PG: Blowout loss

[Mr Funk]

Memphis win too, great day for the tank

Super happy and watched most of the game last night too, no whining here

[MadDogSHWA]

I don't understand why RJ wasn't playing. He played against the Lakers.

He had 2.7 millimeters of swelling in his knee so we use that as an opportunity to throw games.

[ConSarnit]

It most definitely is not the same lol wtf

Did you read the rest of the post? Clearly not. Nice.

Maybe try reading and responding with more than just "lol wtf".

This is exactly whats wrong with tanking. This kind of effort just becomes normalized and any standards of a team go out the window. You shouldn't just lose by 50 just because your 3rd or 4th stringers are playing, that is not an excuse. I don't think you guys realize how hard it is to actually lose by that much..

Remove Quickey from the lineup last night and we’re rolling out a literal G-league team.

Guess what happens when a G-league teams plays one of the best teams in the NBA? They lose by 50.

This isn’t a lack of effort or scheme thing. It’s a “playing guys who aren’t actual NBA players” thing. No one should take away anything from this game.

[Chandan]

You don't think if Darko had a choice that would not have preferred to play RJ, Kelly and Gary?

Of course he prefers to start the 10 day contract to match up against Rudy ducking Gobert.

Ya that makes him the worst coach...lol.

You clearly have an agenda against Darko but these games aren't indicative of anything. They don't support your agenda against Darko.

I think you just have selective memories and forgot how bad darko was from the beginning leading up to all star break.

-not understanding in season tournament rules (lack of attention to details)
-forgetting to sub out the team star with 3 fouls in the 2nd quarter
-forgetting to sub in scottie in the 4th because he only has "2 timeout left"
-not knowing how to utilize one of the best defensive player in OG
-unusual man love for Dennis and lesser extend flynn
-robotic substitution pattern
-team consistently coming out flat and falling behind by 20+ point before half time
-losing to Detroit when all eyes were watching during their 23 game losing streak (we were only missing OG for that game)

All happened before major trades.

And there are other lesser things:
-not being able to motivate Bruce Brown and now his value is tanked
-Trading pizza for a win streak is more like a joke on him
-Gold chain for player of the game is corny
-while most liked the media rant but in my opinion calling out the refs like that just painted a target on the franchises back

The fact you reusing things like "man love for Dennis" or "not understanding the in season tournament rules" (honestly - who cares) just shows you have a massive agenda to push here.

Even if those things happened before a major trade, you seem to ignore how bad OG was playing. Had nothing to do with Darko not using him, and had everything to do with him mailing it in.

I never said there's no agenda. The agenda is that he's a bad coach and he should be fired soon. I have some observations that backup the claim so far while the other side has wishful thinking that he'll turn it around. I dont know darko and I dont owe him any second chances. Also coach changes are fun and interesting to watch. Even if he's not as bad as I claim he is i am sure we are not missing out on a Brad Stevens here.

[YogurtProducer]

I think you just have selective memories and forgot how bad darko was from the beginning leading up to all star break.

-not understanding in season tournament rules (lack of attention to details)
-forgetting to sub out the team star with 3 fouls in the 2nd quarter
-forgetting to sub in scottie in the 4th because he only has "2 timeout left"
-not knowing how to utilize one of the best defensive player in OG
-unusual man love for Dennis and lesser extend flynn
-robotic substitution pattern
-team consistently coming out flat and falling behind by 20+ point before half time
-losing to Detroit when all eyes were watching during their 23 game losing streak (we were only missing OG for that game)

All happened before major trades.

And there are other lesser things:
-not being able to motivate Bruce Brown and now his value is tanked
-Trading pizza for a win streak is more like a joke on him
-Gold chain for player of the game is corny
-while most liked the media rant but in my opinion calling out the refs like that just painted a target on the franchises back

The fact you reusing things like "man love for Dennis" or "not understanding the in season tournament rules" (honestly - who cares) just shows you have a massive agenda to push here.

Even if those things happened before a major trade, you seem to ignore how bad OG was playing. Had nothing to do with Darko not using him, and had everything to do with him mailing it in.

I never said there's no agenda. The agenda is that he's a bad coach and he should be fired soon. I have some observations that backup the claim so far while the other side has wishful thinking that he'll turn it around. I dont know darko and I dont owe him any second chances. Also coach changes are fun and interesting to watch. Even if he's not as bad as I claim he is i am sure we are not missing out on a Brad Stevens here.

Generally you use facts/observations and base an opinion. Not make an opinion then cherry pick what you want to support it.

[pingpongrac]

It most definitely is not the same lol wtf

Did you read the rest of the post? Clearly not. Nice.

Maybe try reading and responding with more than just "lol wtf".

This is exactly whats wrong with tanking. This kind of effort just becomes normalized and any standards of a team go out the window. You shouldn't just lose by 50 just because your 3rd or 4th stringers are playing, that is not an excuse. I don't think you guys realize how hard it is to actually lose by that much..

