TRik wrote:VanWest82 wrote:Q for the tankers: what does our record need to be / at what point in the season do you switch gears and cheer for wins as appose to losses at least for this season?
This is something team compete had to grapple with last year after our run with covid. Most switched eventually. Seems like a fair question for the other side too.
It’s not that simple really. Of course if we make the playoffs people will cheer. We are all Raptors fans. The term ‘team compete’ is a bit disingenuous as we all want to compete but have different takes on how to do that. Essentially you can probably think of tWo right now as mostly people that don’t see this as an elite core (definitely good pieces) and don’t see the point of trying to get that play in or first round exit in terms of plan to improve. So we either make a big trade to get to the next level, or as the title suggests improve through the draft.
Most now appreciate we won’t improve through the draft this year, but accepting that doesn’t mean we automatically switch our view about how to seriously compete or our view on the ceiling of this current core.
Anyways, most here get that it’s nice to cheer for winning, regardless of the season outcome. So no hate.
Acquiring players with potential can be done in many ways. Via the draft, you can find players in the lottery (Scottie), deep in the 1st round (Siakam and OG) and in the 2nd round/undrafted (Banton/FVV). You can also acquire young players with potential in trades (GTJ and Achiuwa). Similarly, getting a star can be done in a few ways. You can find stars in the lottery, but there is a step drop-off after the top 3-5; once you get down to the 10-14 range especially (where we would be at worst barring a statistical anomaly that happens once a decade), it really just comes down to the scouting and vision of an organization. The other main ways to acquire a star are to mortgage your future (Clippers, Lakers, Bucks, Nets) or continue to build up your current assets so that they can eventually be consolidated for one better player (us for Kawhi and to a lesser extent Gasol).
Why not continue to develop our players and be good now so we can eventually try to flip someone (assuming OG and/or GTJ take another step next season) for a star to pair with our remaining core? Siakam would be a damn 2nd option and we would be pretty well off with Barnes potentially being like 2018/19 Siakam (feasting on mismatches because the opponent's best defender was typically on Kawhi) and FVV + OG/GTJ being release valves.
Also, I'm not sure why playoff experience is continuously undersold around these parts. Any potential playoff experience for Scottie (and to a lesser extent OG/GTJ, who have both played pretty minor minutes in a proper playoff environment) would be massive. Ideally, our core gets a taste
before we are really going for it.
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