One season ends, another begins.
The NBA draft Tuesday and Wednesday, remote for us because soccer owns the area near the training facility, and then the fun of free agency.
Hey, Doug. The Knicks had their victory parade this week and, with the draft on Tuesday, it’s sort of the start of the next NBA season.
There’s a fair amount of speculation around Giannis Antetokounmpo, and there’s an assumption of inevitability that he will be traded this off-season. Do you agree and what is your best guess as to where he will land?
Much of the chatter suggesting that Giannis would become a Raptor has died down. If you were the Raptors GM, would you trade for him? And who would you offer in exchange?
Some of the speculation is that the Celtics are interested in acquiring him, but that would mean losing either Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum. If you were the Celtics GM, would you pay that price?
Finally, any thoughts about the World Cup so far?
I’m typing this Friday night, so by the time you read this Sunday morning I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giannis trade had been done. I am sure the latest would be Tuesday night and I have no guesses. But if Boston wants to put Brown in a deal, he’s the best player the Bucks will get.
If I’m Toronto, I’d probably make a call, offer a package that doesn’t include Scottie Barnes or Collin Murray-Boyles and a couple of picks. Probably won’t be enough, but you’re cheating yourself by not least making a lowball offer.
I’m loving the World Cup. Lots of great games, plenty of drama. The fact it’s mainly in the U.S. hasn’t ruined it — yet — and Canada’s a great story. As I’ve said a million times, the passion of fans when countries are involved in sports is wonderful and we’ve seen it play out throughout the tournament. The Scots in Boston, the Ghanaians in downtown Toronto, the South Americans in so many different cities, it’s been great. And the Japanese fans taking the time to clean up their seating section because it shows respect to the stadium, the sport, their country, is just about perfect, isn’t it?
And, to this point, the Scots have kept my ancestral hopes alive.
Hi, Doug. So happy you are happy and healthy, and back to work!
We watched the Knicks-Spurs series and, although we are diehard Raptors fans, we were 1,000 per cent behind the Knicks because of OG Anunoby. The rest of the world now can see what we Raptors fans were lucky to see for so many years. We miss him!
Do you have any idea what these famous players think of us “regular folk” who become so engaged in these series? Do they think we are crazy to become so passionate about a team/their team?
Most players appreciate the fans, their passion, the fact it costs them a lot of money to go to games and the energy they can provide. Of course, some bristle at boos, but that’s human nature, I suppose. The one thing most players have told me over the years is that what they most appreciate is the respect and privacy fans give them when they run into each other away from the game in public situations.
Doug, I know how much you love (hate) what-ifs … but what if the Knicks had faced Oklahoma instead of San Antonio in the final? Same result? Different? And if so, how? Also, any prognostications about the fate of the four semifinalists in the 2026-27 season?
I don’t know what the result would have been, but I am 1,000 per cent certain that a team with a closer like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on its team would never, ever blow four fourth-quarter leads. It just wouldn’t have happened.
Sorry, though, about the next season question. Until we know who’s on which team when October rolls around, I’m not going to go there.
Do you know if Collin Murray-Boyles will be playing Summer League? Do you have names of anyone else who is?
What’s the future for Trayce Jackson-Davis with the Raptors? They gave up a second-round pick for him, then buried him on the bench.
There have been no definitive decisions made on the Summer League roster, but my educated guess is that Murray-Boyles will play a game just so he can get up some shots they’ve been working on since the season ended. And I presume both Chucky Hepburn and Alijah Martin will play a couple or three games each.
Jackson-Davis wasn’t ready to be a regular last season. They got him in a long play so they could have the summer to work with him and see what he’s got.
Hearing it’s likely Sandro Mamukelashvili won’t re-sign with the Raptors — is this just a rumour? We all know he accepted less money here for playing time. Doesn’t mean he’d do that again.
The Mamu situation gets us to the main concern. It will be much harder for the Raptors to take another step forward this year. Mamu, without a doubt, was one straightforward part of the Raptors’ stabilization and improvement. We saw the first signs in a few years of depth on the team.
