Fairview4Life wrote:Scase wrote:Fairview4Life wrote:
They broke everything up after last year. They were actively shopping Pascal in the summer, for an obvious example. Trading for Yak didn't work and they pivoted. It's not like they decided in mid December that was the time to blow things up.
And according to Masai they didn't find any good packages for FVV, yet according to multiple other FO sources, they were never serious with their intent to trade him. So I see no reason to assume it wasn't the same deal with Siakam.
Ultimately, no one got moved until multiple months into the season, and the chips only seem to have fallen once it was extremely apparent this core was going nowhere.
Which other FO sources said the Raptors weren't serious about moving FVV last season? All of the reporting at the time was that the Raps were being offered packages like Grayson Allen and the Bucks 2029 pick. The Clippers weren't willing to give up Mann (which...that seems to be their kink, to be fair). The idea that the Raps weren't serious about moving him doesn't really make any sense. They were shopping him, they were offered trash and decided to roll the dice on Poeltl and keep him at a lower price. And then Udoka gets hired, Houston max's him out for a couple years and off he goes for nothing. Although I still think the wind was blowing in that direction anyway after they lost to a screaming child. I also don't know why you'd assume they weren't serious about being willing to trade Siakam last summer either. It was so serious that the team damaged their relationship with him. Again, though, the reporting ended up being that the Hawks didn't want to include like Kobe **** Bufkin along with Griffen or whoever in the deal. If you have to accept a **** offer in order to be serious about moving someone, I guess they weren't serious. But that's not really how I think about trade discussions.
They were naturally anonymous FO sources, it was a year ago, trying to find an article with a few lines is tricky. Take it or leave it, but it was reported on at the time.
The reason I don't trust that they were serious about Siakam, is because the same thing played out as Fred, they just jumped on it earlier and got a bad return, instead of him walking. The FO is notoriously wishy washy, and while no one reasonably expects them to be transparent, they are constantly throwing out headlines that are just marketing BS. Play in for what, the market is better in the summer, the same trades will be there in the off season, trades are the new FA, and so on. All to have things either be contradictory (play in), or fall flat on their face (FVV walking). So there is really zero reason to trust anything they say, multiple FO contacts months after the guy is off the team, have nothing to gain by saying he was never serious about trading him. But our FO has to convince the fans that they did everything they could etc.
And the hilarity of implying that Allen and a 2029 SRP is a bad return is a nice touch. The same Allen who has shot 40% from 3 for 5 years in a row, with this year topping out at 46%. Yeah, why would the worst 3p team in the NBA want that?
Don't accept bad offers? Like the Hawks who didn't want to give up prospects for a player who leaked that he wouldn't sign for another team? The same player who held ALL the leverage because they held him until he was a UFA?
They gambled, and lost FVV for nothing, serious talks or not, that's 100% on them. Siakam was able to dictate where he went because we gave him all the leverage, that's 100% on them.
No excuses. The championship goodwill is gone.
JB7 wrote:Scase wrote:JB7 wrote:
I agree with all of this. I think what it points to in the East is the path up the standings might be much easier than the path to a high draft pick. Really the only path to a high draft pick is similar to this year (sitting out BBQ for long stretches). They won't agree to that unless they have injuries, so I think Masai pursues the path upwards, and is ready to pivot (like this year) if injuries occur.
It goes both ways, if it's easy to rise because the east is weak, that means it's easy for weak teams to get wins against other weak teams.
Just means the likelihood of a lot more mid ATL/CHI type teams, it's kinda like fake parity. It looks like everyone has a shot at the playoffs, but only cause everyone is just as mediocre as the rest. Intentionally drop a few players etc. and it should be easy to fall out of that mediocre state. Add a couple and it's relatively easy to move above that mediocre state, the Knicks are a perfect example of the latter.
If we moved Jak for some prospects/picks, we would easily be bad enough to be in high lotto pick territory.
If the team is trying to tank though for a top pick, the goal is obvious to be one of the worst 4 teams in the league. But even with moving Yak, I still don't think they could touch Wiz, Pistons and Blazers, plus who knows who else throws their hand into tanking (like if the Suns traded both Booker and KD). These next two drafts (2025 & 2026) are at least going to be decent, so there will be teams doing crazy **** to tank. I don't know that a team with BBQ could lose that badly.
Blazers barring any injuries, will have a better record next year than this year. Pistons cannot afford to keep being bad, so I expect a big off season for them. And that leaves the wiz. Not a whole lot of competition at the bottom. The Suns have zero incentive to tank, they don't own any of their picks.
BBQ absolutely could be bad enough, as I said, remove Jak from the equation and replace him with a rookie or a Len quality centre and watch us fall to the bottom. We have no consistent and diverse scoring threats and our defence is awful, removing Jak makes it even worse. This team has zero depth, without Jak you have essentially 5 NBA quality players in BBQ, Gradey, and old man Olynyk. Trade or dont pick up BBs final year, S&T or let GTJ walk, pick up some bad contracts for picks/prospects, and tada you are a basement dweller.
