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OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

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Have to laugh reading the remarks by some of DD's faithful and other players commenting on loyalty.
This is the NBA. Where players have been known more than a few times to have demanded and orchestrate their way off of teams to teams of their preference.
DD was a great ambassador for the raptors fanchise and the fans. But he got paid the money he wanted, and I am sure received better treatment than most. It is a business, and the Raptors have to put their logo first. Just like Lebron and others when their contracts are up, they usually go to highest bidder.
 
Bruce Arthur's take in the Star is pretty good.

The Raps bet on themselves: https://www.thestar.com/amp/sports/raptors/opinion/2018/07/18/raptors-gm-masai-ujiri-bets-the-house-on-the-home-team.html?__twitter_impression=true

>>But since the trade the Raptors have had initial conversations with Leonard and his camp, and according to sources they were positive. There was no indication of a holdout or even an unwillingness to play in Toronto. So far, it seems like Leonard may have an open mind.

If so, this could become a heist. Toronto even avoided moving young prospects OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam or Delon Wright. Poeltl’s got potential, but he was this team’s fifth-best young player, after those three and Fred VanVleet. The pick, protected 1-20, is the kind of selection designed to be thrown into a deal like this. Basketball-wise, the Raptors saw the rarest opportunity in the NBA: to trade for an MVP-calibre player, plus sharpshooter and defender Danny Green. They took it.
 
dear Lord we just got a 27yr old Kawhi Leonard. Best player in franchise history by a country mile. insane.


you got a year to work your magic, drizzy.
 
I’m all for the idea behind this trade. Just wanna say that before I say the next sentence. DeRozan I think will improve and look even better in SA with Pop.
 
uncus said:
Have to laugh reading the remarks by some of DD's faithful and other players commenting on loyalty.
This is the NBA. Where players have been known more than a few times to have demanded and orchestrate their way off of teams to teams of their preference.
DD was a great ambassador for the raptors fanchise and the fans. But he got paid the money he wanted, and I am sure received better treatment than most. It is a business, and the Raptors have to put their logo first. Just like Lebron and others when their contracts are up, they usually go to highest bidder.
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Yeah, I've found all the "loyalty" talk on social media more than a little bit funny myself. Where were these guys talking about loyalty when Bosh and Lebron bolted for Miami? Or when Carmelo forced his way out of Denver and basically forced the Nuggets into taking 50 cents on the dollar for a top 3 SF at the time? How about when a top 5 all time point guard forced his way out of New Orleans? Or every other time that a player decided that they would rather be somewhere else for whatever reason.

Of course, nobody should have chirped them over loyalty because player and team alike should have one loyalty. Winning. Be loyal to trying to win shit. The Raptors patiently developed Demar, paid him tens of millions of dollars twice, and with his help, built what looked like a contending team in an attempt to win. It didn't ****ing work out, they didn't win anything. In fact, they looked allergic to winning when it mattered. Masai saw an opportunity that allowed for a greater chance at winning and he took it, as he should have. If Demar is mad about that, as much as I appreciate what he did for the organization and the city, the only thing I could possibly say to him about it is: "Hit more shots next time". If he hits more shots, ****, if he just plays like regular season Demar, the Raptors maybe get past Lebron and make a finals. The GM isn't likely to tear apart a team that makes the finals. A team that gets swept out of the playoffs in the 1st or 2nd round in 3 of the last 4 seasons though? Something has to change. Loyalty is fantastic, but the point of the league isn't to make friends, it's to win.

The key word here isn't loyalty. It's failure. If someone wants to claim that the cost of failure is the removal of loyalty from the relationship, I wouldn't argue that for a second. If winning was the goal, Demar failed in doing what a feature player is supposed to do to get his team to the next level. Shit, nobody was even expecting a title out of the Raptors, the bar was pretty low here. "Don't ****ing embarrass yourselves" was basically the bar, and they didn't manage to get over it. If Demar didn't personally fail, I don't think the Raptors as a collective would have failed to clear that fairly low bar set for them.
 
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zeke said:
dear Lord we just got a 27yr old Kawhi Leonard. Best player in franchise history by a country mile. insane.


you got a year to work your magic, drizzy.
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Yeah, I've never secretly hoped for someone to be a massive Drake stan as much as I'm hoping for Kawhi to be one.
 
uncus said:
Have to laugh reading the remarks by some of DD's faithful and other players commenting on loyalty.
This is the NBA. Where players have been known more than a few times to have demanded and orchestrate their way off of teams to teams of their preference.
DD was a great ambassador for the raptors fanchise and the fans. But he got paid the money he wanted, and I am sure received better treatment than most. It is a business, and the Raptors have to put their logo first. Just like Lebron and others when their contracts are up, they usually go to highest bidder.
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You want complete loyalty ......buy a dog

He loves you , you may love him even more
 
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MindzEye said:
Yeah, I've found all the "loyalty" talk on social media more than a little bit funny myself. Where were these guys talking about loyalty when Bosh and Lebron bolted for Miami? Or when Carmelo forced his way out of Denver and basically forced the Nuggets into taking 50 cents on the dollar for a top 3 SF at the time? How about when a top 5 all time point guard forced his way out of New Orleans? Or every other time that a player decided that they would rather be somewhere else for whatever reason.

