Canadian Hoops/Toronto Raptors Thread

[Its_asdf]

There was a pretty huge Toronto Raptors thread many moons ago, but I guess the decline of Canadian posters and general shittiness of the Raptors in recent years might have caused some fandom to die out.

Anyway, I thought I'd start a thread to discuss the Raptors, or Canadian basketball in general. With Anthony Bennett going first overall and Andrew Wiggins currently considered the most highly touted prospect in the 2014 draft, there has been one silver lining to being a basketball fan in Canada and that's the skill level/quality of Canadian basketball players has gone up significantly. Kelly Olynyk also had a pretty good looking summer league this season and I really hope that he pans out as a Brad Miller-esque type of player in the league. Add in other kids in college like Tyler Ennis, Kevin Pangos, and I think team Canada can field a pretty good Olympic team in a few years. Things are looking up, and I'm sure as hell more pumped for these players than watching the Raptors.

People also tend to forget about solid role players in the league like Andrew Nicholson, Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph and.... Joel Anthony (I guess I'll include him). Of course Steve Nash has always remained a fixture over in these parts and he's taken on a GM role which has made many Canadians excited considering how many years he has neglected the Olympics.

As for the Raptors side of things, the off-season has been relatively tame from a roster standpoint. A lot of shake ups in upper management and even to this day there are still firings of various coaching staff which is a breath of fresh air since the Raptors DESPERATELY need to clean the stink that the Colangelo era has left here. Thank god Jim Kelly (head scout of the Raptors) has finally been fired, the Raptors have yet to make a decent pick outside of the top 10 for as long as I've been a Raptor fan.

A lot of hopes have been placed on our centre, Jonas Valanciunas to become the cornerstone of the franchise and watching his development near the end of the season was one of the only good things to come out of last season. He's got a great motor and never takes a play off and has shown real promise on both sides of the floor. If Pau Gasol played with a little more consistency and a little less skill, I think he'd be the perfect comparison from a best case scenario standpoint. Of course, knowing the luck of the Raptors, I'm not holding my breath for him to suddenly become a monster two way player that many of our fans expect him to become.

All in all, the Raps are in a tough spot. Not really good enough to tank for Wiggins but not really good enough to make the playoffs. I like Rudy Gay, but I can't fully get on board because he's about $8-9 million overpaid and that really eats away at any financial flexibility that the Raptors have. Couple that with DeRozan and Field's monster contracts, the Raptors have invested a lot into what has been little in return so far. Colangelo had a bit of a habit with throwing around cap space for mediocrity.

What are everyone else's thoughts on the subject? I'd love to hear an outside perspective of the Raptors and I feel like this place needed a jolt of Raptors related discussion. Anyone who is not familiar with basketball in Canada and/or the Raptors feel free to ask me. Been a hardcore Raptor fan since 1999-2000 so I should be able to field any questions anyone has on the Raptors up to that time.

[shadowgrin]

Anyone who is not familiar with basketball in Canada and/or the Raptors feel free to ask me.

Why would I ask someone who blatantly displays his lack of basketball knowledge by considering Joel Anthony a role player. Role player!?

People also tend to forget about solid role players in the league like Andrew Nicholson, Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph and.... Joel Anthony (I guess I'll include him).

[NovU]

The Raptors are on one of 'theNbaGeek's listed team to surprise next season.

Toronto!? But They Lost a Star!

Bargnani was no star player. He was terrible. Simply removing him from that rost makes Toronto better. Yes, Andrea Bargnani was that bad. Replacing him with an average player will make a big difference. JV is going to improve, and Tyler Hansborough will contribute. A lot depends on Lowry's health, of course. And they'd be better if Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan weren't getting heavy minutes. Maybe Masai will find a way to trade them. But they can flirt with the playoffs. In the East, this doesn't equate to being "good", but it does mean 40 wins is a real possibility.


I agree.

[Its_asdf]

The Raptors are on one of 'theNbaGeek's listed team to surprise next season.

Toronto!? But They Lost a Star!

Bargnani was no star player. He was terrible. Simply removing him from that rost makes Toronto better. Yes, Andrea Bargnani was that bad. Replacing him with an average player will make a big difference. JV is going to improve, and Tyler Hansborough will contribute. A lot depends on Lowry's health, of course. And they'd be better if Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan weren't getting heavy minutes. Maybe Masai will find a way to trade them. But they can flirt with the playoffs. In the East, this doesn't equate to being "good", but it does mean 40 wins is a real possibility.


I agree.

I think Masai is going to be playing the wait and see game when it comes to dealing Rudy/DeMar, which ultimately hinges on how much JV develops. If JV can become a solid two way anchor the Raptors will make the playoffs. It's really difficult seeing him having a drastic offensive improvement, considering he plays with two inefficient high usage players on the wing. The Raptors were playing around .500 ball last season post-Rudy Gay trade and the added depth to the bench with Augustine and Hansborough give reason for optimism. At the same time, a few Eastern Conference teams have improved a pretty large amount, particularly Detroit, Cleveland (if Bynum stays healthy) and Brooklyn. Chicago will look a lot better with Rose as well.

I also can't believe that you're still doing the Joel Anthony is the GOAT thing shadow. Guess some things never change haha.

[shadowgrin]

Well he is. Of course he doesn't display the Bill Russell like dominance he used to because Joel is doing what David Robinson once did and that is taking a backseat to the new bigs in the Heat for the good of the team.
Result, two championships.


It's also a pure fact that the NLSC knew first of Joel Anthony's greatness even before Heat fans considered him as their true MVP.

phpBB [video]

How do Raptors fans feel about Dwane Casey?
Despite what he did with that Dallas zone D in 2011 I still think he sucks, he's no Tom Thibodeau.

