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OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

MindzEye said:
This is dumb.

Not that trading Poeltl is dumb, but if you think that holding BBQ's career hostage for 2 years to compete with professional tank job organizations is going to end well, you're nuts.
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1. Agree on 2yrs...but it seems clear they're trying to punt for at least this year anyways. Poeltl said as much already.

2. Poeltl is just ok and older than the rest and might get us a similar quality younger piece.
 
zeke said:
1. Agree on 2yrs...but it seems clear they're trying to punt for at least this year anyways. Poeltl said as much already.
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There's punt and then there's punt though.

Our starting 5 is Jake-Scottie-Dick-RJ-IQ or if Dick isn't ready Jake-Scottie-RJ-Brown-IQ. That's a top 15 starting lineup in the league, you're just not going to compete with Chicago (Vuc-Smith-Williams-Lacine-Giddey), Charlotte (Williams-Grant-Bridges-Miller-Ball) Brooklyn (Claxton-Cam-Simmons-Cam-Dennis), Washington (JV-Kuzma-Bilal-Poole-Brogdon), Detroit (Duren-Stewart-Tobias-Ivey-Cade) when it comes to being ass.

zeke said:
2. Poeltl is just ok and older than the rest and might get us a similar quality younger piece.
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Yeah, that's fine. But I don't think trading Poeltl for a younger "Poeltl" puts us in a tank situation.

The only way we tank against teams actually trying to tank is if we detonate the BBQ core....but there's no guarantee we come out of a tank in 4-6 years with a core as good as the BBQ core at 23-24-25 yrs old.

The way to getting better now, is to get better. If there is a Jake trade that materializes at some point this year where we get a young rim runner from a playoff team looking for a veteran, solid. If not, no worries. Jake is still 28.
 
it's a pretty good starting lineup except it has one absolutely gigantic black hole unless someone improves drastically.

and then the bench is almost completely black holes too other than Kelly.
 
zeke said:
it's a pretty good starting lineup except it has one absolutely gigantic black hole unless someone improves drastically.
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Eh, Brown isn't nearly as bad as we saw last year. If Gravy isn't ready to start, Brown is an entirely decent option to act as the PoA defender to take that off of IQ's plate, and as a movement piece/cutter on the offensive end. Not ideal, but not a black hole.

As for the rest of the bench....so many questions, going to take a month to know what's going on tbh. 2nd half Davion was legitimately solid as a PatBev type backup PG. Darko finding a role for Boucher adds a competent (if aggravating) bench veteran, whichever of Gravy/Brown finds themselves there should be a good bench body, and yeah Kelly plus heaven forbid if a young guys (Agbaji, Shead, Mogbo, Carton, Carlson, Ja'Kobe) ends up useful. The bench could be anywhere from okay to turrible, hard to say until we see it though.

Even if it's turrible though, if the starters do what they should do (Scottie flirting with all nba, Home cooking RJ is legit, IQ takes a run at the all star conversation) it's going to be pretty fucking hard to win fewer than 32-35 games, which will be nowhere close to the top of the lottery.
 
zeke said:
Note that most all these guys are also champs.


View: https://x.com/CrumpledJumper/status/1842720795816300826
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Yeah, stretch bigs are valuable. But a lot of championship starter bigs since 2010 weren't shooters as well.

2010: Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum
2011: Tyson Chandler
2012: Haslem
2013:
2014: Duncan
2015: Draymond, Bogut
2016: Tristan Thompson
2017:
2018: Draymond
2019:
2020:
2021: Giannis
2022: Draymond, Looney
2023:
2024:

Obviously very valuable to be able to do the pick and shovel stuff and stretch the floor at the same time. Appears to be getting more important to championship composition.
 
so in the last 10yrs you've got Giannis the freak (with a 3pt ace C Lopez) and Draymond the 6'6" center (on the greatest shooting team of all time).
 
zeke said:
so in the last 10yrs you've got Giannis the freak (with a 3pt ace C Lopez) and Draymond the 6'6" center (on the greatest shooting team of all time).
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....and Bogut, and Tristan Thompson, and...

The list you posted is nice to look at, but it's doesn't really say a whole lot. Bigs who can jump shoot aren't a new invention. Olajuwon shot ~40% of his FGA from outside 10ft, Malone 50%. Even Duncan, who no one really considers a "shooter" shot ~35% of his FGA from outside 10 feet and 15% from 16+ at decent efficiency.

Most teams need a plumber or two. Yes, it's always better if your plumber can hit a 15 footer when they're open. Yes, it's better than that if your plumber can hit a corner 3 at league average or better rates.
 
somehow i think the cavs and warriors would have survived (10yrs ago) without thompson and bogut.
 
But chose not to, and when they moved on from those players, replaced them with other similar players to do the dirty work they know needed to be done. GSW replaced Bogut with fucking Pachulia, Javale McGee, & David West (and won a title). LeGM after leaving Tristan in Cleveland, immediately had his new team add McGee and Tyson Chandler. Even after adding AD the next summer, kept McGee and added Dwight Howard.

Gotta rebound, gotta defend the paint. The shooting is nice, but optional.

Someone has to do the hard work, if that guy can shoot, beautiful.
 
- Gravy Dick has been upgraded to Beef Gravy Dick. Still sloppy with the ball, but looks faster and stronger.
- Jamal Shead might play for this team
 
Alright, Shead is just a massive pain in the ass to play against.

Starting to fall in love a bit. Physical on the ball defensively, super active. Offensively he has a nice first step off the dribble to create separation, seems to get into the lane pretty easily and can finish when he gets there. Good passing vision. If he develops a 3 point shot he might be a solid rotation piece.
 
i've got more hope in a guy like Shead than in a guy like Davion.

how does Mogbo look? we could use him too.
 
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