Can We Just Take A Moment to Appreciate the Magic of Masai

[teamLeiweke]

And for signing DeMar at only 10m a season...... oh wait

(refer to avatar please)

.. and drafting Demar in the first place.
.. and getting Amir
.. and drafting Jonas
.. and bringing in Lowry
.. and drafting Ross

.. oh wait x2

[KL78192020]

It's teams gambling on the fact that these young guys have a lot of growth left in them, thus paying for their future values. Lowry is on the wrong side of 28, if he did what he did last year and was a RFA at 24, guaranteed he's asking for the max. All the guys getting signed now are young guys who would've been RFA's.

Masai is great but lets not get carried away, those are the current dynamics of the NBA.

[22haytham22]

And for signing DeMar at only 10m a season...... oh wait

(refer to avatar please)

.. and drafting Demar in the first place.
.. and getting Amir
.. and drafting Jonas
.. and bringing in Lowry
.. and drafting Ross

.. oh wait x2

[TorontoRapture]

Thank you Tim Leiweke for Masai. Thank you Masai for doing what TL knew you were capable of.

And I suppose a thank you to BC for bringing Masai here originally is in order.

Sure, but...

...lest we forget who was able to replace BC with Masai, and embarrassingly demote BC at the same time.

That's right, The Leiweke..."Don" Leiweke.


"BC, you broke my heart!"
~TL

[UN-Owen]

A failed trade with the Knicks involving Lowry

And more role players signed to more long term deals


So far I don't see anything worth getting excited about

[Risk101]

I still think Vasquez was a bit much. 13 mill for 2 seasons/6.5 mill for a bench player seems like much. Comparing it to some of these players is a bit ludicrous though.

Lets see how some will feel once Vasquez doesn't live up to his contract.

Probably the same ones who were complaining about the initial deals they got in the summer before all of these ridiculous offers

[bonbons]

"Magic" Masai

[dballislife]

if this is magic then wut do u call this

drafting and resigning demar...him and curry are probably on the best contracts in nba
drafting jonas
trading 1st for lowry
getting scrubs for and resigning amir
drafting ross
his left over asset also got us patterson and vasquez, 2 great nba backups

[UN-Owen]

if this is magic then wut do u call this

drafting and resigning demar...him and curry are probably on the best contracts in nba
drafting jonas
trading 1st for lowry
getting scrubs for and resigning amir
drafting ross
his left over asset also got us patterson and vasquez, 2 great nba backups

Huge blunder considering Drummond was still on the board

[Tacoma]

And for signing DeMar at only 10m a season...... oh wait

(refer to avatar please)

.. and drafting Demar in the first place.
.. and getting Amir
.. and drafting Jonas
.. and bringing in Lowry
.. and drafting Ross

.. oh wait x2

He's right though. I hated BC but you gotta tell it like it us.

You can't deny that the core players were all brought in by Colangelo. That Masai resigned Lowry and Casey merely reaffirms his trust in BC, who was Masai's mentor. Masai has yet to bring in a player to crack BC's starting lineup.

[sca]

So few know that Masai's actually connected to the Nigerian prince who gives our players money under the table.

[teamLeiweke]

And for signing DeMar at only 10m a season...... oh wait

(refer to avatar please)

.. and drafting Demar in the first place.
.. and getting Amir
.. and drafting Jonas
.. and bringing in Lowry
.. and drafting Ross

.. oh wait x2

HAHAHAHHAAH That was awesome.

Seriously though, I think people need to settle down a little bit... we haven't even been out of the first round of the playoffs yet and people wanna vote for Masai for Prime Minister.

Until we get to the Conference Finals we are no better than the Wizards.

I am a big Masai supporter as well, and Im excited too, but Colangelo did well his first year as well.. everyone needs to relax with these types of threads and comments a little bit.

[Young Moosehead]

Colangelo supporters:

Colangelo constantly overpaid FAs regardless of fit.
Valanciunas fell into his lap.
Drummond would have been a far more valuable an asset than Ross.
He also drafted Bargs, leaving far better players on the draft board.
Bosh left for nothing.
His missteps basically allowed the Heat and Pacers to rule the east for 3 years.
We were constantly up against the cap or the tax with more bottom 10 finishes than play-off appearances.

Our starting 5 is not his starting 5. Is it over the top to say Colangelo did nothing good? Of course it is. Similarly you cant deny that he had 7 years and almost never lived up to the expectations he himself set for the season. Which means despite having a great draft record, his ability to put a winning team together and recognize talent that will fit well together is extremely limited.

The fact that he did not leave the talent cupboard empty simply means he is better than Isaiah and Babcock.

Again, Colangelo played a role in forming this team, but no one denies he had a role. Undeniably there were 7 years of history against him and no evidence that he would have built a real team around the right parts.

[cammac]

Masai will make mistakes and many on the board will like to feed on him like hungry piranhas but then every management group makes mistakes even SAS.

He is a good judge of talent in getting Bruno who at worst may be a adequate role player (3pt specialist with defense) or a game changer really hard to say. His trades have been good Bargs, Gay, Novak & Salmons have all produced solid results. Even the one that failed and I don't believe for a minute the NYKs side of it.

Yes believe he overpaid Vasquez and Patterson slightly but in the new crazy market either can be moved easily in the right deal. He has a very tough choice at the end of the year in whether to keep Amir and I think much will hinge on his health.

