Toronto Raptors Media Availability | NBA Trade Deadline

Toronto Raptors Media Availability | NBA Trade Deadline

Was that extra food out there for you today or normal food set up Getties I I saw the patties out there I haven’t seen I’ve never seen the patties out there before what is that it looks like a craft beer yeah um so I guess about when you decided that be active going back to early December um did you kind of are you sort

Of where you thought you based on mov it’s a good question I think I’d characterize you know this trade deadline um you know we did our heavy lifting about a month ago and so I I feel like this trade deadline we cleaned up a lot of things and we you know

Addressed some of the things we talked about after the OG and Pascal trades um you know we’re able to turn one of the picks into a good young player in oai you know it’s kind of a steady in presidence in Kelly uh financially we were able to you know gain some more

Flexibility this summer with the dentist trade um but yeah I think the heavy lifting was done this you know December January and this kind of like deadline continued on kind of that path that makes sense great speculation about Bruce’s future as much interest as we were like to

Believe and why we able to up yeah I think that’s it’s fair um had we gotten the offers we wanted for Bruce you know if kind of hit our threshold we would have done something at the same time I think Bruce is 27 he has a really interesting contract you know he

Provides a professionalism and toughness I think we’re all seeing on the court so we value that um and there’s options with Bruce this summer I also think if you look around the league today there weren’t a ton of major moves and so I think that you know maybe some

Larger macro elements in the NBA are contributing to um you know teams going forward and making big deals um but no we’re we’re we’re happy with Bruce we’re you know we’re happy to continue on with him you mentioned getting the heavy lifting done early what I guess was was the thinking

Behind making those moves as early as you guys did as opposed to taking it up closer to the deadline for Pascal and OG and in the end was it beneficial I guess to have this time the last few weeks to gauge the market some of the other guys after doing the heavy lifting

Early yeah so a couple parts there I think you know to be honest the the start of the Season didn’t kind of you know get off how we wanted to and so I think we were you know in some ways forced to address you know th those two

Situations I also think the value for those players you know a lot of the conversations we had around those two players were the teams wanted to acquire them as early as possible so they had a longer you know runway for the rest of the season um so I think a couple of

Factors contributed to those deals happening early um I think it lessened the load right of you know imagine trying to do all those deals this week that wasn’t necessarily the intention of it but it did give us a stretch you know we’ve had some injuries and whatnot but at least we’ve had a

Little bit of time or more time than normal you know had we done those deals of the trade deadline we’d be looking at you know 25 to 30 games with that group whereas now we’re going to have you know hopefully 45 to 50 looking at that young

Group so uh doing it doing it early I think was advantageous for us was advantageous for the teams that have acquired them um and allows to approach this deadline understanding who the core of this team is this is the third straight year you acquired appending free agent if I’m wrong with you know

Somewhat of an intention of keeping them around for a bit uh obviously that comes with bird rights um it’s not something you see a ton around the league so why why are you guys why do you guys like us well I think you know you could probably

Even date back to the surge trade right I mean I think it allows you to you know bring that person inh house get a feel for them um understand how they fit with your culture how they fit basketball-wise um and then make that decision in the summer from a bit more

Of an informed um point of view so I think that’s just generally the the thinking behind it um I think I guess specifically you’re asking with respect to Kelly yeah so I think Kelly listen we everyone in here has followed him for a long time we’ve been big fans of Kelly

Um I think the way we view him specifically is you he’s kind of like a steady hand and I think we seen it with the bench units um especially with the bigs he’s going to provide a skill set a veteran presence a voice um that you

Know we think that that unit could you know use some help with and so we’re excited to have Kelly the conversations have been great I think he really wants to be here um you know he’s excited for this opportunity I think from a contract perspective you know he is extension

Eligible right now so it’s a little different than some of the other players so you can have those conversations and you know have an understanding of what he’s looking for how you you think the play a how did you it’s probably a bit too much CBA

Minutia but I think you had a number of large factors kind of contributing to a restricted market so you had a lot of the contending teams um just didn’t have a ton of assets so the teams that you normally would be buyers just were kind of capped out or you know didn’t have

The draft picks um I think everyone is a little unsure about the p Financial um penalties under the new system um and so I think that contributed to you know the sellers maybe being less inclined to take on money um that they otherwise would have been and then the typical