No Scottie or Poeltl for a month, no Barrett or Quickley for the majority of the past 15 games, GTJ and Brown have missed ~5 games each and Agbaji has missed the last few games too. Most of the team for the past several weeks has been G-League call-ups, players fighting for their NBA lives or vets that are well beyond their prime and won't be playing meaningful minutes in the NBA again. It's basically been open tryouts lol. In the past week especially, Gradey is leading the way in minutes (127.6 total and ~32 MPG) while Nwora (26 MPG), JFL (25 MPG), Temple (24 MPG) and Olynyk (29 MPG but sat out last night) have rounded out our "top 5". McDaniels (20 MPG), Simmons (17 MPG) and Gueye (13 MPG) have been getting legit rotation minutes too. Take away the 120+ combined minutes (which is half of the available 240 regulation minutes) that Nwora/JFL/Temple/McDaniels/Simmons/Gueye have been playing each game and swap in Scottie/Barrett/Quickley/Poeltl and it drastically changes things. Then you can have guys like Gradey and Olynyk playing ~20 MPG rather than 30+ while being the focal points of our offence.

There will be almost zero carryover to next season. What we're seeing now is even less of Raptors basketball than what we saw at the end of the 20/21 season where we were playing away from home and sitting out 3-4 key players most nights. The 24/25 Raptors will look significantly different than anything we've seen since early March.

[Drakeem]

Fans have become spoiled with the amount of winning we've had.

[bballsparkin]

This team needs a coach who was recently a player How do you'll think Lowry would work out as a head coach?

they interviewed JJ Reddick but didn't even consider him.

JJ is going to be the head coach of Lebron's team in Vegas and Darko will be out of the league by then.

Why would Reddick even want to start his coaching career here? Forced to play Malachi minutes for crying out loud. Darko is doing what the FO wants of him with little. He may go the Jay Triano route as a result; a career assistant coach. But didn't Triano get us JV by playing the long game?

If the team is not playing defence it says more about the players considering most would be lucky to make it this League.

[bballsparkin]

It’s obvious Masai has chucked the 5 x 6’9 defensive menace/teach-them-to-shoot project

Now it’s obvious he’s trying to bring the European style of play to the NBA.

Problem is,for the most part, Darko doesn’t have the shooting talent and basketball IQ on the roster to make it work. This is a roster and team in transition that just started 3 months ago.

As long as guys keep developing, you’re seeing the style of play continue to evolve, and their are good coach-player relations, I’d let him keep going regardless of the record.

Two examples…

1) player development: before OA went down, he was starting to actually play decent, his shot was still off but he was under control. RJ has played great as a Raptor. Dick of course.

2) style of play evolution: just watch Dick play. He’s the only guy playing with elite IQ and shooting. He’s constantly in motion, constantly cutting, constantly moving to get an open shot. This is what they are working towards having 3 Dicks* + C or 4 Dicks* circling Scottie.


(*Dicks doesn’t mean white guys. It’s guys who can shoot and move off the ball).

I think Darko has done well this year considering how he was hired to coach did not match the roster to start the season and, while the roster is starting to resemble what he needs, the overall talent is awful.

I'd give him more rope as well. You don't bring in a coach, ask them to develop mediocre talent, deal with two of it's best players and longest tenured wanting out, all the while enduring season ending tanking to try to save a top 6 pick only to dump that coach. That's a bad look IMHO. He has until at least next TDL as I see it.

Unless of course stuff is going on in the background that I'm unaware of. As always.

[bballsparkin]

This is exactly whats wrong with tanking. This kind of effort just becomes normalized and any standards of a team go out the window. You shouldn't just lose by 50 just because your 3rd or 4th stringers are playing, that is not an excuse. I don't think you guys realize how hard it is to actually lose by that much..

Our starting front court was M. Williams, Temple and Gradey **** Dick! Let that sink in.

[Johnny Bball]

there is no blaming. But you can ALWAYS have standards. At what point--even in expected lossess--are we allowed to raise red flags about our coach? If they were losing these games by 100 would we just say "hey the players are who they are and this is reasonable given who we are fielding"? I've equivalently lambasted Bruce Brown. There has to be standards even if the outcome (W or L) is pre-dtermined.

When games actually matter and when you give him an NBA team that you can judge by. All year long he's been undercut by players knowing they were being traded (Siakam/OG/prbobaly GTJ), the rest of the players worried about being traded with them, injuries or tanking. The hardest thing to find in a coach that the players like and respect. That doesn't seem to be an issue (and seems opposite), and if he was as stupid and ineffective as you would like to imply, there would be a respect issue.

So to be clear, if they lose these games by 100 points, nothing can be gleaned about the coach? I'm not sure how you measure player respect for a coach; they may like him alright, but effort has been an issue all year. If we are willing to give the guy his flowers for better ball movement, and better vibes, you can certainly point out issues with the team that have been evident all year. This sh.it shouldn't be asymmetric.

By listening to them.

I'm not sure how you measure a pile of **** in a pile of **** think you are right.

