Raptors are playing some great ball and are easy to root for. Hope they finish it next game on their own court just to see the fans go crazy.
Why would we trade for Kawhi when we have young Kawhi in Jaylen Brown ? LMAOOOOOOOOOO ps : check Spurstalk ... It's DELICIOUS
One more win for Kawhi to be a Laker. Seriously though, if the Raptors win, this is one of the most impressive playoffs performance by a superstar in recent years, considering that Kawhi was put on this team 9 months ago. BTW his sidekicks are Siakam and Lowry. Who needs 2 or 3 superstars again? Proves that coaching, depth, defense, and chemistry are more important than talent alone. Precisely why I'm opposed to trading the house for AD. A trade like that will only prolong our chase for #17.
Eh, yes and no. In the East this has been enough, Boston flaming out helped, Milwaukee’s inexperience helped some too. What I do agree on is the Raptors have built some continuity with key players over the past 3 seasons, and that has mattered now that they added Kawhi. Do we really think the Raptors win this series though if Durant is healthy, if Klay is healthy, if Iggy isn’t dinged up, if Cousins never missed all that time? I don’t, in the West you do need at least 2 high level stars to get this far. All the teams that went far this playoffs have 2 or more stars, and some that also do didn’t even get out of the first or second round (OKC and Houston), that’s how loaded the West is. Of course the things you mentioned are very important, but the Warriors have all that when healthy. Superstars rule the league, it’s why I am ok with trading a decent chunk of our young core for AD. Let’s not discount Kawhi’s teammates too much either, Lowry is a 5 time all-star, Siakam has had an excellent year, Ibaka has come up big multiple times now and has Finals experience from OKC, and Gasol is also a former all-star with plenty of playoff experience. I agree that Kawhi is just that good though, this is one of the best playoff runs by a single player I’ve ever seen for sure. If we had HIM, I might even agree with you that we wouldn’t need to go all in on AD, because he’s so good on both ends and has given the Warriors fits before on the Spurs and beat LeBron when he was in Miami. We have a 34 year old LeBron unfortunately though, so not enough to ride to a title anymore at this stage of his career, in large part because he is not a 2 way player like Kawhi anymore.
hmmm...couldn't a case be made that kawhi basically winning a title by himself means you should trade everything for davis--in that all you really need is one prime superstar, and davis is that?
For one, I'm not convinced that the West is that much better than the East anymore. The top 4 teams in the East are just as competitive as the top 4 in the West. And while I agree that the Warriors have been hit with the injury bug, to be fair, Kawhi is dinged up as well. Everyone's not 100% healthy in the Finals. Yes, the Warriors are loaded, but all signs point to Durant leaving. That leaves them with a core of their own draft picks in Curry, Klay and Draymond. The reason why they're in this position is because they drafted well, developed their players, and built a system catered to their strengths. They built their team organically like the Spurs. I understand that you prefer a top heavy team, but winning is rarely achieved without roster continuity. In fact, I don't think there's every been a championship team without even a single player that they drafted on their roster. Ball and Ingram will become better players than Lowry and Siakam. Remember, Siakam averaged 7.3/4.5/2.0 last year. He shot 22% from 3. We just have to show a bit more patience, and Ingram would bring the same level of production as Siakam in the playoffs. Players like Ibaka and Gasol are easy acquisitions once we become competitive. If we get Kawhi, we are better off keeping our kids. Trading the house for AD is a huge mistake at that point.
No, because it's darn near impossible to build a supporting cast within the 2 years that Lebron is still productive. The Raptors are a playoff team with or without Kawhi. That's how deep they are. And AD is not Kawhi. He's a superstar no doubt, but not the type that can win by himself. As Lebron fades we'd be in a worse position than last years Pelicans. Then it's back to square one. Back in lottery for 5 years.
It's all about healthy superstars . If KD wasn't out , the lack of supporting cast ( read others scorers besides the Splash brothers) wouldn't matter . You can't play both to win right now and to build for the future . Both Lakers and C Bags tried to this season and miserably failed . All in on AD and another max guy if we can make it work salary cap wise . I'd take an injury prone top 5 player over our current promising but young players ... whose improvements are ALWAYS slowed down by injuries
Again, eh, maybe. I won’t even really argue your first 2 paragraphs, we don’t even strongly disagree there. I actually don’t prefer a top-heavy team, I prefer a deep team, but freakin lame a** Durant made a top-heavy team more necessary. I hope he does leave and that ends though. My thing right now is, we have maybe a 2 year window with LeBron to win a title, so if we can get 2 other stars on the roster with him I go for it, because it’s rare you have a star so capable of reaching the Finals immediately when you give him good enough pieces. As for the bit about Zo and Ingram being better than Lowry and Siakam, that’s what I said maybe to. I don’t really get how you can state it so plainly as if it’s fact though, or that Ingram will bring the same level of production as Siakam in the playoffs. We have no way of knowing if this will turn out to be the case. I hope it is, it’s possible, but it’s way too early to say one way or the other. Lowry is a 5 time all-star, not so easy to say Zo surpasses that. Ingram surpassing Siakam I’d bet harder on as Ingram is only 21 and Siakam is 25, but Siakam does have 2 years of playoff experience (well technically 3, but he did nothing in year 1) over Ingram, and that really counts for something right now. I’m all for hanging onto as much of the young core as we can, I’d love to hang onto one of Zo or Ingram in an AD trade, but come on man, we’re talking about a guy who was MVP runner up 2 seasons ago, this is a true superstar, you can’t be sentimental when it comes to this stuff. I loved Van Exel and (tolerated) Eddie Jones back in those days, but when it came time to try and win titles they had to go, and they were already all-stars, you can’t get too attached to these guys and overvalue them just because we like them so much.
Raptors may not have superstars outside of Leonard but they are very well built and coached team. They have shooting and multiple mobile big man that can slash off the pnr and are great defensively.
I’m convinced more than ever a big star is better than a little star. Kawhi can D up anyone on the floor. Curry can be posted up by almost anyone and needs lots of help to do what he does. Makes the impact of the Kobe’s of the world more impressive
Yeah, we aren't far off in regards to building a competitive team. I think we'd regret getting too carried away with Lebron's 2 year window though. It's a great opportunity but isn't something you risk giving up everything for. We're not even sure if his body can handle a full season anymore. As for Ball and Ingram, I think they are future allstars. And I think Kuzma, Garland and Hart would become above average starters. So when people talk about trading them all for AD, to me that's the equivalent of the Warriors choosing Durant over Klay, Draymond, Iggy, and Iguodala in free agency. So that's where we differ. It's not about getting too sentimental or too attached to our kids. I just project them to become much better players than you do. It's bad enough that we lost an allstar in DLO and a 20/10 big in Randle. Piece by piece we're giving up the opportunity to build a dynasty. Even this year we'd probably be in a much better position had we retained those 2 kids plus Nance, Zubac and Clarkson, but no, we have to keep swinging for the fences. Looking at how the Nuggets built their team pisses me off because we're the polar opposite with no patience at all.
That’s why Klay is such a valuable player. He is really underrated. He is a great offensive weapon and can switch to D up anyone.
