Back on the treadmill

[PhilBlackson]

By the way, the DD/Lowry era produced a championship. DD was traded for a star and Lowry was a key contributor on a title team.

Teams that are 1 player away from a title are in a good spot.

We're not 1 player away lol

Unless of course LeBron or Luka walk through that door and even then we don't even have any post players...

[OakleyDokely]

By the way, the DD/Lowry era produced a championship. DD was traded for a star and Lowry was a key contributor on a title team.

Teams that are 1 player away from a title are in a good spot.

We're not 1 player away lol

Unless of course LeBron or Luka walk through that door and even then we don't even have any post players...

I disagree completely. You add any allstar calibre player to this core and they can get back to the finals. Hell, they almost got to the ECF as is.

It's up to Masai to add that piece again and I wouldn't bet against him. The Raps have cap space, all their draft picks and young assets.

[MavCarter]

ok boomer

[ash_k]

with CNN, FVV+OG+Siakam+ a 20-pts scorer will be a winning formula.
Last season, without Kyle, Mark, injuries...it was still "business as usual". We were winning

[MavCarter]

Its funny how this board has a championship or bust every single year mentality now when just a couple years ago all we heard was how much the roster had to be blown up to tank for 6-8 years orelse we were a treadmill going nowhere (I am also guilty of this). No one knows where trades come from or how draft picks go. With lowry aging and kawhi gone we all knew we had a couple years of retooling to come. Miami looked like they were a hard treadmill team with no capspace just a year ago and they just went to the finals

[kalel123]

We were always going to try and sign FVV, which we did.

There was always a chance Ibaka and Gasol would be gone, which one of them (Ibaka) have. Wish we could've kept Ibaka and I believe we could've easily beat that Clippers contract even at only one year if the team really wanted to keep him. So I have to question if there ever was a desire there. Crossing my fingers there's a decent replacement.

The plan is and always has been all about 2021 free agency and that hasn't changed one bit. And if we were ever to be successful, it would've required us renouncing Ibaka by then anyway so losing him now doesn't change a whole lot when you reach that point other than maybe we keep up facade of being a better team than we actually were this year, which I would think would've been transparent to anyone with more than semi-intelligence.

And IMO High Reward of this plan is worth waiting on before any plan B/C.

Not like people like OP got any brilliant plan of their own other than pointless b*tc*ing and starting useless duplicate threads. It's easy to say 'trade Lowry', 'don't resign FVV', and 'Siakam is POS or overpaid' without thinking of consequences of those words actually coming true. All I gotta say is, be careful what you wish for. You can't just trade your historically best player out of the blue unless the other team approaches you with packages you can't say no to. As a team that's competed in the playoffs, you can't just not resign a quality player and lose him for nothing if the said player is agreeable to come back in a reasonable deal. You need to have some compelling reasons to do so otherwise all the good will and reputation will be shot to hell in short order especially if you don't turn that around to success rather quickly. Back to being laughing stock of the league. Currently, we have no compelling reason. Yet.

There will be time appropriate for complete rebuild but it ain't now. There are things that need to happen first, I happen to believe those things are taking place, but they need time to take place.

[pingpongrac]

It still amazes me that people react like this when this offseason, this upcoming season was ALWAYS going to be a transition year. The Raps didn't position their roster or their cap to be major players this year. This season is about adding young players to the rotation, developing the roster and maintaining a max slot for next offseason. People who are disappointment because the Raps arent signing average FAs to big, long term deals really don't get the big picture.

Exactly. It's been like three years now that they've been preparing for 2021 FA. All of the deals made have reflected that. Why do people still expect Masai and Bobby to swing for the fences while damaging what they've been building up to for a few years? And potentially tanking a season isn't going to attract any FAs. We need to continue to rack up wins in the regular season and try to win a round or two in the playoffs, which would show FAs that we're just a piece away from contention.

Giannis is still a bit of a pipe dream to me, but there are numerous other star FAs next offseason. It's not just Giannis. Having that cap space available is huge. Adding a star to the core of Siakam/OG/FVV instantly makes us a contender for a few years while everyone is in their prime.

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[FreshyFlames]

Personally don't care about Tampa Bay season. They can tank it for all i care.

Theres a snowstorm in Toronto tomorrow with us going into a lockdown on Monday. All we have is to care about the raptors. What the hell else are we going to do with our time? Lol

Some people still have to work lol

[FreshyFlames]

By the way, the DD/Lowry era produced a championship. DD was traded for a star and Lowry was a key contributor on a title team.

Teams that are 1 player away from a title are in a good spot.

We're not 1 player away lol

Unless of course LeBron or Luka walk through that door and even then we don't even have any post players...

I disagree completely. You add any allstar calibre player to this core and they can get back to the finals. Hell, they almost got to the ECF as is.

It's up to Masai to add that piece again and I wouldn't bet against him. The Raps have cap space, all their draft picks and young assets.

I disagree completely. We need a superstar not an all star to win. Huge difference between Kawhi and DeMar(check 2018-2019 if you haven't). Also chemistry is a real thing. Can't just plug any player in and get the same result regardless. And then on top of that our competition has improved. No way we make finals adding just any all star. Has to be a superstar.

[OakleyDokely]

We're not 1 player away lol

Unless of course LeBron or Luka walk through that door and even then we don't even have any post players...

