The front office basically traded back 13 spots to get Thad. He was a useful addition who helped for the stretch run (where we got out of the play-in and secured the 5-seed), but then wasn’t all that useful this past year. Supposedly his locker room impact was a big part of the addition. It sounded like that was a positive add down the stretch in 2022 (Scottie spoke highly of him), but with the issues in 2023, it sounds like he didn’t solve whatever locker room issues were there.
Was it a great move? No.
Was it the devastatingly terrible move that people paint it as? No.
The irony in the complaining about the move is that in order to complain about it you have to take as an assumption that the front office is excellent at their jobs. The complaint is, “you missed out on Walker Kessler and Andrew Nembhard”, but of course, 21 teams passed on Kessler and 30 teams passed on Nembhard. Of the 13 spots we moved down, 11 of those teams took worse prospects than Koloko.
Koloko was mocked anywhere from the early 20’s to the second round. He’s also absolutely a Masai-type pick (raw African player with a high ceiling), so there’s a solid chance that he was the pick with or without the trade. Unless our local MLSE janitor had access to the Raps’ big board, we will never know.
Without the trade, would the front office have snagged one of the 2/13 players who were better than the guy we picked? I don’t know, but the gnashing of teeth about that deal is just insane, at this point.
3 Comments
We never had to trade Dragic and give the spurs our 1st. We weren’t contenders that year. We could have just let his contract expire.
Mistakes have been made and now Masai’s job is “not as secure as it once was and he recognizes that.”
How is this still being talked about?
The Thad trade wasn’t a salary dump. [Sam Dekker had been waived at the start of the season, and the front office had left an open roster spot so we could stay under the tax.](https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/raptors-waived-sam-dekker-explaining-luxury-tax-implications/)
The front office basically traded back 13 spots to get Thad. He was a useful addition who helped for the stretch run (where we got out of the play-in and secured the 5-seed), but then wasn’t all that useful this past year. Supposedly his locker room impact was a big part of the addition. It sounded like that was a positive add down the stretch in 2022 (Scottie spoke highly of him), but with the issues in 2023, it sounds like he didn’t solve whatever locker room issues were there.
Was it a great move? No.
Was it the devastatingly terrible move that people paint it as? No.
The irony in the complaining about the move is that in order to complain about it you have to take as an assumption that the front office is excellent at their jobs. The complaint is, “you missed out on Walker Kessler and Andrew Nembhard”, but of course, 21 teams passed on Kessler and 30 teams passed on Nembhard. Of the 13 spots we moved down, 11 of those teams took worse prospects than Koloko.
Koloko was mocked anywhere from the early 20’s to the second round. He’s also absolutely a Masai-type pick (raw African player with a high ceiling), so there’s a solid chance that he was the pick with or without the trade. Unless our local MLSE janitor had access to the Raps’ big board, we will never know.
Without the trade, would the front office have snagged one of the 2/13 players who were better than the guy we picked? I don’t know, but the gnashing of teeth about that deal is just insane, at this point.