Official NBA General Discussion 2024-25 V1.0

[WaltFrazier]

Some may have said he was holding Scottie back. But we had three big wings with 2 of them looking to take half our cap and we were, at best, a play-in team. One or both of them had to go. You coulda chosen to build around Siakam, but that would have to start after the bubble, and, with how he played, it wouldve been a tough decision to make

The years after the bubble were the wasted opportunity, the lost years. That core deserved a chance to make a run but they needed a center right away, not Aaron Baynes and Alex Len. By the time Raps got Jak it was too little too late.

[WaltFrazier]

Harden!!!

Ive been critical of him, but i would love to see the Clips make a run. Theyve suffered enough

That's my team in the West. I'll always root for Kawhi

[WaltFrazier]

Can Ben Simmons be an X factor here?

[Duffman100]

They just can't win minutes without jokic.

[mademan]

Never seen such a highly touted player, MVP talent at the guard position have such a bad touch around the rim. especially at his size and (still) athleticism. Westbrook boggles the mind

[PushDaRock]

Vintage Kawhi

[Brinbe]

The Kroenkes are absolute fn morons.

So funny how every recent champion has managed to completely wreck their own teams after the chips. I think the Celtics are next with their new ownership

[sidsid]

I was sad when we moved on from Pascal just because he was nearing 30.

but we had to move him because he was "holding back" Scottie

We had to move on from them because we couldn't beat Chicago with what, 130M future dollars? Pascal is great, love him, not a #1. He wanted to be #1 here and he just... wasn't. I'm super happy for all three, but that was that.

We moved him because Masai had delusions centered around FVV and later Jak as core pieces when they clearly were low ceiling role players. Larding up the cap isn't really the big issue because that's just how they operate.

Instead of moving on from the role players when the Lowry era ended, leaning into a tank with Siakam/OG/Barnes and picking up valuable lotto picks, the front office wanted to treadmill and waste assets for years.

Short term thinking leads to predictable results.

[PushDaRock]

Some may have said he was holding Scottie back. But we had three big wings with 2 of them looking to take half our cap and we were, at best, a play-in team. One or both of them had to go. You coulda chosen to build around Siakam, but that would have to start after the bubble, and, with how he played, it wouldve been a tough decision to make

The years after the bubble were the wasted opportunity, the lost years. That core deserved a chance to make a run but they needed a center right away, not Aaron Baynes and Alex Len. By the time Raps got Jak it was too little too late.

No C along with the worst bench in the NBA, that core would have likely fell short but we never gave them much of a chance either

[WaltFrazier]

Some may have said he was holding Scottie back. But we had three big wings with 2 of them looking to take half our cap and we were, at best, a play-in team. One or both of them had to go. You coulda chosen to build around Siakam, but that would have to start after the bubble, and, with how he played, it wouldve been a tough decision to make

The years after the bubble were the wasted opportunity, the lost years. That core deserved a chance to make a run but they needed a center right away, not Aaron Baynes and Alex Len. By the time Raps got Jak it was too little too late.

No C along with the worst bench in the NBA, that core would have likely fell short but we never gave them much of a chance either

That's what I mean, it was a poor job of restocking the talent after the title

[PushDaRock]

but we had to move him because he was "holding back" Scottie

We had to move on from them because we couldn't beat Chicago with what, 130M future dollars? Pascal is great, love him, not a #1. He wanted to be #1 here and he just... wasn't. I'm super happy for all three, but that was that.

We moved him because Masai had delusions centered around FVV and later Jak as core pieces when they clearly were low ceiling role players. Larding up the cap isn't really the big issue because that's just how they operate.

Instead of moving on from the role players when the Lowry era ended, leaning into a tank with Siakam/OG/Barnes and picking up valuable lotto picks, the front office wanted to treadmill and waste assets for years.

