Masaiah Give us a Miracle!! - Official Raptors 2019 Offseason thread
- Thread starter MikelArteta
- Start date
i dont get kawhi and danny these dudes left in the middle of the night yet they keep coming back
go chill and stay in la
go chill and stay in la
thatrapsfan
Superstar
Would’ve preferred Sixers/Warriors but I’ll take it. Assuming this will be a home game with the banner and ring presentation?
CJ
Your objective semi-troll
Pascal needs to run the fade.i dont get kawhi and danny these dudes left in the middle of the night yet they keep coming back
go chill and stay in la
Then challenge PG one on one with Kawhi watching.
LAS VEGAS — Kyle Lowry was first to hop out of his seat, his championship cap and Damon Stoudamire throwback jersey then streaking across the stage, after Kawhi Leonard ended his speech during the Toronto Raptors’ championship parade with the most self-aware and protracted laugh of the year. In their one glorious and career-validating season together, Lowry got to witness first-hand that Leonard didn’t exactly match the drab, robotic persona he often displays publicly.
Leonard was usually prepared with some timely dry humor, once smack-talked Nick Nurse into silence when the rookie coach tried to compare a situation to one of his experiences in the G League, and was genuinely pleasant to be around. So, the mic-dropping chuckle that had his teammates scrambling and falling over themselves wasn’t out of character.
“That’s him,” Lowry said Monday after Team USA practice at UNLV’s Mendenhall Center. “I’ve been telling y’all, he’s a fun dude. He really is a fun guy.”
The Fun Guy exited Toronto in the early morning hours of July 6, leaving behind the greatest single-season legacy in one town (or country) in NBA history for a homecoming with the Los Angeles Clippers. With Leonard gone, the Raptors are the first championship team forced to defend its title with the Finals MVP playing elsewhere. Toronto had the shortest of championship hangovers and won’t have the chance bring back the same team – especially after Lowry’s starting backcourt mate Danny Green followed Leonard to Los Angeles, albeit with the Lakers – but Lowry believes the Raptors will still be looking to repeat.
“It is what it is,” Lowry said of the changes the Raptors underwent only a few weeks after the title. “At the end of the day, we’re still going to be able to run it back. We’re going to be the defending champions and we’re going to try to defend our title. I’m confident in what I can do, what our team can do.”
Lowry wasn’t blindsided by the decision since Leonard’s affection for his hometown was well-known before San Antonio shipped him up north and the Clippers spent an entire season flirting with him.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Lowry said. “He texted me and let me know. I told him, ‘I’m happy for you.’ That’s how I’ve always been. I’m happy for the guys, especially a guy that helped you do something fantastic. Do something great. He’s an unbelievable friend of mine and he’s a good guy. He made the decision to go home and I’m happy with that and I’m happy for him. Truly, I am genuinely happy for him. He gets a chance to be around his family and friends and you’ve got to respect the guy and be happy for him.
“He gave us everything he had,” Lowry continued. “He played his butt off. He helped us win a championship. You’ve got to respect that, right?”
Though he would’ve loved for Leonard to come back — he led Raptors fans to a chant of “five more years” at the parade — Lowry wasn’t going to make a recruitment pitch. Even when DeMar DeRozan, his closest friend in the league, faced a similar situation three years ago, Lowry never got involved.
“I’ve never been a recruiter. So it ain’t going to happen. It won’t ever happen,” Lowry said. “I let guys make their own decisions. You want guys to make a decision based on their happiness and that’s what they did.”
Lowry will soon confront his own decision as he enters the final season of a three-year, $100-million deal. After establishing himself as a perennial All-Star and contributing to the changed perception of the NBA’s lone franchise outside of the United States, Lowry said he wants to continue the longest and most successful partnership of his 13-year career. He hasn’t spoken to Raptors president Masai Ujiri much aside from providing updates on the surgically repaired left thumb with which he played injured the last two rounds of the postseason.
“I want to be there. I would love to have an extension. We’ll see what happens,” Lowry, 33, said. “I would love to be here long term, but we’ll find out, and have that discussion when the time is right.”
