Summer Runs and Random Player Sightings

[Asif16]

Im sorry but when did Boucher turn into a great "culture" guy? I actually thought it was a certainty he was gonna get traded this offseason because he was one of our more selfish players last season

Straight chucker and also has a terrible attitude on the bench. No excitement for other teammates when making plays.

Idk how much of that was the Team culture or maybe it was just him, but Im surprised he's lasted this long on the team

[720]

They don't know what they're watching or why things are happening. They act in outrage that the only guy on the team who dribble, shoot and run an offensive set got a lot of reps. They can see that FVV is overcast in that role yet can't see that every single other player on the team would be way overcast in that role. I'm not even a huge FVV fan but you don't have to be a genius to understand why he had the role he had on this team: because no one else could do it. Given the odds that our half-court offense will be terrible again this year they'll move on to a new whipping boy, which of course will be insufferable.

Exactly. It’s so obvious that I’m actually a bit stunned that they still can’t see it. Or maybe they refuse to?

Fred was our 2nd best player. The team lacked talent and Fred was in a role he shouldn’t have been in. That’s not his fault though.

Well I guess that's where the disagreement lies or even the frustration lies...

Even if FVV was our 2nd best player last year, both of you guys would/should agree that FVV is a better catch and shoot off ball secondary creator rather than your primary on ball playmaker/scorer
Last year he didn't relinquish that role, even though he himself said he's gonna play off ball more prior to the szn starting... He himself said he needs to catch and shoot more, we have Pascal nd Barnes who can facilitate the ball, weather they can do it as effectively as FVV, is a different question, but FVV can definitely shoot better than those two, and FVV has to take some blame for not embracing that more. As a leader he should've seen that and played into that, he was going to get paid regardless, he took the bet on himself route which many believe was a detriment to the team, and it clearly played out that way.

His fanboys loved his bricking, constant over dribbling, tunnel vision drives, his iso game (even though he couldn’t even blow by big men half the time), they wanted that role for him. They thought he was the next Lowry (laughable). Then they had egg on their face after we saw the outcome. Now they’re using the Houston Rockets (lol) and their outrageous contracts to Vanvleet and Brooks as some kind of stamp of approval for the massively flawed player they’re fanboys of.

[TakeYourHeart]

The league is not ready for the Chris Precious screen and roll

[LoveMyRaps]

The way some of y'all were talking, most would think the Raptors stunk up that gym.

Our guys were fine.

Precious looked good. Liberty-Freeman looked solid.
Scottie looked good considering he wasn't going all-out.
Dick, Flynn, and Poeltl all made the right plays.

Trent struggled for sure but not a big deal. He was dribbling way too much and you can even see Scottie get ticked off at one point. But that's what these summer runs are for, seeing if your off-season workouts can translate to 5v5 play. It's clear Trent has been working a ton on his handles, unfortunately it's not ready for in-game play.

[Tha Cynic]

Remember that these summer runs are a carryover of last year's team and systems. Darko hasn't had his imprint on this team yet. We'll start to see how they play once Darko and the coaching staff gets preseason to change things up.

[Chandan]

Remember that these summer runs are a carryover of last year's team and systems. Darko hasn't had his imprint on this team yet. We'll start to see how they play once Darko and the coaching staff gets preseason to change things up.

after the "nurse playbook is too complicated, players are going to need half a season to get comfortable" talk totally flopping, I am not going to attempt to take improvement due to coaching into account. In my opinion players are competitive and they should br trying yo win even in a scrimmage. If there are two unorganised teams and the untalented one beats the talented one, then there is something wrong with the supposed talented squad.

We are talking about 3 nba starters on our team not being able to roll over some no names. That doesn't inspire confidence.

[WaltFrazier]

Watch on YouTube

Sell high

Can't tell much from these pick-up games. In the Raptor vs Raptor game was that all ten Raps. One guy with dreadlocks I didn't recognize, hit a three. One of our new guys?

Dowtin was playing with precious and Boucher. I saw him in Rico videos at least two weeks ago, then between that and this video someone posted they saw him walking in Toronto. Was he really in Toronto or was he in LA the whole time. I do know there are flights, but wonder why he'd fly cross continent and back in short time like that

[SkywalkerAC]

Watch on YouTube

Sell high

Can't tell much from these pick-up games. In the Raptor vs Raptor game was that all ten Raps. One guy with dreadlocks I didn't recognize, hit a three. One of our new guys?

Dowtin was playing with precious and Boucher. I saw him in Rico videos at least two weeks ago, then between that and this video someone posted they saw him walking in Toronto. Was he really in Toronto or was he in LA the whole time. I do know there are flights, but wonder why he'd fly cross continent and back in short time like that

I think these are probably all from earlier in the off-season, months ago.

Javon Freeman-Liberty might be the name you’re looking for. Seems like a very solid prospect to me.

[HiJiNX]

Remember that these summer runs are a carryover of last year's team and systems. Darko hasn't had his imprint on this team yet. We'll start to see how they play once Darko and the coaching staff gets preseason to change things up.

after the "nurse playbook is too complicated, players are going to need half a season to get comfortable" talk totally flopping, I am not going to attempt to take improvement due to coaching into account. In my opinion players are competitive and they should br trying yo win even in a scrimmage. If there are two unorganised teams and the untalented one beats the talented one, then there is something wrong with the supposed talented squad.

We are talking about 3 nba starters on our team not being able to roll over some no names. That doesn't inspire confidence.

I think you’re projecting some preexisting pessimism here. If you’ve been around basketball enough you’ve seen less talented teams go balls to the wall to beat a more talented team that’s just chilling in a pickup game. Happens all the time. And then when that talented team actually tries it turns into a massacre in their favour.

