RAPTORS MAILBAG
Tank or no tank, rebrand coming, who is leaving and more
The Raptors season might be over, but mailbag season isn’t. Thanks to all who sent in questions for this edition and feel free to keep them coming.
As expected, there was some overlap as a few questions seem to be top of mind for Raptors fans right now, so some have been bunched together.
There will be an overflow mailbag next week and then a longer basketball mailbag will come right after we find out what happens at the May 12 NBA draft lottery, which low-key is one of the most pivotal moments for the Raptors in the past decade or more.
Dan M: “Is the rebrand happening next year? What about Vince Carter?”
As DeMar DeRozan would say, most definitely. The only question is just how much the franchise shakes things up for Year 30 of the Raptors. They’ve teased the purple (and I’m all for it as I always hated the chevron jerseys and a bunch of the special edition ones and loved all the purple ones) so those will definitely be worn for many games next season.
Vince Carter will be honoured, too, in some way and my best guess is some sort of “Ring of Honour” becomes a thing (Kyle Lowry, DeRozan, Kawhi Leonard, and Carter would be shoo-ins, to start).
MLS_Canada: “Rumours of purple uniforms next year for the ... anniversary ... with that mindset, who are the Top 5 Raptors players who were let go or left too early and who are the Top 5 who stayed too long with the franchise?”
Tracy McGrady has to lead the list of left too early, since he’s an all-time great scorer (who was a menace defensively, too, before he got his own franchise in Orlando).
Chris Bosh is obviously a close second. Less obvious picks: TJ Ford
(it was a real shame Al Horford broke him). I’ll throw in Sharone Wright (a car accident ended his career, but Isiah Thomas was right — he had a lot of talent), then Doug Christie, Norman Powell and Jorge Garbajosa.
The stayed too long list:
1. Andrea Bargnani
2. Rafael Araujo
3. Joey Graham
4-5. OG Anunoby/Fred VanVleet (as I’ve written, one or both should have been dealt at the February 2023 trade deadline).
Brent : “Are you hoping for the San Antonio pick to convey this year or would you rather have a Top 6 pick in this draft?” And Darrell Nicholson:
“Play-ins next year?”
It depends what hat I’m wearing. As a Raptors reporter, I want them to keep the pick this year. I don’t want to sit through/ cover a tank next season.
As a neutral observer, I’d probably say the same, though for different reasons. I don’t think they’ll be bad enough to be in contention for Cooper Flagg and the other top talents next year, even if they wanted to be. If I was coming from a Raptors fan perspective, I might say losing the pick this year is better. Then
trade Jakob Poeltl and the team will at least be bottom-10 and maybe worse if Scottie Barnes or someone else misses a lot of time. The only way to become a contender again one day is to either luck into a Kawhi-type trade, which almost never happens, or to get a Top 5 pick in a great draft and take the right guy when given the chance.
If they keep the pick, they’ll be a play-in team or close; if they don’t, they’ll likely try to be as bad as possible without making it a farce.
Karen Leslie Hall: “How much of a shakeup do you expect in the offseason with super teams struggling in playoffs? Whom might the Raptors try to pick up this summer if some teams become sellers?”
Tons. Masai has hinted at it, as has ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Phoenix is a disaster, Miami has too high of a payroll, even Portland and Memphis are in weird spots. The Clippers will always spend whatever because their owner is one of the richest humans on the planet. Atlanta has to make some choices, Cleveland and Minnesota, too.
I think it’s going to be wild and believe Toronto would be wise to use some of its cap space to pick up contracts teams don’t want, while collecting assets like draft picks and young players in the process.
Steve: “What’s the future of Gary Trent Jr. and Bruce Brown Jr.?”
This can go with the previous question as it impacts how much space Toronto will have to get creative with in terms of taking on contracts. Trent has shown he’s a solid scorer who can create his own shot and be money from threepoint range. That has some value, but he also has limitations and he hasn’t been as effective as a reserve. But, on a good team, he should be coming off the bench. I’d be OK either way. If he signs for similar to his past contract, sure, if not, he was a good veteran, but good luck elsewhere. Brown has a useful contract which should make dealing him pretty easy. He can either go to a team that wants him to play for them or because he can be cut as soon as he’s acquired (as long as it’s done before the end of June).