Gary Nylund
Registered User
- Oct 10, 2013
- 30,104
- 22,583
I don't think the Raptors truly had a great team, a good team yes but they didn't quite have the personnel to beat LeBron's teams. They also didn't have that "superstar" caliber player on their team, Lowry and DeRozan, while good players were never those guys and it showed as they can put up some real rotten performances in the playoffs. I don't think you can pin the blame entirely on Casey for that, I mean this year Lowry had 0 points in game 1 . Now, not to derail the thread anymore than I have lol but bringing it back to Babcock, sometimes you can't blame the coach if the team doesn't score. That doesn't mean the coach should escape criticism, he does deserve criticism for playing Marleau so much, and pulling the goalie early in game 6 but can you really blame him for Tavares, Marner, Nylander, Kapanen and Johnsson for barely scoring? I'm neither for nor against Babcock getting fired, I'm not so sure it would be the right move to fire him as I don't think there are really many viable options out there. People love someone like Barry Trotz but even he got a lot of time at teams hes coached. He even missed the playoffs 3 times with Nashville(they bounced back immediately when he left), and he even got 4 solid years of playoff hockey with the caps. Which mind you, he won the cup after being eliminated in back to back years to the same team. Not saying that will happen here, but maybe Babcock should get 1 more year, I don't know
I agree the Raptors never had a great team but I also think they repeatedly under achieved in the playoffs. I'm not talking about Lebron, I'm talking about letting lesser teams win 2-3 games against them when they should be dispatched in 4-5 games, I'm talking about getting swept by the wizards. Anyhow, back to Babcock.
In a nutshell, the game has passed Babcock by and his attitude sucks.
The game:
I believe his shortcomings have been discussed enough so I have nothing to add. He's living in the past and if that's where he wants to stay, so be it - let's put his tenure as the coach of the Maple Leafs in the past.
Attitude:
He was complaining about player contracts that haven't even kicked in yet when he should be preparing for the playoffs instead of taking shots at his GM. That's not a team player, that's a loser making excuses for losing when there's no reason to anticipate losing. There are millions of people who live and die with this team and that's a responsibility he doesn't seem to take seriously so let's find someone who will.