Realistically, which are the positions that need major upgrade for the S5?

[AkelaLoneWolf]

An all star wing would be great. But more immediately a back up 5. But we have time to address that with the draft. Energy rim running bigs are available at the end of the first round or second round all the time.

[Thaddy]

RJ, Poeltl, and Dick aren't starters on a championship team. The player we need to remove ourselves from first is RJ. He's the definition of empty calories.

I would draft his replacement in the draft. If we get Jakucionis and he shows he's a ROY candidate then we should move IQ for a forward.

The key is to draft the BPA and then make good trades to balance the roster. Other than that we need to remove the net negatives like RJ.

Poeltl looks good but he isn't an elite rim protector or offensive option. He's just solid. We should be looking to trade him as well.

The best path forward is to completely tank 2025 and 2026. This would give us two high quality prospects who should contribute at some level on rookie scale deals. Then we pull a Houston and bring in vets when we're ready to compete.

Culture is important but not to the degree our front office pushes it. We don't need to give Garrett Temple and Olynyk multi million dollar contracts. We need to put Barnes in that position, he's a young vet now and the supposed leader.

Poeltl / 2026 1st / POR 2nd
Barnes / Mogbo
2025 1st / Walter
FA Vet / Agbaji / 2026 1st
IQ / Dick

We should buy 2 vets who can be in the rotation until our younger guys figure things out. A 2-3 year contract for 2-3 vets would give us a deep line up.

If RJ, Pöltl, and Dick are the sixth, seventh and eighth men then your team is top 5 in the NBA. That's probably optimal actually.

Maluach - Pöltl - Chomche
Barnes - Mogbo
Flagg - Dick - Agbaji
SGA - Barrett
IQ - Walter

Obviously we're not getting SGA, but something like this lineup would be an ideal 12 man rotation. Maybe the Raps draft Harper or Jakucionis and they fill that role.

Dick is TBD but he doesn't project well as a defensive 1 on 1 player. He would be targeted in the playoffs and exploited as the weak link. We've seen that many times before. The ideal place for him is a scorer off the bench similar to Boucher. If he can add mass, become a help side defender by taking charges, and get over screens it'll be different. As a scorer his handle is limiting but it's developable. I can see Walter easily being better than him. That isn't a shot at Gradey but more so about Walter's underrated potential. He's also a shooter but his man defense is already much better.

[wegotthabeet]

RJ, Poeltl, and Dick aren't starters on a championship team. The player we need to remove ourselves from first is RJ. He's the definition of empty calories.

I would draft his replacement in the draft. If we get Jakucionis and he shows he's a ROY candidate then we should move IQ for a forward.

The key is to draft the BPA and then make good trades to balance the roster. Other than that we need to remove the net negatives like RJ.

Poeltl looks good but he isn't an elite rim protector or offensive option. He's just solid. We should be looking to trade him as well.

The best path forward is to completely tank 2025 and 2026. This would give us two high quality prospects who should contribute at some level on rookie scale deals. Then we pull a Houston and bring in vets when we're ready to compete.

Culture is important but not to the degree our front office pushes it. We don't need to give Garrett Temple and Olynyk multi million dollar contracts. We need to put Barnes in that position, he's a young vet now and the supposed leader.

Poeltl / 2026 1st / POR 2nd
Barnes / Mogbo
2025 1st / Walter
FA Vet / Agbaji / 2026 1st
IQ / Dick

We should buy 2 vets who can be in the rotation until our younger guys figure things out. A 2-3 year contract for 2-3 vets would give us a deep line up.

If RJ, Pöltl, and Dick are the sixth, seventh and eighth men then your team is top 5 in the NBA. That's probably optimal actually.

Maluach - Pöltl - Chomche
Barnes - Mogbo
Flagg - Dick - Agbaji
SGA - Barrett
IQ - Walter

Obviously we're not getting SGA, but something like this lineup would be an ideal 12 man rotation. Maybe the Raps draft Harper or Jakucionis and they fill that role.

Dick is TBD but he doesn't project well as a defensive 1 on 1 player. He would be targeted in the playoffs and exploited as the weak link. We've seen that many times before. The ideal place for him is a scorer off the bench similar to Boucher. If he can add mass, become a help side defender by taking charges, and get over screens it'll be different. As a scorer his handle is limiting but it's developable. I can see Walter easily being better than him. That isn't a shot at Gradey but more so about Walter's underrated potential. He's also a shooter but his man defense is already much better.

Ja’Kobe might be a starter in a year or two. Let’s see how he develops.

[Tripod]

We don't need to upgrade talent; we need to tear down this terrible, terrible team for the sake of Scottie and any other remote talent that comes to Toronto in the near future. Successful rebuilding teams need High-end talent, I.e., talent that you can build around and see a future with (Scottie), and players who help that player develop based on need. Usually, these players provide spacing, playmaking, or defense. Scottie is a plus defender who can't score one-on-one effectively but is a great playmaker—rebounder and truly a secondary ball-handler. Scottie needs players who can shoot and finish or have offensive gravity without having the ball in their hands too much as well as bail him out when he fails to create. The only players that fight that mold are Ochaji, Dick. IQ, Poetl.

Unfortunately, Poetl is too old, and his contract is too short to be part of a core. IQ is not nor will be a winning player for a championship-caliber team in a starting role because he does not play defense well enough nor produce enough offensive for the amount of time the ball is in his hands but can be used for a few years to help Scottie and hopefully other high end talent develop until he also traded. Dick is terrible defensive but is young and on a rookie contract, and is constantly improving, hopefully can either be a half decent defender or can be traded for value in the future. Ochaji is fine and needs more minutes perfect guy to have around scottie. Also we need to keep walter because as he is young and as bad as he is at least he is flashing skills.

So basically we have one blue chip (Barnes), one positive secondary piece (Ochaji), one negative but promising secondary (Gradey), one guy we have to keep but won't be a winning player on a contender (Quickley) and one objectively terrible rookie that is flashing skills ( Walter). Yep Masai needs to tank for next 2 years at least. We don't even have players worth putting on the floor. Ideally, we jettison Barrett to the moon, trade Poetl for value; rehab IQ's value so trade him for value or a bag of dorito's (preferably ranch) and then Tank for Harper and anyone of Dybantsa or Peterson; preferably Dybantsa while playing our young lottery tickets (Mogbo, Shead, Battle etc)to see if they can also be moved for real value or become supplemental talent like Ochaji.

This might be the worst take I have ever seen.

[bluerap23]

We need talent, period. Dick, Walter, Ochai, RJ, Battle, Shead, or Mogbo should have no impact on who we bring in. IQ and Scottie are the only 2 you need to be cognizant of, and even then if you can upgrade, you upgrade.

IMHO Ochai and Yak are really good guys to have the SL. You can't have 5 offence first players starting. I'd be pretty happy next year with:

IQ, Ochai, Flagg, Scottie, Yak

With Bench of

Shead, Walter, Dick, RJ, Mogbo, Battle

That is a really good young core to build around. Then you have 2 picks in 2026 to try and find a stretch 5.

[Kingsway_fan]

https://youtu.be/X_T-6wZek6Y?si=L9RF2QhcPwCiHQTK

What we need....