I don't believe that he is sold on Casey as a coach but had to do the political thing (learned from BC) in biting the bullet and giving Casey basically a 2 year contract. I think he will be evaluating possible replacements when the time comes.

Our needs are starting quality true SF and starting PF ( Amir, Patterson & Hans as a group very adequate but none a stud ).

Looking forward to his successes and failures but success will far out way failure.

[Ponchos]

Masai traded Lowry.

[Zebsterama]

Masai hasn't blundered. He's seems to be a genuinely nice guy. And Toronto fans (notice I didn't say Raptor fans specifically - that goes without saying), like their sport figures to be: genuine, hard working and humble.

This is why Toronto loves guys like, Masai, Lowry, and DD - they fit that lunch pail, shut-up and come to work, work hard ethos. Ironic, considering that Toronto is really not an industrial or working class town .... but I digress.

That's what we like - and that's part of why we appreciate this team, and why we appreciate Masai.

[teamLeiweke]

I don't think the Raptors would have been this good if Masai didn't step in and get rid of AB and Gay for depth.

Having said that, Masai has admitted he tried to trade Lowry and expected to be in the lottery, and all of a sudden the team started winning.

So some good moves, some good luck, some nice talented young pieces that the previous GM left for him.

But we have yet to see if this Toronto team is built like Masai's Nuggets team of the past that has great regular seasons because they worked hard and hung their hat on depth, yet could never win a playoff series.

[jonny three time]

I don't think the Raptors would have been this good if Masai didn't step in and get rid of AB and Gay for depth.

Having said that, Masai has admitted he tried to trade Lowry and expected to be in the lottery, and all of a sudden the team started winning.

So some good moves, some good luck, some nice talented young pieces that the previous GM left for him.

But we have yet to see if this Toronto team is built like Masai's Nuggets team of the past that has great regular seasons because they worked hard and hung their hat on depth, yet could never win a playoff series.

I really don't think having deep teams that lack a superstar is a choice or strategy by a GM. They're a fallback for when a team isn't lucky enough to draft one, or appealing enough to sign one/trade for and re-sign.

As for BC vs Masai. The way I see it, Masai is basically the tougher negotiator and more traditional lineups version of BC. If BC wasn't trying to be the great basketball genius of his time, by revolutionizing how the game is played with his skilled and unorthodox lineups made up of pieces that aren't being fully utilized elsewhere, he would be an outstanding GM. Masai saw those flaws first hand and has gone the other way where his teams are more meat-and-potatoes, while also not fixating on a certain player for a certain role, then overpaying them.

I actually hope BC gets another job somewhere and puts together normal teams with players who's types of skill sets are proven to work already in the league. He's just gotta avoid the mad scientist trap.

[Young_Buc]

I don't think the Raptors would have been this good if Masai didn't step in and get rid of AB and Gay for depth.

Having said that, Masai has admitted he tried to trade Lowry and expected to be in the lottery, and all of a sudden the team started winning.

So some good moves, some good luck, some nice talented young pieces that the previous GM left for him.

But we have yet to see if this Toronto team is built like Masai's Nuggets team of the past that has great regular seasons because they worked hard and hung their hat on depth, yet could never win a playoff series.

I really don't think having deep teams that lack a superstar is a choice or strategy by a GM. They're a fallback for when a team isn't lucky enough to draft one, or appealing enough to sign one/trade for and re-sign.

As for BC vs Masai. The way I see it, Masai is basically the tougher negotiator and more traditional lineups version of BC. If BC wasn't trying to be the great basketball genius of his time, by revolutionizing how the game is played with his skilled and unorthodox lineups made up of pieces that aren't being fully utilized elsewhere, he would be an outstanding GM. Masai saw those flaws first hand and has gone the other way where his teams are more meat-and-potatoes, while also not fixating on a certain player for a certain role, then overpaying them.

I actually hope BC gets another job somewhere and puts together normal teams with players who's types of skill sets are proven to work already in the league. He's just gotta avoid the mad scientist trap.

As much as I rag on BC, you're right on this one. Aside from Bargnani and drafting Ross over Drummond, he's generally drafted well. He's won a lot more trades than he's lost as well. His main two weaknesses have been.

1. Mad scientist basketball theories and never deviating from them (small ball in PHX and euro ball here)
2. Signing free agents to ridiculous contracts (at the time even Nash was considered a ridiculous deal. One Cuban wouldn't match)

[Skeezo]

Here's a few penny's for a some thoughts...

-Give BC his props for the good things he did & yes finding MU was one of them... If MU hadn't been in Toronto prior to being GM do you think we would have had a shot?

-MU looks great for the deals he made this summer in comparison to some of these extensions currently being given out, but the TV deal has been announced & I don't think you will see these types of deals going forward.

-By 2016 it could cost between 45m-55m/per year to retain all of DD/JV/Ross... This does not include retaining GV/LW & then a year later Lowry/PP deals are up. Caboclo & our future draft picks are going to need to be at least decent bench players cause it's starting to look like keeping this team together while prove to be difficult even with a a salary cap of 75m-80m.

-Forget KD it's not going to happen, with likely cap holds or inevitable huge extensions next offseason of our own free agents it's doubtful we could carve out the 30m in space needed to offer KD a deal. 2015 is where we have the most amount of flexibility to make something happen & it will likely be in relation to either keeping Amir or finding an alternative at PF.