This franchise is finally going in the right direction!

I'm actually kind of surprised Memphis couldn't find a better wing somewhere.

I really can't see memphis being as good without Gay... contenders need a legitimate perimeter threat

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Matt52 wrote:

They have to be demoralized.

There are reports Gay didn't quite mesh in locker room and he did not want to be in Memphis period but ownership clearly sent a message, "We are a have not team." Maybe this summer they can add some pieces to show it was the right move..... or maybe it is just one bad game.

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yeah I saw that post of yours, thought that was interesting

I keep having these thoughts that this move has almost been planned for a while.. Gay apparently said he had been talking to his friends on other teams to see what it would be like there, and that he welcomed a trade.. Lowry being so supportive of jose being a starter.. I feel like he must have known they were boosting his value to go after gay.. and maybe lowry, colangelo, and gay were all in on it.. you just know lowry woulda been more visibly upset about his backup role the past month if he didn't know they were gonna flip jose for something.. even his comments today made me wonder about this even more..

I could be crazy but hey it crossed my mind lol

Memphis is screwed, sucks to be a grizzly fan

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Kuh wrote:

It's good to see someone who likes this transaction.

I feel that this transaction is a huge mistake

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I'd replace the word mistake with 'Gamble'. It's a transaction that can either reap rewards or not. As Bryan said in an interview, although a significant one, he's not done, There's more coming.

The thing that surprises me most is that he is being allowed to make all these moves which only indicates that he has MLSE's blessings and is probably going to stick around for at-least one more year.

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FoxMachine wrote:

anybody noticing how bad Memphis looks right now? just sayin... :P

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i see bayless is still a chucker too, there team looks lost..& frustrated not sure how much Prince is going to help & i dont see ed getting alot of burn either

Memphis front office is fucked! & guys are already distancing themselves from the gay trade basicly putting Hollinger responsible. LOL

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DoNDaDDa wrote:

i see bayless is still a chucker too, there team looks lost..& frustrated not sure how much Prince is going to help & i dont see ed getting alot of burn either

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I agree

hmmm RaptorsMR tweeted an hour ago that its still possible Gay could be in the linup tomorrow but everything has to fall into place

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FoxMachine wrote:

hmmm RaptorsMR tweeted an hour ago that its still possible Gay could be in the linup tomorrow but everything has to fall into place

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thats good to hear, lord knows were going to have our hands full with the Clips

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Matt52 wrote:

In keeping with the title of this thread..........

The Raptors - THE RAPTORS! - of all teams are in position to take advantage of other teams struggles on the court, in the locker room, and in the accounting books.

I hope the situation in LAL with Gasol works out in the Raptors favor as well. There is not going to be a large market for Gasol.... likely none outside of Minnesota and Toronto. The problem LA has is the Wolves are fighting for the same playoff spot they are and they may not make good trade partners. My assumption is Minnesota wants Gasol and LAL are looking to deal him.... those thoughts are probably fatally flawed but whatever.....




So lets ride with the assumption that Minnesota wants Gasol. Lets also assume LAL are interested in Bargnani. Let us also assume the salary cap and luxury tax goes up $5M each to $63M and $75.9M. Finally lets assume Kleiza is amnestied. Lets see how much fun thinking positively can be:

1) http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=aveunm9
Lakers just saved about $50M.
Raptors get backup PG, Roy is medical retirement so $5.1M in cap space, and Pekovic is a restricted free agent.

2) In doing this Raps payroll for next season goes from $74.4M to:

minus Kleiza $4.6
minus Bargnani add Barea: minus $6M

So Raptors payroll is down to just over $63M which is new cap giving them full MLE to use.

3) Raptors also have Pekovic and DeRozan as trade assets.



Or the Raptors could hold Gasol until off season at which point Minnesota has to make a decision on Pekovic when someone makes an absurd DeAndre Jordan/Roy Hibbert like offer and Minnesota is also in possession of much more cap space and a likely high lotto draft pick (currently top 13 protected).


Anyways, we'll all see what happens soon enough. Bargnani needs to get back out there first of all. The Raptors future may be brighter and more flexible than I previously thought.

Maybe the Lakers would take DeRozan and Bargnani for parting with Gasol... either directly to Toronto or somewhere else. That certainly opens up a lot of flexibility again for Toronto.



Next 3 weeks are going to be VERY interesting.

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I would be ok with this move....but I don't think the Lakers would want it. And I don't think they'd take back both Demar and Bargs. I know the Lakers may not find a huge market for Gasol, but I think the Lakers are always in a position where they never make a trade just to make a trade. They are pretty much always winners in their trade. Bargs and Anderson isn't enough for them to be able to go to their fanbase and say "now we're back on track to a championship".

What do you think of this, Matt? This is your trade, somewhat, then expanded to include Atlanta, where LAL get Smith and Bargnani, as well as Gray for a large body insurance behind Howard.

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=d7qse5e

-Minny gets the same as before, plus Alan Anderson, since they're thin at the wings.
-With Smith and Bargs in LA, they won't mind not getting an extra wing like Alan. In the offense, Bargs can sit at the perimter like a 3, and they can run screens with Nash and Smith/Howard. If they want an extra wing, maybe Alan does go here instead...not dealbreaker issue really.
-Atlanta gets a promising replacement for Smith in Williams, and a decent prospect for a utility forward in Clark (always liked him and thought he just needed a chance to play). Roy can be waived or whatever htey do when he's forced to retire again from injury.
-Toronto gets Peko, a stopgap option at C as JV develops. Instead if Barea, I prefer Ridnour. I'd be happy with either, but I think Ridnour is a better spot up shooter, and offers that nice slowdown pace. I think with Ridnour, you try and develop Gay, Demar and Ross to play with the ball more when he's on the court, because Barea monopolizes the ball more as a score-first guard. As for Sacre...he's just hometown filler. I could easily see it being a PF, maybe Tolliver from Atlanta, to backup Amir for the rest of the season.

