Back on the treadmill

[Tor_Raps]

How did people's opinions change from one preseason game to the next lol? Clearly players are trying things they worked on in the offseason. Siakam isn't going to be sitting at the three point line.

FVV I have no hope for. His game has been the same since he was a rookie.

Looking at the roster and we have 0 flexibility for our offense. No mid range or post game.

Then you take into account 6 of our top 9 players are under 6'4 so our defense will suffer immensely because of that.

Gonna be a long year so buckle up.

[Red_Claw]

insecure and small minded fans....

[Tortiglioni]

Who knew that having 6 of your top 9 players be under 6'4 would be a bad thing lol.

This. The roster is honestly a complete joke. Outside of OG and Pascal, we don't have a single legitimate NBA player over 6'4. (Boucher and 34-year old Baynes are not good - at all).

Nurse's rotation (top 8):

Baynes
Siakam
OG
FVV
Lowry

Powell -sg
Davis -sg
Thomas -sg

[Tha Cynic]

How did people's opinions change from one preseason game to the next lol? Clearly players are trying things they worked on in the offseason. Siakam isn't going to be sitting at the three point line.

FVV I have no hope for. His game has been the same since he was a rookie.

Looking at the roster and we have 0 flexibility for our offense. No mid range or post game.

Then you take into account 6 of our top 9 players are under 6'4 so our defense will suffer immensely because of that.

Gonna be a long year so buckle up.

The Raptors are in a retool year which happens to teams when they have aging players.

They won't be as bad as people make them out to be.

This team will get significantly better next season while being a good team this season. Not many teams can pull that off.

[Tor_Raps]

How did people's opinions change from one preseason game to the next lol? Clearly players are trying things they worked on in the offseason. Siakam isn't going to be sitting at the three point line.

FVV I have no hope for. His game has been the same since he was a rookie.

Looking at the roster and we have 0 flexibility for our offense. No mid range or post game.

Then you take into account 6 of our top 9 players are under 6'4 so our defense will suffer immensely because of that.

Gonna be a long year so buckle up.

The Raptors are in a retool year which happens to teams when they have aging players.

They won't be as bad as people make them out to be.

This team will get significantly better next season while being a good team this season. Not many teams can pull that off.

Retool sounded a lot better when the Giannis pipedream existed. Now it feels like we're headed for a full out rebuild while our president is still not signed.

Can you imagine this team when Lowry leaves/declines? Sorry but I am fully on team negative right now.

[Tha Cynic]

Looking at the roster and we have 0 flexibility for our offense. No mid range or post game.

Then you take into account 6 of our top 9 players are under 6'4 so our defense will suffer immensely because of that.

Gonna be a long year so buckle up.

The Raptors are in a retool year which happens to teams when they have aging players.

They won't be as bad as people make them out to be.

This team will get significantly better next season while being a good team this season. Not many teams can pull that off.

Retool sounded a lot better when the Giannis pipedream existed. Now it feels like we're headed for a full out rebuild while having our president still not signed.

Can you imagine this team when Lowry leaves/declines? Sorry but I am fully on team negative right now.

The Raptors have a ton of assets and their development seems to be getting better and better. The players they acquired this season look way better than what I could have imagined.

This team will find a way to acquire top players. If people were banking everything on Giannis coming here then the chances of that happening were always very slim...

What the Raptors are doing reminds me of how the Celtics operate. Keep drafting and developing well while staying competitive, and then wait for that one piece to fall into their lap.

[Tor_Raps]

The Raptors are in a retool year which happens to teams when they have aging players.

They won't be as bad as people make them out to be.

This team will get significantly better next season while being a good team this season. Not many teams can pull that off.

Retool sounded a lot better when the Giannis pipedream existed. Now it feels like we're headed for a full out rebuild while having our president still not signed.

Can you imagine this team when Lowry leaves/declines? Sorry but I am fully on team negative right now.

The Raptors have a ton of assets and their development seems to be getting better and better. The players they acquired this season look way better than what I could have imagined.

