Category: 📁 Sport Takes

If a playoff series doesn't start until a team loses at home, then there would be playoff series that finished without starting, and therefore did not even happen. I know sayings aren't meant to be taken literally, but it's still odd one is so popular that's literally incorrect.

Hey Raptors Report.

Thanks a lot for replying to me and others, and sharing your thoughts and evaluation on Quickley and everything else, it's so enjoyable to listen to such an intelligent and well researched person like you talk about Raptors and basketball! Again, I admit I didn't even watch this particular video so I'm not debating specific things you said in it, and for instance upgrading to prime Curry straight up from Quickley might be worth it.

While I'm nitpicking words a bit, one thing I have learned to try and do is to not assume what others are thinking or that everyone sees things the same as I do or the current consensus does. As an example, there may be people that might not even recognize Quickley as struggling much this year, and might evaluate the situation differently. Because of adding Ingram he is the 4th option on the team and is playing unselfish, he's shooting a career high 52% 2PT, a respectable 36% 3PT the same as LaMelo Ball, an excellent and career high 3.7/1 AST/TO, a career high 1.3 STL, he plays much harder on defense and makes less money than many PG who one might consider upgrades, and he has a solid 17 PPG, which is lower because of him being the 4th option and not taking way more shots or steal the ball away from RJ more like VanVleet would have done.

Continued... >

I think "Lion" or "The Lion" would be a great nickname for Scottie Barnes.

• He attacks at close range but can surprise you from distance
• He is fast and can glide across the court at high speeds
• He has the size and skills to be a King Of The Jungle
• He works together with a coalition and likes to Roarrrr
• He protects the other players and people that are in his team
• The nickname isn't too well-known or used by someone else

I wonder if Raptors may be too good to get high 2025 pick, especially with Poeltl/Brown/Boucher. Mitchell/Agbaji/Vezenkov/Olynyk are older. Mogbo/Shead/Carlson are older prospects who can play now. Dick/Walter are young but can shoot. Barnes/Quickley/Barrett are poised to breakout.

• Jordan 3, Pippen 5, Grant 10, *Harper 8
• Robinson 1, Elliott 3, Duncan 1
• Tatum 3, Brown 3, Smart 6, *Irving 1
• DeRozan 8, Valanciunas 5, Ross 8
• Curry 7, Thompson 11, Barnes 7, *Bogut 1
• Barnes 4, ???, ???, *Barrett 3

Notes

• My 2024 draft trade idea
• Shooting & defense with Barnes
• Get younger with Reed/Jabari
• Lose 1 year, get high 2025 pick

Rockets

• Jakob Poeltl
• Bruce Brown
• Chris Boucher

Raptors

• Reed Sheppard (2024 #3)
• Jabari Smith
• Steven Adams
• Jeff Green
• Jae Tate

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is the fairest trade for all?

Raptors

• Kevin Durant
• Kyrie Irving

Nets

• Pascal Siakam
• Gary Trent Jr.
• Khem Birch
• Malachi Flynn
• Svi Mykhaliuk
• Armoni Brooks
• 1st 2023, 2025
• Swap 2024

Here is a potential trade I like for the Raptors to get a player in the draft lottery this year. The Kings, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, and Wizards all might be teams they could potentially trade with to get Daniels, or someone else if they prefer.

Raptors

• Dyson Daniels - 7th Pick
• Eric Bledsoe
• Greg Brown - Hopefully

Blazers

• Gary Trent Jr.
• Malachi Flynn
• Khem Birch - Hopefully

Continued... >

Here are my thoughts and some potential trade options to be involved in a trade for Simmons currently.

Trade Options

• Raptors - 76ers
• Ben Simmons - Fred VanVleet
• Matisse Thybulle - Goran Dragic
• $8.2M Trade Exception - 2022 1st Rd Pick

Lineup 1

• PG - Simmons - Flynn - Banton
• SG - Trent - Mykhailiuk - Wainwright
• SF - Anunoby - Thybulle - Watanabe
• PF - Barnes - Bonga - Dekker
• C - Siakam - Achiuwa - Birch

Continued... >

Hey Ben and Ryker. Do you have any thoughts or feel like discussing this trade and potential roster lineup on an episode?

Here is a link to a super long take with some more thoughts about this idea, which neither of you will probably read at all 😉 Have a good one and great work on the new changes to your setup and the show this year guys.

Raptors Digest - 2021 Raptors Trade, Draft, and Lineup

Trade

• Raptors - 76ers - Magic
• Jonathan Kuminga: 2021 5th Pick - Fred VanVleet - Ben Simmons
• Matisse Thybulle - Terrence Ross - 2022 1st Rd: TOR
• Blank - Paul Watson - 2021 2nd Rd: PHI

Lineup

• PG - Lowry - Suggs - Flynn
• SG - Trent - Oladipo/FA - 2nd/Nix
• SF - Anunoby - Thybulle - Watanabe
• PF - Siakam - Kuminga - Gillespie
• C - Boucher - FA/Giles - 2nd/Maker

Continued... >

What And Why For Us - Raptors

• Trade poor ball handlers - Miles, Anunoby, Ibaka, Valanciunas
• Keep good ball handlers - VanVleet, Siakam, Wright
• Trade future money to clear contracts - Lowry, Ibaka, Valanciunas, Miles
• Keep core for chemistry, fans, future - Wright, Powell, Siakam, VanVleet
• Gain young star player to combine with Siakam for future - Holiday
• Gain stretch four and three point shooting for playoffs this year - Mirotic
• Possible great team for both this year and next year with shot at title
• Possible young stars lineup for future - Holiday, Leonard, Siakam, Davis

