Raptors Discussion: v97 Raptor's 2024-2025 - Training camp begins Oct. 1
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phillipmike
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- Oct 27, 2009
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As Raptors continue player and coaching staff turnover, will Siakam be next to go?
As Nick Nurse and Fred VanVleet depart from the Raptors, will these changes be enough to shift the culture of the team — which suffered last season — or are more moves on the horizon?
There is persistent speculation that Pascal Siakam — the team’s leading scorer, second-most prolific playmaker and ultimate home-grown success story — could be traded before the regular season starts and perhaps much sooner as the NBA’s transaction market simmers.
One way or another, there will be plenty of new faces around the club. In the wake of Nurse’s departure, all but one of the coaching and video staff — a group that ran 18-deep last season — have been replaced for the 2023-24 season, which begins this week with the Las Vegas Summer League.
Kevin DiPietro, a 'Day 1' employee and travel coordinator, is no longer with the Raptors and there have been changes to the team’s travelling security detail as well. Even Jamaal Magloire, the local high school legend, 12-year NBA veteran and player favourite whose booming voice — "work" was his battle cry — was constant in pre-game workouts is no longer part of the on-court team and will serve only as a community ambassador.
Rajakovic’s new staff was announced Tuesday featuring a total of seven assistant coaches with only former Raptors assistant Jama Mahlalela and returning assistant coach Jim Saan having previous ties to the team.
It’s a new group without any previous NBA head coaching experience dealing with a roster that is still a collection of moving parts. Not the easiest situation. "Darko is going to have his hands full," said one NBA scout I spoke with.
Just like at the trade deadline in February, the league is hovering to see if VanVleet’s decision to take Houston’s three-year, $130 million offer will trigger other moves. Atlanta has been tied to Siakam for weeks and was trying to re-engage the Raptors over the weekend after the VanVleet news broke Friday night. Several other teams are believed to have checked in also.
If Siakam goes, the focus will turn to O.G. Anunoby — the smooth-shooting, all-NBA defender who remains on the watch list for several teams, the New York Knicks especially.
As usual, the rest of the league can only watch and wait. The Raptors aren’t sharing any PowerPoint presentations on what they have planned next. In the past few weeks, I don’t think I’ve had a conversation with a league source that hasn’t included a question about what direction Toronto is headed in, what their plan is or how challenging the front office can be to get a read on.
“They’re not the easiest team to deal with, I’ll just say that,” was how one league insider put it.
Which in itself is no sin. The job is to be better than the other 29 teams in the league, not make them comfortable.
But there’s a sense too that some of those same questions are being wrestled with internally and it’s been going on for a while now.
Will the departure of Nurse and VanVleet and the arrival of an entirely new coaching staff be enough to change the vibes, which weren’t the best last season?
Or are more changes coming?
Almost since the then-struggling Raptors went into Orlando in early December and got swept — knocked around, really — in a pair of games by what was, at the time, a Magic team with the worst record in the NBA, everything has been off-kilter. Not quite right.
trellaine201
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Can anyone speculate on these rumours of Siakam being moved? I thought he was grown at the hip with Masai.
Leaf Rocket
Leaf Fan Till I Die
Gary Nylund
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- Oct 10, 2013
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I assume the thinking is something along the lines of since we're not gong to achieve anything while Siakam is in his prime, may as well pivot to a rebuild, retool, something younger ...
trellaine201
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Gary Nylund
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Hard to see any other path forward now that Freddie's gone. Hasn't been a great 2023 so far for the Raps, that's for damn sure.
GoonieFace
Registered User
Not shocking about Siakam. He always looked visually frustrated and threw some tantrums.
Stylizer1
Teflon Don
They were poor examples to learn from. Siakam and FVV got all the touches they wanted so that made them feel they were on a pedestal. In reality they were borderline all-stars who didn't have the respect of younger players.
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Jalen McDaniels and Jakob Poeltl Media Availability
Toronto Raptors
Jalen McDaniels and Jakob Poeltl speak with the media in Toronto after signing new contracts with the Raptors for the 2023-24 season and beyond.
