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OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

LeafGm said:
Even though he was an injured question mark at the time, it honestly is still kind of incredible that Masai acquired Kawhi without giving up OG or Siakam.

All it cost was an overpaid, B-list "star", Poetl & one first round pick that was protected, and ended up being very late. Compare that to the mountains of assets and unprotected future 1st rounders that the Lakers gave up to get Davis, and the Clippers gave up to land George (and by extension, Kawhi).

Though I still question whether or not the perception that we're the NBA's Siberia has really changed south of the border, and whether we'll be able to lure any truly elite UFA's with all the cap space we're going to have, you've got to trust Masai to build this back out properly and find another way to acquire one of those guys if that's what it takes.
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Good question. I think it's important we don't sit back too long and people forget about the title, parade and incredible fan support.
 
Agreed. I don't think a full tear-it-down rebuild is something we can afford to do (and it might not be necessary in this particular league, anyway).

We can't afford to let the perception of the Raptors as a Mickey Mouse, loser franchise settle back in, or any gains the organization made during their competitive Lowry/DeRozan years and during last year's championship run will be lost.

Toronto itself may never be one of the most desirable locations, but at the very least the organization can hopefully build a sterling reputation for itself around the league.
 
Why shouldn’t it be though?

Who wants to play in Sacramento, Oklahoma, Detroit, or other comparative shitholes when they can play in Toronto?
 
ShamsCharania

Kawhi Leonard has signed his Los Angeles Clippers contract — a three-year, $103M maximum contract with a player option in the third season, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Leonard has signed a two-plus-one and aligned his contract with Paul George -- with both players having the ability via player option to enter 2021 free agency.
 
drewser said:
ShamsCharania

Kawhi Leonard has signed his Los Angeles Clippers contract — a three-year, $103M maximum contract with a player option in the third season, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Leonard has signed a two-plus-one and aligned his contract with Paul George -- with both players having the ability via player option to enter 2021 free agency.
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That's interesting.

So once again the talking heads didn't know what the **** they were talking about when they said he was taking a five-year deal.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Why shouldn’t it be though?

Who wants to play in Sacramento, Oklahoma, Detroit, or other comparative shitholes when they can play in Toronto?
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Sacramento, Oklahoma and Detroit are all in the good 'ole US of A.

For most Americans, that gives them a leg up on Toronto, even if Toronto is an objectively much nicer city.
 
I really wouldn’t get too caught up in the no nba players want to play in Toronto narrative.

Kawhi wanted to go home. That’s all it was. Had nothing to do with our desirability as a city.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Why shouldn’t it be though?

Who wants to play in Sacramento, Oklahoma, Detroit, or other comparative shitholes when they can play in Toronto?
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But in Canada you can't get ESPN and you need to set up a new bank account [/LouWilliams]

It's kind of amazing to me that the Sterling Brown incident didn't shift opinion one ****ing bit.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
I really wouldn’t get too caught up in the no nba players want to play in Toronto narrative.

Kawhi wanted to go home. That’s all it was. Had nothing to do with our desirability as a city.
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Yeah. Kawhi could have been in New York or Miami and he still would have bolted for LA. SoCal dude wanted to go home, nothing more in this case. I get that Raptors fans still have a massive inferiority complex though. I'm not sure how they circle that square regarding Demar and Kyle re signing in Toronto though.
 
NBA players not wanting to play in Toronto didn't stop us from winning a Championship, so I am not sure how big of an issue it actually is.

Derozan and Lowry staying set it up. It had been 10 years since the last time a big player choose to leave.

The reality is we acquired Kawhi knowing it was likely a one year thing.
 
Before things soured with Vince like almost 20 years ago, Vince and his posse of Anthony Davis, Oakley, Alvin Williams, etc., all resigned with us.

