Is Tanking An Option?

[mcHAPPY]

One solid reason to promote a complete tear down/tank would be the delay in need for a dleague team.

Optimism and silver lining right there.

[raptors999]

Raptors are still a young team. There is no point in a tear down.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

They should have tanked the year JV was playing in Europe... accelerated failure ever since, with several wasted years.

Significantly retool at the very least, starting with the head coach and the alleged 'leader' Lowry.

[The Great One]

Nope. Not an option.

[MixxAOR]

Raptors are still a young team. There is no point in a tear down.

They are young but not talented

[mcHAPPY]

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015...coming-raptors

If Toronto washes out of this series, it seems rather doubtful the bulk of the roster will return. Ujiri said before the series began that this series would determine how he'd evaluate the team, and so far the returns haven't been good.

This team has major defensive issues and obviously could use a veteran or two who have proven playoff toughness, something they seem to be short on. Wizards leader Paul Pierce, even in a diminished state compared with his younger years, has more moxie in one of his sore joints than the entire Raptors team has showed thus far.

If Toronto is going to break through, it has to find something out on the market. When he was the GM in Denver, Ujiri made several big trades and was not afraid to move centerpieces of his roster. It's possible he could see what he might be able to get for some of the team's leaders, such as DeMar DeRozan and perhaps even Lowry.

Casey's speech about leaving players at home could be the inverse of the speech Ujiri might want to give this group. If all of them want to be back in Toronto, they need to find the form that once had them holding a 37-17 record. That team has been missing for some time.

"I wouldn't have predicted this," Lowry said about the current situation. "This is a must win for us. Going down 3-0 would be disheartening."

Even ESPN is asking the questions many of us have been speculating on.

Now that they are down 3-0, those questions are only going to get louder.

[mcHAPPY]

They are young but not talented

They are young and not even restless.

[Lark Benson]

I know it's easy to dream of tear-down scenarios when you're pissed off.

My two favorites are
1) Lowry for Exum, DeRozan and Patterson for Randle. Start next year with Exum, Ross, Caboclo, Randle and Val! and
2) Per Bill Simmons' random guess that Boogie Cousins is going to get traded, some Val + picks + parts package to land him alongside Lowry and DeRozan. Empty that cupboard for Boogie!

Either would be so much fun. But they're not gonna happen.

That's ok though, because the NBA is a pretty fluid league in terms of star movement; thankfully ours isn't the only management that's fucking up. Hardens happen. GMs get desperate, stars become disgruntled, and agents get their fingers into everything. The Raps have some assets and they have some pieces that would work well around a true franchise player. They're poised to jump on an opportunity.

The thing is to stay patient. We've been down this road before, and his name was Colangelo. It's easy to tinker, but that gamble has to be for a worthy prize, and too often it's for a short-term bump to save the GM's job.

[GuiJaeger]

I still wouldn't go full tank. Sure we need to make some moves, but I'm pretty scared of tanking. I see it as a last resort to avoid decided mediocrity. The problem I have with tanking is, getting a Franchise player is hard anyways. While I can see we're not exactly a free agent destination and star players aren't available for trades very often, I don't think tearing it all down is that more effective and if any little thing goes wrong (and it probably will because you're dealing with odds of getting a future star, and those guys are rare), that's years and years of futility, just ask the Sixers.

So much wrong stuff can go down with that. I still think we have something good in our roster, and there's many things I wanted to see before I would feel comfortable in classifying this Raptors' core as hopelessly mediocre, and as such feel the need to tear it down. Like an actual modern NBA system in place.

Also, and I know I'm a bag of cliches with my thought process here, but you never know. Atlanta stuck in good-but-not-great land for years, slowly making just moves that didn't seem to move much of a needle, until they got a 60-win team that, while I don't really think is Trophy material, it is way more likely to be attractive to a big star or future than a tanking team with a history of exiting the playoffs quickly in first rounds.

I think we should go the retooling route (new coach, try to make some deals), and if things seem to hit the same plateau of good-but-not-great by the time next season's trade deadline approaches, then we have no other options but to tank and hope for the best.

[mcHAPPY]

I still wouldn't go full tank. Sure we need to make some moves, but I'm pretty scared of tanking. I see it as a last resort to avoid decided mediocrity. The problem I have with tanking is, getting a Franchise player is hard anyways. While I can see we're not exactly a free agent destination and star players aren't available for trades very often, I don't think tearing it all down is that more effective and if any little thing goes wrong (and it probably will because you're dealing with odds of getting a future star, and those guys are rare), that's years and years of futility, just ask the Sixers.

So much wrong stuff can go down with that. I still think we have something good in our roster, and there's many things I wanted to see before I would feel comfortable in classifying this Raptors' core as hopelessly mediocre, and as such feel the need to tear it down. Like an actual modern NBA system in place.

Also, and I know I'm a bag of cliches with my thought process here, but you never know. Atlanta stuck in good-but-not-great land for years, slowly making just moves that didn't seem to move much of a needle, until they got a 60-win team that, while I don't really think is Trophy material, it is way more likely to be attractive to a big star or future than a tanking team with a history of exiting the playoffs quickly in first rounds.

I think we should go the retooling route (new coach, try to make some deals), and if things seem to hit the same plateau of good-but-not-great by the time next season's trade deadline approaches, then we have no other options but to tank and hope for the best.

You make legit points and have legit concerns.

Tear down, tank, whatever you want to call it.... Basically you're trading away the current core for best return. We really don't know what that end result will be. I don't see hero/ISO ball as winning ball. Maybe you get a new coach and the current group adapts. I don't know, but given age, contract situations, I just assume start with a blank page especially since the front office strength is supposed to be scouting. A team of long athletic defensive minded freaks emphasizing ball movement and punch and kick or drive and dish with an established post game.... Oh the dream. #TeamWingspan

I just want to believe in the team again and believe they have a promising future. Most importantly I just want to enjoy the games.

[KHD]

I just want to believe in the team again and believe they have a promising future. Most importantly I just want to enjoy the games.

this is key. yesterday i found myself thinking that I don't actually even want to see them win in this playoff series because i hate everything about their game this year. I enjoyed losing seasons a hell of a lot more than this one.

[SamMitchells]

Is Tanking An Option?

I'm not sure because I don't understand why can't we just fire the coach and make trades, everyone was saying we are in a good place money wise and contract wise...

What I find interesting is how ridiculous MLSE is. Our playoff tickets are the most expensive in the NBA, rofl. Money hungry pieces of shit, they abuse the fans. No way our tickets should be more expensive than Dallas, Cleveland, or golden state etc....

^ I don't mean to derail the thread with that lol

[McRealistic]

" Lets be patient", " you need to be patient", " He is anti BC" and ...

And now we are talking about tanking. This reminds of the fools who held on the Nortel stocks till it was under $10 and then tried to sell ...

Sometimes anticipation of the event is what makes you superior than the other in the game.

[McRealistic]

I think the easiest and the most comfortable action and path for MU will be tanking.

He can easily trade DD and Lowry in similar trades that he had in the past for Gay and AB. He will get few late first round picks and small expiring contracts back for them. He has done that before and he is comfortable of doing it.

He would fire Casey and the company line will be rebuild around Big Val.

[SamMitchells]

But don't you guys think tanking would be shitting on the fan base Masai and co. Recently created?
He talks about winning culture , our season tickets / playoff tickets are the most expensive in the NBA. MLSE is reaping the benefits of having the most "successful" team in toronto...
You think they would want to give that up?
Lose jarrasic park etc ? How embarrassing lol