Are we one good bench piece away from title contention?

[RPGenerate]

This thought dawned on me when Brad tightened up our rotation to eight players (The starters, Smart, Kanter, and a bit of Ojeleye) in the Lakers game. It seemed our team played much better without the mostly unproven part of the bench. So my question is, is our main weakness that needs to be address is our bench? I say we just need a good, preferably veteran, piece that can be a consistently positive presences on the floor when I our main guys need a break. Any ideas on who that could be, whether we get him in a trade, or on the buyout market?

[Surferdad]

Eight is enough, lol.  The problem is not the playoff depth but the top 3 players aren’t good enough to win a championship.

[RPGenerate]

Eight is enough, lol.  The problem is not the playoff depth but the top 3 players aren’t good enough to win a championship.

I'd say the problem is very much the depth. After Kanter and Smart, no one else has shown consistency in being positive players. One of our starters gets injured, and we're down to one bench player.

[SparzWizard]

We need a reliable big or a sharp shooting guard off the bench.

[NKY fan]

This thought dawned on me when Brad tightened up our rotation to eight players (The starters, Smart, Kanter, and a bit of Ojeleye) in the Lakers game. It seemed our team played much better without the mostly unproven part of the bench. So my question is, is our main weakness that needs to be address is our bench? I say we just need a good, preferably veteran, piece that can be a consistently positive presences on the floor when I our main guys need a break. Any ideas on who that could be, whether we get him in a trade, or on the buyout market?

This has been discussed here in length and I think most agree we can use a rotation level big ( for instance Montrzl might be being shopped)
And a scorer off the bench - a scoring guard - dinwiddie would be ideal.
I have no idea of those two can be had with the picks we have but that’s what I think our need is.
The rookies can’t handle the bright lights moments yet and half of them might be gone next year anyway...
Also there is small chance that TL comes back healthy and smarter becomes our montrezl
There is A very very very small chance that one of Romeo , Carsen or waters becomes the scorer of the bench we need

[RPGenerate]

This thought dawned on me when Brad tightened up our rotation to eight players (The starters, Smart, Kanter, and a bit of Ojeleye) in the Lakers game. It seemed our team played much better without the mostly unproven part of the bench. So my question is, is our main weakness that needs to be address is our bench? I say we just need a good, preferably veteran, piece that can be a consistently positive presences on the floor when I our main guys need a break. Any ideas on who that could be, whether we get him in a trade, or on the buyout market?

This gas been discussed here in length and I think most agree we can use a rotation level big ( for instance Montrzl might be being shopped)
And a scorer off the bench - a scoring guard - dinwiddie would be ideal.
I have no idea of those two can be had with the picks we have but that’s what I think our need is.
The rookies can’t handle the bright lights moments yet and half of them might be gone next year anyway...
Also there is small chance that TL comes back healthy and smarter becomes our montrezl
There is A very very very small chance that one of Romeo , Carsen or waters becomes the scorer of the bench we need

Agreed for the most part. However I'd argue that Romeo could very well be our bench scorer in the coming years, so this elusive bench piece doesn't even have to be for the long term.

[Surferdad]

Eight is enough, lol.  The problem is not the playoff depth but the top 3 players aren’t good enough to win a championship.

I'd say the problem is very much the depth. After Kanter and Smart, no one else has shown consistency in being positive players. One of our starters gets injured, and we're down to one bench player.

Illogical. It doesn’t matter if a starter gets injured if those starters are not good enough.  In any case, generally speaking the eventual champion has very few or no injuries.

[Phantom255x]

Someone like a Cauley-Stein, Burks, Bertans, Saric, Bjelica, etc. would help us a ton. I hope Danny actually makes 2 additions this trading deadline. 1 through small trade, another through buyout market. But if Poirier does do well + Timelord ends up coming back after the Break, I guess our frontcourt would be okay, but please add a bench scorer.

I look at a lot of these other teams (like Clippers, Lakers, Raptors, etc.) and they have benches which can truly hold their own if their starters sit. I fear our starters sitting and the bench having some big scoring drought against a great team, though fortunately that hasn't happened lately!

[RPGenerate]

Eight is enough, lol.  The problem is not the playoff depth but the top 3 players aren’t good enough to win a championship.

I'd say the problem is very much the depth. After Kanter and Smart, no one else has shown consistency in being positive players. One of our starters gets injured, and we're down to one bench player.

Illogical. It doesn’t matter if a starter gets injured if those starters are not good enough.  In any case, generally speaking the eventual champion has very few or no injuries.

I don't agree on our starters not being good enough, so I guess we'll agree to disagree. Regardless tho, depth is very important to any team, even if only for the regular season. Do you think the Raptors load management on Kawhi would have brought them a championship if they didn't have great depth?

