Toronto early offseason in review (HW/bondom34/dbrandon/Slava)

[HartfordWhalers]

Not to mention, on that chart win shares seems pretty level from age 28-32. It declines up to 28, then levels off, then declines past 32. Lowry won't turn 31 until late March, so he shouldn't hit that 33/34 decline for this season anyway.

No, that is a chart of the first difference. So win shares is increasing until 28 by a decreasing amount, then is decreasing by roughly 0.5 or so a year for a few years.

[YogurtProducer]

I like our offseason and hate it at the same time.

Considering our bigs; Jakob and Siakum I think both could be good players and Masais draft history leads me to believe they will be. Sullinger will also be a good pick up. Losing Scola is addition by subtraction; losing Biyombo hurts but he's still a 20mpg backup let's not get to excited.

We had to resign Demar, I don't like that we didn't try and negotiate lower than the max but what can you do. His contract is tradeable and the great thing is if we come out really really flat I can see a move being made once all FAs are tradeable. -lAs the advanced stats show, he hasn't really been a net positive for us. Our defense gets terrible and our offense gets worse as well. He isn't worth what he is getting paid and the only reason he did was because he is thrusted into a big role that (IMO) lots of SGs could replicate with better shooting and defense.

Lowry should be fine.

The return of Carroll is pretty much a FA signing. He was injured all year and missed like 56 games. Adding Carroll and Sully to a Lineuo instead of Powell (who should replace Ross) and Scola is huge. Thankfully they are both good defenders who will help hide Demar and JV (although JV looked better late season/playoffs).

Overall it was a good offseason just for the simple fact that we didn't do anything stupid. How often can teams reup their "all star", go to the ECF, Replace the worst PF in the league, & grab the 10th pick in the draft all in a matter of months?

I can see us finishing with 60 wins and a finals appearance but can also see us with 40 and lottery bound. Really intriguing in my eyes

[Jadoogar]

I get that Sullinger is low risk but i don't understand why people are praising the move so much. Ujiri might get lucky like he did with Biyombo but Sullinger doesn't really fit a need on this team. He's inefficient (TS% of 47.6), takes a bunch of midrange shots (37% of his shots were between 10 ft - 3 point line), poor 3pt shooter (28%) and a limited defender. He's not a great fit with Jonas who is also a poor defender and non-3pt shooter. He might be a decent 6th man but we don't have a quality starting PF so he will likely start. It's a neutral deal at best

[dalton749]

I get that Sullinger is low risk but i don't understand why people are praising the move so much. Ujiri might get lucky like he did with Biyombo but Sullinger doesn't really fit a need on this team. He's inefficient (TS% of 47.6), takes a bunch of midrange shots (37% of his shots were between 10 ft - 3 point line), poor 3pt shooter (28%) and a limited defender. He's not a great fit with Jonas who is also a poor defender and non-3pt shooter. He might be a decent 6th man but we don't have a quality starting PF so he will likely start. It's a neutral deal at best

I agree that Sullinger isn't the perfect fit, but there are some positives in the move. He's a very good rebounder, which replaces a hole that biyombo would have left, and he's better than scola which is a plus. I think a part of the reason his shooting numbers are so low is that he was needed to be a shot creator in Boston, because they sorely lacked that skill, in Toronto it won't be needed nearly as much.

As far as derozan goes, I get some of the hate, but he is still a plus player, Lowry is just be big difference maker. Casey likes to play possum with his lineups hanging around in the game and choosing his spots to make a push with certain lineups, derozan was very often apart of the possum lineups. There's no denying the guy is valuable when he is the leading scorer of a 56 win ecf team, despite his flaws

[Wraps_fan]

Interesting reviews

I disagree with the consensus that Siakam was a bad pick, and the Raptors just couldn't let DeRozan go, as polarizing as a figure he is, there was nobody on the market that could come in and give us what DeRozan gave us. Look what happened last time Lowry had to play without DeRozan for an extended period of time. He was in worse shape back then, sure but as ugly as DeRozan's advanced stats are, I think he's pretty necessary to have as a guy that can soak up defensive attention

I liked our off-season. I wish we could have traded Ross for a legit backup C or something but Ross's 3pt shooting is still valuable for us.