[tms]

Read on Twitter

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[sbsat]

When games actually matter and when you give him an NBA team that you can judge by. All year long he's been undercut by players knowing they were being traded (Siakam/OG/prbobaly GTJ), the rest of the players worried about being traded with them, injuries or tanking. The hardest thing to find in a coach that the players like and respect. That doesn't seem to be an issue (and seems opposite), and if he was as stupid and ineffective as you would like to imply, there would be a respect issue.

So to be clear, if they lose these games by 100 points, nothing can be gleaned about the coach? I'm not sure how you measure player respect for a coach; they may like him alright, but effort has been an issue all year. If we are willing to give the guy his flowers for better ball movement, and better vibes, you can certainly point out issues with the team that have been evident all year. This sh.it shouldn't be asymmetric.

By listening to them.

I'm not sure how you measure a pile of **** in a pile of **** think you are right.

You can also look at results and they are compelling. I know you came into the year saying getting rid of nurse will save this team and i guess you are holding onto that. You dont walk into every game giving up 30 point deficits, being outworked when you are down that much if the coach is anywhere near effective at motivating players or there being any sort of mutual respect. Sorry.

[2019nbachamps]

3 loss is a coin flip if Memphis doesn't win again. Don't even.

And Portland isn't winning 3 of their last 6, so there's no point in waiting for that.

There is 0 chance we win 3/6 games

...and that doesn't change the fact that its a 2 loss cushion. But continue to argue something completely unimportant.

You have a bad attitude for a guy that can’t count to 3

[2019nbachamps]

Fans have become spoiled with the amount of winning we've had.

I don’t mind losing. There are times where losing is inevitable. Eg you go all in to compete for a title, your best player gets hurt or leaves, etc. Obviously we were going to decline following our title with the vet front court, Kyle aging, and Kawhi leaving. What sucks is the treadmill we’ve been on over this period due to management doubling down on our flawed rosters. Had we just embraced being bad at the deadline last deadline we could’ve been on a better trajectory. We’d have control over our draft pick and perhaps cashed out on Siakam and FVV. Our situation now isn’t a disaster but it’s still fair to lament how poor our front office has been in recent years.

Pretty much every excuse being made for them has holes in them. For instance, people will blame injuries and tanking for our current losing streak. However we were the 6th-7th worst team in the league before the streak with our team 99% healthy in the first 60 games of the season.

[Spida888]

Damn, good that I didn't catch the game then. Not that a blowout was unexpected.

Sadly, all of these bad losses may be just for us to gift the Spurs with the 7th pick.

[bballsparkin]

Damn, good that I didn't catch the game then. Not that a blowout was unexpected.

Sadly, all of these bad losses may be just for us to gift the Spurs with the 7th pick.

The first half was actually entertaining. I started doing dishes by the second half though.

[TheRaptor!]

what a disgrace, we are so far from being a even good team, let alone great

[sbsat]

Fans have become spoiled with the amount of winning we've had.

I don’t mind losing. There are times where losing is inevitable. Eg you go all in to compete for a title, your best player gets hurt or leaves, etc. Obviously we were going to decline following our title with the vet front court, Kyle aging, and Kawhi leaving. What sucks is the treadmill we’ve been on over this period due to management doubling down on our flawed rosters. Had we just embraced being bad at the deadline last deadline we could’ve been on a better trajectory. We’d have control over our draft pick and perhaps cashed out on Siakam and FVV. Our situation now isn’t a disaster but it’s still fair to lament how poor our front office has been in recent years.

Pretty much every excuse being made for them has holes in them. For instance, people will blame injuries and tanking for our current losing streak. However we were the 6th-7th worst team in the league before the streak with our team 99% healthy in the first 60 games of the season.

well the excuse being used for us sucking pre blowing up the team and injuries was our players had one foot out the door. No one was committed.

I mean next year will tell all, i have zero confidence the tram will be anything impressive and i actually like their core pieces! Will see what excuses pop up then. Of we do turn it around ill eat massive humble pie because i spend a great amount of time expressing my disdain for lur coach

[ConSarnit]

So to be clear, if they lose these games by 100 points, nothing can be gleaned about the coach? I'm not sure how you measure player respect for a coach; they may like him alright, but effort has been an issue all year. If we are willing to give the guy his flowers for better ball movement, and better vibes, you can certainly point out issues with the team that have been evident all year. This sh.it shouldn't be asymmetric.

By listening to them.

I'm not sure how you measure a pile of **** in a pile of **** think you are right.

You can also look at results and they are compelling. I know you came into the year saying getting rid of nurse will save this team and i guess you are holding onto that. You dont walk into every game giving up 30 point deficits, being outworked when you are down that much if the coach is anywhere near effective at motivating players or there being any sort of mutual respect. Sorry.

It’s not an effort issue. You think it’s an effort issue because the other team is getting wide open shots but that’s because we’re playing guys like an undrafted rookie C in his first NBA game. These guys just suck so they’re blowing rotations. These guys aren’t NBA level players so they’re going to get destroyed even if they’re playing with 110% effort.