GT: Summer League Game # 3 - TOR vs DEN - Tonight 8pm TSN

[Kreamy]

Why wouldn't we be able to keep Lawson?

15-man roster: Barnes, Ingram, Barrett, Poeltl, Quickley, CMB, Dick, Walter, Shead, Mamu, Agbaji, Mogbo, Battle, Lawson, Temple

2-way players: Chomche, Martin, Hepburn

What am I missing?

The Raptors already have a 14-man roster signed to fully guaranteed NBA deals for this season, but even with no 15th guy they'll still be 500k above the tax line until they make another move to get under. If they were to hold a 15th guy on the roster, the team would be operating above the 1st apron.

Sorry to say, I can pretty much guarantee you that ownership will not go into the 1st apron just to carry a 15th guy on the roster, because of AJ Lawson's Year 5 summer league performance. They will choose tax and apron flexibility over AJ Lawson's prorated salary for however long they would hold onto him.

I think the tax calculation is done at the end of the season so we can start the season with 15 players but will need to make a decision by the trade deadline or conclusion of the season.

[binjumper]

We need to get below the luxury tax / 1st apron .

Having a 14 player roster instead of 15 could help

At the end of the day we will need to do trade before next trade deadline to get below the threshold

It’s very possible and likely we keep Lawson (we can waive him anytime until Jan 2026) and do a trade next trade deadline.

But any move to get below the threshold could be a bit easier if we have only a 14 roster team

What's the issue with paying tax this year?
Don't we just need to be below next year to avoid the repeater? Tax line moving up, Ochai and a first to fit within the tax. Seems doable.

It’s not so much paying the tax but missing out on share of luxury tax split with rest of non paying teams

The tax distribution is usually around $10-12m. So it is somewhere around a $15-20m difference with tax and distribution

I hope Rogers loses a **** ton of money this year.

[SpezNc]

I was somewhat concerned/ disappointed in CMB lack of burst + athleticism I observed tonight..

His BBIQ really stood out and you can see he will be a good player and impactful HOWEVER..

there were 2-3 sequences in that game where he had some full clearance to attack and just didn't have ANY burst to get there..

there was that one instance wide open under the net that looked earily Ben Simmons-ish

then a couple other that with even abit of burst were easy layups on drives where he just didnt get there, he was stopped, or greatly contested..

hoping he's just rusty and he has ABIT more pop when in better shape/conditioning/comfortability

Did anyone else see something similar? or am I trippin..

I was already aware he's not twitchy at all type athlete but he's definitely more of a Kawhi type athleticism which is fine for his skill-set but hoping for atleast abit more athletic pop compared to what I observed tonight.... especially at like 20 yrs old.

Was nice to see him hit that 3 and look comfortable doing so. With the way his shooting is destroyed you would think he was Bismack launching bricks but you can definitely project out a workable 3 ball with a few seasons of NBA development which is encouraging...

especially when considering I believe there is ALOT of Kawhi within this Kid's optimal ceiling outcomes --- once in final form some day.

He is coming off from injury and probably still not even 100%, didn’t practice much (if any ) with the team, playing safe (the team want to win) and he is trying to acclimating to a moving train . The sample is way too small to be concern IMO.

I think we should focus more on the positives. I still think he made some impactful plays. Especially defensively at the beginning of the 1st quarter and then all-around during the Raptors 19-0 stretch during Q3.

The coaching staff going to take a lot of notes (both the good and the less good) and they are going to work with him over the summer

Summer League is not the destination but the starting point.

I don’t think anyone should be concerned after 40 minutes of getting his feet wet during summer league . Especially not in the context he jump in.

[Potential]

Ja'Kobe is already good enough to be a starter. Way better than Gradey

[billy_hoyle]

What's the issue with paying tax this year?
Don't we just need to be below next year to avoid the repeater? Tax line moving up, Ochai and a first to fit within the tax. Seems doable.

It’s not so much paying the tax but missing out on share of luxury tax split with rest of non paying teams

The tax distribution is usually around $10-12m. So it is somewhere around a $15-20m difference with tax and distribution

I hope Rogers loses a **** ton of money this year.

I'm aware of the tax cost. That's absolute chump change. It's relatively very small compared to the cost of the roster. Why pay up to the tax in the first place? Why not just stay near the salary floor? You would save a lot of money running a lean roster. Just cycle rookie contracts.

They probably save more than this amount by just cutting Masai's salary.

[DG88]

Missed the game but saw the highlights. Chomche in year 3 will be the heir apparent to Poeltl if he keeps developing at this rate.

Ja'Kobe finally broke out with a monster 2-way game
Shead best game of SL
CMB being steady

[MEDIC]

There is something about Chomche. I think he will end up being better than most people realize.

Out of all of our rookies and sophmores, he may become the most impactful player when they are all in their primes. I think he has more potential than anyone.

The word on him coming from NBA Africa was that he was a very fast learner. I was taking a wait and see approach. After 1 season of seeing the changes in his game, I'm a believer.

[dhackett1565]

Why wouldn't we be able to keep Lawson?

15-man roster: Barnes, Ingram, Barrett, Poeltl, Quickley, CMB, Dick, Walter, Shead, Mamu, Agbaji, Mogbo, Battle, Lawson, Temple

2-way players: Chomche, Martin, Hepburn

What am I missing?

