NSL Insider - Team by Team: Toronto Raptors

by gc6, updated on Wednesday, October 16 2019, 12:47 pm EST

Well, where do we start with the Toronto Raptors

On paper they are the best team in the league, bar none. But it wasn't always this way, as they have worked the phones off the hook with trades after the draft had finished.

Lets go through some of the major moves and draft picks from General Manager jessedunne

With the 8th pick in the inaugural NSL Draft, the raptors somehow managed to luck into the best player in the 2k universe in Kevin Durant. Youth seemed to be the flavor of the draft up the top end, allowing him to slide. But at the time it was still unbelievable that he was still there at 8 allowing Jesse the no brainer pick.

But then the unthinkable happened, as Durant went down with a ruptured achilles in the NBA Finals. With the expected recovery time to be roughly 12 months you can expect him to miss the entire 19-20 season.

Then the first of the big changes came, as Toronto wanted to remain competitive they put Durant on the trade block. The Orlando Magic came calling and a deal was made. Damian Lillard and pick 25 for Kevin Durant.

Next in line for the big additions is the Nikola Vucevic trade with the Washington Wizards. Depending on how you look at it you might think he got the big man cheap considering his draft position or maybe the price of Bogdan Bogdanovic and pick 13, as well as a future 1st is right on the money.

If Vooch can have another season like he did last year then its a great trade for the raps, but either way he is in store for a big 2k season with Toronto and i imagine we will see a few 20 rebound games from the starting centre.

After what felt like months of negotiations there was another trade finalized and possibly the last piece of the puzzle assembled. Drizzy Draymond Green comes on board for Rickety Rubio, Domantas Sabonis and a future 1st round pick. Looks like a steep price to pay on paper but Draymond looks like having a big season NBA wise and if he puts it together in the NSL as well, he provides a bit of everything out of the power forward spot for the Raptors. He is also needed for his strong defensive presence as he the only one in the Toronto starting line up that can play that side of the court.

Steal of the Draft:

To be clear, i absolutely hate this saying without even a regular season game being played yet and the term being thrown around so loosely, but i need to make up some words in the word count so i may as well roll with it.

In the 13th round with pick 368th pick, Jesse grabbed Christian Wood. (yea i dont know who he is either)
But as soon as the pick was in Wood started balling out, like a Wilt Chamberlain lite type performance over the last few games of the season. And now being on the Detroit Pistons hopefully Wood can be a super 6th man behind Drummond and Griffin, as he probably wont be needed this season with the NSL raptors as the are pretty stacked for big men at the moment.

Here is a photo of him

Possible Line Up for Game Days:

Point Guard: Damian Lillard, Shabazz Napier. Jordan Loyd

Shooting Guard: Christian James McCollum, Kentavious Caldwell Pope, Jonathon Simmons (if on nba roster)

Small Forward: Rondae Hollis Jefferson, Deandre Bembry, Cody Martin

Power Forward: Draymond Green, Richaun Holmes

Centre: Nikola Vucevic, Aron Baynes, Christian Wood

As you can see they are pretty much stacked. Small Forward is their weakest position by far and it is also the hardest position to find a star in. But they have more than enough firepower to overcome this and having a few players at that position that aren't ball dominate is probably a good thing.

Biggest weakness:

Future Draft picks and Luxury Tax implications.

Obviously having a team this top heavy comes with its downsides. Luckily for gm Jessedunne all his star players are locked up for at least the next 4 years, so he doesn't have to worry about losing anyone any time soon. But the flip side to this is that they are all paid like billionaires, as damian lillard alone has a salary north of 50 million dollars a season in a few years. so he could easily have the most expensive team of all time. Not sure what the maximum gm point fine is for luxury tax payments but he will be paying it, so he better start writing up some articles!

The other small downside is having no 1st round draft picks, not really a big deal if you aren't a fan of the draft, but you do miss out on the chance of picking up a really good player on a cheap contract (however small that chance may be)

Anything less than a Championship in the first couple of years will be a major disappointment for the raptors. The window is wide open for this Torotno Raptors team as a lot of the other teams have opted for youth over winning now.

Damian Lillard is an NSL MVP candidate, but the worry is he might lose a few touches to CJ McCollum and Nikola Vucevic on offense. None of this matters if you are winning of course, but its always nice to have an award for your troubles.

The main worry for this team is the defense, no one besides Draymond Green can play a lick of it so they will always struggle on that end when they come up against a few of the better teams in the league.

The Main Dangers the Raptors will face this year in the quest for Ultimate glory are most likely the Portland Trail Blazers, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Lakers, Philly 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and my dark horse pick the Miami Heat.

In saying that though i still think the Raptors win it all, and you can reference this article at the end of the season to see that i told you so.

	UTAH	115
	CLE	99

	MIN	99
	CHI	118

	ORL	85
	CHI	109

	NO	112
	IND	102

	LAC	121
	SAC	117

NSL Insider - Team by Team: Toronto Raptors

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