I actually agree.white men can't jump wrote:
Elton brand is almost exactly what we need if we are choosing to go the route of giving the majority of the minutes to JV and Amir (which we should). He can come in and play limited minutes, while at the same time provide leadership which we desperately need
+1. Thats just pure insanity
This is foolish beyond belief
I agree with everything you said except the bolded line.
The jury's still out on Casey. He had a lockout season with no training camp, and a roster overhaul this year right in the middle of the playoff push.
I think that he has done an OK job, but I think that he needs to seriously change the theme next year with the team. You cannot keep going with the "pound the rock" idea. He needs to start instilling an attitude of "we are good now and are improving" and not necessarily that "we need to get better".
There's a subtle difference but I think that everything we've heard from him is basically the same thing over and over again, and teams need a change in how the message is delivered
I am a big Cavaliers fan and have seen Marreese Speights play over a dozen games since we acquired him.
The guy is good as a fourth big but there is no way I want him as the first big of the bench if we are to compete. He loves to shoot and will do so every time he thinks he's open. So he ended up as a high usage, jump shooter who takes a lot of long twos early in the shot clock.
While he is a good rebounder, Marreese is a below average defender, both 1on1 and has a help defender.
I would not offer him more than $4 million a year.
Teams don't get the MLE and the mini-MLE. You get one or the other based on the status of your payroll.
A whole bunch of this.
This is the downside of the Rudy Gay trade that most posters chose to either ignore or didn't understand. The Raptors have virtually 0 financial flexibility over the next two seasons to improve their roster, no first round pick this season and not much for trade assets unless they make Ross or JV available. Any talk of going after Millsap/Jefferson/anyone significant this offseason died the day they acquired Rudy.
I was in favour of the Gay trade only on the assumption that more moves would follow (like the acquisition of Boozer). I honestly believed that a core of Lowry, Gay and Boozer would've been good enough to squeak into the playoffs...if not this year, next year and the one after.
Raptor fans would then get to watch a few years of competitive basketball, and in the summer of 2015, we would have $44.6 million coming off the books (Gay, Boozer and Fields).
Acquiring Gay and doing nothing at the deadline was definitely a head-scratcher.
"I don't lie. I willfully participate in a campaign of misinformation." - Fox Mulder
I was strongly against the acquisition of Gay for the reasons I stated above. I looked ahead to this offseason and the next and failed to see how the team would get over that next hump. I basically thought the Raptors were willingly signing up for the 7-9 spot in the East for the next two seasons, which has been described as the worst spot to be in pro basketball time and time again.
Once the Gay deal went through however I thought the Raptors acquiring Boozer should have been a no-brainer. I too thought that Boozer's contract lined up well with some of the team's other big deals, and acquiring him would have given the Raptors a two year window to try and win a playoff series or two, followed by the summer of 2015 where they would have a TON of cap space (and hopefully a repaired reputation around the NBA).
Can we begin to explore the possibility that the Bulls reported willingness to do a Boozer-for-Bargnani trade may have been exaggerated?
let's go blue jays!
"I don't lie. I willfully participate in a campaign of misinformation." - Fox Mulder
Thing is, I'm not sure it's about 'filling the holes' as much as it is, 'does this group of players make sense at all?'
The Raps have two guys on the wing who are basically the same player (with one guy being the poor man's version). They have a PG, who despite having some good games, has had zero impact on winning and losing. They have no bench. They have big man 3-4 years away from starting his prime. And they still do not have a top of the food chain player.
Yeah, I mean I guess you could slap some bandaids on and try to plow ahead but where does that even get this team?
This is exactly what I was afraid of after the Gay trade. Another one of BC's half-assed plans where he simply won't commit either way to winning or rebuilding. Personally, now that the die has been cast with the Gay deal, I want to see them go for it. Put Val and Ross and the 2014 first on sale and see what they get you.
I don't think it was.
All those media reports came from Chicago and their sources.
"Championships are what we live for, now lets go win them."Tim Leiweke
MLSE unwilling to go into luxury tax themselves? Colangelo still refusing to part with Bargnani?
No the offer of Boozer/Nate for Bargnani/JL3 from Chicago media. I don't recall any reports of luxury tax avoidance by MLSE or Colangelo refusing to part with Bargnani. Although 7 years would certainly beg to differ.
I could see JL3 wanting to be kept instead of Nate by Raptors. It was also rumoured Chicago wanted JL3 as he was a fav of Thibideau and locker room last season.
I could also see the Raptors wanting a 1st - and Chicago unwilling to include.
Also in off season, straight Bargnani/Boozer trade possible assuming cap/tax go up a few million and Kleiza amnestied. Straight trade was not possible at this time.
Is it late June/early July yet?
"Championships are what we live for, now lets go win them."Tim Leiweke
I don't have a very good understanding of the CBA, but wouldn't it make more sense to offer either Milsap or Jefferson a big contract over Boozer? I mean if I was going to give a max contract out I would rather give it to Milsap or Jefferson and most likely neither of them would be asking for the kind of $$ left on Boozers contract.
Sorry, I worded that improperly. I was asking why you thought it didn't go down then, which you pretty much answered with the second half of your reply.
You can only offer unrestricted free agents big contract offers based upon how much money you have under the salary cap.
The Raptors have $73M on the books for next year. To realistically have a shot at any of those players they'd likely have to have just $46M on the books for next year. In short, it isn't happening.
SIgn and trade would work but you are giving up assets (and Bargnani is not going to cut it).
"Championships are what we live for, now lets go win them."Tim Leiweke
Would amnestying Bargs and waiveing Kleiza do the job? Keeping in mind the offer to either Jefferson or Milsap would be less than a max contract.
From what I understand, waiving Kleiza doesn't remove his cap implications. Only the amnesty provision can do that.
"I don't lie. I willfully participate in a campaign of misinformation." - Fox Mulder
Even if waiving Kleiza removed his cap implications (which it doesn't) they still wouldn't be even close to making a competitive offer. Bargs is on the books for about 10 mil and Kleiza for about 5. If we somehow got both of them off the books, that would put us at 58 million. As Matt mentioned, we need to be around the mid 40's to make a realistic offer (and even then that doesn't guarantee anything).
In other words -- nothing big is coming from free agency.
Manage your expectations accordingly.
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