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Post by sutureself on Feb 8, 2024 12:49:56 GMT -5
Woj reporting we've traded Schroder and Thad Young to the Nets for Spencer Dinwiddie and Dennis Smith Jr. What are we even doing here. Shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
Schroder is under contract next year for a reasonable price. Dinwiddie is expiring. So we basically are just giving up a future asset for nothing. Can't tell if this is MLSE saying cut as many salaries as possible if you expect to extend Quickley, or if this is Masai trying to get under the cap as much as possible to make a splash signing in the offseason. But who would even want to come here at this point?
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Post by freewheel on Feb 8, 2024 12:59:16 GMT -5
Cap dump of the two guys I thought were providing some leadership. Dinwiddie is expiring.
I guess the Raps want to be REALLY bad for the rest of the year. Though Dinwiddie might get us a few wins. He's probably as good as Schroder.
I'd rather Porter, Mcdaniels were in it instead of Young but I guess it hardly matters. They could get released.
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Post by sutureself on Feb 8, 2024 13:16:18 GMT -5
Cap dump of the two guys I thought were providing some leadership. Dinwiddie is expiring.
I guess the Raps want to be REALLY bad for the rest of the year. Though Dinwiddie might get us a few wins. He's probably as good as Schroder.
I'd rather Porter, Mcdaniels were in it instead of Young but I guess it hardly matters. They could get released. We already traded Porter away to Jazz as part of the Olynyk Deal; was Porter, Kira Lewis Jr and a 1st for Olynyk and Agbaji
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Post by freewheel on Feb 8, 2024 13:16:28 GMT -5
I hadn't realized we already dealt Porter for Olynyk. Too bad we gave up a late first but that ain't that bad since we already have several this summer. Olynyk can play a bit and we need centres. Who knows about Agbaji? I guess we'll see when/if he gets on the court.
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Post by sutureself on Feb 8, 2024 13:18:52 GMT -5
If we’re TANKING tanking I wonder if we even play the new expirings like Olynyk and Dinwiddie or if we just cut them so they can try to sign on with contenders
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Post by freewheel on Feb 8, 2024 14:02:34 GMT -5
Olynyk should play and maybe even be resigned. We need centres and he fits with his passing and shooting ability.
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Post by Pseudonym on Feb 8, 2024 15:16:30 GMT -5
Olynyk should play and maybe even be resigned. We need centres and he fits with his passing and shooting ability. Yep, his skillset is valuable in of itself, despite his shortcomings. He is right at that middle point between being expandable and useful. That's why I would love this is he were younger. I think this is the Raptors going after Ochai, than him though. There is a bit of the parallel in the Knicks trade. Canadian player who is the bigger name, but the younger player here is the real target. Olynyk would look good in both Nurse's and Darko's systems.
From a sheer probablistic stand point, the 14th pick in last year's draft is going to be better than the 28-29th pick (our worst pick this year).
A lot of guys who can play.
A lot of guys who cannot.
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Post by sutureself on Feb 8, 2024 15:53:22 GMT -5
We've already waived Dinwiddie so that was just a straight salary dump giving up Schroder. I can't tell if this was a move to put us almost 43-45 million under the cap next season (if we cut Bruce Brown and Gary Trent loose) and have max contract space, or if Schroder just made it known he was disgruntled playing as backup on a loser team so we decided it wasn't worth the headache keeping him around. A little disappointing we couldn't even get a 2nd for him
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Post by freewheel on Feb 8, 2024 16:27:19 GMT -5
We've already waived Dinwiddie so that was just a straight salary dump giving up Schroder. I can't tell if this was a move to put us almost 43-45 million under the cap next season (if we cut Bruce Brown and Gary Trent loose) and have max contract space, or if Schroder just made it known he was disgruntled playing as backup on a loser team so we decided it wasn't worth the headache keeping him around. A little disappointing we couldn't even get a 2nd for him That is a little strange and unexpected. Overall I have been relatively pleased with the way Schroder played this season. He did the things we needed him to do before we got Quickley and was able to share duties reasonably well. His contract just wasnt that bad. It wont be simple to find someone with his abilities next year for the same number unless we get lucky with a draft choice. With Dinwiddie gone, who is the backup PG? Brown maybe?
