I Attended The Raptors Coaching Clinic and Open Practice, Some Takeaways

wegotthabeet · Post #81 » by **wegotthabeet** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 3:02 am

Jef wrote:Theory: HiJiNX is G.N. who needs to replace D.S. - OP writes for a living, or should.

Who is GN?

WaltFrazier · Post #82 » by **WaltFrazier** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 3:05 am

So IQ was at the practice. Whatever personal reasons caused him to miss tonight's game just cropped up today. Hopefully not something really bad. But other than a baby being born it can't be anything good

Jef · Post #83 » by **Jef** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 3:29 am

HiJiNX wrote:
Jef wrote:Theory: HiJiNX is G.N. who needs to replace D.S. - OP writes for a living, or should.

Haha unfortunately I’m neither.

Writing is however one of the many things I do to make a living, but probably the least lucrative. I almost got on with Raptors Republic a couple of years ago but life got in the way of taking that on.

That's just the kind of thing G.N. would say!

Classic G.N.

Westside Gunn · Post #84 » by **Westside Gunn** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 3:49 am

2.
Nwora seems to be talented on offense but the defense just may be it on why he doesn't get more playing time.

Agimat · Post #85 » by **Agimat** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 3:51 am

Appreciate the write up from one of the few best posters on here!

S.W.A.N · Post #86 » by **S.W.A.N** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 6:47 am

HiJiNX wrote:
Jef wrote:Theory: HiJiNX is G.N. who needs to replace D.S. - OP writes for a living, or should.

Haha unfortunately I’m neither.

Writing is however one of the many things I do to make a living, but probably the least lucrative. I almost got on with Raptors Republic a couple of years ago but life got in the way of taking that on.

Then you writing the wrong stuff

Jstock12 · Post #87 » by **Jstock12** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 7:58 am

Excellent post. Thank you for this inside info.

manjusaka · Post #88 » by **manjusaka** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 10:06 am

Post of the year

Post #89 » by **DG88** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:18 am

Very insightful post HiJiNX! It also confirmed somethings that I thought about when they hired Darko. First was to change the offense from a iso heavy to a team first style, so it makes sense that the focus has been on offense compared to defense. It's going to take a while not only to implement this system but to remove old offensive habits that developed under Nurse. I would expect that defense becomes more of a priority next season.

Also good to see Scottie being involved even though he can't play. Shows his true character and type of teammate he really is. Looking forward to his 4th season!

Post #90 » by **HiJiNX** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 12:05 pm

S.W.A.N wrote:
HiJiNX wrote:
Jef wrote:Theory: HiJiNX is G.N. who needs to replace D.S. - OP writes for a living, or should.

Haha unfortunately I’m neither.

Writing is however one of the many things I do to make a living, but probably the least lucrative. I almost got on with Raptors Republic a couple of years ago but life got in the way of taking that on.

Then you writing the wrong stuff

Wanna be my life coach??

WaltFrazier · Post #91 » by **WaltFrazier** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 10:13 pm

I was thinking about these parts of the OP:

3. ⁠This whole season is about teaching the fundamentals of how to play as a team. And they’re basically spending 75% of the time working on the offence. The things they’re working on look amazing. It’s no wonder we generate so many quality looks.

10. Pat Delaney’s principles on defence are strong, we just don’t spend a lot of time on it in practice. The focus this year seems to be the offence.

Dwayne Casey was on with Will Lou last week before the Pistons game with a lot of reminiscing of his coming to the Raps. He talked at length how he first focused on building a good defensive team first and succeeded. Then the offense caught up a year or 2 later as Kyle and DD improved. Whereas Darko is taking the opposite approach, offense first. Makes sense because Casey came from being defensive coach of the champion Mavs while Darko is an offensive coach, each coach playing to his own strengths. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the raptors to improve their defense back to Nurse levels, if possible. And the front office has to pivot away from the 6'9 athlete vision, to acquiring players who are not only smart enough to learn Darko's offense (as per HiJiNX), but also capable defenders as well.

