2015-16 Raptors and General NBA Thread

[Street Pharmacist]

Horrible attendance

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Horrible attendance

Wait, what? In Toronto, right? Isn't every game sold out?

[jayswin]

I couldn't find individual attendance for this game, but they're 4th in the league for attendance averaging 100.2% of capacity at 19844.

Raptors attendance has been a huge success over the past few years.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by jayswin

I couldn't find individual attendance for this game, but they're 4th in the league for attendance averaging 100.2% of capacity at 19844.

Raptors attendance has been a huge success over the past few years.

I'd be surprised if there was less than 2 or 3 enjoy seats. There were tons of empty seats in the lower bowl

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

I'd be surprised if there was less than 2 or 3 enjoy seats. There were tons of empty seats in the lower bowl

I always have trouble with your posts because of your autocorrect transgressions. I figured it autocorrected "empty" to "enjoy" but then your first sentence would contradict your second. Can you clarify what your were saying, please.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by jayswin

I always have trouble with your posts because of your autocorrect transgressions. I figured it autocorrected "empty" to "enjoy" but then your first sentence would contradict your second. Can you clarify what your were saying, please.

There was at least 2-3 thousand empty seats. I'd be surprised if there were less.


I do apologize about the SwiftKey autocorrect. I don't double check well enough before sending

[jayswin]

Interesting, I know back in the day Maple Leaf season ticket holders in the expensive lower bowl seats got Raptors tickets in their seat for dirt cheap. If that's still the case I could see that contributing, cause yeah they're definitely sold out every game.

[Jason14h]

http://espn.go.com/nba/attendance

5th at 100.2 %

[Street Pharmacist]

So my buddy here in Toronto told me he has corporate seats in the 5th row, but they can see the game from the box where they get food, etc so rarely go to their seats. Apparently that's common

[Julio]

Nobody can complain about Raptors attendance compared to Denver. Looks like the Dome for a Hitman game. A badly attended Hitman game...

[TheAlpineOracle]

Not that it was his fault, but good lord does Nogueria suck. Brutal in offence and hopeless on defence. Raps in big trouble if Valenciunas is sidelined with Carroll.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Yeah this would be pretty ridiculous

The Golden State Warriors’ plan of pursuit predates their 2015 championship run, a bold plot to declare the futility of resistance. It isn’t only that the NBA champions are determined to recruit Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant. The truth is that they’re the most intriguing destination to him. If Durant leaves the Thunder, the Warriors are the significant frontrunners to sign him, league sources told The Vertical.

The Warriors already have everything and yet they’re threatening to take more now. Steph Curry. Klay Thompson. Draymond Green. Committed ownership. Bob Myers, the executive of the year. Steve Kerr, a championship coach. Yes, Golden State has everything, including the ability to create the salary-cap space and a belief that Durant’s persona could fit seamlessly – even onto a potential two-time defending champion.

Make no mistake: Durant isn’t close to gone in Oklahoma City – no decision, no leaning, sources said – but the real threats on the summer market are beginning to reveal themselves. Durant is determined to win – to be an immediate championship contender at 27 years old – and that keeps bringing him back to the Warriors should he make the decision to leave Oklahoma City.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources...182559375.html

[corporatejay]

Isn't KD tight with Drake? Any chance he signs with the Raps? Easier conference and travel schedule.

[bluejays]

Always comes down to money or some type of lifestyle #### measuring. Toronto has high taxes and isn't exactly a nightlife haven. He may have really loved the Raps growing up, but I doubt he comes here for the above reasons.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by fleury

Always comes down to money or some type of lifestyle #### measuring. Toronto has high taxes and isn't exactly a nightlife haven. He may have really loved the Raps growing up, but I doubt he comes here for the above reasons.

I don't think KD would ever sign in Toronto, but I have a hard time believing it would be for the reasons you are suggesting. It would be because his appeal to the US market would drop significantly playing outside the US. Canada may be perceived as having high taxes, but California is one, if not the highest taxed State in the US. On par or worse than Toronto. Toronto is a mega city that is At the top of the entrtainment spectrum. It's consistently ranked at the top of the cities players most enjoy visiting in NBAPA surveys.

People in Canada and people that live in Toronto really don't give it much credit. It's world class. Outside of LA, Chicago, Miami, New York, and maybe Atlanta, there not many NBA cities that can offer what Toronto can.

Players reluctance to play in Toronto in the past has more to do with the how terrible the Raptors franchise was. As much as it pains me to say this, Drake has really helped the Raps brand to prospective and current players. Combine that with a couple winnin seasons and I think they can pretty much compete with anyone in Free agency not named the Lakers, Heat, Bulls, Knicks, or whatever team LeBron currently calls home.

