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OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

The desire is understandable, it's Giannis. Legit top 5 player, MVP candidate still on the back end of his prime. Single hardest type of player to get. But it's really difficult to understand the why from anyone else's position other than ours, and even then only if we get him for our price, not their price.

From Giannis perspective...why come here when we're not going to be good enough to win after the trade? Even if all we give up is the trade package I keep seeing mentioned (Scottie + Dick + 9 + 3 FRP's + swaps), is Giannis + everything else an immediate contender? If no, where are we getting other upgrades from while being capped out with all of our draft equity gone for the next bunch of years? I like the other starters we would still have around him, but are they as good as what he won with? Nah. Peak Middleton, Jrue, and Brooks were a solid step or more better than Ingram, IQ, RJ and Jake. We don't have a Portis and Devincenzo off the bench either.

From Milwaukee's....they don't have their own pick until 2031, so tanking isn't really a thing they care about unless we're somehow able to get their picks back for them as part of this. If they're not tanking, is 24 yr old Scottie, Gradey, a 9 pick in an okay draft, and 3 FRP's probably in the high teens or 20's going to help you retool in a hurry?

The whole thing just feels like the media trying to generate summer clicks.
 
Giannis comes because Masai is his father and he hates magamerica and wants to build a global powerhouse.

done deal.
 
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Giannis comes because Masai is his father and he hates magamerica and wants to build a global powerhouse.

done deal.
Although he's kind of saying this in jest, I think it's true.

We've known about their tight bond for many years. It has seemed inevitable.

If Giannis wants to come here, he'll sort of dictate how it will go down to some extent, because he'll only want to come if what remains around him will be good enough. I don't think it can be without Barnes. So, if this is in motion, Masai needs to stick to his guns that Barnes stays out of the deal, and they just figure out what else needs to be added to make it work.
 
Eh, Giannis stayed in Milwaukee when he could have come here in free agency a few years ago too. He put winning and loyalty to the organization that drafted him above whatever potential desire he had to move to Toronto.

I definitely think he'd come here if we could make a deal with Milwaukee that worked for them, and most or all of that is his relationship with Masai. But I don't think he would force his way out of Milwaukee and force them to get dogshit value for him on the way out to dictate where he wants to go. I don't think we have to necessarily outbid everyone for him, but it definitely has to be a deal Milwaukee is willing to do.

Then we would just need him to want to be here instead of Houston, Miami, New York, the soon to be defending NBA champ OKC, and wherever else would be interested in blowing their brains out to get him.
 
I mean, what’s the driving force behind them wanting to deal him anyway?

They don't want to. This is all based on the idea that Giannis might ask for a trade that he hasn't asked for yet and probably won't.

The whole story is that Milwaukee is fucked after Dame Lillard blew his achilles. So now they're stuck with a roster that wasn't good enough to win last year, but without Dame for at least next year and a ~45 million dollar cap hole that they can't fill. So Milwaukee is fucked. So the logic goes that Giannis is going to want to go somewhere else that is a better winning situation.

But Milwaukee doesn't own any of their own picks until 2031, so tanking literally does them no good either so people close to the organization have suggested that they want players, and a rape bucket full of them, in addition to lottery picks now if they're going to entertain it. Basically, if they're trading Giannis, they want it to be something that kickstarts them into a hard retool (because they have no draft assets to rebuild with over the next few years).
 
They don't want to. This is all based on the idea that Giannis might ask for a trade that he hasn't asked for yet and probably won't.

The whole story is that Milwaukee is fucked after Dame Lillard blew his achilles. So now they're stuck with a roster that wasn't good enough to win last year, but without Dame for at least next year and a ~45 million dollar cap hole that they can't fill. So Milwaukee is fucked. So the logic goes that Giannis is going to want to go somewhere else that is a better winning situation.

But Milwaukee doesn't own any of their own picks until 2031, so tanking literally does them no good either so people close to the organization have suggested that they want players, and a rape bucket full of them, in addition to lottery picks now if they're going to entertain it. Basically, if they're trading Giannis, they want it to be something that kickstarts them into a hard retool (because they have no draft assets to rebuild with over the next few years).
It's weird in NBA so many teams have no picks into the 2030's
 
The desire is understandable, it's Giannis. Legit top 5 player, MVP candidate still on the back end of his prime. Single hardest type of player to get. But it's really difficult to understand the why from anyone else's position other than ours, and even then only if we get him for our price, not their price.

From Giannis perspective...why come here when we're not going to be good enough to win after the trade? Even if all we give up is the trade package I keep seeing mentioned (Scottie + Dick + 9 + 3 FRP's + swaps), is Giannis + everything else an immediate contender? If no, where are we getting other upgrades from while being capped out with all of our draft equity gone for the next bunch of years? I like the other starters we would still have around him, but are they as good as what he won with? Nah. Peak Middleton, Jrue, and Brooks were a solid step or more better than Ingram, IQ, RJ and Jake. We don't have a Portis and Devincenzo off the bench either.

From Milwaukee's....they don't have their own pick until 2031, so tanking isn't really a thing they care about unless we're somehow able to get their picks back for them as part of this. If they're not tanking, is 24 yr old Scottie, Gradey, a 9 pick in an okay draft, and 3 FRP's probably in the high teens or 20's going to help you retool in a hurry?

The whole thing just feels like the media trying to generate summer clicks.
Excellent post
 
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