Is there any potentially available aged star that would catapult the Raps to Finals contention?

[UnRealGM]

perhaps if you mean adding that star gives us a power play with an extra man 6 vs 5 all season and playoffs. even then, its not a sure thing..

[NeoDragonKnight]

The Raps don't have the role players to support a ready now star. There aren't consistent players/vets that you can count on to do their job night in night out. Every Raptors Playoff era was kick started by an influx of multiple veterans to stabilize the roster. VCs era was Oak, AD, Curry, Mugsy, Dee Brown, and Willis. Bosh' era was Parker, Rasho, Garbo, TJ. We the North era illustrates this perfectly, Gay was a "Star" (albeit a fake star) but the era started not with adding him, but trading him for solid players to fill the roster, Salmons, Vasquez, Patterson, and Hayes. When the Raptors are ready for the next step, they will need those types of players to fill in the Roster, and then you look at adding a ready now star.

[Kingsway_fan]

The Raps don't have the role players to support a ready now star. There aren't consistent players/vets that you can count on to do their job night in night out. Every Raptors Playoff era was kick started by an influx of multiple veterans to stabilize the roster. VCs era was Oak, AD, Curry, Mugsy, Dee Brown, and Willis. Bosh' era was Parker, Rasho, Garbo, TJ. We the North era illustrates this perfectly, Gay was a "Star" (albeit a fake star) but the era started not with adding him, but trading him for solid players to fill the roster, Salmons, Vasquez, Patterson, and Hayes. When the Raptors are ready for the next step, they will need those types of players to fill in the Roster, and then you look at adding a ready now star.

Scottie is a good player, well rounded, but I don't see him as a star that carries any team. He's a solid player but he will need stars or very good players around him.

In other words, even with IQ and Barrett and Poetle, this team is still lottery bound. Raps have no depth.

[TGM]

People really underestimate our team.

We have 4 really good building blocks in Scottie, Dick, RJ and IQ.

Few things to consider:

RJ played great once he was in our system.

IQ had to use this season to adjust to playing 6th man microwave scorer to starting PG. he seemed more comfortable as the season went on.

We played many parts of the season without depth at C and PG. those are the two most detrimental positions to be thin at. Jakob and Kelly tandem will make a huge difference.

Dick was horrible the first few months before finding his footing.

Now looking forward:

We have potential 3 picks this year to add to our core.

If we renounce Brown and Trent we have a decent amount of cap space or we can resign Trent and exercise Brown’s option giving us two more solid rotation pieces.

We will have our full MLE to add another quality role player. Maybe go after someone like Melton.

We will see further improvement from our young core that is yet to hit their prime.

People say we have depth issues, but if we bring back Trent, Brown and add a MLE player.

Our starting 5 is

IQ, RJ, Dick Barnes, Jakob.

Our bench is maybe Melton, Ochai, Trent, Brown, Kelly, Boucher and 3 rookies.

Most teams play on 8-9 men rotations. So i really don’t see why people think this team is so far off. If a star comes available, we could package picks and expiring contracts to add a veteran star.

Our coach is one piece that I do question.

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

We don't have an MVP candidate. So, we need that. We're the sixth worst team in a 30 team league, we don't even have a player who's going to get a single vote for that.

A good season next year has us maybe at +10 wins. So, 35ish wins. Contention's a gap we can't clear in a single season. Think 4-5 years.

[Clutch0z24]

Nah we need to start new..... Make right trades + draft right.....Need to go the route of playing the draft to add a star next to Barnes and go from there....We don't have the assets to trade for said superstar and we will never sign one in free agency....Options limited so draft is the way to go for us.

[vulture]

Yes with prime KD and prime Paul George.
These guys now absolutely not.

[agkagk]

Jimmy butler + a veteran back up point guard + a back up centre that can run the floor

=‘s legit contender


The league sucks right now

Either way

RJ Dick
quick monte morris
jimmy acbaji
barnes Kelly
Jakob Jaxson Hayes

Plus whoever we draft

That team could be the 4th or 5th seed in the east

[yellowknifer]

If we could get them in a vacuum without having to give up anything at all... maybe Lebron... Definitely not if we have to trade for them. And it would only happen if a bunch of guys took large steps forward in their game. Very unlikely.

[DreamTeam09]

If Bruce brown + Boucher + picks were to get us Jaylen Brown, I'd do that. I unno if it takes us to championship level next year, but I can get behind a

IQ
J.Brown
RJ
Barnes
Jakob

starting line-up

[hyper316]

We have the wrong coach to do that

[will]

If Bruce brown + Boucher + picks were to get us Jaylen Brown, I'd do that. I unno if it takes us to championship level next year, but I can get behind a

IQ
J.Brown
RJ
Barnes
Jakob

starting line-up

Can I do hard drugs with you too?

[Psubs]

Kawhi Leonard.

[720]

I don’t want to treadmill but if we could somehow get Paul George, it would be fun to see that level of a shot creator be on the Raptors. We’ve only really had that with Kawhi and Vince.

[xAIRNESSx]

We were the #1 seed, the year prior to acquiring Kawhi.

Bit of a different situation.

[DelAbbot]

I don’t want to treadmill but if we could somehow get Paul George, it would be fun to see that level of a shot creator be on the Raptors. We’ve only really had that with Kawhi and Vince.

That's a mediocre idea

[mrdressup]

No there aren't. When we got KL he was at the peak of his game and could carry a zombie team of guys afraid of the moment like what we had. All players that might possibly help are in their prime now, but none have that much impact any more. It's too wide open with the talent level now.

[LiSTWithLani]

No there aren't. When we got KL he was at the peak of his game and could carry a zombie team of guys afraid of the moment like what we had. All players that might possibly help are in their prime now, but none have that much impact any more. It's too wide open with the talent level now.

This hasn't been addressed in the comments yet, but the league's parity is quite incredible now.
I really think that the play-in has shaped the league for the better. now 4 more teams (two from each conference) are committed to a post-season run. This year, teams were competing for the spots to the play-in until extremely late in the season (80th game and beyond). The phenomenon has also had an affect on the top of the conferences, as teams were swapping positions late in the season and are all aiming to be top-6 and lock in the playoffs too.
With that being said, I do think we are closer to contending than people are giving credit for.

Quickley/ Barrett/ Dick/ Barnes/ Poeltl
Brown/ TrentJr/ Agbaji/ Nwora/ Olynyk
JFL/ Boucher

We can still add a three guys through the draft and have cap space or MLE, depending on how it plays out. I'd like to move Brown or play him at PG as our backup.
I'd love to go after Okongwu, Hartenstein, Zach Collins, Wendell Cj, Naz Reid, Kessler, Nance, etc. Guys that can fill in as starters, but are also possibly okay off of the bench. I'd trade our 21st pick for one of them, if we keep our top pick in the lottery.

Let's say we select Risacher and trade out of the second pick with Boucher for Nance.

Quickley/ Barrett/ Risacher/ Barnes/ Poeltl
Brown/ Dick/ Agbaji/ Olynyk/ Nance
JFL/ Nwora/ {TrentJr}

Or trade out of the pick and nab Trey Murphy III if we don't like anyone as much.

[DelAbbot]

Yes this guy

[dhackett1565]

When we still had Pascal and OG, this sort of question made sense. A swing for Dame or KD made sense.

Now we're building back up. Will be a couple of seasons before we have enough depth and our best players are good enough to have a big swing move put them over the top. Making a big swing move now will just have any older star aging out by the time the rest of the team is ready to make real progress in the playoffs.