Raptors 2011-2012!

[Raptors]

Alright so as we all know our team lacks defense... big time! Best solution is to acquire talent through free agency. Raptors have the financial flexibility to sign 1-2 good free agents. I say we sign C. Marc Gasol (restricted FA) and SF. Thaddeus Young (restricted FA).
Furthermore if we get lucky and land the first pick! The obvious choice would be to draft Irving as a talented pg is a must in today's NBA.

Official line-up 2011-2012

pg - Irving
sg - Derozan
sf - Young
pf - Davis
C - Gasol

Bench
sixth man - Andrea (suits his abilities just fine as he is mainly a scorer)
James Johnson
Amir Johnson
Bayless
jose
Barbosa (Trade for another big)


I think this gives us a young and talented squad with a bright future. This squad can easily finish 7th - 8th in East in 2011-2012 and higher with more experience under their belt.

What do you guys think? This is not really a pipe dream, it is achievable but will require luck and time.

[MangoKid]

Alright so as we all know our team lacks defense... big time! Best solution is to acquire talent through free agency. Raptors have the financial flexibility to sign 1-2 good free agents. I say we sign C. Marc Gasol (restricted FA) and SF. Thaddeus Young (restricted FA).
Furthermore if we get lucky and land the first pick! The obvious choice would be to draft Irving as a talented pg is a must in today's NBA.

Official line-up 2011-2012

pg - Irving
sg - Derozan
sf - Young
pf - Davis
C - Gasol

Bench
sixth man - Andrea (suits his abilities just fine as he is mainly a scorer)
James Johnson
Amir Johnson
Bayless
jose
Barbosa (Trade for another big)


I think this gives us a young and talented squad with a bright future. This squad can easily finish 7th - 8th in East in 2011-2012 and higher with more experience under their belt.

What do you guys think? This is not really a pipe dream, it is achievable but will require luck and time.

There's a lot of "if's" in there. Gasol and Young are going to command a lot of money. They're not gonna come here on the cheap.
- And there's no way Andrea is coming off the bench - no way.

[Raptors_]

i'd love if this happend, andrea needs to be traded though. Cause we can't bring him off the bench.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

Alright so as we all know our team lacks defense... big time! Best solution is to acquire talent through free agency. Raptors have the financial flexibility to sign 1-2 good free agents. I say we sign C. Marc Gasol (restricted FA) and SF. Thaddeus Young (restricted FA).
Furthermore if we get lucky and land the first pick! The obvious choice would be to draft Irving as a talented pg is a must in today's NBA.

Official line-up 2011-2012

pg - Irving
sg - Derozan
sf - Young
pf - Davis
C - Gasol

Bench
sixth man - Andrea (suits his abilities just fine as he is mainly a scorer)
James Johnson
Amir Johnson
Bayless
jose
Barbosa (Trade for another big)


I think this gives us a young and talented squad with a bright future. This squad can easily finish 7th - 8th in East in 2011-2012 and higher with more experience under their belt.

What do you guys think? This is not really a pipe dream, it is achievable but will require luck and time.

No chance. Gasol will re-sign and Young will likely wind up getting overpaid, preferably not by the Raps. Irving depends on ping-pong balls.

There's really no point talking about the draft until we know what spot the Raps are picking at and which players are actually in the draft.

There's no point talking about free agency until 3 things happen:
1) the draft is done
2) we see which players are re-signed by their current team and choose to either exercise options or opt out
3) the new CBA is in place, which has to happen BEFORE free agency (but after the draft)

[TheGloveinRapsUniform]

i'd love if this happend, andrea needs to be traded though. Cause we can't bring him off the bench.

Im hoping they trade Bargnani as well. Now that he's come out and said he's a 4, i think if he stayed he will definitely eat into the playing time of Ed. But that could also be a good thing, coz i dont think Ed is ready to start yet, i think he really needs to bulk up and develop that post game. Im happy if he's traded, but wont mind if he stays either.

[Maleko]

Memphis told Zach Randolph straight up when signing him that they were signing Marc Gasol to a long term contract. They have repeatedly stated they will match any sheet for him if it goes beyond the time they take to sign. They hold his bird rights, and can sign him now before the current CBA goes the way of the dodo avoiding taking chances. Toronto cannot even offer until the CBA is settled. I would say take Gasol off the table, he's not coming to dinner.

[Raptorfanatic]

We need PG, SF and C.

