrated. I want to make the fucking finals.

[S.R.]

I really do like the wheel method of draft picks - where your draft slot is known ahead of time and it's based on what year of the cycle you're on, not based on how bad you were the previous year.

Everyone is trying to win every night. No one is crying for teams to trade away all their good star players so they can get bad immediately. There's no Boston-Brooklyn deals where a team thinks they're trading away late 1st round picks and are actually trading away three number 5 picks. Fans are cheering for their team to win, not lose. Players like Bledsoe aren't being sent home for the year for no reason.

Is there a competitive balance issue problem there? Sure. The parity in the league might actually decrease, as bad teams with bad management and bad ownership really have no way of getting out of the muck. But those teams need to clean up their act and get better anyways.

I just don't want to hear anymore about how this teams not good enough and needs to bottom out to have a chance for a championship. Because, sure, maybe eventually that's true, but why do we have to do that now? Why can't we have another really fun, really good competitive years with deep playoff runs before we set off into the unknown tank job that could take decades to actually produce anything of this quality again.

Teams with good management don't stay bad for long and teams with bad management stay bad for a long time. The lottery's pretty overrated as a tool for helping bad teams become good teams.

[Mapko]

The answer is that a team's ownership and management has a responsibility to put a quality product on the floor and try to win games and get better. The biggest issue with the league right now is that 1/3 of the league, if not more, has abdicated its responsibility and broken trust with the fans and other teams in that they are trying to lose. Think about that for a second. Really think about it.

That's a lot of teams & aside from 76ers, most of those teams would gladly trade places with us.

Think about how bad that is for the game and the league. Just think about how bad it has become that you are boycotting a 59-win team that has a real chance to go to the Finals because you would rather the organizational actively try to lose as many games as possible in the hopes of years from now competing again.

How much closer are Suns, Kings, Orlando...to playoffs (never mind champinship) than sveral years ago? Path to finals is a lot easier for a 59 win team than 29 win team.

As I've said before, people can make the case for this tanking bullshit on the merits in any given individual team situation (though I think the arguments are spurious) but there is no doubt that it is bad for the NBA overall and is going to have serious repercussions if the league continues down the path. The Raps should absolutely be trying to win this year. Can they beat the Warriors in 7 games? No, they cannot. But that doesn't mean you give up.

I agree 100% with all of your assessments.
76ers might be poster child for tanking & I still dont see them getting out of East over Boston or us. vs GS? Fuck no.
I still believe that we have a better chance of winning it all over trhe next 3-4 years than MOST (if not all) of tanking teams over the last 6-7 years.

Yes, it will require lots of luck, some tweaking & internal growth.
Lets not forget: tanking teams as a rule do not attract elite FAs (James to LA is only exception I can think over the last 10 years. Please don't quote Knicks & failed Carmelo attempt). Raptors as a Canadian team sure as hell won't either.

[Mess]

How's this for Team Run It Back.

Norm for....Terrence Ross

Salaries match up (the benefit is that Ross is on an expiring) and their stats surprisingly aren't too far off either.

Granted this idea is more of a last resort/couldn't-find-a-better-offer trade deadline deal.

Give the Raps half a season to see if Norm's role/production have improved, and to see if Ross is back to being fully healthy after missing most of last season. I assume it would be relatively quick and painless for Ross to settle back in and if there's anyone else around the NBA who may have faith in Powell, it would be Jeff Weltman.


(Pardon the non-sequitur. It feels dirty posting in the Trade Proposal forum)

[MixxAOR]

If you guys ok with good season records and like a competent team on a floor I understand. As long you understand the ceiling of this team though.

[Puffer]

If you guys ok with good season records and like a competent team on a floor I understand. As long you understand the ceiling of this team though.

Not to be repetitive, but if the ceiling of this team is conference finals, that puts them ahead of 26 other teams. On the other hand the odds of the Raptors beating the 10 - 12 tanking teams to the #1 or #2 draft picks in the next couple of years??? Unless the first three positions in the draft were going to be generational talents for the next four years, the team couldn't grab enough talent to come any closer to winning a finals championship than they are now, in my opinion.

I am happy to listen to any realistic plan that gets them closer, but if you need three or four of the top 15 players in the league to win, I don't see how you can create any plan to do that.

[Mack North]

If you guys ok with good season records and like a competent team on a floor I understand. As long you understand the ceiling of this team though.

Houston definitely could've beat GSW had CP3 been healthy for games 6 & 7. It's all about getting there, cause you never know what can happen. No LeBron in the East makes that an easier task... heck, if we had made it this year vs Houston who knows? We beat them both times we played. It would have been interesting, that's for sure. Gimme that chance over lottery balls for #5-#9 overall anyday.

[MixxAOR]

Not to be repetitive, but if the ceiling of this team is conference finals, that puts them ahead of 26 other teams. On the other hand the odds of the Raptors beating the 10 - 12 tanking teams to the #1 or #2 draft picks in the next couple of years??? Unless the first three positions in the draft were going to be generational talents for the next four years, the team couldn't grab enough talent to come any closer to winning a finals championship than they are now, in my opinion.

I am happy to listen to any realistic plan that gets them closer, but if you need three or four of the top 15 players in the league to win, I don't see how you can create any plan to do that.

Being a conference finals contender puts them ahead of of Western Conference playoff teams? Seeding wise yes but talent wise not all at close.

[MixxAOR]

Houston definitely could've beat GSW had CP3 been healthy for games 6 & 7. It's all about getting there, cause you never know what can happen. No LeBron in the East makes that an easier task... heck, if we had made it this year vs Houston who knows? We beat them both times we played. It would have been interesting, that's for sure. Gimme that chance over lottery balls for #5-#9 overall anyday.

That's a lot of ifs man.

[Mack North]

That's a lot of ifs man.

Lottery balls aren't "if's"?

I'd rather be close than go through 10 years of losin again.

[MixxAOR]

If I didn't think that Masai could build from draft I wouldn't be a proponent of tanking

[MixxAOR]

Lottery balls aren't "if's"?

I'd rather be close than go through 10 years of losin again.

Lottery balls are ifs as well. Never argued that they werent'. But not more than what we have going now. If being close is enough for you then I can't really say anything

[KeonClark]

I've always said, it makes more sense to keep treading water in the 2nd tier where you're 1 or 2 (or because of golden State, more but you get the idea) moves away, than swim all the way back down to the bottom where you're 10 or 12 moves away again

[KeonClark]

Lottery balls are ifs as well. Never argued that they werent'. But not more than what we have going now. If being close is enough for you then I can't really say anything

Close
very near to (being or doing something).

"on a good day the climate in LA is close to perfection"

synonyms:near, on the verge of, on the brink of, on the point of


Looks like that's a not bad place to be

[Mack North]

Lottery balls are ifs as well. Never argued that they werent'. But not more than what we have going now. If being close is enough for you then I can't really say anything

Of course I want the Raps to be champions, but since I can't do anything about that, so I've gotta root for what we have. And I would rather watch 63 W's all year long til late May than to watch 20 til mid April and hope we get a decent player in the draft, which is a complete crapshoot. Rarely do all stars or MVP's get drafted.