Do you consider the NBA a championship or bust league?

[Throwback24]

Obviously the end goal for any team is to win a championship but I've really come around on the thought of preemptively pushing the detonate button on teams like the Raptors that could be on the cusp of becoming an actual final contender. If they could somehow swing a trade for a disgruntled star sometime during the season, you go from being a bubble team to a real player and Houston just did that very thing.

I don't know. Personally I enjoy following the mini storylines each team has.

Will the Celtics try out an all 6'6 lineup?
Will Bender or Chriss prove to be assets on the Suns?
Will the Wolves take the leap?
How bad is Chicago? Philly bad?
Does Giannis turn into the best player in the lg?
Does the Davis-Cousins pairing work?

You've got a ton of sophomore players who come into the season with big expectations and transcendent rookies with their own story lines as well. It seems like the NBA more than any league has come down to a, 'I'll tune in during the playoffs' sport. What's even more baffling is those same people are the first ones to snatch the mic and come out with hot takes not having watched a single game before football ends.

I actually enjoy the 'process' of watching a team mesh, tinker with new lineups+sets and evolve over the course of the season. The Raptors.... don't exactly fit that bill for me but some other teams do.

What say you?

[Double Helix]

Rather than zoom out and look at 90+ games of basketball in a binary way of yes or no I choose to live in the moment of the games themselves and just enjoy them for the stories and developments that occur.

This is one of the sports with the least parity and least surprises in terms of your primary question and it's been that way for decades. We all grew up with it. We still love the game for the game.

I want to go as far as we can during the 3 year window and when it's done if we rebuild I'll hope the next core goes even further and try to enjoy it game by game while we wait.


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[DeKobe DeBryant]

It's definitely not a championship or bust league.

Ask me this. Would I rather have 20 years of memories while watching the Raptors even though they never win, or get to live 1 day where they win a championship? I'm taking the 20 years.

[TackyRapsFan]

Yes, it's basically championship or nothing. Nobody cares about Bostons 6 foot 6 line up or Phoenix Suns power forwards.

Are we winning or nah?

In the Premiership, 5 teams make it to Europe, 3 teams get relegated and there's the FA Cup and another cup. It's awesome.


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[Steelo Green]

It's definitely not a championship or bust league.

Ask me this. Would I rather have 20 years of memories while watching the Raptors even though they never win, or get to live 1 day where they win a championship? I'm taking the 20 years.

Winning a championship is a year long journey that one will remember for years.

The Pistons for example have a title their fans probably still get goosebumps about.

The NBA is not a championship or bust league, but winning a title, and that season of the title is more memorable for many years than say 4-6 years of conference finals.

[dkb33]

I think if you are a fan of the Toronto Raptors and believe this then I politely suggest you change your tune or your favourite team. The Raptors are the black sheep of the NBA and will always be that. People may laugh at me, but that All-Star game was a disaster because it was cold as it has ever been in southern Ontario that weekend, that I can remember. Painfully cold.

No team USA guys are coming here unless they are drafted or traded for. I hear way too much hate on here in regards to DeRozan. The dude is flawed as a player and I get that but when you are a 5 in terms of a destination and have an 7.5 on your hands shut the **** up. The fact the Raptors were two wins away from the finals blew my load a couple of springs ago. Look at the teams that win Championships. They are few and far between for one and they need 1 HOF at the least.

If the Raptors drafted Dirk maybe they could have keep him ala Dallas. Nobody can compete in the next 2-3 years with GS anyway. The team is one that I can hold my head up high being a fan of and call me a sucker but I am happy with Lowry/DeRozan/Ibaka for the next 3 years. Tanking is a loser mentality and I don't believe in that. Everyone likes to compare the Raptors to the Hawks but they never took 2 games off a healthy James led team in the ECF. The last team to do that was the Pacers who the Raptors have beat. Be greatfull for what you have.

[Tofubeque]

Players like Stockton/Malone and Barkley became league icons and lead memorable teams, without winning titles.

