OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread
- Thread starter hockeylover
- Start date
Wayward DP
Well-known member
I honestly don't see the path to success in Laker land. They still need to fill out the rest of their roster, and they have basically negative cap space if they add Kawhi.
I mean you can run with AD-Kawhi-Lebron-Kuzma-bum for most of the time. But if you're going to load manage, you need some depth. If one of the big three gets hurt, they're screwed. And the bench is going to be basically unplayable. Plus, Lebron is ageing. I dunno, I'm not convinced. And I don't see Kawhi as being a banana boat kinda dude. Drama follows Lebron everywhere, whereas Kawhi is the anti-drama.
But hey, if he wants to be under the big lights, and cement his legacy, he'll go to the Lakers. I think the better move is to re-up with Toronto, try to defend the chip, and then go to LA after the next contract, when he still has prime years left and the Lakers have had time to mend the shitshow that is their front office.
I mean you can run with AD-Kawhi-Lebron-Kuzma-bum for most of the time. But if you're going to load manage, you need some depth. If one of the big three gets hurt, they're screwed. And the bench is going to be basically unplayable. Plus, Lebron is ageing. I dunno, I'm not convinced. And I don't see Kawhi as being a banana boat kinda dude. Drama follows Lebron everywhere, whereas Kawhi is the anti-drama.
But hey, if he wants to be under the big lights, and cement his legacy, he'll go to the Lakers. I think the better move is to re-up with Toronto, try to defend the chip, and then go to LA after the next contract, when he still has prime years left and the Lakers have had time to mend the shitshow that is their front office.
JackBurton
Well-known member
I always liked Lebron, but him assembling his second "Super Team" doesn't really help his legacy. He should have stayed in Cleveland.
It's ironic people tried to say Rators win was tainted. LOL. Doing the gay super team thing is all taint.
It's ironic people tried to say Rators win was tainted. LOL. Doing the gay super team thing is all taint.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
The real Boston Bombers say hello
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Looking around the interwebs, a big part of the problem I see is perception. The perception is that Kuzma is a legitimately good young piece and I just don't see it. The same metrics that told us Kyle Lowry was the main reason the Raptors won 50+ games every year, and were a legit title threat when we got Kawhi, think Kuzma is meh...a middle of the road rotation piece. The perception is also that these Klutch veterans are valuable vets who can help a team win something (which is largely why the Meme Team was formed around Lebron last year, LeGM thought there was legit value in those guys) and again, the metrics say they're all dog shit other than Marcus Morris who is just meh. Not dogshit, but not not dogshit either.
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
He's not a great GM. Kawhi needs to realise that.
hockeylover
Well-known member
I’m a little behind today. Wouldn’t it be just coming back from bringing him home?
MapleLeafBlueJayBoy
Well-known member
The MLSE plane is picking people up. Not dropping off.
Wayward DP
Well-known member
apparently, if Kawhi does not sign today, and the AD trade goes through tomorrow, the Lakers would not have space to give him a max contract. I'm getting this information from my brother, who saw it somewhere on twitter. unclear how legit this is. (i.e. if the Lakers are gonna sign Kawhi, they need to do it before the trade goes through). allegedly this is coming from Bobby Marks of ESPN.
does one of you twitter folk want to reach out to Blake Murphy from the Athletic and see how true this is? he's usually all over the cap stuff.
does one of you twitter folk want to reach out to Blake Murphy from the Athletic and see how true this is? he's usually all over the cap stuff.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Tomorrow is the first day the trade can go official, and there is a complicated web of moves based off of it (The KD to Brooklyn S&T is actually connected apparently) and by the end of tomorrow, if Kawhi didn't announce, LAL would have to decide to complete the trade with AD (which if they don't, has a cascading tsunami of bullshit connected to it that all shatters and demo's the front office moves of like 10 other teams at this point, lol) or complete the trade and yes, not have the cap space to sign Kawhi.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
If Kawhi doesn't decide by the end of the day tomorrow, the Lakers will 100% complete the AD trade, but it will leave them with 28 million of cap space instead of their roughly full max slot available now. So Kawhi would be lighting 4 million (plus associated uplifts for the life of the deal, it would basically turn 4/140 into like 4/118ish) on fire for wanting to wait one more day. So realistically, we'll know by tomorrow at the latest.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
I think a theory that might have to be considered at this point, is that Kawhi doesn't intend on announcing anything, and that the team will announce tomorrow at noon as soon as the UFA season officially opens up.
I keep thinking back to Marc Gasol exercising his option. There was no news from Gasol's agent, no rumours, nada. Raptors PR announced it basically out of "nowhere". We were expecting news on it at some point, but there wasn't a single sourced rumour before the announcement. Kawhi seems to be following league rules with his free agency, and the Raptors are a right ship.
I keep thinking back to Marc Gasol exercising his option. There was no news from Gasol's agent, no rumours, nada. Raptors PR announced it basically out of "nowhere". We were expecting news on it at some point, but there wasn't a single sourced rumour before the announcement. Kawhi seems to be following league rules with his free agency, and the Raptors are a right ship.
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
Crossed my mind as well. I even posted in this thread in response to our collective impatience that Kawhi was the only one following the rules.