Our tanking approach: Losing the bench minutes

[MessiahUjiri]

For all the offseason people wondering about a tank:

You should realize that there is more than one way to tank. The classic approach is the overt “suck for many years process” employed by Detroit. That doesn’t always work, and it becomes a frustrating approach if you don’t get a Wemby level talent. Perpetual losing is especially bad if your city isn’t a top FA destination.


Masai has taken the approach to “lose via lack of roster depth”.

We are too good to get a bottom 4 record, but if you look closely, this bench absolutely sucks. In other words, this season, get ready to lose the bench minutes, and lose a lot of close games. A missed game by a starter is almost a guaranteed loss.




It is highly likely that we’ll get a January trade to sell someone like Brown/Olynyk/Poeltl, to hopefully acquire another pick in the draft.



This means we are aiming for a 5-8 bottom record, lots of player development minutes, and hoping for some lotto/draft luck.


This is the asset management approach to rebuilding. We have:

- expiring contracts,
- a bunch of picks,
- young players,
- and cap space to bail out luxury capped teams (via picks)



It’s probably the smartest way to rebuild in this position, and if you were truly in the GM position, you’d probably do the same thing too.

nbadraftroom.com has us at #4. I think the tank race is likely some version of this:

1-3 tier: BRK, WAS, POR
4-6 tier: CHI, TOR, DET
7-8 tier: CHA, UTA

[C_Money]

Absolute genius move from Masai. We’ve had a terrible bench for 5 straight years now but this time it’s intentional.

[Scase]

Absolute genius move from Masai. We’ve had a terrible bench for 5 straight years now but this time it’s intentional. /s

I was just gonna say this, man he's been planning this since the chip, brilliant basketball mind.

[Tor_Raps]

Haha now we're going to attribute glaring roster flaws to Masai's genius? We can give the man his flowers up until the championship, which will forever be remembered.

Id give the man a statue just for that but it's only fair to admit when hes been horrible given hes one of the highest paid execs in the nba. My only loyalty is to the Raptors and Masai better step the hell up because this fanbase is going to turn on him when we stink up the joint this season.

[Chandan]

Absolute genius move from Masai. We’ve had a terrible bench for 5 straight years now but this time it’s intentional. /s

I was just gonna say this, man he's been planning this since the chip, brilliant basketball mind.

Organic tanking

Oh wait that's just sucking

[ItsDanger]

Supposedly Masai doesn't tank though. It's just dressed up as stealth tanking.

Roster needs a top prospect from '25 draft badly.

[Tacoma]

Absolute genius move from Masai. We’ve had a terrible bench for 5 straight years now but this time it’s intentional. /s

I was just gonna say this, man he's been planning this since the chip, brilliant basketball mind.

And even if Masai were secretly tanking all along, trading for Poeltl would still a bad move.

[HangTime]

I hope this "tank" goes as well as the post Rudy Gay trade.

[TorontoBarneys]

Losing via lack of depth is the optimal way to lose.
Shoring up your bench is much easier than finding real offensive options and people to run your offense through.

This way we can have a solid starting line-up and still be bad enough to get a quality lottery pick for the chance to improve the ceiling of the team.

[Harry Palmer]

It is an interesting approach, but it also seems to have a pretty high chance of being another half-measure, which imo is par for the course. Again, the Raptors have a long history of talking about rebuilding but have never actually done it, so there is history here to cause concern.

[MEDIC]

Scottie/ Barrett/ IQ & Poeltl playing 30 or more minutes each.

I still think they win 30+ games.

We know there will be several teams that will full out blatantly tank this season. Shameless tanking.. We will have no chance of out-tanking those teams. There are going to be some really bad records thia season.

[Basketball_Jones]

Just don’t add anymore vets like Brown and Olynyk to muck things up.

[Zeno]

Just don’t add anymore vets like Brown and Olynyk to muck things up.

Young players generally lose but I'm not quite sure that Brown or Kelly we're 'mucking things up' from a tank perspective in their minutes last year. We will find out alot about the intentions of organization and coaching staff by who that 5th starter is on opening day. To me, against Cleveland is the intention is to win above all else, it makes most sense to start either Brown or Mitchell maybe but if our intentions are focus elsewhere then I think maybe it's Gradey or Ochai

[DreamTeam09]

Scottie/ Barrett/ IQ & Poeltl playing 30 or more minutes each.

I still think they win 30+ games.

We know there will be several teams that will full out blatantly tank this season. Shameless tanking.. We will have no chance of out-tanking those teams. There are going to be some really bad records thia season.

It seems like guys are anticipating that we play 5 man bench units which rarely is the case. I agree we don't have a sure fire player off the bench but bench units lead by Barnes & IQ isn't going to tank our way to top5 imo

[Clutch0z24]

We will be in the 5-8 range come draft lotto night and we just gotta hope for Lotto Luck and get Flagg

[DreamTeam09]

We will be in the 5-8 range come draft lotto night and we just gotta hope for Lotto Luck and get Flagg

If we had the #1 pick I hope we take Ace Bailey & not Cooper tbh.

Even when tanking is the consensus, the player of choice may still be up for debate. I think those 2 are the consensus for the top of the draft tho

[Spida888]

We will be in the 5-8 range come draft lotto night and we just gotta hope for Lotto Luck and get Flagg

If we had the #1 pick I hope we take Ace Bailey & not Cooper tbh.

Even when tanking is the consensus, the player of choice may still be up for debate. I think those 2 are the consensus for the top of the draft tho

I'll be happy with either one .

[Clutch0z24]

We will be in the 5-8 range come draft lotto night and we just gotta hope for Lotto Luck and get Flagg

If we had the #1 pick I hope we take Ace Bailey & not Cooper tbh.

Even when tanking is the consensus, the player of choice may still be up for debate. I think those 2 are the consensus for the top of the draft tho

I'll be happy with either one .

Id be happy with top 3 pick give me any of Edgecomb/Bailey/Flagg....All 3 i think will be multiple all stars

[Spida888]

Haha now we're going to attribute glaring roster flaws to Masai's genius. We can give the man his flowers up until the championship, which will forever be remembered. Id give the man a statue just for that.

However, its only fair to admit when hes been horrible given hes one of the highest paid execs in the nba. My only loyalty is to the Raptors and Masai better step the hell up because this fanbase is going to turn on him when we stink up the joint this season.

I'm slightly hopeful this year because Masai and company has admitted we are in rebuilding phase (finally), and the recent OG/McDaniels trades have been great.

By stinking up the joint, if you mean losing a ton of games and netting a top pick, then I'm totally down with that! No more win now moves please, Masai.

Anxious to see if we're going to get play-in-for-what Masai or play-in-for-life Masai.

[AbC?]

The starters suck too