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Ummmm, I didn't read the whole Summer League thread tonight so this may have been discussed at length already (if so, mods please lock) but it also may have been overlooked:

After about the 8 min mark in the 2nd quarter of tonight's game, Masai, during an interview, talked at length about JV, defended his development to date and said the Raptors will change a few things they do defensively to help him on defense including pushing the ball to the sides more and not having him so far out in the perimeter hedging. THIS IS HUGE. It's been discussed all year as the obvious solution to JVs struggles and our overall defensive woes.

This up coming season just got much more interesting

DINO CHAMPIONSHIP TIME!!!!!!

Good, maybe Casey won't bench him for every "mistake" he makes because of blow-bys from the guards.

Yep, heard this as well. Music to my ears.

It was good to hear that they'll be running an ICE P&R coverage this season. Fewer instances of giving up middle and 2v1's will only help the overall defensive effectiveness. Funny Masai mentioned he didn't want Jonas hedging that much, because frankly, he rarely if ever did it anyway.

Thing is though, I think Undefeated/VVV pointed this out in the other thread..

If Jonas still sits too far back in the P&R coverage, forcing the ball to the sidelines won't help him that dramatically. He still needs to be a step closer to the action in order to defend it properly, and to do so he'll need to regain some of his mobility so he won't have to compensate by sitting that one step further back.

Here it is:

Undefeated wrote:

vini_vidi_vici wrote: I oft wonder how ICE is affected by dropping your big as far as back as JV was this year? because I think by using the screen and getting the PG on his hip, its alot more difficult if the big isnt atleast closer to the FT line extended, but thats just idle speculation.

The screen defender is normally supposed to be "up to touch" against the screen which means an arm's length away at the very worst or "level" the screen to prevent the ball-handler from attacking the "drop/flat hedge" and getting back to the middle by "snaking" thereby creating a mismatch where the screen defender has to totally contain the ball. With the "level" it's almost a trap with the on-ball defender trying to get back on the ball-handler's hip to force the ball-handler to get rid of the ball which is the objective of ICE; getting the ball out of the ball-handler's hand and force the screener to beat the defense. ICE isn't supposed to give up the mid-range jumper to the guard since that's a shot that most guards can drain consistently but not for most bigs although I'm not sure how effective ICE is now since most teams play with a 4 that has some range extending to 15-18 feet or they so small negating the advantages of ICE. Whether by design or not, I'm unsure of, but JV drops back against the ball-handler too far.

Smokescreen. What Casey means is he's going to the bench.

Finally. I thought I was on crazy pills last year.

ICE PnR can def work but JV will have to work his keester off refining and regaining his ealier quickness. Even in ICE he will have to stop/contain the ball handler, can't be slow as Oliver Miller doing that. Hated what we did last year, early season we had him hedging a lot but as the season went on he started dropping back and like mentioned above he was doing it way to often. His drop back rate was north of 91%, near the leagues tops. Often like mentioned above, he was too far back on those.

We're actually making the ECF next year.

You are gone change defensive scheme for one player ... This is Bargnani all over again.

This is why I respect Masai's end of year sit downs. He asked Casey tough questions. Casey listened and agreed that changes were necessary, did some self-assessment, and now they clearly agree it's time to get the most out of JV's strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. He's not Tyson Chandler. Adjustments make sense. The Carroll signing was big for that obviously as well. Same for Joseph.

This is great news for a variety of reasons and when combined with the increased usage he'll likely take on offensively I can't wait to see how JV steps up.


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Saciid11 wrote:You are gone change defensive scheme for one player ... This is Bargnani all over again.

This is going to benefit everyone - not as many helter skelter rotations. And considering most good defensive teams employ this strategy, it's kinda a big deal.

Sometimes Summer League teams will employ schemes and plays from their actual teams to use for the regular season. And what I saw yesterday was the same exact defense we ran all of last year. Guess I'll believe it when I see it.

Double Helix wrote:This is why I respect Masai's end of year sit downs. He asked Casey tough questions. Casey listened and agreed that changes were necessary, did some self-assessment, and now they clearly agree it's time to get the most out of JV's strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. He's not Tyson Chandler. Adjustments make sense. The Carroll signing was big for that obviously as well. Same for Joseph.

This is great news for a variety of reasons and when combined with the increased usage he'll likely take on offensively I can't wait to see how JV steps up.


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I would love to be in a position next offseason where we'll offer Val a 5-year max extension and everyone will agree that it was a steal of a contract.

It's hard to play defense from the bench.

Loving the offseason so far.
Land us a starting PF and Masai will be a KING in T.O.

First - great analysis in this thread

The Rap's were handcuffed last year because they had too many defensive liabilities on the court to 'hide' or minimize any one player. But with options on the perimeter now and even with some of the support BB provides on the 2nd unit which i'm sure JV will get some time beside it will allow less focus on JV. As much as he wasn't quick enough, at the same time the number of times opposing guards got easy penetration left JV on his heels to make a play. I don't think he's a bad defender or as slow as people think, he just consistently gets put in crappy situations.

My biggest hope for him is that he improves his passing out of the post this year so he's involved a bit more consistently without there having to be a focus on just dumping the ball into him and clearing out. Having to scramble a bit less on D will hopefully give him more energy in 4th Q's and to move/cut more on offense.

This past year seemed like a bit of a step back for JV, but i think it was just as much a change in the Rap's style instead of anything in particular JV did or didn't do.

Kind of interesting that a defensive-oriented coach needs to be told by management to change his schemes. Is there a coach more useless than Casey in the league?

I was browsing the Bucks board to get a glimpse of how they felt about Pachulia and stumbled upon this.

breakchainss wrote:My problem with all of these small deals is the asset management side. Give Ujiri Dudley and Zaza and I bet you you come away with at least a future protected first and probably more than that.

The legend grows.