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Raptors Discussion: v95|Masai's back! The panic and dread can now end.

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Suntouchable13 said:
I still don’t get what’s so bad with Toronto for Americans, other than weather in winter. Is it mostly the customs issue? Raptors are now a solid organization, not a joke anymore and hasn’t been for years.
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Most is just ignorance. Lou Will was one of the only ones who actually played in Toronto that didn’t like it…. But it’s very different than Atlanta so it’s not unreasonable.

Customs, taxes, TV, exposure in media, Canada’s strict policy on travel with criminal record (many players from American inner cities have friends and family who won’t be allowed in the country to visit) etc etc.

All these things add up to a destination that won’t be near the top of many lists.

Winning/contending is the only thing that can change this.

To your question about the Jays free agents: I don’t follow baseball but I’d have to think the young core and it’s upside over the next few years played a strong part but it’s hard to compare MLB to the NBA. Different leagues and different sports where the impact of a single star player is drastically different.
 
sparxx87 said:
Most is just ignorance. Lou Will was one of the only ones who actually played in Toronto that didn’t like it…. But it’s very different than Atlanta so it’s not unreasonable.

Customs, taxes, TV, Canada’s strict policy on travel with criminal record (many players from American inner cities have friends and family who won’t be allowed in the country to visit) etc etc.

All these things add up to a destination that won’t be near the top of many lists.

Winning/contending is the only thing that can change this.

To your question about the Jays free agents: I don’t follow baseball but I’d have to think the young core and it’s upside over the next few years played a strong part.
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with no salary cap at least the jays are able to outbid other teams if they feel strongly about a player, i think that plays a big part in having more success with FAs.

edit: and the fact its a summer sport.
 
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djdev said:
with no salary cap at least the jays are able to outbid other teams if they feel strongly about a player, i think that plays a big part in having more success with FAs.

edit: and the fact its a summer sport.
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Yeah, the cap and the weather are two other important factors although the weather issue for NBA players is pretty dumb. It’s no colder in Toronto than it is in Chicago during the season but I don’t ever recall North Carolina raised Michael Jordan complaining about the cold.
 
sparxx87 said:
Yeah, the cap and the weather are two other important factors although the weather issue for NBA players is pretty dumb. It’s no colder in Toronto than it is in Chicago during the season but I don’t ever recall North Carolina raised Michael Jordan complaining about the cold.
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ye i dont think weather is much of a thing since plenty of stars have no problem playing for the knicks, nets, bulls etc. prob used more as one of those catch-all easy excuses.
 
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Only thing this team is missing is another scoring guard and Center.

Dragic will fill that scoring guard role for this season it looks like with Hope's of OG or Flynn blossoming into a elite or good scorer respectively.

If OG can become a Brown/Tatum type of offensive player which I believe he can that would allow Barnes to take over OGs role as lockdown/3 and D player for the time being.

Center is really the big question. The team is lacking a big body player who can rebound.
 
sparxx87 said:
Yeah, the cap and the weather are two other important factors although the weather issue for NBA players is pretty dumb. It’s no colder in Toronto than it is in Chicago during the season but I don’t ever recall North Carolina raised Michael Jordan complaining about the cold.
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It's one of those "perception is reality" things. Plenty of Americans think that Canada is this frigid wasteland that's 10s of degrees colder than comparable US cities because they honestly can't be bothered to do any research or pay attention to reality in situations where they would be exposed to actual Canadian weather. Lots of players who have come to play for the Raptors (or the Grizzlies when they were here) have complained about the weather or prepared to step out of the airport into a blizzard at any time of the year. Famously when the Grizzlies traded disgruntled draft pick Steve Francis (who has made no secret that his unwillingness to go to Vancouver was in part because "it's a different country"), return piece Othella Harrington showed up in Vancouver wearing a parka. IN JULY. I also seem to recall people whinging about the weather when the NBA ASG was in Toronto a few years ago.

None of the popular complaints about coming to Canada are really that big of a deal if you really care to address them (the weather isn't different than most NE US cities, you can find all manner of food in most major metropolitan areas around the country, if you're worried about cable and "wahhh, but the TV is different and it's all about hockey!" you can get a satellite dish that gets Dish Network or whatever from the US or use a VPN with streaming platforms, etc) but nobody ever said professional athletes are always the most sensible bunch.


Re: the Blue Jays signings -

Springer they just backed the money truck up to for a long time. And Semien is a unique situation because he purposely took a 1 year "prove-it" deal on a team that needed middle infield help and let him dictate the terms (that he would play 2B and not 3B) while giving him a pretty hefty salary for the one season and also featuring a lineup designed to maximize his value. Plus the team is good right now.

It's not the same as the Raptors currently in a bit of a retool mode trying to attract players when they can't offer big money or a legitimate title shot in the next year or two.
 
