Shams: Raps one of teams to pursue Anthony Davis

[iBall101]

Bobby doesn’t seem to be the biggest fan of RJ.

I think he’ll offer up RJ + Poeltl for AD.

Horrible move. RJ is more valuable then most of our starters. Look how much of an impact lost its been these past games. I'd rather offer IQ with Poeltl or walk away from this trade altogether. Another disgruntled Star will eventually ask out.

[Merit]

We gotta get rid of Poeltl somehow before his extension kicks in.
His cap hit is only 18mil right now. It'll be 27mil next year and damn near impossible to trade him.

Have you considered that the cap is rising and by percentage of the cap he effectively stays the same? The only reason we would move Jak would be in aggregate where we get a better big back.

The history of non-all star centers remaining starting level players past the age of 32 is extremely poor. Any age related decline (or increased injuries) probably knocks Poeltl out of the top 25 centers.

If Poeltl suffers any slippage at all over the next 2-3 years he’s not going to be worth his contract.

I would say that’s a fair response, and yet - his injuries to date haven’t been the concerning variety. He’s had freak hand injuries, hip pointers, ankle injuries, groin injuries - but nothing reoccurring, with the possible current back situation being arguable. In particular, he has never had the feet injuries that plague bigs. IMO he’s currently being asked to do too much with RJ and IQ out, and Mamu crapping the bed over the past few weeks.

I disagree that he won’t be worth his contract. He’d just be managed differently. For example, he’d play fewer minutes and in different situations. Current examples of the above are Clint Capela and Steven Adams. JV as well. Jak is favourably compared to Steven Adams because of his screening and passing ability, but he’s significantly more mobile. I don’t think his aging curve will be a problem. You’re really understating the improvement in rest and recovery procedures since the 1990’s, never mind the 2020’s. His contract is done before age 35 too.

Ultimately, I’m supremely confident in the Raps current medical team. I don’t think Jak's contract is poor, but I would be content if he was moved for someone better than he is. Giannis? For sure. AD? Could be convinced. It’s really too bad that Lively is out for the season because I’d have liked to see him come our way along with AD. I probably still would were a trade to happen.

I’d argue that he’s more than worth his contract - especially since his contract decreases in his age 34/35 season.

[MEDIC]

Man......his contract is insane.....plus injuries. Massive risk.

I like his contract length more than Quickley's though. Who would we give up? His contract is just too damn big & not worth the hassle.

I still can't believe Dallas made that trade. Not worth Cooper.

Someone paid them to put Luka in LA.

[MEDIC]

All that for a 33 year old rental? . he likely bolts as soon as he can... but if we could unload IQ and Yak?... lol

Davis
Barnes
Ingram
Barrett
? , Shead

I would be in ... in

But I would much rather roll the dice for Giannis, lol if we made his short list.(doubtful).

Yeah. You only do this deal if you can unload some long term deals that you don't want on the books. I am with you on this one.

You don't give up picks for this guy & I would want Lively coming back as well.

[Merit]

Bobby doesn’t seem to be the biggest fan of RJ.

I feel like I am in crazy town as one of the few people who sees/thinks this.

What is that based on though? Like where was it ever said or even insinuated?

[Merit]

All that for a 33 year old rental? . he likely bolts as soon as he can... but if we could unload IQ and Yak?... lol

Davis
Barnes
Ingram
Barrett
? , Shead

I would be in ... in

But I would much rather roll the dice for Giannis, lol if we made his short list.(doubtful).

Yeah. You only do this deal if you can unload some long term deals that you don't want on the books. I am with you on this one.

You don't give up picks for this guy & I would want Lively coming back as well.

My thought is that it’s probably a 3 or 4 team trade. However, I did come up with a possible trade that helps solve some of the Raps issues and moves on from IQ and Jak, even though I like the BBQ nickname better than the BBD one This works in the checker after January when Jak can be traded.


Davis, Russell, Lively, Powell and Nembhard

for

IQ, Jakob, Ochai, Gradey, Mogbo and a future protected first in 2027 that converts to two seconds.

PG Russell/Shead/Nembhard
SG RJ/Jakobe
SF BI/Battle
PF Scottie/CMB
C AD/Lively/Mamu/Powell

IMO this trade became more likely given that Lively is now out for the season.

