For NBA fans

[Greendaybum5]

can't wait for midnight!

[Spencer 555]

Canada day

[Lex]

Good week for Oklahoma. We passed medical marijuana and resigned Paul George. Now if only Melo could disappear somehow.

[KBHoleN1]

LeBron to Lakers, 4 year deal. I don't think he makes it to the Finals with the Lakers. I think this season was peak LeBron, but it might be about the last time he could drag a team to the Finals in the East. He certainly can't drag a team to the Finals in the West, and I don't think the Lakers get it together fast enough to utilize peak LeBron and overcome the Warriors and Rockets in the same year. Maybe I'm way off, but I think the West is going to eat LeBron alive come playoffs.

EDIT: And by LeBron, I don't mean him specifically, I mean the team he's on. LeBron hero ball works in the East playoffs, but he can't do that in the West. Maybe if the Lakers swing Kawhi right now, the Lakers could do some damage this year, but I don't think LeBron's window for another championship is very large. He'll be 34 this year. I think he's starting to lose his legs, as he's been pushing his shots closer and closer to the basket as the playoffs wear on. I just don't think this is going to work out like Lakers fans think it will.

[Spencer 555]

I'm hopeful you're right KB. As much as I'd like to see someone compete with the warriors moving forward, I don't expect the lake show to be that emergent team. I guess we'll see though, it certainly doesn't seem like there is any hope for this year unless the Celtics and Sixers get their shit together.

[Greendaybum5]

Depressing offseason for the sixers thus far besides Reddick. Wish Kawhi would've been willing to come here.

[KBHoleN1]

Spurs have agree to trade Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to Toronto for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round pick, league sources tell ESPN. Trade call with league office is starting shortly.

I don't dig deeply into trade values and stuff, and know very little about NBA player values. I'm curious what Spencer thinks about this. Are you excited to get Kawhi? Seems like a good deal getting Danny and not having to give up OG. Defense is going to be legit. How long do you think Kawhi plans to stay in Toronto?

[Spencer 555]

Lots to digest here.

Raptors direction and goals:

Prior to this trade, the raptors had a clear goal in mind: reach the nba finals. They've been trying to get over the hump for several years now with the same core to no avail, and I think even with LeBron leaving the conference, that core was not likely going to beat the Sixers or Celtics unless everything went right.

So that being said, I think this trade really took that into consideration. Masai handed Derozan a 5 year contract to get things done with Lowry and Ibaka, and he decided after year 2 of this contract that they weren't going to get it done.

Frankly, I completely agree with him.

I think in a worst case scenario, Masai just traded the bloated contract of a player he evaluated as not being good enough to reach "the goal", for 1 last chance at glory. By extension, if Kawhi walks, we speed up the rebuilding process (this is a good thing).

In the coming years, I think, the raptors will have some excellent young players to pass the torch too (wright, siakam, og, vanvleet), a ton of cap space and financial flexibility and some aging assets become much more valuable on the trade market in case of a salary dump (think Lowry for a couple overpaid scrub type deals). If we just kept paddling our boat during this 5 year window, I think we would probably realise soon that we are being passed by younger teams while also losing those young assets to free agency and not maximizing the trade value of our aging role players.

The fact that masai was able to maximize the value of this specific deal by also getting Danny Green (solid role player) instead of say Patty Mills in order to balance the money. The fact that he maximized the value of the deal by trading our "third center" (behind Valanciunas and Ibaka) Jakob Peoltl instead of our young SF/PFs OG Anunoby or Pascal Siakam.. I think it really shows how much consideration was put into this deal. If not Danny Green and Jakob, the deal just isn't "perfect" in terms of maximizing our chances THIS year and by extension... just wouldn't have made sense to me for the raptors.

For the spurs, I think they will be happy that they were able to get a decent pretty decent package for their disgruntled star who was set to leave at the end of the season. I think the goal in spurs land is to extend their playoff run another couple years while rebuilding and I think acquiring an all star, a promising potential starting centre and a first round pick accomplishes that goal.

Considering all of this, I think its a win win deal on paper even.

Potential disaster scenario:

Demar Derozan is essentially the GOAT in toronto. He pretty much single handedly built the culture of this team.

Hard work and dedication: He was a gym rat, and lead by example. Through hard work and perseverance, he improved his game every single year that he was with our team and showed all of our young players how to act.

Loyalty and Comeraderie: The first all star to rep Toronto as a viable destination in the NBA. He was loyal to a fault, and always the good guy in the locker room. Over the course of 9 years on the team, Demar (along with Lowry and Amir Johnson) really kept the drama in Toronto to a minimum. You never heard of any hostility or bullshit between players on our team and you never heard of guys going out to clubs... it was very team/family first.

Backstabbing Demar and bringing in Kawhi... a player who comes with some baggage and is becoming more known as a guy who doesn't play well with others. Lowry has a very volatile personality and we just fucked over his best friend. I think there may be some real chemistry issues with this team despite the raised ceiling and some real potential for toxicity both in the short term and long term. The feel good, underdog culture is almost assuredly dead.

[Greendaybum5]

Maybe Raptors flip Kawhi to Philly for future assets....praying lol

[Spencer 555]

That would be insanity lol