McGrady started the problem by creating an impression, then Vince just wanted to leave the team (not the city), then Vancouver loses its franchise, then LeBron begins his assault on the league and lures Bosh away, and suddenly you have all this shit that happened to the team - not the city - that only created a perception that players don't want to be there. But yeah, Lowry wants to be there, DeRozan sure as hell wanted to be there, Gasol just exercised an option to stay there, Danny Green wanted to return.

It's all a bunch of bullshit perpetuated by a bunch of uneducated dumbasses they call analysts in a bonehead league.
 
There was a stretch there where everyone wanted out. Stoudamire, Thomas, McGrady, Vince, Bosh, but you can't ignore the fact that it was also a shitty expansion team, with shitty ownership, and shitty management. It was a joke of a franchise.

Once the teachers were forced out and Lieweke brough in Uriji it added stability and now we have an organization that competes every year, wins championships, spends and uses its private jets for recruitment.
 
Mcgrady admits he made a mistake leaving now. Ironically he did the opposite NBA players do now. He left to go to a bad team and be by himself. He never got out of the 1st round.
 
zeke said:
Thing is a truly elite player knows that he can go anywhere and win, just by getting a couple good sidekicks to come with him.
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There are only what maybe 5-7 true elite franchise difference makers in this league

Slim to none anyone signs here as a UFA

What Kawai has done should eliminate the BS of any stud not accepting a trade to Toronto

We need to draft and develop our own talent
 
MindzEye said:
Yeah. Kawhi could have been in New York or Miami and he still would have bolted for LA. SoCal dude wanted to go home, nothing more in this case. I get that Raptors fans still have a massive inferiority complex though. I'm not sure how they circle that square regarding Demar and Kyle re signing in Toronto though.
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Regarding Demar---retaining B-list talent for more money than they're likely to make anywhere else isn't really an issue just about anywhere in the NBA.

As for Lowry, love the guy, but have we forgotten that he wanted to leave but ended up coming back when the market he was hoping existed for him (in San Antonio & Philly, among others) didn't exist, and the Raptors were standing alone offering him top dollar? Let's not pretend he was viewed as an elite NBA player at the time either.

The real question is whether or not the Raptors can either attract or retain the true cream-of-the-cop, elite talent in the NBA. I.E., the guys without whom you simply can't win a title in this league, the 2004 Detroit Pistons notwithstanding. Guys who, when they're free agents, will have every team in the league (including the most desirable destinations) falling over themselves to sign them.

You're ready to throw up the "Mission Accomplished" banner and say that those guys will definitely stay or come now. Whereas I'm a skeptic that's still waiting for actual proof.
 
I think thats an unfair standard given the landscape in the NBA. I mean Miami "attracted" Lebron, but then he left. Cleveland lost Lebron, then "attracted" him, then retained him, then he left.

Golden State attracted KD, then couldn't retain him. San Antionio couldn't retain Kawhi. The Clippers attracted Kawhi, but they also couldn't retain Paul and Griffin. OKC retained PG, then didn't. NO couldn't retain AD.

These guys get around. The Raps are no different than any other organization except maybe the Lakers. Even the Celtics couldn't retain Irving.
 
eh, Demar didn't even take any other meetings. he's a b-list star, sure, but he's a star nonetheless. how many times has he been an all-star?

and Lowry's market caved, sure, but he still chose to sign here.

Toronto will never be able to compete with New York and LA, but outside of those markets I think/hope Toronto is seen by most as a legit destination.
 
zeke said:
The cities build the arenas anyways.
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Barry Petchesky @barry
4h
The Cincinnati Enquirer FOIAed the details of the Bengals' new stadium lease with the county. They got back 275 pages of this:

D_HkVM7WsAAkgU1


https://www.cincinnati.com/story/ne...s-bengals-deal-official-eyes-only/1677689001/
 
Cali, NY, Miami.

those are the only 3 places that can "attract" elite free agents just based on their location anymore, imo.

everyone else is in the same boat as us, at best.
 
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