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

[torsport]

I'm wondering if the board feels that a star added to the existing core would be the difference to making this team a title contender.

There've been a number of all-star caliber players rumored to be on the block, or soon to be on the block. Would their straight addition without giving up our young talent and picks be the difference? If so who?

[Raps in 4]

No

[Duffman100]

Finals? We talking about finals?

Let's talk if one of those guys can get us to the first round.

[Mr Funk]

None of these guys obviously fit the rebuilding timeline and the roster is nowhere near complete in terms of competing etc. If anything it will eventually be Scottie or another young star we trade for or sign by getting super lucky in free agency, ie Murray, Shai et al.

[The Duke]

Nope

[PhilBlackson]

We'd need two of them lol.

[Scase]

My guy, prime Lebron probably couldnt lift this team to the finals lol.

[Coco Costanza]

None of these guys are good enough on their own. If Durant couldn't win the Suns or Nets, he's not winning with the Raptors.

[Tor_Raps]

It took Kawhi's best season with a STACKED supporting cast that won 59 games the year before for us to win a championship.

None of those players you listed are close to what Kawhi was and this team finished bottom 6 in the nba.

So with that said, what do you think? Lol

[DreamTeam09]

Jaylen brown would be amazing here, we would need another 5 & another guard but I'd like to see that.

[CPT]

lol. lmao even.

Some of those guys couldn't get us to the playoffs, let alone the finals.

Different question if we still had the FVV, OG, Pascal core. Even then I doubt it.

This might be a bottom 5-10 situation in the league. A washed up star isn't going to change that.

[Ell Curry]

To take the question seriously, our best lineup with one new player looks like this:

Quickley-STAR-Barrett-Barnes-Poeltl

so you need a dynamic wing who can shoot the ball. The guys on your list who fit that are Paul George and Jaylen Brown.

I'm assuming Brown is in the deal to make the money work, probably with Boucher and obviously the picks, so the bench is Olynyk, Dick, Agbaji and probably you keep Trent and use the MLE to sign an athletic frontcourt guy of some kind, so let's say Jalen Smith.

Are we a finals contender with either one, even if George is fully healthy? I don't think so. Maybe a Final 8 team, particularly in the East. But that's it. We could be Orlando/Cleveland good, but we'd also be down like 4 first rounders.

I think the better question is, if Paul George decided he wants to come here for 212/4 years, do you do it for his age 35-38 seasons? The picks are kept, so you could try to do Barrett + picks or Poeltl + picks for an upgrade on their positions later, or just trade for someone and try to sneak under the 2nd apron if MLSE will pay. (or even Quickley + picks for a star PG, though I like the idea of him on a good team as a 3rd or 4th scorer and your smallest defender in the starting lineup if Scottie can keep developing as a scorer who demands attention and really open up opportunities for him to playmake.

In terms of non-aging stars, I do think Anthony Edwards would get us close because we could try to move Barrett for a better defender or maybe a solid bench type and an Okoro type 5th starter guy who defends and you hope starts hitting 3s. We probably just need to try to find an 90% as good option like a Booker by tanking next year and getting the pick right (it's mostly SGs in the top 10) and then hope Barrett, Quickley and Barnes improve a ton, even though you're probably still moving Barrett down the line unless you get a great defender at that SG spot, or Barrett becomes a top 3 6th man option which could work nicely, and we find a wing 3+D guy with another first rounder.

I think this thread makes some sense since it highlights how we're in real trouble if don't tank and give up next year's pick, unless we come out of this one with a star, which seems less likely due to the draft being weak. Also shows the NBA needs to change the lottery/tank. Right now, we're better off with Barnes missing 30+ games with an injury that doesn't affect him long-term, and that's dumb. And the Poeltl trade was dumb as hell. You can't move a pick without lottery protections when you're not a championship contender. And we weren't when we made the deal.

[Senbonzakura]

Maybe in 2K

[ArthurVandelay]

No.

If you want to build a team capable of sustainable success (multiple deep playoff runs), fans need to be patient and accept it takes time to develop young players into contributors or trade chips.

Any attempt at a quick fix will only lead to a faster need to rebuild and/or longer losing.

[refshateRaps]

We blew up the potential championship supporting cast

Stop talking about finals with this core for a few years. We'll be lucky to see the play-in no matter who we add.

[DG88]

I just entered this thread to see the responses lol

[Indeed]

Not even Siakam can make them over .500, meaning you will need generation talent.
However, if you have a generation talent, you need the current roster?

[Rapsfan07]

None of these guys at the respective stages of their careers are good enough to single-handedly carry us to the Finals. Even Kawhi, who played some of the best postseason basketball of all time needed Lowry, Ibaka, Gasol, Green, Siakam and bench of Norm and FVV to pull it off. If you're counting, that's 1 DPOY, 4 All-Star type guys and 3 starting quality players.

Right now we have 1 All-Star and a bunch of question marks.

[Shakril]

None, but not because the core isnt good enough, but none of them listed can achieve what you want them to do.

[mtcan]

Kawhi Leonard.