Would Josh Smith be a good fit in T.?

[tucas]

Cocaine's a helluva drug....

+3

[Hellgate]

I think there's something to be said for just staying the course. We have a good young core of promising players. Not superstar players, but players that might just surprise some people.
If we've learned anything as Raptors fans or basketball fans in general, is that you build by drafting talent and let them grow together and keep adding draft picks, solid free agents and sprinkle in some small trades for high character rotation players. The Thunder get it! The Spurs get it better than anyone! The Suns had it. Luck wasn't too good to the suns. The Pistons had it all, then went away from what worked and traded, of all people, Billups the heart and soul of the team for Iverson. How well did that work out? Unless you're one of those glamour teams\cities Miami, L.A, Brooklyn ect. Then trading is fun because your almost always getting the better end of the deal.
I think Josh smith is a great player and I wish he was on the Raps right now. But not at the price of blowing up the core. I think B.C has rolled the dice one too many times for that.
We gave away Roy Hibbert (now on his way to becoming an elite center) for a washed up Jermain O'neal. Think where the Raps could be if that catastrophic fail didn't take place. Be patient everyone. You must let a plant grow before it blossoms. You don't inject it with steroids before it even breaks the soil. You'll kill it.

[Beagle]

I totally agree with the 'stay the course' sentiment. Raptors fans on this board are nothing if not impatient. Most of the Rap's woes in recent years have been due to the failings of the parachuted-in, would-be stars that failed to deliver, not the draft failures. It'd be nice to get Smith, but not for three of the best assets the team has (1st rounder, Bargs, ED); that's just silly; it would obviously set the team back a year or two.

Everyone seems to forget how young all these key players are. If even two or three of them pan out, the Raps become a decent team with a young heart. Ed Davis and Demar both do show a lot of promise despite what all the naysayers here believe. They are both at the start of their careers, and careers they will have, be it with the Raps or elsewhere. The league is full of Raptors castaways doing quite well, thank you. So we don't have a superstar yet? So what? Nor do most teams. That's life in pro sports. JV might become one. Bargs could still blossom into a serious force. He already competes with the scoring leaders of the league. Kleiza has serious talent too. He might just figure out how to blend into the NBA one of these days like many other misfits before him have. Why be pessimistic all the time?

Josh Smith is pretty damn good and might be the best player on the team if the Raps managed to get him, but having an all-star on the roster hardly guarantees a team a playoff berth. I'd lose ED and DD to get him (we can afford to lose those two), but not Bargs + ED + 1st rounder. That's ridiculous. We already lost next year's 1st rounder and shouldn't give up another. Bargs is our main offensive weapon. Josh Smith is not a main weapon; he's an all-around player.

Let's just see how this season goes for a while, please...

[Fuchan]

Josh Smith is my favorite individual player. That said, I don't think he fits our build. We need young up and coming talent (TRoss, Val) to mix with our existing talent (Jose, Bargs, Lowry), and Smith will demand max money. We need to keep adding rookie scale contracts and try to land a Durant type player. Adding a max money player into the mix now will return us to the Bosh era

[Nilanka]

Josh Smith is my favorite individual player. That said, I don't think he fits our build. We need young up and coming talent (TRoss, Val) to mix with our existing talent (Jose, Bargs, Lowry), and Smith will demand max money. We need to keep adding rookie scale contracts and try to land a Durant type player. Adding a max money player into the mix now will return us to the Bosh era

Unless a pick is acquired by trade, don't hold your breath hoping for a Durant type player because the days of landing a top 5 pick are now over.

And we definitely don't have the assets to simply trade for a Durant type.

[Fuchan]

Unless a pick is acquired by trade, don't hold your breath hoping for a Durant type player because the days of landing a top 5 pick are now over.

And we definitely don't have the assets to simply trade for a Durant type.