That being said, I'd give some extended run to Freeman-Liberty at PG. See what is there.
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Post by blueyoda on Feb 8, 2024 17:24:25 GMT -5
At least it looks like a fully committed rebuild with young players and draft. I just hope Barnes stays patient and motivated through the journey. We may end up being a sub-30-win team for a couple of seasons. At least we won't be in treadmill mode. Hoping to see the kids all play and have fun - win or lose.
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Post by sandman on Feb 8, 2024 18:16:14 GMT -5
What a weird deadline. Nothing happened the way I thought it would.
I guess it's just wait and see?
Some much needed cap flexibility could make the offseason interesting, though.
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Post by scully19 on Feb 8, 2024 20:38:59 GMT -5
What a weird deadline. Nothing happened the way I thought it would. I guess it's just wait and see? Some much needed cap flexibility could make the offseason interesting, though. ya very weird. One trade we moved a useful player for literally no one after waiving, then we move players not playing for ones that will. Did we get worse or better, or the same? I'm still just left wondering what we did. Cap space when there's not many people available. Are we trying to take on contracts for picks in the space because that can make sense, and yet we kept Brown and are talking about extending Kelly.
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Post by freewheel on Feb 8, 2024 21:16:45 GMT -5
The best we can say is that some minutes were freed up to take a good long look at some young players. However if I see those minutes wasted on Mcdaniels or suddenly Temple starts to play, I will be unhappy with our coach.
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Post by sutureself on Feb 20, 2024 16:49:22 GMT -5
Some speculation lately that Raptors are scouting Bronny James, and all the roster shuffling to free up near max space and get late 1sts/early 2nds could be Masai's desperation move to draft Bronny and sign Lebron. I would kind of hate that move because it would be less like adding Kawhi as the final piece, and more like building the Michael Jordan era Wizards. Lebron didn't have any patience for a youth movement when he joined the Lakers 5 years ago and I can't imagine he'd be any more patient now that he's turning 40 next season. Quickley/RJ/Old Man Lebron/Barnes/Poeltl sounds like a team that's struggling to make the play-in to me, similar to the Lakers now.
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Post by zugzwang on Feb 20, 2024 17:46:20 GMT -5
Yeah, let's hope that's smoke and mirrors or maybe some kind of 4D Chess move, because it certainly seems incompatible with any kind of prosperity.
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Post by sandman on Feb 20, 2024 18:38:46 GMT -5
If that turns out to be true then clearly Masai has sold out to just selling jerseys and making quick corporate money for MLSE... yikes
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Post by haisan on Feb 21, 2024 23:13:28 GMT -5
So ... with 27 games remaining in the season, the Raptors have the 22nd-hardest strength of schedule remaining. Or 9th-easiest, depending on your point of view. The only bad team with an easier schedule is Memphis. San Antonio has the 2nd hardest. Charlotte - 5th hardest Portland - 6th hardest Washington - 11th hardest Detroit - 13th hardest Toronto is 5 games out of the play-in game. Above us are: Brooklyn - 2nd easiest! Atlanta - 16th hardest Chicago - 17th hardest So, there's no obvious bad team to help us improve our lottery position, and no obvious good team that might crap out and help us into the play-in. I think we're pretty much locked into the 6-8th worst record for the year. (Numbers from Tankathon).
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Post by sutureself on Feb 22, 2024 2:20:20 GMT -5
This is from 10 days ago but made me laugh. YouTube Channel "Awful Coaching", it's actually pretty informative film breakdowns but his schtick is he screams and rants about scheme breakdowns and how every team's coaching sucks. So although he rips the Raptors here he's given pretty much every team in the league the same treatment.
The scary part of this breakdown is watching our defensive-minded C Poeltl just absolutely floating back in transition, not in position to provide help at the basket, caught looking in no man's land etc. Obviously it's cherry picking one bad blowout but it's a little bleak watching this breakdown and knowing we might have given up a top-10 pick this year for his services.
