The Official "Raptors vs Huskies" thread: Vote Now

[Saul Goodman]

View this before voting.

I'm somewhat against dropping the Raptors name but those jerseys are CLEAN

[Marmoset]

I posted this in the thread with Kelly's garbage, but I'll post it here as well.

This is really starting to get under my skin. Raptors, taken by itself, is one of the better names in the NBA.

Celtics, Mavericks, Nets, Knicks, 76ers, Cavaliers, Clippers, Kings.

Those are the only good names in this league if you take away the NBA meaning. And not to mention "Toronto Raptors" fits so well phonetically. That is one of the reasons why LA Lakers works. Just sounds like they belong together.

Suns? Wizards? Magic? Bobcats? Pelicans? Even the name "Bulls" sucks by itself, though Timberwolves takes the cake. I don't see them rushing to change their names.

And it doesn't help that everyone wants it changed to the Huskies! HUSKIES?

If anyone can explain why the name "Huskies" is better than "Raptors", I'll forever be grateful.

Excellent post. This sums up my feelings very well. The uniforms might be so-so, but there's nothing wrong with the name.

If the team wins, nobody will care what the name is. The fact the team hasn't won is the main reason this keeps coming up for discussion. Calling the team the Huskies won't make the team successful any more than calling the Hornets the Pelicans will bring a winner to New Orleans. For a year or two, the team would sell a few more jerseys, and that's about it.

[Paradise]

Just adding in my two cents on the debate:

You don't really need to drop the name to rebrand and create a new image to brand across Canada and mainly to get people talking in Toronto. The main goal Tim is trying to do is make the franchise popular in Canada and the US. His goal is to put the Raptors organization in the same conversation as the Knicks, Bulls, Celtics, Lakers brand.

The Nets for example felt the needed a new name to get accepted in NY. Eventually, they decided to keep the name "Nets" and just rebrand the logos, colors, jerseys and merchandise of the team and franchise and the Nets got accepted here in Brooklyn because of the rebrand and most importantly because they got a star player to buy into the rebrand. Not only did NYC buy into the Nets rebrand but it actually went global. Nets went from 31st overall in merchandise sales to 4th in 1 season.

What the Raptors need to do is figure out FIRST what they plan to do with their roster. Are they going to rebuild or retool? Because selling the roster and the talent on your team is the first step to making a franchise rebrand (New Orleans for example), then they really need to do study and research on how people feel about the Raptors in general and calculate studies on where the interest of the Raptors brand is, in terms of merchandise sales, viewership and attendance.

The key to rebranding is to get merchandise, viewership, attendance all on the same page because that basically shows people are buying into it because there is alot of teams that have rebranded and it has failed (Charlotte bobcats).

Judging by what I saw from the Raptors after they acquired Rudy Gay, it seems like that really energized the fanbase and they really were behind the Raptors. Seems like all they want is a winning product to make the Raptors really come to life as an NBA brand but if they are 100% sold on a rebrand, the Huskies are a no brainer. Fits and also embraces the cold side of Canada and gives the team an image that isn't really forcing the whole "Canada" vibe.

Tim has alot to work with to make the Raptors popular if he does decide to go with a rebrand to the Huskies since he could tank for Wiggins and brand the franchise with Wiggins as the face or if they decide to keep the DeRozan/Gay duo, they can pretty much sell them because they are fun to watch regardless on what you think about them statistically.

I would personally keep the Raptors because while some fans might feel it's associating 18 years of failure or 7 years of the BC era every franchise has had start from the bottom. The only reason a franchise would really need to rebrand is if they don't have fans and aren't cared about like the Bobcats brand when everyone wanted the Hornets or if the brand itself doesn't fit the city.

The Raptors have a great fanbase, great brand identity, all that's missing is just a great team. All they need to do is just drop the dinosaur logo and roll with the claw logo as the primary and only logo.