Who would you trade?

[rapluva]

If lets say, things keep going south, which is the one player that we should get rid of in a trade?

Some might say Barrett, I say he needs to come off the bench, or give him like 5 minutes in the starting lineup and yank him for like Gradey or Jakobe...He can really score and that would help with him being in the bench lineup.

The person I personally don't care on the team is IQ.. he is talented, but I don't see the winner attitude in him. We need a point guard that passes and plays defence and hits the occasional 3. Scottie..Ingram..are the ones getting the most shots anyways..
IQ is bad on defence..can't keep any point guard in front of him.. most of his fouls are PGs driving on him and if they get any angle, the dude fouls them.

Really like the bench unit..CMB will be a beast if healthy..

[Thaddy]

We have a defensive problem, no rim protection, and shooting issues. I would first off give the team 20 games before making a move.

Then I would remove bad defensive players like jenga. This will likely be Dick to start off. I have zero faith he'll be a neutral defender and his shot will be effective and positive for us.

[Troubadour]

I'd hard reset. They lost the OG trade, they lost the Pascal trade, they lost Fred for nothing, they had no choice but to overpay Scottie, they massively overpaid Poeltl, the IQ contract is looking worse and worse by the day. The compound effect of all of these decisions is a roster that has limited upside.

But Rogers won't do that. They'll probably trade RJ and make Mat Devlin talk about how we haven't seen this "new look Raptors team" and we should expect playoffs.

[ConSarnit]

If this season keeps going south then everyone outside of CMB is on the table. RJ and Ingram will be in their final contract years next season. Let’s not get caught like we did with FVV/OG/Siakam where we held on too long (assuming there is a market for RJ or Ingram).

If this team continues to struggle that is an indictment of the core players. And it’s not like those core players have a lot of room for growth. If this thing fails halfway through the season pulling the plug has to be an option.

[elmer_yuck]

Why not sign an actual backup center who can rebound and block shots?

[causal_fan]

Start with the FO and coach.

[Shakril]

If things go south, it depends entirely on who is the problem when that point comes.

Right now, outside the young guys, only BI is safe and RJ has played well enough.

Barnes, Yak and IQ all three have not met expectations.

Of those 3, Barnes has the biggest trade value and IQs contract is hard to trade.

[Smalltown]

Start with the FO and coach.

Bobby is safe. But we're gonna find out quick of Darko was a Bobby pick or just a Masai pick soon. I gave him the benefit of the doubt last year with all the injuries. But this year has been a hot mess from a coaching perspective.

[DelAbbot]

Start with the FO and coach.

Bobby is safe. But we're gonna find out quick of Darko was a Bobby pick or just a Masai pick soon. I gave him the benefit of the doubt last year with all the injuries. But this year has been a hot mess from a coaching perspective.

Sure Bobby is safe because Masai was fired recently. From an public perception of competent ownership, Bobby won't be fired this year.

But this roster has Bobby's fingerprints all over it. Masai said himself that he was not as involved in recent years, which implies Bobby initiated the moves to acquire our current core of players - Masai just rubber stamped them.

[ItsDanger]

Was Bobby behind the Thad Young trade? I need this one answered. If yes, fire him.

[DelAbbot]

Was Bobby behind the Thad Young trade? I need this one answered. If yes, fire him.

I can say with confidence that was Bobby. I remember it well - Raptors operated just below the luxury tax line, and GTJ's performance bonus that season was about to kick in and push the Raps over the repeated luxury tax - the Thad move cleared enough space to allow them to stay under that tax line. They just sold it to the masses that it was about bringing in leadership for the playoffs, a mere 6 months after Masai talking about "growing pains" aka rebuild.

Do you think Masai would be counting beans about staying under the luxury tax line? That's what he hired Bobby for.

[iBall101]

Poeltl in a heartbeat for a fast moving 5. Then, I'd look for a IQ+Grady package for a facilitating PG. Team would be much better moving forward.

[Troubadour]

Poeltl in a heartbeat for a fast moving 5. Then, I'd look for a IQ+Grady package for a facilitating PG. Team would be much better moving forward.

How would that pitch work for the opposing team? Let's trade our nimble big for the slow one?

[Raptorfan2012]

Everyone is tradeable at the right price, but my guess is Ingram and Scottie are the only ones not on table (for now).

[Nature]

Was Bobby behind the Thad Young trade? I need this one answered. If yes, fire him.

I can tell say with confidence that was Bobby. I remember well - GTJ's performance bonus was about to kick in and push the Raps over the repeated luxury tax - the Thad move cleared enough space to allow them to stay under that tax line. They just sold it to the masses that it was about bringing in leadership for the playoffs, a mere 6 months after Masai talking about "growing pains" aka rebuild.