Leonard was usually prepared with some timely dry humor, once smack-talked Nick Nurse into silence when the rookie coach tried to compare a situation to one of his experiences in the G League, and was genuinely pleasant to be around. So, the mic-dropping chuckle that had his teammates scrambling and falling over themselves wasn’t out of character.
“That’s him,” Lowry said Monday after Team USA practice at UNLV’s Mendenhall Center. “I’ve been telling y’all, he’s a fun dude. He really is a fun guy.”
The Fun Guy exited Toronto in the early morning hours of July 6, leaving behind the greatest single-season legacy in one town (or country) in NBA history for a homecoming with the Los Angeles Clippers. With Leonard gone, the Raptors are the first championship team forced to defend its title with the Finals MVP playing elsewhere. Toronto had the shortest of championship hangovers and won’t have the chance bring back the same team – especially after Lowry’s starting backcourt mate Danny Green followed Leonard to Los Angeles, albeit with the Lakers – but Lowry believes the Raptors will still be looking to repeat.
“It is what it is,” Lowry said of the changes the Raptors underwent only a few weeks after the title. “At the end of the day, we’re still going to be able to run it back. We’re going to be the defending champions and we’re going to try to defend our title. I’m confident in what I can do, what our team can do.”
Lowry wasn’t blindsided by the decision since Leonard’s affection for his hometown was well-known before San Antonio shipped him up north and the Clippers spent an entire season flirting with him.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Lowry said. “He texted me and let me know. I told him, ‘I’m happy for you.’ That’s how I’ve always been. I’m happy for the guys, especially a guy that helped you do something fantastic. Do something great. He’s an unbelievable friend of mine and he’s a good guy. He made the decision to go home and I’m happy with that and I’m happy for him. Truly, I am genuinely happy for him. He gets a chance to be around his family and friends and you’ve got to respect the guy and be happy for him.
“He gave us everything he had,” Lowry continued. “He played his butt off. He helped us win a championship. You’ve got to respect that, right?”
Though he would’ve loved for Leonard to come back — he led Raptors fans to a chant of “five more years” at the parade — Lowry wasn’t going to make a recruitment pitch. Even when DeMar DeRozan, his closest friend in the league, faced a similar situation three years ago, Lowry never got involved.
“I’ve never been a recruiter. So it ain’t going to happen. It won’t ever happen,” Lowry said. “I let guys make their own decisions. You want guys to make a decision based on their happiness and that’s what they did.”
Lowry will soon confront his own decision as he enters the final season of a three-year, $100-million deal. After establishing himself as a perennial All-Star and contributing to the changed perception of the NBA’s lone franchise outside of the United States, Lowry said he wants to continue the longest and most successful partnership of his 13-year career. He hasn’t spoken to Raptors president Masai Ujiri much aside from providing updates on the surgically repaired left thumb with which he played injured the last two rounds of the postseason.
“I want to be there. I would love to have an extension. We’ll see what happens,” Lowry, 33, said. “I would love to be here long term, but we’ll find out, and have that discussion when the time is right.”
With his left thumb encased in a mini plastic cast, Lowry will be a spectator this week in Las Vegas. He had surgery to repair a torn ligament on July 18 and plans to meet with his doctor next week, hoping to receive clearance to participate in the FIBA World Cup. While most of his All-Star peers and all but one of his teammates (Harrison Barnes) from the 2016 Olympic gold medal-winning team not around this time, Lowry could’ve easily taken the rest of the summer off to rest, recuperate and celebrate.
“I wanted to be a part of it,” Lowry said. “I love USA Basketball. I got a gold medal and I wanted to have a chance to keep the legacy going and have a chance to be coached by Coach (Gregg) Popovich. You look at this crop, we’ve got a bunch of young guys, future All-NBA players. Future, maybe, possible MVPs. You’ve got a lot of potential on this team. It’s always good to be around them.”
