The mud has settled and in case you have been anticipating any late motion that might make this low season much less apathetic, you’ll have to accept Svi Mykhailiuk. Because it stands proper now, and there’s no cause to imagine it’ll stand every other manner, the Raptors are headed into one other bridge 12 months. It’s the second bridge 12 months in a row and there’s a excessive probability that it’ll lengthen to a 3rd as a result of the roster this season isn’t taking us wherever that may be known as a vacation spot.
Scottie Barnes has been the marquee signing of the summer season, and forgive this observer in the event that they’re not terribly enthusiastic about pegging hopes on 19-year outdated rookies, even when they agree with the philosophy behind the choice (extra on that later). He has the potential to be good however proper now he’s only a lanky athlete who can’t shoot. Possibly he’ll flip into Giannis. Possibly he’ll flip into Chris Jefferies. I’ve no situation with the decide for the reason that draft is finally a crapshoot and very similar to as in 2004, the Raptors decide was one spot out of potential elite expertise. So Masai Ujiri picked the upper ceiling disregarding the ground, which he has performed typically sufficient that one shouldn’t be stunned.
The thematic parts of the earlier two seasons will stay a lot the identical once more with the Raptors enjoying off their defensive strengths. The pure development of Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby peppered with Malachi Flynn’s on-ball protection, Fred VanVleet sticky fingers and the size provided by Barnes and the likes of Yuta Watanabe make the Raptors, on the very least, a workforce you bought to look at your passing towards. That is not at all a defensive juggernaut, removed from it as we noticed final 12 months when size mattered little in case you’re falling for each faux and giving up offensive rebounds.
It’s in strengthening the inside the place the Raptors can yield the best dividends. The desk stakes for subsequent season should be Khem Birch and Treasured Achiuwa supplying the requisite paint presence, each towards incoming drives and on the glass. The Raptors have been useless final in rebounding price final season and if that development continues, it issues little what else is happening on the court docket. I don’t imagine rebounding-by-committee has ever labored, so I take a look at our large males being our Achilles’ heel, and no, that’s not the scars of Aron Baynes speaking.
The contract extensions to Khem Birch and Gary Trent Jr. have been each cheap, and it’s not just like the Raptors had many choices to select from. With no large title free brokers accessible (not that they have been coming to Toronto anyway), this low season was at all times going to be an incremental enchancment reasonably than a leap ahead. The one choices to shoot from the hip have been Ben Simmons and thank God we handed on that. The Wiseman commerce rumours have been all horrible since in every configuration of that deal the Raptors have been giving up the very best participant within the commerce. So what’s a GM to do however to stay to his weapons and double down?
In his press convention, Masai Ujiri principally outlined his complete technique:
We’re going to develop gamers and we’re going to construct on that. I’m saying it once more that we’re going to proceed to develop these gamers and we’re going to discover a technique to a technique to win a championship right here, primarily based on the event of our gamers. No matter comes from that, generally trades, generally you purchase by free company, we’re simply not going to cry that gamers should not coming right here. That’s not what we’re about. I feel we’ve gone previous that.
As soon as you’re taking this viewpoint into consideration and mix it with the truth that the Raptors would not have any Tier 1 gamers or any gamers that undertaking out to be such, and {that a} Tier 1 participant is just about required to compete for the aforementioned championship, then the Barnes picks is smart. Pascal Siakam’s ceiling is an excellent NBA participant, OG Anunoby’s stays to be seen however I’d think about it’s round Siakam’s or maybe somewhat greater, which implies the Raptors have to put riskier bets which is strictly what Barnes is when in comparison with Jalen Suggs. ESPN, of their completely rubbish energy rankings which isn’t even value linking to, gave the Raptors a D for his or her low season for taking this method.
In his press convention I bought the impression that Ujiri was taking an “us towards the world” method when speaking about not crying about how gamers not wanting to come back right here, very similar to he did with F-Brooklyn. My guess (and that is solely hypothesis) is that the free brokers or commerce targets he had in thoughts have been lukewarm about coming to Toronto, which could’ve taken Ujiri by some shock given the franchise’s latest success, therefore the tribal take.
Ujiri deserves our full assist on this rebuild regardless of his flubs and an low season that could possibly be questioned. Nevertheless, I sense a tinge of blind religion in lots of followers that jogs my memory of the way in which Bryan Colangelo was seen as infallible by many. I’m not suggesting the 2 are remotely related in method, character or philosophy, and that is extra a touch upon the followers reasonably than administration. A wholesome critique of the franchise is at all times so as and by no means ought to we’ve got blind religion in anybody. Having mentioned that, the way in which the present roster is constructed doesn’t compromise the Raptors flexibility as all their contracts are cheap, their future draft picks intact, so kudos to Ujiri for retaining flexibility throughout this step ahead.
The issue with evaluating the Raptors proper now’s that there aren’t any clear targets set by the workforce and even by the followers for which to measure efficiency towards. Vegas has them at 35 wins, some followers have them at 58 whereas others have them within the lottery. I can’t recall a summer season with such excessive variance heading into the season, and a part of it’s as a result of a core tenet in Kyle Lowry isn’t any extra. He has left a scoring, defensive, management and playmaking void which might solely be stuffed by committee. There are too many open inquiries to make predictions:
Can Fred VanVleet take the helm as lead playmaker?
Can OG Anunoby take a big offensive step ahead?
Can Gary Trent Jr. develop into a formidable scorer?
Can Pascal Siakam enhance his clutch scoring and three-point taking pictures?
Will Khem Birch and Treasured Achiuwa maintain defensively?
Can a wholly unproven bench unit be a internet optimistic?
Can Scottie Barnes have an effect or is he a pair years away?
Will the “size and energy” technique work or backfire towards nimble offenses?
These aren’t simply peripheral questions that may be discounted when making an attempt to research what the Raptors can obtain this season, however core ones that dictate it.
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Offseason Makes Raptors Predictions Tough originated on Raptors Republic.