ArthurVandelay · Post #92 » by **ArthurVandelay** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 10:35 pm

WaltFrazier wrote:I was thinking about these parts of the OP:

3. ⁠This whole season is about teaching the fundamentals of how to play as a team. And they’re basically spending 75% of the time working on the offence. The things they’re working on look amazing. It’s no wonder we generate so many quality looks.

10. Pat Delaney’s principles on defence are strong, we just don’t spend a lot of time on it in practice. The focus this year seems to be the offence.

Dwayne Casey was on with Will Lou last week before the Pistons game with a lot of reminiscing of his coming to the Raps. He talked at length how he first focused on building a good defensive team first and succeeded. Then the offense caught up a year or 2 later as Kyle and DD improved. Whereas Darko is taking the opposite approach, offense first. Makes sense because Casey came from being defensive coach of the champion Mavs while Darko is an offensive coach, each coach playing to his own strengths. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the raptors to improve their defense back to Nurse levels, if possible. And the front office has to pivot away from the 6'9 athlete vision, to acquiring players who are not only smart enough to learn Darko's offense (as per HiJiNX), but also capable defenders as well.

Good points.

Remember last end of season presser Masai said exactly how I felt: he didn’t enjoy watching the games.

I think the goal is to try to win with entertaining team-oriented basketball focusing on shooting and passing hence the emphasis this season.

Masai has always said, paraphrasing, they’d rather be innovators than followers. I think he’s trying to bring the European team style of play to the nba…after striking out on a bunch of 6’9 guys who can’t shoot

Agimat · Post #93 » by **Agimat** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 10:44 pm

HiJiNX wrote:
S.W.A.N wrote:
HiJiNX wrote:Haha unfortunately I’m neither.

Writing is however one of the many things I do to make a living, but probably the least lucrative. I almost got on with Raptors Republic a couple of years ago but life got in the way of taking that on.

Then you writing the wrong stuff

Wanna be my life coach??

Consider learning Copywriting. We are at a Golden Age of getting that bread!

Basketball_Jones · Post #94 » by **Basketball_Jones** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 10:52 pm

Good insights. Without a lot more help I don’t see this team being 50 wins in a year or two though. KO will be almost 40. Porter is okay but not sold yet. Same with Ochai. But I guess we’ll see, the roster might look very different.

Scase · Post #95 » by **Scase** » Fri Mar 22, 2024 12:09 am

Sorry bud, I only keep hearing how awful Darko is. Your credibility is shot!

Psubs · Post #96 » by **Psubs** » Fri Mar 22, 2024 12:15 am

Is Darko trying to teach an offense as intricate as Dan Hurley?

Watch on YouTube

nestea · Post #97 » by **nestea** » Fri Mar 22, 2024 1:36 am

Must be a record. I've never seen so many +1 in a post

NBJ13 · Post #98 » by **NBJ13** » Fri Mar 22, 2024 1:48 am

better than anything I've read from raptors media insiders

S.W.A.N · Post #99 » by **S.W.A.N** » Fri Mar 22, 2024 5:12 am

Agimat wrote:
HiJiNX wrote:
S.W.A.N wrote:
Then you writing the wrong stuff

Wanna be my life coach??

Consider learning Copywriting. We are at a Golden Age of getting that bread!

genre fiction all the way

WaltFrazier · Post #100 » by **WaltFrazier** » Fri Mar 22, 2024 5:53 am

NBJ13 wrote:better than anything I've read from raptors media insiders

I was thinking the same. Hijinx is not a Raptors media guy but we all know Will Lou could not watch that session and write anything nearly as insightful. Could Grange, Blake, any of them?

I suppose to be fair they might not be able to be opinionated in a critical way as an outsider like H. Though that didn't stop Doug Smith from slandering Scottie so much last year.