Masai Approval Rating Post-Deadline

[LoveMyRaps]

Side poll:

Who's gonna be the first to submit an 'F' rating?

Scase
DelAbbot
ItDanger
Other

I gave him a C-, but good job being a troll I guess, nice prediction there Nostradamus.

LOL it's all love. Just lightening the mood & having some fun. We agree on some stuff, disagree on others. Life goes on!

[LarSiN]

Can't give an A considering how we are falling in the tank race this year. Good job acquiring assets though so B+ overall

We're pretty firmly bottom 5 & about to go on a string of L's. We were never going to be Washington bad

[TGM]

Masai is doing a hell of a job.

Those who just want to tank hard, clearly have not been in business before. How do you think Scottie would feel him being in his fourth year of the NBA and the team is looking to still tank. You can't always just reset the counter completely. If we didn't have Scottie maybe a full tank would make sense and would also be a lot easier. The fact is you play with the cards you are dealt with. The other option is we should have traded Scottie and went all out on the tank for 3 years, but fans would have burnt down Toronto if we traded Scottie especially after him winning ROY.

Let me lay out a few outcomes:

Assume full tanking was a realistic option in the last two drafts. Let's put Wemby aside (everyone should have tanked for him by anyones logic) and assume the Raps drafted 2nd or 3rd in the last two drafts and we kept Scottie and he was okay with the tank.

Today this is our core: Pick any two of the four: Brandon Miller or Scoot for 2023 and Sheppard or Sarr for 2024. We'll add back the first from Jakob as well which was Dillingham.

Scoot
Dillingham
Jakobe
Barnes
Sarr

versus

IQ
Barrett -Jakobe
Ingram - Dick
Barnes
Jakob

You honestly think the first is a better core than what we have right now? This is already assuming we got very lucky and were able to out tank other tank commanders and land the 2nd and 3rd picks.

The NY trade wouldn't have happened and we would have took 3 late first rounders for OG instead.

Now obviously if you want to be selective and assumed Raps picked the top player at each spot in the early and later rounds sure we would a better team, but let's be realistic. Fred gone, we would have taken Scoot. No Jakob we would have taken Sarr. We would then fill out with a bunch of other rookies that most likely are not big game changers.

Most fans hating Masai have a tendency to think with hindsight or hopium. We could have had that player, why didn't we do that trade or get that value. Just think about the enthusiasm for Scoot two years ago and now. Sports is a business you don't just keep buying lottery tickets.

The team is so well positioned that it is understated. Going into next season and we have a lot of contracts of good quality players that can be easily combined for a bigger deal. The players are young and earning their salary. Contenders or past contenders need to start the rebuild would happily take our players or picks. We have all our first round picks. We have a group of rookies on cheap deals and team control in restricted FA few years down the road. We are under the luxury tax and will likely stay there going up to the trade deadline next year to give us maximum trade flexibility, that is when the hammer will drop.

Next year you might have the biggest list of past 30 years old superstars for sale: Giannis, Dame, Steph, Jimmy, KD, Joel, George, Kawhi, Harden. Let's not forget also the mid tier teams that might decide to rebuild? Miami, Kings. The price for those players will also be surprisingly cheap. This is where having a somewhat experienced roster makes sense cause your team is ready to compete, and thats why having some guys like Ingram, Jakob is not a bad thing. Championship teams don't win with a group of 23 year olds. Has never happened!

With so many teams needing to reset, the Raps will be in a great spot to nab one of the guys above. Outside of Scottie, you can upgrade any of the four other positions.

[Syd-TK3]

No approval until I see a proper tank

[Brinbe]

B+ here. Has done a good job of collecting assets and navigating out of a mistake of his own making but gotta reserve that higher grade for when they actually start winning for real.

[Godaddycurse]

Can't give an A considering how we are falling in the tank race this year. Good job acquiring assets though so B+ overall

We're pretty firmly bottom 5 & about to go on a string of L's. We were never going to be Washington bad

brooklyn is only 1 game back of us for 5th. We have a easier schedule ahead rest of season too

[Rainman66]

it seems to be a B, idk how anyone can classify this as a "F" until these pieces have played on the court and shown that they are misfits, until then its a B. This trade has potential to have a Rudy Gay or Jakob Poetl like outcome, but I can see it to having an Andre Iguodala/ Marc Gasol type of impact as well- time will tell, given Masai's track record in terms of mid season acquisitions.

Does anyone know what the finalzed roster spots look like? WIll PJ tucker and wiseman make the roster? I am hoping Orob can be signed for the rest of season.

[DelAbbot]

Side poll:

Who's gonna be the first to submit an 'F' rating?

Scase
DelAbbot
ItDanger
Other

I gave him a C-, but good job being a troll I guess, nice prediction there Nostradamus.

LOL it's all love. Just lightening the mood & having some fun. We agree on some stuff, disagree on others. Life goes on!

