GQStylin wrote:kalel123 wrote:While my post was recognition that Kawhi was the difference maker that DeRozan never was, I don't think any Raptors fans should be putting him down either. He led this team to the best of his abilities to heights that his predecessors, namely Carter and Bosh, with much better talent never could. He worked tirelessly on his craft and probably met, if not exceeded, his potential. The fact that he was never that guy.... it is what it is. Not his fault.
I'd say it is his fault for not recognizing his limitations and not trying to do everything himself thinking he can be like Lebron or Durant when clearly he isn't capable of it. And I'd say its also the fault of the media and especially Casey for almost neverendingly pumping his tires and making him believe he was a superstar player and giving him unlimited chances to fail even at the cost of the team losing playoff games when it would've made more sense to put in different players and try different things rather than 'ride or die' with Demar because he's 'our star'.
And if he worked tirelessly on his game, it sure didn't show all these years with his horrid defense and hot and cold offense. As I said even as Kawhi's offense cooled off in the Bucks series, he was still making a major impact on the floor with his defense, rebounding etc. while Demar was just a pylon that got burned again and again by opposing players.
I think this team would've had more success in previous years if we didn't try and push Demar to become something he clearly isn't capable of.If you think he could've done more given his natural talent level and the team he had, that's really on you. Not him. He did what he could with what he was given and never complained about being in another country, taxes, weather, and all that BS like many of others, who had much less to give, did before him. You gotta at least respect that. Respect and move on.
I do respect him as being a good person and wanting to stay with the Raps, but that's unrelated to his on court play which sucked alot of the time and forcing him to be our number one option and 'star' player when he clearly wasn't hurt this franchaise alot and held us back from greater success. Demar and Lowry ball hogging and taking boatload of shots that they kept missing hurt this team so damn much in so many playoff games. So yeah Demar seems to be a good person and its great that he loved the Raps and Canada, but that doesn't mean I still didn't dislike the way he played on the team and am super glad that he's gone.
Who exactly was Lowry supposed to pass the ball to on those squads? DeMar? You’ve already taken your shots. Are we asking Vasquez or Patterson to close out games? Carrol? Bismack? You think going inside to JV every game is the move?
We didn’t have a go to scorer. The best one as streaky as he was on those teams was probably Kyle.
And let’s not forget how much of that was coaching and Casey using DD/Lowry like they were LeBron/Kyrie in the last two minutes.