[octothorp]

I've got no idea what Durant does in the offseason, except that a lot of it will probably be predicated on what happens in the playoffs. A first round exit and yeah, changing teams is a real possibility. Taking San Antonio or GS to 7 games in a second or third round matchup, he probably stays.
Everyone in the league is going to have huge cap space (or the ability to free up cap space), so it's not really about salaries. Perennial free agent destinations like LA and New York aren't really able to offer Durant a win-now opportunity (except as part of a complete, instantaneous rebuild, which is quite risky). Washington was supposed to be a contender for him, but if they miss the playoffs, they don't look like a win now situation either (although I still think they'd be a great fit for him).

Toronto's in a complex situation in that it would be extremely difficult to retain DeRozan and acquire Durant. And yeah, from Toronto's perspective they'd happily give up DeRozan for Durant. But the issue is that they might need to make a decision to renounce the rights to DeRozan early in free agency just to stay in play for Durant, risking losing out on both of them. Plan B (which is harder to pull off) would involve trading away a bunch of smaller pieces with little coming back (probably Patterson, Ross, maybe even Joseph), to go all in on a starting lineup of Lowry/DeRozan/Carroll/Durant/Valanciunas, which would be truly elite, but I'd worry that there's not enough shots to go around for that group, and the bench would seriously suffer. Ultimately, given the amount of roster rearranging that the Raptors would have to do, while other teams can straight up sign Durant to a max and keep the rest of their roster intact, I'd rate the Raptors as extreme longshots in the Durant sweepstakes. (One other minor plus the Raptors have is that assistant coach Kalamian who had a good relationship with Durant in OKC... a minor plus, but a plus nonetheless).

I think it's going to be a relatively quiet summer for the Raptors (if they win at least one round in the playoffs... if not, all hell could break loose). Bring back DeRozan, let the rest of the league overspend in what's going to be a brutally overpriced market, focus on acquiring an upper tier PF as an in-season trade or for the 2017 offseason.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I still think Durant is a very, very long shot to the Raptors. Ultimately I suspect he takes a short deal to stay in OKC (3 years) that allows him to opt out basically every year. I wonder how much backlash he'd go if he went to the Warriors though, at least relative to LeBron going to the Heat. I think there's no doubt the Thunder are a much better team than the Cavs team LeBron left, so I would think Durant gets even more backlash.

[kmart]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

I don't think KD would ever sign in Toronto, but I have a hard time believing it would be for the reasons you are suggesting. It would be because his appeal to the US market would drop significantly playing outside the US. Canada may be perceived as having high taxes, but California is one, if not the highest taxed State in the US. On par or worse than Toronto. Toronto is a mega city that is At the top of the entrtainment spectrum. It's consistently ranked at the top of the cities players most enjoy visiting in NBAPA surveys.

People in Canada and people that live in Toronto really don't give it much credit. It's world class. Outside of LA, Chicago, Miami, New York, and maybe Atlanta, there not many NBA cities that can offer what Toronto can.

Players reluctance to play in Toronto in the past has more to do with the how terrible the Raptors franchise was. As much as it pains me to say this, Drake has really helped the Raps brand to prospective and current players. Combine that with a couple winnin seasons and I think they can pretty much compete with anyone in Free agency not named the Lakers, Heat, Bulls, Knicks, or whatever team LeBron currently calls home.

Perhaps the Bay are should be included on that list, especially since KD is rumoured to go there.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by kmart

Perhaps the Bay are should be included on that list, especially since KD is rumoured to go there.

Maybe, but just because of recent success. No one would have played there 4 years ago while there were other options available despite the fact that the Bay Area is awesome. Kind of lends credibility to the fact that winning changes everything.

I'm not sure why Golden State would want to pursue KD. That's a lot of money for a team that is already dominating. Not sure why they would want to screw with that winning formula. Keep the team they have. There's no one beating them in the short term. A start like Durant has the potential to upset chemistry because the team will feel like they need to alter their game to accommodate him into the offence.

If I'm Durant i'm heading East to Miami or New York. Coast through the regular season and ramp it up during the playoffs. There's next to no one that could guard him in the East. Making the playoffs would be a cake walk. I actually think Toronto would be a great fit for him, but I can't see him giving up all the marketability in the US.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Good night for point guards. Steph with 51 points (11-16 from 3) and 7 rebounds, John Wall with 41 points and 10 assists, but Russell Westbrook might have the best line with 24 points, 19 rebounds and 14 assists. That is a massive triple double.