Of course, nobody should have chirped them over loyalty because player and team alike should have one loyalty. Winning. Be loyal to trying to win shit. The Raptors patiently developed Demar, paid him tens of millions of dollars twice, and with his help, built what looked like a contending team in an attempt to win. It didn't ****ing work out, they didn't win anything. In fact, they looked allergic to winning when it mattered. Masai saw an opportunity that allowed for a greater chance at winning and he took it, as he should have. If Demar is mad about that, as much as I appreciate what he did for the organization and the city, the only thing I could possibly say to him about it is: "Hit more shots next time". If he hits more shots, ****, if he just plays like regular season Demar, the Raptors maybe get past Lebron and make a finals. The GM isn't likely to tear apart a team that makes the finals. A team that gets swept out of the playoffs in the 1st or 2nd round in 3 of the last 4 seasons though? Something has to change. Loyalty is fantastic, but the point of the league isn't to make friends, it's to win.

The key word here isn't loyalty. It's failure. If someone wants to claim that the cost of failure is the removal of loyalty from the relationship, I wouldn't argue that for a second. If winning was the goal, Demar failed in doing what a feature player is supposed to do to get his team to the next level. Shit, nobody was even expecting a title out of the Raptors, the bar was pretty low here. "Don't ****ing embarrass yourselves" was basically the bar, and they didn't manage to get over it. If Demar didn't personally fail, I don't think the Raptors as a collective would have failed to clear that fairly low bar set for them.
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It's far from failure. Both DD and Kyle from a skill set position produced at their level . Sure their playoffs were a bit underwhelming but in the end they are third options on teams winning titles .

50 plus win teams and modest playoff success is as good as it gets when they are your Batman and Robin.

Many teams without a franchise player like Bron would kill for a 5 year run like we had .

This deal is a no brainer and potential heist if KL is healthy , committed and regains a stud level and resigns.

If not the inevitable tear down is on its way and 1 year sooner .
 
It's hard not to read a lot of this "loyalty" talk from the players as a dig at Toronto. As in "you finally found a good catch who wanted to settle for your 2nd tier city, and you dumped him"

**** em

DeMar got paid top dollar. It didn't work. Time for another plan.

Not to mention, where is Leonard's loyalty the Spurs? Loyalty apparently can only flow one way.
 
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CH1 said:
It's hard not to read a lot of this "loyalty" talk from the players as a dig at Toronto. As in "you finally found a good catch who wanted to settle for your 2nd tier city, and you dumped him"

**** em

DeMar got paid top dollar. It didn't work. Time for another plan.

Not to mention, where is Leonard's loyalty the Spurs? Loyalty apparently can only flow one way.
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great post :thumbsup(22):
 
sad to see Demar go, but that is not really for basketball related reasons. emotionally this trade tears me up a bit. rationally, this trade is ****ing amazing.
 
Anthony Morrow (fwiw) says good luck to Toronto to ever sign someone of star power after what they did to DeMar.

This is the only thing that I think of when stuff like this happens. You know it will linger for quite a few summers.
 
This is crazy. Players can be traded. Period.

I mean this shows the reason why Demar was never able to get over the hump here. He does not handle adversity well.
 
HabsFan1 said:
Anthony Morrow (fwiw) says good luck to Toronto to ever sign someone of star power after what they did to DeMar.

This is the only thing that I think of when stuff like this happens. You know it will linger for quite a few summers.
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lol. as if we were able to sign anyone of star power anyways. even before the Demar Choke-Stink, we couldn't sign anyone. But the Demar Choke-Stink made damn sure nobody was ever coming here.

You don't gain the ability to sign stars by being "loyal", you gain the ability to sign stars by WINNING.
 
CH1 said:
It's hard not to read a lot of this "loyalty" talk from the players as a dig at Toronto. As in "you finally found a good catch who wanted to settle for your 2nd tier city, and you dumped him"

**** em

DeMar got paid top dollar. It didn't work. Time for another plan.

Not to mention, where is Leonard's loyalty the Spurs? Loyalty apparently can only flow one way.
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I've been to nearly every NBA/NHL/NFL/MLB. This claim that Toronto is a 2nd tier city is complete bull-shit.

There are maybe 3 or 4 American cities that are clearly better than Toronto.

Toronto just suffers because it's unknown to many Americans.
 
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