Trade Siakam and Van Vleet for Kawhi lol. But realistically they'd have to trade Barnes to get an actual superstar. Like Portland has no use for Siakam or Van Vleet in a rebuild, but Barnes is plenty useful in a trade for Lillard. If you trade either of them it'd be to a contending team for one of their younger talents.
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Tough way to lose but it was an exciting game. Way better than the first two.
Lots of good pieces here for the future with OG, Trent Jr, Precious, and Barnes. I would be patient with this group and give them another chance with another year of development.
Trade Siakam and Van Vleet for Kawhi lol. But realistically they'd have to trade Barnes to get an actual superstar. Like Portland has no use for Siakam or Van Vleet in a rebuild, but Barnes is plenty useful in a trade for Lillard. If you trade either of them it'd be to a contending team for one of their younger talents.
You don't trade Scottie. Portland doesn't make a good partner.
The only good partner I can think of is Utah. If they bounce out in the first round again they can either look to move Mitchell or Gobert, those two don't get along anyways. If it's Mitchell - package around Fred. If it's Gobert - package around Siakam. Gives Raptors a star player and gives Utah a good replacement and keeps their window to win open.
Utah will not trade Mitchell for anything less than a huge overpay. So without Barnes involved you are probably looking at something like Van Vleet, Trent, Precious, and probably multiple first round picks. But realistically there's no chance Mitchell is actually available. It is Gobert who will be available, and he ain't no superstar. If you cannot create your own shot you are not a superstar. The reality is there just aren't any logical stars you can get that don't include trading Barnes, unless a Kawhi-type one year rental comes along.
We gotta remember that Masai isn't going to be desperate yet. If there is any trade this offseason it'll be to improve this team's depth. I think part of why they are going home quickly here is because they leaned so heavily on the starters all year that they are running close to empty right now. Need to be able to play those guys closer to 30 minutes a night instead of closer to 40.
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Last edited by Senator Clay Davis; 04-21-2022 at 06:28 AM.
The real question is which star is willing to come to Toronto long term. I think Mitchell wants to go to New York or another big market.
You absolutely do not trade Scottie for Damian Lillard, that's just insanity. Lillard's 31, just missed a season, and has missed time in the prior 2 years. That's the sort of guy a top team gets to extend their window for a couple of years. That's not for the Raps.
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It's not 2002 in the NBA anymore, not every star player wants to be on the Lakers (and none of them want to be on the Knicks). Best player in the league is in Denver, second best player in Milwaukee, both signed long term. Lillard committed most of his career to Portland. The Raptors hurdle is the taxes thing more than the market. And I don't think they should trade anyone unless there's value. I get people are disappointed with these playoffs, but lest we forget this was supposed to be a fringe playoff team to begin with. They overachieved this year, reaching for a superstar right now as an all-in move would be pretty desperate, unless there is value. Next offseason makes far more sense to make shake up moves with the contract situations they will have.
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I agree with you. Toronto getting a superstar isn't a matter of trying to get one every year, it's a matter of finding an opportune moment to get one, just like Kawhi. The stars are unlikely to align that well again, but they have to be at least sort of aligned.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
You don't trade Scottie. Portland doesn't make a good partner.
The only good partner I can think of is Utah. If they bounce out in the first round again they can either look to move Mitchell or Gobert, those two don't get along anyways. If it's Mitchell - package around Fred. If it's Gobert - package around Siakam. Gives Raptors a star player and gives Utah a good replacement and keeps their window to win open.
IMO trading Siakam for Gobert would be a huge mistake.
Gobert is older, and I don't think he's better than Siakam at all. He's not a superstar that's for sure.
I'm not sure chasing a superstar is the right move for the Raptors this offseason, personally I think trying to sign Nurkic in free agency would be the better move. The team needs a real C and it's the slotting and not being able to match up against Embiid that is killing them in this series.
FVF
Trent
Barnes
Siakam
Nurkic
With OG as your 6th man, and Precious and Boucher on the bench.
That would be a much better look for the Raptors next year, and allows the entire lineup to slot properly. The Raptors strengh is having a lot of athletic long players that can play in the 2/3/4 spots, but if you don't have an actual center it messes up the slotting for the whole group when playing against a team with a legitimate big like Embiid.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 04-21-2022 at 09:45 AM.
IMO trading Siakam for Gobert would be a huge mistake.
Gobert is older, and I don't think he's better than Siakam at all. He's not a superstar that's for sure.
I'm not sure chasing a superstar is the right move for the Raptors this offseason, personally I think trying to sign Nurkic in free agency would be the better move. The team needs a real C and it's the slotting and not being able to match up against Embiid that is killing them in this series.
FVF
Trent
Barnes
Siakam
Nurkic
With OG as your 6th man, and Precious and Boucher on the bench.
That would be a much better look for the Raptors next year, and allows the entire lineup to slot properly. The Raptors strengh is having a lot of athletic long players that can play in the 2/3/4 spots, but if you don't have an actual center it messes up the slotting for the whole group when playing against a team with a legitimate big like Embiid.
Everything you said is correct and makes total sense , but that team can't win a championship (Or even contend)
You need at least 1 superstar. Some teams have 2. We have zero
Unless you believe Siakam can take the next step from star to superstar, we will continue to see what we did down the stretch yesterday.
