BullyKing wrote:pingpongrac wrote:BullyKing wrote:
Those rebuilding Phoenix Suns also have three starters 25 and under. The Raptors may be a young and upcoming team as opposed to on the decline but the idea that this is a rebuilding year is ridiculous.
Almost the entire roster was overhauled with players in their early 20s a few months after Toronto finished with 27 wins and was in the deep lottery last season. No one expected Toronto to be a +.500 team (or even comfortably make the playoffs) in the offseason. At various points, Toronto has played 6 rookies or sophomores meaningful minutes while half of their top minute getters are players under 25 that they acquired in the past year; Barnes (1st in total minutes) started every game he was available, GTJ started every game he was available after the season opener and Achiuwa started ~30 games while averaging 24 MPG on the season.
In the past ~12 months, Toronto traded two long-term vets in Lowry (36) and Powell (28) for Achiuwa (22) and Trent Jr. (23) plus they traded a couple bench players in Davis (24) and Thomas (27) for 2nd round picks that turned into Johnson (21) and Banton (22). They let Baynes (35), Hood (29), Bembry (27), Watson (27) and Johnson (25) walk then re-signed Birch (29) before adding Champagnie (20), Bonga (22) and Svi (24) in FA and Barnes (20) with the 4th pick. As the season progressed, they traded Dragic (35, not playing for Toronto for months) for Thad (33, would play for Toronto immediately) and picked up Brooks (23).
So yes, this absolutely was a rebuilding year. Heck, Masai did a sideline interview during the first game of the season and said something along the lines of "this is a development year with a very young team that will have growing pains."
Swapping out the 11-15th players on your roster for equally terrible but younger players is not a rebuild. The core of the team remains the same except for Achiuwa in place of Lowry and Trent in place of Powell.
"The core of your team remains the same even though you swapped 2 of your oldest players (1 of which was the heart and soul of the team for a decade) that had been with the team for all of their best years for players that had barely even played a full season's worth of NBA minutes prior to the trades." That's basically what you're saying...and that doesn't include that Barnes was added through the draft and thrown ~36 MPG from opening night. Not to mention some of those "equally terrible but younger players" were very much key rotation players for large chunks of this season. Banton played in 64 games and averaged 11 MPG while Svi played 38 of the first 41 games and averaged 17 MPG (56 GP overall). Even if they weren't good at times, they were new and young players that were given the opportunity to play through mistakes.
The fact of the matter is that 4 of Toronto's 10 most-played players weren't with the team less than a year ago while GTJ (a late-season addition last year) is also a new piece of the rebuild.
Why are fans of other teams trying to say what is and isn't a rebuild when the GM of the Raptors said point-blank that this would be a development season with a lot of growing pains?
