The Gasol trade was our downfall

[Mr. Krabs]

He cant postup Harris, dude is washed, sure he can still do some things, but that's not gonna cut it.

You are likely to lose the game when the opponent team is able to put Tobias Harris on your centre. You put him on any other decent C in the league (JV, Drummond, Horford, Capela etc.) and they are scoring 30.

[StopitLeo]

Can we add a -1 button?

[Lord_Zedd]

I get the Gasol trade and while he is an upgrade over JV, was this really our glaring issue? The C spot was the team's biggest strength.

The team needed shooting in the worst way possible and it's more evident.

[GED Education]

I get the Gasol trade and while he is an upgrade over JV, was this really our glaring issue? The C spot was the team's biggest strength.

The team needed shooting in the worst way possible and it's more evident.

The Ibaka/JV duo was going pretty strong pre injury to JV. Centre was not a huge concern.

What was a more glaring concern was the bench. We knew like 30 games in the bench was bad and Fred was a complete fraud from last season. We added nothing but a useless Lin.

[cruwinas]

Evaluation from Memphis:

Watch on YouTube

Couple my pointers in all this post trade era.

1. During the early interview with Memphis media, JV chuckled, with his usual style: "I guess they are going to miss those hard screens in Toronto".

2.Regarding his future with Memphis, JV says"Why not?". He talks, that former HC BB of Grizzlies liked bigs and trusted him. So he was able to recover from injury and was able to put up numbers like 30+, 20+ in couple games. Pay attention to "BB liked using bigs, and he trusted me".

3. Memphis organization after getting hands on JV was surprised to see how much more JV can do. Not just evaluating his games, but having JV in the gym.

4. One more thing about JV's future in Memphis. JV was wondering, who will handle the PG position. I guess, after all these years in Toronto, playing with midgets shoot first PGs and being glued to the "never pass, worst shooter in the NBA DD" - JV is now kind of cautious not to get in the same Poeltl role in Memphis again. Though, I have the feeling that Memphis will try to use JV as a cornerstone of their rebuild and will try to put right players around JV.

About Gasol, what can I say... Last season this board was salivating about possible "ifs" to replace JV. For many here grass was always greener on the other side. Last year i looked how Gasol played and he was already in steep decline.

OK, let's go back to JV a little bit more. Memphis bball people think that JV right now is the most physical big the league. With a soft touch, good hands. For years we watched how Raptors "smalls" couldn't make a pass to JV after the roll, or when JV was set in the paint. In Memphis though everyone is happy: "Just throw the ball t JV and he will get it".

JV was much more involved in then offense, and everyone started to praise his passing too.

To finish - I don't want to look at Marc's stats this postseason. It's enough for me to watch him stand around and most of the time do nothing on the court.

BTW, if JV stays in Memphis next season - Grizzlies will have a better chance to play in play-offs than Raptors in 2020. Strange, right?

[jeffyjaixx]

The problem is the bench can't produce and Lowry is a no show when it mattered the most. Gasol was able to contain Embiid for 2 games. This 3rd game, Embiid just went HAM. You can't always contain someone with talent like Embiid.

[Vorticity]

People forget that in the playoffs, JV (despite all his flaws) could explode and be relied to carry the team offensively for stretches, the truth is Marc can't do that and it hurts.

[Chandan]

I get the Gasol trade and while he is an upgrade over JV, was this really our glaring issue? The C spot was the team's biggest strength.

The team needed shooting in the worst way possible and it's more evident.

The team needs shooting, or does it need reliable, efficient offense coming from someone other then kawhi and siakam?

Heck even Gasol himself was a good shooter at around 45% going into this series. the problem with this team is it lives by the jump shot, die by the jump shot.

Simmons doesn't even have a jump shot but he's scoring like 10 a game only from broken plays around the basket by busting his ass. When is the last time we have a tip in. we simply lack FORCE compared to the sixers. They have five guys crashing and jumping and shoving and running on offense while our center is playing finesse top of the key swinging the ball.

[Raptorfan2012]

Don't know about that. Very possible Vuveic would have smoked JV in the first round.

[VinBaker6]

Oh I see. So we're making sweeping statements based on 2 games now. In that case, Biyombo should have won DPOY for the 2 games he bullied the Cavs.

The magic do not have dynamic elite scoring wings or pg. The game that matter are the ones we should be paying attention to i.e. against philly, boston, Milwaukee, teams that we need to get through given this team has finals/championship aspirations

Gasol completely shut down Embiid in games 1 and 2.

More like Embiid was hurt/sick. He destroyed Gasol today.

[MEDIC]

Brett Brown seems to have found a way to exploit this team. All of a sudden everyone not named Kawhi seems incapable of creating their own offense.

Before the JV trade this team needed more shooting. After the JV trade the team still needed more shooting. The most glaring need was never addressed & Gasol obviously isn't that answer.

JV was a guy you could give the ball to & let him get some easy buckets for you. He was a playoff type player. Very physical & a good scoring option.

Also, bench size has been an issue. Would be really nice to have Delon right now.

Anyhow......on to game 4. Hopefully there are some legitimate adjustment options.

[cruwinas]

I get the Gasol trade and while he is an upgrade over JV,

Here we go again...

