[Lewenberg] The Raptors development pipeline has dried up considerably over the years. What was once an organizational strength has become a crippling weakness & the reason for their lack of depth. Could Dowtin be their next success story? Maybe. But, at minimal cost, why not see it through?
The Raptors development pipeline has dried up considerably over the years. What was once an organizational strength has become a crippling weakness & the reason for their lack of depth. Could Dowtin be their next success story? Maybe. But, at minimal cost, why not see it through?
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) April 6, 2023
10 comments
Lol when even the big name guys are criticizing it
For the record,, i’m more baffled by the fact that the Toronto Raptors other 2-way player, Ron Harper Jr., hasn’t gotten much of any playtime, and he’s eligible for the final 2 games/available with the 905 eliminated from the playoffs.
Dude was a sniper in college & if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that this team needs more shooting. He was also quite a solid defender in the G League but, yeah it’s the G League.
Look at our [draft history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Raptors_draft_history). Flynn and Barnes are the only first round picks we drafted since 2018. You need talents to develop, and you not gonna find a hidden gem in late 2nd round every year.
In some years, it make sense to trade away our picks. But right now, I think we need to acquire more talents through draft.
And yet people still insist the FO isn’t making blatant cost cutting moves over actually building a successful team long term.
Dowtin obviously isn’t the future, but he’s been a productive option for us. Hard to take the “we believe in this team” seriously when they won’t spend minimal money for it. It makes it very clear what the playoff push is really about when you don’t bother retaining a decent backup option for it.
I’m convinced that Masai got Fred and Pascal and convinced himself that he could keep acquiring these under the radar players that the rest of the league didn’t think about.
At some point it’s not enough to think you can constantly outsmart the league, and ever since the front office whiffed on Giannis it’s been a downward spiral. They really need to hit the reset button and start building back up, but I guess the playoff revenue is too sweet to sacrifice.
In another timeline Terrance Davis is a 2 way 6moty on this raptor squad
I’m sure the complete lack of opportunity for players on the bench the past 3 years has been one of several factors. Agents can’t point to the Raptors as a place that undrafted players will get an opportunity anymore.
We were also poached of our coaching talent over a number of years.
It has been tough watching the Raps this year. We truly suck, as we have been trying, and still losing games against weak opponents. Tampa had a good reason, but this season just feels rough.
It just feels like everyone is grasping at any reason as to why, when it likely is a terrible influx of multiple factors.
We should have tanked, but I guess there is always hope as they do have a lot of great things in paper. We’ll see if they can win two play-in games in a row …
The dried up well if obvious, Nick gives no one a chance. Young players must play perfect all the time, play bad once you’re gone to the bench. How can you develop with never playing? We were never playing for the title this year, you need to give them a chance to develop but he’s treating every game like do or die. Not one player had developed under Nick Nurse, but plenty have left the Raptors and done well after. They were good players but never had a chance to do anything.
I miss Jerry Stackhouse.