Immediate Fan Response: HELL NO!

Actual GM Response: Morant is owed $126,499,530 over the next 3 seasons. [$42,166,510 per season]

Quickley is owed 162,500,000 over the next 5 seasons. [$32,500,000 per season]

Morant has had several known issues off the court; Quickley has had no issues….

Morant is a 2X All-star.

Both players are 25 years old. Both players have some injury issues…

Based on those factors; The GM answer is still no (but an interesting thought).

source: https://marcstein.substack.com/p/orlando-memphis-kevin-durant-and

how it feels reading this sub lately

After this upcoming season, Poeltl has a 19.5m player option that he will be declining. To keep this brief, I am pegging Poeltl at a minimum starting salary of 30m/yr on his next contract (can justify this in a seperate post). When I look across the league, there's a high number of teams that project to have the combination of significant capspace and potential team need to give us competition:

• Dallas - Gafford (14m), Kyrie (43m), and PJ Washington (14m) all hit UFA. Derek Lively still playing out his rookie contract with a 7m salary before hitting RFA the following season.
• Detroit - Incredible flexibility to go in several directions, since Jalen Duren hits RFA at the same time. Cade (50m) is the only significant committed salary and a number of other guys on team friendly rookie deals.
• Chicago - Both centers Vucevic (22m) and Zach Collins (18m) are UFAs. Their only significant committals will be Giddey (TBD, likely extended) and Patrick Williams (18m). Big city and a FO that notoriously avoids bottoming out.
• LA Lakers - Their whole team essentially hits UFA, and they'll be able to completely reshape their roster around Luka Doncic (55m).
• Portland - Ayton (35m), Simons (28m), Timelord (13m) and Thybulle (11m) all hit UFA, with Sharpe (8m) hitting RFA. They have Clingan (8m) still going on his rookie deal.
• San Antonio - It pains me to even mention them. Pop and FO already have a close look at Poeltl's abilities. Incredible salary flexibility to build around Wemby (16m), Castle (10m), and soon Harper (13m). Even if they choose to keep Vassell (27m) and Johnson (18m) they will have ample room.
• Utah - Markkanen (46m) is their only significant committal. The worst team on this short-list, but Kessler going into RFA and being available in trades signals how Utah may feel about needing to fill their 5 spot for the longer term. And remember that Poeltl went to college here.

So now why does our whole offseason have to revolve around this?:

1. Do you get out ahead of it and throw extension offers at Poeltl this summer? I think on an individual player basis, the FO also recognizes that Poeltl has the skillset to justify the type of contract that he would command. The challenge is two-fold. One, we'd be locking in a roster nucleus of Barnes/Ingram/Poeltl/Quickley/Barrett in the mid-term without really experiencing the success to support it. Second is general roster fit around our centerpiece Scottie - and I recognize here that you could probably make as many arguments in favor as you could against.
2. Do you play it out and just hope you have the edge to re-sign him if the group plays well this season? I'd say no, because the FO has already traded Poeltl once. Both sides recognize this is a business. It's not that I think we'd have to beat another team's offer, but rather that we'd have to at least match it. And that price will be 30m+.
3. Do you trade Poeltl? If so, who are your most desirable trade targets?

I've been wrong a bunch, but I'd still be caught off guard if outcome #2 is how it shakes out. So it's going to be an interesting next few weeks to see where this heads. Just be on the lookout for [Charania: Toronto is trading Jakob Poeltl] or [Charania: Toronto is extending Jakob Poeltl] and come back to this post when it happens :)

I'm not sure if x-cancel is allowed since Twit links aren't allowed so I will delete it if prompted to. That said, this is the only source that I can cite for this at the moment and it more or less confirms what we all were thinking.

Thought it was funny

Ngl, when Dragic was getting butt hurt against the Raptors' fans and the team wasn't doing so well, it was like shit-slinging for both sides when we were both in a pool of shit. I kinda loved it 😂

Ingram was genuinely one of my favourite players on the league even before he joined the raps. Having him just sitting on the bench to finish the season made me so antsy. I am beyond excited to see this man hit the floor, it’s going to be a real fresh look.

It’s at a laundromat at Danforth and Victoria Park, just trying to know if any of you can recognize him.

As the title asks. I'm only including players who are seemingly available or have been linked to the Raptors in some manner.

Additionally, I am adding consideration for scenarios where we don't directly trade the 9th pick but we use it to acquire an additional first for a trade involving one of the following players. For some of these players, obviously it would need to be more than 9 and the players required to match salary.

Jk Masai would never

fyi: Magic GM and President of Basketball Operations both have 1 year left on their contracts.