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phillipmike said:




So we are either keeping Dragic or buying him out and getting more assets from Miami
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They're not buying him out. It makes no sense to buy him out right now. They'll either flip him right away if they can or hold onto him for the deadline or whatever when the market picks up again. There's no value for them paying Dragic out and leaving dead cap space on the buyout with no endgame for that vacated roster spot in mind and no value proposition for what money they would save in the process.
 
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The Nemesis said:
It's one of those "perception is reality" things. Plenty of Americans think that Canada is this frigid wasteland that's 10s of degrees colder than comparable US cities because they honestly can't be bothered to do any research or pay attention to reality in situations where they would be exposed to actual Canadian weather. Lots of players who have come to play for the Raptors (or the Grizzlies when they were here) have complained about the weather or prepared to step out of the airport into a blizzard at any time of the year. Famously when the Grizzlies traded disgruntled draft pick Steve Francis (who has made no secret that his unwillingness to go to Vancouver was in part because "it's a different country"), return piece Othella Harrington showed up in Vancouver wearing a parka. IN JULY. I also seem to recall people whinging about the weather when the NBA ASG was in Toronto a few years ago.

None of the popular complaints about coming to Canada are really that big of a deal if you really care to address them (the weather isn't different than most NE US cities, you can find all manner of food in most major metropolitan areas around the country, if you're worried about cable and "wahhh, but the TV is different and it's all about hockey!" you can get a satellite dish that gets Dish Network or whatever from the US or use a VPN with streaming platforms, etc) but nobody ever said professional athletes are always the most sensible bunch.


Re: the Blue Jays signings -

Springer they just backed the money truck up to for a long time. And Semien is a unique situation because he purposely took a 1 year "prove-it" deal on a team that needed middle infield help and let him dictate the terms (that he would play 2B and not 3B) while giving him a pretty hefty salary for the one season and also featuring a lineup designed to maximize his value. Plus the team is good right now.

It's not the same as the Raptors currently in a bit of a retool mode trying to attract players when they can't offer big money or a legitimate title shot in the next year or two.
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I live in Toronto, I remember when the ASG was here - it actually was brutally cold, even for Toronto. I remember thinking it was bad luck for the Raptors because all the elite players, and media were there for that even though Toronto's not really colder than chicago or NY.
 
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sparxx87 said:
Yeah, the cap and the weather are two other important factors although the weather issue for NBA players is pretty dumb. It’s no colder in Toronto than it is in Chicago during the season but I don’t ever recall North Carolina raised Michael Jordan complaining about the cold.
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NBA players think we are the arctic circle .
Hell Colorado Minnesota Chicago New York Boston are much colder than we are.
Most Americans no nothing outside of the great USA.
 
The Nemesis said:
They're not buying him out. It makes no sense to buy him out right now. They'll either flip him right away if they can or hold onto him for the deadline or whatever when the market picks up again. There's no value for them paying Dragic out and leaving dead cap space on the buyout with no endgame for that vacated roster spot in mind and no value proposition for what money they would save in the process.
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I don’t see them buying him out either but there is a very unlikely possibility that Dragic doesn’t want to play for the Raps and if that occurs your options are to sit him or buy him out.

Now I don’t think that happens because if Dragic made it 100% clear he wants to be bought out or else he isn’t playing then I’m sure Masai would take anything for him in trade like a soft deal in Powell+ from Dallas. Because sure Nurse can build up any player for trade and Masai can turn nothing assets into something.

Something is better than nothing and since we likely won’t see that, I do agree a buy out is unlikely to happen.
 
That Birch contract is kind of surprising. Long term, is he going to be the starting C then? Hes not exactly the answer to the Embiids and Jokic's in the post or on the glass.
 
phillipmike said:
Thats a fantastic deal for a young, Canadian centre with potential. Can start on a mediocre team or be a value player off the bench.
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Young? Hes 28 and your paying 7M for a bench player/average center.

Not sure I like this, isn't a good deal for the long term cap structure.
 
canucksfan100 said:
Young? Hes 28 and your paying 7M for a bench player/average center.

Not sure I like this, isn't a good deal for the long term cap structure.
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I had to edit it. 28 isn’t young but it isn’t old either. 28 is young when you compare it to 3 of our last 4 centres in Ibaka, Gasol and Baynes who were 30, 35 and 34 who had to take days off for injuries.

We aren’t contending this year or next and $7M isn’t fatal. He will get the job done to protect any of the younger bigs. $7M is very easy to move if you need to move it which I doubt the Raps will.
 
It’s around MLE range, so not a big amount and tradeable.
Doesn’t seem the worst value for 20 some odd minutes at pf/c.
 
for reference, im sure most would have been fine with a richaun holmes signing.

holmes 14/8/2 29mpg = 14mil
birch 12/8/2 30mpg = 7mil

granted was only 20 games with the raptors but no reason to think hes not capable of this
 
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