[Johnny Bball]

The talk about Derozan's new deal above seems very simplistic. And in all regards, with no real thought of cap management ( or even asset management). Raptors are way over the cap this year because they re-signed DD. If they didn't re-sign him they had 12 million (or maybe 15, can't recall?) in cap space. They are over the cap because they did. The options were to sign him and exceed the cap by far and start paying more for a team, or let him walk and sign a player for 12-15 million which would not even have got the raptors a Bismack Biyombo. Derozan's contract is not baggage in the new cap in any way, is not one that can't be traded, everyone seems to agree on that. And Lowry comes up next year as a UFA allowing and mandating the cap be exceeded again, leaving no cap space next year. It was either exceed the cap (and effectively spend more on salaries, which there was no other way to exceed the cap this year for the raps) or watch both DD then possibly KL leave and then really, rip the team apart. Once again, saying DD is paid to much doesn't take into account what the future would hold with any regard to cap management. what I'm saying is DD's new deal cost effectively 12-15 million in cap space this year and when Lowry is signed, next year, the point is almost moot. I find it odd people would put so much faith into advanced stats but not really delve into the impact of cap management.

Not to mention, I know people that did not renew seasons 4-5 years ago (long time holders) because they were pissed off with management because the raptors chose a bad route and refused to spend or manage wisely. It pretty much doesn't matter if this team can win it all. There is a solid reason to be sustainably good for w hile so MLSE doesn't have to force people to buy raptors seasons just because they wanted Leafs seasons, which is what happened not long ago. This team need some level of sustainability and not sucking.

And Sullinger was likely the best signing we could make for 5.6 million.

[brackdan70]

A solid contender for second place in the Division. I am interested to see what Sullinger does. No doubt the dude has always been productive.....but keeps getting wider and wider.

[165bows]

I get that Sullinger is low risk but i don't understand why people are praising the move so much. Ujiri might get lucky like he did with Biyombo but Sullinger doesn't really fit a need on this team. He's inefficient (TS% of 47.6), takes a bunch of midrange shots (37% of his shots were between 10 ft - 3 point line), poor 3pt shooter (28%) and a limited defender. He's not a great fit with Jonas who is also a poor defender and non-3pt shooter. He might be a decent 6th man but we don't have a quality starting PF so he will likely start. It's a neutral deal at best

Toronto should be a very good team. One thing that jumps out in the reviews is the basketball insiders depth chart likely is simplifying things in the front court a bit, unless Poeltl is able to claim a big role right off the bat. Sullinger's very likely to be the primary backup C in my mind, something that is an important role since Valanciunas is very low minutes as a starter.

With 20+ minutes a night available at C, I think if people are making the assumption that Poeltl is going to just take those right off the bat is a bit premature. Maybe he's great and is doing so later in the year, but IMO this team will see Sullinger take the bulk of Biyombo's minutes. ~1800 minutes is a substantial amount to distribute and that looks to be Sullinger's role, with smaller portions going to Valanciunas if he can stay on the court more and Poeltl also earning a smaller portion.

Sullinger's got a lot of flaws but he's got several positives as well, and has generally been productive in the minutes he's gotten, especially compared to the backup centers around the league.

[Trader_Joe]

A solid contender for second place in the Division. I am interested to see what Sullinger does. No doubt the dude has always been productive.....but keeps getting wider and wider.

A solid contender for the division they won by 8 games last year. There is no race for 2nd.

Toronto/Boston
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NY
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Philly/BRK

[Trader_Joe]

Sullinger...very polarizing player. I feel if he got his conditioning together he could be a good starter. He can rebound and he can score. He's got nice mechanics on his 3, so I think he might be a 35%+ shooter from there at some point. His back does worry me, but I'm guessing if he did slim down that would be less of a concern. Interested to see how he does on his make good one year deal.

