How far are the Rap from "competing for championship" ?

One player ?

One superstar?

Two more more of the above?

Curious what some think after:

1) the wrap up of a very successful season by all accounts...
2) 2 first rounder this draft
3) Potentially 2 first rounders next season...
4) Bruno and Bebe (and Powell?) as players of the future




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<from RealGM>

2016 first round draft pick from Denver
Denver will swap its 2016 1st round pick for New York's 2016 1st round pick; New York will convey the Denver pick to Toronto [Denver-Minnesota-New York, 2/22/2011; New York-Toronto, 7/10/2013]

2017 first round draft pick from L.A. Clippers
L.A. Clippers' 1st round pick to Toronto (via Milwaukee) [COLOR="Red"]protected for selections 1-14 in 2017,[/COLOR] 1-14 in 2018 and 1-14 in 2019; if the L.A. Clippers have not conveyed a 1st round pick to Toronto by 2019, then the L.A. Clippers will instead convey their 2020 2nd round pick and 2021 2nd round pick to Toronto [L.A. Clippers-Milwaukee, 8/26/2014; Milwaukee-Toronto, 6/25/2015]

oops - see below - thought the CAP space was much better

This may factor into your opinion.

[url]http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2642010-how-much-money-does-your-nba-team-have-to-spend-in-2016-free-agency/page/30[/url]

Essentially no CAP space

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Guaranteed Salary: $83,000,529

Non-Guaranteed Salary:

Free-Agent Cap Holds: James Johnson ($3,250,000), Luis Scola ($3,480,000), Jason Thompson ($980,431)

First-Round Pick Holds: No. 9 ($2,253,300), No. 27 ($996,700)

Dead Money: $0

All-Inclusive Total: $93,960,960.00

Cap Space: -$1,960,960

The Toronto Raptors are the rare team with an initial projection that's misleadingly bright.

DeMar DeRozan's $10.2 million player option counts against their guaranteed salary. But his hit will top $15.2 million when he elects to reach free agency. That's cheaper than the max deal he's assured, whether it's from Toronto or another team, but it still attaches an extra $5 million or so to the Raptors' bottom line.

Bismack Biyombo's $2.9 million player option, also included in the guaranteed salary, compounds Toronto's issue. His hold will increase to only $3.9 million when he opts out, but unlike DeRozan, the Raptors don't own his Bird rights and cannot travel above the salary cap to re-sign him.

Losing DeRozan doesn't even give them enough to cobble together a competitive offer for Biyombo. One Eastern Conference general manager told the Sporting News' Sean Deveney he might fetch between $16 and $17 million on the open market, maybe more. Toronto could cut the cord on all its free-agent holds, plus DeRozan, and still not have that much to spend.

With Terrence Ross' and Jonas Valanciunas' extensions kicking in next season, the Raptors, barring some epic salary dumps, will be acting as a capped-out team regardless of what happens with DeRozan. Luckily for them, that top-10 pick they snagged from the Andrea Bargnani trade will soften the blow of their financial constraints

Lot's of players away. Either you have a superstar level talents that can take you far year after year or you have to a good enough players with deep rosters and coaching.

Interested to see how Masai will respond after the successful season the team just had. Most pressure he will ever have, I'm sure.

[QUOTE=Legends66NBA7]

Lot's of players away.


Interested to see how Masai will respond after the successful season the team just had. Most pressure he will ever have, I'm sure.[/QUOTE]

:cheers:

1) Lots ? I kinda of learn towards 1 more AllStar i.e. like a productive Mislap...Now I admit that this team with Mislap is not a "lock to win" but I think they would be one of those rare teams of depth that "could win" if they catch a few breaks.

I suppose it depends on your take on competing for championship. Could be lots - could be 1 or 2 - some might argue they are there now depending on what compete / success is defined as.

2) Completely agree.

Derozan's deal will be under the microscope and Masai will be critic'ed on both sides - too generous - too cheap etc.

Looks like Biz is gone too.

Yeah would have really loved to see Biz stay but he'd be a luxury considering we have a gaping hole at the 4. Would there be enough cap to sign Biz if another team were to take TRoss off our hands? Norm pretty much took Ross' job as first swing off the bench and I'm sure they're hoping Bruno can start taking some spare minutes here and there too.

Once we get a starting 4, we will have PP re-joining CoJo and Norm off the bench, plus, given our contending status it shouldn't be hard to attract solid veterans (think last year's Joe Johnson, David West etc) to round off our bench. Anything we get out of Bruno/Bebe is just gravy.

I doubt we keep both 1st rounders, Masai probably use them as ammo to bring in the other all-star we need. We wanna win now and there's really not much room for playing time and player development considering we already have Bruno.

[QUOTE=bk33]

I doubt we keep both 1st rounders, Masai probably use them as ammo to bring in the other all-star we need. We wanna win now and there's really not much room for playing time and player development considering we already have Bruno.[/QUOTE]


+1

I think this is real close to the truth.

Not only this years two (2) first round draft picks but next year as well assuming the Clippers are not lottery bound.

Four (4) first round picks in two (2) years... sadly none likely to be lottery...

But there has to be a team with "a guy" that we want and wants part or all of that.