I think good teams of this era deserve the same if not more respect, because they're contending with a superteam that has actually surpassed Jordan's 72 win Bulls.

[RaptorsLife]

Yeah it's definitely championship or bust for me

[Johnny Bball]

Not sure how anyone could say its championship or bust and still watch this year.

[JShuttlesworth]

I'm a fan of basketball, so no, it's not championship or bust. I enjoy watching the game, and we've come a long way as an organization compared to where we were in the 90's and early 2000's. Masai runs things properly now, I've definitely had a lot of memories over the last few years watching this team, compared to when we used to be absolutely garbage.

Would I like us to win? Absolutely. But I'd be watching 90% of the games even if we went 20-62.

[dkb33]

Yeah it's definitely championship or bust for me

Then cheer for the Warriors because they are winning EVERY YEAR. Durant/Curry/Green/Thompson with elite roles players. NOBODY is beating them 4 times out 7. This is a true great team of all time. The best ever naw. Jordan/Pippen/Kukoč/Rodman is the best to me but what do I know.

[dkb33]

[quote="JShuttlesworth"]I'm a fan of basketball, so no, it's not championship or bust. I enjoy watching the game, and we've come a long way as an organization compared to where we were in the 90's and early 2000's. Masai runs things properly now, I've definitely had a lot of memories over the last few years watching this team, compared to when we used to be absolutely garbage.

Would I like us to win? Absolutely. But I'd be watching 90% of the games even if

Well said. It is like everyone pushes aside an ECF spot where the Raptors took wins off the best I have seen since Jordan. The Raptors have been the current Magic for 20 years outside of Vince and a much less level Bosh.

[RaptorsLife]

Yeah it's definitely championship or bust for me

Then cheer for the Warriors because they are winning EVERY YEAR. Durant/Curry/Green/Thompson with elite roles players. NOBODY is beating them 4 times out 7. This is a true great team of all time. The best ever naw. Jordan/Pippen/Kukoč/Rodman is the best to me but what do I know.

This logic is weak

Anytime you say something negative about raptors someone tells you to cheer for another team.

I want to see the raptors win a championship. The last 4 years was jolly good fun but staying the same. Staganation of any kind in life is bad.

It's all about growth.

Championship only thing is the end goal don't ask me this. The players will say same thing.

I'm gonna be really interested in the ratings this season for this team. If a die hard fan like me doesn't have the same enthusiasm about this same core I can only imagine the casuals who will have the More talented maple leafs to watch

[Double Helix]

I would love to win a championship. I just don't know what you have left of a league or a sport if you regularly have 25 teams who've decided they don't have enough to do it and quitting, lighting their businesses on fire for insurance money (tanking) and starting over and over and over and over again.

This isn't Nintendo. This is 30 teams with arenas designed for 20,000 people in each city to come and watch the sport they love played, enjoy some food and beverages with friends or family and to cheer on the home team for a fun night out. This is a billion dollar TV property designed to entertain.

We all played sports as kids. Sometimes we were outgunned. Often there were teams better. But we fought now and then and tried to get better and see how good we could be and I think it's important for the sake of sport that teams still do that now and then.

My take is that these things should be cyclical.

1) Rebuild through a draft for 3-4 years of high picks.

2) Assess talent and make trades. Add some vets and the right coach to max out your new core.

3) Have some patience and give the guys a shot and your fans a chance to see what happens with them. The fans watched them grow. Let them see where the guys max out.

4) If they max out low and trades can't seem to push them up to home playoff seed level and they're 5-6 then consider starting over after a couple years of just that. If they're maxing out at that 7-11 range and don't have much room to grow you basically have to start over. If you're 4 or above you can wait and hope for some more breaks.

5) When they age to the point where they've fallen back to 5-6 and later 7 or less you rebuild again. Then step 2 repeats and leads back into step 1 and you repeat the cycle.

That feels natural and respects the sporting process and the game itself. But it also isn't delusional and still suggests maxing out the tank window and making use of the NBA bankruptcy rules that exist when you're in a rebuild window. Tank hard until they reform the system somehow.

