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A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what?

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A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#1 » by Inevitable » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:08 pm

Brooklyn’s acquisition of the Harden trade will mean we now have to compete against a very dangerous KD/Harden and Kyrie (maybe) all in their prime core for at least two more seasons along with a Philly team that’s clicking and a good young team in Boston. This is clearly the most competition we have had in our team history. We are 2-8 and haven’t even faced the cream of the crop on the NBA yet. It seems like at best we are cemented as a non HCA team if things go best case scenario for us we would be lucky to steal a couple games in the first round. Then we go into the off season with a bad pick outside the lottery, and a bunch of cap space with a very weak free agency class.

This is an incredibly good draft possibly the best in years, I am trying to understand the rationale of ‘competing’, it’s not like 2013-2014 when we had very little success and wanted to change the culture so it made perfect sense to not tank after the bad start. Right now we’ve reached the top, and know it takes superstar talent to win it all. We can’t do that through free agency, we are relying on trades and the draft. Problem with trades is we have to pretty much gut our roster to acquire one or provide tons of draft compensation which is something I assume Masai doesn’t want to do. So what now?
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#2 » by RapsAndJays21 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:10 pm

My best guess, a Lowry trade and a stealth tank. That being said, I think there is way too much talent on the team this year to completely bottom out - but, like you said, we haven't really played that many great teams yet.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#3 » by Steelo Green » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:16 pm

Masai has even more of an excuse to tank now. No one will blame him with so much competition.

Let the NBA duke it out, Lebron age, and then we in the meantime develop a few surefire talents from the draft and are ready for when the Nets age as well as Lebron does.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#4 » by Bruin » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:17 pm

Honestly anything other than tanking would be purely a waste of time and poor asset management on our part. I hope Masai doesn’t screw this up and try to make a push for the playoffs
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#5 » by ruckus » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:19 pm

This is the Lebron effect in action. Its crazy. As long as he was in the East, the West kept getting stronger and stronger. Now that he's in the West, the talent is starting to flow back.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#6 » by C_Money » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:20 pm

I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking. There are other ways to win in this league with good quality GM work.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#7 » by Bruin » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:21 pm

C_Money wrote:I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking.

So what do you want then? 8 seed and getting swept by the Nets in the 1st round? Cause that’s there we’d be headed if we don’t tank
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#8 » by ImaBeatDatAzz » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:23 pm

Simple, trade lowry. Philly should give us a good haul for him now that they are desperate
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#9 » by C_Money » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:24 pm

PrinceAli wrote:
C_Money wrote:I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking.

So what do you want then? 8 seed and getting swept by the Nets in the 1st round? Cause that’s there we’d be headed if we don’t tank


We could just as easily end up like the Kings or T-Wolves who have been rebuilding for 15 years. There are other ways to win in this league as we have already proven. We have the best front office in the league to make it happen.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#10 » by Bruin » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:24 pm

And as much as people want to say we won without tanking, we don’t get Kawhi without the lotto picks we got before. Demar + Poeltl = two 9th overall picks. And we got poeltl because we traded away Bargs (a 1st overall lol...)

We’re not gonna get an elite Free agent so the only way to do it is by trade or Free Agency. Best way to trade for a star is young high end talent which we’d need picks for. And there aren’t any players available to make such a deal right now anyways.

I see no realistic routes to getting back into contention right now so they best bet is to tank and build the team for the future
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#11 » by agentzero2010 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:25 pm

Everything happens in cycles and unfortunately it appears Raptors window of contention might be 2-3 years away. IMO, the Atlantic division is ranked as following: Celtics, Nets, Sixers, Raptors, Knicks.

Celtics has been to the conference finals 3 times in past 4 seasons with Tatum and Jalen Brown as top tier players for years to come. The Nets have the highest upsides but also the lowest floor of the top 3 Atlantic teams with 3 NBA Divas and a rookie head coach, and what now looks to be a depleted bench. Sixers are still unproven and the team has many glaring flaws and limitations. Doc is a questionable playoff coach and Embiid/Simmons have had less than stellar playoff performances.