There isn't an easy answer - And I think they will wait one more year - But you need to be exploring every possibility to try and figure out how to get that superstar (Or hope Barnes turns into one which is why they may wait one more year)
To be honest, if the Jazz lose this series, getting Gobert would actually not be a bad call, particularly since the asking price can't be full value in that scenario. The whole team would be in crisis. It would probably be a couple of firsts but I don't think it would require Siakam.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Everything you said is correct and makes total sense , but that team can't win a championship (Or even contend)
You need at least 1 superstar. Some teams have 2. We have zero
Unless you believe Siakam can take the next step from star to superstar, we will continue to see what we did down the stretch yesterday.
There isn't an easy answer - And I think they will wait one more year - But you need to be exploring every possibility to try and figure out how to get that superstar (Or hope Barnes turns into one which is why they may wait one more year)
I think that is what you try and you hope a superstar that fits this roster's construction becomes available, maybe even in-season but that's going to be really tough to do.
It's funny in that I think the NBA landscape has changed a bit again and continues to do so.
We are at the tail end of the Lebron, Curry, Durant, Harden, etc era of superstars driving the NBA. The "Superteam" appears to be a thing of the past.
The young Superstars leading the way now are different, and are staying with the teams that drafted them.
Booker and Ayton in Phoenix
Jokic in Denver
Embiid in Philly
Giannis in Milwaukee
KAT and Edwards in Minnesota
Morant in Memphis
These guys are different than the superstars from the generation before them, and maybe aren't as "BIG" of stars as the Lebron generation were.
I think under this new NBA landscape that a team that is deep 1-7 that has the right roster construction can win a championship. And really you just have to hope that Barnes can become at least a borderline superstar too.
I think this Philly team was just a bad match for this Raptors roster. Center is the teams biggest weakness, and they are matched up against a team that has one of the 3-4 Superstar centers in the league. It's tough.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 04-21-2022 at 10:15 AM.
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I don’t think we’ll look at traditional centres unless they are damn near elite at that position. I’d bet they’ll bank on the continued development of Achiuwa unless a top 5 centre becomes available somehow.
If Achiuwa can improve as much next year as he did this year then he will already be a really good player. There was a couple times he took Embiid off the dribble, but then just got a little bit lost on what to do to finish the play. If he can take that next step he can be a matchup nightmare for a lot of teams.
Nurkic is probably outside what they have to spend, which will be the full MLE of around $10m (if they could get Nurkic for MLE money, that would be fantastic though). I think they're probably looking at someone in the class of Bamba, Hartenstein, Bagley, Jalen Smith, Bryant, Robinson, etc.
Backup guard is also a position of concern, but there at least it'll be interesting to see the internal growth from Banton and Flynn over the offseason, plus maybe Jalen Harris clears drug protocols and returns next year.
I think we could end up having a relatively dull offseason, acquiring one of the Cs above or a similar teir of scoring guard, retaining Young and Boucher, and going into the next year with a lineup not too different from our current one.
Stay the course with the current core until you know what you have with Scottie is the only answer right now.
Our three best players last night were 24 yr old OG, 23 yr old GTJ & 22 yr old Precious which bodes well for the future. Precious in particular played fantastic, one of the only guys on the floor willing to get into the paint and attack the rim vs Embiid. For a young, inexperienced player to have that mentality it says alot about him and should have all of us very excited. I ripped him relentlessly in the first half of the season for his irrational confidence in his offensive game but we are starting to see how that mentality can pay off when things start to click for a player as gifted as him.
I agree with SuperMatt's post above that the current group is a bit janky when it comes to having to matchup in playoff ball. A big C who can anchor the D as needed would go a long way but we've known that was a black hole on this roster all year so no big surprise it's costing them now.
Hasn't been talked about much but I think the coaching staff probably has to wear some of this as well for many of the failures early in the series. Nurse will be better off long term for having gone through this but the strategy of the opening two games just wasn't there and it feels like they failed to adjust. The last sequence defending Embiid probably also has to be defended better. Hard to say how much of that is on him and how much is on the players not executing.
It will say alot about this group interms of how they come out in game four - do they roll over and take a beating or fight and prolong the series. Scottie will be an emotional boost which helps.
When you take a step back and also think about team deficiencies aside from Fred, who can truly shoot the lights out from anywhere? GTJ? I’d think there needs to be a couple of those acquired next year. The team has a lot of good things in place but I still think it’s a star driven league. Super teams haven’t worked out recently because of age of these guys or behavioural issues, but don’t think for a second it’s dead. If guys can they will and have a better chance than a team with depth and no superstar. Where you get a superstar from I have no idea. I doubt a team will trade one, the Raps are not in a lottery position to draft one, and I doubt teams would gamble with a trade again with the Raps, so I don’t know where that leaves us aside from continuing to build depth then hoping in a year someone becomes available through a signing. Anyway, I still don’t like Siakam as a first or second option. Great third option but he can’t be the man. It’s done.
Excellent video from JJ. I love hearing about the game from people who’ve played at the highest level. Trent really was in no man’s land on this possession
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What I get out of the replay is the blatant forearm to the face of Achiuwa leading to him being out of position. Happens so fast but c'mon refs. Gotta be catching this stuff.
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