Short term thinking leads to predictable results.

lol Fred was a literal All-Star and impacts winning at a high level on every team he's been on, calling him a low ceiling role player just isn't accurate at all

[mademan]

Some may have said he was holding Scottie back. But we had three big wings with 2 of them looking to take half our cap and we were, at best, a play-in team. One or both of them had to go. You coulda chosen to build around Siakam, but that would have to start after the bubble, and, with how he played, it wouldve been a tough decision to make

The years after the bubble were the wasted opportunity, the lost years. That core deserved a chance to make a run but they needed a center right away, not Aaron Baynes and Alex Len. By the time Raps got Jak it was too little too late.

No C along with the worst bench in the NBA, that core would have likely fell short but we never gave them much of a chance either

It woulda been tough to justify. Siakam played AWFUL in the bubble. we didnt have our 1st and we lost 4 of our top 7 (Ibaka/Gasol/Kawhi/Green). Paying for a center there woulda took trading another 1st for a team that just lost in the 2nd round and continued to shed talent. No FO woulda done that. Some woulda decided to rebuild then and there but most would evaluate and make a decision at the deadline

And then the next year we suck. We suck again the year after and Masai still decides to pay a future lightly protected 1st for C. Masai was right not to trade for a C as the team was on a track to nowhere, but he folded eventually and it was the wrong decision

[Brinbe]

#MikeMaloneWasRight

[Clutch0z24]

Happy to see Kawhi back and playing well.....As a player who gave us our only championship i will be rooting for him....Even if im not a Clipper fan i am a Kawhi fan....Hope he wins a ring this year to show hes on another level.

[WaltFrazier]

Norm, Pascal, OG, Fred all in high level first round series on very good teams

[sidsid]

The years after the bubble were the wasted opportunity, the lost years. That core deserved a chance to make a run but they needed a center right away, not Aaron Baynes and Alex Len. By the time Raps got Jak it was too little too late.

No C along with the worst bench in the NBA, that core would have likely fell short but we never gave them much of a chance either

That's what I mean, it was a poor job of restocking the talent after the title

You cannot restock after losing basically all your main pieces to FA (Ibaka/Gasol/Kawhi) and are asset poor.

The options were to trade the role players, which we did for everyone but FVV, and then tank and restock by taking on bad contracts for more assets, which we didn't do

There just wasn't a shortcut after the amount of consolidating and attrition the team went through for the chip. This is not unique to the Raptors. Look around at what the Bucks are going to look like after this year.

[Clutch0z24]

Norm, Pascal, OG, Fred all in high level first round series on very good teams

Yep all very high level players and amazing role players....Them all on the same team is a good team but they needed a Kawhi level player to be a real contender....But its fun to watch our old players in the playoffs.

[Brinbe]

NORMGOD

[PushDaRock]

The years after the bubble were the wasted opportunity, the lost years. That core deserved a chance to make a run but they needed a center right away, not Aaron Baynes and Alex Len. By the time Raps got Jak it was too little too late.

No C along with the worst bench in the NBA, that core would have likely fell short but we never gave them much of a chance either

It woulda been tough to justify. Siakam played AWFUL in the bubble. we didnt have our 1st and we lost 4 of our top 7 (Ibaka/Gasol/Kawhi/Green). Paying for a center there woulda took trading another 1st for a team that just lost in the 2nd round and continued to shed talent. No FO woulda done that. Some woulda decided to rebuild then and there but most would evaluate and make a decision at the deadline

We went All-In for the Championship and it was worth it but yeah it's hard to lose that many key players without getting anything back for them especially when it cost all your future assets to acquire them in the first place.

I'm just saying those teams built around Siakam, FVV and OG weren't set up for success.

[PushDaRock]

Norm, Pascal, OG, Fred all in high level first round series on very good teams

Yep all very high level players and amazing role players....Them all on the same team is a good team but they needed a Kawhi level player to be a real contender....But its fun to watch our old players in the playoffs.

lol your definition of a role player is probably different than most