Trade

• Pelicans - Raptors
• Lowry - Davis
• Ibaka - Holiday
• Valanciunas - Mirotic
• Anunoby - Hill
• Miles - Johnson
• 2021 1st Rd Pick - X
• 2020 2nd Rd Pick - X

This Year

• Holiday - VanVleet - Loyd
• Green - Wright - McCaw
• Leonard - Powell - Johnson
• Siakam - Mirotic - Hill
• Davis - Monroe - Boucher

Next Year

• VanVleet - Loyd
• Holiday - Wright
• Leonard - Powell - Hill
• Siakam - Boucher
• Davis

What And Why For Them - Pelicans

• Combine some current players along with some future players
• Take poor contracts that Pelicans don't want to sweeten the deal - Hill, Johnson
• Current players to have good team next year - Lowry, Moore, Anunoby, Randle, Ibaka
• Future players along with Lowry or Ibaka going forward - Anunoby, Valanciunas, Picks
• Get rid of all future contracts beyond next year, other than small Anunoby contract
• Get potential young two way star with Anunoby and offensive threat with Valanciunas
• Could sit Lowry and Valanciunas with injuries to increase odds of high pick in draft
• Could trade Ibaka and/or Lowry next year - Jackson, Payton, Anunoby, Randle, Valanciunas

I thought the NBA slam dunk competition was excellent again this year, as long as you turned off the volume. The announcers were easily the worst part of it for me, but other than them I enjoyed it. There was a lot of great dunks even in the early rounds. And the best part was that it finished really strong which sometimes doesn't happen. The two finalists had great dunks ready to go in the final round and pretty much nailed each of them. Was a lot of fun to watch. I thought Jeremy Evans jumping over the picture was great. And Terrence Ross's final two dunks were both great, including the one off the backboard with the Vince Carter jersey. Excellent night of slam dunking again this year if you ask me.

Quick story from Bill Russell, the great NBA player who won 11 championships. He was asked by a reporter about what it would be like to play in the NBA with the current generation of players. The game has changed a lot and there are a lot of great players with great abilities. The reporter asked "If you were playing today how many points a game would you get now?" Russell replied "Probably about 10 points per game". The reporter said "Wow, just 10 points a game, because the game has changed so much and there are so many talented players now?" Russell said "Well I am 75 years old now".

Curtis Granderson has hit more than 40 homers in both of the last 2 years and is hitting 8th for the Yankees today in the playoffs. He finished 2nd this year in the MLB in homers and only 6 guys had more than 40 homers this year. Doesn’t seem right to have him so low in the lineup but that’s the luxury that the Yankees always seem to have with their huge payroll. You can bet he would hit cleanup or there abouts every night on pretty much any other team.

It’s really too bad that Josh Hamilton doesn’t know how to hit a baseball. And it’s scary how good he might have been if he didn’t have all the personal problems he has had and miss like 6 years of playing baseball because of drugs basically. He’s who I now think of when I think of a real ballplayer that I’ve watched that might be like the guy in The Natural. Him and Ken Griffey Jr.

Josh Hamilton rips 4 two-run HRs vs Orioles

After winning yesterday here is the Blue Jays record so far in spring training. They've just won 8 in a row and have 7 games left.

• 20-4 - .833 - TOR - 2012

Here are the 4 best records in spring since 2003. These are the only records above a .700 winning percentage. Also, the least amount of games lost by a team in spring in those years is 8.

• 26-9 - .765 - LAA - 2009
• 20-8 - .714 - TB - 2010
• 24-10 - .706 - NYY - 2009
• 19-8 - .704 - KC - 2003

Also this article says that spring can mean something, at least when you look at all the records combined. It doesn't mean the Blue Jays will have a great year but according to this article if they have the best record in spring they probably have a good chance of at least having a good season and finishing over a .500 winning percentage.

Spring training records really matter

Well, a 10-year look (it didn’t take me 10 years to do it, I just looked at numbers over a 10-year period!) at MLB’s spring training records reveals some interesting trends. You might have heard that “the numbers never lie;” the numbers I discovered should give baseball fans a little more reason to pay attention to spring training standings.

Here are some of the tidbits that I unearthed while looking at spring training records over the past 10 years:

• Out of the past 20 World Series participants since 2002, only six had a spring training record worse than one game under .500.
• Seven of the 10 teams that had the worst overall spring training record went on to finish last or next-to-last in their division that season.
• Only two of the 11 teams (two teams tied one year) with the best overall spring training record had a losing record that season.

And here is a look at the Jays logo changes over the years. I wonder if the 90s and 2000s will be known as years where designers and everyone else tried to be extra cool, but we go back to designing classic, simple looks over the next 20 years. I guess we’ll always need a bit of both; new and old. But in this case, I sure like the simple classic looks the best.

Toronto Blue Jays logos through the years

I couldn’t be happier with the Blue Jays new logo and uniforms. Best decision they could have made. I never liked any of their designs in between the classic uniforms and this new update to it. Good chance I’ll be buying some new Blue Jays apparel come next year. Goodbye Ricciardi era, hello Anthopoulos era.

New Toronto Blue Jays uniforms are a blast from the past

Just heard that the Cubs have hired GM Theo Epstein away from the Red Sox. My first thought is that he will do what it takes to sign Albert Pujols and make him a Cub. They probably weren’t really in the hunt for Pujols but my hunch says he wants him and could get him since the Yankees have Teixeira, the Red Sox have Gonzalez, and Fielder is also a free agent for another big market team to get.

Realized one interesting difference between sports stars from 20 years ago and today. They used to be known or referred to by their last names instead of first names or hyphenated names. Gretzky, Jordan, Bird, Bonds, Griffey vs Sid, Lebron, A-Rod, Pedro, Tiger. Miss the old days when the coolest name for someone was just using their last name.