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

[NinjaBro]

We need to keep Lawson at all costs. We need a bucket getter. Don't even know why we wasted a roster spot on Temple. If we need his veteran presence on the team couldn't see just offer him an assistant coach position?

[WuTang_OG]

If we waive AJ, he will get picked up from another club. He's been really good. I know it's just SL but also his defense and the way he moves his feet, switches hips is a real talent. Happy for him and if a guy like NAW can get a big deal, why cant AJ? Just needs a real opportunity. Rooting for him.

[mademan]

Again if we are trading RJ, it's for an upgrade at the 2-3, neither Walter or Dick or Ochai will be starting barring injury over the duration of their rookie deals.

Edit, nor is it a bad thing either, just means we have a lot of options in cut. It's good to have a lot of prospects, not everyone has to be a starter

RJ will be a casualty regardless unless he comes in looking great. Too many people are being paid and he's the easiest to replace, especially since Ingram will be tavng a lot of his on ball duties

Whoever we trade RJ for will be paid too. The Raptors spend to the cap limit regardless. This idea that we are too expensive is nonsense, the NBA is expensive now. Come opening day we are right around the cap line like the majority of the NBA

Raps dont spend into the tax needlessly. No doubt in my mind that RJ will be traded to get below the tax, if not by this deadline then by next offseason. The calculation will be that RJ is not 20mill better than JKW and Dick and worth paying the tax for (which is i cant hate)

[RaptorLakerJay]

We need to keep Lawson at all costs. We need a bucket getter. Don't even know why we wasted a roster spot on Temple. If we need his veteran presence on the team couldn't see just offer him an assistant coach position?

Facts, his scoring is super important. Just get Temple on as an assistant like you said. A team will 100% pick him up if he gets dropped.

[Syd-TK3]

Lawson is clearly an nba player but idk where yall see him getting playing time behind Jakobe, Gradey and Ochai

[ConSarnit]

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?).

Lawson is shooting 32% from 3 in his NBA career. He’s slightly better at 34% in the G-league. His 3pt shooting isn’t consistent enough. It’s his make or break skill. You can’t be a rotation guard if you can’t space the floor or create for others (which Lawson can’t really do either). Lawson has to be able to provide supplementary skills (mostly spacing) to carve out a real role because he’s not going to get enough on-ball reps. I really don’t think we can take anything away from his summer league performance. If you’re a good G-league player (as Lawson is) you should be killing it in the summer league (which is a worse league than the G-league). I just don’t know if his game translates to the NBA unless he can shoot. G-league volume scorer doesn’t usually translate well.

[niQ]

Like what I'm seeing with AJ Lawson. Hope we find a way to keep him.

[binjumper]

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.

Agree, but I also believe Lawson isn't worth it. Dude is a chucker. He can ball but he's doing this taking close to 20 shots a game. We don't have enough basketballs on the court for his style of play.

[ConSarnit]

We need to keep Lawson at all costs. We need a bucket getter. Don't even know why we wasted a roster spot on Temple. If we need his veteran presence on the team couldn't see just offer him an assistant coach position?

Facts, his scoring is super important. Just get Temple on as an assistant like you said. A team will 100% pick him up if he gets dropped.

Is it? It hasn’t translated to the NBA yet. He was at 54% TS last year in the NBA. Combine that with a real lack of playmaking for others and that’s not really a valuable player in any sense. Summer league is terrible ball. Worse than the G-league. I really do not believe Lawson can do anything that Ja’Kobe can’t. If Lawson’s 3pt shooting is real then I can see him carving out a role. If not he’s just the same guy he was last year.

[douggood]

Lawson is a quad A player; i am indifferent to what happens with him.

[YogurtProducer]

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?).

Lawson is shooting 32% from 3 in his NBA career. He’s slightly better at 34% in the G-league. His 3pt shooting isn’t consistent enough. It’s his make or break skill. You can’t be a rotation guard if you can’t space the floor or create for others (which Lawson can’t really do either). Lawson has to be able to provide supplementary skills (mostly spacing) to carve out a real role because he’s not going to get enough on-ball reps. I really don’t think we can take anything away from his summer league performance. If you’re a good G-league player (as Lawson is) you should be killing it in the summer league (which is a worse league than the G-league). I just don’t know if his game translates to the NBA unless he can shoot. G-league volume scorer doesn’t usually translate well.