Players — notably CMB, A.J. Lawson, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamal Shead and even Barnes and RJ Barrett — showed improvement from the year before. Only Jakob Poeltl and Gradey Dick seemed to take a step back. We can’t assume that six players will all be improving next year. (The year was unusual in this regard.) These six, plus the arrival of Mamu, are the reason we had a nice season.
I’m sure some players will get stronger. The flaws in the team remain about the same, but losing one of the positive impact players is a definite step backward.
Tied into this all: the Raptors’ traditional success was in trading depth players for upgrades and better fitting players. Recently, we stocked up on players like Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, Ochai Agbaji, Dennis Schröder and Davion Mitchell. To an extent, many of these players were added with the likelihood that they’d be traded before their contracts were over. It was as if they were signed to be traded at a later date.
Going back further, it was trades that brought us the 2019 championship. It just doesn’t feel like we have these movable pieces this year.
Is there a serious path this year for improvement on the team, beyond hoping the same bunch of guys are better?
I’ll dispute the suggestion that they don’t have movable pieces. I’d contend they won’t trade Barnes or Murray-Boyles, but everyone else is available for the right price and that’s a gamut of skills, contracts and salaries that give general manager Bobby Webster tons of options. Whether he does make a move isn’t knowable, but myriad pieces are there if he wants.
And if not, you don’t know who’ll improve or who will regress. But if Murray-Boyles is good for 65 games instead of 35, if Walter plays for six months like he did one and if Poeltl’s back doesn’t seize up, there’s 33 per cent improvement in your nine-man rotation.
We agree they hit on Mamukelashvili a year ago. Is it possible they do again? And speaking of him, I don’t think there’s going to be a big bidding war for his services. If they wait things out, I can absolutely see him back on a contract that rewards him for one good year and doesn’t cripple the Raptors’ bottom line.
Hi, Doug. Hope you are well enough for your starting spot on the roster! Finals done, draft coming up soon and a month or so of World Cup shockers to go! Gonna jump right in!
1. I read that, until a few days ago, OG didn’t pose for a picture with the Larry O’Brien trophy even though he won it in 2019. Any idea why and what’s your take on it?
2. Karl-Anthony Towns and Kevin Garnett, two seven-foot Minnesota stars who didn’t win until they left. In your opinion, is there something inherently missing from the franchise to get them to the next level? Is Anthony Edwards due to repeat history, or is it just a case of players adapting their game play and maturity?
3. Back to the Spurs. Even with several double-digit leads we never saw the rotation change. No minutes for Kelly Olynyk, Mason Plumlee, etc. Would Coach Doug do anything different with a 29-point lead?
4) Lots of writers calling for Brandon Ingram to be traded based on his playoff performance. Not me! The bone spur in his ankle, to me, explains his subpar games. Your two cents?
Bonus: Apparently the 2019 Raptors were the last champs without a former lottery pick on the roster. Is this a testament to the best scouts ever, a sign of changing times or both?
Hope you’ve got an oversized ugly suit ready to wear for draft night!
I hadn’t heard that about OG and the trophy. Find it hard to believe, but who knows? I do know he felt a bit distanced from the event because he’d been sick and hadn’t played at all in the post-season, so maybe that factored into it? It was also a long time ago.
Towns played in a conference final with Minnesota and so did Garnett, I think they did pretty well. I think in the other years when they fell short, particularly Garnett, the rest of the roster wasn’t great and they weren’t expected to win. And that just underscores the depth, health and luck teams need to go all the way. Will Edwards win it all? I doubt it, but that’s a guess.
Olynyk and Plumlee were precisely where they should have been. All I would have done differently is finish more games with Dylan Harper over De’Aaron Fox.
Anyone who suggests Ingram should be dealt solely off a playoff series in which he was playing hurt and finally sat out needs to be put on ignore. Now, there’s a case to investigate trades (same for just about everyone on the roster) but not because of that series. That’s myopic.
That 2019 Raptors roster was an outlier and put together by tremendously adept trading.