[Ferulci]

Like the Sullinger addition, a low-risk/mid-reward for me.
I understand that they had to keep Derozan and let go Biyombo.
I cannot understand their draft. Toronto already has a solid core and some good prospects already in the pipeline. Their draft should be about high-reward prospect especially with a free pick like n°9. I dont get why they took Poetl : JV is their player with the most upside, he's young and here to stay. So the best case for Poetl is what, 20 minutes a night ? Why waste a n°9 pick on this ? IMO they should have trade up to get Chriss, or used the pick to land a starter-quality player. I also dont understand passing on Skal at 27. Virtually, he fits all Toronto needs.
Question for Toronto fans : what are the expectations for Norman Powell this year ? 6th man ? Could he be traded or is he part of your future ?

[dalton749]

Like the Sullinger addition, a low-risk/mid-reward for me.
I understand that they had to keep Derozan and let go Biyombo.
I cannot understand their draft. Toronto already has a solid core and some good prospects already in the pipeline. Their draft should be about high-reward prospect especially with a free pick like n°9. I dont get why they took Poetl : JV is their player with the most upside, he's young and here to stay. So the best case for Poetl is what, 20 minutes a night ? Why waste a n°9 pick on this ? IMO they should have trade up to get Chriss, or used the pick to land a starter-quality player. I also dont understand passing on Skal at 27. Virtually, he fits all Toronto needs.
Question for Toronto fans : what are the expectations for Norman Powell this year ? 6th man ? Could he be traded or is he part of your future ?

Poeltl was quite simply the bpa. Chriss probably would have rode the bench for the next couple years but needs development playing time.

A lot of us raps fans wanted skal at 27, and were pissed that we didn't take him draft night, but I think that has changed for most. Pascal siakam looks like he could be a player as soon as next year, he's 22, but better than skal at pretty much everything and could turn out to be an excellent glue guy.

Norman Powell is the future, that kid is going to be a star, and will start to show flashes of it as soon as this year.

[cammac]

One thing that is easily forgotten in this off season was the extensions of both JV & Ross from last year or Toronto would likely be paying tax. JV is getting 14.4 and Ross is getting 10 million compared to Whiteside 22.1 & Crabbe 18.5 million. You can debate if Ross is worth 10 million but it well in the lower range that he may have got as a free agent while JVs is a steal.

I'm definitely not a DeMar fanboy but he puts up numbers and has made improvements in his game every year. He was loyal to the team and it was the 1st. time in the history of the team that a drafted Toronto player resigned with the team as a restricted free agent. The combination of Lowry & DeMar are the best back court in the East. He is also 27 and just reaching his prime and while he can be athletic he doesn't depend on it much like Pierce.

Poeltl was drafted at 9th where he was by consensus while I might have preferred Sabonis but it was a solid choice and Saikam was a good selection he has many of the attributes of Bismack but is a PF and will be substantially better offensively. I also like the signing of Jarrod Uthoff and believe he has a chance of being our 15th man. The rest are players for the 905 D League team.

The only loss of consequence was BB8 and while he was a hell of a deal at 3 million he is still a backup C and while I'm happy that the young man won the lottery he was never in the cards for resigning in Toronto.

The addition of Sullinger was excellent is he a great player absolutely not but can see him as a player on a mission to get the big dollars that Bismack received this year. In many ways Carroll is a addition to the team after his injury plagued 15/16 season and should supply a solid starting SF.

Masai has been building a team and rebuilding the team at the same time the average age is less than the Celtics and only 2 players are over 30 in Lowry & Carroll. I think they will hover close to last years wins + or - a couple and think must be the consensus #2 team in the East.

[RexRyan]

Meh, Sully? That's it? They didn't do much, largely because of those big contracts. C+