[Gold Dragon]

We live in a championship or bust culture which has no perseverance, gives up unless something is easy and doesn't have the attention span to see through the development of a culture which takes years if not decades to foster. It is much easier to press reset on your video game.

[Mack11]

will pounding the rock finally work
will JV come back leaner sober and quicker
will casey indeed run plays for JV this time
will derozan and lowry ease up on the ISO ball
will our young guys perform
will bruno prove hes not a bust

Spoiler:

stay tuned for the next exciting episode of DRAGON BALL Z

[OvOh]

will pounding the rock finally work
will JV come back leaner sober and quicker
will casey indeed run plays for JV this time
will derozan and lowry ease up on the ISO ball
will our young guys perform
will bruno prove hes not a bust

Spoiler:

stay tuned for the next exciting episode of DRAGON BALL Z

Will Casey actually implement an effective offensive system this season? Will it be high octane as he claims?
Will Derozan actually develop a reliable 3 ball?
Will OG's shorts get progressively shorter as the season goes on?

[Johnny Bball]

Yeah it's definitely championship or bust for me

Then cheer for the Warriors because they are winning EVERY YEAR. Durant/Curry/Green/Thompson with elite roles players. NOBODY is beating them 4 times out 7. This is a true great team of all time. The best ever naw. Jordan/Pippen/Kukoč/Rodman is the best to me but what do I know.

This logic is weak

Anytime you say something negative about raptors someone tells you to cheer for another team.

I want to see the raptors win a championship. The last 4 years was jolly good fun but staying the same. Staganation of any kind in life is bad.

It's all about growth.

Championship only thing is the end goal don't ask me this. The players will say same thing.

I'm gonna be really interested in the ratings this season for this team. If a die hard fan like me doesn't have the same enthusiasm about this same core I can only imagine the casuals who will have the More talented maple leafs to watch

It's not weak, it's logical.

Is it about growth this year or is it championship or bust this year? Make up your mind?

[RaptorsLife]

Then cheer for the Warriors because they are winning EVERY YEAR. Durant/Curry/Green/Thompson with elite roles players. NOBODY is beating them 4 times out 7. This is a true great team of all time. The best ever naw. Jordan/Pippen/Kukoč/Rodman is the best to me but what do I know.

This logic is weak

Anytime you say something negative about raptors someone tells you to cheer for another team.

I want to see the raptors win a championship. The last 4 years was jolly good fun but staying the same. Staganation of any kind in life is bad.

It's all about growth.

Championship only thing is the end goal don't ask me this. The players will say same thing.

I'm gonna be really interested in the ratings this season for this team. If a die hard fan like me doesn't have the same enthusiasm about this same core I can only imagine the casuals who will have the More talented maple leafs to watch

It's not weak, it's logical.

Is it about growth this year or is it championship or bust this year? Make up your mind?

If you read the part before the team ain't growing

We regressed from 56 win team from 2015-16. And I think this year team is worse than the 2016-2017 team.

I'ĺl watch for the young guys improving that's all

Also its not logical at all.

If you don't like the direction of your team. You don't pack up and move on. You stick with it. I barley watched the playoffs last season. I'm a raptors much more than an NBA fan

Championship or bust will always be the motto for me

[rapcity10]

Honestly as DeKOBE said its all about the memories. A championship is a cherry on top, a big sweet cherry none the less. However I've been a fan for over 15 years, and no matter how much I talk about our direction, our prospects, some of our players, you can't not look at this team and not be thankful for 6 people in particular. Tim Leiweke, Masai Ujiri, Bryan Colangelo(Kyle, demar, Ross, jv), coach Casey, and most importantly Kyle and Demar. We're not winning a championship anytime soon, and when we do there's a good chance none of the players on our team currently will be on that team. But I respect the hell out of those 6 men mentioned. That 2014 playoff series vs the nets was still the greatest and most intriguing series for me as a fan, great and fun memories man.