I disagree completely. You add any allstar calibre player to this core and they can get back to the finals. Hell, they almost got to the ECF as is.

It's up to Masai to add that piece again and I wouldn't bet against him. The Raps have cap space, all their draft picks and young assets.

I disagree completely. We need a superstar not an all star to win. Huge difference between Kawhi and DeMar(check 2018-2019 if you haven't). Also chemistry is a real thing. Can't just plug any player in and get the same result regardless. And then on top of that our competition has improved. No way we make finals adding just any all star. Has to be a superstar.

There's nothing really to disagree with. We all know you need stars to win. But you dont get stars by giving out big contracts to average players.

Masai has positioned the Raps to add a max player via trade or free agency in 2021, which is the smart move. There's no guarantee that he can get that type of player, but he has to try. You add a max player to Siakam, OG, VV and possibly Lowry on a smaller deal and you got a really good team.

That's why I don't understand all the panic. The free agents that have signed so far, including Ibaka, dont get the Raps closer to a title this year. They would only clog up the cap in future years.

[Anticon]

By the way, the DD/Lowry era produced a championship. DD was traded for a star and Lowry was a key contributor on a title team.

Teams that are 1 player away from a title are in a good spot.

We're not 1 player away lol

Unless of course LeBron or Luka walk through that door and even then we don't even have any post players...

I disagree completely. You add any allstar calibre player to this core and they can get back to the finals. Hell, they almost got to the ECF as is.

It's up to Masai to add that piece again and I wouldn't bet against him. The Raps have cap space, all their draft picks and young assets.

I tend to agree with this, though I don't know about the finals.

We have four solid players, two all stars, plus Norm. Add an all star and we'd be in great shape.

The problem is our frontcourt is now down one or two starting caliber players so it's not as simple as just inserting a shooting guard like last year.

[vado]

Fill the centre hole in the lineup and let Masai and Bobby work the trade market. If a down year is a short playoff run so be it.

[Mark_83]

What do people think about a soft tank this year? 72 game schedule that we would only have to endure from December to May (unlike most years).

By soft tank I mean focusing on development. Give young guys like Davis, Boucher, Watson a chance. Try out different things. Bring in a guy like Kaleb Wesson and give him minutes. Find a diamond in the rough.

Imagine going into next season with a top 10 draft pick in an extremely strong draft PLUS a max salary slot for a free agent?

[Oakvillehoops]

Bring in Cousins! Take the low risk, now is a great time

[kingr]

I felt we were back on the treadmill once kawhi left anyways.

[Tor_Raps]

Personally don't care about Tampa Bay season. They can tank it for all i care.

Theres a snowstorm in Toronto tomorrow with us going into a lockdown on Monday. All we have is to care about the raptors. What the hell else are we going to do with our time? Lol

Some people still have to work lol

Well duuhhh... we all have to work. How does that change from any other normal time?

I was speaking about our free time has been forced to spend more on what we usually do. If we're posting on this forum, it should mean there's more time to spend on here, not less.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

I felt we were back on the treadmill once kawhi left anyways.

a non championship, top EC seed playoff contender, are the Toronto Raptors potential.

I think anyone expecting anything more are a little homerish but hey, we have something to look forward to t he 2021 free agency of disappointment lol

[Ramed Nazored]

We were always going to try and sign FVV, which we did.

There was always a chance Ibaka and Gasol would be gone, which one of them (Ibaka) have. Wish we could've kept Ibaka and I believe we could've easily beat that Clippers contract even at only one year if the team really wanted to keep him. So I have to question if there ever was a desire there. Crossing my fingers there's a decent replacement.

The plan is and always has been all about 2021 free agency and that hasn't changed one bit. And if we were ever to be successful, it would've required us renouncing Ibaka by then anyway so losing him now doesn't change a whole lot when you reach that point other than maybe we keep up facade of being a better team than we actually were this year, which I would think would've been transparent to anyone with more than semi-intelligence.

And IMO High Reward of this plan is worth waiting on before any plan B/C.

Not like people like OP got any brilliant plan of their own other than pointless b*tc*ing and starting useless duplicate threads. It's easy to say 'trade Lowry', 'don't resign FVV', and 'Siakam is POS or overpaid' without thinking of consequences of those words actually coming true. All I gotta say is, be careful what you wish for. You can't just trade your historically best player out of the blue unless the other team approaches you with packages you can't say no to. As a team that's competed in the playoffs, you can't just not resign a quality player and lose him for nothing if the said player is agreeable to come back in a reasonable deal. You need to have some compelling reasons to do so otherwise all the good will and reputation will be shot to hell in short order especially if you don't turn that around to success rather quickly. Back to being laughing stock of the league. Currently, we have no compelling reason. Yet.

There will be time appropriate for complete rebuild but it ain't now. There are things that need to happen first, I happen to believe those things are taking place, but they need time to take place.

This x 1000.

[JN]

This was always going to be a transition year. Some of you are just whiners plain and simple.

We expected 2019/2020 as well to be that transition but they surpasses expectations. The only way it hurt us was that we could have possibly traded Ibaka early in the year and got a late first rounder. But if anything, after last year, Lowry might have a bit more value on the open market if he desires to move on.

We are still positioned for summer of 2021. But will it work, who knows.

[Par36]

Back to whiny fairweather fans complaining about treadmill status one season removed from a championship...