The 2016 Offseason thread

[Raps07]

NBA free agent who asks to be anonymous says his top 4 destinations, all things being equal, would be:
1. Spurs
2. Raptors
3. Cavs
4. Knicks

For the record, this unnamed free agent is a big man. That's all I can say.

(Tweet from Alex Kennedy )

[DanH]

Been thinking more about this. Perhaps the best way to get value out of that small portion of cap space may not be by signing somebody. It may be by working a trade to bring something notably better than they send out but is lopsided from a cap perspective. There are teams out there looking to swing for the fences this FA period and they may consider cutting ties with a pretty good role player or potentially a starter if it means they have enough to make a bigger splash in FA. I don't know if it would work but it's worth the team looking in to.

In here we keep talking about being on the other side of those deals but the side were not talking about may be where the value is.

Would have to be a low salary deal for that cap space to be helpful. Once you get above 10M outgoing (like Ross, for example) the trade exception will let you take back 5M excess anyway, so you might as well operate over the cap and get the trade exception AND the MLE.

If the trade was going to be picks/draftees for a guy on a rookie scale deal, like say Olynyk, then the cap space would be helpful.

[Demographic Shift]

Would have to be a low salary deal for that cap space to be helpful. Once you get above 10M outgoing (like Ross, for example) the trade exception will let you take back 5M excess anyway, so you might as well operate over the cap and get the trade exception AND the MLE.

If the trade was going to be picks/draftees for a guy on a rookie scale deal, like say Olynyk, then the cap space would be helpful.

Kelly-Kelly-Kelly...
Runs the floor...can play 4 and 5....

[Nilanka]

Saw on Alex Kennedy's twitter that Raps are one a several teams interested in Jamal Crawford. Seems like an odd get considering needs. Don't mind another creator i guess, and the veteran leadership, but mayne not what we need?

Could be that a Ross trade is imminent and they want another bench scorer in front of Powell.

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Replacing Ross with Crawford in our bench unit would be a massive upgrade, especially with the emergence of Powell.

[magoon]

Replacing Ross with Crawford in our bench unit would be a massive upgrade, especially with the emergence of Powell.

Crawford last year shot 34% on threes, .404 overall, and played average defense (at best). Ross played better defense, shot 38% on threes (including the bad start to the year; after December he was shooting 40%) and shot .431 overall.

Crawford at this point in his career is a chucker, a Lou Williams-type with somewhat better D than Lou, which isn't saying much. He's not an upgrade.

[Majesiu]

Replacing Ross with Crawford in our bench unit would be a massive upgrade, especially with the emergence of Powell.

Huge NO to Crawford, he is such a huge liability defensively that anything he brings in shot creation is not worth it. You can argue that our bench wasn't balanced enough, bud stripping highest strength of it to bring some old man suspicious offense isn't good plan. I'd rather give bruno/wright more burn during the season in that situation.

[magoon]

Zach Lowe reporting that the Magic aren't extending the qualifying offer to Andrew Nicholson, making him an unrestricted free agent. This is good, because Nicholson was one of the cheap-option power forwards I thought the Raptors should target.

From CBS' free agent list:

STEAL ALERT. He plays forward for a team with a lot of them, shot 47 percent overall, and 36 percent from 3-point range and is the very model of a stretch 4, yet played only 15 minutes per game last season. He's restricted, but Orlando could likely be persuaded to part with him. He's 26, just hitting his prime, and when he played more than 15 minutes last season, Orlando went 15-15. Nicholson is a great target that comes with risks. It could be a total disaster if he simply doesn't belong on the floor or if there are practice concerns, but for where the league is at, Nicholson is an opportunity.

[Nilanka]

Crawford last year shot 34% on threes, .404 overall, and played average defense. Ross played better defense, shot 38% on threes (including the bad start to the year; after December he was shooting 40%) and shot .431 overall.

Crawford at this point in his career is a chucker, a Lou Williams-type with somewhat better D. He's not an upgrade.