Summer league starts today. Raps play at 6:30pm Eastern on what is TSN5 for me.
Dick, Nowell, Harper, Wieskamp are some of the interesting names on the Raps
Dick, Nowell, Harper, Wieskamp are some of the interesting names on the Raps
Poeltl on returning to the Raptors when he made his decision, VanVleet's departure and more - TSN.ca
Toronto Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl joined us to chat about returning to the Raptors, when he made up his mind about his decision, taking a leadership role with the team, Fred VanVleet leaving in free agency and if that affected his decision, what Gregg Popovic is like in real life and more.
Toronto Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl joined us to chat about returning to the Raptors, when he made up his mind about his decision, taking a leadership role with the team, Fred VanVleet leaving in free agency and if that affected his decision, what Gregg Popovic is like in real life and more.
Positives from Game 1:
Nowell - absolutely all over the place. Reminded me of Fred a few years ago.
Brown - excellent pick and roll partner for Nowell. Would love to see him get an invite to camp as a 7'2 C as a guy who could fit
Harper Jr - didn't get a huge amount of touches, but he was a Swiss army knife for the team
Rajakovic - when asked what he wanted to do, his answer was find the open man, move the ball, be disruptive on D, and most importantly get the ball to Scottie Barnes more
Dick was up and down. You could tell he was nervous which hurt his shot a little, but he busted his tail off defensively
Wieskamp had a few glimpses offensively, but wasn't as good defensively. He might be a decent project.
Nowell - absolutely all over the place. Reminded me of Fred a few years ago.
Brown - excellent pick and roll partner for Nowell. Would love to see him get an invite to camp as a 7'2 C as a guy who could fit
Harper Jr - didn't get a huge amount of touches, but he was a Swiss army knife for the team
Rajakovic - when asked what he wanted to do, his answer was find the open man, move the ball, be disruptive on D, and most importantly get the ball to Scottie Barnes more
Dick was up and down. You could tell he was nervous which hurt his shot a little, but he busted his tail off defensively
Wieskamp had a few glimpses offensively, but wasn't as good defensively. He might be a decent project.
Stylizer1
Teflon Don
Fred is way too smug for a guy who was the back up on a championship team.
Boxscore:
www.nba.com
5 guys with even or better, 5 guys with double digit negatives. They play Cleveland tomorrow so they need to fix some of the defensive miscues and let the offense sort itself out (nerves led to a few misses).
Chicago Bulls vs Toronto Raptors Jul 7, 2023 Box Scores
Chicago Bulls vs Toronto Raptors Jul 7, 2023 player box scores including video and shot charts
5 guys with even or better, 5 guys with double digit negatives. They play Cleveland tomorrow so they need to fix some of the defensive miscues and let the offense sort itself out (nerves led to a few misses).
Leaf Rocket
Leaf Fan Till I Die
Ranking the Top NBA Trade Targets Still on the Market
With most of the high-end NBA free agents locking down new deals quickly, our offseason attention turns to unfinished trade business. Just as Kevin Durant's…
5. Pascal Siakam, Toronto Raptors
Pascal Siakam's reported hesitancy to re-sign with the team that acquires him should cool the market.
On the other hand, Siakam is a two-time All-NBA honoree entering the last year of his deal for a Toronto Raptors team that should be considering a rebuild after losing Fred VanVleet. Fortunately for the Raps, who are probably kicking themselves for not dealing FVV at the 2023 trade deadline, interest in Siakam persists.
It's difficult to know what teams would be willing to surrender for Siakam's expiring $37.9 million salary—especially with the risk of him walking a year from now. Rentals like that don't tend to command huge returns. But the 29-year-old two-way star is coming off the highest scoring average of his career (24.2 points per game) and is younger than all but one of the other big names we'll feature on this list.
Siakam has to be worth at least one unprotected first-round pick and a decent young player, plus salary filler. And if he softens his stance on re-signing with his new team, the price could go up significantly.
