Brian Windhorst

But literally, the last three contracts, big contracts that the Raptors have signed, the whole league has taken a gasp and said, oh, my God.

Now, the acquisitions of them were beautiful, but the contracts have been heavy.

I mean, you don't have to ask me that.

I mean, they've...

They've done a very nice job to pick themselves up from where they were a couple years ago when they had to move on from Kyle and they moved on from Siakam.

They've done a nice job rebuilding the core.

Their challenge is they are in, you know, look around the East, look at the teams in the East, look at what Boston has, look at what Cleveland has, look at what Detroit has, look at the teams in the West.

and say, how does this particular group rise up?

They've done a really nice job getting from 10th to 5th.

Getting higher than 5th is going to be hard, and the real challenge is going to be the players that they – where we are in the NBA today, and I understand fans don't always totally fully get this conversation because it's changed.

player value from literally just two, three years ago is different now.

A team cannot afford to have one or two bad contracts on its books.

It just can't.

Because before, it just cost your owner a bunch of money.

And if your owner could spend, and the Raptors were a deeper pocketed franchise, if your owner could spend, you could buy your way out of a problem.

You could survive a bad contract.

Now, when you have a bad contract or two, it kneecaps you, um,

and what's your ability to team build.

And, like, by the way, I'm not sitting over here saying, boy, the Raptors have some challenges getting to the next level and ignoring everybody else.

The Cavs are in the same boat.