PG: The Scottie Barnes Experience

[pingpongrac]

We are loads better than last year. Addition by subtraction without Baynes and Len. Svi is night and day compared to Matt Thomas. We all loved Matt but he couldn’t play D or create his own shot. Svi is a poor man’s Bogdanovich. OG looks like an all star. Dragic will be the steady hands. Siakam should have less pressure. And Scottie will just impact every part of the game. Losing Lowry hurts but others will play more free without his presence. No way this team is bad enough to tank.

Yep. Most people are quick to point to our final record last season and how we lost the GROAT without looking at all of the facts.

First of all, we were much better than our record last season indicated. Before we blatantly tanked the last few weeks of the season, we had the NetRTG and expected W/L record of a .500 team -- and that was after all of the injuries, key man games lost due to COVID protocols and a brutal 1-13 stretch.

Second, our overall roster is significantly better this year. Achiuwa + Birch > Baynes + Len, Barnes + Svi + (new and improved) Yuta > Bembry + Johnson + Thomas/Davis and we have much more depth beyond that now (Banton, Champagnie and Wainright all look like they can contribute at some point this season) too. A good chunk of our roster is very young with lots of room to grow (GTJ, Flynn, OG) while Siakam (and FVV post-COVID) is coming off a tough season with lots of ups and downs. Losing Lowry and Powell will hurt a bit, but Dragic and GTJ give us very similar production (just without the efficiency of Powell) while we're clearly better everywhere else.

Third, and maybe most importantly, we won't be practicing in a ballroom and playing on the road all year this time. It seems like a lot of people are severely underestimating how much of an obstacle it was to play all 72 games away from home (where we have won about 65% of games for the past decade), especially early in the season when they were getting booed/actively cheered against by their "home" fans.

I see us as a .500 team this season with the potential to win 45-50 games if OG takes a bit of a leap, Siakam has a bit of a bounce-back year (and he was already solid last year averaging 21/7/5) and Barnes proves to be a solid rotation piece in his rookie season (which I already think he will because he has such a high impact in every game he has played for us but the one SL game against the Warriors IIRC). People that think we'll win 25-30 games and be in the hunt for a top 5 pick without significant injuries/another COVID shutdown are off their rockers lol.

[mademan]

Flynn might just be a bust (as much of a bust as you can get from the 29th pick). Banton might be ready enough to take his pg minutes and if not, Svi easily could (with Dragic playing back up pg)

[WuTang_CMB]

Read on Twitter

?s=21

[gp2015]

We are loads better than last year. Addition by subtraction without Baynes and Len. Svi is night and day compared to Matt Thomas. We all loved Matt but he couldn’t play D or create his own shot. Svi is a poor man’s Bogdanovich. OG looks like an all star. Dragic will be the steady hands. Siakam should have less pressure. And Scottie will just impact every part of the game. Losing Lowry hurts but others will play more free without his presence. No way this team is bad enough to tank.

Yep. Most people are quick to point to our final record last season and how we lost the GROAT without looking at all of the facts.

First of all, we were much better than our record last season indicated. Before we blatantly tanked the last few weeks of the season, we had the NetRTG and expected W/L record of a .500 team -- and that was after all of the injuries, key man games lost due to COVID protocols and a brutal 1-13 stretch.

Second, our overall roster is significantly better this year. Achiuwa + Birch > Baynes + Len, Barnes + Svi + (new and improved) Yuta > Bembry + Johnson + Thomas/Davis and we have much more depth beyond that now (Banton, Champagnie and Wainright all look like they can contribute at some point this season) too. A good chunk of our roster is very young with lots of room to grow (GTJ, Flynn, OG) while Siakam (and FVV post-COVID) is coming off a tough season with lots of ups and downs. Losing Lowry and Powell will hurt a bit, but Dragic and GTJ give us very similar production (just without the efficiency of Powell) while we're clearly better everywhere else.

Third, and maybe most importantly, we won't be practicing in a ballroom and playing on the road all year this time. It seems like a lot of people are severely underestimating how much of an obstacle it was to play all 72 games away from home (where we have won about 65% of games for the past decade), especially early in the season when they were getting booed/actively cheered against by their "home" fans.

I see us as a .500 team this season with the potential to win 45-50 games if OG takes a bit of a leap, Siakam has a bit of a bounce-back year (and he was already solid last year averaging 21/7/5) and Barnes proves to be a solid rotation piece in his rookie season (which I already think he will because he has such a high impact in every game he has played for us but the one SL game against the Warriors IIRC). People that think we'll win 25-30 games and be in the hunt for a top 5 pick without significant injuries/another COVID shutdown are off their rockers lol.

