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Toronto's game vs Cleveland is on its way. How time flies that Raptors has climbed to a conference contender.

Star players do not grow on trees and few of them coming out of college were destined to be a star in the NBA.

It brought to my thinking. I admit, I was a Houston Fan and watched those games played by Lowrey. He was a back up to Aaron Brooks, who was a second rounder.

He was good by no where near the level he is playing now..

The examples go round round and round:
Derozan: was he a star coming out of College? I bet he was irrelevant during his early year in NBA
Jimmy Butler: 30# pick in NBA draft and during his early years, he was just a solid role player
Lamarcus Aldrige: Rookie of the year. However, when Portland drafted Greg Oden, he was supposed to be the back up. He was a Center and hence the reason he was moved to 4 spot. Look at him now. One of the best pick and roll option in the league
Paul Millsap: Utah. During his early years, he did not get enough playing time at all. But he worked extremely hard. He took advantage of his playing time and now, he is among the best big man in the NBA.

Even Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli.

And then what is the motive and reason to post this thread?

I am hoping that our players' value is correctly weighted

Elfrid Payton
Aaron Gordon
Vuc
Fournier
Mario

They might not look like a star. But one day, someone will break out.

How long ago did GSW become a conference contender, even playoff contender?

I took them 3 or 4 years. Toronto was even longer.

Few players coming out of college have star or super star potential. Even that, it could just be "potential".

Our rebuilding road may not be that long.

Have a good weekend, folks

If we ever, EVER, end up with fake stars like Lowry and Derozan, i hope we blow it up straight away instead of wasting 6 or 7 years being regular season heroes and post season embarassments. Biggest bunch of front runners the NBA has ever seen. Yeah yeah they beat a young and weak Milwaukee side, whoopdedoo. They are about to get swept by the Cavs with possibly one of the biggest average victory margins in the history of the game. When a young guy like Giannis makes your so called stars look like scared rookies, you know you have serious problems. There is only one place darker than being an annual fringe playoff team, and that is being locked in and committed to a so called star that plays a losing brand of basketball. Raptors are lucky enough to have two of those guys, Knicks have one in Melo, Sac were in that region with Boogie while he was there. No real way up and no way down, and just enough wins to keep management drinking their own bath water and believing there is hope. Anyway, not sure why this post is in this thread, tbh im not even really sure what your thread is about, but i had fun posting this reply so cheers.

shadrock wrote:If we ever, EVER, end up with fake stars like Lowry and Derozan, i hope we blow it up straight away instead of wasting 6 or 7 years being regular season heroes and post season embarassments. Biggest bunch of front runners the NBA has ever seen. Yeah yeah they beat a young and weak Milwaukee side, whoopdedoo. They are about to get swept by the Cavs with possibly one of the biggest average victory margins in the history of the game. When a young guy like Giannis makes your so called stars look like scared rookies, you know you have serious problems. There is only one place darker than being an annual fringe playoff team, and that is being locked in and committed to a so called star that plays a losing brand of basketball. Raptors are lucky enough to have two of those guys, Knicks have one in Melo, Sac were in that region with Boogie while he was there. No real way up and no way down, and just enough wins to keep management drinking their own bath water and believing there is hope. Anyway, not sure why this post is in this thread, tbh im not even really sure what your thread is about, but i had fun posting this reply so cheers.

Hard to say Lowry and Derozan are fake stars. They played conference finals last year and won 2 games against Cavs ,later nba champions. I don't like Derozan's style of playing and how Lowry is crying to refs after every play ,but pretty much all stars do it.

Giannis is one of best wing defenders already, give him 2 more years and he will make case for him being one of greatest wing defenders ever. .That lenght ,along with mobility, strenght and talent is unheard of. 6'11, 7'4 wingspan, good footwork, low bodyfat, good leaping ability, great mobility , dude can literally run over a court in 5 steps.

Don't be suprised if Cavs and Raptors goes in 6 games again. Guys like Ibaka and Tucker are better basketball players than Biyombo who was big factor for them last year, and Carroll is bit more healthy.

Derozan wasn't that terrible in first round tho, finished with 23 ppg on 44% FG.

pepe1991 wrote:

shadrock wrote:If we ever, EVER, end up with fake stars like Lowry and Derozan, i hope we blow it up straight away instead of wasting 6 or 7 years being regular season heroes and post season embarassments. Biggest bunch of front runners the NBA has ever seen. Yeah yeah they beat a young and weak Milwaukee side, whoopdedoo. They are about to get swept by the Cavs with possibly one of the biggest average victory margins in the history of the game. When a young guy like Giannis makes your so called stars look like scared rookies, you know you have serious problems. There is only one place darker than being an annual fringe playoff team, and that is being locked in and committed to a so called star that plays a losing brand of basketball. Raptors are lucky enough to have two of those guys, Knicks have one in Melo, Sac were in that region with Boogie while he was there. No real way up and no way down, and just enough wins to keep management drinking their own bath water and believing there is hope. Anyway, not sure why this post is in this thread, tbh im not even really sure what your thread is about, but i had fun posting this reply so cheers.

