PG: Scottie overwhelms Celtics

[mdenny]

My goodness Marcus Smart is on my fantasy team and he put up donuts on the stat sheet in over 20 mins of play. I have Robert Williams 3 on my team too but I don't even cares that's what happens when you face the Raptors you get mauled!

It felt like Smart has lost his mojo. He used to be a Raptor killer.

Smart is the kind of a guy who really needs a trade. I honestly think he's one of the most under-rated players in the league. He still has potential to break out imo. Could use a change of scenery I think. One of the highest IQs in the league.

[bape_lovers]

to answer your 2nd question, Steph and A.I comes to mind

Watch on YouTube

NBA postgame, briefly talk about the game and Scottie (plus about the Raptors going against the consensus and taking Barnes over Suggs).

Let's all remind ourselves a couple of things.

1. Many many teams have passed over Giannis, Jokic, kawhi before they were drafted.

2. Those players have 1 thing in common, height. I wonder how often a player that's under 6"5 is an MVP player or an Alpha of a championship team.


No i'm not saying Scottie will be as good as those 3, or even anywhere close (you never know, but one step at a time here), but i'm saying it puts things into perspective.

Also, it's sad what Simmons 'could' have become. He'll go down as one of the biggest wastes of talent unless something drastically changes imo. Had All Time potential, looks like he's settling as a fringe all star player. Just goes to show how important it is to have the correct mentality.

[Scott Hall]

Read on Twitter

[mdenny]

Had fun just now reading the Celtic board postgame thread.

Too many takes to mention but one theme was, same as last year. Not happy with the effort or the coaching. Bad roster construction. Team is too small AND not enough shooting, a bad combination.

This surprised me: a couple posters quite critical of Tatum, a player I would kill for on the Raps.

tatum is who he's always been. while you improve as a player as your career goes, the DNA never changes. could tell from the beginning that tatum didn't have the drive to be a leader of the franchise. he's too into himself, and being cool. there's a million things wrong with his game. brown is more of a leader and every bit as talented, or more in my opinion. he may not have tatum's natural shooting touch, but he has much better work ethic, which has allowed him to reach his potential. move on from tatum, and try to right the ship.

I think they have a point. There's something about Tatum I can't put my finger on. Dude doesn't play with joy. I don't get the sense he loves basketball. There's an indifference about him. Great player and great potential....but it's hard to picture him winning anything significant for some reason. There's something missing with him.

[mdenny]

As an aside...my lawd Alvin Williams was so painful to listen to it almost made me miss Leo; ALMOST.

Nick Kypreos Was a train wreck as a analyst when he first started. Same with jimmy fallon.. get some reps and he’ll be fine.

alvin was perfectly fine last night. he also kept matt focused. i like the duo right now.

Yesterday's game it became clear that Alvin is gonna be bringing more nuanced observations then we're used to imo.

His praise of the way Fred was controlling the game was really good.

He also pointed out a couple times when Trent got lost on defensive possessions. That's the type of analysis we never got. It's one of the reasons this fanbase over-rated Norm so much. Our play-by-play guys never called him out for all the missed rotations and little stuff like that. Barely anyone ever noticed them.

Alvin's gonna make sure our fanbase becomes more aware of the little things. We don't need the PxP guy to state the obvious when someone makes a hilite play. That's matt's job. The pxp guy is supposed to observe things the average fan doesn't see and Alvin's already doing that.

[WaltFrazier]

A tandem of Siakam, Barnes, & OG will be special.
A trio that will be a defensive nightmare for the opposition & provide immense versality on the offensive end.

I'd add Precious to that group as well.

But then it wouldn't be a tandem (2) or a trio

[WaltFrazier]

Nick Kypreos Was a train wreck as a analyst when he first started. Same with jimmy fallon.. get some reps and he’ll be fine.

alvin was perfectly fine last night. he also kept matt focused. i like the duo right now.

Yesterday's game it became clear that Alvin is gonna be bringing more nuanced observations then we're used to imo.

His praise of the way Fred was controlling the game was really good.

He also pointed out a couple times when Trent got lost on defensive possessions. That's the type of analysis we never got. It's one of the reasons this fanbase over-rated Norm so much. Our play-by-play guys never called him out for all the missed rotations and little stuff like that. Barely anyone ever noticed them.

Alvin's gonna make sure our fanbase becomes more aware of the little things. We don't need the PxP guy to state the obvious when someone makes a hilite play. That's matt's job. The pxp guy is supposed to observe things the average fan doesn't see and Alvin's already doing that.

The PxP guy,I assume that's play by play, IS Matt. I think you mean to say the color man or analyst.

But I agree, Alvin is very good and getting better. And his low key, basketball only style is such a welcome change from Leo's inane humor. And I think Alvin's presence is helping Devlin too, he's not doing the stupid mock promo voice-over thing. Because Leo always encouraged him on that. On the other hand, the Masters is a long time off.