I think you're off your rocker if you think this team as it is right now has potential to win 45-50 games.

Our defense will be solid no doubt but people forget how much we struggled on offense last year. That's only going to get worse without Lowry's scoring and playmaking. FVV is not a great creator for others at this point.

Plus, it's very clear that our mandate is to develop our young players. Sure, we can play Dragic more minutes and win a few more games but that's not what we're trying to do this year. Making the playoffs is not our priority right now. We're going to sacrifice wins for long term development.

I don't see our team getting significantly better until we get a real #1 option and then Siakam can go back to his strength of being the #2/3.

My guess is we will end up with ~30 something wins.

Edit: I meant thirty-something.

[ash_k]

Flynn might just be a bust (as much of a bust as you can get from the 29th pick). Banton might be ready enough to take his pg minutes and if not, Svi easily could (with Dragic playing back up pg)

not happening. as usual, too many with short-term memory..in the last couple of months, once he adapted, he even showed he had no fear in the 4th quarter.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

We are loads better than last year. Addition by subtraction without Baynes and Len. Svi is night and day compared to Matt Thomas. We all loved Matt but he couldn’t play D or create his own shot. Svi is a poor man’s Bogdanovich. OG looks like an all star. Dragic will be the steady hands. Siakam should have less pressure. And Scottie will just impact every part of the game. Losing Lowry hurts but others will play more free without his presence. No way this team is bad enough to tank.

Yep. Most people are quick to point to our final record last season and how we lost the GROAT without looking at all of the facts.

First of all, we were much better than our record last season indicated. Before we blatantly tanked the last few weeks of the season, we had the NetRTG and expected W/L record of a .500 team -- and that was after all of the injuries, key man games lost due to COVID protocols and a brutal 1-13 stretch.

Second, our overall roster is significantly better this year. Achiuwa + Birch > Baynes + Len, Barnes + Svi + (new and improved) Yuta > Bembry + Johnson + Thomas/Davis and we have much more depth beyond that now (Banton, Champagnie and Wainright all look like they can contribute at some point this season) too. A good chunk of our roster is very young with lots of room to grow (GTJ, Flynn, OG) while Siakam (and FVV post-COVID) is coming off a tough season with lots of ups and downs. Losing Lowry and Powell will hurt a bit, but Dragic and GTJ give us very similar production (just without the efficiency of Powell) while we're clearly better everywhere else.

Third, and maybe most importantly, we won't be practicing in a ballroom and playing on the road all year this time. It seems like a lot of people are severely underestimating how much of an obstacle it was to play all 72 games away from home (where we have won about 65% of games for the past decade), especially early in the season when they were getting booed/actively cheered against by their "home" fans.

I see us as a .500 team this season with the potential to win 45-50 games if OG takes a bit of a leap, Siakam has a bit of a bounce-back year (and he was already solid last year averaging 21/7/5) and Barnes proves to be a solid rotation piece in his rookie season (which I already think he will because he has such a high impact in every game he has played for us but the one SL game against the Warriors IIRC). People that think we'll win 25-30 games and be in the hunt for a top 5 pick without significant injuries/another COVID shutdown are off their rockers lol.

I think you're off you're rocker if you think this team as it is right now has potential to win 45-50 games.

Our defense will be solid no doubt but people forget how much we struggled on offense last year. That's only going to get worse without Lowry's scoring and playmaking. FVV is not a great creator for others at this point.

Plus, it's very clear that our mandate is to develop our young players. Sure, we can play Dragic more minutes and win a few more games but that's not what we're trying to do this year. Making the playoffs is not our priority right now. We're going to sacrifice wins for long term development.

I don't see our team getting significantly better until we get a real #1 option and then Siakam can go back to his strength of being the #2/3.

My guess is we will end up with ~30 something wins.

Can't wait to bump these threads at the end of the year, lol. Such revionist history to say "our offence last year was like.." We did not have anywhere close to a coherent team last year to be able to say this team will win 30 games. Our best sample would actually be the year before. Also, we were killing it without Lowry last year https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/raptors-continue-thrive-without-lowry-defence-sets-tone-bucks/

[Lateral Quicks]

We are loads better than last year. Addition by subtraction without Baynes and Len. Svi is night and day compared to Matt Thomas. We all loved Matt but he couldn’t play D or create his own shot. Svi is a poor man’s Bogdanovich. OG looks like an all star. Dragic will be the steady hands. Siakam should have less pressure. And Scottie will just impact every part of the game. Losing Lowry hurts but others will play more free without his presence. No way this team is bad enough to tank.

