Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
Would love Mo Bamba on the squad purely to hear the ACC yell out Sheck Wes' Mo Bamba song.
That would be wild.
That would be wild.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
Serge Ibaka's departure a heavy blow to Raptors' championship aspirations - Sportsnet.ca
The enthusiasm that greeted news Saturday morning that Fred VanVleet had re-signed with Toronto was tempered when Serge Ibaka signed with the Los Angeles Clippers for a two-year deal worth a reported $19 million late on Saturday night.
The move -- which was unexpected -- leaves the Raptors without another member of their championship core, one of the most colourful players in franchise history, and for the moment without a viable centre under contract.
“We’ll be okay,” was Raptors president Masai Ujiri’s text message shortly after the deal was reported.
But the Raptors problem is what he leaves behind. If not Ibaka or Gasol -- or even if Gasol returns, given how much the Spanish veteran struggled in 2019-20 -- then who? Then what?
There are options available and the Raptors can offer the full mid-level ($9.3 million for one year or potentially $39 million over four) if they must.
Could Aron Baynes, the bruising Suns centre who has recently developed a passable three-point shot be enticed for one year of the mid-level ($9.3 million) -- that might be optimistic. Former Raptor Bismack Biyombo would probably be cheaper and would fill a hole defensively even if the offensively challenged big man might create one on the other end. Hassan Whiteside can block shots and rebound with the best of them, but seems to create drama at every stop. He’s as big as big bodies get.
Perhaps the Raptors' best options might be more small lineups, with either Pascal Siakam and/or OG Anunoby logging more minutes as the theoretical centre in five-out sets that are becoming more and more common. There were some promising signs of that during the playoffs.
The Raptors -- Ujiri, Webster and head coach Nick Nurse -- generally figure things out.
That’s the reassuring part. But for the moment losing Ibaka seems like the opposite of okay, and how he performed on the floor was only half of it.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
- Stromile12
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
go for cousins and whiteside. the upside potential is there.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
- Duffman100
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
I remember that he just couldn't stop travelling because he'd lift that damn pivot foot. Every. Single. Time.
I'd yell 'Travel" as he started his post move.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
- Childs
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
Wo1verine wrote:I really don't want Bismack lol
If its the same deal like in 2015, I wouldn't mind it. Bring back Derozan too lol, for the 2015-2016 Raptors run by Nurse, which would be a pretty fun team to watch.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
- Childs
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
Just sign Kyle O'Quinn. Hes basically the same player as Al Horford and could be picked up for the vets minimum.
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
The Raptors’ loss of Serge Ibaka leaves a big hole, on the court and off | The Star
A combination of the labour force — the likes of DeMarcus Cousins, Aron Baynes and Hassan Whiteside are available — and the desire to limit any contract to one year to protect 2021 cap space leaves Ujiri and Webster with few legitimate options.
Marc Gasol and Chris Boucher would be near the top of the list and would provide the familiarity and consistency good teams need.
But Gasol will turn 36 about a month into next season and he’s coming off a year where injuries and the pandemic layoff robbed him of a lot of his effectiveness. He is also attracting interest around the league, although the Raptors have the upper hand in salary they can offer him. Reports indicate both the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors are intrigued by the possibility of signing him.
Boucher has never logged big minutes in the NBA and it might be a reach to trust him to be a regular on a top-four conference team might be a reach.
The others? They’re just guys for the most part, good but not great, intriguing to some degree if you can talk yourself into their usefulness. None would swing the balance of power in the East and trying to convince them that a one-year deal is worth taking might prove difficult.
The Raptors do have money to spend, if they can find someone they feel worth spending it on. Under salary cap rules, they can pay Gasol anything they want. There are limits to what they can offer the restricted free agent Boucher but they do have up to $9.2 million to spend on a mid-level exception.
One option that remains for Ujiri and Webster is to find a trade that will fill the frontcourt void. What it would cost might be an issue — the only player likely to fetch something on the market who could be a difference maker is Norm Powell.
But Powell is coming off an excellent season and the Raptors see him as a key piece of the future. It’s incomprehensible they wold consider moving Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby, and it would be a stunning development if Kyle Lowry’s $31-million contract was moved, with his value to the franchise.
Even if nothing happens between now and the Dec. 1 opening of training camps, the team’s front office has a proven history of making deals under the right circumstances.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
- LoveMyRaps
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
The Raptors need to find a rightsized solution to anchor their small-ball rotation | The Star
Replacing Ibaka isn’t going to be easy. As a role-playing purveyor of consummate toughness and clutch shotmaking, reasonable facsimiles aren’t readily available. In some ways, this is the second time in two off-seasons that Kawhi Leonard has thrown a wrench in Toronto’s plans; his presence in L.A. is clearly a factor in Ibaka’s move. Leonard, the story goes, grew close to Ibaka during Toronto’s championship season, showing some rare personality in an appearance of Ibaka’s cooking show, “How Hungry Are You?”, in which the resident chef served the self-styled Fun Guy a pizza topped with the aforementioned bovine genitals. Given how the Clippers displayed a decided lack of stomach in blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Nuggets in the post-season’s second round, if they’re smart they’ll lap up whatever Ibaka’s cooking.
There are other options out there. DeMarcus Cousins is a name that gets thrown around, given his status as a four-time all-star and a former U.S. Olympian. But he hasn’t played in the league since his turn as a largely ineffective bit player for a Warriors team that lost to the Raptors in the finals in 2019. And his reputation as an insufferable malcontent makes him an unlikely pickup. Count another volatile character, Hassan Whiteside, in that same camp. And while there was an inkling the Raptors could theoretically mine their past to help fill out their present, former Toronto fan favourite Bismack Biyombo re-signed with the Charlotte Hornets on a two-year deal Sunday.
Aron Baynes is another possibility. Unlike Biyombo, the New Zealander can shoot a little bit, going 35 per cent from three-point range with the Suns last season. But will a one-year deal worth $9.2 million be enough to lure him out of the desert? If not, there are reclamation projects that could be made to work, the likes of Willie Cauley-Stein et al. But from that end of the talent pool, the risks sometimes outweigh the rewards.
If the free-agent market doesn’t provide a palatable, playable option, there’s always the possibility of swinging a trade. Norman Powell, the six-foot-four swingman, is the name that emerges as theoretically expendable. In a week that saw the Raptors re-sign six-foot-one Fred VanVleet to a four-year deal worth $85 million, after they picked six-foot-one Malachi Flynn with the 29th selection in the NBA draft, it’s safe to say the franchise whose beating heart remains a six-foot point guard named Kyle Lowry is well-stocked with undersized hoopsters.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
- Duffman100
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
We need one more big for injury insurance and depth.
Morris would actually be perfect right now, but not sure if we can get him.
Len at the minimum wouldn't be terrible.
Morris would actually be perfect right now, but not sure if we can get him.
Len at the minimum wouldn't be terrible.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
Just realized that Danny Green might not get his ring until next season. Imagine him getting his 2019 ring in 2022 loll.
Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
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Re: Official Toronto Raptors Offseason Thread *UPDATES*
I seem to be one of the very few who actually is looking forward to seeing McCaw get some minutes. lol