They won't, they are at ~72 mil guaranteed and the tax line should be ~74 mil if Stern's recent revenue projections hold up. They also have amnesty. They could even amnesty Bargnani, though they'll probably use it on Kleiza. As for sign and trade, it means they'd send contracts back.
Ugh, I think Toronto did very well in this trade. They traded Ed Davis who is a nice young player but realisically never going to be a 3rd/4th big and 3 more meaningless months of Calderon for Rudy Gay who is overpaid but filled a big need. A 1-2-3 of Lowry, DeRozon, Gay looks awfully nice. Add in young promising pieces like JV and Ross. And if they can move Bargnani for some young pieces or picks too. That's a decent team with decent upside. They can't tank this year with no 1st round pick. And they will never be bad enough in 2014 to draft Wiggins. Clear or save the cap space? Well they are never a FA destination. Even an old man like Nash wouldn't go there even they overpaid lol. How realistic are they signing an impact FA without massively overpaying? Might as well overpay Rudy Gay then. So what more can you ask for in a market like Toronto?
No matter how you view Rudy Gay as a player, he is a talent who can help you win now. Even he's a Mike Miller, the team with Miller is still better than the team with no Miller. And don't say the players you received might "fit" better because I for always believe talent beats fit any time. And Rudy is the best player and most talented player in all the players involved in this trade. The side ending up with the best player typically won a trade. The fact that Memphis also got no young good prospect (Davis is decent but not a core type player) or 1st round pick means it won't look better in the future as well unless you strike gold with 2nd round pick like you did with Marc in the Pau trade lol.
The problem is that DeRozan is kind of a smaller, less talented Gay. Lesser handle, even less range. He doesn't settle for jumpers quite as often as Gay but still too much. Basically, two slashers who don't slash enough, who aren't great defenders and who tend to operate inside the 3pt line and don't create for others much. Then you add Lowry who should be surrounded with solid spacing because he likes to drive hard towards the rim to score. They have good talent but the fit doesn't seem to be there. They really need Terrence Ross to keep improving as a shooter/defender type and get a lot of minutes. It would also be smart for them to trade DeRozan+assets for a very good big man (or another shooter/defender at SG). I don't know if DeRozan has much value because of his contract but if he does I think it's time to cash in. I don't think his value will rise in that lineup.
Why do people think 8th seed is a bad thing for a young team and franchise who haven't made the playoffs for years?
I think there's a big difference between Houston aiming for the playoffs and Toronto (or the current Suns who I think are the same). I think they just want the 8th seed, period. I don't think the Raptors have bigger ambitions and I wonder if they ever did. I think if they could be guaranteed a flashy team, good ticket sales and low playoff seeds for the next 20 years but no chance to advance beyond that, they'd take it. And i think Toronto FC and Maple Leafs are the same, I think it's just part of MLSE corporate philosophy.
Lol every year there are only one championship team, and then 3-4 realistic contenders and then other playoffs teams (by the definition of many here, mediocre) and other terrible lottery teams. At least mediocre is still better than terrible. Rome isn't built in 1 day. You can't go from lottery to contender/championship in 1 season. You need to become mediocre and playoffs regulars 1st and then go from there. It's the Lowry trade forcing them to try hard to be 8th seed (which many bashed Rockets at the time) and devoid of their 1st round pick BTW, not this Gay trade.
This from a houston rockets team that has down nothing for going on 4 years but SHOOT for a 8th seed in the playoffs. Toronto, like every other team, wants to win a championship.
Difference being that the Röckëts have "making playoffs" as a short term goal while keeping cap room and other assets for upgrade into title contender status. For example, even with Harden, Lin and Asik getting paid, the team still has around $17M in cap space and some trade assets for summer 2013. Raptors, on the other hand, have been locking themselves into big salaries and otherwise limiting any path to improve beyond 40-45 wins. Been doing this for years, too. See Turkoglu, Hedo. Anyhow, they do have one possible path to contention: Ross or Valanciunas becoming an elite player. But that unlikely to happen very fast.
Realistically, aside from the 2 teams with Lebron and Durant and a few big market teams, which other teams aren't just aiming for that "mediocre" and "treadmill" 8th seed? Or people would be more happy in the position of Wizards or Kings (do not think they wouldn't love that dreaded 8th seed BTW lol)?
