With emergence of Gary Trent Jr. and the drafting of Barnes, the Raptors look like a really solid team very quickly. Closed the game vs the heat with Fred, Gary, OG, Siakim, and Barnes. That's a fast, switchy, and rangy lineups. Ujiri is damn good.
I still would have gotten Anfernee Simons back then. Simons gonna be better. No doubt, Gary is fine as well.
I mean were they really ever in rebuild mode? Last year's record was bad sure but that was because they lost a lot of depth in the front court and had the whole Lowry drama hanging over the team for most of the year. The Raptors are/should be a perennial playoff team out in the East. Whether or not they can get back to elite status that's a different story.
They went 53-19 the next season. They lost Lowry from that team, but it's not like there was some huge overhaul. They still have the other 3 top guys, and moved laterally from Powell to Trent. The current team should still be competitive. Ujiri did a great job building that 53 win team, but lets not act like he went and "did it again".
Agreed. This was more of a reload than a rebuild. Aside from the bubble performance against Miami, Siakam was looking like a legit franchise player that 53-win season. VanVleet has been playing at all-star levels the past two seasons and OG has made huge strides in the same timeframe as well.
I feel like Siakam was the second or at worst 3rd best player behind Kawhi during that championship run, that's why they ended up kind of over paying him. And Vanfleet was playing like a mad man against the Warriors finish them off. It was definitely a soft rebuild, OG, Siakam and Vanvleet were always their young core.
My point is that, any time you lose 3 of your top players without getting anything back, and still maintain competitiveness is very rare. The fact they didn't really drop that much is a feather in the GM's cap.
It's a retool, not a rebuild. Big difference. The Raps already had there core young guys after DD/Lowry/Kawhi were on their way out
It’s not a deep teardown/rebuild, they’re doing it the way anti-tankers advocate: stay competitive and wait for your moment to strike. It worked once: they had a competitive team, then boom: Marc Gasol/Kawhi for Demar/Valancunius, plus some good luck —-> NBA Champions! That’s more rings than all of the "deep rebuild, tank, TrustProcess(tm), ping-pong balls, high-draft picks" teams have in total this century!
Really? That’s almost like saying the Rockets rebuilt fast after the 15-16 season. Raptors had 1 down year, that’s it they have been pretty good for almost a decade
Absolutely! And when you look at their core who kept them competitive after the Championship: VanVleet: undrafted Siakam: 27th pick OG: 23 rd pick No high draft picks, no ping-pong ball. Then they have a down year, because they have to play on the other end of the continent, get a #4 pick and nail it. That’s top level management work!
they have one of the best offseason training organizations in the NBA. They don't take off in the offseason. Rockets pack there **** and go on vacation and comeback looking rusty as hell in the summer-league. In practice they do long lines of free-throw shots with old heads hyping them up. It looks like a waste of time. We went to a Ganon Baker practice and he would get pissed if were just waiting like in a Luby's line. You have to maximize this precious practice time. Look at Wiggins for example, GSW fixed him up.
