Toronto Raptors: Changes Coming Already? Pt. 2

Last column we referred to a report that the Toronto Raptors were willing, two games into the season, to overhaul the entire roster and make every player available except our poster boy Jonas Valanciunas.  While we are grateful that at least he is safe, we wondered about direction and the motives of new general manager Masai Ujiri with a team that looks like a good bet to make the playoffs for the first time in five years.  We still wonder how he can draw conclusions so quickly on players and how they fit into the system.  We laid out some potential theories but feel that if this is a reality, then we need to spend more time discussing some ramifications.  Most notably, we said that it would be fruitless to try and trade either DeMar DeRozan or Rudy Gay with the hope of high draft picks because they are not going to be offered one in a year that is being counted on to produce numerous franchise altering players.  What we missed, though, was an obvious point; one that has been connected with a number of hapless teams before the start of the season, and now even more so that some of them have produced surprising starts.  The issue is tanking.  How we could have missed it when we were analyzing all sorts of scenarios is beyond us, but let’s take a look at the other, perhaps more obvious, motivation.

Canadian to save Canada?
The question of tanking has surrounded the Sixers, Suns, or Bobcats.  At no time have the Toronto Raptors even been part of the discussion.  But it is possible that Masai Ujiri could see no better solution to the franchise’s state of battling for the eighth seed than ridding himself of salary, losing a bunch of games and having a legit chance at Canada’s own Andrew Wiggins, the consensus “best player in the draft since LeBron James.”

Cute Canada tie-in aside, we do believe the hype on Wiggins and he would obviously be a great addition to the Raptors.  Perhaps we are understating what it would mean to have a Canadian face of the franchise for a Canadian team.  Perhaps that would spark a great interest that would catapult the Raptors into, I don’t know, an NHL level stratosphere.

These might be blasphemous claims and would expect to hear if they are, but there is no doubt that it would be a boon to the Raptors and there is no way that has been lost on Ujiri.  Even if if wasn’t Wiggins, the draft is deep and there is talk that there are franchise changers throughout the top 10.  We wonder, though, how many of these players are really better than DeRozan, who we have waxed poetic in previous columns and has had a strong, efficient, and well-rounded start to his season.

We feel it would be best to hold onto DeRozan unless they are blown away with an offer, that meaning a high draft pick and player.  If they did make such a deal, it would be  open season to move Gay for only moderate value and the same for Kyle Lowry.  In this scenario it would be Jonas Valanciunas and spare parts.  We would not have to be worried about his touches anymore; he would probably put up 25 shots a game and his development would be on the fast track, for certain.  We can concede we are putting the cart miles before the horse here, but such news of blowing up a solid team has us scrambling for motivation.

We know that the Raptors are not tanking now, and we do not believe they are looking to tank.  If there was a perfect storm of circumstances like a rough start combined with outrageous offers for Gay, DeRozan and Lowry, then we could see something developing there.  But those offers are not coming, and the Raptors will do enough on the court, like we expect, to keep Ujiri more focused on supplementing his core than eliminating it.

[slider_pro id=”28″]