Before this NBA season ended in a champagne shower, Team USA provided Lowry with his only chance to win something of significance. Lowry returned from the Rio Olympics possessing the ball from the gold medal game. During the Raptors’ championship run, Lowry tracked down the game ball from the Eastern Conference Finals victory against Milwaukee and the NBA Finals win against the Golden State Warriors. The conference finals ball will remain in his home but Lowry said the Finals ball would go somewhere more important than his personal trophy case: “That’s going to Toronto,” Lowry said that night in Oakland, Calif., after the Raptors shut down Oracle Arena. “That one is going to the city.”
The Raptors’ title will always be viewed as unique and unprecedented, given how the team was built of no former lottery picks and involved a one-year rental of one of the game’s best players. If Lowry learned anything from the experience, it was the role luck plays in pushing a team over the top.
Led by Lowry and his stubborn will, Toronto was loaded with players who had something to prove. That tenacity wouldn’t have been enough without a few breaks going their way: Leonard’s heroics in Game 4 of the conference semifinals which spared the Raptors a 3-1 deficit against Philadelphia; the four-bounce finish in Game 7 of the same series; the uphill, double-overtime fight against Milwaukee that prevented them from going down 0-3. They only had to see 12 minutes of Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson missed one game and eventually left the series with a season-ending knee injury.
The NBA rewarded the Raptors’ success with a long-overdue Christmas Day game, a positive development for fans who were upset about being slighted over the years (“I never complained. Just so you know,” said Lowry, who enjoyed spending the holiday with his family). A defending champion might never be more overlooked and dismissed but Lowry won’t let anyone discredit what they accomplished — and still hope to accomplish — even with Leonard going back to Cali.
“No. Not at all. We’re champions,” Lowry said. “That will never be taken away from us. Ever. Ever, ever. Ever, ever.”
“I wanted to be a part of it,” Lowry said. “I love USA Basketball. I got a gold medal and I wanted to have a chance to keep the legacy going and have a chance to be coached by Coach (Gregg) Popovich. You look at this crop, we’ve got a bunch of young guys, future All-NBA players. Future, maybe, possible MVPs. You’ve got a lot of potential on this team. It’s always good to be around them.”
Before this NBA season ended in a champagne shower, Team USA provided Lowry with his only chance to win something of significance. Lowry returned from the Rio Olympics possessing the ball from the gold medal game. During the Raptors’ championship run, Lowry tracked down the game ball from the Eastern Conference Finals victory against Milwaukee and the NBA Finals win against the Golden State Warriors. The conference finals ball will remain in his home but Lowry said the Finals ball would go somewhere more important than his personal trophy case: “That’s going to Toronto,” Lowry said that night in Oakland, Calif., after the Raptors shut down Oracle Arena. “That one is going to the city.”
The Raptors’ title will always be viewed as unique and unprecedented, given how the team was built of no former lottery picks and involved a one-year rental of one of the game’s best players. If Lowry learned anything from the experience, it was the role luck plays in pushing a team over the top.
Led by Lowry and his stubborn will, Toronto was loaded with players who had something to prove. That tenacity wouldn’t have been enough without a few breaks going their way: Leonard’s heroics in Game 4 of the conference semifinals which spared the Raptors a 3-1 deficit against Philadelphia; the four-bounce finish in Game 7 of the same series; the uphill, double-overtime fight against Milwaukee that prevented them from going down 0-3. They only had to see 12 minutes of Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson missed one game and eventually left the series with a season-ending knee injury.
The NBA rewarded the Raptors’ success with a long-overdue Christmas Day game, a positive development for fans who were upset about being slighted over the years (“I never complained. Just so you know,” said Lowry, who enjoyed spending the holiday with his family). A defending champion might never be more overlooked and dismissed but Lowry won’t let anyone discredit what they accomplished — and still hope to accomplish — even with Leonard going back to Cali.
“No. Not at all. We’re champions,” Lowry said. “That will never be taken away from us. Ever. Ever, ever. Ever, ever.”
Ayo brehs I tore my achilles
Yikes. Playing ball or just randomly?
Soccer...I was having a great game too haha
Ouch. Hopefully you'll have a speedy recovery.