Do you think Masai would be counting beans about staying under the luxury tax line? That's what he hired Bobby for.

This is so depressing...

We're going on almost 6 years of awful team building. This blows.

[iBall101]

Poeltl in a heartbeat for a fast moving 5. Then, I'd look for a IQ+Grady package for a facilitating PG. Team would be much better moving forward.

How would that pitch work for the opposing team? Let's trade our nimble big for the slow one?

Lol... Poeltl can't play any worse then he has to start the season. I agree with others that he's definitely playing injured. So, he's bound to catch a hot streak of games where he will be reminiscent of how he played last season. Then, there's the pitch to sell high for an (under the radar) center.

[ciueli]

Was Bobby behind the Thad Young trade? I need this one answered. If yes, fire him.

I can tell say with confidence that was Bobby. I remember well - GTJ's performance bonus was about to kick in and push the Raps over the repeated luxury tax - the Thad move cleared enough space to allow them to stay under that tax line. They just sold it to the masses that it was about bringing in leadership for the playoffs, a mere 6 months after Masai talking about "growing pains" aka rebuild.

Do you think Masai would be counting beans about staying under the luxury tax line? That's what he hired Bobby for.

This is so depressing...

We're going on almost 6 years of awful team building. This blows.

This team essentially hasn't been good since the 2010s and we're halfway through the 2020s. Sure, there was that one COVID season they made the playoffs but it was fool's gold for reasons that wouldn't be repeated, other key East teams had injuries and the Raptors had the best home court advantage in the league with teams afraid to bring stars across the border for fear they'd get COVID and be forced to stay in Canada for a month.

And sadly there is no light on the horizon, we are chained into these long term contracts (Scottie, Jak, IQ). Even Ingram has another three seasons if he picks up his option year. The cupboard is bare with our draft picks not really panning out, Gradey looks like he did in year 1, obviously too early to say on Ja'Kobe and CMB, but we're already seeing better players taken later in their respective drafts, Kyshawn George in '24 and Cedric Coward this year. Even the fringe hope of landing a star in the draft is gone with this team likely to one again be just a bit too good to be one of the worst teams in the NBA to get good odds at a top 3 pick in the '26 draft. Hard days to be a Raptors fan for sure.

[Jtoneller1]

Long term, everyone needs to go other than Scottie and CMB. I'm calling Lamelo Ball to the Raps right now as his offensive skill set is what this team desperately needs. Here's how I see the core:

PG: (OTD Shooting, Half Court Rim Pressure) Lamelo Ball type
SG: (Movement Shooting, Attack Closeouts, On-Ball Defense) Derrick White type
SF- (On-Ball Defense, Off-Ball Defense, Stationary Shooting) CMB
PF-(On-Ball Defense, Off-Ball Defense, Passing, Post Scoring) Scottie
C- (Rim Protection, Stationary Shooting) Porzingis, JJJ type

Your top two players (Ball and Scottie) cover multiple skill sets at an elite level. Lamelo is insulated with 4 good to great defenders. Scottie is insulated with 4 good to great shooters.

Obviously, Lamelo has injury and character concerns but that would reduce the asking price to something more consistent with Bobby's risk level (Salary and a couple firsts?)



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[Harcore Fenton Mun]

Your only real choice is... a) Do we try and build around Grady. Or, b) Go strait to the CMB era.

[Grew]

I need an upgrade for Jak.

I think a lot of our defensive problems are because of Darko's system right now moreso than the players.

If we are going to pressure and scramble, we need some rim protection in the backline. This really was never Jak's strongsuit. He's good at moving his feet when he's healthy but he was never a real lane intimidator.

Shift to the other side of the ball and we all know he eats up the space Ingram and Scottie want to play in. We need either a stretch big or a vertical spacer, Jak is somehow neither in an NBA where most effective bigs are one or the other. We use him like a hub when that should be what Scottie is doing. CMB looks to have a higher upside than Jak in this role and he's just played his 2nd game. Jak isn't a true hub because he's not a threat to drive or shoot the ball, his passes are prefunctory and not advantage creating.

Even healthy this guy is a horrible horrible fit on this roster and as a starting C in the modern NBA. I like him as a person, it's cool we drafted him then got him back, but I think he's capping the ceiling of this team more than anyone else. He's a 15 min backup.

I don't think it would necessarily be fair to get rid of anyone else before Jak. IQ is next on the block, but I would like to see him play with a lob threat or with proper spacing or with a rim protector to cover some of his perimeter defense problems.