LET'S GO RAPTORS!!!!!

I and many others have no faith in any of those bench players playing 30+ mpg. The one who has the best shot at doing that is TR.

box92

Wow, not even one bench player in the top 200. Who is left? Demar, JV, Gay, Amir and Lowry?

LX

We need players ranked better than 200 to have a useful bench? That's hilarious.

I have zero complaints about this bench. There are guys that can fill proper roles, under short-term contracts, without messing up the clarity of the litmus test this season is going to represent for putting the proper core in place. The season is going to stand or fall on the starters taking the lead in changing the culture, and the bench guys sustaining enough of the same to not skew the results much one way or another. It's all about the path forward, and having that sixth man that could be a starter elsewhere, and maybe take over games would just be smoke and mirrors and clutter the path forward as far as what moves would need to be made. This isn't a team looking to win it all. It's a team looking to establish an identity from the core outward, while getting into the playoffs, and then making the moves to get further from there. But oh god no, there are no players ranked higher than 200! Those spots from 200-250 are just filled with abominations! It' same cruel joke! Why even watch any games this season!?!

A team does not have to be perfectly constructed to get into the playoffs and look to move forward from there. It needs to establish strong two-way play. It needs to commit to getting stops over 82 games. There's nothing about this bench that precludes that possibility, and there' smoothing about this bench that complicates an ability yo make changes and get better from there.

moremilk

Wow, Amir #165, with gary Neal and Patrick Patterson, that just goes to show how little raptor ball the the outside media watches. Crazy stuff.

jeffb

It's about right imo. If i'm not mistaken he was around 220 last year. Although he is far better than Patterson so who knows....

moremilk

Who cares where he was, on stats, per, advanced stats, eye test - everything screams top 100 for amir

box92

hmm since when did a team have to be perfectly constructed to have a player better than top 200? Sorry, but I would take a sixth man who has the potential to start on other teams over another them. That is where it is the coaches job to figure out the PT. Saying having a sixth man who shouldnt be a starter because it will clutter the team and not make it staright forward makes no sense. If you have a good player that means you have an asset, which could be traded for something else. The better the players on the better contract, the easier it is to trade them together to try to shape a better core. As much as i want this team to succeed, this core needs to get better. It simply is not good enough. Why watch games? Because I am not some bandwagon fan who is going to suddenly become a Raptors fan after they start winning. I have always loved and will love Raptors basketball. So Sorry if my slight disappointment in not having a player rated better than 200 really affected your day in order to create some long rant.

LET'S GO RAPTORS!!!!!

+1

LX

I think you misunderstood my sarcasm.

Yeah. It would be nice to have a sixth man. But not having the ideal sixth man doesn't mean this team won't be worth watching. And in any case, I contend that developing a proper sixth man role that fits with a core is far more valuable than sheer talent that simply confuses the direction the team should go in, and what kind of roles should be assigned. Get the core in place. We clearly agree that needs to happen. I think. Then develop the bench roles appropriately. As things stand, this bench offers a potential core enough support to sink or swim and allow Masai the chance to make the necessary changes. This bench also offers plenty of players the chance to become one of those higher ranked players through development. And this bench represents no long term constraints to making any necessary changes.

I am the furthest thing from a bandwagon fan myself. I have watched almost every game for many years where roles were a confused muddle, and talent was ultimately wasted, and not of much value in trades at all. Hoorah! Love that. I'll take this current bench over that, thank you very much. Please no more torture of having no plan and winging it when it comes to constructing a team. I can see where there might be disappointment. I can see myself being disappointed. But I can see that ultimately that disappointment will no longer be recycled over and over again, and that the path forward will be clear enough in any case.

box92

I agree with the way masai set up the bench. Low risk high reward with some of these guys potential. Worst case scenario is they expire in a year or two. Which is when we look to be making our move anyways. I am disappointed that none of these guys were rated above 200. Is that due to being a raptor? Only time will tell. I believe Amir was ranked way lower than what he should be. So maybe that could be a reason.

LET'S GO RAPTORS!!!!!

MU did what he did to the bench so as to a) save money and b) know that if a starter or two are out for a considerable amount of time he can still go the *ank route if need be. MU has kept his options open for the most part.

LX

Kris Humphries ranked higher than Amir.

This is how stupid this thing is - it's based on predicting the upcoming season, and they claim that with so many different people inputting their ranks, it is incredibly accurate, but if that's the case we will not see all these big upward and downward swings in rankings. Somehow I doubt all that, and the fact that they have loosely compared their methods to Nate Silverman is just pathetic. Nate would look at players on teams that got very little media attention, and automatically adjust for bias.

jeffb

That's just as much based on the previous season since he sky rocketed last year due to his 2011-12 season. He's actually dropped considerably this year. In fact the gap between the two has closed significantly considering how each played last season.

LX

He has kept his options open, for the purposes of assessing what is here and getting the most out of potential deals that may prove necessary. He is looking to get better, not looking to see how and when the team can get worse.

Your rational for a. means very little. There was no money to spend, and a big part of his assessments will be about figuring out how to construct a payroll that can offer more flexibility. Your rational for b. is something like saying he can decide to lose on purpose if the worst case scenario makes winning very difficult - again that holds very little meaning.

LX

Amir was easily as valuable last season, as Humphries was the season previous to that. Any idiot can look at both players and see how the odds of Amir progressing are far greater than Humphries. There is so little comparison between the two players it isn't even funny. Not that Humphries needs to be ranked much lower! but Amir should be far higher than him.

This exercise isn't about where a player was last season as compared to the year before. It's about predicting where they will be for this season. But you could look at how wrong they were basing their rankings on past performance, and see that looking forward there is no way these two players should be anywhere near each other. It's just a stupid and meaningless exercise, and this one example is just one of about 150.

jeffb

Hump being so high is still based on his 14/11 season imo. He'll drop again next year unless he has a bounce back season and if Amir continues to improve he'll keep rising. These ranking are always like this. A lot of head scratchers.

LET'S GO RAPTORS!!!!!

Exactly. Also, sometimes it takes getting worse to get better. I like many others don't have supreme faith in this core.

Flexibility - exactly. 1 to 3 of KL, DD or RG will be dealt.

LET'S GO RAPTORS!!!!!

Amir was probably the best rap last season.

jeffb

Numbers wise, no way. But I have to agree, on sheer effort, playing through injuries, hustle and improvement he was awesome.

LET'S GO RAPTORS!!!!!

Um, depends what numbers you look at. Indeed.