Raptors Discussion: v94 | Raptors land 4th pick in NBA draft lottery. Draft set for July 29

[phillipmike]

Most interesting tidbit in this entire thread.

Everyone was wondering if they were on the line even past the official deadline... the fact that it was a 3-way call and Houston basically gave Dipo away for free hurts bad. You can just imaging the blood boiling on the Raptors end as Houston undercut us and there was nothing we could do about it. Maybe you chalk it up to bad luck or maybe you wonder how Masai/Bobby let it get to a point like that where we had lost control of the deal.

To an extent, i agree the Raps could be pissed.

But at the same time, if they were dead set on trading Lowry and the Oladipo deal screwed them then Masai and Bobby have no one to blame but themselves. You dont hold your best asset right until 2:59pm to make the deal. I get it that is how most GMs do it but you risk what just happened to you. If the Raps knew they were trading Lowry, then you set a deadline at say 2:30pm or 2pm and say give me your best offer as that is when we are going to make our decision. You dont wait for 2:59pm.

In that case, that is 100% on Masai and Bobby.

If not, and the Raps were just taking offer with no clear direction then no harm, no foul. Go on a run and make Miami and/or Philly regret not making the trade by having Lowry beat them in the playoffs.

 

[Woodman19]

Its always a pet peeve of mine when people use the word "Tank" in place of rebuild. Tanking is purposely gutting your team to finish at the bottom of the standings while rebuilding is managing your assets with an eye on the future which is a pretty big difference. Tanking isn't so smooth and I doubt anyone is willing to put up with a 5 year span of bottom feeding for the chance of maybe grabbing a couple of star players.

 

[Marmoset]

Its always a pet peeve of mine when people use the word "Tank" in place of rebuild. Tanking is purposely gutting your team to finish at the bottom of the standings while rebuilding is managing your assets with an eye on the future which is a pretty big difference. Tanking isn't so smooth and I doubt anyone is willing to put up with a 5 year span of bottom feeding for the chance of maybe grabbing a couple of star players.

I was in favour of tanking this season, which would be different from tanking for the next five years. If Lowry goes and we bring back picks instead of Trent/Hood, the Raptors have a good shot at a very high pick while having some good core players and significant cap space heading into next season.

I only became in favour of tanking the season once COVID made a mess of the team and they fell to 11th. Up to that point I never would have considered because the roster was "too good".

I agree five years of tanking would be brutal. However, we had an opportunity to tank for just one year and then potentially have a quick recovery to being a good team. With the decisions Bobby/Masai have made, we will likely pick in the 10-18 range instead with little difference in our long-term outlook than if we tanked the season.

I guess for people who believe this team can do something in the playoffs then this sounds like poison. I don't have much belief in the team doing anything this year - I think we've seen the evidence all season long.

 

[Woodman19]

I was in favour of tanking this season, which would be different from tanking for the next five years. If Lowry goes and we bring back picks instead of Trent/Hood, the Raptors have a good shot at a very high pick while having some good core players and significant cap space heading into next season.

I only became in favour of tanking the season once COVID made a mess of the team and they fell to 11th. Up to that point I never would have considered because the roster was "too good".

I agree five years of tanking would be brutal. However, we had an opportunity to tank for just one year and then potentially have a quick recovery to being a good team. With the decisions Bobby/Masai have made, we will likely pick in the 10-18 range instead with little difference in our long-term outlook than if we tanked the season.

I guess for people who believe this team can do something in the playoffs then this sounds like poison. I don't have much belief in the team doing anything this year - I think we've seen the evidence all season long.

Thats the thing, to "tank" and gut the roster to lose is easy. Building it back up is the hard part, you need talented players and you won't be able to collect enough talent in 1 or 2 years to become a good team again.

 

[Marmoset]

Thats the thing, to "tank" and gut the roster to lose is easy. Building it back up is the hard part, you need talented players and you won't be able to collect enough talent in 1 or 2 years to become a good team again.

I agree with this sentiment, and we saw how long it took the 76ers to become respectable as one example. However, for this season we aren't talking about selling off the whole team, really just Lowry and Powell. Those guys were going to be gone soon regardless. By keeping Lowry and bringing back players who can help immediately for Powell, we don't take advantage of this one-off opportunity to grab a high pick because of our season falling apart (to this point). We are just delaying the inevitable retool/rebuild, except with this approach we miss a shot at a high-end prospect who could accelerate that rebuild.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Its always a pet peeve of mine when people use the word "Tank" in place of rebuild. Tanking is purposely gutting your team to finish at the bottom of the standings while rebuilding is managing your assets with an eye on the future which is a pretty big difference. Tanking isn't so smooth and I doubt anyone is willing to put up with a 5 year span of bottom feeding for the chance of maybe grabbing a couple of star players.