[MiamiSPX]

Bobby doesn’t seem to be the biggest fan of RJ.

I feel like I am in crazy town as one of the few people who sees/thinks this.

What is that based on though? Like where was it ever said or even insinuated?

Never anything said, which is part of it. They never talk about him. In every sport you hear GMs often get candid saying "we love Player X and want him to be here with us and I am sure we will get something done here soon" (about a contract) or things along those lines. Or refer to said player as a building block or part of their core. They have never said that about RJ (that I am aware of). Masai would only ever refer to Scottie as their core, the odd time mention IQ and a lot of times mention they "need another Scottie" lol.

They have never marketed him for pretty much anything. And lastly, they have not extended him. Yes, I know everyone keeps saying not to read too much into it, but historically the Raps have not behaved this way with players they are dead set on keeping. I mean, he's a local boy and his father has deep ties to Canada Basketball and both are on record as saying it's his dream to play for the Raptors and he wants to stay forever. There are marketing opportunities there in which the Raptors have shown zero interest.

Like I said, I am willing to concede I am in crazy town reading too much into things. We shall see.

[MEDIC]

All that for a 33 year old rental? . he likely bolts as soon as he can... but if we could unload IQ and Yak?... lol

Davis
Barnes
Ingram
Barrett
? , Shead

I would be in ... in

But I would much rather roll the dice for Giannis, lol if we made his short list.(doubtful).

Yeah. You only do this deal if you can unload some long term deals that you don't want on the books. I am with you on this one.

You don't give up picks for this guy & I would want Lively coming back as well.

My thought is that it’s probably a 3 or 4 team trade. However, I did come up with a possible trade that helps solve some of the Raps issues and moves on from IQ and Jak, even though I like the BBQ nickname better than the BBD one This works in the checker after January when Jak can be traded.


Davis, Russell, Lively, Powell and Nembhard

for

IQ, Jakob, Ochai, Gradey, Mogbo and a future protected first in 2027 that converts to two seconds.

PG Russell/Shead/Nembhard
SG RJ/Jakobe
SF BI/Battle
PF Scottie/CMB
C AD/Lively/Mamu/Powell

IMO this trade became more likely given that Lively is now out for the season.

Sign me up.

[Rainman66]

I feel like any deal including RJ and a FRP is an overpay.....for an injury prone player that isn't even built to play the center position. As soon as he goes down Raptors become a full-on tanking level team.

This is the silver lining in any AD deal, is the ability to pivot to a full on tank for 2026 (assuming we keep this year's pick and AD inevitably gets injured sometime throughout this season). Returning next year with one of Peterson/Dybantsa and Scottie/Ingram/AD is definitely worth the price of a 60+ million AD imo.

[TGM]

Not interested in offering picks for Davis, this team needs an infusion of cheap, real talent going forward

Dude so does every team in the league. The only way you do that is through the draft or finding diamonds in the rough of overlooked journey men. However, maybe you can find guys like Shead, but you don’t just dig up SGAs which is why you need to acquire them.

For those saying they don’t want Davis, or saying he is too expensive. I’m really curious to hear a proposal of how you get a superstar that helps us compete, is young, on a good contract and doesn’t have injury risk.

That’s like saying you find a wife that

“Feeds me”
“F*^ks me”
And
“Shuts the F^*k up!”

[AbC?]

Watch on YouTube

[UnbelievablyRAW]

He'd be interesting on the Pacers as a target. They can afford to shut him down and rehab him for a year given Tyrese is also down. Also have Mathurin who is a young good guard who they can pair with Flagg. Would likely take Nembhard to be in the trade in order to make the salary work which might make it prohibitive. Would give Mavs an out to trade Kyrie for more young talent (Wolves?)

