2021 Free Agency News & Discussion Part 2

[Rapsobsessed7]

How is it we dont even hear about the Rodney Hood decision? Is Baynes getting waived as well?

Lol

Its not earth shattering. We waived him. Theres your news.

Well considering we asked him to extend the deadline to which we had to decide on his deal it’s not nothing. It just is frustrating our beat guys have zero sources like not one.

[Purple Forever]

So letting Hood go now is likely a sign we will be using the full MLE - we needed to not pick up his option to not be over the tax apron. So now using the full MLE for someone like Markannen becomes possible. Same may happen with Baynes, Boucher, etc - but for now those decisions haven't been made since they can also be used for a sign and trade or regular trade.

[Rapsfan07]

Alright so if We end up taking in Dragic and his contract....how much do we have left to play with?

Do we still have our full MLE? BAE?

Capolagists I need you.

Hey,

If Dragic is kept and Lowry does indeed sign for $30M and is traded, we'd be left with a TPE worth approximately $9M and we'd still have the MLE to use.

[ciueli]

Could have signed DeMar if we had cap space, I expect he'll wind up returning to the Spurs. Oh, BTW he's coming off the best season of his career, 21.6 PPG, 6.9 APG, 4.2 RPG, 2.0 TOV, 59% True Shooting, +7 Net Rating, +3.2 Box +/-. Even just signing him to flip him to another team at the trade deadline for rebuilding pieces would have been a win for us, he's twice the player Dragic is at this point.

Love him but we only do elite defenders now (even GTjr has that potential)

DeMar DeRozan 2020-21: Defensive Box +/- -0.2, Defensive Win Shares 1.2 Defensive Rating 115
Gary Trent Jr. 2020-21: Defensive Box +/- -2.1, Defensive Win Shares 0.7 Defensive Rating 118

So Gary Trent Jr. was worse last season in all 3 of these defensive stats, but you think he can be an elite defender? He's worse than DeMar, even DeMar's career numbers are better than Gary's and DeMar has been considered a bad defender for basically his entire career.

DeMar is actually a really good player, we have the 3 point shooting and defenders to put around him to make him successful. Pump his value for half a season, then trade him to a team desperate for scoring. And we even could have kept Gary Trent Jr., that was the whole point of trading Norm.

[Madvillainy2004]

Can we demand more from Miami if we can't unload Dragic? Cause the murmurs of us keeping him aren't that inspiring

[VancouverRaps]

I was lowkey expecting Masai/Bobby to bring back James Johnson, he fits what they seem to be looking for these days lol

[RapsFanInOhio]

Oh c'mon Khem Birch has a meeting with the Bulls.....

Ridiculous. This team has one center on the roster and they can’t even stop Birch from looking around. I don’t get it, man. It’s like last year didn’t even happen.

How did we go from a Serge / Gasol pairing to Freddie Gillespie in a matter of two years?

[alpngso]

I was low-key expecting Masai/Bobby to bring back James Johnson, he fits what they seem to be looking for these days lol

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Playing with KD, Kyrie and Harden next season

[WuTang_CMB]

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lol @ morey

[Bruin]

Thank god it’s not us

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?s=21

[DG88]

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[bboyskinnylegs]

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lol @ morey

kiss of death

[alpngso]

Whiteside c'mon down

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

I'm going to laugh if we have a better record than the Sixers this year, Morey's a putz.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

Thank god it’s not us

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?s=21

at this rate, a one year flyer on Drummond would be better than nothing. how bare is the free agent market for the Raptors right now? sad story for the Raps. who's even left worth mentioning for the Raptors to sign?

wait, Baynes might get picked up ... nevermind its just a tumbleweed passing by...

[youreachiteach]

After being initially frustrated, I can see the outlook of the front office:

1.) There were no really awesome free agents to be had (that we could actually get) in free agency as a whole that could seriously change our trajectory as a team.
2.) Thus, committing cap space to crap players just to make moves (ahem, see Knicks, New York) wouldn't be sensible.
3.) In that case, sign and trading Lowry to recoup some assets was the smarter way to accumulate talent (and a smart way to treat the best player ever.)
4) Unfortunately, Darryl Morey is still a sore loser who won't cough up any assets of real value. There are other point guards available who limit Lowry's already shrinking list of opportunities (see Ball, Lonzo).
5) Kyle ends up choosing Miami --after living there for a year and a half with his family and his buddy on the other team (and us not really having a spot for him any more)-- we realize we will need to take what we can get.
6.) We end up with Achiuwa, who is a nice piece for the future.
7.) We also get Dragic, who is an expiring contract. If we wait until the trade deadline, he is probably worth a late first. We don't have a backup 2 anyway due to Harris getting himself kicked out of the league and it would be nice to have some veteran depth anyway.

In the end, we didn't overpay anyone we don't consider to be outside of the core (yes, that includes the new signee) and got/will get some assets (a young player and a pick/another young player (probably).

If they add Birch or another competent center/scorer with the MLE or by trade I am content with the direction they are going.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

I'm going to laugh if we have a better record than the Sixers this year, Morey's a putz.

if we flip our wins and losses around, for sure.

[raptor jesus]

Hanging onto Dragic for now makes sense imo, unless there's a value deal available or there's an F.A in waitng worthy of the extra cap space (looking at the remaining FAs, nobody jumps out). He's still good and fits a need as a bucket-getter; plus he'll have value as a trade asset up until the deadline. Worst case, he's a big expiring.

[rocky_da_best]

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I just dont know anymore.

They played themselves. How the hell do you agree to a sign-and-trade without finding a home for Dragic first?

Totally agree.

Wasn't expecting much coming back from the Heat for Lowry. Yet, not a fan of us taking the deal before finding a suitor for Dragic.

There should be pressure for Miami to find his new home too because they wouldn't have cap space to sign Lowry at 90M. Seems like we're taking on all that responsibility ourselves and might just be stuck with him.

Didn't realize you guys had all the connects and knew exactly what was going on in our boardroom lol

[rocky_da_best]

How is it we dont even hear about the Rodney Hood decision? Is Baynes getting waived as well?

Lol

Its not earth shattering. We waived him. Theres your news.

Well considering we asked him to extend the deadline to which we had to decide on his deal it’s not nothing. It just is frustrating our beat guys have zero sources like not one.

Only reason they have jobs is because their employer owns the team