[nickagneta]

I wonder how hard it would be to get Mykhailiuk from Detroit?

Kid impressed me when we played them. He has a very consistent, three point shooting form and success rate...43.5% or so and that is at more than 4.5 threes a game. Showed some spunk defensively though limited. Not much of rebounder or passer but as that guy that can sit in that corner in Brad's offense that gets the kick out three, he could be deadly. It's something we hoped to get from Edwards but Mykhailliuk brings it now.

Would Edwards and the Milwaukee pick get him? He has to be better than anything we are more than likely to get at pick 30 next year, right? Or is that too much?

[Surferdad]

Eight is enough, lol.  The problem is not the playoff depth but the top 3 players aren’t good enough to win a championship.

I'd say the problem is very much the depth. After Kanter and Smart, no one else has shown consistency in being positive players. One of our starters gets injured, and we're down to one bench player.

Illogical. It doesn’t matter if a starter gets injured if those starters are not good enough.  In any case, generally speaking the eventual champion has very few or no injuries.

I don't agree on our starters not being good enough, so I guess we'll agree to disagree. Regardless tho, depth is very important to any team, even if only for the regular season. Do you think the Raptors load management on Kawhi would have brought them a championship if they didn't have great depth?

No, but they had Kawhi, that is my point.

[RPGenerate]

Eight is enough, lol.  The problem is not the playoff depth but the top 3 players aren’t good enough to win a championship.

I'd say the problem is very much the depth. After Kanter and Smart, no one else has shown consistency in being positive players. One of our starters gets injured, and we're down to one bench player.

Illogical. It doesn’t matter if a starter gets injured if those starters are not good enough.  In any case, generally speaking the eventual champion has very few or no injuries.

I don't agree on our starters not being good enough, so I guess we'll agree to disagree. Regardless tho, depth is very important to any team, even if only for the regular season. Do you think the Raptors load management on Kawhi would have brought them a championship if they didn't have great depth?

No, but they had Kawhi, that is my point.

Kawhi wouln't have been able to win a championship without depth. You need both... Which is my point. So let's agree to disagree.

[tazzmaniac]

Eight is enough, lol.  The problem is not the playoff depth but the top 3 players aren’t good enough to win a championship.

I'd say the problem is very much the depth. After Kanter and Smart, no one else has shown consistency in being positive players. One of our starters gets injured, and we're down to one bench player.

Illogical. It doesn’t matter if a starter gets injured if those starters are not good enough.  In any case, generally speaking the eventual champion has very few or no injuries.

I don't agree on our starters not being good enough, so I guess we'll agree to disagree. Regardless tho, depth is very important to any team, even if only for the regular season. Do you think the Raptors load management on Kawhi would have brought them a championship if they didn't have great depth?

Yes I do.  The Raptors went to a 7 or 8 man rotation in the playoffs like everyone else does.  In their toughest series against the Sixers, the Raptors bench was terrible except for Ibaka who was decent.  In game 7 the Raptors played 7 and the Sixers played 8.  Unfortunately for the Sixers one of those was Greg Monroe for 2 minutes for a +/- of -9 which cost them that series and possibly a championship. 

[Surferdad]

Eight is enough, lol.  The problem is not the playoff depth but the top 3 players aren’t good enough to win a championship.

I'd say the problem is very much the depth. After Kanter and Smart, no one else has shown consistency in being positive players. One of our starters gets injured, and we're down to one bench player.

Illogical. It doesn’t matter if a starter gets injured if those starters are not good enough.  In any case, generally speaking the eventual champion has very few or no injuries.

I don't agree on our starters not being good enough, so I guess we'll agree to disagree. Regardless tho, depth is very important to any team, even if only for the regular season. Do you think the Raptors load management on Kawhi would have brought them a championship if they didn't have great depth?

No, but they had Kawhi, that is my point.

Kawhi wouln't have been able to win a championship without depth. You need both... Which is my point. So let's agree to disagree.

Sure. 
My model is the 1986 C's championship squad.  They used a roster formula I like to call 1 - 3 - 8:
1 - You need one elite superstar (Bird)
3 - You need 3 all-stars (Bird, Parish, McHale)
8 - You need 8 players who could start on many other teams

The current C's roster fails on at least the first criteria.  Like I said originally '8 is enough' and more does not help if you don't have a true superstar.

[Fafnir]

No.

They're already a fringe title contender (offense and defense that are top 5 in the league, top 5 net rating). One random starter/high level bench piece piece doesn't change that imho.

To ascend from that fringe contender zone they go from having 3 top 25 guys to at least 1 top 10 guy. Honestly if this year's Bucks team wasn't so good they'd probably not be "fringe", but the Bucks are a 07-08 Celtics, second/third year Miami LeBron, a 15-16 GSW level, etc. team.

Those sort of teams get beat of course, but its tough!