The Raptors already have a 14-man roster signed to fully guaranteed NBA deals for this season, but even with no 15th guy they'll still be 500k above the tax line until they make another move to get under. If they were to hold a 15th guy on the roster, the team would be operating above the 1st apron.

Sorry to say, I can pretty much guarantee you that ownership will not go into the 1st apron just to carry a 15th guy on the roster, because of AJ Lawson's Year 5 summer league performance. They will choose tax and apron flexibility over AJ Lawson's prorated salary for however long they would hold onto him.

875k or so above the line, right now (assuming both Castleton and Lawson waived). 700k or so clear of the apron.

Carrying Lawson would mean we're technically above the apron, but nothing really happens at that point that would cause a problem. Heck we're technically above the apron right now because we haven't waived those two yet. The apron only matters when you are trying to make a trade or signing. So if we carried Lawson for a little into the season and for whatever reason needed a salary below the apron to do something, we could waive him so long as he hadn't hit 700k in earnings yet.

I suspect they won't keep him, but I hope they do. And I don't think it's something plan-shattering to have his salary on the books even for the full season. I don't know what the plan is to get under the tax, but if they want Temple in the locker room and don't want to straight salary dump him, then any move to lose RJ or Ochai or whoever for futures and flexibility might benefit from having that extra wing depth piece on the roster.

[WuTang_OG]

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[rapsincr]

i choose to count the out of bounds shot, therefore CMB is 2/5 from 3 so far

[dhackett1565]

Sorry if this was posted earlier in the thread, only read back a few pages.

We're currently atop the standings with the best point differential thanks to Chicago. There are 8 undefeated teams left. If we win our 4th game by 1 point, we'll end up with a point differential of +13, which would be 3rd but is within striking distance for a couple teams below that, so there is still risk of missing the playoffs undefeated.

Of the other undefeated teams, the Kings, Wolves and Thunder play tonight, so we should know if they are still in the running and what their point differential is before our game tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we play at 10. The Hawks play at 4:30, the Spurs and Hornets play each other at 7. So a) one team will be out and b) we should know the other two results before our game starts. The Clippers play after us.

[Mikistan]

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Wade is a great communicator and sees the big picture well, great interview thanks

[JCP11]

I see some concerns about CMBs lack of involvement offensively and I just want to point out that summer league is made for guards, they get the ball a lot and take most shots. CMB barely touches the ball on possessions and don't get plays run for him so he has to do the little things and that's what he's doing and he's doing it well. His offensive evolution will take some time and will depend on his shot making and we all know that's his main weakness. He will get more comfortable each game his teammates will know his game more.

[YogurtProducer]

theres zero room for temple on this roster, gotta make room for lawson

You could say, it's a
BATTLE

Hate to say it but I would rather have Lawson than Battle. I love that quick release and the defense. Lawson is the better player.

Battle can play a role. Lawson can’t.

Battle is just a better role player and that’s what’s we are looking for. Lawson plays more like a volume scorer and he isn’t good enough there.

There’s room for both

[HumbleRen]

G league players who are volume scorers almost never really crack the rotation of a decent team trying to make the playoffs.

They might give Lawson a real shot but I wouldn’t get attached to him. It’s just summer league at the end of the day, not a real representative of someone’s role on a real team.

[Raptorfan2012]

I see some concerns about CMBs lack of involvement offensively and I just want to point out that summer league is made for guards, they get the ball a lot and take most shots. CMB barely touches the ball on possessions and don't get plays run for him so he has to do the little things and that's what he's doing and he's doing it well. His offensive evolution will take some time and will depend on his shot making and we all know that's his main weakness. He will get more comfortable each game his teammates will know his game more.

Teams approach SL differently. Previously, the Raptors would form a SL team just to get their rookies some run but know the rest of the team is garbage. This year though, it seems like this team's mission is to win it all, so they aren't really trying to showcase CMB much.

[dhackett1565]

You could say, it's a
BATTLE

Hate to say it but I would rather have Lawson than Battle. I love that quick release and the defense. Lawson is the better player.

Battle can play a role. Lawson can’t.

Battle is just a better role player and that’s what’s we are looking for. Lawson plays more like a volume scorer and he isn’t good enough there.

There’s room for both

Is there anything to suggest that Lawson can't play a 3+D role? That's a more concrete role than Battle's 3 + no D. I can more easily see useful NBA minutes coming from Lawson than from Battle. Leaving aside that in our system we want our shooters to be able to do other stuff offensively anyway.

But we should just keep both. No benefit to cutting Battle (maybe he's a trade salary dump later in the season if they never use him?).

[MoneyBall]

Ja'Kobe is already good enough to be a starter. Way better than Gradey

I love the enthusiasm but this is Summer League.

[rapsincr]

before summer league: "we have too many guards, we need to trade one of dick. ochai, or walter"

after 3 games: "we need to make space for another guard because a guy in his 5th SL is scoring 20 points a game"

its been fun to watch but ye...its SL. lets calm down on who deserves a spot on the actual roster.

[NinjaBro]

Ja'Kobe is already good enough to be a starter. Way better than Gradey

I love the enthusiasm but this is Summer League.

Gradey was pretty awful in summer league