Kawhi Leonard gets Traded to the Raptors, Playoff Implications and The Game I Wish I Never Saw

Peeze’s Playbook

Week 10

By Paolo Della Rocca

Kawhi Leonard is now a Raptor. Where eI thought Canadian basketball fans would be overjoyed they act like 12 year old fan boys. To be honest, this is a decent move from a below average organization. Once again, I will remind people that I have no allegiance for any team. As for the Raps being poorly run. This is an organization that just fired their head coach in the same year that he was coach of the year, thus ensuring he could only be replaced by a downgrade.

The deal isn’t bad for a few reasons. Demar Derozan is a max player who has three years left on his contract. At the moment, Kawhi Leonard is actually making 10 million dollars a year less than Derozan. This gives the Raptors 9 million dollars of cap flexibility. Since the NBA is not a zero sum game and you can go over the cap if the team is willing to pay a luxury tax (I won’t go into Bird years and tenure here but I assure you the information is easily accessible). They’ve replaced a reasonably good player with a guy who is largely considered to be of superstar talent. This is important in a league dominated by superstars.

Many claim, but he’s a rental. That is a fair assessment. However, it seems clear that both the team and fans were ready to give up on the Derozan led team. He often didn’t perform in the playoffs nd he was on the books for three more full seasons. This means that by trading him, they can sign Kawhi Leonard and with some creativity can add another star piece. They have the assets to acquire a top tier player. This is cap flexibility they did not have when Derozan was using up a valuable max salary roster spot. With regards to Kawhi Leonard siting out the season. They can use this to make a trade for more assets and young talent (a strategy that worked well for the Celtics this decade). They can hold on to Kawhi even though he doesn’t play and will clear the cap space that this trade was intended to accomplish in the first place. Finally, they can work with Leonard to try and arrange a sign and trade which is accomplished fairly often in the NBA.

Demar Derozan ends up in a decent situation as well. He is traded to a better organization and after feeling like he was betrayed by his team this offseason this may turn out to be a positive move for a guy who made sacrifices to stay with the Raptors last time he was an unrestricted free agent. People seem to be upset with him and has landed him as the subject of ridicule. Yet we don’t like to be lied to by our employers and are constantly looking for the best working situations. Players are people at the end of the day and if you are the type who does not feel pity for them because of how much money they make remember that they are worth more than you. They’re better than you are and for the most part, if this is your paradigm, you’re a jealous person whose sense of morality was formed in little league and warped by cheesy Hollywood films that are chalk full of cliche.

The point is, everyone rushes to have their opinion heard first. I prefer to wait it out and to see if my assessment is right. Either way the next NBA season will be enticing.

Playoff Scenarios

There is one playoff scenario that is particularly interesting in E1. All the teams have qualified in E2 and as such no other teams can qualify after tonight’s games. Remember the only teams that will be selected and placed into one of two playoff brackets. While teams were fairly arbitrarily placed in division E1 and E2 prior to the season. At the end of the season the members of the selection committee will consider the qualifying team’s records, trajectory and the strength of schedule of each team (as analyzed by our strength of schedule analyzer). In any case here’s what’s at stake tonight.

Dude Where’s the Endzone?: Their week 10 matchup is against Grinders this evening. Grinders present a potentially winnable game. Grinders haven’t won since the end of May.

What they need to qualify:

A win against Grinders
The loss by Green Means Go means that the only team that can disqualify Dude Where’s My Car is Grinders so in essence both teams are in control of their own destiny.

Grinders: A win over Dude Where’s the Endzone means that Grinders would be the 16th and final team qualifying from division E1.

What they need to qualify:

A win against Grinders
A loss by Green Means Go!

Week 10 recaps

Say My Name, Say My Name, Say My Name

“Hey Peeze, watch our game and talk about us”. was the chorus shouted to me from atop the stands at Stade de Papineau from the confident ORSA squad. ORSA had just come off a win in the first half of their week 10 doubleheader. As instructed I stayed for the ORSA vs. Guardians matchup Sunday night.

