It is tough to predict a huge leap from last year, given the Raptors might be relying on three or four first- or second-year players to provide rotation minutes, no incoming lottery picks and a one-time All-Star, Barnes, on the roster.
by EarthWarping
21 Comments
>What they really need, though, are big leaps forward, not a little shuffle. That is where Barnes and Quickley come in.
>That is fine. These are the bets teams have to make at this stage of development. Without actively trying for another 25-win (or worse!) season, playing in a conference where five teams seem to be doing just that, Ujiri is betting on either a) Barnes and Quickley outperforming those deals or b) a little lottery luck. Both would be preferable.
>“It is going to take time,” Ujiri said. “But we feel this commitment is the foundation of having these guys really start to set that tone and feel that responsibility, too. There’s a sense of accountability here. They have to feel that. I think these two guys have that head on their shoulders that they’ll do this.”
>That type of team doesn’t scream immediate improvement, hence Ujiri’s resilience to provide a timeline for contention.
>However, you want your foundational players to want to start winning ASAP, as well as having obvious room for growth: Barnes as a shooter and Quickley as a playmaker.
I genuinely think there’s a scenario where this team wins 25-35 games next year but shows a huge improvement while actually giving us an entertaining season. We might see some significant development minutes going to Gradey, Ochai, Mogbo, Jakobe, Shead, while hopefully starting to get a better sense of where this franchise is going.
A lot of people made fun of Dwayne Casey’s “pound the rock” thing. But it did make sense – he really helped build this program and get players to buy in into what became a championship organization. Hopefully Darko can bring some of that back.
I don’t really care how many games this team wins, I don’t expect much, but I just hope they play better defensively. It genuinely felt like some games last season, no one knew how to play defense and we just bled points. You compare that to the last 10~ seasons and it’s night and day.
I think Scottie’s gonna take another leap for 23+/8/8, he’s gonna have the ball in his hands a ton this year
I think Dick will take a leap and Ja’Kobe will give a surprising boost to the bench unit. Just my predicktions
Correct
If anything at least this team will be fun. Last year when Pascal and OG were on the team there was just a cloud looming over everything and a lot of uncertainty. At the end of the season RJ and IQ had time off and Scottie + Jak were hurt so that was no fun. But that small window where BBQ was in full effect was really enjoyable. With even more of a youth movement and exciting rookies across the roster the basketball should be at a minimum more entertaining and easier to buy into.
25 wins is deceptive since a lot of those losses came with 4/5th of the starters hurt or taking time off for grieving family deaths.
For me, we get to .500 or close if we are healthy and if the back of the bench exceeds expectations. I don’t think it’s that unrealistic. Kelly will be solid. Brown will as well as long as we have him. Davion and Ochai will at the very least give good defense. If both of them shoot better than last year (especially Ochai), the bench doesn’t look like it will kill is the way it did when we had to play McDaniels at the end of the year.
Capture the Flagg season. As good as Barnes is I dont see him as a #1 on a championship team because there’s only 5 or 6 in the nba at a given time. So in a deep draft with a possible transcendent player in it I say tank for 1 year and hope to get lucky
Last year was a write off for so many reasons, it’s hard to compare the 2 seasons given how many changes / issues we had.
I’m not expecting big things from the team as a whole since we have an entire new talent coming into the league on the bench and the development and production is going not going to be linear … but what I’m expecting from our top 3 is more consistency and build on what they showed last year since they are all young and developing still.
Eric bringing the pessimism, as usual
If they are healthy they should be better.
Barnes needs to keep improving for this thing to work.
Has anyone taken a look at the East? After the top 7 from last year there isn’t a team in there I would bet on including this one, which is to say this team will likely be in the play-in by default and if they’re only slightly better/more cohesive then who knows.
I think Masai will see what this team is and by Christmas we will either be dumping vets, playing young guys and sitting Barnes, RJ, etc. so we get a nice pick in the upcoming draft or they’re decent and we go get another player and try to compete.
i’ll be happy if we win 1 game
I love how everyone is talking about how we would be a 0.500 team if everything goes right.
Unfortunately, you can’t turn off injuries like 2K.
Gradey was more NBA ready than all are new rookies, and even he struggled a lot until the last few months. 95% of rookies are net negatives.
I would be pleasantly surprised if this team makes it to playoffs.
Most of the rotation although young have enough nba minutes under their belt to be expected to perform. The only rookie/Soph to be guaranteed significant rotation time is Gradey.
The quality of the teams win record will be based on the players that play the most, using spot minutes from jakobe, shead, mogbo to hedge against a wins jump is inaccurate in my opinion. If they underperform, it will be due to the young vets, not some players who may not even be nba the entire year
So its either we the youth movement goes as expected and struggles in which case you get a good position on next years draft or we surprise everyone and have that massive leap. As a fan I want to see some promising things like improvement and signs we are in the right track
Can we stop using the all star game as an argument for anything positive or negative. Like the all star game has been nothing more than a popularity contest for years. Numerous bums in the last five years have made it strictly because people like them, not because they have all star talent. All star weekend is a joke in 2024. Hell even in 2018
I just want the team to compete and show that there’s potential for something positive going forward. To be realistic though, people need to kind of chill a bit thinking the rookies will definitely play a big role. Seeing comments like Shead will clamp on defence and JaKobe will help on offense…. Folks this is not college, this is the big time where everyone is bigger faster stronger. Not being a doomer but just need to check expectations a bit
The big question is about RJ.
There were glimpses last year that he might actually be the most talented offensive player in this team. That He’s finally figuring it out, and the whole league is sleeping on him.
He might be the young high lottery pick that the league is least talking about. He’s still only 24.
If he’s a meh player we know what the rest of the team is.