Well I don't even know if you disagree with me or you just think that you disagree with me. Basically, you agree that there has to be "a Rome" and you seem to agree that their overall plan has been shaky. But then you lol at me when I'm saying the exact same thing. I'm not arguing against a Gay trade, I think they got good value, and if they had a good overall plan, it'd even be fine. Depends on Davis future but I'm not very high on him. As for your general statement that "mediocre is still better than terrible", no, I don't agree with that at all. I've spent good 6-7 years rooting for a mediocre Pacers team until lately, and it sucks. And ask your fellow Rockets fans, how much did they enjoy the mediocrity? At least you guys had hope (maybe Yao gets healthy? then: the owner has championship ambitions, he won't stand for this). I don't think the Raptors have high hopes at this point, they have a 15 year long pattern of aiming for mediocrity, quick fixes and ticket sales.
Houston have cap space. But Toronto have Ross and JV (considering their rookie contracts) who are better assets than anything Houston have sans Harden. You at least need to become a 40-45 win team 1st before attracting any top FAs and use those young while improving assets to trade for a star. Rudy's contract run out in 2 years and Bargnani can be traded for expirings or be amnestied maybe? Toronto are not in that bad of a position as everyone made it out to be.
Ask a Wizards or Kings fan if he rather his team be mediocre than terrible. Being terrible now or even 5+ years does not neccesarily guarantee a good future in the nba.
and frankly, i wouldn't be surprised if they sacrifice that for short term success. Colangelo isn't a patient man. It wouldn't be the first time he trades a hot rookie for a better fit/win-now player. If he gets offered Gortat or Josh Smith for Valanciunas, would he be able to say no? Valanciunas is clearly a couple years away from major impact and he's also been a bit injury prone over the last two years. I'd be worried if I were a Raptors fan.
You got some nerve talking about "Striving for Championships". I hope Memephis buries itself in cap hell and you lose to the Spurs.
You dismiss Ed Davis as "decent". If Ed Davis was on the Rockets and you traded him for Rudy Gay, Rocket fans would be going ape****. I will take the 15/10 23 year old big who soots 78% at the rim with a 18.1 PER who has another year on his rookie deal and then you can extend over almost any pick that would have been available from the 2013 draft. To put it in Rocket perspective, Ed Davis is performing at about Luis Scola's age 30 peak performance this season. Add in the fact we can now resign Tony Allen and use our MLE with Tayshaun Prince as a stop gap replacement...Memphis wins that deal. Toronto has essentially changed salary places with Memphis except now Rudy Gay(or Kyle Lowry) is their best player.
Kwame, I can't think of a stronger rebuke to your multi-year stalwart defense of Rudy Gay than the fact that he was just sold off for spare parts and cap room at age 26 - I know that your defense of Rudy gay consists mostly of micro-snapshots which conveniently blot out most of realtiy (SEE HE JUST MADE A SHOT I TOL' YOU HE WAS GOOD!!11!!) and this is of course no different (the Grizz suited up 9 players, none of which were the spare parts they got for Gay last night) Anyhow, I leave you with something for you to chew on since it goes to the roots of your Gay boosterism - the Rockets probably got a better package when they traded a declining, past-his-prime Shane Battier to Memphis (Hasheem, Carroll & a Future 1st rounder) than the Grizzlies got trading 26-year-old Rudy Gay to Toronto.
Memphis still have little chance at a title, but they did very well to offload that terrible contract and get a fairly promising prospect in return. The trouble is they are still in a pretty bad cap situation for next offseason, so it is difficult to see what they can do to take themselves to that next level. They still lack that go-to guy from where I'm standing. How can they get one? It may require a tear-down and rebuild, and they'd better do it soon because their team's going to start getting old.
I don't think people really understand the Raptors' position very well. I followed them a little bit due to Lowry. IMO their biggest mistake is trading for Lowry which basically forced them out of any tanking thought. Without this Rudy Gay trade, they would likely be looking at a 7th to 10th pick for the next few years, not really a position to get a franchise level player anyway. With this trade now and moving Bargnani plus others for a decent PF, they could at least contend for a playoffs spot in the East with a young team and try to build from there. All they lost in this trade is basically cap space which considering their history with FAs and their market is useless. They are never going to sign even a player of Rudy Gay level. Don't kid yourself if you wouldn't rather overpay Rudy than overpay Fields or when you gave a bloated contract to an old man Nash he wouldn't even come!
Ed Davis is garbage man type though with limited upside. He's for sure not a Scola type who you can give the ball to and let him go to work. Gay's only 26 too. I can't see the future but I just can't see Davis ever be better than Gay.