At the end of the day, Crawford's a playmaker. He can create his own shots. We have very few players on this roster who can do so. 6 minute scoreless droughts happened far too often. That's where Crawford over Ross improves our play.

[Letter N]

Zach Lowe reporting that the Magic aren't extending the qualifying offer to Andrew Nicholson, making him an unrestricted free agent. This is good, because Nicholson was one of the cheap-option power forwards I thought the Raptors should target.

From CBS' free agent list:

He was a let down every time I watched him at the Pan-Am games but he seems like the type of guy who has the tools to be a good bench player for years if he gets proper coaching.

[Nilanka]

Huge NO to Crawford, he is such a huge liability defensively that anything he brings in shot creation is not worth it. You can argue that our bench wasn't balanced enough, bud stripping highest strength of it to bring some old man suspicious offense isn't good plan. I'd rather give bruno/wright more burn during the season in that situation.

I can't argue with the logic of giving our young guys more burn. But it seems Masai has the pressure of improving the team now, which means maximizing the prime years of Lowry. Bruno/Wright are not yet ready to provide what Crawford would bring to the table now (even as a depreciating player).

[magoon]

At the end of the day, Crawford's a playmaker. He can create his own shots. We have very few players on this roster who can do so. 6 minute scoreless droughts happened far too often. That's where Crawford over Ross improves our play.

Our scoreless droughts weren't a failure to make plays - during the playoffs we had an enormous supply of good looks, which were usually assisted, and players took them. The droughts were the failure to make shots, plain and simple. Patterson went cold, Ross went cold, Powell went cold, DeMarre went fairly cold, Demar and Lowry were cold for a lot of games. Partially that was stress getting in players' heads, partially that was injuries, partially that was just statistical variance.

Crawford won't help with that at all. He'll always have confidence in his own shot, and that's great, but he's not going to make the team shoot better.

[DanH]

If the Raps strike out on bigger upgrades at PF, Nicholson would be a great get with the MLE to play backup PF beside Poeltl (or backup C beside Poeltl, depending on how you look at it). He has a lot of work to do but has decent upside, and put up average production last year (PER, WS/48) for the Magic. Needs to get better defensively, but that's what Casey is for, right?

[Nilanka]

Our scoreless droughts weren't a failure to make plays - during the playoffs we had an enormous supply of good looks, which were usually assisted, and players took them. The droughts were the failure to make shots, plain and simple. Patterson went cold, Ross went cold, Powell went cold, DeMarre went fairly cold, Demar and Lowry were cold for a lot of games. Partially that was stress getting in players' heads, partially that was injuries, partially that was just statistical variance.

Crawford won't help with that at all. He'll always have confidence in his own shot, and that's great, but he's not going to make the team shoot better.

No, he won't make the team shoot better. But he has the ball skills to get past his defender easily. Whether he gets all the way to the rim, or dumps it off to an open big, that's a skill Ross doesn't have.

[Barolt]

Our scoreless droughts weren't a failure to make plays - during the playoffs we had an enormous supply of good looks, which were usually assisted, and players took them. The droughts were the failure to make shots, plain and simple. Patterson went cold, Ross went cold, Powell went cold, DeMarre went fairly cold, Demar and Lowry were cold for a lot of games. Partially that was stress getting in players' heads, partially that was injuries, partially that was just statistical variance.

Crawford won't help with that at all. He'll always have confidence in his own shot, and that's great, but he's not going to make the team shoot better.

And to some extent, that's just basketball.

We missed shots, and that will happen. Do you still think Carroll, Ross and Patterson are good shooters? I do.

[Barolt]

No, he won't make the team shoot better. But he has the ball skills to get past his defender easily. Whether he gets all the way to the rim, or dumps it off to an open big, that's a skill Ross doesn't have.

The problem with Jamal Crawford is that he's variance to an extreme. He will shoot you into games, and he will shoot you out of games. He's basically what Lou Williams was for us two years ago. We all agreed it was a good idea to get rid of Lou... why would we want to bring an older version of him in?