2021 Free Agency News & Discussion Part 2

[ironmanm20]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but since free agents can’t be signed until Friday then that means the s&t for Lowry can’t happen until then as well. So everyone mad about not trading Dragic to another team yet isn’t considering the fact that we can’t because he’s not our asset until then. The moves we can make have been made, nothing else can happen until Friday’s move. Am I wrong on this?

[RapsFanInOhio]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but since free agents can’t be signed until Friday then that means the s&t for Lowry can’t happen until then as well. So everyone mad about not trading Dragic to another team yet isn’t considering the fact that we can’t because he’s not our asset until then. The moves we can make have been made, nothing else can happen until Friday’s move. Am I wrong on this?

You can setup a deal where Dragic goes to a 3rd team without us taking anything back. We couldn’t get that done, though - which was evident by Holmes tweet. We were working on it but couldn’t find a taker - we almost assuredly could have beaten the Holmes offer that he got from Sacramento.

Everyone knows after 6:00pm things get crazy. We should have either planned better with a 3rd team or we shouldn’t have done the S&T and used the space.

[bballwatcher23]

Tough day at the office on all fronts. Lets hope day 2 is better.

Not that tough. What were you expecting?

We are not a destination team right now so we're not going to get any top tier free agents but we didn't do anything stupid like blow all our caps pace on middling players like the Knicks, either.

[RapsFanInOhio]

I can vaguely remember the 2018 off-season feeling the same way until they made the Kawhi move, so I’m holding out some semblance of hope, I guess. There isn’t a Kawhi on the market though and no, I don’t think Lillard has the same impact as Kawhi. With a Lillard deal you’re probably giving up OG or at least one of Siakam or FVV along with a ton of picks. Moving any of those three in a Lillard deal doesn’t feel like it makes us any closer to a ship.

The only logical thing to me now is the Siakam for Wiggins, Wiseman, and Kuminga deal. At least we get some depth there and I don’t have to watch Drummond or Baynes clog up minutes at the 5 this year.

[jacinto]

Need to realize you're not going to get good players anymore for 10 million. Salaries to GTJ and Dragic are average in this day NBA. Player retention is also very important so long as they can still produce and come at good value - that's why I'm glad Lowry is gone.

[Phezmo123]

I can vaguely remember the 2018 off-season feeling the same way until they made the Kawhi move, so I’m holding out some semblance of hope, I guess. There isn’t a Kawhi on the market though and no, I don’t think Lillard has the same impact as Kawhi. With a Lillard deal you’re probably giving up OG or at least one of Siakam or FVV along with a ton of picks. Moving any of those three in a Lillard deal doesn’t feel like it makes us any closer to a ship.

The only logical thing to me now is the Siakam for Wiggins, Wiseman, and Kuminga deal. At least we get some depth there and I don’t have to watch Drummond or Baynes clog up minutes at the 5 this year.

That trade would solidify the tank next season and it’s why I want to do it.

[rifai45]

Don’t expect anything major today. All that’s left for the raps is to move dragic for pretty much nothing and sign another big and wing. Likely Birch and probably someone like Malik Monk.

[MavCarter]

Am i the only one who thinks reddit is better than realgm now? This place is filled with permanent pessimists who despite a championship are still scarred by the babcock/bc days lol.

[Brinbe]

I have no idea what we’re doing.

- Win now roster, draft a project.
- Center was our biggest hole last year, obtain a tweener forward and pass on two guys who didn’t sign astronomical deals with their teams because you couldn’t get a third team involved in a S&T that you knew you were going to do months ago.
- Pick yet another tweener, no offense big (Achiuwa) over a guy who can actually score the ball (Herro) and again failing to realize that the NBA is now about scoring in the playoffs. I normally wouldn’t assume this to be true but with the other baffling decisions they’ve made this off-season, I’m not ruling that out.
- Gave a 22 year old a player option after two years in a good faith effort to create extra space that you’re not going to end up using.

I just can’t.

agree with you completely. they're trying to thread a needle between competing and playing/developing the young guys and making a move for a star if they become available. that's sort of a risky plan, since you'd have to keep your roster good enough to a certain level where a star would make a difference, right? but getting a star isn't guaranteed obviously, so you're kinda stuck for the moment in the middle, which maybe isn't ideal.

based on our purported interest in allen/holmes/etc it's not like they're outright trying to tank as some have suggested. they clearly still want to get better, even if they're not contending this season. so they tried, and now it's on to plan c/d/e.

also, we're obviously thankful for the chip, but it's alright to point out that they're not infallible gods. that also doesn't mean anyone wants anyone fired. not everything will work out perfectly. shouting about how so-so wouldn't move the needle, so why even try, is a real tiresome argument. obviously the fo cares, they're the ones trying to make those moves.

anyway, it's like we had this nice era in time with lowry on-board that pretty much elevated us to unseen heights, especially after the Rudy/Sac trade, and now we'e kinda right back to where we were before we had lowry and that was a really distressing/depressing place to be.

so we'll see how/if they pivot now going forward. it's officially a new chapter in raptors basketball. do they move on from fred/pascal and embrace this youth movement or stay the course? probably a mixture of both? we will see.