Hard to say Lowry and Derozan are fake stars. They played conference finals last year and won 2 games against Cavs ,later nba champions. I don't like Derozan's style of playing and how Lowry is crying to refs after every play ,but pretty much all stars do it.

Giannis is one of best wing defenders already, give him 2 more years and he will make case for him being one of greatest wing defenders ever....

I stopped reading at that point. Hyperbole is one thing, but Gianni one of the greatest ever? Goodbye, credibility.

Instead of calling them fake stars, to better get your point across you should ask this question, can you win a ring with Lowry and Derozan as your best players? If the answer is no, then why commit to them. You're stuck with no real hopes going anywhere.

RickB-Orlando wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:

shadrock wrote:If we ever, EVER, end up with fake stars like Lowry and Derozan, i hope we blow it up straight away instead of wasting 6 or 7 years being regular season heroes and post season embarassments. Biggest bunch of front runners the NBA has ever seen. Yeah yeah they beat a young and weak Milwaukee side, whoopdedoo. They are about to get swept by the Cavs with possibly one of the biggest average victory margins in the history of the game. When a young guy like Giannis makes your so called stars look like scared rookies, you know you have serious problems. There is only one place darker than being an annual fringe playoff team, and that is being locked in and committed to a so called star that plays a losing brand of basketball. Raptors are lucky enough to have two of those guys, Knicks have one in Melo, Sac were in that region with Boogie while he was there. No real way up and no way down, and just enough wins to keep management drinking their own bath water and believing there is hope. Anyway, not sure why this post is in this thread, tbh im not even really sure what your thread is about, but i had fun posting this reply so cheers.

Hard to say Lowry and Derozan are fake stars. They played conference finals last year and won 2 games against Cavs ,later nba champions. I don't like Derozan's style of playing and how Lowry is crying to refs after every play ,but pretty much all stars do it.

Giannis is one of best wing defenders already, give him 2 more years and he will make case for him being one of greatest wing defenders ever....

I stopped reading at that point. Hyperbole is one thing, but Gianni one of the greatest ever? Goodbye, credibility.

lol his defensive box plus minus this year happends to be same as Leonard's career high. His ability to defend all 5 positions better than anybody in the nba because of unrealistic combination of size and mobility was already on display this playoffs, and he is still just a kid. 22 years old, years before his basketball prime.
His "counting stats" have 1,6 steals, 1,9 blocks per game so he is already elite (like - nobody but him elite ) in that category in whole league.

He is already ranked 5th in defensive win share, 16 in defensive rating in whole league.
Sorry, but guy is already one of best transition defenders in the game because nobody is doing better job than him in chasedown blocks ( something that i don't really value high but it still counts )and ability to intercept passing lines because of his stupendus lenght and mobility. Let's face it . He is 22, he will only get better, and it's almost not fair how talented he is now.

shadrock wrote:If we ever, EVER, end up with fake stars like Lowry and Derozan, i hope we blow it up straight away instead of wasting 6 or 7 years being regular season heroes and post season embarassments. Biggest bunch of front runners the NBA has ever seen. Yeah yeah they beat a young and weak Milwaukee side, whoopdedoo. They are about to get swept by the Cavs with possibly one of the biggest average victory margins in the history of the game. When a young guy like Giannis makes your so called stars look like scared rookies, you know you have serious problems. There is only one place darker than being an annual fringe playoff team, and that is being locked in and committed to a so called star that plays a losing brand of basketball. Raptors are lucky enough to have two of those guys, Knicks have one in Melo, Sac were in that region with Boogie while he was there. No real way up and no way down, and just enough wins to keep management drinking their own bath water and believing there is hope. Anyway, not sure why this post is in this thread, tbh im not even really sure what your thread is about, but i had fun posting this reply so cheers.

I would rather be deep playoff contenders with DeRozen and Lowry than the perennial losing laughing stock for boundless years on end praying to win just one superstar in the draft with the odds being greater at staying stuck at the bottom.

In retrospect, after almost 5 years, the Magic have yet to win a player of Lowry or DeRozens level in the last few top 5 draft picks. What makes people think we will automatically get better players than Lowry or DeRozen by tanking another 5 years?