This team will find a way to acquire top players. If people were banking everything on Giannis coming Jerez then the chances of that happening were always very slim...

What players are you speaking of? We got Flynn who looks good but aside from that, we clearly downgraded our center rotation.

Sad part is that Flynn won't even play much since he has 5 other players his size ahead of him in the rotation unless you expect him to be our PF. Our roster construction is a complete joke currently.

[JN]

If someone is on team negative before the season starts that is mildly acceptable.
If someone like above goes on team negative after watching a preseason game they have went full dumbass.

[canz55]

How did people's opinions change from one preseason game to the next lol? Clearly players are trying things they worked on in the offseason. Siakam isn't going to be sitting at the three point line.

FVV I have no hope for. His game has been the same since he was a rookie.

Looking at the roster and we have 0 flexibility for our offense. No mid range or post game.

Then you take into account 6 of our top 9 players are under 6'4 so our defense will suffer immensely because of that.

Gonna be a long year so buckle up.

I don't think it's going to be as bad as you're making it out to be.

The offense will struggle when they're not making outside shots - yes that's irrefutable. We simply don't have the personnel to manage a more diverse offense.

However, don't discount the Raptors thinking they won't be a top 5 defensive team in the league. Our defense probably carries us over the hump for a top four finish in the conference.

Anywhere outside the top 4 means either the Raptors endured a bevy of injuries and/or we had a historically bad shooting year.

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[Tor_Raps]

If someone is on team negative before the season starts that is mildly acceptable.
If someone like above goes on team negative after watching a preseason game they have went full dumbass.

Lol nah I felt that way after seeing Ibaka leave. I think most people were willing to suck it up when Giannis still didn't sign. Now that pipedream died, the truth comes out about our team that we took an unnecessary step backwards from last year.

[ItsDanger]

Will be similar to last season, we'll play better with multiple injuries.

[Tor_Raps]

How did people's opinions change from one preseason game to the next lol? Clearly players are trying things they worked on in the offseason. Siakam isn't going to be sitting at the three point line.

FVV I have no hope for. His game has been the same since he was a rookie.

Looking at the roster and we have 0 flexibility for our offense. No mid range or post game.

Then you take into account 6 of our top 9 players are under 6'4 so our defense will suffer immensely because of that.

Gonna be a long year so buckle up.

I don't think it's going to be as bad as you're making it out to be.

The offense will struggle when they're not making outside shots - yes that's irrefutable. We simply don't have the personnel to manage a more diverse offense.

However, don't discount the Raptors thinking they won't be a top 5 defensive team in the league. Our defense probably carries us over the hump for a top four finish in the conference.

Anywhere outside the top 4 means either the Raptors endured a bevy of injuries and/or we had a historically bad shooting year.

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Thats fair. I just see our defense taking a hit when we're forced to play 3 PGs for long stretches and Boucher as a primary backup C against teams with strong centers.

I also see teams begin to make adjustments to our one dimensional offense. I still believe we're a playoff team but cannot see us getting past the first round.

[Tor_Raps]

Will be similar to last season, we'll play better with multiple injuries.

If we lose siakam or OG, we are totally screwed. We have 0 size to make up for their absences. I agree guards wise, we can overcome those injuries since we have a lot of depth there.

[canz55]

I'm not throwing Boucher under the bus just yet.

Yes he's a limited player with glaring flaws but he has above average shot blocking ability and that's enough for now.

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[PhilBlackson]

On the bright side we're gonna have a better draft pick...now flip Lowry to get another one and improve the one we already have.

[YoungD23]

People are saying its one pre-season game bla bla. The truth is, this season is going to be a tough one. This current roster won't get the job done. First round exit is what we are looking at here and I can imagine there will be alot of games which will be tough to watch. Let's see what Masai does, we will need to bring in some type of talent. We need someone that can get us a bucket consistently every night, a scoring guard.

[mdenny]

Anyone who has been paying attention knew that we were taking a step back this year.