[Rapsfan07]

I have no idea what we’re doing.

- Win now roster, draft a project.
- Center was our biggest hole last year, obtain a tweener forward and pass on two guys who didn’t sign astronomical deals with their teams because you couldn’t get a third team involved in a S&T that you knew you were going to do months ago.
- Pick yet another tweener, no offense big (Achiuwa) over a guy who can actually score the ball (Herro) and again failing to realize that the NBA is now about scoring in the playoffs. I normally wouldn’t assume this to be true but with the other baffling decisions they’ve made this off-season, I’m not ruling that out.
- Gave a 22 year old a player option after two years in a good faith effort to create extra space that you’re not going to end up using.

I just can’t.

See what I'm saying.

The Masai nut huggers just gonna find a way to explain it

[Sandman88]

Front office once again needs to pick a direction. We have win now pieces like Fred and Siakam, but the rest of the roster is 23 and younger. As it stands we are slated to be worse than last year.

I sure hope the front office has a plan this off-season.

[hyper316]

Birch + Achiuwa is an upgrade to Baynes + Len, but still leaves a bad taste wanting for more.

Starting 5 badly needs 3pt shooting, Olynyk would have been a good choice at reasonable price.

This unknown of where Dragic will go and for what shows lack of foresight, FA pool has dried up in matter of hours at free agency.

Not drafting a Center prospect in 2nd round when Banton easily could have went undrafted is a head scratcher.

Edit: I think the only move to be made that would salvage this FA is somehow flip Dragic to Turner. I personally is concerned with Turner injury history and do not want but it's the only move to compete and not play-in/lottery-bound

[The Duke]

It’s becoming more and more apparent our front office has dropped the ball. The Lowry S&T, giving Trent a PO, and not signing anyone of note = a disastrous offseason. The Masai and Bobby apologists have a lot of explaining to do.

I'm not sure if the FO dropped the ball... maybe that's just how things went.

- Raps liked Precious, only way to get him was to agree to take Dragic (and then try to move him independently) ... or take cap space and blow the load on 2nd/3rd tier FAs today.

- What if the cost to make the 3rd year firm for Trent , an extra $10M (over 3 years) .. would that be better?

- Not signing anyone of note ... Raps up against the wall, teams could be telling players who knows where Toronto is actually playing this coming year. Plus we always had trouble getting 'good' FAs even before COViD. Heck we didn't sign anyone good, even directly after winning the championship. We'll likely never sign anyone outright good, we might be only able to trade for them (when the stars align), hence MU needs movable contracts to facilitate that type of transaction

[bballwatcher23]

There is no way we had a choice between Herro and Achiuwa in the trade. That's why the trade broke down at the deadline.

[DatHomieYouHaTe]

Tough day at the office on all fronts. Lets hope day 2 is better.

Not that tough. What were you expecting?

We are not a destination team right now so we're not going to get any top tier free agents but we didn't do anything stupid like blow all our caps pace on middling players like the Knicks, either.

We couldn't even sign anyone.. no cap space because of Dragic... We waited all those years for the 2021 offseason for nothing.

[The Duke]

Front office once again needs to pick a direction. We have win now pieces like Fred and Siakam, but the rest of the roster is 23 and younger. As it stands we are slated to be worse than last year.

I sure hope the front office has a plan this off-season.

Let's say Front Office choose tank/rebuild. What would you have done differently and let's assume GS is not trading Wiggins/Kumminga/etc to Raptors for Siakam (now, while injured)

[ash_k]

PG FVV
SG GJTr
SF OG
PF Siakam
C
We are in win-now as long as we have FVV&Siakam. FVV has already proven that he can lead the team to victories without Kyle.
Our C must be a stretch 5 but I would be curious to see how Nurse utilizes a rebounding machine like Drummond.
W/out a Center we managed to be ranked 4th in the East: Yup we are certainly in win-now mode. Some of you can pretend all you want that "we will be tanking next season"

[ItsDanger]

What happens to Dragic now? Buy out and someone gets him cheap? Not a good look.

[T-d0t]

Can't believe people are surprised by this off-season.

[mtcan]

What happens to Dragic now? Buy out and someone gets him cheap? Not a good look.

I don't care what happens to Dragic. There is no long term impact whatever happens to him.