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Post by haisan on Feb 25, 2024 20:09:45 GMT -5
Not sure if this hurts or helps the Hawks, but ... Trae Young, out for at least a month. The race for the play-in game heats up! /s
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Post by zugzwang on Mar 2, 2024 7:05:00 GMT -5
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Post by Pseudonym on Mar 2, 2024 13:05:25 GMT -5
Welp, there goes the season and any hope of the play-in. Odds of keeping the pick have skyrocketed, which might be for the best.
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Post by sandman on Mar 2, 2024 13:26:57 GMT -5
I want to see more of the deep bench guys. Shut down some of the other vets if you need to.
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Post by scully19 on Mar 2, 2024 21:31:53 GMT -5
Ya unfortunately it's about time to try to not win again, hopefully get passed again by Memphis. Seems pretty unlikely that Portland gets 6 more wins then the Raptors to close the year. If Charlotte wins tomorrow they would be down to 6 behind Raptors as well. Still unlikely for either but better 2 than 1. Spurs are 10 wins back so that's not happening.
Likely best spot of 6th, max 4th.
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Post by haisan on Mar 6, 2024 20:33:26 GMT -5
Well, one nice thing about finishing 7th is that for 5 of the last 6 seasons, the 7th place team has moved up in the draft. Three times to fourth, once to 2nd and once to the top spot.
2018 - Kings - 7th->2nd - Marvin Bagley 2019 - Pelicans - 7th->1st - Zion 2020 - Bulls - 7th-> 4th - Patrick Williams 2021 - Raptors - 7th->4th - Scottie! 2022 - Kings - 7th->4th - Keegan Murray 2023 - Did not move up
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Post by haisan on Mar 7, 2024 2:51:57 GMT -5
And with that Memphis win, the Raptors are only 1 win ahead of the Grizzlies in the "race" for 6th. 1 1/2 games apart overall. And Memphis has a slightly easier schedule the rest of the way. I think 6th might actually be doable!
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Post by scully19 on Apr 12, 2024 9:42:52 GMT -5
Now Will Lou is leaving The Raptors Show... Which I thought was his show lol. Says he's still covering the Raptors but more details to come so maybe he was poached from somewhere else. So much for him and Blake Murphy making the podcast
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Post by haisan on Apr 12, 2024 10:32:54 GMT -5
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Post by haisan on Apr 14, 2024 10:52:29 GMT -5
Random thought experiment. If the Raptors had decided to stay put after the OG trade and finished the seasons with Quickley, RJ, Scottie, Pascal and Jakob, how different would it have been? Could we have been a play-in team? Approaching 0.500? Could Scottie and Jakob have rushed their rehab and played some more at the end of the season?
Granted, re-signing Pascal to a max contract in the off-season would have been nuts. But for this season, would it have been better?
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Post by freewheel on Apr 15, 2024 13:23:29 GMT -5
So Grayson Allen gets 17.5 mill per for 4 seasons. Allen had a fantastic season. So that brings an obvious question to the table. What to do with Trent and Brown who are both in the same category, already getting paid more than Allens new contract, and both have had poor seasons IMO.
Do we sign one, both, or neither? I am firmly in the neither group unless they are willing to sign even cheaper, which I doubt. They might and probably will have to sign cheap with another team.
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Post by freewheel on Apr 15, 2024 13:32:17 GMT -5
Random thought experiment. If the Raptors had decided to stay put after the OG trade and finished the seasons with Quickley, RJ, Scottie, Pascal and Jakob, how different would it have been? Could we have been a play-in team? Approaching 0.500? Could Scottie and Jakob have rushed their rehab and played some more at the end of the season? Granted, re-signing Pascal to a max contract in the off-season would have been nuts. But for this season, would it have been better? Maybe, but I truly don't want to be the team that gives Pascal over 40 per for the next 4-5 seasons. He isn't that guy. Nor is OG. Playin and low playoff seed is what that team is looking at and that can be done without Siakam.
I look at OG, Fred and Pascal as all being 3rd bananas and all three will likely be getting 40 mill next season. We probably could have paid them all but I think it is best to just move on than to tie yourself down with boat anchors.
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