Darko: "This is Year 1 of our Re-build"

[Darkseid]

what was last year then?

It was helping the spurs rebuild.

If that was the reality then at least we could say the Spurs re-routed Kawhi to us and KACHING.
Some of our fans behave like:

Watch on YouTube

Damn those fans were on a roll.

“Don’t even come out after halftime!”

[Chandan]

All we have is that “Big 3”. The bench is still total ass and any key injuries will send us on a losing streak.

We finally have a backup PG that can defend the POA
Mitchell
Gradey or Ochai
Brown
KO
Boucher
............Looks okay to me! But Coach Darko is at the helm

Yeah I’ve been reading this same post for 5 off-season’s in a row. That is not a good bench by any means.

It's always the same poster that loves everything

[C_Money]

Masai recently talked about bringing the bench mob back. These defensive non-shooters you keep bringing in won’t do it for you. They’ll drop out of the league like all the others.

[Los_29]

Masai recently talked about bringing the bench mob back. These defensive non-shooters you keep bringing in won’t do it for you. They’ll drop out of the league like all the others.

Who are these defensive non-shooters you are referring to? KO? Gradey? Ochai? Walter? Don’t see that profile in any of those guys.

[RoteSchroder]

Masai recently talked about bringing the bench mob back. These defensive non-shooters you keep bringing in won’t do it for you. They’ll drop out of the league like all the others.

Looking back at the young players...out of FVV, Powell, OG, Siakam, Poeltl, only FVV was really a shooter

compare their shooting to...

Davion, Ja'Kobe, Gradey, Mogbo, Ochai, Shead, Chomche

[C_Money]

Masai recently talked about bringing the bench mob back. These defensive non-shooters you keep bringing in won’t do it for you. They’ll drop out of the league like all the others.

Who are these defensive non-shooters you are referring to? KO? Gradey? Ochai? Walter? Don’t see that profile in any of those guys.

Yeah I’m referring to Gradey and KO as defensive non-shooters. Good job.

No but actually I’m referring to Ochai, Davion, Precious, RHJ, Banton, Stanley Johnson, Patrick McCaw, Boucher, Deandre Bembry, Champagne etc…

These are the “Masai guys” and a big reason why our bench is always crap.

[Los_29]

Masai recently talked about bringing the bench mob back. These defensive non-shooters you keep bringing in won’t do it for you. They’ll drop out of the league like all the others.

Who are these defensive non-shooters you are referring to? KO? Gradey? Ochai? Walter? Don’t see that profile in any of those guys.

Yeah I’m referring to Gradey and KO as defensive non-shooters. Good job.

No but actually I’m referring to Ochai, Davion, Precious, RHJ, Banton, Stanley Johnson, Patrick McCaw, Boucher, Deandre Bembry, Champagne etc…

These are the “Masai guys” and a big reason why our bench is always crap.

Ochai isn’t a non-shooter. You made a really bad point so I felt obligated to point it out.

And as another poster mentioned, Siakam, Poeltl, OG, Delon and Norm weren’t considered shooters. Only FVV was.

[C_Money]

Who are these defensive non-shooters you are referring to? KO? Gradey? Ochai? Walter? Don’t see that profile in any of those guys.

Yeah I’m referring to Gradey and KO as defensive non-shooters. Good job.

No but actually I’m referring to Ochai, Davion, Precious, RHJ, Banton, Stanley Johnson, Patrick McCaw, Boucher, Deandre Bembry, Champagne etc…

These are the “Masai guys” and a big reason why our bench is always crap.

Ochai isn’t a non-shooter. You made a really bad point so I felt obligated to point it out.

And as another poster mentioned, Siakam, Poeltl, OG, Delon and Norm weren’t considered shooters. Only FVV was.

Not sure what you were watching all year but Ochai is very much a non-shooter lol.

[ash_k]

Yeah I’ve been reading this same post for 5 off-season’s in a row. That is not a good bench by any means.

That’s a solid bench. If you look around the league there aren’t a lot of good benches. Who does Denver have coming off the bench? Or Boston? Or Milwaukee? Or Philadelphia?

Bruce Brown is a good player, as is KO.

They sure as hell weren’t good players while wearing Raptors jerseys.

