You are the GM of the RAPTORS...what are you doing this offseason?

[wegotthabeet]

Don't really care who calls who, but Masai should definitely explore it imo. Even if his track record tells us he doesn't have it in him to make that move.

I think expecting IQ to become Brunson is pretty darn unrealistic. Brunson is now a top 10 player in the entire league. Doesn't mean IQ can't be really good and maxing him be a mistake(I just haven't seen enough personally to want to do that today). But man that's a huge ask.

Yeah, I think our path is a really narrow one, which is a bad sign.

1) Hitting on one of the many 2 guards in the 2025 lottery.
2) finding 1-2 complimentary players (1-2 of a 3+D guy, backup 5 and backup PG) with #19 and the 2026 1sts (also have Indy's)

Poeltl-Olynyk-#19
Barnes-#19
Barrett-2026 Pacers
2025 TOR-Dick
Quickley-2026 TOR

Sort of thing, and then we have all our future picks to trade and I guess try to turn Barrett or Poelt's marginal value with a year or two to go in their deals into a better player via a 3 way trade where we get the star, team X gets 3-4 firsts and a bad contract from team Y and Team Y gets Barrett or Poeltl for one of those 1sts and gets to shed a worse player on a similar deal.

Quickley has a lot of potential as a #3 scorer putting up lots of 3s, Barrett would be a fun 6th man, Dick a 7th man and PG and C backups can be found, but we need a star wing (or stretch 5 but those are unicorns for a reason) so badly it's unreal.

Good write up. You know it is bad when future mid or late FRPs are listed as key rotation pieces.

Reinforces my view that, short-term, Toronto should decline Brown's option and let Trent walk so they can use their remaining cap space ($30M) to take a bad contract or 2 and get at least one FRP as compensation. There's no point trying to fill all the roster gaps with the trade and FA opportunities they realistically have this summer: they need a bigger pipeline of young talent because picks are hit-or-miss.

That’s exactly what they should do. It’s not as bleak as either of you think though. They have all their picks moving forward and at least one great young player to build around. They need to accumulate assets, draft and develop well. No different from any other team going through a rebuild. That takes a few years.

[Ell Curry]

Yeah, I think our path is a really narrow one, which is a bad sign.

1) Hitting on one of the many 2 guards in the 2025 lottery.
2) finding 1-2 complimentary players (1-2 of a 3+D guy, backup 5 and backup PG) with #19 and the 2026 1sts (also have Indy's)

Poeltl-Olynyk-#19
Barnes-#19
Barrett-2026 Pacers
2025 TOR-Dick
Quickley-2026 TOR

Sort of thing, and then we have all our future picks to trade and I guess try to turn Barrett or Poelt's marginal value with a year or two to go in their deals into a better player via a 3 way trade where we get the star, team X gets 3-4 firsts and a bad contract from team Y and Team Y gets Barrett or Poeltl for one of those 1sts and gets to shed a worse player on a similar deal.

Quickley has a lot of potential as a #3 scorer putting up lots of 3s, Barrett would be a fun 6th man, Dick a 7th man and PG and C backups can be found, but we need a star wing (or stretch 5 but those are unicorns for a reason) so badly it's unreal.

Good write up. You know it is bad when future mid or late FRPs are listed as key rotation pieces.

Reinforces my view that, short-term, Toronto should decline Brown's option and let Trent walk so they can use their remaining cap space ($30M) to take a bad contract or 2 and get at least one FRP as compensation. There's no point trying to fill all the roster gaps with the trade and FA opportunities they realistically have this summer: they need a bigger pipeline of young talent because picks are hit-or-miss.

That’s exactly what they should do. It’s not as bleak as either of you think though. They have all their picks moving forward and at least one great young player to build around. They need to accumulate assets, draft and develop well. No different from any other team going through a rebuild. That takes a few years.

Yeah we're not the Nets or anything. But do need one paradigm shifting draft pick or shock Quickley becoming a top 8 PG type internal improvement.

[oldncreaky]

Good write up. You know it is bad when future mid or late FRPs are listed as key rotation pieces.

Reinforces my view that, short-term, Toronto should decline Brown's option and let Trent walk so they can use their remaining cap space ($30M) to take a bad contract or 2 and get at least one FRP as compensation. There's no point trying to fill all the roster gaps with the trade and FA opportunities they realistically have this summer: they need a bigger pipeline of young talent because picks are hit-or-miss.

That’s exactly what they should do. It’s not as bleak as either of you think though. They have all their picks moving forward and at least one great young player to build around. They need to accumulate assets, draft and develop well. No different from any other team going through a rebuild. That takes a few years.

Yeah we're not the Nets or anything. But do need one paradigm shifting draft pick or shock Quickley becoming a top 8 PG type internal improvement.

Yeah, I don't think Toronto's future is bleak. Detroit's future is bleak. Toronto, on the other hand, looks kinda average: a good young core that should make the play-in either this coming season or the season after (as long as they don't pivot to a hard tank).

