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The Toronto Raptors kept part of their core together this offseason in re-signing Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, though they lost DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph, Patrick Patterson and P.J. Tucker. Toronto acquired C.J. Miles in the Joseph trade.

Masai Ujiri's moves were with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in mind.

“Our job is to beat him,” Ujiri recently told The Vertical. “You have to figure it out. If not, then go play in some other league or something. Go play in Greece. Our jobs, and the jobs of the players, [are] to figure out how to beat those guys. If not, you might as well give them the championship before it starts. I understand how good he is and I understand how good those teams are, but those things end. At some point, somewhere, somehow, we as leaders of our group, we have to figure out a way and motivate our players and give them the confidence to go out there and compete.”

Via Michael Lee/The Vertical

... and then Golden State

They may not even beat boston or washington with this lineup. They barely make it thru the bucks last year with a much deeper and stronger lineup.

The Cavs were nearly swept by Golden State the Cavs barely had any trouble in sweeping you, and now with the signifigant losses of Cory Joseph and Patrick Patterson. Two glue guys who ensured there bench wasn't completely trash, they somehow have a better shot at beating Lebron.

CDior510 wrote:The Cavs were nearly swept by Golden State the Cavs barely had any trouble in sweeping you, and now with the signifigant losses of Cory Joseph and Patrick Patterson. Two glue guys who ensured there bench wasn't completely trash, they somehow have a better shot at beating Lebron.

I wouldn't call CJ and PP significant losses, especially when one of them was upgrade significantly at the trade deadline. Nice enough rotation players but far from significant losses.

MU doesn't think the Raps are beating the Cavs this upcoming season but it doesn't mean that he's going to have a defeatist attitude when asked. Like he said, he needs to figure it out even if that answer is a huge long shot at best.

Masai Ujiri's moves were with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in mind.

what moves?

CDior510 wrote:The Cavs were nearly swept by Golden State the Cavs barely had any trouble in sweeping you, and now with the signifigant losses of Cory Joseph and Patrick Patterson. Two glue guys who ensured there bench wasn't completely trash, they somehow have a better shot at beating Lebron.

he said nothing about having a better shot now. he said it is their job to figure out a way to get there. his comment about motivating players to play better is a pretty telling acknowledgement that there hasn't been much in the way of personnel improvement

although depending on what happens with the cavs EVERYBODY might soon have a better shot at beating them

kenwood3333 wrote:They may not even beat boston or washington with this lineup. They barely make it thru the bucks last year with a much deeper and stronger lineup.

the bucks might be better than Washington. they certainly were in the latter half of last season after middleton returned from injury

dice wrote:

Masai Ujiri's moves were with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in mind.

what moves?

That move is called having Casey run more ISO and P&R like the last few years. That worked well.

His job is to treadmill. Did a great job of it in Denver. Doing a great job of it now.

CJ Miles is that good?

Our job is to beat them.... In two years when lebron is no longer there.

This team is the Eastern version of the "Big 3" Clippers... going to underperform every year while being a really good paper team

LAC had absolutely no depth

Basketball_Jones wrote:His job is to treadmill. Did a great job of it in Denver. Doing a great job of it now.

The whole league is tread milling other than GSW and CLE the last few seasons. You're not wrong.

Rhythm043 wrote:

Basketball_Jones wrote:His job is to treadmill. Did a great job of it in Denver. Doing a great job of it now.

The whole league is tread milling other than GSW and CLE the last few seasons. You're not wrong.

Yeah but Masai is the absolute best at it. He's a freakin genius.

dice wrote:

Masai Ujiri's moves were with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in mind.

what moves?

Acquiring Demarr Carroll (who was injured and greatly underperformed) and PJ Tucker (only to barely play him in the Cavs series). So yeah, bad moves.

They need an addition to this team to compete at a higher level or blow up they might be stuck being a middle pack playoff team 3rd-6th seed all the time.