Raptors management giving players one last chance to save season

Shams Charania is reporting the Raptors are undecided if they will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. C.J. Miles and Amit Mann discuss why Raptors management are seemingly giving the roster one last chance on the road trip to save their season before change occur.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: You have talked about it, I've talked about it. I mean, I've tweeted about it. This season is not gone, right?

C.J. MILES: Not at all.

AMIT MANN: There's still time for them to make a move here. But it has to start on this road trip. And specifically, I mean, we're going to talk a little bit of the trade deadline coming up, but we're not going to get into the weeds, necessarily, about the Toronto Raptors. And it's kind of on purpose. Because I still believe that Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster and Nick Nurse believe in this group. And they're going to give them every last chance they can to show them that, if you guys really believe in yourselves and this group and you care about playing with each other, this is your last chance.

C.J. MILES: That's the tough part, too. Because you're in a position where we want to be a winning franchise. And we want to do what's right for the future, also. But if this isn't going to work out, or if we're not going to be able to save this and make it, if we're not going to be able to get guys to mesh, then they have to do their jobs too, right?

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

C.J. MILES: They have to either look at this like, how do we prepare for the future and what pieces do you move forward with? Or if there's a piece that we think changes everything and it still allows us to do both sides of that, we have to make that move. And as we know, those guys aren't afraid to.

AMIT MANN: No, they're going to do what's best for everyone. That's no different than the front office, a player, you always got to do what's best for yourself or your franchise.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

C.J. MILES: Go ahead.

AMIT MANN: No, no, no.

C.J. MILES: I want to say that we got to remember also that trading a guy just because we love him as a fan base doesn't mean they're not helping that guy too. Know what I mean? Like the situation that guy could end up in could be better for him. I think we always think from the home standpoint, trading a guy that has provided service to a team is such a bad thing. But it might be a better fit for something else that's a greater need that comes in.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

C.J. MILES: And we might have a player that can fill the role that we're putting out too. I shouldn't say putting out, that sounds bad. That we're sending away to another team. Because now his opportunity grows and we get a better fit for the team. And then we get a young guy who the home team wants to see play too, get to step up and fill the void.

AMIT MANN: And you can leave that relationship and on good terms still.

C.J. MILES: Yes.

AMIT MANN: Right?

C.J. MILES: Yes, which is why I think the open communication is better than people having to go to the media and say, get me out of here. Or doing it that way. I think there should be able to be some type of back and forth with the front office if we get to that stage of things. I should know what you're thinking, and you should know what I'm thinking. It's business.