I have an easy time seeing Toronto getting back to around .500, but it's just hard to see the path from middle-of-the-pack to 50 wins, let alone contention. I think that will take at least 2 significant surprises to the upside, and 5 decades following the sport tells me those are rare.

[Godaddycurse]

That’s exactly what they should do. It’s not as bleak as either of you think though. They have all their picks moving forward and at least one great young player to build around. They need to accumulate assets, draft and develop well. No different from any other team going through a rebuild. That takes a few years.

Yeah we're not the Nets or anything. But do need one paradigm shifting draft pick or shock Quickley becoming a top 8 PG type internal improvement.

Yeah, I don't think Toronto's future is bleak. Detroit's future is bleak. Toronto, on the other hand, looks kinda average: a good young core that should make the play-in either this coming season or the season after (as long as they don't pivot to a hard tank).

I have an easy time seeing Toronto getting back to around .500, but it's just hard to see the path from middle-of-the-pack to 50 wins, let alone contention. I think that will take at least 2 significant surprises to the upside, and 5 decades following the sport tells me those are rare.

I can see healthy barnes/iq/poeltl/rj core taking us to 500 and a better bench elevating us to ~45-47 wins but thats about it

[wegotthabeet]

Yeah we're not the Nets or anything. But do need one paradigm shifting draft pick or shock Quickley becoming a top 8 PG type internal improvement.

Yeah, I don't think Toronto's future is bleak. Detroit's future is bleak. Toronto, on the other hand, looks kinda average: a good young core that should make the play-in either this coming season or the season after (as long as they don't pivot to a hard tank).

I have an easy time seeing Toronto getting back to around .500, but it's just hard to see the path from middle-of-the-pack to 50 wins, let alone contention. I think that will take at least 2 significant surprises to the upside, and 5 decades following the sport tells me those are rare.

I can see healthy barnes/iq/poeltl/rj core taking us to 500 and a better bench elevating us to ~45-47 wins but thats about it

Who knows but all those guys are U25 so it’s impossible to cap their respective or even collective potential yet. The Lowry DeRozan bloomed late, especially Lowry. Barnes should be better than both but nothing is promised in sports.

[islandboy53]

Next year is about developing the existing core group of Barnes, Quickley, Barrett, Dick, Poeltl, Olynyk and Agbaji, while adding talent and draft capital, while maintaining salary flexibility. That will involve

- picking up Brown's option and moving him for assets
- retaining Trent if he can be signed at an MLE level deal to fill the starting SG role short term
- using picks 19 and 31 to add depth at wing/center/POA defence
- finding a bargain priced backup PG in FA (eg Dunn form Utah)
- not taking on large longer term salary (eg. Wiggins)

The team is neither bad enough to challenge Portland, Washington, Detroit and Charlotte for the bottom tier, nor is it good enough to challenge the top half of the east. I think the most likely outcome sees them in the battle with Chicago, Atlanta, and Brooklyn for the bottom 2 play in spots, and ultimately winding up in the 6 to 10 range in the lottery. The trajectory is in the right direction, and next year will give us a better sense of what the group needs to become serious playoff contenders.

[Ell Curry]

That’s exactly what they should do. It’s not as bleak as either of you think though. They have all their picks moving forward and at least one great young player to build around. They need to accumulate assets, draft and develop well. No different from any other team going through a rebuild. That takes a few years.

Yeah we're not the Nets or anything. But do need one paradigm shifting draft pick or shock Quickley becoming a top 8 PG type internal improvement.

Yeah, I don't think Toronto's future is bleak. Detroit's future is bleak. Toronto, on the other hand, looks kinda average: a good young core that should make the play-in either this coming season or the season after (as long as they don't pivot to a hard tank).

I have an easy time seeing Toronto getting back to around .500, but it's just hard to see the path from middle-of-the-pack to 50 wins, let alone contention. I think that will take at least 2 significant surprises to the upside, and 5 decades following the sport tells me those are rare.

I agree with the Raptors part about us trending towards being a decent first round loss kind of playoff team in Barnes' prime.

The Pistons I don't think are so bleak long-term. They are basically a lock for another top 5 pick next year and probably will be bad the year after. They need to nail next year's pick even more than we do, but they'll probably have a higher pick even with the lottery odds flattening. It looks awful now and they need to throw up 60 loss and 55 loss seasons and that's brutal and they'll probably try to be decent and might end up without an all-NBA guy, but I think they're pretty nailed on to be bad next year and get Flagg or a top SG unless they get Ingram or someone as good or better, and if they get a quality starting SG or Flagg they should have a decent young lineup.

[ItsDanger]

Dump Poeltl. Acquire another pick in this draft. Dump Brown. Let Trent walk. Acquire asset(s) using cap space. Try to set up team for a good draft pick in 2025.

Most Raps fans have become delusional regarding realistic potential of current team.