Potential Pacers starting 5

Tyrese, Nesmith, Siakam/AD/Huff
TJ/Sheppard/Furphy/Walker/Bradley

Potential Mavs starting 5
Nembhard/Mathurin/Christie/Flagg/Gafford
Nembhard/Hardy/Marshall/Martin/Lively (next year)

Pacers never do this because AD is such an injury risk and Nembhard is a guy

[UnbelievablyRAW]

Not interested in offering picks for Davis, this team needs an infusion of cheap, real talent going forward

Dude so does every team in the league. The only way you do that is through the draft or finding diamonds in the rough of overlooked journey men. However, maybe you can find guys like Shead, but you don’t just dig up SGAs which is why you need to acquire them.

For those saying they don’t want Davis, or saying he is too expensive. I’m really curious to hear a proposal of how you get a superstar that helps us compete, is young, on a good contract and doesn’t have injury risk.

That’s like saying you find a wife that

“Feeds me”
“F*^ks me”
And
“Shuts the F^*k up!”

If he was making the same money as Sabonis I would drive whoever from the Raptors through a snowstorm to the airport individually. Him making upwards of 64M in his final year when he's older and probably even more injury prone is the big red flag. We're already suffering with Jakob in and out of the lineup and AD has the same reputation. Even if he's better, he's making almost triple Jakob's salary

It is almost like trading for Embiid/Kawhi/PG at this point. Yes they are techncally better than most guys in a vacuum but the injuries that pop up frequently make them a big red flag to trade for.

[Raps in 4]

Not interested in offering picks for Davis, this team needs an infusion of cheap, real talent going forward

Dude so does every team in the league. The only way you do that is through the draft or finding diamonds in the rough of overlooked journey men. However, maybe you can find guys like Shead, but you don’t just dig up SGAs which is why you need to acquire them.

For those saying they don’t want Davis, or saying he is too expensive. I’m really curious to hear a proposal of how you get a superstar that helps us compete, is young, on a good contract and doesn’t have injury risk.

You wait until one becomes available and then trade a treasure trove of future picks for him.

Or you tank and draft one.

Or you get lucky and pick one later in the draft.

There aren't really many options, but all of them are better than trading assets for an overpaid, injury-prone, 32 year-old.

[Merit]

I feel like I am in crazy town as one of the few people who sees/thinks this.

What is that based on though? Like where was it ever said or even insinuated?

Never anything said, which is part of it. They never talk about him. In every sport you hear GMs often get candid saying "we love Player X and want him to be here with us and I am sure we will get something done here soon" (about a contract) or things along those lines. Or refer to said player as a building block or part of their core. They have never said that about RJ (that I am aware of). Masai would only ever refer to Scottie as their core, the odd time mention IQ and a lot of times mention they "need another Scottie" lol.

They have never marketed him for pretty much anything. And lastly, they have not extended him. Yes, I know everyone keeps saying not to read too much into it, but historically the Raps have not behaved this way with players they are dead set on keeping. I mean, he's a local boy and his father has deep ties to Canada Basketball and both are on record as saying it's his dream to play for the Raptors and he wants to stay forever. There are marketing opportunities there in which the Raptors have shown zero interest.

Like I said, I am willing to concede I am in crazy town reading too much into things. We shall see.

I will be the last person you ever meet/chat with that tells you to ignore your intuition. Always trust it.

That said, I feel he’s mentioned often enough in promo. I get where you're coming from in that he’s more vocal about his love for the city than the club has been vocal about bringing him back. Let’s see how things shake down as we start to approach trade season.

In terms of my feelings about it - maybe the Raps know they have leverage and out of respect for everything RJ represents to the city have refrained from commenting. That’s the optimist in me though. RJ’s value league wide is tough to ascertain, but I really like how much he’s improved and it’s clear that we need someone with his skillset.

[Merit]

Not interested in offering picks for Davis, this team needs an infusion of cheap, real talent going forward

Dude so does every team in the league. The only way you do that is through the draft or finding diamonds in the rough of overlooked journey men. However, maybe you can find guys like Shead, but you don’t just dig up SGAs which is why you need to acquire them.

For those saying they don’t want Davis, or saying he is too expensive. I’m really curious to hear a proposal of how you get a superstar that helps us compete, is young, on a good contract and doesn’t have injury risk.

That’s like saying you find a wife that

“Feeds me”
“F*^ks me”
And
“Shuts the F^*k up!”

I found one of those diamond in the rough wifeys and was too immature at the time to realize it. My absolute loss.

