I feel like we're giving up a lot but Lowry won't come cheap especially due to his team friendly contract considering the cap is going up.
I see them adding pieces rather than subtracting. They need slashers and some low post scoring and solid screen setters to relieve their guards. Greg Monroe, aminu, asik, are all different players who will be free agents that could help them immensely
I think people people confuse expectations of franchises The Raptors would never blow up the current roster, doesn't matter how treadmill it is. Raptors are perfectly happy being 3-4 th seed every year, maybe once in a while get past the first round. They would rather do that than risk having a losing season again order to gamble to build a contender let's be honest, no superstar will ever sign with Toronto, it's just not an attractive destination. Their chances of winning a championship is slim to none and the management know that. they are already getting incredible support from the fans even with first round exits, there's not point risking that to go for something so lofty
I tend to agree that teams trying to improve by adding talent, the "rebuliding/tanking" route is mostly a last resort (except when we are talking about Sam Hinkie). But how do the Raptors retool? They won't have a high draft pick. They have some cap flexibility, but it has been hard to attract top free agents to play in Canada (and a poor first round showing doesn't help make them any more attractive). I also don't see anyone that they can trade for to take them up a level. Every team stuck in the middle dreams of making that "Harden trade" to jump-start itself, but Harden trades are very rarely available.
So they just stay competitive in the East and hope to strike gold somewhere along the line. The whole "blow it up and build around a draft pick" strategy rarely works in basketball.
did you know, lowry is 2nd in the nba behind only kyle korver for 3p% when they've been stationary for more than 3 seconds? Considering how much our offense uses spot ups for Harden's passes, i wonder if that'd be useful... His biggest problem is he's expected to create his own offense at a heavy load, and he's just not that sort of guy. He's more of a bring it up, throw it into the offense, get it going, and take shots as it comes out (basically a much better version of pablo).
this toronto team feels like the denver team ujiri built, lot of mid guys, lot of regular season wins, no chance of ever doing anything
Probably true, but several of this year's top teams got there by striking gold. Atlanta found a super-coach that took a team without any superstars to the best record in the conference. Cleveland got lucky that the best player in the game happened to grow up near there and actually wanted to sign with a team that doesn't attract free agents. The Rockets struck gold trading a bunch of middle-tier assets for what turned into an MVP candidate. If they keep trying to compete, then may one day that final piece will fall into their lap.
The thing is though, they are kind of like the rockets a few years back except they are making the play offs. Not bad enough to add a significant player via the draft, not good enough to attract marquee free agents. They may be in a position where they need to start trading some of those assets to either a) tank or b) make smaller moves that lead to a bigger move.