LMR what happened to you not interested in Brandon Ingram, but demanding Zion, before this deal? I saw all your posts in the rumors threads

[DelAbbot]

I hate his approach to team building and I don’t think he has any plan to build a sustainable contender.

Being Sacramento of the East doesn’t excite me at all.

This is definitely the way to go about if Masai's goal is securing his next contract because
- it accelerates the winning timeframe to next season, (I believe is) his last season on current contract
- it adds to the offense, despite overlap with RJ, but that will sell tickets because post-championship fans will eat up anything and pay.

So it doesn't matter that this move is capping the ceiling of this team. It will be 6th-4th playoff seed with some tickering (if BI stays healthy), and that will be enough to make MLSE money, keep Masai employed, and feed the chest pumping homers.

EDIT:

I can definitely see Masai's insecurity about his next contract driving these decisions. But that insecurity is still his own fault for not doing his job despite being paid one of the highest executives in the NBA for the past 3 seasons.

[LoveMyRaps]

I gave him a C-, but good job being a troll I guess, nice prediction there Nostradamus.

LOL it's all love. Just lightening the mood & having some fun. We agree on some stuff, disagree on others. Life goes on!

LMR what happened to you not interested in Brandon Ingram, but demanding Zion, before this deal? I saw all your posts in the rumors threads

Definitely wanted Zion, no denying that. But after seeing us acquire Ingram without having to give up RJ or anything significant, how could I (or anyone for that matter) possibly complain?

I always preach durability. Ingram is talented, no denying that. But him being injury prone does worry me a bit, and is the whole reason I was also demanding an OG trade for years.
I'm optimistic we can keep him in check, and if healthy he's a very good player to have. Pels have a rep for having a terrible medical staff.

With that being said, even IF Ingram doesn't work out because god forbid he gets injured again, I can still sleep at night knowing that we only gave up a first rounder in the 20-25 range. It's a worth risking taking.

[LoveMyRaps]

We have a lot more valuable trade assets than we did a year ago....

When the time is right... Masai will strike and land us another big name.

[DelAbbot]

LOL it's all love. Just lightening the mood & having some fun. We agree on some stuff, disagree on others. Life goes on!

LMR what happened to you not interested in Brandon Ingram, but demanding Zion, before this deal? I saw all your posts in the rumors threads

Definitely wanted Zion, no denying that. But after seeing us acquire Ingram without having to give up RJ or anything significant, how could I (or anyone for that matter) possibly complain?

I always preach durability. Ingram is talented, no denying that. But him being injury prone does worry me a bit, and is the whole reason I was also demanding an OG trade for years.
I'm optimistic we can keep him in check, and if healthy he's a very good player to have. Pels have a rep for having a terrible medical staff.

With that being said, even IF Ingram doesn't work out because god forbid he gets injured again, I can still sleep at night knowing that we only gave up a first rounder in the 20-25 range. It's a worth risking taking.

yeah as long as the tank stays intact, I'm not sweating that IND pick. In fact, I would sleep better if Ingram demands $50M AAV and we just let him walk, than paying like $45 AAV for 3+ seasons

[___Rand___]

I've been a long time fan of Masai. BUT I think we need to hold the As. His performance post championship has been mediocre.

[ItsDanger]

Side poll:

Who's gonna be the first to submit an 'F' rating?

Scase
DelAbbot
ItDanger
Other

I wasn't quick enough.

F. Expensive low upside roster. Wing defense of RJ and BI is BBQ chicken. But maybe the '25 1st round pick salvages the outlook. Masai just couldn't resist a potential buy low opportunity.

[sidsid]

Considering the potential alternatives to what happened at the deadline to focus on asset acquisition as opposed to asset draining.

- Wizards/Memphis deal could have been done with Brown or the Boucher/Davion contracts. Netting us a 1st.
- Tough to say what was on offer for Jak from the Lakers, but seeing the pick plus swap got a younger C, you could maybe assume we were at least offered the one pick for the older Jak.

Smaller deals are probably less likely for the rest of the targets for the same reason Davion was the only follow up for what happened. Out of tax space to work with.

Putting it all together, potentially being up 3 1sts (counting keeping the Indy pick in this scenario) instead of down 1 in terms of future assets, is significant. If you add up all the lost opportunities of the last few years following this similar pattern, its been a particularly damaging stretch for him.

[DelAbbot]

Oh I just remembered.

I was told showcasing Boucher, Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk by going 7-1 would pump their value and fetch us more return in a trade

Now crickets....

[ItsDanger]

Boucher extension incoming.

[Rainman66]

How is it an "expensive low upside roster" already we havnt signed or extended anyone yet we can let ingram walk for all we know and be back to full throttle tank, there isnt any committment here

[twiggy2]

I rated low. Somehow we have less first rounders after the deadline than going in.

[ontnut]

A-/B+. Couldn't decide, gave benefit of the doubt to A-.

Much depends on what he does with the BI contract.
In terms of pure deadline moves value wise, A.