[Osman] Shams Charania: “They’re [Lakers] monitoring the sellers around the NBA: Portland, Washington, Toronto, ..."

[islandboy53]

Last night we saw the team at almost full strength. Granted the opposition was inferior, but the result was encouraging nonetheless. Assuming no further injuries, we'll be looking at IQ, Dick, RJ, Barnes & Poeltl plus Agbaji, Brown & Olynyk as the main rotation guys with limited minutes from Mitchell, Shead & Walter. We'll see how this group fares. With that said, I fully expect at least one & hopefully several, of Brown, Boucher, Mitchell & Olynyk to be on the move by the deadline.

[YogurtProducer]

I don’t think Jak needs to be traded asap if he doesn’t sign an extension this summer, but I do think that it makes him more tradable.

Agreed fully that we would need a C back in trade. I doubt we get a better C than Jak talent wise unless we take on significant injury risk a la Zion. I also happen to think if we choose to win right now we would make the playoffs. I say this if only we have every single player in full health. Since we’re tanking, it’s likely we see exactly that kind of winning streak only when it no longer matters to the ping pong balls.

TLDR. Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Ya thought so. Reason people like you dont want to trade Poeltl is because you secretly think we're a good team, lmfao. A 50 point blowout wont convince you otherwise. An 11 game losing streak is brushed over. Giving up 120 points night in, night out doesnt matter, because we can make the playoffs as soon as we want to. lol

This is a bad team that has like 3 good players on it. This is multi season rebuild and to think anything else is lolworthy

did that dude seriously just say the raptors could "choose to win right now"

He said we would make the playoffs not that we would be contenders or anything.

I don't think he is really that far off that thinking if we were somewhat healthy we could be on the same level as Indiana or Atlanta. We have yet to see a game without 2+ significant pieces (and generally, 3+) on the injury report. Last night was probably the healthiest we have been, and we were still missing our leading scorer and Brown.

[Tacoma]

Yes I did, and I’ll double down on that. We have yet to field our 5 projected starters at the beginning of the year at the same time. IQ/Gradey/RJ/Scottie/Jak

I don't get your "choose" remark either. Since your justification of why we're so bad is due to injuries, but you can't choose not to have injuries, then what other choices we can make to "choose to win right now" that would allow us to "make the playoffs"?

Well, we have a whole lot of players who would probably play more or would return from injury sooner were we trying to win. Since we’re tanking it’s less of a rush.

IQ came back today. We had our starting 5 minus RJ. Now it’s against a tanking team too, but we won in a blowout by 20 on the second night of a back to back.

Other choices would be playing our best players more, changing the rotations to focus on winning instead of development, putting players in positions where they’re consistent eg. Scottie closer to the basket. We’re having people learn different roles and positions and develop their games.

OK, I get it but choosing to or not, playoffs is still a stretch. There was a thread here before this season that asked for predicted # wins and the majority chose somewhere 30-35 wins which is around 10th/11th place in East, at bottom play-in or lotto team.

To do better (i.e., legit playoff team), we needed at least one key player to have a breakout season, but we have not seen this so far. RJ continues to be better than in NY but he's still essentially the same player. Barnes has not improved from last year. IQ is still a TBD. Gradey still has shooting woes, etc. We're still not there IMO.

Thus can't agree that making the playoffs as just a matter of us choosing to do so (unless that choice is selling draft picks for win-now player(s), which would be foolish at this point). We still have a ways to go.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Last night we saw the team at almost full strength. Granted the opposition was inferior, but the result was encouraging nonetheless. Assuming no further injuries, we'll be looking at IQ, Dick, RJ, Barnes & Poeltl plus Agbaji, Brown & Olynyk as the main rotation guys with limited minutes from Mitchell, Shead & Walter. We'll see how this group fares. With that said, I fully expect at least one & hopefully several, of Brown, Boucher, Mitchell & Olynyk to be on the move by the deadline.

What about Amuse Boucher?

[Merit]

Ya thought so. Reason people like you dont want to trade Poeltl is because you secretly think we're a good team, lmfao. A 50 point blowout wont convince you otherwise. An 11 game losing streak is brushed over. Giving up 120 points night in, night out doesnt matter, because we can make the playoffs as soon as we want to. lol

This is a bad team that has like 3 good players on it. This is multi season rebuild and to think anything else is lolworthy

did that dude seriously just say the raptors could "choose to win right now"

He said we would make the playoffs not that we would be contenders or anything.

I don't think he is really that far off that thinking if we were somewhat healthy we could be on the same level as Indiana or Atlanta. We have yet to see a game without 2+ significant pieces (and generally, 3+) on the injury report. Last night was probably the healthiest we have been, and we were still missing our leading scorer and Brown.

Thanks for adding clarity to where I was coming from. Furthermore, there are already a bunch of teams tanking liberally (and New Orleans accidentally tanking) and as such we'd have an easier chance of getting to the play-in or playoffs this year than in some other years.