That said, while I know those types of humans exist, and will find another amazing human to settle down with, the greater likelihood for team and life building is that compromise of some sort is necessary.

It seems that riding the injury wave is the compromise that allows us - a team with few fully developed assets to trade - to acquire a player like AD for guys off our bench and two rotation players. One benefit is our medical team lead by Alex McKechnie.

[PhilBlackson]

If we trade RJ OR multiple picks for AD, my new nickname for him will be Bobby Babcock.

Fisher reports that Rich Paul is telling teams that AD basically wants a max extension, this would be one of the worst trades ever if the Raptors not only lose assets but then handicapped (pun intended) the team financially for the forseeable future a guy who is GUARANTEED (there is no "if") be extremely injury plagued as a big man who's continuing to gain weight.

This all better be a "chess move" to drive the price up on DET & ATL and fool them into blowing assets/future cap space but we better not be the fools that do. The absolute most I could stomach (and to be clear I wouldn't want to do this, I'm just saying the only thing to save me from being done with the franchise while Bobby is here) is Gradey + Poeltl + 2027 pick - because again if part of a deal for AD is a max extension then I actually have ZERO interest. So about THE only way I would even tolerate the trade is if it's again GD + JP + 27' for AD and a 2 yr extension. Take it or leave it --- and being that I'm doubtful that gets it done, I'd MUCH prefer we leave it.

[Airmiess]

He's basically Jermaine Oneil atp.

I don't see the point of trading picks to pay salary tax for this guy.

[TGM]

Not interested in offering picks for Davis, this team needs an infusion of cheap, real talent going forward

Dude so does every team in the league. The only way you do that is through the draft or finding diamonds in the rough of overlooked journey men. However, maybe you can find guys like Shead, but you don’t just dig up SGAs which is why you need to acquire them.

For those saying they don’t want Davis, or saying he is too expensive. I’m really curious to hear a proposal of how you get a superstar that helps us compete, is young, on a good contract and doesn’t have injury risk.

That’s like saying you find a wife that

“Feeds me”
“F*^ks me”
And
“Shuts the F^*k up!”

I found one of those diamond in the rough wifeys and was too immature at the time to realize it. My absolute loss.

That said, while I know those types of humans exist, and will find another amazing human to settle down with, the greater likelihood for team and life building is that compromise of some sort is necessary.

It seems that riding the injury wave is the compromise that allows us - a team with few fully developed assets to trade - to acquire a player like AD for guys off our bench and two rotation players. One benefit is our medical team lead by Alex McKechnie.

I think the challenge is how to get a superstar calibre player. Cause it’s not even guaranteed in each draft. You might get a guy of Booker calibre which is amazing already but it’s honestly still not going to be sufficient. ADs contract is big. But when he becomes a FA no one will max him out. He probably gets like a 2 year 45-50 million extension. So it’s a bit risk adjusted as you pay him the big bucks over the next two years while he can still contribute at a decent level. The alternative is to wait and see if our guys develop. Acquiring a healthy young superstar will be near impossible. Those guys are typically helping their existing teams thrive and that’s why they rarely become available. But if we look at the past 5 championship teams they have all had a top 5 player. So you either go AD or you push more chips in for Giannis. Don’t see how other superstars becoming available. Guys like Ja, Trae, Sabonis aren’t bad consolation prizes but probably still lack that extra gear for us. Big name free agents also won’t come here. So I think that’s the reality we face. The other way is you gamble on guys like Trey Murphy that are still young and you hope they bust out to superstars, but even acquiring those guys won’t be cheap. I think if we get AD, Jakob has to go just to reduce injury concentration.

[metafisical]

I feel like any deal including RJ and a FRP is an overpay.....for an injury prone player that isn't even built to play the center position. As soon as he goes down Raptors become a full-on tanking level team.

This is the silver lining in any AD deal, is the ability to pivot to a full on tank for 2026 (assuming we keep this year's pick and AD inevitably gets injured sometime throughout this season). Returning next year with one of Peterson/Dybantsa and Scottie/Ingram/AD is definitely worth the price of a 60+ million AD imo.

I agree. Full on tank is something that we should be considering if we want to win the championship in the near future.