Season Preview - Toronto Raptors : Reloaded

[blackice]

After a disappointing season in which the teams franchise player, Cory Joseph, missed a substantial amount of time with a major injury the team plummeted. After going into the season with optimism and a "big 3" of Cory Joseph, Milos Teodosic and Isaiah Austin, missing the playoffs was a huge blow and the fan base was calling for a rebuild and the front office started looking at deals for Joseph to jumpstart the next era around Anfernee Simons. After discussion with teams and a fairly successful free agency the team happened to reach out to the Spurs after they indicated they were rebuilding and willing to move MVP candidate "Terry Rozier". The Spurs wanted two things in any deal for Rozier - expiring contract and a young rebuiding piece. After a short back and forth a deal was reached and Rozier was packing his bags and headed north of the border.


Can Rozier replicate the season he just had and potentially win the MVP?

The core was set and after going into free agency with no caproom or exceptions, and only minimum contracts to hand out the team bolstered the bench with the following players:

Dion Waiters
Cody Zeller
Tyler Stone
Troy Daniels
Doug McDermott
Bryce Cotton
Jonas Valanciunas
Abdoulaye N'Doye

Weirdly enough, out of all the moves done, the most under the radar signing was Dion Waiters who gives us some much needed 3 point shooting and defense - essentially a high end 3&D player. He was cut by Washington and getting a 4M value contract on a min was huge for a cap strapped team like ours. This might be a controversial move, moving superstar Rozier to a 6th man role but if you look a bit more closely it makes sense. Waiters can space the floor and allows Joseph and Hezonja to get their shots up and maintain a high USG% rate, and the defense should be elite. Rozier playing starting minutes off the bench will allow him to shred second units and allows us some flexibility matchup wise.

Headcoach Mike D'Antoni had this to say:

Me and the coaching staff sat down with Rozier and we came to an understanding. Coming off the bench will allow him to get move shots and run the team but we needed to make sure he was ok with it. He told us "I'll do what I need to do to win" and that was that.

The frontcourt of Isaac/Bamba is elite defensively and should prove to be the backbone of a top tier defense and they don't take a ton of shots so the fit is nice in that regard. Hezonja as a 3rd option playing off of the guards should have a career year and the bench is deep this year.

The rotation is set as:

Cory Joseph/Ryan Arcidiacono/Bryce Cotton
Dion Waiters/Terry Rozier/Troy Daniels
Mario Hezonja/Jordan McRae/Abdoulaye N'Doye
Jonathan Isaac/Tyler Stone/Doug McDermott
Mohamed Bamba/Jonas Valanciunas/Cody Zeller

The only issue that could potentially hurt us is spacing, but we've made moves to rectify the issue with Arcidiacono/Waiters/Daniels/McDermott seeing major minutes which should allow Joseph/Rozier to slash and play drive and kick offense with shooters to break zone defenses.

Where do you think this team ends up in a tough East?

[Ramcus]

I think Rozier should start.

This team is going to be heavily reliant on their star talent to win games, but that star talent is 2 MVP-level guards, a scoring wing and a defending wing, and an elite shot blocker. It could work.

[TheTwoWallaces]

Oh Rozier off the bench is interesting. You could be right that 2nd units are gonna get overwhelmed by him.

Looks like an area of weakness is frontcourt depth. Any minor injuries to Bamba or Isaac and you guys are going to have a hard time keeping up with the playoff race in the East.

Another fun roster in the East. There are a lot of those!

[rh0xxy]

Well Rozier was well accustomed to be a sixth man anyway so that wont be a problem i guess, i remember him playing most of his career there but the one important thing though, Rozier incredible resurgence last season was because he was inserted in the starting lineup so that could be where he fits better but who knows what happens in Toronto.

[blackice]

I think Rozier should start.

This team is going to be heavily reliant on their star talent to win games, but that star talent is 2 MVP-level guards, a scoring wing and a defending wing, and an elite shot blocker. It could work.

Pretty much this, you summarized it well. We'll have to make sure there's enough shots to go around and our team defense has to show up every night.

[blackice]

Oh Rozier off the bench is interesting. You could be right that 2nd units are gonna get overwhelmed by him.

Looks like an area of weakness is frontcourt depth. Any minor injuries to Bamba or Isaac and you guys are going to have a hard time keeping up with the playoff race in the East.

Another fun roster in the East. There are a lot of those!

Good point, I think Tyler Stone is a quality third big though. He started every game last season for Denver and can rebound with the best of them and is efficient as well. But yeah the plan is to have Rozier shred second units but we'll have to see how that goes.

[blackice]

Well Rozier was well accustomed to be a sixth man anyway so that wont be a problem i guess, i remember him playing most of his career there but the one important thing though, Rozier incredible resurgence last season was because he was inserted in the starting lineup so that could be where he fits better but who knows what happens in Toronto.

I don't think the issue is whether Rozier starts or comes off the bench - I think his resurgence came because Jabari Parker was moved and Rozier was able to take a ton of shots because no one around him was a scorer. Joseph's 2024 season was the same situation and he scored 27 PPG on 46 FG%. So it's a matter of figuring out how best to use them both.

[rh0xxy]

Well Rozier was well accustomed to be a sixth man anyway so that wont be a problem i guess, i remember him playing most of his career there but the one important thing though, Rozier incredible resurgence last season was because he was inserted in the starting lineup so that could be where he fits better but who knows what happens in Toronto.

I don't think the issue is whether Rozier starts or comes off the bench - I think his resurgence came because Jabari Parker was moved and Rozier was able to take a ton of shots because no one around him was a scorer. Joseph's 2024 season was the same situation and he scored 27 PPG on 46 FG%. So it's a matter of figuring out how best to use them both.

Correct me if i'm wrong, as i recalled Parker was also starting alongside Rozier that time when Rozier was beasting. Only this offseason Parker was dealt, same with Rozier.

[blackice]

Correct me if i'm wrong, as i recalled Parker was also starting alongside Rozier that time when Rozier was beasting. Only this offseason Parker was dealt, same with Rozier.

Oh you could be right, I'd have to take a closer look. I remember Rozier taking off when he could take the bulk of shots but whether that's better with the first unit or second is what I'll have to experiment with and figure out. Either way he'll be around 30-34 MPG.

[GreenBear]

You always build interesting teams, that's for sure. I actually like Rozier much better leading the 2nd unit personally. He'd definitely take shots away from CJ and Hezonja while playing with them, and that could be counter-productive imo. But with the 2nd unit, I have no problems with Rozier dominating the touches. He won't be taking away from your other stars there, and he has a very nice defensive game. He'd also provide nice scoring depth if CJ or Hezonja go down for a bit with an injury.

[emplep7]

Yeah, I think you have this set up right. If you put Rozier, CJ, and Hez on the floor at the same time its going to lead to a pretty bad result overall so staggering them throughout the game will get the most out of them.

I don't know what to make of this team tbh since adding Rozier is a pretty drastic change, but I'm looking forward to seeing how they perform.

[bt]

The beauty in all this so that with Toronto, you should be able to have an elite scoring option on the floor at all times during a game.

With the right players around them, including some low usage, it could work well.

[OneNole]

I think rozier off the bench is the right move. It's the same thing I did when I had 3 stars, making sure two were always on the court. With that said, I still think this team will fight for .500 and in the east that may not be enough to make the playoffs.