Wow lucky Celtics. 1st pick in the draft. Yikes
Getting that leader will be virtually impossible. The Raptors will need to acquire a higher-end PF and resign Lowry if they want to look like contenders.Thoughts on DeRozen?
I'll admit I don't know the difference between a point guard and a center but I think I know personality types.
Would it be safe to say that DeRozen is more like a Scottie Pippen than a Michael Jordan, by that I mean DeRozen is a very good player, maybe even elite player, but he's is not the type that can carry a team on his back. Will the Raps ever get by the Cavs without a superstar leader besides DeRozen?
Watching the Raps this playoffs, the team looked like it already knew it was going to get beat by the Cavs, it felt like they were missing a leader.
Getting that leader will be virtually impossible. The Raptors will need to acquire a higher-end PF and resign Lowry if they want to look like contenders.
Would signing Griffin make any sense? This team needs a player of Derozan's calibre if not higher to compete with the top teams in this league.
Shooting guard and often SF in small ball lines. He can be a core guy as he's an elite mid-range scorer and can still develop a passable three-point shot.What position is DeRozen?
Derozan's calibre is the problem, he just isn't that Guy, when you pay the Guy the Max and his abilities don't measure up your in Denial.
Shooting guard and often SF in small ball lines. He can be a core guy as he's an elite mid-range scorer and can still develop a passable three-point shot.
I say acquire Blake Griffin to augment that. He will be an elite presence, complement JV and be a solid long-range threat.
Question: for some reason I'm watching the euro league final four. Are these players allowed to be drafted? And who makes up these teams? Where do they come from?
Thanks
Yeah DeRozan is tall enough to play SF full-time. It's just that when the Raptors have three taller guys in the lineup (ie. Valaciunas, Ibaka and Carroll), DeRozan is the SG by default. With Powell as starting SG or Joseph coming off the bench as SG, DeRozan is the SF because he's tall. When DeRozan and Tucker are on the wings, it's practically the same thing since Tucker is 6'6" I believe. The SF is basically just a taller SG. Someone like Cory Joseph who can play SG is too short to be a SF.Because the "maximum" part of a max contract is an artificially suppressed value based on the cap rather than real free-market-enacted value for relative player talents, lots of players get a max contract without necessarily being in the top tier of player talent. Mike Conley and Al Horford make in the same neighborhood as DeMar and other max deals and they're not ultra-elite players either.
In a capless world LeBron would probably be making like $80m a season and everything else would calibrate from there. But we live in a world where every contract handed out before this off-season is scaled down to top out into the mid $20m range because of cap restrictions. So every conceivable contract that would fit between this hypothetical $80m LeBron deal and $26.5m that everyone but LeBron has plateaued at are squished down to a nice, even playing field.
Nobody's in denial (or randomly capitalizing words for little reason), it's just the mechanics of the system.
To the other points that are here, DeMar doesn't need to be in a small-ball lineup to be a SF. He's perfectly fine at 6'7 to play that role even in the 80s/90s NBA with its stricter, striated C/PF/SF/SG/PG lineups. Hell, he's even more suitable in the modern NBA because in broad strokes the evolution of offensive systems has basically merged the SG and SF positions into a sort of semi-redundant "wing" player profile.
I also wouldn't hold my breath over him developing a 3-point shot. He actually took a big step back this year in his shooting beyond the arc, posting the lowest 3p% since 2011-12 while still settling into the middle of his career rate of launching 3s. He's been in the league 8 years and will be 28 before next season starts. I don't see a 3-point revolution in his future. No matter how hard of a worker he is, he pretty much is what he is at this point: A slashing, attacking, foul-drawing volume-ish scorer who probably would've fit better into the Kobe/Iversion early 00s NBA better than he does now.
I don't really follow basketball, but I do see the highlights at the gym, so I was wondering if people consider the current situation a problem? It looks like Cleveland and GS will make the finals without losing a game, and parity has been an issue for a while it seems. Or is the idea of a finals between two undefeated teams exciting?
our gm weltman just left to take the big job in orlando. Is this the culture change masai spoke of?
the orlando magic have hired toronto raptors general manager jeff weltman as the franchise’s president of basketball operations, league sources told the vertical.
Weltman met with orlando ceo alex martins and ownership on monday, finalizing a five-year deal, league sources said.
orlando officials had been intrigued with cleveland gm david griffin, but moved steadily toward weltman as they became further engaged with his candidacy in recent weeks, league sources said. Weltman has been deeply involved in every aspect of the raptors’ front office under president masai ujiri as toronto became a perennial eastern conference contender.
Weltman will have the ability to hire a general manager who’ll report to him. Matt lloyd, an orlando assistant gm, has been serving as interim gm and could remain with the organization.
weltman has had high-ranking executive jobs with milwaukee and denver and started his career with the los angeles clippers. Weltman joined ujiri in the toronto front office in 2013 after spending five seasons as the assistant gm under general manager john hammond in milwaukee. Weltman has been considered a candidate on the president/gm track for several years now.