I really enjoyed the loss against the 6ers last night, because we saw glimpses of how great Barnes and Dick can be. They are going to be a big part in the next great Raptors team.

The problem is that you can’t rebuild properly when you don’t fucking have a draft pick. If you look at a successful rebuild like OKC, the key is to tank for a very narrow window and concentrate all your talent gathering in that window (in their case, 3 seasons). This ensures that your young team has direction and grows together on cost-controlled contracts that are slightly staggered. It also ensures you can draft from the top of the draft and get the highest end talent.

Teams like Houston screwed this up by having to cut off their rebuild too early because they don’t have a pick. Other teams like the Cavs put themselves in a bind by trading future picks for players too early, and now they have nothing to build towards if Mitchell chooses to leave or if Mobley doesn’t hit fully. The Bulls were unable to rebuild last year because they didn’t own their own pick.

We have made the same mistakes as all of these teams. By trading our pick away, we cannot commit to a short, high-talent rebuild and instead commit to a plan of drafting in the midfield. The problem is that for whatever reason, we then chose not to extend Siakam and now he has no incentive to stay here after the season ends if we are a lottery team with no pick, and we cant even gather lottery talent as a silver lining if he walks for nothing. We can’t even trade him for anything good because his value is lower on an expiring deal.

Basically, the disaster class of front office management continues. I think it looks like we are headed towards a 3-7 start to the season based on our schedule, so it’ll be interesting to see what the messaging from the front office is at that point when we also don’t have a pick and they can’t plug their ears and yell “WINNING LALALALA” anymore lol

The only silver lining for us is that 2024 isn’t a stacked draft but 2025 will see the next great NBA star in Cooper Flagg get drafted, and his competition Cam Boozer in 2026. We should be in prime position to draft those guys if Siakam walks off this dumpster fire.

TLDR: Masai’s front office continues to make bad decisions, but Siakam walking will force us into a rebuild after this season. It will just have to be a longer, shittier rebuild because of this FO, rather than a quick and efficient one like OKC’s.