Zatzman: This era of the Raptors depends massively on Brandon Ingram

[Harry Palmer]

We’re not in a position to win a playoff season, likely regardless what BI does.

We messed up the last 3 yrs, with not much to show for it in terms of real core stud pieces. We just have guys.

Your issue is you're factoring name recognition as if that matters when the ball jumps. The guys we have, have to be accounted for or else. Again we won 30+ not trying + battling injuries. Name recognition only matters to the refs

A ton of teams were tanking that won’t be this season, too.

[ciueli]

Odd how it's always "I wanted xxxx" and it's always a guy exceeding expectations.

Replying without replying? Every year there is a player who drops for no reason or dumb reasons, it was pretty obvious in 2024 Buzelis went later than he should have, a weak draft and you can't even find a team in the top 10 to take a 6"10" SF with legit basketball skills, probably just a bias against G-League players. Kyle Filipowski too, a C with great size and skill that everyone was saying should be a lottery pick and he drops to the second round because people are saying he's a religious nut. None of this is rocket science, if we cared about religious nuts we never would have traded for and overpayed IQ.

[DreamTeam09]

I hope our wing screening/cutting is up to par, not a lot of teams can match up our 6'7 6'8 6'9 RJ BI Scottie on the wings. They're all good passers

[ConSarnit]

The crux of this thread does not exactly create an enthusiastic environment going into never season. This era relies on a guy who you’re lucky to get 65 games out of and who at his peak is a low level all-star. Not exactly a glowing endorsement for this era of Raptors ball.

I get that we have to work with what we have but I doubt many of us would have been thrilled to hear that we’d come out of the Siakam/FVV era only to enter the Brandon Ingram era (which does not exactly scream “threat” to the rest of the league).

[Boogie!]

Is Brandon Ingram more Rudy gay or kawhi Leonard.

[Tor_Raps]

Is Brandon Ingram more Rudy gay or kawhi Leonard.

Hes in between both of them... easily better than Gay but definitely not near Kawhi.

[Boogie!]

Is Brandon Ingram more Rudy gay or kawhi Leonard.

Hes in between both of them... easily better than Gay but definitely not near Kawhi.

I think our future depends on which side he leans more towards

[Tor_Raps]

Is Brandon Ingram more Rudy gay or kawhi Leonard.

Hes in between both of them... easily better than Gay but definitely not near Kawhi.

I think our future depends on which side he leans more towards

Well, let's hope he doesnt lean into Kawhi's availability and just the skillset lol. This team was going nowhere without him so I wouldn't put all the pressure on him. Thats reserved for guys you go "all in" for.

[tsherkin]

Is Brandon Ingram more Rudy gay or kawhi Leonard.

Hes in between both of them... easily better than Gay but definitely not near Kawhi.

I think our future depends on which side he leans more towards

Our short-term future, anyway. Maybe we'll get wildly lucky with a first rounder or two again, something like we did with OG and Pascal. Or maybe we'll package, trade up and hit something super in the late lottery.

Hope springs eternal, heh.

[The Duke]

The whole Kwahi semi comparison is just absurd.
We do not even have a Kwahi part 1.5

[tsherkin]

The whole Kwahi semi comparison is just absurd. We do not have Kwahi part 1.5

Yes, it's a bit odd. Ingram is quite good, but he's far from Kawhi level, and even 2019 Kawhi was considerably better on D.

[CPT]

Is Brandon Ingram more Rudy gay or kawhi Leonard.

WAY closer to Rudy Gay, but with Kawhi’s health?

This isn’t even really a knock. Healthy Kawhi would be a top 5-10 player of the past 10 years.

[Boogie!]

The whole Kwahi semi comparison is just absurd.
We do not even have a Kwahi part 1.5

I’m just talking about impact. I know he’s not as talented as kawhi.

[tsherkin]

The whole Kwahi semi comparison is just absurd.
We do not even have a Kwahi part 1.5

I’m just talking about impact. I know he’s not as talented as kawhi.

He's definitely going to be an impact player for us whenever he's healthy, that's certain.

[djsunyc]

48, 49, 56 wins with derozan starting from 13/14 to 15/16.

if we can do that with ingram - that should be considered pretty successful.

[JB7]

The crux of this thread does not exactly create an enthusiastic environment going into never season. This era relies on a guy who you’re lucky to get 65 games out of and who at his peak is a low level all-star. Not exactly a glowing endorsement for this era of Raptors ball.

I get that we have to work with what we have but I doubt many of us would have been thrilled to hear that we’d come out of the Siakam/FVV era only to enter the Brandon Ingram era (which does not exactly scream “threat” to the rest of the league).

Games played last season:
- Tatum played 72
- Mitchell played 71
- Curry, Lebron, Cade & Jokic played 70
- Giannis played 67
- Brown played 63
- FVV played 60
- Butler played 55
- Luka & Ja played 50

The idea that star players do not miss significant numbers of games is fallacy. All of these star players missed significant numbers of games, and their teams still managed to complete the season, and make the playoffs with decent standings.

In BI plays in only 60 games, this team will still be fine, because I'm sure a lot of those rest days of the 22 games missed will be against tanking teams the Raps won't need BI in the game to win.

[Pointgod]

The whole Kwahi semi comparison is just absurd.
We do not even have a Kwahi part 1.5

Hearing the Kawhi and Durant comparisons just screams someone who’s never watched Ingram actually play beyond a cherry picked highlight package