• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

Great trade. I was 100% expecting worse. I have been a Derozan supporter for years but its pretty clear this guy hasn't been able to get it done in crunch time/playoffs. Peoltl was my least favorite of the prospects(OG, Siakam, Delon). A top 20 protected 1st that turns into 2 2nd rounders.... yea that sounds good to me.

With rumors swirling around that Kawhi doesn't want to play in toronto, is there a possibility where we end up moving him this offseason?

Let me see if i can make sense of this potential scenario:
- Lakers didn't want to move Ingram + Kuzma + to the Spurs because of being in the same conference and also them having high potential to burn the Lakers in a couple years when Lebron and co fall off.
- Would the Lakers be more inclined to move those pieces to Toronto and not have to worry about that?

All that aside Masai should double down on this and trade Lowry.
 
Let me say this though... i want Kawhi here. I want him to resign. I don't want to move him. My scenario up top is a worse comes to worst.

Kawhi is nasty. What a great nickname for a Toronto Raptor: The Claw
 
From the outside perspective of someone who's not a basketball fan, it seems to me that the main downsides to trading DeRozan are all sentimental. He's a career Raptor and unlike all the other Raptor stars before him, he chose to stay and embraced the team and the city. So in that respect, it's a shame to ship him out---doubly so for a guy that apparently has no interest in being here.

But DD isn't an innocent victim here. Sports are a results-driven business, and he's repeatedly proven that his game just doesn't translate to personal or team success in the playoffs, despite him being surrounded with an ever-improving supporting cast. Coming back once again with a team headlined by him and Lowry would have been the definition of insanity. Even with Lebron gone from the East, a DD/Lowry-led Raptors team getting to the third round, emerging from the East and/or putting up any kind of fight in the final was exceedingly unlikely.

So they trade him, one of their lesser young players and a 1st round pick that's guaranteed to be low. In return, they get to compete for one season with one of the best players in the sport on their team. In a best-case scenario, they sell him on sticking around over the course of the next 12 months, and with that all-important 1st superstar in place, maybe they finally convince another star free agent to join him here. In a worst-case scenario Leonard is a bust due to injury or a lack of desire to play here, he walks at the end of the year, and then the Raptors embark on the rebuild/reload they would've had to go through anyway, with all of their future 1st round picks & best young players still in place and more cap flexibility.

Hard to see the downside here.
 
I have a bad feeling Kawhi won’t even show up to camp. I think he has proven he is ok to sit it out and his attitude “seems” to be terrible.
 
From the outside perspective of someone who's not a basketball fan, it seems to me that the main downsides to trading DeRozan are all sentimental. He's a career Raptor and unlike all the other Raptor stars before him, he chose to stay and embraced the team and the city. So in that respect, it's a shame to ship him out---doubly so for a guy that apparently has no interest in being here.

But DD isn't an innocent victim here. Sports are a results-driven business, and he's repeatedly proven that his game just doesn't translate to personal or team success in the playoffs, despite him being surrounded with an ever-improving supporting cast. Coming back once again with a team headlined by him and Lowry would have been the definition of insanity. Even with Lebron gone from the East, a DD/Lowry-led Raptors team getting to the third round, emerging from the East and/or putting up any kind of fight in the final was exceedingly unlikely.

So they trade him, one of their lesser young players and a 1st round pick that's guaranteed to be low. In return, they get to compete for one season with one of the best players in the sport on their team. In a best-case scenario, they sell him on sticking around over the course of the next 12 months, and with that all-important 1st superstar in place, maybe they finally convince another star free agent to join him here. In a worst-case scenario Leonard is a bust due to injury or a lack of desire to play here, he walks at the end of the year, and then the Raptors embark on the rebuild/reload they would've had to go through anyway, with all of their future 1st round picks & best young players still in place and more cap flexibility.

Hard to see the downside here.

+1
 
So Kawhi makes $23m.

If he doesn't pick up his $21m player option for 19-20, then the max the raps can only give him is 4 x $27m.

If he picks up the player option for 19-20, then the raps can offer him 5 x $38m.

Since he was traded, he is no longer eligible for the supermax 5 x $44m.

As a free agent after this year, I believe he can only sign for a max of 5 x ~$30m.
 
Meh, I don’t know about this. Feels like a sideways move, granted one where we upgrade, but where the guy coming in doesn’t even want to play for us. Not sure how this plays out this season, and not too confident about what happens a year from now. It certainly doesn’t feel like we’re improved enough to do any better than we did last year. If we advance farther it’s because Lebron isn’t in our way, not because we beat him.

Unless he extends with us, and we add another significant piece, not sure I feel too great about this. I might be more inclined to flip him to the Lakers now and try to build something new and improved.

By the way, I don’t even really love Demar or anything, but I do think he needed to stay to have this be impactful, and the cloud he’s leaving under leaves a bad taste.
 
Its unfortunate that this scenario plays out a bit not loyal towards Demar. BUT thats about it. This guy accepted a max contract at the time. There was no loyalty discount.

We upgraded here. I want him to stay so bad.

Now trade Lowry. Jimmy Buckets apparently wants out of Minnesota. That would give us the best 2-way wing combo in the league imo.
 
Its unfortunate that this scenario plays out a bit not loyal towards Demar. BUT thats about it. This guy accepted a max contract at the time. There was no loyalty discount.

We upgraded here. I want him to stay so bad.

Now trade Lowry. Jimmy Buckets apparently wants out of Minnesota. That would give us the best 2-way wing combo in the league imo.

Another player who will be bolting for a specified team. Butler will be a Knick first chance he gets.
 
Meh, I don’t know about this. Feels like a sideways move, granted one where we upgrade, but where the guy coming in doesn’t even want to play for us. Not sure how this plays out this season, and not too confident about what happens a year from now. It certainly doesn’t feel like we’re improved enough to do any better than we did last year. If we advance farther it’s because Lebron isn’t in our way, not because we beat him.

Unless he extends with us, and we add another significant piece, not sure I feel too great about this. I might be more inclined to flip him to the Lakers now and try to build something new and improved.

By the way, I don’t even really love Demar or anything, but I do think he needed to stay to have this be impactful, and the cloud he’s leaving under leaves a bad taste.

This is my thinking. For the raptors to have competed with the best they needed to add Kawhi without getting rid of DeRozan.
 
I'll take 1 year of a top player in the league vs. having to take back undesirable longer contracts or what have you to get rid of Derozan's deal

if/when he walks, we rebuild with a bunch of cap space we wouldn't otherwise have.

seems Ujiri did pretty well with a shitty situation
 
Kawhi is the type of player you need to actually compete in the NBA. its far from a sideways move. Its the exact thing the Raps were missing. It's a risk that its a short term experiment, but this is the move Masai has needed to make for years.

Only problem is Golden State still exists.
 
this makes everyone's life so much easier.

and with Nurse making sounds about Jonas actually getting a real role this year, and with Poeltl not stealing his minutes, and with VanVleet maybe getting a starting spot.....ah man this is so good.

and oh yeah Danny Green is actually a really good 3+D guy too. He was all-nba defense the year before last. And is a great 3pt shooter. Hell, he might be better than Demar himself.
 
I mean we had to bench Demar in the 4th quarter in the playoffs. That's how bad he was.

He was bad when it mattered, that’s why I don’t really care too much about seeing him go the other way.

But are we actually significantly better via this upgrade to actually have a shot?

The other angle is, if they wanted to get rid of Demar anyway at some point soon to clear space for someone else (who?), this was a great deal to make. But if Kawhi walks, who replaces him?
 
Back
Top