Raptors Discussion: v69| It's no longer playoff time. | Raptors eliminated in 2nd round by Cleveland

[A1LeafNation]

Raptors should stop doing go daddy commercials and playing golf so they can play better basketball.

Casey was preaching playing better basketball all season for the playoffs and they failed.

Refs never give raptors favourable calls.

Why do ppl follow this team?

 

[BorntoLose]

 

[stickty111]

Raptors should stop doing go daddy commercials and playing golf so they can play better basketball.

Casey was preaching playing better basketball all season for the playoffs and they failed.

Refs never give raptors favourable calls.

Why do ppl follow this team?

Because are fans of this team? I know shocking thought.

 

[hockeywiz542]

the bet here is that ujiri has earned the political capital and job security to try whatever he wants. He has shrewdly built two teams at once: An annual 50-win team of veterans, and a rising group of prospects snared in the draft and via smart trades. If he wants to go young, he probably has ownership buy-in. If he thinks he can keep straddling the line between competing and rebuilding, you can't blame him.

Perhaps the best way to do that: Re-sign lowry, even if it takes the full max, let ibaka go and fill the power forward vacancy with multiple players on shorter, cheaper contracts. That is risky. The last two years of lowry's five-year deal will hurt.

But i'm confident lowry will be an all-star-level player for the next two seasons, maybe three. He has fewer miles on the odometer than the typical 31-year-old. Shooting sustains. Ibaka has never been an all-star, and every indicator shows an aging big in decline. I'm not sure ibaka on a four-year, $85 million deal is any more tradable than lowry at the full max.

The raptors could use bird rights to re-sign one of patterson and tucker to soak up power forward minutes. If they've tired of both, they could use the midlevel exception to target a shooting power forward with more natural playmaking skills -- someone like jonas jerebko or omri casspi. (doing both would likely take them too far over the tax to be palatable.)

that's a good team, and the raptors in that scenario would be locked into only two long-term mega-deals -- lowry and derozan -- instead of three. They could have cap flexibility in the summer of 2019, when carroll and (pending a player option for 2020) valanciunas come off the books.

In the meantime, they could continue to work the margins. Maybe powell pops. Maybe valanciunas rediscovers his form from last season's playoffs, and turns into an appealing trade asset. Maybe poeltl thrives in his place, or becomes an intriguing trade piece himself. Maybe a desperate team overpays for derozan two years from now. Maybe ujiri swindles another rival, or nails one of those franchise-altering picks outside the lottery.

It wouldn't shock me if that status quo path -- or, really, any path -- involves changing coaches. Dwane casey has done good work in toronto, but the offense is stale. It falls apart when the games really matter. If the raptors don't change the main players, they may want to see if changing the coach unsticks things.

These are hard choices. They force organizations to confront their core beliefs about the very purpose of professional sports. They are not fun to face. But this sweep laid it bare: It is time for toronto to face them.

 

[trellaine201]

no leafs, no raptors, slumping jays

how about TFC

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

So the options are either: keep the same players and pray LeBron significantly slows down or is injured come playoff time within the next three years, or; blow it up and hopefully have another competitive team by the time the above has inevitably happened?

......

 

[Mitchy]

I'm fine with bringing Lowry back, but we won't do anything with DeMar on the team. Embarrassing that he still hasn't developed a 3 point shot.

okay...
but wasn't there a huge part of the regular season they were playing ugly?
isn't their goal to try to get to the ECF/...whatever they call the basketball championships?

y'all don't get to take solace in a decent regular season anymore, y'all.

Yup.

Disgusting and infuriating thing to say after you get swept. This was supposed to be a team that would be able to challenge Cleveland, instead we got absolutely embarrassed. Ol' Casey will just show his championship ring though and keep thinking he's superior to everyone.

 

[King Mapes]

I admit I'm on vacation so only watched game 2 (I think it was) and DD was terrible. The whole team was but he was more noticeable at it. Your best players need to be your best players. There's a reason we can't beat Cleveland: Lebron James. Just seems like we never have our star take over a game/series.

 

[hockeywiz542]

casey’s not perfect. No coach can be. but if you’re looking for warts in high-influence positions, you can make the case that lowry is the limiting factor here. Derozan has flaws, sure, but at least derozan has a documented history of adjusting and improving. Lowry has hit roadblocks and too often curled up in the fetal position when they seemed impassable. He abandoned ship against the wizards a couple of years ago, when he knew he was no match for the quickness of john wall.

