Aren't the Raptors and Eveyone else Just playing for second ?

[Truth Teller]

If we gut our team for one player and him or Kawhi get hurt you are setting the team back years. 20 win seasons were not fun.

Except if Kawhi is leaving, we should gut out the team and rebuild anyways. So it makes sense to go all-in. Anyone can get injured, can't really factor that in. NBA is the one sport where it pays to be really bad rather than mid tier.

[golden]

If we gut our team for one player and him or Kawhi get hurt you are setting the team back years. 20 win seasons were not fun.

I'd would trade a bunch of 20 win seasons for one championship or even a hard-fought Finals loss. No brainer.

One thing I don't get is this persistent 'gutting our team' narrative. FVV was interviewed 2 days ago and he said "maybe we have too much talent", in response to players not knowing their roles. A consolidation trade is needed.

Masai built this thing up using low 1st round (Siakam, OG, Wright) & 2nd round (Powell) picks and undrafted guys (FVV). That's easily replaceable. Look at what the Brooklyn Nets did with zero picks for years and no trade assets. They used cap space and trading savvy and have a nice stable of young players AND cap space this off-season. If AD and Kawhi leave, we'll have more cap space than the Nets started with and Masai's trading savvy is pretty much a given. Even as it stands, the only players on the books after next year would be Norm and Pascal at ~ 10M. That's crazy cap space.

[Raptor Jesus]

I think people forget how even the 'Rigging for Wiggins' crew knew we had too much talent and too many crap contracts to actually bottom out. This time MU's built a megatank into our championship aircraft carrier. We run aground, come up short in the finals or ecf, boom the tank starts immediately.

Sell all our expirings for junk contracts and picks, play Siakam as Giannis and see what he's got, make a play for Giannis, accumulate more assets. In all likely actually bottom out, and start with fresh young talent, that's seen us in the conversation as an Eastern Conference Power for the majority of their YA lives.

Daily Treadmill discussions on RR. Prima facie

[Mitchell Duong]

If you got Davis, and Kawhi left. You could deal Davis this summer. Maybe a 3 way with the lakers and a team with a top pick to let you take RJ Barrett?

You get the Wiggins dream, but the player is actually good.

[slaw]

Warriors are still the favourite, but Masai should just be concerned with putting the best team he can put together and getting the finals.

Injuries and what not. Who knows what Warriors team you'll face.

Rockets were a Chris Paul injury away from taking out GSW last year and they still should have beat the Warriors but couldn't make a shot in that third quarter of game 7.

[planetmars]

The one thing we can't forget is we lost on some assets that a rebuilding team would love to have.

1) DeMar's contract
2) Poeltl
3) The 2019 first round pick
3) Any asset we give to NO for Davis (like Siakam, Fred, Delon, etc)

You can argue the value of DeMar's contract... but IMO was still worth something. Perhaps that something could have been a future pick or another prospect. The 2019 pick is probably pretty bad (currently at #28) but still worth something for a tanking team. Poeltl was a former lottery pick and could grow with the team or flipped for another pick/prospect.

And then you have what we need to get Davis which most likely would include one of (or both of) OG and Siakam. We could get some of that back if we flip Davis if Kawhi leaves us. But the stuff we get back may not be as good as the stuff we gave out.

So it's not just one shot at it and we rebuild anyway. We do lose some capital. But Masai wants to win a championship. That's his goal. And if that's the goal you need to take risks.

It would suck to rebuild/tank with less assets than we could have.. but that's the price to pay for a little bit of glory. Would really suck if we had them both and still failed to get out of the East though let alone past the Warriors.

Let's hope Kawhi sticks around for one more year so we get a chance with both for 2.

[sanyo]

It's a matter of how many picks NO will want -- since Toronto will have very high picks, they may want to squeeze 3 first rounders out of Toronto...and thats a very steep price to pay, especially if kawhi bolts.

You know what...fuck it... LETS DO IT!

Our competition is still LA -- and they got young studs and picks to give as well.

It's a matter of whether NO wants ingram and hart or siakam and og. lakers will be more aggressive to get davis as he has one more year after this to burn and lebron will be 35 then... getting a bit older he probably wants a competitive team on the court for next year...

[Nilanka]

Rockets were a Chris Paul injury away from taking out GSW last year and they still should have beat the Warriors but couldn't make a shot in that third quarter of game 7.

Very Raptor-esque

[KeonClark]

Very Raptor-esque

The hardest part of beating golden state is the finish line. Houston was thinking every time they went up for the shot "oh man if I make this we're about to freakin eliminate golden state!"

The pressure is real

[guyroch]

Except if Kawhi is leaving, we should gut out the team and rebuild anyways. So it makes sense to go all-in. Anyone can get injured, can't really factor that in. NBA is the one sport where it pays to be really bad rather than mid tier.

The Raptors strength is their depth ( with JV coming back it will get better ) to gut your team to get Davis your subtracting one strength just to make your starting 5 stronger ... A strong second unit that can keep the opposition starters on longer then they should will just make your first unit stronger in the 4th quarter . Saying that ... Golden State can run up the score with 3's with little energy ..

[golden]

The Raptors strength is their depth ( with JV coming back it will get better ) to gut your team to get Davis your subtracting one strength just to make your starting 5 stronger ... A strong second unit that can keep the opposition starters on longer then they should will just make your first unit stronger in the 4th quarter . Saying that ... Golden State can run up the score with 3's with little energy ..

If you have MVP calibre starters, then you only need 2 (maybe 3) decent bench guys in the playoffs. Basically, bench guys who don't suck to the level where they're going to create 10+ point deficits your MVP starters have to claw back from. You don't need great depth, you just need to minimize having trash players in the game while the starters rest. Another huge benefit about having 2 MVP calibre guys is the ability to stagger them to prop up those bench/transition units.

This concept of having a 5-deep, all bench mob needs to die. It helps get you through the dog-days of the regular season, but it's fool's gold to think it's a real advantage in the playoffs.

[KeonClark]

Depth is great. Depth has gotten many a team 50 wins (even 60) and a 2nd round appearance. But superstars trump depth. No team in history has won a title because they have great 6th to 10th men in the rotation. I mean it helps, if you've already got the stars.