Yep. Most people are quick to point to our final record last season and how we lost the GROAT without looking at all of the facts.

First of all, we were much better than our record last season indicated. Before we blatantly tanked the last few weeks of the season, we had the NetRTG and expected W/L record of a .500 team -- and that was after all of the injuries, key man games lost due to COVID protocols and a brutal 1-13 stretch.

Second, our overall roster is significantly better this year. Achiuwa + Birch > Baynes + Len, Barnes + Svi + (new and improved) Yuta > Bembry + Johnson + Thomas/Davis and we have much more depth beyond that now (Banton, Champagnie and Wainright all look like they can contribute at some point this season) too. A good chunk of our roster is very young with lots of room to grow (GTJ, Flynn, OG) while Siakam (and FVV post-COVID) is coming off a tough season with lots of ups and downs. Losing Lowry and Powell will hurt a bit, but Dragic and GTJ give us very similar production (just without the efficiency of Powell) while we're clearly better everywhere else.

Third, and maybe most importantly, we won't be practicing in a ballroom and playing on the road all year this time. It seems like a lot of people are severely underestimating how much of an obstacle it was to play all 72 games away from home (where we have won about 65% of games for the past decade), especially early in the season when they were getting booed/actively cheered against by their "home" fans.

I see us as a .500 team this season with the potential to win 45-50 games if OG takes a bit of a leap, Siakam has a bit of a bounce-back year (and he was already solid last year averaging 21/7/5) and Barnes proves to be a solid rotation piece in his rookie season (which I already think he will because he has such a high impact in every game he has played for us but the one SL game against the Warriors IIRC). People that think we'll win 25-30 games and be in the hunt for a top 5 pick without significant injuries/another COVID shutdown are off their rockers lol.

I agree with most of that.

If healthy last year's team doesn't miss the playoffs. If the team is healthy this year, it will take some incredible late game tankage from Nurse to miss the playoffs this year. And who knows, they might do it if they want another lottery pick.

[Jef]

Flynn might just be a bust (as much of a bust as you can get from the 29th pick). Banton might be ready enough to take his pg minutes and if not, Svi easily could (with Dragic playing back up pg)

not happening. as usual, too many with short-term memory..in the last couple of months, once he adapted, he even showed he had no fear in the 4th quarter.

Agreed. Malachai will definitely have at least one great preseason game, and if its Thursday vs. the Sixers, that would be even more impressive. Flynn is legit NBA.

[Qhawe]

We are loads better than last year. Addition by subtraction without Baynes and Len. Svi is night and day compared to Matt Thomas. We all loved Matt but he couldn’t play D or create his own shot. Svi is a poor man’s Bogdanovich. OG looks like an all star. Dragic will be the steady hands. Siakam should have less pressure. And Scottie will just impact every part of the game. Losing Lowry hurts but others will play more free without his presence. No way this team is bad enough to tank.

Yep. Most people are quick to point to our final record last season and how we lost the GROAT without looking at all of the facts.

First of all, we were much better than our record last season indicated. Before we blatantly tanked the last few weeks of the season, we had the NetRTG and expected W/L record of a .500 team -- and that was after all of the injuries, key man games lost due to COVID protocols and a brutal 1-13 stretch.

Second, our overall roster is significantly better this year. Achiuwa + Birch > Baynes + Len, Barnes + Svi + (new and improved) Yuta > Bembry + Johnson + Thomas/Davis and we have much more depth beyond that now (Banton, Champagnie and Wainright all look like they can contribute at some point this season) too. A good chunk of our roster is very young with lots of room to grow (GTJ, Flynn, OG) while Siakam (and FVV post-COVID) is coming off a tough season with lots of ups and downs. Losing Lowry and Powell will hurt a bit, but Dragic and GTJ give us very similar production (just without the efficiency of Powell) while we're clearly better everywhere else.

Third, and maybe most importantly, we won't be practicing in a ballroom and playing on the road all year this time. It seems like a lot of people are severely underestimating how much of an obstacle it was to play all 72 games away from home (where we have won about 65% of games for the past decade), especially early in the season when they were getting booed/actively cheered against by their "home" fans.

I see us as a .500 team this season with the potential to win 45-50 games if OG takes a bit of a leap, Siakam has a bit of a bounce-back year (and he was already solid last year averaging 21/7/5) and Barnes proves to be a solid rotation piece in his rookie season (which I already think he will because he has such a high impact in every game he has played for us but the one SL game against the Warriors IIRC). People that think we'll win 25-30 games and be in the hunt for a top 5 pick without significant injuries/another COVID shutdown are off their rockers lol.

I think you're off you're rocker if you think this team as it is right now has potential to win 45-50 games.