Buyers just not kind of having the ammo to come out and and get guys you mentioned that now you guys have PR good idea core that you’re building around is Gary part of that group I mean he’s in that same age back or a similar age back

With those guys of course it’s going to be free agent where do you kind of see him in his future with this team yeah so I think on the surface Gary’s 25 years old and a 40% three-point shooter right so you’d start there um I think he

Probably would even admit he didn’t get off to the as good of a start as he would have wanted to but he’s kind of settled in now and we’re seeing it so I think it’s a little TBD on Gary but I think we’re watching him grow with this

Group we’re watching him um you know pick and choose his spots offensively um I think you’re seeing him be a bit more aggressive defensively with we’ve seen over the years um so I think it’s a it’s a it’s a great stretch for him and it’s a great stretch for us to to evaluate

Him into wave Spencer for whatever reason expect up yeah definitely I mean part of the the Spencer uh decision making was just age we want to play young guys we want to take looks at you know we’ve seen some Scotty at point guard we’ll you know hopefully see more

There but it also does free up two roster spots for us to bring in some guys take shots on um you know some free agents scour the G League overseas so we’ll definitely use those two roster spots you mentioned want to go after one of the guys you had it was 3y

Old Kelly and you had there are other older players on the steam why didn’t you guys go all young I think we were trying to find the right mix you know we’ve even in personal conversations with a lot of teams in our similar position you um the young guys need

Leadership right and I think we we lost a bit of that in veteran presence when we made earlier deals and so you’re trying to find that right chemistry of who can kind of guide these players you know it’s tough for us to lose Thad you know I think everybody’s seen how

Important he was and you know he had to be included in that deal so are we simultaneously bringing in young players to develop and grow but also creating an environment around them where they’re learning professional habits um they’re being held accountable they’re understanding how to play basketball the

NBA level learning how to win um so that’s the mix that we’re always trying to to to shoot for in two Canadians in RJ and Kelly in is their nationality bringing two homeown guys play a role is it just strictly basketball yeah I mean it starts with the basketball piece um I

Think you know we’re biased and we’ve watched them grow up more so maybe we we’re more familiar with their game right if there’s ever I always tell people if there’s ever a young Canadian kid up like it’s our job to know them in and out and make sure that you know we

Have a good feel on them um and so from both of those point of views we love them as players first um and it’s great that they are Canadian and they want to be here and so I think that’d be the other piece which is having players that

Want to play here um you know goes a long way on on many levels was obviously highly touted coming off fin part of the Mitchell TR as well what do you guys see sort of guy pursue yeah hardworking High character two-way player you know kind of fits the bill of of guys we’ve

Pursued over the years um you know fouryear player at Kanas so you got you got to watch his development I think he ended his run is maybe most outstanding player of the tournament that year um you know has started at times in Utah so we feel like we’re getting a young

Player with a lot of upside hard worker High character and you know so we’ll bet on those the team that dark got obviously when he was hired is quite darko’s great and I think you know part of you know part of the interview process you go through all those

Scenarios right we know the team that you know we were going to put forth but we also knew the the potential um changes that could happen so that you know we’re very upfront we’re communicative he’s been part of a lot of different NBA franchises so I don’t

Think this feels entirely new to him um but a lot of it’s just you know dayto day or even hour hourly conversations about the direction of the team and so it’s been you know been something we’ve been discussing internally um with him for a while now um and especially after

The the two bit the two major moves before he kind of saw this was the direction that everything was going a couple minutes ago about veterans teaching how to be how to be pros and building culture of winning you hav’t had a lot of win and 13 does

Which all right um I think oai um he will develop in a competitive environment I think he’ll develop with guys his age group so I think that is you know one of our our big focuses is getting guys in that sort of 2228 kind of age group um I think Kelly helps

Solidify that as a presence Off the Bench we’ve seen that you know especially in the front Court Off the Bench that we’ve had some you know trouble rebounding or or whatever you may say um so yeah I think it’s it’s solidifies in the sense that it’s we’re

Going to keep competing um and you know there’ll be a structure in place that you know will allow us to be competitive in all the games sort of on that note Bobby the uh you don’t you had a player in Scotty who’s on Allstar now and clearly is on

The rise and so you know how much focus is on making sure he’s surrounded with players that he can go and compete with versus you know how did you get a player like Scotty right like top so how do you kind of balance building a team that remains sort of comp but