The first of my observations was of course Moooooooo. I shouted this several times as I approached the field. Once my bias was dealt with I then noted that Pat St.Amand was simply not himself. He took too many shots down field and ignored open reads downfield. This too often ended with the pass being heaved into traffic and the ball ending up in the hands of an ORSA defender. In the first half, Agostino Giagnacovo and Alexander David intercepted Pat St.Amand twice. ORSA’s offense on the other hand was particularly efficient. Antonio Spezia proved adept on moving in the pocket and being able to throw on the run, from a variety of throwing platforms. The offense is predicated on completing short, quick passes and allowing their athletic receivers to ge the yards in space. Agostino Giagnacovo scored two touchdowns but one of the highlight plays for me was Nicholas Antonacci’s catch on a quick corner for a touchdown.

Anytime Guradians play the two receivers to be kept in check are Etienne Vaillancourt and Kevin Marcil. Vaillancourt’s involvement in the game was fairly frequent as he caught 6 passes for 60 yards. He did not score and they didn’t let him get loose for a ton of yards. Kevin Marcil did score but it was on one of only two catches. It does appear as tho the team who’s Moo was so sacred you’d hold it up as a religious icon now seems to be mere mortals rather than infallible deities. ORSA wins their last game 24-19 as both teams make a break for post season glory this week.

Feed My Eyes, Can You Sew Them Shut

There are some games that make you want to tear your eyes out of your face. The matchup between Degenosaurus Rex and Les Amateurs des Sacks was exactly that. This can be expected from games that ended 12-6 (in favour of Degenosaurus Rex. I would love to say that it was a defensive showcase but instead it was truly just a mark of offensive incompetence. Maxime Leblanc was intercepted three times in this game and it could have been far more. Massimo Cannucci broke on a horribly floating pass in the Sack Lover’s own redone and was unable to truly make them pay. The play ended as a PD instead of a pick 6. This was one of 5 pds.

In all fairness to Les Amateurs Des Sacks, Maxime Leblanc is not their full time quarterback and he was playing against a team in Degenosaurus Rex who are not awful defensively. On the defensive side for Les Amateurs des Sacks, they managed to keep Degenosaurus at bay as Sean Martin was thinking bombs away all day as he hurled several uncharted deep passes with reckless abandon. He was intercepted twice by double dash Mathieu-Phillipe Gauthier-Lemieux. The game was 7-6 after the most hilarious convert attempt I’ve seen in a while. Sean Martin tried to hit Andrew Di Miele at the near pilon. Unfortunately the pass and receiver were about three yards out of bounds. This of course did not stop Di Miele from pleading his case to the referee. Hey, you can’t blame a dude for trying. The game was finally decided on a quick pass to Massimo “Mountain Man” Cannucci and that would decide the outcome.

Rants, Ravings and Reflections

Lukas Alexander of Oakheart, where FPF is like Madden is that you cant keep running backwards. Two sacks against doesn’t tell the entire story.
Seeing my QB mechanics on GOTW made me want to vomit. That said, Lance Daniel did a great job as usual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGC8-2sTfeM
Number Juan has officially played the easiest schedule this season. More on the schedule analysis later this week.
ORSA I’ve seen you play 3 times and talked about you on the podcast several times. What else do you want?
Krakens this was a tough year. Time to retool and get ready for Fall or Winter boys. Start recruiting NOW!
Yes Wiseman you beat the Ducks but you didn’t tell me Mat Domon was buried so far in bottle of whiskey that he couldn’t make the game.
The Degenosaurus Rex vs. Les Amateurs des Sacks game was described to me by an onlooker as. “You’re about to climax but just can’t several times until it’s sheer torture because the friction gets you there but the visual can’t get you across the threshold”…it was also way more graphic than that.
GloGang plays down to their competition. If they were this lack lustre all season I would have sold my season tickets.

Wednesday’s Weepy Whispers

For further info on this division and the rest of the league feel free to tune into Calling the Audible where Moe Khan, Simon Dagenais, Eagle at Master Control and GM Koletheras will be discussing the worst official in FPF, the history of basic cable and the outright murder of disco on the day it dies. Remember that the podcast starts half an hour early this week as we have the division E selection show that will place the teams in their appropriate playoff bracket as well as place them in their playoff seeds. Tune in to the Facebook page for more info about the podcast. Please feel free to reach me @peezefpf on twitter or @ Peeze Della Reeze on Facebook to let me know about the various ways in which I was wrong.