You’ll also notice that in that loss the initiation was coming from the guards and not Scottie, but from the footage anytime Scottie initiated it was much likely to result in a bucket for his squad. I doubt Flynn and GTJ are going to be getting more opportunities to initiate than Siakam/Scottie/Shroeder in a real game.

[SkywalkerAC]

I also though Flynn looked ok but it’s an uncommon affliction.

[Tofubeque]

I'd say the key thing to remember about these summer runs is that they're games to 7. Jesus. There will be real basketball to watch in one month, be a little patient

[hyper316]

I also though Flynn looked ok but it’s an uncommon affliction.

Flynn looked okay last summer too, didn't he drop like 81 in a Pro-Am game?

Problem is he plays a different role on and off the team that haven't translated

[MadDogSHWA]

How was Scottie?

While playing the "point" he was looking to score and scoring well. I didn't see much passing.

[MadDogSHWA]

Watch on YouTube

Sell high

Scottie really has to defend smarter and stop trying to body up on smaller, quicker players. Unless he learns to slide better he's going to have to give them a cushion and use his length to contest or he'll continue to keep giving up blow-bys.

That's a great point. With his length and hops he can really sag off and still get up to bother/block the shot.

[Dalek]

Im sorry but when did Boucher turn into a great "culture" guy? I actually thought it was a certainty he was gonna get traded this offseason because he was one of our more selfish players last season

Straight chucker and also has a terrible attitude on the bench. No excitement for other teammates when making plays.

Idk how much of that was the Team culture or maybe it was just him, but Im surprised he's lasted this long on the team

Maybe you are missing the fact the guy is like 210 lbs and regularly going into the paint and sacrificing his body for boards and blocks.

I would guess he is one of the best at offensive rebounding and tipouts and I know he blocks a lot of shots on court.

He also plays a ton of games and has accepted his bench role and reduced minutes each year. He is one of the few productive players off the bench for the Raptors. Yes he shoots the ball often but he earns it with his hustle play.

He is also just a good community guy and his story is improbable given how he made it. I can't see any hate for the guy. He is always working with younger players too. He is like our Udonis Haslem at this point.

[WaltFrazier]

Watch on YouTube

Sell high

Scottie really has to defend smarter and stop trying to body up on smaller, quicker players. Unless he learns to slide better he's going to have to give them a cushion and use his length to contest or he'll continue to keep giving up blow-bys.

That's a great point. With his length and hops he can really sag off and still get up to bother/block the shot.

Some like to blame Nurse's system for Scottie playing too tight way above the circle and giving up blowbys. I hope he adjusts and quits doing that.

[Mark_83]

Scottie really has to defend smarter and stop trying to body up on smaller, quicker players. Unless he learns to slide better he's going to have to give them a cushion and use his length to contest or he'll continue to keep giving up blow-bys.

That's a great point. With his length and hops he can really sag off and still get up to bother/block the shot.

Some like to blame Nurse's system for Scottie playing too tight way above the circle and giving up blowbys. I hope he adjusts and quits doing that.

He's been doing that since high school but it rarely burned him because of the competition level. Now with world class athletes up and down the rosters its being exposed. He needs to watch how OG defends quicker guys on the perimeter. OG is rarely right up on them unless there's a play breakdown. You have a 7'3 wingspan dude, make use of it.

[WaltFrazier]

That's a great point. With his length and hops he can really sag off and still get up to bother/block the shot.

Some like to blame Nurse's system for Scottie playing too tight way above the circle and giving up blowbys. I hope he adjusts and quits doing that.

He's been doing that since high school but it rarely burned him because of the competition level. Now with world class athletes up and down the rosters its being exposed. He needs to watch how OG defends quicker guys on the perimeter. OG is rarely right up on them unless there's a play breakdown. You have a 7'3 wingspan dude, make use of it.

You'd wonder, Scottie is supposed to be such a smart player, why hasn't he already started to model OGs defense.

[Mark_83]

Some like to blame Nurse's system for Scottie playing too tight way above the circle and giving up blowbys. I hope he adjusts and quits doing that.

He's been doing that since high school but it rarely burned him because of the competition level. Now with world class athletes up and down the rosters its being exposed. He needs to watch how OG defends quicker guys on the perimeter. OG is rarely right up on them unless there's a play breakdown. You have a 7'3 wingspan dude, make use of it.

You'd wonder, Scottie is supposed to be such a smart player, why hasn't he already started to model OGs defense.

I think it comes down what we mean by IQ. Scottie has great feel and instincts on offense and gives great effort of defense, but I don't find him a particularly smart or studious player. There's players that when you hear them speak you can just tell they have a deep understanding of the game. Scottie has never struck me as that kind of player. Enthusiastic and hard working? Yes. Cerebral and analytical? Not really.

[HumbleRen]

He's been doing that since high school but it rarely burned him because of the competition level. Now with world class athletes up and down the rosters its being exposed. He needs to watch how OG defends quicker guys on the perimeter. OG is rarely right up on them unless there's a play breakdown. You have a 7'3 wingspan dude, make use of it.

You'd wonder, Scottie is supposed to be such a smart player, why hasn't he already started to model OGs defense.

I think it comes down what we mean by IQ. Scottie has great feel and instincts on offense and gives great effort of defense, but I don't find him a particularly smart or studious player. There's players that when you hear them speak you can just tell they have a deep understanding of the game. Scottie has never struck me as that kind of player. Enthusiastic and hard working? Yes. Cerebral and analytical? Not really.

Defence is mostly innate defensive instincts, effort and physical gifts. Plus good coaching coming up the AAU circuit.

If basketball worked like Walt is implying it to work, Trae, Luka, Nash etc etc would be some of the best defenders of all time but clearly they're not at all lol.