Mamba4Goat's Grade:
Toronto Raptors transactions
Front office
Extend and promote Masai Ujiri.
Draft
Drafted Scottie Barnes at pick #4.
Drafted Dalano Banton at pick #46.
Drafted David Johnson at pick #47.
Trades
Traded Kyle Lowry in an S&T to Miami for Precious Achiuwa and Goran Dragic.
Free agency
Waived Rodney Hood ($0 guaranteed).
Waived Aron Baynes ($0 guaranteed).
Waived DeAndre Bembry ($0 guaranteed).
Re-signed Gary Trent Jr., 3/$52M.
Re-signed Khem Birch, 3/$20M.
Signed Sam Dekker, 1/$2M
Offseason Thoughts
Reaching for Scottie Barnes instead of taking Suggs is a giant thumbs down for me. Suggs, in my opinion, was a full tier ahead of Barnes in terms of a prospect.
When they moved Powell for Trent I thought it would be to save money on their next deals. They're making roughly the same amount of money a year (albeit Powell's contract has two more years on it) and Powell is the vastly superior and more proven player. Didn't really like the Trent deal.
Retaining Khem Birch was good though and I don't mind his contract.
My biggest issue with Toronto is that they seem like they're in the middle ground and are kinda Spursing right now. Too good to tank/not make the playoffs, too bad to do anything meaningful in the playoffs and their "young core" isn't exactly young per NBA standards (mostly mid-late 20's).
Their offseason moves indicated a run it back minus Lowry mindset but if I was running Toronto I would at least lean heavier one way or the other. Whether that is a Siakam trade, a Boucher for a bad 1st or a couple of 2nds type of move, etc. or use Dragic's expiring as a salary ballast for a trade for a competing piece. Obviously this could all come midseason though.
Grade
D+
They definitely could've done worse (got nothing for Lowry, drafting Kuminga, etc) but as a whole their offseason was bad.
2022 Prediction
Play-in team (7-10 seed)
If they don't make a move or moves midseason to fully lean one way or the other in terms of competing or not competing a play-in team feels like their sweet spot, especially as the East continues to improve.
Offseason in gif form
K_Chile22's Grade:
Toronto Raptors transactions
Front office
Extend and promote Masai Ujiri.
Draft
Drafted Scottie Barnes at pick #4.
Drafted Dalano Banton at pick #46.
Drafted David Johnson at pick #47.
Trades
Traded Kyle Lowry in an S&T to Miami for Precious Achiuwa and Goran Dragic.
Free agency
Waived Rodney Hood ($0 guaranteed).
Waived Aron Baynes ($0 guaranteed).
Waived DeAndre Bembry ($0 guaranteed).
Re-signed Gary Trent Jr., 3/$52M.
Re-signed Khem Birch, 3/$20M.
Signed Sam Dekker, 1/$2M
Offseason Thoughts:
Obviously keeping someone who is at least in discussion for best FO exec is huge, so good on them there. Getting Precious back in a S&T for Lowry is solid (though they probably should have moved him at the deadline, but that's spilt milk at this point, not a part of the grade).
I generally like the re-signings of Trent and Birch, I just feel like they could have squeezed both a bit more, especially Trent, leveraging his RFA status to do so, but still not like these are necessarily bad deals.
I don't want to put too much stock into the draft just because we have no idea how it's going to end up looking, but Barnes over Suggs still doesn't sit right for me, but I was always lower on Barnes than most.
My one big concern is that I still don't know what they're trying to do. Rebuild? Fight for a low seed in the playoffs? Seems like they're holding onto Siakam, probably the right move since his value is likely at a low point, but because of that context I'm not actually sure they're keeping him to be good or keeping him to rehab value.
Grade:
B+, think just roster moves alone I'd go with a straight B, Masai staying bumps them up, the lack of a clear direction brings them back down a little.
2022 Prediction:
Think they're flirting with the play-in game, 8th-12th seed in the east.
Offseason in gif form
Bondom34's Grade:
Toronto Raptors transactions
Front office
Extend and promote Masai Ujiri.
Draft
Drafted Scottie Barnes at pick #4.
Drafted Dalano Banton at pick #46.
Drafted David Johnson at pick #47.
Trades
Traded Kyle Lowry in an S&T to Miami for Precious Achiuwa and Goran Dragic.
Free agency
Waived Rodney Hood ($0 guaranteed).
Waived Aron Baynes ($0 guaranteed).
Waived DeAndre Bembry ($0 guaranteed).
Re-signed Gary Trent Jr., 3/$52M.
Re-signed Khem Birch, 3/$20M.
Signed Sam Dekker, 1/$2M
Offseason Thoughts
To start this one off I really didn't entirely know the direction Toronto would take this offseason. And while they did make moves to go a little younger I don't know they really did a ton that makes me feel all that great about it other than one move.
That move was the Ujiri extension which by itself is possibly the biggest move of the offseason for them. No other way to put it than to say its a win. I don't love the rest of this offseason but adding some stability for a front office with a proven track record is a win.
Now on to the rest......it started draft night where I don't really plan on hitting teams too hard if they don't exactly pick a guy I liked unless it's a clear difference in tiers, and I was a big Suggs fan, so Barnes here hurt some (though I also like Barnes a decent bit). The second round picks didn't change a ton there, and I could be wrong but its a bit of a demerit.
Then on to free agency where they did get some return for Lowry, though it may really be a bit of the price Miami had to pay to get them to take back Dragic, it was something. Now going back to the trade deadline they could likely have gotten more and not just sat Lowry for the end of the season anyway but this is strictly an offseason grade. Its hard to separate the two and I'm not sure I'm doing it entirely, but it's not really anything more than expected in a sign and trade, with a player taken late first round a year ago and some salary.
Next they went on and had the biggest need of finding a center....so they signed Khem Birch to what seems like too much money entirely as their only rotation quality big man signing. And in RFA news signed Gary Trent Jr. to what was probably a ballpark fair annual value contract as a decent starter but only a 3 year deal with a PO after 2, so a contract with pretty much no team upside that gives him an early out if he outperforms it or locks him in if he doesn't improve. Really in free agency I'm not sure there's a ton I loved here but there also wasn't anything terribly egregious I suppose either.
Ultimately while I have a lot of questions on this one it just feels like an offseason that other than Ujiri left me a bit unimpressed.
Grade
C-/D+, changed this last minute from C- seeing both other grades and comparing this to another offseason that was sort of the inverse of this and not sure how I feel about it
2022 Prediction
10th in the East
Offseason in gif form
. For the most part we're at least split 2 vs 1 and someone is similar. Plus I won't lie sometimes I get talked into changing them slightly.
