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Raptors close to acquiring Kawhi Leonard

Coco-puffs said:
UGH.  As much as I love John Tavares, he's probably in the 10-20 range in the league.  And in the NBA, the superstars drive your success more than they do in the NHL (see:  McDavid)
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Bates said:
Tavares is who they traded, Matthews is closer comparison to who they got back.
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So not to belabor this point, but I am totally going to labor this point.  It was a bit tongue in cheek. 

Kawhi Leonard has been described as a superstar.  One of the top 5 players in the league when he is at his best.  The pundits have said that they gave up a real good player to get him. 

I put John Tavares in the superstar category and above the real good player category.  Is he top 5 in the League?  At his best, possibly.  2015 was a monster year for Tavares.  He finished third in Hart trophy voting, and he was a 1st team all star.  He also finished second in the scoring race.  So he's three years removed from that, but he has gotten to that level before, and I don't think he has dropped off that much.     


 
Yeah certainly not worth arguing over but I put Tavares top 20 players in League and Matthews top 10. That would correspond with position I would put two traded players.
Significantly Insignificant said:
Coco-puffs said:
UGH.  As much as I love John Tavares, he's probably in the 10-20 range in the league.  And in the NBA, the superstars drive your success more than they do in the NHL (see:  McDavid)
Click to expand...

Bates said:
Tavares is who they traded, Matthews is closer comparison to who they got back.
Click to expand...

So not to belabor this point, but I am totally going to labor this point.  It was a bit tongue in cheek. 

Kawhi Leonard has been described as a superstar.  One of the top 5 players in the league when he is at his best.  The pundits have said that they gave up a real good player to get him. 

I put John Tavares in the superstar category and above the real good player category.  Is he top 5 in the League?  At his best, possibly.  2015 was a monster year for Tavares.  He finished third in Hart trophy voting, and he was a 1st team all star.  He also finished third in the scoring race.  So he's three years removed from that, but he has gotten to that level before, and I don't think he has dropped off that much.   
Click to expand...
 
Significantly Insignificant said:
Coco-puffs said:
UGH.  As much as I love John Tavares, he's probably in the 10-20 range in the league.  And in the NBA, the superstars drive your success more than they do in the NHL (see:  McDavid)
Click to expand...

Bates said:
Tavares is who they traded, Matthews is closer comparison to who they got back.
Click to expand...

So not to belabor this point, but I am totally going to labor this point.  It was a bit tongue in cheek. 

Kawhi Leonard has been described as a superstar.  One of the top 5 players in the league when he is at his best.  The pundits have said that they gave up a real good player to get him. 

I put John Tavares in the superstar category and above the real good player category.  Is he top 5 in the League?  At his best, possibly.  2015 was a monster year for Tavares.  He finished third in Hart trophy voting, and he was a 1st team all star.  He also finished third in the scoring race.  So he's three years removed from that, but he has gotten to that level before, and I don't think he has dropped off that much.   
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TSN radio called Leonard the Patrice Bergeron of the NBA.
 
Bender said:
I don't know anything about Basketball. How good is Kawhi really? I've read he's like top 3-5 in league good. Any comparable hockey player or old school bball player?
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Me neither. Does this allow the Raptors to lose to Golden State in 5 games or will it still be a sweep?
 
Guru Tugginmypuddah said:
Can he skate backwards even a little bit and does he shoot right?
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damn%20good%20stuff.jpg
 
Bender said:
I don't know anything about Basketball. How good is Kawhi really? I've read he's like top 3-5 in league good. Any comparable hockey player or old school bball player?
Click to expand...

I think a really good comparison might be to Pavel Datsyuk in his prime. Very good offensively while being maybe the best defender in the game.

So maybe think of it like trading someone like Daniel Sedin for Datsyuk.
 
Significantly Insignificant said:
Yeah, rock and a hard place situation.  Kawhi is a top 5 player when he is at his best.  Probably the best player that has been on the team since Carter or McGrady, depending on how you view Bosch.  They had to do something other than shuffling the deck chairs, but it would have been nice if they could have come up with a creative way to add to the group without getting rid of DeRozan.  Sure you wouldn't get a talent like Kawhi, but maybe there is something else out there that you can do to augment the team.  As has been mentioned by others, here is a guy that committed to the team, and you just up and traded him.  I know it happens, but in this situation, it feels like that should have been avoided.
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I don't know to what extent you're a Basketball fan but I feel like that's the sort of thing that would never fly in a million years if we were talking about the Leafs. Imagine, for instance, not trading Phil Kessel because he was a good guy who liked it here and who'd signed two extensions with the Leafs.

But just like trading Kessel was ultimately necessary for the Leafs to take the right steps, this probably was too. I get that it sucks because DeRozan was a good guy who liked it here and it's a shame that he's not going to be someone who we get to see any more but Raptors fans are just as invested in the Raps winning as most of us are with the Leafs so to ask them to put that on hold so that DeMar can stick around would be a tough sell.

It's unfortunate, and it really sucks that it looks like they weren't forthright with DeRozan about it, but that is the nature of the beast when it comes to following professional sports.
 
So, DeMar is bitter; Leonard may not show up; and Spurs coach Popovich will miss Danny Green.    Oh, yes.  The everlasting question:  Who wins the trade?  (That, gentlepeople,  remains to be seen).

[tweet]1019672619728166916[/tweet]

[tweet]1019703358930767875[/tweet]
 
I love how all of us who don't follow basketball are trying to equate this to hockey trade to help get a frame of reference. Lol
 
Bender said:
So is DeRozan just a good player? I have a hard time believing the Tyler Bozak vs Tavares analogy.
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No. DeRozan was a 2nd Team All-NBA player and finished 8th in MVP voting last year. He is a 4 time all-star. He was a very good player. Definitely in the conversation for top 15 or so in the league.

The problem with equating this to hockey is that hockey positions are so fundamentally different. Saying Tavares is a top 10 or top 15 player in the league is kind of meaningless because you have to answer an impossible question like is he better than Carey Price?
 
This might make Raptor fans feel better (or worse depending on which paragraph one reads):

...if Leonard gets to Toronto, realizes he really likes it and embraces the situation, the Raptors could take off. Leonard is basically DeRozan, just way better in every way. Leonard is a better isolation scorer, a better playmaker, a better defender, better in the open floor. If he fits, the Raptors could cook.


https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/kawhi-to-the-raptors-how-much-does-trade-change-eastern-conference-race
 
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