Its so hard to get over the hump, where your good enough to win, but not good enough to contend, and not bad enough for a stud draft pick

[CalgaryRapsFan]

Its so hard to get over the hump, where your good enough to win, but not good enough to contend, and not bad enough for a stud draft pick

Or you unload every bad/long-term contract, cash in every trade chip and then tank unapologetically and pray for lottery luck for 2-4 consecutive seasons... I kid, I kid... that's not a legitimate teambuilding strategy, is it? Isn't that the Seattle/OKC model??? hehe

I know we debated this very question in the forums during the lockout and throughout last season. However, it would be interesting to look at the entire NBA and separate teams into 3 groups: contenders, treadmills and rebuilders.

I actually think Toronto would fall into a small but growing group of rebuilders. I think that more and more teams (ownership, management and fans) are starting to realize that there are greater long-term benefits for going through the rebuilder-contender-rebuilder-contender swings, than consistently being a treadmill team year in and year out (ie: Atlanta, Denver, Houston come to mind). The Bosh-era Raptors were a bad treadmill team, but I think the post-Bosh Raptors are finally doing a good job of rebuilding... Smith is a great player, but I don't think he fits on this Raptors team at this time.

[Fuchan]

Here's hoping that we play well this year, and a nice free agent sees an oppertuninty to get us to contender status

[ebrian]

Here's hoping that we play well this year, and a nice free agent sees an oppertuninty to get us to contender status

That simply does not happen anymore. There are no "nice" free agents out there who will sign on a team because it has a chance to get to contender status. They are either:

(a) Going after money
(b) Going to a contender team
(c) Going to a team they arranged with other players to go to, in order to become a contending team

As for (c), those arrangements involve superstars.

I've never been a guy who thought that Toronto can't lure big names, but the above is the trend of today's NBA.

[Mediumcore]

J-Smoove is too good to pass up if the chance was there. He would be a great fit over any of the other pf's we have and would make for a potentially great tandem with JV.

[Fuchan]

That simply does not happen anymore. There are no "nice" free agents out there who will sign on a team because it has a chance to get to contender status. They are either:

(a) Going after money
(b) Going to a contender team
(c) Going to a team they arranged with other players to go to, in order to become a contending team

As for (c), those arrangements involve superstars.

I've never been a guy who thought that Toronto can't lure big names, but the above is the trend of today's NBA.

I guess when Jose comes off the books, we'll go the money route

[mcHAPPY]

That simply does not happen anymore. There are no "nice" free agents out there who will sign on a team because it has a chance to get to contender status. They are either:

(a) Going after money
(b) Going to a contender team
(c) Going to a team they arranged with other players to go to, in order to become a contending team

As for (c), those arrangements involve superstars.

I've never been a guy who thought that Toronto can't lure big names, but the above is the trend of today's NBA.

I think this negates the influence of the new CBA. I most certainly have no idea what will happen but there are certainly going to be changes. There will be less BRI for players and less opportunities for tax teams to add talent. Maybe guys who have already made $100M plus in their career will sacrifice money but I'm not sure the guys coming off their rookie deal (~23-26) or guys unrestricted coming off their second deal (26-29) will be looking for veteran minimums just yet.

Also luxury tax teams are going to face a much larger penalty for their excess salary and this could lead to some pretty non-basketball trades coming down the pipe.


Anyways, this is all speculation on my part but I don't think the trends of the last few years will be easy to replicate moving forward UNLESS guys take significant pay cuts. Time will tell.

[ebrian]

I guess when Jose comes off the books, we'll go the money route

Here's hoping anyway. I see more and more guys going after winning over money nowadays. Seriously, who was the last difference-making FA to choose money over winning?

[Fuchan]

Here's hoping anyway. I see more and more guys going after winning over money nowadays. Seriously, who was the last difference-making FA to choose money over winning?

Turkoglu

[ebrian]

There's a reason I added "difference-making", and I wasn't talking about Pizza Pizza stock prices.