That's fine. But the problem is can this team become a contender again in a couple of years? Do they think they can get back to championship contender status soon? Or are they going to just spinning their wheels? May as well just go all out on the "tank" then. Or is the plan to accumulate enough assets, while still being a good team, then find another Kawhi? Actually, that's pretty smart

 

[Suntouchable13]

I am just glad Lowry is staying put. f*** the Clippers, Lakers, 76ers, Heat. Teams still think they can bully the Raptors, they think they can get someone like Lowry for nothing. f*** them.

 

[sparxx87]

 

[Suntouchable13]

I am sick of Boucher shooting 3s. Really hate the way the game has gone where 7 footers are standing behind the 3 point line. I know he has hit some, 42%, but I don't like that part of the NBA game today.

 

[stickty111]

Bad teams are going to lose these games. Also lol at Leo for being confident. We could be 0-81 and still would say they will turn it around.

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[sparxx87]

Bad teams are going to lose these games. Also lol at Leo for being confident. We could be 0-81 and still would say they will turn it around.

Good teams lose to the Suns all the time. The Suns are a top 3-5 team in the league with a great offense that the Raptors actually played very well including allowing only 2 made field goals in the final 8 minutes. Boucher/Siakam/Trent were 0-14 from 3 and that was the difference. Good game and well played but they lost to a better team. Not much to complain about other than the same obvious lack of a centre creating problems against legit bigs, which Ayton definitely is.

Leo is smart enough to recognize this team is better than their record indicates, even if their bandwagon fans aren’t. They took time to figure out how to play without a centre but they’d battled back to 4-5 in the conference before injuries and COVID protocols derailed them again.

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[hockeywiz542]

 

[Amadeus]

He seems to be in LaLa Land with the way he talks.

Anyway, just wanted to say how sick I am of the NBA and their buyout structure. Makes me want to appreciate the competitive nature of the NHL with a hard cap.

Bought out players directly sign with contenders leaving no parity. Just makes me want to appreciate our championship that much more. We did it the right way.

 

[KaprizovEntitlelist]

If Lowry leaves as a UFA via a sign and trade, we'll recoup assets and have a ton of cap space to build around our existing core that is still relatively young.

This isn't how it works. Another team can straight up sign him without sign & trade

 

[Jozay]

He seems to be in LaLa Land with the way he talks.

Anyway, just wanted to say how sick I am of the NBA and their buyout structure. Makes me want to appreciate the competitive nature of the NHL with a hard cap.

Bought out players directly sign with contenders leaving no parity. Just makes me want to appreciate our championship that much more. We did it the right way.

These buyout players are not good. They make no difference in the playoffs, where it counts.

 

[Clark4Ever]

This isn't how it works. Another team can straight up sign him without sign & trade

Players with a long tenure are typically willing to agree to a sign and trade to help their former teams recoup assets.

 

[hoc123]

This isn't how it works. Another team can straight up sign him without sign & trade

I believe only the Heat are really in a position to do that. No other team Lowry is likely to go to has the necessary cap space to sign him outright.

 

[saska sault]

These buyout players are not good. They make no difference in the playoffs, where it counts.

Andre Drummond, Aldridge... Both will make a difference.

 

[Jozay]

Andre Drummond, Aldridge... Both will make a difference.

No they wont

 

[The Nemesis]

Drummond sucks. He's a stat stuffer on bad teams. And even then he's still not that good of a stat stuffer.

 

[Cor]

Drummond sucks. He's a stat stuffer on bad teams. And even then he's still not that good of a stat stuffer.

His rebound stats are also inflated from when he misses net front shots himself lol

 

[aingefan]

Players with a long tenure are typically willing to agree to a sign and trade to help their former teams recoup assets.

I think Kap has it right.
If the Raptors use the Cap Hold on Lowry, They effectively sacrifice all that cap space.
The sign and trade would have to yield better value than what the team could get on the free market… Which seems unlikely given the players value at the deadline.

 

[aingefan]

I believe only the Heat are really in a position to do that. No other team Lowry is likely to go to has the necessary cap space to sign him outright.

There’s a good chance that he gets frozen out of the market.