Raptors Discussion: v78| Welcome to Toronto, Marc Gasol | Farewell & Thanks JV, Delon, CJ, Monroe

In the regular season, yes....not in a one-off playoff run.

 

I want OG to do well but this season is not for development. We're going all-in.
We need to be going into the playoffs with full confidence in every player who'll be in our rotation and if someone isn't pulling their weight, they should be replaced

Keep in mind, Powell was completely knocked out of the rotation last season, he took that and made himself better for this season

 

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

 

Yeah, for sure that's the biggest problem. Wright was a help in that regard because he was long enough that you could deploy him off the ball and powell at SF and they could switch defensively, so it was only PF that had as big of a hole in terms of depth as it does now. And sure, sometimes you could probably slide Ibaka down (though he gets exposed at all but the most advantageous matchups at the 4.)

The biggest hurdle that the Raptors have right now is that their size distribution is such that it causes problems in the middle of the lineup, putting a lot of pressure on OG simply because he's the only one who can conceivably shoulder it.

Right now, this is the height distribution of the Raptors:

VanVleet - 6'0
Lowry - 6'1
Lin - 6'3
Powell - 6'4
McLemore - 6'5
Green - 6'6
Miller - 6'7
McCaw - 6'7
Leonard - 6'7
Anunoby - 6'8
Siakam - 6'9
Boucher - 6'10
Ibaka - 6'10
Gasol - 7'1

Presuming McLemore signs, that's 5 players sitting 6'5 or shorter, making them less than ideal for guarding standard sized wing guys, especially the high end ones that are going to be 6'6-6'9

Then in the middle of the curve Green is basically anchored to the starting SG spot and isn't the defender he once was, Miller and McCaw are deep depth and not counted on for defensive prowess (Miller has too small a sample to really form an opinion on. McCaw's is only slightly less limited but suggests that while he's high motor, most of the defensive value he has comes from translating that energy into ball-hawking steals rather than lock-down D. The fact that he is most often positionally listed as a SG and not a SF is telling). Siakam and taller are locked in at PF/C. So basically the entirety of defensive possibility at the 3 comes from Kawhi and Kawhi Jr. If OG had been able to take the next step this year, that wouldn't be a problem. But his shooting is cratering and his D seems to be going with it. I mean, my god, he's shooting 45-****ing-percent on FTs this season. That's... unspeakably awful. That makes Shaq look like Steve goddamn Nash. Shaq literally only ever shot that badly once in his entire career. And his career was basically the world's biggest running joke about bricking FTs. But, getting back to OG, while I'm not willing to write him off yet since he's just 21 and has bucketloads of potential, perhaps its for the best if he could have the pressure taken off.

Maybe it's a sign that the next "best" step for the team isn't Markieff Morris. Perhaps it's a wing with a 3pt shot who wouldn't be a defensive sieve. that way you can shelter OG more, rest Kawhi more, and not have to constantly fiddle and rejigger the defensive assignments with every substitution. Not sure who the ideal solution in that space is. I still like the idea of the Vince reunion, but I'm not sure throwing 41 year old VC into the fire defensively is an appealing prospect. Also there's no guarantee he's even available. But hey, 2 days ago Lin wasn't getting bought out. Then 1 day ago he was only going to a team that could give him FA-value-building starters' minutes. So who knows what happens between now and the next time Masai pulls off his next amazing feat of GM wizardry.

Really they should rescind that McLemore 10-day and look for help elsewhere.

and sorry for getting caught up in the OG free throws rant. It just sort of led me down the rabbit hole. and on the whole nothing gets me more peeved at NBA guys than not hitting your FTs. It's literally (legitimately literally, not figuratively literally) the single easiest basketball skill to work on.

 

Isn't Markieff kind of a tool?

 

Mclemore deal fell through, he wont be signed.

 

They should still have 2 more spots, unless they're leaving that 15th man option open to be able to shuffle Jordan Lloyd in and out of the lineup.

 

Essentially, we're looking for an OG clone who can shoot. We should be targeting a tweener who can guard 3s and 4s. Yeah, I'm not interested in VC. Offensively, he's fine (hit your corner 3s and make the extra pass for a better look) but defensively, he'll be a concern.

Markieff is mostly a 4 but he can play a bit of 3. The only other name that comes to mind is Anthony Tolliver but I haven't heard anything about him being bought out.

 

FVV gone for three weeks.

 

Yeah, but we'll never find that because that's something everyone is looking for. Because it's more or less Kawhi.

Tolliver would make sense, but I can't find anything about whether or not he's a candidate for a buyout. Closest I found was that he was on an NBCSN article about attractive potential buyout candidates for the Warriors. But nothing in that piece said anything about whether or not the names were necessarily probable to be bought out.

 

And that's probably what made the Raptors so attractive to Lin. He's going to get boatloads of minutes playing as both a sub for Lowry and off the ball with him like VanVleet does.

 

Not bad timing (not that there is such a thing as good timing for an injury of that nature). AS Break will cut into the absence, and he should be good in March.

 

Who's backing up Kyle tonight then? Yikes

 

Siakam!

 

Gasol

 

I think the last slot will be given to Kanter when he is bought out by the knicks.

Give us that big giant paint protector we lost with JV, and his out spoken political attitude suits Canada and Masai.

 

LOL

 

Highly doubt it. The reason he had a falling out with the Knicks is because of playing time. He won't want a Monroe-like role here.

 

Kanter wants to play. Hes barely going to end up on the court now with Ibaka and Gasol. We need a pf.

 

What do you think Marc Gasol is for? Gasol is basically JV but better.

Also I'd never call Kanter a 'paint protector'. He's is a garbage shot blocker for a guy who's an anchored-to-the-paint 5. He's never logged more than half a block per game in his career, and even if you switch the baseline to per 36 minutes (ie full-time starter playing time) he's never come close to hitting 1.0 blocks per interval. For comparison, Gasol is 1.6/36m for his career and Ibaka is 1.6/36m this season as a career low. Jonas has been 1.5 for his career

And his political attitudes have ****-all to do with winning basketball games, which is the point of this team.

The last spot is going to someone who can at least play the 4 and potentially can log some time on the wing. And they're either going to be a solid defender or a knock-down shooter (because good luck trying to find someone who's both on the buyout market). None of that is Kanter.

 

I miss Ed Davis.

Obviously the Nets are too far into the thick of the playoffs to look at buying guys out, but he wouldn't be the worst option to have as a backup 4.

 

Vinsanity needs to come home.

 

Can someone elbow the white boy please