Our defense will be solid no doubt but people forget how much we struggled on offense last year. That's only going to get worse without Lowry's scoring and playmaking. FVV is not a great creator for others at this point.

Plus, it's very clear that our mandate is to develop our young players. Sure, we can play Dragic more minutes and win a few more games but that's not what we're trying to do this year. Making the playoffs is not our priority right now. We're going to sacrifice wins for long term development.

I don't see our team getting significantly better until we get a real #1 option and then Siakam can go back to his strength of being the #2/3.

My guess is we will end up with ~30 something wins.

I agree with you, but 30 wins is too low for the amount of depth we have. I have us at 38-40 wins.

[everdiso]

We are loads better than last year. Addition by subtraction without Baynes and Len. Svi is night and day compared to Matt Thomas. We all loved Matt but he couldn’t play D or create his own shot. Svi is a poor man’s Bogdanovich. OG looks like an all star. Dragic will be the steady hands. Siakam should have less pressure. And Scottie will just impact every part of the game. Losing Lowry hurts but others will play more free without his presence. No way this team is bad enough to tank.

Yep. Most people are quick to point to our final record last season and how we lost the GROAT without looking at all of the facts.

First of all, we were much better than our record last season indicated. Before we blatantly tanked the last few weeks of the season, we had the NetRTG and expected W/L record of a .500 team -- and that was after all of the injuries, key man games lost due to COVID protocols and a brutal 1-13 stretch.

Second, our overall roster is significantly better this year. Achiuwa + Birch > Baynes + Len, Barnes + Svi + (new and improved) Yuta > Bembry + Johnson + Thomas/Davis and we have much more depth beyond that now (Banton, Champagnie and Wainright all look like they can contribute at some point this season) too. A good chunk of our roster is very young with lots of room to grow (GTJ, Flynn, OG) while Siakam (and FVV post-COVID) is coming off a tough season with lots of ups and downs. Losing Lowry and Powell will hurt a bit, but Dragic and GTJ give us very similar production (just without the efficiency of Powell) while we're clearly better everywhere else.

Third, and maybe most importantly, we won't be practicing in a ballroom and playing on the road all year this time. It seems like a lot of people are severely underestimating how much of an obstacle it was to play all 72 games away from home (where we have won about 65% of games for the past decade), especially early in the season when they were getting booed/actively cheered against by their "home" fans.

I see us as a .500 team this season with the potential to win 45-50 games if OG takes a bit of a leap, Siakam has a bit of a bounce-back year (and he was already solid last year averaging 21/7/5) and Barnes proves to be a solid rotation piece in his rookie season (which I already think he will because he has such a high impact in every game he has played for us but the one SL game against the Warriors IIRC). People that think we'll win 25-30 games and be in the hunt for a top 5 pick without significant injuries/another COVID shutdown are off their rockers lol.

I think you're off you're rocker if you think this team as it is right now has potential to win 45-50 games.

Our defense will be solid no doubt but people forget how much we struggled on offense last year. That's only going to get worse without Lowry's scoring and playmaking. FVV is not a great creator for others at this point.

Plus, it's very clear that our mandate is to develop our young players. Sure, we can play Dragic more minutes and win a few more games but that's not what we're trying to do this year. Making the playoffs is not our priority right now. We're going to sacrifice wins for long term development.

I don't see our team getting significantly better until we get a real #1 option and then Siakam can go back to his strength of being the #2/3.

My guess is we will end up with ~30 something wins.

Didn't struggle that much offensively last year - 19th in ppg and 16th in ortg - mediocre, not bad.

And that was with us deliberately benching starters to help the tank.

Last year's percentage of games played:

C Baynes 73.6% -------- Birch 26.4% -------------- Gillespie 27.8%
F Siakam 77.8% -------- Boucher 83.3% --------- Johnson 84.7%/Hood 23.6%
F Anunoby 59.7% ------ Powell/Trent 81.9% - Watanabe 69.4%
G Lowry 63.9% ---------- Bembry 70.9% ---------- Thomas 36.1%/Watson 37.5%
G VanVleet 72.2% ----- Flynn 65.3% ------------- Davis 47.7%/Harris 13.1%

This year's roster:

C Achiuwa ----- Birch ---------- Gillespie/Perry
F Siakam ------- Boucher ----- Wainright/Bonga
F Anunoby ----- Watanabe -- Dekker/Champagnie
G Barnes -------- Trent --------- Mykhailuk/Johnson
G VanVleet ----- Dragic ------- Flynn/Banton

[Danny1616]

I love this kid's passion.