3 of those 4 teams you listed underachieved in the playoffs because of depth reasons and Boston has a stacked starting lineup.

Because coaching matters. And that is the main concern! Darko has not demonstrated the ability to maximize his players ability like good coaches do..worse, many players looked at their very worst under him

[ash_k]

Glad you have the confidence....But i just don't see it....I don't think we bottom out but i also don't think we are a winning team....Prolly somewhere in the middle....25-32 wins....The starters arn't all gonna play 82 games either....There will be points in the season we need to depend on a "rookie" ....

25-32 cannot happen unless SIGNIFICANT injuries strike again. We literally did absolutely everything to lose and still managed to win that bottom 25 you are projecting. We could have won 35 games without that losing-at-all-cost mindset. Another coach would have gotten us up there with Orlando and Pacers in the Standings
Our BIG 3 have already made the playoffs. Scottie cannot go 3 years in a row without making them. FO needs to know if IQ can actually handle the playoff pressure to build further(he could not handled it in NY while RJ handled it fine) . IQ is 25 already.

I never seen a team that says we are in the 1st year of a rebuild jump from 25 wins to 41 wins ....If we are in the 1st year of the rebuild that means it takes a few losing seasons + building up your players/drafting well to make that leap...

Patients is key ....Alot of people here don't have patients and want immediate results...These guys are all kids in terms of the NBA still ....Let them grow up first...

Why are you pretending that we are actually a 25-win team, didn’t you watch the season?

[ash_k]

Lol isn't the the kinda stuff yall want to hear? I'm confused by all the complaints obviously we been trash for 2-3 years but that ain't on darko for him this truly is the 1st year of a rebuild

The complaints are coming from posters who still cling to us being a competitive team in the East.

Posters like yourself had us at 30 wins/non-competitive team, the year we won 48 wins(including losing 3 against the Pistons)..one would think lessons have been learned since

IQ, RJ, Scottie and Jak are 7-7 Together without a training camp...the Bench has proven contributors to winning basketball in KO, Brown, Boucher then you got Gradey and the former 9th pick Baylor PG that many wanted badly just a couple of years ago now as our backup PG ..

It's on the coach

[Los_29]

Yeah I’m referring to Gradey and KO as defensive non-shooters. Good job.

No but actually I’m referring to Ochai, Davion, Precious, RHJ, Banton, Stanley Johnson, Patrick McCaw, Boucher, Deandre Bembry, Champagne etc…

These are the “Masai guys” and a big reason why our bench is always crap.

Ochai isn’t a non-shooter. You made a really bad point so I felt obligated to point it out.

And as another poster mentioned, Siakam, Poeltl, OG, Delon and Norm weren’t considered shooters. Only FVV was.

Not sure what you were watching all year but Ochai is very much a non-shooter lol.

Ochai’s scouting report:

“Ochai Agbaji is an athletic two-way wing. Offensively, his primary value is in off-ball scoring. Agbaji is a floor spacer with real three-point shooting talent.“

There are dozens more scouting reports that say the same thing. You need to do a little bit more homework on these guys.

Yeah I’ve been reading this same post for 5 off-season’s in a row. That is not a good bench by any means.

That’s a solid bench. If you look around the league there aren’t a lot of good benches. Who does Denver have coming off the bench? Or Boston? Or Milwaukee? Or Philadelphia?

Bruce Brown is a good player, as is KO.

They sure as hell weren’t good players while wearing Raptors jerseys.

3 of those 4 teams you listed underachieved in the playoffs because of depth reasons and Boston has a stacked starting lineup.

I am absolutely shocked that a team missing its best players couldn’t win a lot of games.

I can name many more teams that have mediocre benches. The point is, once again, our bench isn’t bad. If we lose a lot of games it won’t be due to our bench.

[mkot]

Ochai isn’t a non-shooter. You made a really bad point so I felt obligated to point it out.

45% TS
43% eFG
22% 3pFG

C'mon now

He is a career 74% FT shooter though so there's hope, but the fact that he has regressed every year the past 3 years is a concern

[Los_29]

Ochai isn’t a non-shooter. You made a really bad point so I felt obligated to point it out.