And there are those around the air canada centre who cast a sceptical eye at his decision to forgo games 3 and 4 on account of a sprained ankle. One insider wondered: Why did lowry, who often takes his warmup shots in the air canada centre’s practice court, make a show of shooting on the main court before games 3 and 4? Nobody’s saying he wasn’t truly injured. Some were suggesting it was telling that he needed to publicly demonstrate the extent of the hurt.

“it’s all a show,” said one nba source.

Speaking of lowry’s over-arching history as a less-than-reliable post-season performer, another source said: “the bright lights get to him.”

in any event, neither lowry’s inconsistency nor his unavailability is on the coach, folks. How limited are a coach’s options when your best guard, derozan, can’t make a three-pointer to save his life in a league where the three-pointer rules? How does a coach overcome the sudden irrelevance of demarre carroll, the team’s starting small forward for the bulk of the past two seasons, who at age 30 has watched the game pass him by? How does a coach overcome the perennial invisibility of patrick patterson, a key cog off the bench whose aversion to the slightest bit of pressure borders on the clinical?

In other words, patterson, an impending free agent, isn’t likely to be back. Casey has done nothing to suggest he shouldn’t be. Overpaying for lowry would be a mistake — and bryan colangelo and lowry’s hometown 76ers are sure to ratchet up the bidding. Overlooking the fact that ibaka, allegedly 27, has gotten old fast would be erroneous, too. But going forward with the coach that’s done nothing but prove he’s engaged and adaptable — it’s a no-risk move in an off-season that poses plenty of potential pitfalls.

 

[Giuseppe Sallo]

Cool you like him and his team that gets clowned on their home floor and thinks it's a big accomplishment to lose to Cleveland by less than ten points.

Dude, its the cavaliers. No one beats them, only GS has a good shot BC they're essential an all Star team.

To me, losing to the Cavs back2back is frustrating but their that good. Like I said, keep on building. And Masai has done an impressive job but the base is coloangelo, so maybe he's to blame.

 

[Giuseppe Sallo]

Is it me or the NBA boring? Every night its a blow out. The celtics play like Jekyll & Hyde!

 

[MorrisSmit89]

it's so hard in the NBA to build a championship team.. unless you have at least 1 top 5 player and a couple of other top 15 players, you pretty much have no shot. The clippers have 2 of the best players in the NBA and another really good one but the Warriors would've swept them too. i'd even bet on the warriors beating the Spurs in 5.

do you tank forever and hope you luck into a generational talent? or do you continue winning in hopes of hitting on a later pick (giannis) or fleecing another team (rockets and boston)? Masai has some tough choices but I'd rather watch a team that can win 50 games consistently then go through a Bargnani experience again

 

[MorrisSmit89]

Raptors should stop doing go daddy commercials and playing golf so they can play better basketball.

Casey was preaching playing better basketball all season for the playoffs and they failed.

Refs never give raptors favourable calls.

Why do ppl follow this team?

why do people follow the Leafs after they've sucked for an eternity?

 

[A1LeafNation]

why do people follow the Leafs after they've sucked for an eternity?

Matthews Marner Nylander

 

[FlareKnight]

In the end it is a sport where if you don't have that elite individual you just aren't going anywhere.

At least the Raps have gotten to the second best thing. They are successful enough to consistently make the playoffs. They'll never win while LeBron is playing basketball, but at least they can get through a round of the playoffs.

It's the same thing as last year. That is the wall.

 

[likeabosski]

okay...
but wasn't there a huge part of the regular season they were playing ugly?
isn't their goal to try to get to the ECF/...whatever they call the basketball championships?

y'all don't get to take solace in a decent regular season anymore, y'all.

It's worth noting that we went 1-3 vs the Cavs in the regular season. It's not like the playoffs all of a sudden make players suck. It's the fact that we were playing the Cavs. And without our starting PG in the last two games. Without Lowry, this isn't a playoff team. Cory Joseph doesn't cut the mustard.

Of course Lowry, DeRozan, etc. are going to have lower numbers in the playoffs. It's a greater level of competition. There are no cans in the playoffs. Our team is just not that good. We were lucky to even be tied in points with the Cavs by season end. The Cavs were just playing really badly near the end of the season. And then they woke up during the playoffs.