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MavCarter wrote:I dont like all the dd slander on here lmao.
MavCarter wrote:I dont like all the dd slander on here lmao. I dont agree with all this media stuff but at least he’s showing some passion for the raptors/toronto. Americans genuinely think players are dying to GTFO of toronto
SHFT wrote:How on earth was it a half apology?? He spent like 10 mins of his presser to confirm the groat to suit up for us to specifically address what happenes with demar. Masai also laid out facts which demar didnt do until his interview with espn.VanWest82 wrote:The Demar hate on here continues to be so sad. It was pretty clear from the beginning that Masai didn't exactly handle this situation well, and his half apology didn't make it any better. DD has a right to be pissed. He'll get over it though. Hopefully RealGM will too.
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SHFT wrote:DD starting to annoy me a little. I totally get what he is saying NOW (try to give him some heads up which imo is fair but this deal likely fell apart a bunch of times before it was finalized) BUT that is NOT what he said earlier (that he was lied to). MU explicitly admitted what his mistake was and apologized for it. Demar confirms that is what happened and is still going on about it. If Masai publicly states that was his fault, why keep going on about it? What are you trying to accomplish with that? An apology? You got that.
Also - we only lost to 1 team in the playoffs?????? Seriously??????? We got swept by the Wizards!!!!!!!!!
I cant wait for us to play the spurs so Kawhi can lock his ass up and drop 30 on him.
VanWest82 wrote:SHFT wrote:How on earth was it a half apology?? He spent like 10 mins of his presser to confirm the groat to suit up for us to specifically address what happenes with demar. Masai also laid out facts which demar didnt do until his interview with espn.VanWest82 wrote:The Demar hate on here continues to be so sad. It was pretty clear from the beginning that Masai didn't exactly handle this situation well, and his half apology didn't make it any better. DD has a right to be pissed. He'll get over it though. Hopefully RealGM will too.
Sent from my LG-H915 using RealGM mobile app
Except the part Masai didn't say was that he purposely misled Demar in the Vegas meetings with him and his agent. He made a tough call lying to his franchise guy about being in trade discussions. It was ruthless, and it probably saved us from having to add someone like OG instead of Jak (because everything gets out at summer league).
I just think there was a better way for Masai to handle things that wouldn't have resulted in this negative PR cycle. He could have confirmed that there had been discussions when confronted about it in Vegas. He could have lied and given a better apology, something more succinct instead of calling it a miscommunication which it wasn't. Why exacerbate the issue by pretending like it was all this big misunderstanding? Just say I'm sorry..obv Demar was surprised..we told him when it was close to completion..it wasn't close when we spoke in Vegas..this is a tough business...and leave it at that.
TheAlchemist wrote:Make no mistake,
Demar on that special has FOOOOKED our organization 10 ways side ways.
Man we need to start throwing money at babies and children with diseases or something for our optics.
Shoot, he just took our team credibility down a lot.
Whole Truth wrote:Anyone know the story of Jobe?
Satan tells God that Jobe is only loyal because he was given everything & that if he had everything taken away so would the loyalty go.
Red_Claw wrote:THIS IS WHAT DEROZAN SHOULD HAVE SAID:
"I get to take care of my family while playing the game that i love so it doesn't matter where i play. Toronto has been good to me, will always be my first NBA home but sometimes, things need to change and the NBA is a business. I look forward to helping another great organization achieve the ultimate goal of winning a championship and thank Toronto for all the love over the years."
He can sulk behind closed doors but the statement above is a version of what i expected from Derozan the man and any other traded player tbh.
XxIronChainzxX wrote:Sherlock wrote:StopitLeo wrote:
The sacrifice angle isn't ridiculous at all. Many people focus on the limitations of his game but take for granted how much he developed in other areas. At the time of his first extension he would looked to be at best a starter in the league, not a four time All-Star and two time All-NBA player (2nd and 3rd team).
You need to go back and look at the skills he had when he was drafted and during the years of his rookie deal. It's incredible that he became as good as he has. In the off-season players always give the standard answer about "trying to get better" and "adding something new each year". DeMar is one of the few guys who actually backs that up.
He came into the league riding his athleticism. He wasn't much of a jump shooter past 16 feet because his shot was inconsistent. His mechanics also limited his range, which I believe is the main he hasn't shot a lot of 3s in his career. Building range with his mechanics is a slow process and they weren't going to tear his shot down when it just needed refinement; moreover, the league wouldn't move to being 3 pt shooting heavy for several years.
As a rookie he was too weak to finish at the rim with any contact (true of many rookies). He had weak handles and no left-hand to speak of. He improved all of those skills into his second contract. During that extension he improved enough that he started to post guys up.
He then developed what many have called the best footwork in the league and a deadly mid-range game because of it. His ball-handling while driving to the hoop improved enough that he could start using eurosteps and other creative moves to avoid defenders and/or draw fouls. He started being able to finish with both hands, even when being bumped. He also took his FT% from 76% as a rookie to a career average of 83%.
He averaged 2.5 assists per game in his fourth season, a career high at that point. He improved his playmaking and bumped that up to 4.0 the following year and last year dished out 5.2 assists per game. That isn't just being less selfish with the ball, that is actual improvement in skill.
He's still not much of a 3pt shooter but you can be sure he's continued to work on it. He's close enough to it being a threat that the defense have to consider, the same way Wade was not a good 3pt shooter, or even Kobe to be honest.