45% TS
43% eFG
22% 3pFG

C'mon now

He is a career 74% FT shooter though so there's hope, but the fact that he has regressed every year the past 3 years is a concern

He hit nearly 3 threes a game at over 40% in his senior season. In his junior year he hit 38% from three. How is he a non-shooter? One of the main reasons he was drafted was because of his shooting ability.

And why are you bringing up his numbers solely in Toronto where he was playing with guys like Jontay Porter and DJ Carton. lol.

[Duffman100]

Ochai isn’t a non-shooter. You made a really bad point so I felt obligated to point it out.

45% TS
43% eFG
22% 3pFG

C'mon now

He is a career 74% FT shooter though so there's hope, but the fact that he has regressed every year the past 3 years is a concern

3 years?

He got better throughout college and then his rookie year was an adjustment to the 3p line like almost everyone does. Tough to call that a regression

He then regressed 1 year and now here we're at.

I'm not saying he'll succeed or not but let's at least get things accurate.

[ATLTimekeeper]

As a fan, I don't think it's right to waste a season to try and get a better return on trades. And for Darko to say that he couldn't establish his methods and culture because of that is weak leadership. All this adds up to me that the Raptors don't have good answers right now.

[DG88]

Lol isn't the the kinda stuff yall want to hear? I'm confused by all the complaints obviously we been trash for 2-3 years but that ain't on darko for him this truly is the 1st year of a rebuild

The complaints are coming from posters who still cling to us being a competitive team in the East.

Posters like yourself had us at 30 wins/non-competitive team, the year we won 48 wins(including losing 3 against the Pistons)..one would think lessons have been learned since

IQ, RJ, Scottie and Jak are 7-7 Together without a training camp...the Bench has proven contributors to winning basketball in KO, Brown, Boucher then you got Gradey and the former 9th pick Baylor PG that many wanted badly just a couple of years ago now as our backup PG ..

It's on the coach

The coach manages personalities, the game and imprints their basketball philosophy on the team but the players are still the dominant factor in wins and losses. That same Raptors team that won 48 games had to rely solely on their starters to win games. They couldn't rely on their bench at all during that run. With the same coach weren't even .500 by February until they added a C. Even then it wasn't enough and that's with a championship coach. Is that the coach or the lack of talent on the roster? Boston Celtics were a 50 win team with Ime Udoka and were a 50 win team with Mazzulla. The only difference was the roster upgrades that were made on the team.

Sure Scottie, IQ, RJ and Jakob are 7-7. A 14 game sample is not enough to say we'll be a competitive team. Way to much variance and limited NBA minutes to say it's indicative of anything. Our bench has had a talent upgrade but it's mainly rookies. I'm not expecting a 33 year old Olynyk to make a big difference at this point in his career, especially defensively. Bruce Brown was hot and cold though he had a knee issue so I'll give him a pass but he's best as a utility player surrounded by better talent. Boucher barely played for Darko because he doesn't fit the system. Gradey is probably starting but he's still just in his second year and needs more reps. Davion Mitchell does provide PoA defense but how many minutes is he really going to play to make enough of a difference? After that it's rookies who will get minutes.

The FO and the head coach have stated we're rebuilding and the focus will be on development. We're going to.let the chips fall where they may. This team still isn't talented enough to compete and probably top out at the final Play-In spot at best.

[OakleyDokely]

The Raptors just sucked last year, that's different than a rebuild. They had a roster full of guys who were on the trading block just waiting to get dealt. After all the injuries and trades, they were playing scrubs and 10 day guys who didn't have a long term future with the team just to get through the season.

This year, the core is set and there likely won't be many major changes to the roster. They have 8 guys on rookie deals, including 4 rookies on the roster. So I can understand where Darko is coming from. They have a young starting lineup that needs to gel and they need to incorporate all their young players into a functioning bench rotation.

[Dennis 37]

Not a fan of Darko and his coaching style.

I find him to be obnoxious a lot of the time.

Probably more important what the players think of him.

[onions17]

Lmfao we missed the playoffs last 3 of 4 years but this is year 1 of the rebuild.

The difference is that we were fighting to get into the play-in and add pieces to a flawed roster each of those years.