[LoveMyRaps]

These guys should be traded at the deadline for picks:

Poeltl, Olynyk, Boucher, Brown, Davion

None of those aforementioned names should be on this team past the deadline.

Draft a center prospect in the upcoming draft, whether its one of the Ivisic brothers or Zikarsky or whoever.

[Merit]

I don't get your "choose" remark either. Since your justification of why we're so bad is due to injuries, but you can't choose not to have injuries, then what other choices we can make to "choose to win right now" that would allow us to "make the playoffs"?

Well, we have a whole lot of players who would probably play more or would return from injury sooner were we trying to win. Since we’re tanking it’s less of a rush.

IQ came back today. We had our starting 5 minus RJ. Now it’s against a tanking team too, but we won in a blowout by 20 on the second night of a back to back.

Other choices would be playing our best players more, changing the rotations to focus on winning instead of development, putting players in positions where they’re consistent eg. Scottie closer to the basket. We’re having people learn different roles and positions and develop their games.

OK, I get it but choosing to or not, playoffs is still a stretch. There was a thread here before this season that asked for predicted # wins and the majority chose somewhere 30-35 wins which is around 10th/11th place in East, at bottom play-in or lotto team.

To do better (i.e., legit playoff team), we needed at least one key player to have a breakout season, but we have not seen this so far. RJ continues to be better than in NY but he's still essentially the same player. Barnes has not improved from last year. IQ is still a TBD. Gradey still has shooting woes, etc. We're still not there IMO.

Thus can't agree that making the playoffs as just a matter of us choosing to do so (unless that choice is selling draft picks for win-now player(s), which would be foolish at this point). We still have a ways to go.

See I disagree. I'm not saying it's likely we win all that much once we get into the playoffs, but we can get to the play-in for sure if our priority was winning. Our starting 5 is competitive. IQ/RJ/Ochai/Scottie/Jak; then Mitchell/Gradey/Brown/Boucher/Kelly is a solid bench. We are deep as we'd still have our 3 rookies this year and Battle and Chomche. In my opinion, we have a breakout season from RJ, and we still haven't seen our team at full strength. Our rotations and position shifting (Scottie at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; RJ at 1, 2, 3; Ochai at 2, 3, 4; Gradey at 2, 3, spot 4) plus our playing Jakobe, Shead, Battle and Mogbo in spite of their mistakes is what's causing losses. The most obvious sign of this is the massive amount of turnovers.

That said, we should definitely trade Brown and Boucher and possibly even Olynyk, Mitchell and others. Doing so weakens our bench and makes it more difficult to have winning streaks and makes it more likely we sustain injury.

I feel my perspective is moderate and the best part is we are losing while being competitive. With the exception of the 5 or so games prior to last night we have consistently been a fun team to watch. Let's hope that continues.

[Merit]

Last night we saw the team at almost full strength. Granted the opposition was inferior, but the result was encouraging nonetheless. Assuming no further injuries, we'll be looking at IQ, Dick, RJ, Barnes & Poeltl plus Agbaji, Brown & Olynyk as the main rotation guys with limited minutes from Mitchell, Shead & Walter. We'll see how this group fares. With that said, I fully expect at least one & hopefully several, of Brown, Boucher, Mitchell & Olynyk to be on the move by the deadline.

What about Amuse Boucher?

As islandboy53 suggested, he should be traded. I feel like we've been showcasing him a fair bit.

[Merit]

These guys should be traded at the deadline for picks:

Poeltl, Olynyk, Boucher, Brown, Davion

None of those aforementioned names should be on this team past the deadline.

Draft a center prospect in the upcoming draft, whether its one of the Ivisic brothers or Zikarsky or whoever.

I don't know enough about the upcoming draft to comment on your suggestions, but moving all our expiring and filler contracts for better/younger picks and pieces works for me.

[LoveMyRaps]

A name to keep on your radars - Max Christie.

Loved this kid from college. Still only 21 and oozing with potential.

Hopefully we can get him in any deal with the Lakers.

Will post a full scouting report if we do.

Well... as the saying goes.... yesterday's price is not today's price.

Watch on YouTube

[Raptorfan2012]

These guys should be traded at the deadline for picks:

Poeltl, Olynyk, Boucher, Brown, Davion

None of those aforementioned names should be on this team past the deadline.

Draft a center prospect in the upcoming draft, whether its one of the Ivisic brothers or Zikarsky or whoever.

Jak ain’t going anywhere unless the return is astronomical and includes a young big in return.

[Merit]

These guys should be traded at the deadline for picks:

Poeltl, Olynyk, Boucher, Brown, Davion

None of those aforementioned names should be on this team past the deadline.

Draft a center prospect in the upcoming draft, whether its one of the Ivisic brothers or Zikarsky or whoever.

I don't know enough about the upcoming draft to comment on your suggestions, but moving all our expiring and filler contracts for better/younger picks and pieces works for me.

I’d also like to add that I really like Jak as a player and his fit with the team so moving him would be my lowest priority.