RealGM

Tacoma wrote:

OakleyDokely wrote:The same thing happened with the Blazers last year.

When they were tanking and losing by 30 every night, guys like Sharpe were putting up huge numbers. But it's a different situation at the start of the year when you're trying to play winning basketball.

I hope Dalano can carve out a career though. It's cool having a Rexdale kid in the NBA.

Sharpe averaged 14pt/4rb in March 2023. This season he is averaging 15/5, so the "huge numbers" he was putting up to finish last year, he has continued this year.

Re the view that games are meaningless, while it's true Delon is getting more minutes due to tanking, keep in mind they aren't necessarily meaningless games to teams he's playing against.

POR opponents have been NO, NY, ATL, etc., and all are fighting for playoff position thus performing well against these teams that need to win are not meaningless. These teams are not relaxing on defense.

This is the context around Delon's performance and he's performing damn well! If he were still in TO, those with Raptors rose colored glasses would be fawning all over him by now. Maybe Masai should've had more patience?

TravisScott55 wrote:He needed to get away from his hometown.

ItsDanger wrote:Keep that in mind when pointing out stats on the current Raps team then. End of season stats can be misleading but depends on the role.

maternal85 wrote:

Green Backpack wrote:Nope. It's Portland and he's getting lots of burn with no leash. He's still ultimately a 3rd stringer.

He's getting a lot of burn with no leash, and producing. Since when is that a bad thing ? And 3rd stringers cannot put up these type of numbers regardless of how much burn they get.

If Freeman- Liberty was putting up these numbers, the whole board would claim what a steal he was. Nobody would talk about him getting burn with no leash. Stop the hate.

ItsDanger wrote:Sharpe's numbers are better this season when he got more minutes. Portland had a crowded backcourt, some of these rebuilding teams have gone overboard on asset accumulation in lieu of playing their top young guys in their proper roles

WaltFrazier wrote:

maternal85 wrote:

Green Backpack wrote:Nope. It's Portland and he's getting lots of burn with no leash. He's still ultimately a 3rd stringer.

He's getting a lot of burn with no leash, and producing. Since when is that a bad thing ? And 3rd stringers cannot put up these type of numbers regardless of how much burn they get.

If Freeman- Liberty was putting up these numbers, the whole board would claim what a steal he was. Nobody would talk about him getting burn with no leash. Stop the hate.

This. If he was getting this leash on a lotto team and not producing, there'd be no discussion. And as someone else posted, he's doing it against opponents who are trying to win, fighting for playoff spots.

Scase wrote:Virtually any player in the NBA has the ability to drop 20-30ppg with no leash or expectations, Banton is talented, he's just not very good in comparison to NBA players. Awful team trying to tank, and putting up mid numbers on below average efficiency. This is the prototype for putting up numbers on a bad team.

xAIRNESSx wrote:I doubt any second round or undrafted player is asking out of any situation if they haven't established themselves.

I always thought Banton was talented and was surprised when the Raptors cut him loose.

Duffman100 wrote:

WaltFrazier wrote:

maternal85 wrote:
He's getting a lot of burn with no leash, and producing. Since when is that a bad thing ? And 3rd stringers cannot put up these type of numbers regardless of how much burn they get.

If Freeman- Liberty was putting up these numbers, the whole board would claim what a steal he was. Nobody would talk about him getting burn with no leash. Stop the hate.

This. If he was getting this leash on a lotto team and not producing, there'd be no discussion. And as someone else posted, he's doing it against opponents who are trying to win, fighting for playoff spots.

I don't think the 'dicussion' is the problem. I think labelling this as a mistake by our FO is the problem.

It COULD be a mistake.
It could one of hundreds of examples of players boosting numbers in non-consequential games in the last quarter of the season.

ForeverTFC wrote:I thought he had asked to move on. Forgot who it was, but one of the players talked about Banton always being out at clubs. I think it was tough for him to be a young rich NBA player in the city he grew up in.

When Darko was hired, he specifically named Banton as someone he is looking forward to working with multiple times. If he didn't ask out, something may have happened behind the scenes that we're not privy to.

maternal85 wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:

WaltFrazier wrote:
This. If he was getting this leash on a lotto team and not producing, there'd be no discussion. And as someone else posted, he's doing it against opponents who are trying to win, fighting for playoff spots.

I don't think the 'dicussion' is the problem. I think labelling this as a mistake by our FO is the problem.

It COULD be a mistake.
It could one of hundreds of examples of players boosting numbers in non-consequential games in the last quarter of the season.

We lack talent. This is not the 2019 Raptors. Any player with potential should be held onto. This was a mistake. Though not one that'd move the needle. And I'm a Ujiri supporter.

Duffman100 wrote:

maternal85 wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:
I don't think the 'dicussion' is the problem. I think labelling this as a mistake by our FO is the problem.

It COULD be a mistake.
It could one of hundreds of examples of players boosting numbers in non-consequential games in the last quarter of the season.

We lack talent. This is not the 2019 Raptors. Any player with potential should be held onto. This was a mistake. Though not one that'd move the needle. And I'm a Ujiri supporter.

