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OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

It's so hard to evaluate with the ridiculousness of the injury problems, but it's hard to give up 155 in a program and system that is competent. Defence is system and effort. You can't put 8-10 NBA players on a court, guys who want to be out there and do the work, and get 155 put on you.

Again....we really have to see this group together as a full lineup (minus the guys who obviously won't be here next year like Bruce and Boucher) to see what it looks like when everyone is in there slot. But if it's not good, like actually top ~12 good when that happens, this summer is probably a good time for Masai to take a long look around the league at adding some real veterans to this, maybe even considering moving one of the main young guys. It's not there yet, but this is starting to angle towards being one of those programs that just gets stuck being shit, with a shit culture that doesn't learn how to win. Look at what adding a team dad did for Houston.
 
No

If it happens, it happens. But if this team finishes last without catastrophe levels of injuries being the main culprit, may as well just burn it down and start over anyway. We're not that young. A 23-25yr old core isn't that young.
 
I mean, we're second last in the east and only two teams have fewer wins than us right now.

Where the heck are we expecting to finish with 7 wins in the first 31 games, and why would it be better than last?
 
unfortunately if they do get healthy at some point then we kind of have to hope they win, because if this roster can't win when healthy then this core ain't young enough or good enough to dream on.
 
Agree that they can't be total flameouts if healthy. But hopefully we dig ourselves a massive hole and then they look good for 15-20 games that will be meaningless.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
I mean, we're second last in the east and only two teams have fewer wins than us right now.

Where the heck are we expecting to finish with 7 wins in the first 31 games, and why would it be better than last?
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Biggest reason they're 7-24 though is that their starting lineup has played something like 20 minutes together all season. That's what I'm saying, if they were healthy and looked like this, fine whatever, but they've lost 11 games by 6 points or fewer. The Raptors win the majority of those if they're healthy.
 
MindzEye said:
Biggest reason they're 7-24 though is that they're starting lineup has played something like 20 minutes together all season. That's what I'm saying, if they were healthy and looked like this, fine whatever, but they've lost 11 games by 6 points or fewer. The Raptors win the majority of those if they're healthy.
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Yeah, but is this a team that can actually compete for top spot and win it all? Don't think so.

Would be massive to pick up a top 3 talent out of the draft and come back with a vengeance next season.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Yeah, but is this a team that can actually compete for top spot and win it all? Don't think so.

Would be massive to pick up a top 3 talent out of the draft and come back with a vengeance next season.
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Eh, doesn't work this way in the new lottery era. There's no incentive to be terrible.
 
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Not sure how far you can fall, but Detroit fell from 1st to 5th last year.


LeafOfFaith said:
Even if it's 5th or 7th, we should get a great player.
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Meh, this is a pretty average draft. It's two really good prospects at the top of it (but neither are elite imo) and then may the force be with you. There will be at least an all star or two somewhere else in the draft, but no idea if anyone else in the lottery is going to be good. Maybe Tre.
 
It's been such a weird year, losing so many games sucks but with all these injuries to key guys, the youngsters had to play way more than they should've early in the season and actually did a nice job. I am pretty optimistic overall.

Then there's the fact that there are so many shit teams in the East. Once (if?) we have a healthy lineup, we may very well be a top 8 team in the conference.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
I want a top 1 team.
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Starts by being a good team first.

Remember, We The North started like this:

C - JV
PF - Amir Johnson
SF - Demar
SG - Ross
PG - Lowry
6 - Patterson
7 - Vasquez
8 - Salmons
9 - Hansbrough

and culminated 5 years later in a title team with exactly one of those guys left on it.
 
After it's gotten mentioned a few times that our core isn't really that young, I wanted to look at the other cores in the east and compare.

For the sake of the comparison, I want a "core" player to have a functioning definition so I'm going to stick to players who meet at least one of the following criteria

- Recent All Star/All NBA selection
- Recent Defensive all NBA selection
- Max contract or a significant contract somewhere near the max they were eligible for
- Recent 1st rounder who plays significant (25+) minutes a night
- Recent high 1st rounder

Basically, I want to avoid calling someone Clint Capela, Poeltl, Cam Johnson, etc a core piece. Also want to avoid calling 1st round picks who aren't playing a real role yet a core piece unless they're recent top ~5 type picks.

In order of current standings:

Cavs: Spider (28), Garland (25), Mobley (23), Allen (26)
Boston: Tatum (26), Brown (28), White (30), Jrue (34)
Knicks: Brunson (28), KAT (29), OG (27), Bridges (28)
Magic: Banchero (22), Wagner (23), Suggs (23), Black (21), Da Silva (23)
Bucks: Giannis (30), Dame (34), Lopez (36)
Heat: Jimmy (35), Bam (27), Herro (25)
Hawks: Trae (26), Johnson (23), Daniels (21), Risacher (19)
Pacers: Haliburton (24), Pascal (30), Mathurin (22), Walker (21)
Pistons: Cade (23), Ivey (22), Duren (21), Holland (19)
Bulls: Lavine (29), White (24), Vucevic (34), Giddey (22)
Sixers: Embiid (30), Maxey (23), George (34), McCain (20)
Nets: Thomas (23)
Hornets: Lamelo (23), Miller (22), Bridges (26), Salaun (19)
Raptors: Scottie (23), RJ (24), IQ (25), Gravy (20)
Wizards: Coulibaly (20), Sarr (19), Carrington (19)

Yeah...we're really not that young. Orlando, Atlanta, Indy (minus Pascal), Pistons all near .500 or better and similar ages.
 
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