We're not gonna be second overall in the NBA every year. Cry about it.

The worst treadmill move would have been signing Serge and/or Marc (beyond this season) which would have limited our options going forward. Serge didn't want a one year contract. Marc didn't want to be a starting center.

We enjoyed having siakam and FVV at criminally undervalued salaries. This was the year that ended. Anyone paying attention knew it was coming.

We'll still be competitive but there's no chance in hell we place second overall. but relatively speaking....we're actually in an amazing spot to reload without having to suffer through 5 years of irrelevant basketball like most teams do after having an extended run of escalating quality.

Our 'step back' might only last a season. Not sure if people realize how rare that is.

[bon]

insecure and small minded fans....

I thought this was a joke bump lol. Bucks, Clippers and Celtics haven't won a preseason game yet.

[Tor_Raps]

Anyone who has been paying attention knew that we were taking a step back this year.

We're not gonna be second overall in the NBA every year. Cry about it.

The worst treadmill move would have been signing Serge and/or Marc (beyond this season) which would have limited our options going forward. Serge didn't want a one year contract. Marc didn't want to be a starting center.

We enjoyed having siakam and FVV at criminally undervalued salaries. This was the year that ended. Anyone paying attention knew it was coming.

We'll still be competitive but there's no chance in hell we place second overall. but relatively speaking....we're actually in an amazing spot to reload without having to suffer through 5 years of irrelevant basketball like most teams do after having an extended run of escalating quality.

Our 'step back' might only last a season. Not sure if people realize how rare that is.

Very insightful take. I disagree about the Ibaka part since re-signing him would have not ruined anything for us. He is an asset that almost every team would have traded for in the worst case. Guy was coming off his best season on the court and genuinely wanted to be here, which is a big problem for our city.

This might be an ugly season but things can change next offseason when we can go after tier 2 free agents and hope our young guys continue to grow. First things first, need to see Masai re-sign to actually believe.

[mdenny]

Anyone who has been paying attention knew that we were taking a step back this year.

We're not gonna be second overall in the NBA every year. Cry about it.

The worst treadmill move would have been signing Serge and/or Marc (beyond this season) which would have limited our options going forward. Serge didn't want a one year contract. Marc didn't want to be a starting

We enjoyed having siakam and FVV at criminally undervalued salaries. This was the year that ended. Anyone paying attention knew it was coming.

We'll still be competitive but there's no chance in hell we place second overall. but relatively speaking....we're actually in an amazing spot to reload without having to suffer through 5 years of irrelevant basketball like most teams do after having an extended run of escalating quality.

Our 'step back' might only last a season. Not sure if people realize how rare that is.

Very insightful take. I disagree about the Ibaka part since re-signing him would have not ruined anything for us. He is an asset that almost every team would have traded for in the worst case. Guy was coming off his best season on the court and genuinely wanted to be here, which is a big problem for our city.

This might be an ugly season but things can change next offseason when we can go after tier 2 free agents and hope our young guys continue to grow. First things first, need to see Masai re-sign to actually believe.

Signing Obama would have taken away our max slot for next season. I get the point that we could have traded him...but i think this brings up an interpersonal factor at play that rarely gets mentioned.

Teams who recklessly sign players knowing full well they will trade them for cap space are the ones who get bad reps among players.

Ibaka choose where he went. If we signed him for two years (which he wanted) and dealt him he'd have to go where we could place him. We're already gonna have to send norm somewhere most likely.

I think the respectful thing to do is say "if you insist on 2 years you have to know that chances are high we trade you to clear cap space." In which case....I'm sure Ibaka would much rather choose where he goes rather than be at the mercy of the trade market.

There is a common talking point about "retaining assets because they are tradeable anyways". Take that thinking to it's logical extreme and a team's FO will get hated pretty quickly. You don't sign players while planning to trade them without telling them that. And it's likely when you tell them that... they will opt to choose their destination instead.

Edit: my spell checker keeps turning Ibaka into Obama lol