Trade assets Bargnani, Calderon, and A.Johnson.
Swing deal with Denver and former Raptor Asst. GM.
Trade Bargnani and Weems or Kleiza for Chandler Wilson and Raymond Felton.
Bargnani should play well next to Nene while Denver has depth to replace Wilson and Felton (ie Gallinari and Lawson)
Then trade Calderon and Amir Johnson for Andrew Bynum. Apply sweeteners if required.
Bynum is gamble with injury woes. However, Raptors would only be on the hook for one year if Bynum experiment does pan out. Bynum is still very young.
Calderon would be expendable and Amir Johnson is redundant. Lakers get a tough LA guy and Calderon should mesh with Pau.

Raptors still have 1st round pick to further shore up weak areas or include in trade proposals
Starting 5:
Felton, PG
DeRozen, SG
Wilson, SF
Davis, Ed, PF
Bynum, C

Off the bench
Evans,(re-sign)
Barbosa,
Johnson, J
Bayless
Magloire (sign as FA need a tough Canadian )

[Maleko]

We need PG, SF and C.

Trade assets Bargnani, Calderon, and A.Johnson.
Swing deal with Denver and former Raptor Asst. GM.
Trade Bargnani and Weems or Kleiza for Chandler Wilson and Raymond Felton.
Bargnani should play well next to Nene while Denver has depth to replace Wilson and Felton (ie Gallinari and Lawson)
Then trade Calderon and Amir Johnson for Andrew Bynum. Apply sweeteners if required.
Bynum is gamble with injury woes. However, Raptors would only be on the hook for one year if Bynum experiment does pan out. Bynum is still very young.
Calderon would be expendable and Amir Johnson is redundant. Lakers get a tough LA guy and Calderon should mesh with Pau.

Raptors still have 1st round pick to further shore up weak areas or include in trade proposals
Starting 5:
Felton, PG
DeRozen, SG
Wilson, SF
Davis, Ed, PF
Bynum, C

Off the bench
Evans,(re-sign)
Barbosa,
Johnson, J
Bayless
Magloire (sign as FA need a tough Canadian )

First off can't trade Weems, he is a free agent. Same for Wilson Chandler. I have a hard time believing any team will take Kleiza, not that I am sour on him, but his injury is serious, he is out until Jan/Feb and it remains to be seen how he comes back from the surgery - no team will take that on unless they are trying to get rid of some seriously bad contract or a$$hole. I am open to getting Felton though, and hope we can sign Chandler away or at least try.

Bynum - NO WAY the Lakers do that trade. Buss Jr. is in love with Bynum (blocking trades and killing trade rumours instantly), and unless they can get a Bynum for Howard trade this summer, he's not going anywhere. Period.

[knickz]

jose
bayless
demar
amir
davis

[WBG416]

jose
bayless
demar
amir
davis

Is the smallest lineup in basketball.

[Bendit]

That is a pretty rich payroll..probably about 75-80 mill. (using todays prices) for the 15 man roster. Definitely into lux. tax area . And if there is a hard cap it has probably been over shot.

[malefax]

This thread falls under the 'magical pony' school of GMing.

PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: DeMar DeRozan
SF: Starsprinkles, the magical pony
PF: Ed Davis
C: Marc Gasol

[Apollo]

Wait, I don't see any unicorns on that depth chart. Totally flawed...Excellent point though. Some people are getting carried away with what is actually within the realm of possibility. Teams aren't trading the Raptors gold for tin cans. We also don't know what the new CBA will look like. We do know that a lot of these ideas might now work in the current CBA...

[heinz57]

i dunno.. speculating on getting a restricted free agent who's currently on a playoff team who are looking pretty damn good right now, and have vehemently stated that they're going to do everything possible to retain him... surefire way to be disappointed?

i think so.

[LeetGoose]

How about this lineup?

PG: Jerryd Bayless
SG: Demar DeRozan
SF: Josh Smith
PF: Ed Davis
C: Enes Kanter

[SuperRaptor]

Id rather see us draft a SF, or draft Irving and trade him for a SF. I think that Bayless' play in a starting role is good enough to merit giving him a shot at the job full time. Bayless defends, he can score, and he was turning the ball over a lot less at the end of the year too. We know irving is good but we already have 2 good PG's dont need another if you ask me. As for drafting a C, they take too long to develop, Id rather get one through free agency, this team needs to start bringing in some veterans now, I wanna see them compete next year. I like James Johnson but if we could get a star SF via the draft it could be a game changer for us.