Came to say this but you nailed it.

Lawson isn't a real 3 point threat and calling Battle "no D" is kind of exaggerating IMO. He isn't top tier but he also doesn't get targeted.

FWIW - I like Lawson, but he might be a cut just because of our depth.

[OakleyDokely]

I don't like evaluating players based on their summer league performances when they already have gleague and NBA experience. Lawson is 25 years old, he should be dominating summer league. He's older and he has more experience than most guys he's playing against.

He got a decent amount of NBA playing time last year and he only put up shooting splits of 42/32/68. He looks like he can be a great gleaguer, maybe a depth nba player, but I wouldn't jump through hoops to keep him.

[StopitLeo]

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?).

Lawson is shooting 32% from 3 in his NBA career. He’s slightly better at 34% in the G-league. His 3pt shooting isn’t consistent enough. It’s his make or break skill. You can’t be a rotation guard if you can’t space the floor or create for others (which Lawson can’t really do either). Lawson has to be able to provide supplementary skills (mostly spacing) to carve out a real role because he’s not going to get enough on-ball reps. I really don’t think we can take anything away from his summer league performance. If you’re a good G-league player (as Lawson is) you should be killing it in the summer league (which is a worse league than the G-league). I just don’t know if his game translates to the NBA unless he can shoot. G-league volume scorer doesn’t usually translate well.

A big problem is that Lawson doesn't even shoot the corner 3 well. I like the rest of his game but I don't see room for him in the rotation.

The team will have to give Gradey plenty of minutes to see what they have in him; with this being that key 3rd season he need to show if he can shoot at an elite level like projected when he was drafted. I also don't see why you would play Lawson over Ja'Kobe who has looked really good in his development and has more potential IMO. As for Battle, having a 40% 3pt shooter off the bench is an important role on the team; he's not a great defender but I don't think he's a liability either.

[LoveMyRaps]

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[Mikistan]

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?).

The question is are platoon minutes from battle, jakobe, lawson better impact that spam minutes of rj and dick

[NinjaBro]

I don't like evaluating players based on their summer league performances when they already have gleague and NBA experience. Lawson is 25 years old, he should be dominating summer league. He's older and he has more experience than most guys he's playing against.

He got a decent amount of NBA playing time last year and he only put up shooting splits of 42/32/68. He looks like he can be a great gleaguer, maybe a depth nba player, but I wouldn't jump through hoops to keep him.

I am not a person to react to a few summer league games but Lawson is showing me something. Sometimes players put it all together a little later stages of their career. He needs a look.

[earthtone]

I don't like evaluating players based on their summer league performances when they already have gleague and NBA experience. Lawson is 25 years old, he should be dominating summer league. He's older and he has more experience than most guys he's playing against.

He got a decent amount of NBA playing time last year and he only put up shooting splits of 42/32/68. He looks like he can be a great gleaguer, maybe a depth nba player, but I wouldn't jump through hoops to keep him.

I am not a person to react to a few summer league games but Lawson is showing me something. Sometimes players put it all together a little later stages of their career. He needs a look.

I don't think there's a spot for him on this roster, but I think he's shown enough that other NBA teams will come calling if/when he gets cut.

If I'm Milwaukee, AJ has to be pretty high on my list of targets. He'd be an improvement over a lot of their current perimeter depth

[Tor_Raps]

Why couldnt Lawson just be a Center. Instead we gotta deal with Castleton's scrub ass joining the ranks of pathetic Centers since 2020 lol.

Thank God Chomche looks good. At this rate, he can be our backup C next year. Not sure if he can be our 3rd Center this year, which we'll need at some portion of the season when Poeltl/Mamu miss games.

[OhCanada]

Whether we sign Lawson or not will likely have very little impact on our core outlook. It would just be nice to pick him up because he clearly wants to be here, he's from here, he has fully bought into the culture and identity, hes from the same school as CMB and hes played well might be a top 3-5 SL player.

[ForeverTFC]

Lawson is clearly an nba player but idk where yall see him getting playing time behind Jakobe, Gradey and Ochai

Well said. Unless you are willing to slot him in ahead of someone, is keeping his salary on the books worth it?