In what department Marc is an upgrade? Doing nothing?

OK, no reason to step into this road again. If some fans like what Gasol provided for Raptors - that's their choice. When I look at Marc on the floor - I see a drastic difference between him and JV. Maybe some fans thought that magically extra 5+ years of basketball mileage suddenly will disappear from the Marc's body? Sure, take away 5 years of NBA bbal from JV and Marc and in current situation such trade would make a perfect sense: 29 years old Marc for the perspective, developing young C in JV.
Maybe Masai bet on not playing against 76ers in post-season? Or Embiid being injured? Anyway, neither Marc nor Ibaka can provide a bleep against the healthy Embiid.

The question now is simple: can Raptors survive against the Sixers? Get the home court advantage and survive these best of 7 series?
Highly unlikely. Because out of next 4 games Raptors would have to play Top level NBA ball 3 times, and with the current state of only 1 Raptors player playing like he deserves to be in the ECF - oh boy...

[Boogie!]

Tbh the gasol trade on its own was not the problem, it was tee lack of a followup move to make use of gasols skills. With Gasol you acquire passing and defense in exchange for scoring and rebounding so what the Raps needed to do was acquire more rebounding and shooting from the wing spot or even the 4 spot. Instead they did nothing else a ND basically left us with an incomplete team.

Tbh, I'd say the real downfall was investing in fvv as the full time backup. Just that decision alone has cost us so much flexibility and crippled our versatility in so many ways. Fvv should've been shopped hard at the deadline. Instead now we're here complaining tjat our backup pg who nurse so readily handed the keys to with 26 ppg I jv the regular season and made an untouchable in his rotation, should be benched. I mean how often does a guy who played so many minutes as a key part of our rotation all season, all of a sudden become absolutely useless in t he layoffs when it really matters.... Fvv has always been a major issue and it's really sad this organization failed to realize this.

[MEDIC]

Remember when Serge & JV were absolutely dominant early in the season? They were absolutely feasting every game & looked unstoppable. It was a beautiful thing to watch.......most dominant scoring options from the 5 position we have ever had

[NiL8r87]

Embiid is like the one Center in the top tier that JV would've actually been useful against, maybe Capela as well and it's not like Gasol has been useless against Embiid other than last night. You think he would've stood a chance against Giannis, Horford or Cousins?

[Lord_Zedd]

I get the Gasol trade and while he is an upgrade over JV, was this really our glaring issue? The C spot was the team's biggest strength.

The team needed shooting in the worst way possible and it's more evident.

The team needs shooting, or does it need reliable, efficient offense coming from someone other then kawhi and siakam?

Heck even Gasol himself was a good shooter at around 45% going into this series. the problem with this team is it lives by the jump shot, die by the jump shot.

Simmons doesn't even have a jump shot but he's scoring like 10 a game only from broken plays around the basket by busting his ass. When is the last time we have a tip in. we simply lack FORCE compared to the sixers. They have five guys crashing and jumping and shoving and running on offense while our center is playing finesse top of the key swinging the ball.

The sad part is I was expecting Lowry to be that 3rd option, but after game 1 vs Orlando, it's clear he's a $30 million role player with "intangibles".

Simmons at least is being surrounded with players that can shoot at all times, which is why he has the open space to run in and do whatever he wants. With us, nobody is going to feel threatened with our non-shooters pretending to be one. And the shooters that we thought we have, are afraid to shoot.

[Kreamy]

There's no doubt in my mind we win this series with a front court of Kawhi, Siakam and JV. For one, the Sixers wouldn't put Embiid on Siakam with JV playing next to him. That would have essentially killed the their game plan right there.

[BigShaq34]

The trade was fine. Gasol is better than JV. Some people seem to be forgetting how he erased Vuc in round 1, and Embiid in games 1 and 2. Aside from tonight his play has been great on the defensive end and solid on the offensive end (and he was needed more defensively since both of our opponents so far run their offence through their big men)

I'm sorry, did you say Gasol was solid in the offensive end? He is literally passing up open shots. You can't be an effective passer when you are not a threat to score yourself.

Tobias Harris is guarding him and yet he can't capitalize on a smaller guy on him. Its ridiculous. Marc is too talented a player to be so timid on offense. His rebounding is poor too.

[cruwinas]

Embiid is like the one Center in the top tier that JV would've actually been useful against, maybe Capela as well and it's not like Gasol has been useless against Embiid other than last night. You think he would've stood a chance against Giannis, Horford or Cousins?

Giannis is not a C's problem.

Cousins? Did ever JV had problem with him?

Horford? Sure, if JV is used as Poeltl or Byombo - good luck with that. Let's turn the tables: could Horford stop JV in the paint? Provide rebounding edge for the Celtics?
Couple years ago Atlanta Hawks announcers were analyzing, how much harder on defense their young bigs had to work to keep JV from the offensive glass. And how it made them tired and not as effective during their own offensive possessions.
I bet Raptors are not missing just JV's screens on the offense. Easy put backs and second chances would be helpfull too...

[BrownMamba]

Honestly - matchup wise - JV would obviously more effective.. but man all we have to do is GUT through this series and Gasol will be able to show what he can do....

Albeit, he literally is SO weak with the ball, no balance on his post ups and just ends up throwing wild balls..