Seems like he's already the leader of the team and everybody follows him. He brings amazing energy and positivity, but in a good way because he's such an intense player.

When he's on the bench he's hyping everyone up and always cheering. When he's on defense he's clapping in people's faces. He's grabbing rebounds with force. He is an intimidating nature to him on the court.

[TravisScott55]

We don't need to trash Suggs to boost up Scottie. Let's just stick to being happy with who we have.

[Raptolicism]

In for the Alvin Williams SN era.

Had a crappy birthday, but coming home to Raptors basketball, especially a dub, is always a win.

I hope today is better man!

But ya, fun af to watch that game! Alvin seemed decent, the players showed us mostly what we were hoping to see. I am so happy to have this back.

[Spates]

I can see Barnes' halfcourt game being in the mold of Boris Diaw, which is very exciting.

[Johnston]

We are loads better than last year. Addition by subtraction without Baynes and Len. Svi is night and day compared to Matt Thomas. We all loved Matt but he couldn’t play D or create his own shot. Svi is a poor man’s Bogdanovich. OG looks like an all star. Dragic will be the steady hands. Siakam should have less pressure. And Scottie will just impact every part of the game. Losing Lowry hurts but others will play more free without his presence. No way this team is bad enough to tank.

Yep. Most people are quick to point to our final record last season and how we lost the GROAT without looking at all of the facts.

First of all, we were much better than our record last season indicated. Before we blatantly tanked the last few weeks of the season, we had the NetRTG and expected W/L record of a .500 team -- and that was after all of the injuries, key man games lost due to COVID protocols and a brutal 1-13 stretch.

Second, our overall roster is significantly better this year. Achiuwa + Birch > Baynes + Len, Barnes + Svi + (new and improved) Yuta > Bembry + Johnson + Thomas/Davis and we have much more depth beyond that now (Banton, Champagnie and Wainright all look like they can contribute at some point this season) too. A good chunk of our roster is very young with lots of room to grow (GTJ, Flynn, OG) while Siakam (and FVV post-COVID) is coming off a tough season with lots of ups and downs. Losing Lowry and Powell will hurt a bit, but Dragic and GTJ give us very similar production (just without the efficiency of Powell) while we're clearly better everywhere else.

Third, and maybe most importantly, we won't be practicing in a ballroom and playing on the road all year this time. It seems like a lot of people are severely underestimating how much of an obstacle it was to play all 72 games away from home (where we have won about 65% of games for the past decade), especially early in the season when they were getting booed/actively cheered against by their "home" fans.

I see us as a .500 team this season with the potential to win 45-50 games if OG takes a bit of a leap, Siakam has a bit of a bounce-back year (and he was already solid last year averaging 21/7/5) and Barnes proves to be a solid rotation piece in his rookie season (which I already think he will because he has such a high impact in every game he has played for us but the one SL game against the Warriors IIRC). People that think we'll win 25-30 games and be in the hunt for a top 5 pick without significant injuries/another COVID shutdown are off their rockers lol.

I agree with most of that.

If healthy last year's team doesn't miss the playoffs. If the team is healthy this year, it will take some incredible late game tankage from Nurse to miss the playoffs this year. And who knows, they might do it if they want another lottery pick.

I think not having Siakam and Boucher to start the year will significantly help the tank. Might even lose more games once they come back due to chemistry issues and being rusty. The team starting the season fully healthy I think we would be in the mix for 7/8 seed.

[Son Goku 25]

Precious >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Maxey.

Masai made the right move by waiting.

Seemed like Reed was big mad when Precious blocked him lol glad we have Masai leading this team

[Raptorfan2012]

We don't need to trash Suggs to boost up Scottie. Let's just stick to being happy with who we have.

Yup this place is going to be unbearable once Suggs has a good night and Barnes has a bad night and vice versa. We should just stick to talking about our own players.

[Son Goku 25]

Anyone else notice when Barnes trolled the other team on a fast break, waiting for them to come close before dunking it? I love it but I also noticed Fvv SmH at him.

I'm liking Fvv as our leader I was trying to see if he talks to him but I'm assuming Nurse may have benched him because of that for a few mins. It's probably not the type of image we want as a team, I don't mind it so long as we back it up like a Lebron would.

[KawhiSoSerious]

Champaigne looks bigger than I thought he was. We played him at the 5 no? What's his measurements??

He's on the Raps so he has to be either 6'8" or 6'9" no?

He's 6'6.

Woosh

[WuTang_CMB]

Precious
Siakam
OG
Barnes
VV

I think this will be the starting lineup by the end of the year.

All points it being that way. Barnes' playmaking ability allows him to be slotted at guard but we are basically throwing all positions out the window.