He has sacrificed a lot in the sense of the amount of time he has dedicated to improving his game. He was doing 5 am workouts in at the Olympics in Rio before Team USA met at 11 am to start their practice. We know about his late night shooting sessions, even on holidays. Just look at his improvement since coming into the league. That doesn't happen without an insane commitment to getting better.
DeMar never developed into the MVP-level player you need to be a true contender in the league, but we should be pretty damn thankful for how good of a player he did become. Without his immense improvement we would never have reached the heights that the franchise has. Even if you want to argue that Lowry has been a better player part of his success is because he played with DeRozan.
Post of the Thread Candidate #1. DeMar built himself up into the all-star player he became out of a bunch of raw materials, not otherworldly God-given talent. You can argue at the end of the day he still wasn't good enough, but you can't complain that DeMar didn't put in the work to become the best he was capable of being. Would we have been happier if he capped out at Terrence Ross levels? You think anyone would be accepting T-Ross as the headliner in a trade for a guy like Kawhi Leonard?kj_ wrote:I just watched the entire interview. I have been a Demar supporter as a person, for how he’s represented the raptors and toronto and for what he’s brought to the basketball floor. I’ve appreciated his dedication and hard work and that he has improved his game every single year he’s been in the league. I appreciate his role in “helping” to move the team from terrible to very good. I say “helping” because he was a part of it, not the entire thing. He was a big part of it and deserves credit for that.
Now... that video made me sad for Demar.
He sees himself as the victim in this and fails to see any other point of view. His big issue with Masai was that didn’t give him any indication he might be involved in a trade and that’s the part he has a problem with.
Well Demar, everyone that’s been following this team even a little bit has been well aware “no player is untouchable” ... you are a part of that. That was your heads up. Also, every Kawhi trade rumour involving the raptors included your name ... there’s another heads up.
Your public campaign (this interview, Instagram posts) to play the victim and try to angle yourself as the poor innocent player who was treated badly in an attempt to paint Masai as the villain here is immature, childish and more importantly unprofessional.
This was a basketball transaction that was very foreseeable and there isn’t a good guy and a bad guy. Your treating this like a break up where the person dumped talks badly about the other publicly to get everyone on there side so they can feel better about themselves. It’s a childish way to deal with a break up. One day you will realize that the relationship you had with the raptors and Masai was mutually beneficial but also had run its course for both parties. Life will go on, so will basketball, you were not mistreated and there doesn’t always need to be a victim and a villain when personal relationships change.
Grow up Demar, it’s time.
Post of the Thread Candidate #2. Well put. DeMar, we love you for what you've done, but you need to grow up and move on. Yes your feelings got hurt, but that doesn't mean that people were out there actively trying to hurt you. So you can be upset, but at some point (soon!) you need to get over it and move on with your life. Continuing to take shots or hold a grudge is only going to make you look worse the longer this continues.
"Sacrifices" to improve his game are not sacrifices in the way he was using that word in the interview. We can all respect the work DD put in to elevate himself, from the terrible player he was to the good(ish) player he is now.
He's worked harder than a lot of other players and he deserves credit for it but that is a far cry from sacrificing for this team. He's not IT who literally broke his body. And IMO that was partly the Celtics letting down IT.
TheAlchemist wrote:Make no mistake,
Demar on that special has FOOOOKED our organization 10 ways side ways.
Man we need to start throwing money at babies and children with diseases or something for our optics.
Shoot, he just took our team credibility down a lot.
Mikistan wrote:Communication is a two way street - either what was said was not what was meant, or what was heard was not what was said.
No loyalty in this game, facepalm, then this interview, were they all consistent in their messaging?
MavCarter wrote:DeKobe10 wrote:ruckus wrote:
I wouldn't go that far. It's the blind hate of Demar at this point that really irks me. On the flip side, the blind hate of Masai is a headscratcher as well. The problem is this hot take culture where everyone has to pick a side and defend their point until everyone is exhausted from all the crappy rhetoric being thrown around.
At the end of the day, it's a good trade for all parties involved. The Spurs got what they want. The Raptors got what they wanted. Kawhi and Demar didn't really get what they wanted but I think when the dust settles, they'll see that they got what they needed.
my hate for masai isn't blind. i've met him numerous times and he's actually an **** (confirmed by DD last night in his interview). don't be confused by what he portrays himself as to the media.
yeah ok dekobe10 we believe you
DeKobe10 wrote:MavCarter wrote:DeKobe10 wrote:
my hate for masai isn't blind. i've met him numerous times and he's actually an **** (confirmed by DD last night in his interview). don't be confused by what he portrays himself as to the media.
yeah ok dekobe10 we believe you
Don’t need to prove anything to randoms on an Internet forum. I know what I experienced and others who used to work with me experienced similar. Masai has you all fooled it’s absolutely hilarious. If I saw him on the street I wouldn’t even say hi, that’s how little respect I have for him.
DeKobe10 wrote:MavCarter wrote:DeKobe10 wrote:
my hate for masai isn't blind. i've met him numerous times and he's actually an **** (confirmed by DD last night in his interview). don't be confused by what he portrays himself as to the media.
yeah ok dekobe10 we believe you
Don’t need to prove anything to randoms on an Internet forum. I know what I experienced and others who used to work with me experienced similar. Masai has you all fooled it’s absolutely hilarious. If I saw him on the street I wouldn’t even say hi, that’s how little respect I have for him.