[Klayforspicy]

The kid says he watches defensive highlights in his spare time and tries to mold his game off of Magic Johnson..and doesnt like to party. Hes not like the other gen Zs of this era that play for vanity.

[Jadoogar]

i love Trent's fit with the starters, didn't try to do too much, played excellent defense. Dragic doesn't really fit the "tall, athletic, switchy" defense style the starters want to play.

[Klayforspicy]

i love Trent's fit with the starters, didn't try to do too much, played excellent defense. Dragic doesn't really fit the "tall, athletic, switchy" defense style the starters want to play.

GTJ was actually Portlands designated defender a few years back, he is very much a capable stopper and it should be demanded from him.

[mdenny]

alvin was perfectly fine last night. he also kept matt focused. i like the duo right now.

Yesterday's game it became clear that Alvin is gonna be bringing more nuanced observations then we're used to imo.

His praise of the way Fred was controlling the game was really good.

He also pointed out a couple times when Trent got lost on defensive possessions. That's the type of analysis we never got. It's one of the reasons this fanbase over-rated Norm so much. Our play-by-play guys never called him out for all the missed rotations and little stuff like that. Barely anyone ever noticed them.

Alvin's gonna make sure our fanbase becomes more aware of the little things. We don't need the PxP guy to state the obvious when someone makes a hilite play. That's matt's job. The pxp guy is supposed to observe things the average fan doesn't see and Alvin's already doing that.

The PxP guy,I assume that's play by play, IS Matt. I think you mean to say the color man or analyst.

But I agree, Alvin is very good and getting better. And his low key, basketball only style is such a welcome change from Leo's inane humor. And I think Alvin's presence is helping Devlin too, he's not doing the stupid mock promo voice-over thing. Because Leo always encouraged him on that. On the other hand, the Masters is a long time off.

I should know that lol my bad.

[mdenny]

i love Trent's fit with the starters, didn't try to do too much, played excellent defense. Dragic doesn't really fit the "tall, athletic, switchy" defense style the starters want to play.

Dragic is gonna have an important role though. When nothing is working on offense....we'll be able to sub him in and he'll sink some 20 footers off the dribble when it seems like there's a lid on the bucket.

[RAPSinCAPS]

Yeah Smart is typically a Raps killer but some on the Boston board are saying they were fatigued from the Knicks war. Well if that's the case, then how come the Knicks weren't fatigued? We're obviously a better team than Orlando but I'd say we're probably better than Boston, head to head. They really only have two weapons and we match up very well against them with Barnes, OG and Siakam and we didn't even have Siakam. All I know is if we're in the playins and we get Boston, I like it a lot.

On a side note, Barnes will be better for us than Tmac. Yeah I said it. Everyone was saying we should have drafted Suggs, who was shachled against New York last night lol. ROY favorite.

[Indeed]

Not really though because leading up to the draft no one actually knew who the Raptors were taking. What was clear was Suggs had fallen out of that group with Mobley, Cade and Green and wasn't even a lock for #4.

It was a surprise in that people just assumed we'd go with Suggs because Lowry was leaving and Suggs would've slid right in. But he was by no means a lock at #4.

Lots of reputable draft analysts had Barnes quite high on their draft board. Higher than Suggs.

People gave us a bad preseason because we drafted Barnes over Suggs, no?
I remember one of the preseason grade was mainly looked at drafting.

And no, I was on the draft board before lottery, and Barnes wasn't that high. He raised up after Draft Combine with his measurement like a C

Yeah before the lottery he wasn't high but leading up to the draft his stock was rising and Suggs was falling. If the reports are true, quite a few teams had Barnes at #4 and some had him even at #3. Some draft analysts had Barnes as the #2 behind Mobley.

It was a surprising decision because people just penciled in Suggs as Lowry's replacement.

Before the Combine, he was already around #6 or #7 between Keon Johnson for some mock drafts. After workout, Orlando had him over Kuminga, and we had him over Suggs, which is not a surprised to me, and he was around top 8. The concern was his shooting for being lower, but probably not a concern for the Raptors.

As for Suggs, he was #2 in many draft boards before the Combine, and he dropped 3 spots, so people were surprised.

[ontnut]

Had fun just now reading the Celtic board postgame thread.

Too many takes to mention but one theme was, same as last year. Not happy with the effort or the coaching. Bad roster construction. Team is too small AND not enough shooting, a bad combination.

This surprised me: a couple posters quite critical of Tatum, a player I would kill for on the Raps.

Good to see overreactions are not just limited to the Raps page.
Tatum is a borderline top 10 talent, and probably will be at some point in his career. Move on from him? lol. He's a guy you want to build around.

its funny tho I'd rather have Brown than Tatum on teh raps as well

It's a toss up. I'd be very happy to have both on my team. They're not the issue with the Celtics lol.