Still yeah I think that’s just the process that we’re all probably you know going through now and so how long um how long do you give it um we made some moves now the summer you know this is a you know probably a multi-year process

And so I think from from the point of view of building around Scotty you want young players in his age group that I think culturally socially you know energy wise I think you want to put skill sets around him and I think we’ll be interested to see a Kelly skill set I

Don’t know if he’s had a player like Kelly to play with um and then you want guys who just like you know want to be here want to run I think oi’s energy will will invigorate Scotty um so you’re trying to hit on all those points sort

Of age culture social skill set and you know that’s what we’ll continue to do and I guess with the the pi that’s to San Antonio is there any emphasis on you know pretty close to maybe keeping it this year or I guess the word you know

How much how important is for you for you to get expect you this year or next I think we’re going to prioritize seeing this group play if it ends up that we’re in the top six sure if we’re out of the top six but I don’t think that

Especially the way that the new NBA rules are to try and game that doesn’t make a ton of sense right at the end of the day it’s going to be the lottery balls um uh so I don’t think there’s a ton of of let’s do this or that but I

Think the big priority for us is playing that young group together getting Grady in there with that group um seeing how they fit together because that will give us a lot more information about how to build the team what moves to make this summer as opposed to what’s

Going to happen over the next you know 20 25 games you guys are talk reild um you don’t see a ton of teams in that sort of position giving out first round you guys had a couple but why did you feel comfortable giving up an asset like that a future asset in

Trade I think we said you know we had three maybe even four first round picks if you include the Detroit pick and so to a lot of the sort of other things we talking about it’s hard to bring in that many kids into an environment grow them

You know in the right way um I think you’re seeing it with Grady which is there’s a ton of resources staff um programs in place but you know there’s a lot that you need to do to raise them and so I think you know the thought of

Three or four of them felt like hey if we can cash in one now for someone like oai who’s still young but early in his career um then you kind of like you know solidify one of those and so I I don’t think we view it as using a pick um that

We otherwise would have wanted in the draft we kind of used it to get the type of player we would want to have gotten in the draft F on that that to say in this drafton don’t want too many that I think the the value with the

Picks you know so if we had the Indie pick we potentially have our own but that’s going to San Antonio the 31 yeah so there’s different tiers right and so you could you know come up with all this scenarios to use two picks on this

Player to use one pick on this player to use all three picks on on somebody and so um yeah I guess that’s the game we’re we’re playing and so we decided ultimately that the one pick for um oai and Kelly made sense I think Chris is the longest

Standing Raptor now so you know we have good relationship with Chris we have good communication I think he’s obviously going through a tough time but he’s been professional he’s been um good energy you know we talk to him often so uh you know I think we traded eight

Players so far and so you know sounds like some people would rather trade 15 but you know we got a lot of work done and so there’s there’s there’s more moves to be done but with Chris um you know I’m sure he’ll bounce back like he

Always does he didn’t get to this place in the NBA if he wasn’t resilient um and it seems like every time he’s out he’s back in but you know we’re not uh we’re not too concerned with Chris with the denst trade you guys created some flexibility summer is organization that

Brings in top care for agents very often um how do you see what do you see as the value ofil it’s not necessarily to obviously to use cap space I think you can I think the Bruce contract is another one where you can kind of open up a ton if you

Want um so more of just the optionality of going into this summer with reduced committed um and so you you can you just have more options available to you so I don’t think there was anything specifically in mind like Hey we’re doing this we’re doing that um as

Opposed to let’s you know see what our books look like with the you know 13 million or so off the off the books so I said last summer how didn’t really enjoy watching a year ago what’s like to watch the team play this year obviously a winning season just from a

Frint has that shifted at all yeah I think where we are now yeah it’s young exciting I think we’re all watching new players so there’s probably just you know different parts of your brain going off as you watch quickly come off a pick and roll or you watch RJ you know slash

Through the lane or you watch you know Scotty interact with them and so um you know watching Jordan Noir come and have those games so I think it’s more fun there’s a different energy around the team um so I think we’re enjoying you know this part of the process with a

Younger team as they grow and develop thanks very much everyone thanks real what’s up there’s always ones right no I don’t know there wasn’t that much there wasn’t that much movement today was there who was the who was the best player who was the best player to Doddy buddy Buon oh

Going thanks everyone okay guys nothing the

A member of the Raptors management team will speak following the NBA Trade Deadline.#Raptors #TorontoRaptors