The Red Dinos | A Toronto Raptors Dynasty
 

After a disappointing 2012-2013 season for the Toronto Raptors, they look to achieve higher success in the 2014-2015 season and beyond. With the acquisitions of various players of different capabilities, the Raptors look to make a statement and claim the crown of the NBA. Lead by Rudy Gay and Demar Derozan, how can the Raptors fair in the new look NBA?

Re: The Red Dinos | A Toronto Raptors Dynasty
 

TORONTO - The Toronto Raptors have confirmed the trade that will send Andrea Bargnani to the New York Knicks.

"Trade w/ @knicks is done," the team said via Twitter.

The deal was reported more than a week ago but could not be officially completed until Wednesday.

In return, the Raptors receive Knicks reserves Steve Novak, Marcus Camby and Quentin Richardson. The Knicks are also sending the Raptors a 2016 first-round pick and second-round picks in 2014 and 2017.

Bargnani is coming off an injury-shortened season that was his worst since his second year in the league, and had become a lightning rod for a struggling Toronto team that missed the playoffs this past season for the fifth year in a row.

The Raptors attempted to trade Bargnani this past season before two significant elbow injuries derailed any serious interest. The puzzling Italian centre, who looked so good at times in the 2011-12 season, spent more than half this past campaign on the bench.

Re: The Red Dinos | A Toronto Raptors Dynasty
 

Masai Ujiri came in vowing to change the culture around the Raptors and his first significant free agent signing has accomplished that.
The Raptors have agreed to terms on a two-year deal with former Indiana Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough, a 6-foot-9 big man who has made a name for himself as one of the grittiest players in the NBA.

Terms of the deal were not made public but Toronto, hamstrung by arcane NBA salary cap rules, would be getting the four-year veteran at a relative bargain of about $3 million per year.

Hansbrough will significantly increase Toronto’s toughness quotient; he is one of the hardest competitors in the league, often criticized for being close to over-the-top with his physical play.

He was involved in a contentious incident with rookie Toronto centre Jonas Valanciunas during a game last season and will now be playing alongside him in the Raptors front court.

When Ujiri took over from Bryan Colangelo last month, he said he wanted to change the perception of the Raptors around the league.

Toronto has missed the playoffs for the past five seasons — the longest drought in the franchise’s 18-year history — and has been derided as one of the softest teams in the league.

Hansbrough, and gritty backup point guard and free agent signing Julyan Stone, both bring a toughness that Ujiri sought.

Neither signing will be official until the league’s moratorium on free agent moves and trades is lifted Wednesday after final salary cap and tax threshold numbers are released.

With a payroll just creeping over the anticipated tax level, Toronto would have only had a bit more than $3 million to split on the combined salaries of Hansbrough and Stone.

Another bit was added officially on Tuesday, just a day before the moratorium is lifted on free agent signings and trades and just three days before the summer league season is set to begin.

Nick Nurse, who guided the Rio Grande Valley Vipers to the D League championship last season, was added to Dwane Casey’s staff, the first of what is expected to be three or four additions.

Other fine-tuning of the roster or blowing it up — Ujiri has given no true indication which way he is leaning — will begin Wednesday when the trade of Andrea Bargnani to the New York Knicks becomes official.

The Raptors are getting back Steve Novak to play for them, assets in Marcus Camby and Quentin Richardson they can only hope to turn into something more worthwhile, and three future draft picks that have no value today whatsoever.

And it will be up to Ujiri and his new brain trust to figure out where to go from here.

He has put together what seems like a solid staff in executive vice-president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman, hired away from Milwaukee; director of scouting Dan Tolzman, poached from the Denver Nuggets and salary capologist Bobby Webster as the vice-president basketball management and strategy, plucked from the NBA head office in New York.

They all come with impressive resumes and replace a group that had little success over the past five years but the questions are: What can they do? And how quickly can they do it?

The Hansbrough signing came as a surprise and goes to Ujiri’s management style of keeping things under wraps until they are close to done. He was able to get the combative forward at what will be considered a bargain price compared to money other teams might have had to offer.

The new group needs to come to a consensus on what to do with Camby — the veteran would rather be moved or set free to join a legitimate contender — and it’s impossible to see how Richardson fits at any level.

That will mean some creative decision-making is needed, either to package them for draft picks or couple them with players currently under contract to upgrade the roster.

Re: The Red Dinos | A Toronto Raptors Dynasty
 

LAS VEGAS—The Raptors have a roster spot open, no NBA tax burden today and a little less flexibility as the summer continues.

By using the amnesty clause on forward Linas Kleiza — effectively cutting him while still having to pay his $4.6 million salary this season — the Raptors cleared up a situation they didn’t want to have to worry about before the tax penalties are assessed a year from now.

While it’s only the team’s salary obligations on July 1, 2014 that count towards the tax, and other ways might come up to shave salary during the season, there was a sense that getting it out of way before the amnesty window closed Tuesday was best.

“We thought it was safer now to do it,” Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri said after Toronto’s 81-70 summer-league win over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. “Sometimes with those things it’s on your mind the whole time and you don’t want to end up doing something funny or losing something because you’re trying to get under the tax later on.”

If Kleiza is not claimed by another NBA team in the next 48 hours at his full salary, a virtual certainty, he will become a free agent. If another NBA claims him, the minimum salary he would command would come off Toronto’s tab.

But if Kleiza returns to Europe next season, Toronto will be on the hook for the total amount; it will count against the team’s salary-cap figures (they won’t be able to use the money to sign someone else) but won’t be counted against the luxury-tax threshold.

And while they were divesting themselves of the oft-injured Kleiza, who played just 20 games last season, they officially added point guard Dwight Buycks.

The former French league pro made his summer-league debut here Tuesday night, scoring nine points with two assists and five turnovers in Toronto’s win.

Jonas Valanciunas had 18 points and Terrence Ross and Quincy Acy 14 each as the Raptors moved to 2-1 in the summer-league season.

Re: The Red Dinos | A Toronto Raptors Dynasty
 

2k13!!! that exists still!?!?!

following this for sure

Re: The Red Dinos | A Toronto Raptors Dynasty
 

Dude, NBA 2K14 is basically NBA 2K13.5

Re: The Red Dinos | A Toronto Raptors Dynasty
 

Yes it is. Following, good luck, and 2K13 does still exist (and is, in my opinion, better than 2K14 by just a tad).

Re: The Red Dinos | A Toronto Raptors Dynasty
 

It still exists! And its better than NBA 2K14 IMO.. Thanks for following!
Agreed...