Would you guys be happy with a George Karl hiring if Masai went after him?

[NovU]

Masai is doing great. He's been pressing Undo buttons on Colangelo moves. I am really interested to see what lies ahead for these Raptors team now.

I think George Karl would be awesome for the Raptors.

[Its_asdf]

Casey? Yeah, a lot of Raptors fans have gone sour on him. When he initially came in as coach he managed to win over a lot of people by vastly improving the raw defensive numbers of the team. What a lot of people didn't realize was that he was just bogging down the pace of the team to limit the amount of possessions both teams had. When he was asked to play a more up tempo style he was exposed last year, and combine that with his ridiculous out of timeout plays (sending Aaron Gray to double Kobe 35 feet out?) and terrible substitution patterns (sending Aaron Gray out in the fourth quarter, at all?) he was one of the most inept coaches in the league.

I also despise the fact that he completely neutered Kyle Lowry. The guy made an attack first point guard play way too conservatively on offence and tried to make him look like Jose Calderon 2.0. Some of that can be attributed to Lowry's shaky health and fitness level though.

I would be happy with any sort of coach with a winning record to be honest. If you look at the Raptors' history of coaching, there has never been any stability or proven coach. For some reason they always try to find some hidden gem of an assistant coach to reign the team in and then they get canned like 2 seasons later. The only coach with any sort of reputation was Lenny Wilkens, but he was just coaching to get the record and phoned it in shortly afterwards.

[NovU]

Looking at the Raptors SG/SFs, there's still a lot of work to do.

- DeMar DeRozan
Terrence Ross
Austin Daye
- Rudy Gay
Steve Novak
Landry Fields
Quentin Richardson

Log jam. Who's going to get minutes over who. Develop young player or play a proven vet. I'd say Novak's the only one that's worth keeping because of his shooting. Everyone else's expandable especially Gay and maybe Fields depending on his health.

[2KWatcher]

If they get Lionell Hollins. thatd boost them a lot but its going to be tough fighting for a position against Pistons.

[deihatein]

Looking at the Raptors SG/SFs, there's still a lot of work to do.

- DeMar DeRozan
Terrence Ross
Austin Daye
- Rudy Gay
Steve Novak
Landry Fields
Quentin Richardson

Will putting Steve Novak at the 4 will work? There is also a possibility of Rudy Gay at the 4 for small ball but I don't know the statistics or whatever so I don't know if that will work as well.

[NovU]

I think that'd work, aka smallball. But the thing is you want to put your best men on the floor. And the Raptors have better players at bigs than SG/SF imo. You don't want smalls to eat up their minutes unnecessarily. Amir Johnson, Tyler Hansbrough, and Jonas Valanciunas are all pretty good players. Ideally, Toronto needs to maximize use of their bigs all around and minimize use of inefficient chuckers like DeRozan, and Gay. I really like Novak though. He's going to be great as a Raptors if he can keep himself motivated and conditioned.

[Its_asdf]

Gay and DeRozan wil get about 80% of the playing time. I'd expect Terrence Ross to get more playing time as well as our sixth man, and Fields and Gay have been moved to the 4 at times last season. Novak is probably going to get spot minutes if they are in dire need of shooting. Daye and Richardson will most likely not be playing.

It's not really a logjam when most of those players are shit. But I think right now the biggest weakness is still perimeter and inside scoring/rebounding which the Raptors have yet to address. Hansborough was sort of brought in to address that, but I don't see him completely covering the Raptors' weakness in the frontcourt, especially since there are basically no centres outside of Valanciunas on this team (Gray is just too slow footed to be effective in today's game).

[NovU]

Gay and DeRozan wil get about 80% of the playing time. I'd expect Terrence Ross to get more playing time as well as our sixth man, and Fields and Gay have been moved to the 4 at times last season. Novak is probably going to get spot minutes if they are in dire need of shooting. Daye and Richardson will most likely not be playing.

That's the thing I think. Novak's a difference maker for the Raptors that lack perimeter shooting as he could open up the defense. It's not good when Gay, DeRozan, Ross, Fields are all in needs of minutes ahead of Novak in the rotation. And none of them are sharp shooters.

But I think right now the biggest weakness is still perimeter and inside scoring/rebounding which the Raptors have yet to address. Hansborough was sort of brought in to address that, but I don't see him completely covering the Raptors' weakness in the frontcourt, especially since there are basically no centres outside of Valanciunas on this team (Gray is just too slow footed to be effective in today's game).

True. But I still like the Raptors frontcourt as is. JV, Hansbrough, and Amir all are nice players, each with their own upside. JV will develop further on what was already an awesome rookie year. Amir Johnson is solid. And Tyler Hansbrough is exact opposite of Andre Bargnani.

[2KWatcher]

True. But I still like the Raptors frontcourt as is. JV, Hansbrough, and Amir all are nice players, each with their own upside. JV will develop further on what was already an awesome rookie year. Amir Johnson is solid. And Tyler Hansbrough is exact opposite of Andre Bargnani.

lol? I think Novak will play 4 for most of his minutes as for Landry Fields.. I think hes not going to get as much minutes which i dont disagree he went to a injury but still he's pretty good maybe i'd rate him 3 below T.Ross if it was in NBA 2K

[NovU]

...

Hansbrough
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... bty01.html
Fields
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... dla01.html

Novak
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... kst01.html
Ross
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... ste01.html

[NovU]

4-7 and ugly losses to the teams they were supposed to beat. I really don't like how Gay and DeRozan are ruining this team. They probably would take 100 shot attempts if they could every night. The most inefficient worthless overrated chucking duo in the NBA. I was really hoping for playoffs season in Canada but I don't like how things are looking.