Looks like best path moving forward for the Raptors is to flip Lowry into assets + picks, continue to develop the core, and take chances on underrated free agents.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#12 » by pagal » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:25 pm

please please please tank and dump bumvleet...fingers crossed.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#13 » by planetmars » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:25 pm

PrinceAli wrote:
C_Money wrote:I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking.

So what do you want then? 8 seed and getting swept by the Nets in the 1st round? Cause that’s there we’d be headed if we don’t tank


15th pick in the draft can be pretty good.. that's where Kawhi and Giannis were drafted.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#14 » by Steelo Green » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:26 pm

C_Money wrote:
PrinceAli wrote:
C_Money wrote:I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking.

So what do you want then? 8 seed and getting swept by the Nets in the 1st round? Cause that’s there we’d be headed if we don’t tank


We could just as easily end up like the Kings or T-Wolves who have been rebuilding for 15 years. There are other ways to win in this league as we have already proven. We have the best front office in the league to make it happen.

In the history of the NBA the way the Raptors won happened one time.

The Kings and Wolves have been rebuilding because they have terrible management who kept missing on draft picks and making terrible moves.

Why is the exception of the exception now seen as the golden standard?
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#15 » by Mikistan » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:26 pm

PrinceAli wrote:
C_Money wrote:I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking.

So what do you want then? 8 seed and getting swept by the Nets in the 1st round? Cause that’s there we’d be headed if we don’t tank

we won a championship by trading away 4 lottery talents, 2 late first round talents and a couple 2nd round picks

we no longer have those assets on our team - we need more assets

jv - lottery pick
terrence - lottery pick
poeltl - lottery pick
demar - lottery pick

1 first rounder in the terrence ibaka traded
1 2nd rounder in the gasol trade
delon write - late 1st round pick

dumped carroll with
1st and 2nd rounder
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#16 » by Bruin » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:26 pm

C_Money wrote:
PrinceAli wrote:
C_Money wrote:I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking.

So what do you want then? 8 seed and getting swept by the Nets in the 1st round? Cause that’s there we’d be headed if we don’t tank


We could just as easily end up like the Kings or T-Wolves who have been rebuilding for 15 years. There are other ways to win in this league as we have already proven. We have the best front office in the league to make it happen.

Kings and Wolves have bad front offices which is why things haven’t gotten fixed for them. As you said, we have a great front office, so our team should be able to build properly with high picks. Look at Dallas after their title. They sucked for a couple years. Ended up with Luka
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#17 » by Steelo Green » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:26 pm

planetmars wrote:
PrinceAli wrote:
C_Money wrote:I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking.

So what do you want then? 8 seed and getting swept by the Nets in the 1st round? Cause that’s there we’d be headed if we don’t tank


15th pick in the draft can be pretty good.. that's where Kawhi and Giannis were drafted.

And for every Giannis and Kawhi there are 95% of the NBAs finals MVPs who are lottery picks.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#18 » by tecumseh18 » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:26 pm

Best case scenario for Raps. Heat or Sixers will give us an asset for Kyle and his Bird rights. Start Norm at the 2 - his natural position, his ONLY position - and have him increase his trade value before the deadline. Play the kids. Give them LOTS of minutes. Hold Fred, OG and Pascal to 30 mpg.

KD turns 33 this year and has a terrible injury history. Harden turns 32 this year, doesn't take care of himself, and has a history of choking in the clutch. Kyrie ... well, what can you say about Kyrie? This season is a wash out, but it was anyway. The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#19 » by Tor_Raps » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:27 pm

Just trade Lowry and tank for 1 season. Add a top pick and use our free agent money on good talent. We could be back near the top in 2 or 3 seasons depending on how Masai/Webster play this.
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Re: A super team has developed in our already competitive division, now what? 

Post#20 » by Bruin » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:28 pm

planetmars wrote:
PrinceAli wrote:
C_Money wrote:I’m not down for tanking at all. We won a Championship without tanking.

So what do you want then? 8 seed and getting swept by the Nets in the 1st round? Cause that’s there we’d be headed if we don’t tank


15th pick in the draft can be pretty good.. that's where Kawhi and Giannis were drafted.

2 exceptions dont make that the rule. If we wanna bank on eventually striking gold with a mid-late 1st rounder, we’d be in treadmill mode for the foreseeable future.
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