And the debate is really Banton 'actual talent' or just putting up raw numbers on a bad team while being a negative on the court.

Banton is 24, a career 31% 3 point shooter and still putting up negative advanced stats.

There really isn't much difference between him and JFL except that Banton is being given the green light to play and handle the ball at will.

If Banton is anything more than a 10th-11th guy on an NBA roster for an actual winning team, I'll be shocked.

maternal85 wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:

maternal85 wrote:
We lack talent. This is not the 2019 Raptors. Any player with potential should be held onto. This was a mistake. Though not one that'd move the needle. And I'm a Ujiri supporter.

And the debate is really Banton 'actual talent' or just putting up raw numbers on a bad team while being a negative on the court.

Banton is 24, a career 31% 3 point shooter and still putting up negative advanced stats.

There really isn't much difference between him and JFL except that Banton is being given the green light to play and handle the ball at will.

If Banton is anything more than a 10th-11th guy on an NBA roster for an actual winning team, I'll be shocked.

So why hasn't JFL been released yet ? That's the confusion.

Duffman100 wrote:

brownbobcat wrote:

OakleyDokely wrote:The same thing happened with the Blazers last year.

When they were tanking and losing by 30 every night, guys like Sharpe were putting up huge numbers. But it's a different situation at the start of the year when you're trying to play winning basketball.

I hope Dalano can carve out a career though. It's cool having a Rexdale kid in the NBA.

But Sharpe is having a decent year too. Yes, it's a trash team and he has a greenlight and is inefficient, but the progression is decent.

Sharpe really isn’t having a decent year though. 40/33/82 and some ugly advanced metrics.

Sharpe is obviously all about potential - with his springs and his shot creation. But so far it really is potential.

maternal85 wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:

maternal85 wrote:
We lack talent. This is not the 2019 Raptors. Any player with potential should be held onto. This was a mistake. Though not one that'd move the needle. And I'm a Ujiri supporter.

And the debate is really Banton 'actual talent' or just putting up raw numbers on a bad team while being a negative on the court.

Banton is 24, a career 31% 3 point shooter and still putting up negative advanced stats.

There really isn't much difference between him and JFL except that Banton is being given the green light to play and handle the ball at will.

If Banton is anything more than a 10th-11th guy on an NBA roster for an actual winning team, I'll be shocked.

So why hasn't JFL been released yet ? That's the confusion.

Duffman100 wrote:

maternal85 wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:
And the debate is really Banton 'actual talent' or just putting up raw numbers on a bad team while being a negative on the court.

Banton is 24, a career 31% 3 point shooter and still putting up negative advanced stats.

There really isn't much difference between him and JFL except that Banton is being given the green light to play and handle the ball at will.

If Banton is anything more than a 10th-11th guy on an NBA roster for an actual winning team, I'll be shocked.

So why hasn't JFL been released yet ? That's the confusion.

Maybe they believe more in JFL than they do in Banton?

Either way, we're discussing two guys with very limited ceilings who, at best, will get spot minutes in a winning rotation throughout the season.

raincityraptors wrote:

maternal85 wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:
And the debate is really Banton 'actual talent' or just putting up raw numbers on a bad team while being a negative on the court.

Banton is 24, a career 31% 3 point shooter and still putting up negative advanced stats.

There really isn't much difference between him and JFL except that Banton is being given the green light to play and handle the ball at will.

If Banton is anything more than a 10th-11th guy on an NBA roster for an actual winning team, I'll be shocked.

So why hasn't JFL been released yet ? That's the confusion.

I'm not going to pretend anyone on realGM can tell us why the Front Office is doing or not doing a thing.

But since you asked . . .

What are the open questions about JFL?

Will he get respect at the NBA level as a shooter and thus provide spacing? (We know Banton won't)

Can he be a strong point of attack defender? (Banton's length didn't always make up for his foot speed on that end, especially against quick guards).

Can we trust the ball in his hands? (Banton's turnovers have always been a thing)

Can we run the plays that we run for IQ when he's out and JFL is in? (You could not run those plays for Banton)

maternal85 wrote:

Duffman100 wrote:

maternal85 wrote:
So why hasn't JFL been released yet ? That's the confusion.

Maybe they believe more in JFL than they do in Banton?

Either way, we're discussing two guys with very limited ceilings who, at best, will get spot minutes in a winning rotation throughout the season.

Under what merits does Ujiri and Webster believe JFL has a higher ceiling ? I get what you're saying. But don't push the youth movement, draft a potential/ decent role player, then let him go out of the blue. Then of course use the nerdy analytics to gaslight us. Not speaking to you specifically. But whatever direction the front office is going, follow it through.

maternal85 wrote:

ForeverTFC wrote:I thought he had asked to move on. Forgot who it was, but one of the players talked about Banton always being out at clubs. I think it was tough for him to be a young rich NBA player in the city he grew up in.

When Darko was hired, he specifically named Banton as someone he is looking forward to working with multiple times. If he didn't ask out, something may have happened behind the scenes that we're not privy to.

Then we trade for Barrett who makes over 20 million per year ? He's able to control himself ? I don't buy this reason.