The only problem with mine vs. yours I think is that I can't find a way to get the extra 5 million off our books that Roy would offer. But other than that, it's not really that I like it more (other than Ridnour over Barea), but that I think LA will be looking for something like this.

You guys are very quick to judge the Grizzlies after (not even) a single game. They're playing with a severely depleted team and they clearly haven't had much to adjust playing without their leading scorer yet. Do I need to remind you they're 14 games above even?

I think we all need to relax..

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TRex wrote:

As a Raps fan this is the best feeling i've felt since the VC era. I feel like next year and in the following years i feel like we have a team that is just not a playoff team but a team that could make some noise.

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Its too early to say Raps on right direction. Also, we have too many ppl on wings now. DD, RG, AA, LF, TR, MP, and LK but we don't have enough big man. Gay is new, and there is no reason to trade TR, Field is too $$$$, MP is unable to trade b4 deadline, AA is too old. We only could use AB7 and DD to exchange a useful PF.

If DD gone, will you say this is the right direction? Even we could keep DD, beside AJ and JV, we still short of useful big body.

What Matt52 said is the last hope/move of Raps. Otherwise, we only got the player you personally like, but I don't see too much improvement of the team.

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Sig wrote:

You guys are very quick to judge the Grizzlies after (not even) a single game. They're playing with a severely depleted team and they clearly haven't had much to adjust playing without their leading scorer yet. Do I need to remind you they're 14 games above even?

I think we all need to relax..

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I wasn't really being serious.. just a jab as they are having a bad game tonight

does Gay have a cockeye on the raptors.com homepage?

edit: i realize i said gay and cock in the same sentence

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FoxMachine wrote:

does Gay have a cockeye on the raptors.com homepage?

edit: i realize i said gay and cock in the same sentence

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he looks like hes angry, but i guess if i was born with the name Gay id be looking pissed alot too LOL

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Sig wrote:

You guys are very quick to judge the Grizzlies after (not even) a single game. They're playing with a severely depleted team and they clearly haven't had much to adjust playing without their leading scorer yet. Do I need to remind you they're 14 games above even?

I think we all need to relax..

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Lol We played a game after 2 of our players got traded and almost won. Don't gimme that BS, the Grizzlies just suck

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NoPropsneeded wrote:

Lol We played a game after 2 of our players got traded and almost won. Don't gimme that BS, the Grizzlies just suck

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grizz have had a day to absorb the news too. there just too post oriented now.. Randolph was even saying how hard it was to score without Rudy on the floor when Rudy missed games attending the Funeral.. teams are just going to pile up in the lanes & take away the paint to force the likes of Bayless/Conley/prince/allen to beat them from outside

Memphis is seriously struggling. Especially when the offense is stagnant, end of game/end of clock situations, they are going to be very missing of Gay's ability to bail em' out.

Toronto seems to be put in those situations in the above, ALOT. It's safe to say we got a really good player in Gay. More that I think about it. Detroit got Jose, but it's unlikely he does much to impact their team overall. Ed Davis is the only corner piece for Memphis because like 'White men can't jump' mentioned, Prince is a shadow of his former self, and Austin Daye is a bust.

We got the best out of this deal in terms of on paper, although, it hurts our financial flexibility moving forward. Trading Bargnani + Fields/Kleiza/Anderson for an expiring big like Milsap + prospect, and if Kleiza isn't shipped, use the amnesty provision on him. Milsap being a free agent this off-season, amnesty Kleiza, that's maybe 15$ million in cap space freed up? Please correct if I'm mistaken with this. Just my assumptions.

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TRex wrote:

As a Raps fan this is the best feeling i've felt since the VC era. I feel like next year and in the following years i feel like we have a team that is just not a playoff team but a team that could make some noise.

The acquisition of Rudy Gay is tremendous. Still can't believe we got him for Jose and Ed. No offence to both but Jose after this season will likely be a goner. Davis? he's improved so much this season. But what exactly is his ceiling?

Raptors on the other hand is getting an all-star caliber type of player who's only 26 years old. A guy that can create his own shot, a guy that is capable of hitting big shots late in the game. A guy that will give them some respectability. He's everything the Raps need.

Raptors core right now - JV, Amir, Gay, DeRozan, Ross and Lowry. That's pretty good. Very young but so much potential.

JV and Ross upside i think is MASSIVE. Gay i think is an all-star caliber type of player. I think he's going to blossom here as the #1 option. Lowry i think is a very talented PG. One of the best if not the best rebounding PG in basketball. He needs to stay healthy though to be effective. Amir is a heart and soul type of player. Every team needs a guy like that. DD, i think is the one that will benefit the most with the Gay acquisition. All the pressure of being "the guy" is now on Gay. If he can continously put up 16-17ppg as the 2nd-3rd option on offence then that's huge for this team.

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Hope ur right

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NoPropsneeded wrote:

Lol We played a game after 2 of our players got traded and almost won. Don't gimme that BS, the Grizzlies just suck

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I agree, but disagree with the fact Memphis sucks.

Memphis is good, without Gay, they have proven they can go deep into the playoffs (2011 post-season). Adding a veteran like Prince (although not Prince of past), and Ed Davis to strengthen their big man rotation might be helpful.