New Raptors Info+Highlights(T.Davis, RHJ, S.Johnson, M.Thomas, McClaw, D.Hernandez, C.Payne and 3 Forwards)Player Thread

[yogimvp]

lol what a dumb ****

[Rap4Life_J]

People are sleeping on Matt Thomas. Everyone keeps talking about how our outside shooting will suck but i'm hoping he can play 15 minutes for us and hit 3-4 threes a game. dude never misses when he's open; just have to get him looks.

He maybe go for a 3 point contest this coming all-star weekend.

[HeadtopChunes]

Anyone have a link to Stanley’s media scrum?

Watch on YouTube

Edit: Which reporter thought he was Pat McCaw?

Lmao what a clown

[mdenny]

Yeah, I see it something like this for the regular season

Gasol 26 Ibaka 22
Siakam 34 Ibaka 4 Boucher/RHJ/Stanley 10
OG 30 Boucher/RHJ/Stanley 10 Powell 8
Powell 22 FVV 12 Thomas/Davis 14
Lowry 34 FVV 14

Boucher would I guess be the 4 with Siakam as the 3 but he shoots better than RHJ or Stanley so it's more spacing.

Basically we have the 6 rotation guys from last year playing 26-34 minutes and then the 3 young forwards are fighting for 20 minutes a night and Thomas, Davis and Loyd for another 20 as a 4th guard basically. If only one of those 6 guys proves a rotation answer we look for a buyout candidate or maybe a team looking to shed money to give us an upgrade without surrendering assets. If none of those 6 guys can play we're a 7-8 seed (assuming Lowry and Siakam stay healthy for around 140 or so combined games)

Good analysis. In terms of the last 5 minutes of a close game....I'm thinking we have 4 of 5 good pieces with Gasol/Ibaka playing depending on matchup/who's hot.

Kyle
Fred
?
Siakum
Gasol/Ibaka

We need either OG or Powell OR one of the new guys to emerge as that 3rd piece down the stretch. OG obviously starts with that role. Having 5 guys competing for it...one would hope one of them overachieves and surpasses our expectations.

Absolutely. If we want to win a 1st round series and really challenge one of Philly or Milwaukee, Siakam needs to keep improving, maybe about 1/3rd of the leap he made last year and be a 20 and 8, 3rd team all-NBA type forward and one of Norm or OG needs to make a leap into a very solid starter, like an Ingles or Josh Richardson type.

Basically, PG and C we're in great shape and Siakam should be an all-star, but then there's about 100-105 minutes of wing uncertainty and we can feel optimistic about 50-65 or so of them from Powell and OG, but we really have no idea if they will be solid 4th or 5th starter types or remain 7th and 8th man level types, and then we really have even less of an idea what the other 40-50 minutes will look like.

I think we should expect Masai to found a nice 15-20 guy from the Thomas/RHJ/Boucher/Johnson/Loyd/Davis group, but as much as he's been a miracle worker and all those guys have a path to being good (Thomas does appear to be a truly incredible shooter, RHJ and Johnson were high picks for a reason and play hard on D and just need one of them to somehow become an average corner 3 shooter, Loyd and Boucher both plausible choices as G-League MVP last year and Davis looks like the best 2-way player of them all to me via the eye test), the odds are very much stacked against finding a quality 30 minute player from free agent deals under 4M.

It'll be an interesting season.

Definitely an interesting season. I was super enthused about the Kawhi trade from day one and acknowledge his playoff dominance but i also think people are under-estimating how much our chip was a team-driven run. This wasn't an Iverson or Kobe run. Kawhi's role has probably been exaggerated a bit (except for the 6ers series). As lots have pointed out....we were 17 and 5 without him. Green's loss is substantial too but I think we're still definitely a 5 or 6 seed as things stand now. No way we're beating Philly barring injuries. Probably Milwaukee too....but I think we'd have at least a shot in a 7 game series with anyone else in the East. Philly has to be the conference favorite imo.

Our offense will struggle at times. I think Nurse's potential in creating offense hasn't been talked about enough. This might be why we're loading up on defensive-minded players. Seems like our team is built for the defense to take care of itself and our offense might be more a system-driven thing. Gasol will be more important than ppl think. We haven't seem him play against sub-par teams much and he's gonna ensure that we don't lose many games to sub-500 teams.

[gregdj]

Yeah, I see it something like this for the regular season

Gasol 26 Ibaka 22
Siakam 34 Ibaka 4 Boucher/RHJ/Stanley 10
OG 30 Boucher/RHJ/Stanley 10 Powell 8
Powell 22 FVV 12 Thomas/Davis 14
Lowry 34 FVV 14

Boucher would I guess be the 4 with Siakam as the 3 but he shoots better than RHJ or Stanley so it's more spacing.

Basically we have the 6 rotation guys from last year playing 26-34 minutes and then the 3 young forwards are fighting for 20 minutes a night and Thomas, Davis and Loyd for another 20 as a 4th guard basically. If only one of those 6 guys proves a rotation answer we look for a buyout candidate or maybe a team looking to shed money to give us an upgrade without surrendering assets. If none of those 6 guys can play we're a 7-8 seed (assuming Lowry and Siakam stay healthy for around 140 or so combined games)

Good analysis. In terms of the last 5 minutes of a close game....I'm thinking we have 4 of 5 good pieces with Gasol/Ibaka playing depending on matchup/who's hot.

Kyle
Fred
?
Siakum
Gasol/Ibaka

We need either OG or Powell OR one of the new guys to emerge as that 3rd piece down the stretch. OG obviously starts with that role. Having 5 guys competing for it...one would hope one of them overachieves and surpasses our expectations.

I think Davis could be that guy -- he looks hungry and doesnt look shy from the big minutes. I would give him a try. But he is obviously too small for 3 so either FVV goes or Davis doesnt get his chance this year. In some smaller lineups you maybe get away with Davis at 3.

Otherwise I think it's either Powell or OG

Kyle/FVV/
Davis/Matt/Stanley
OG/Powell/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

I'd have Matt or Davis start at SG, you could put Powell there but I like his energy in the 2nd unit with the likes of Rondae and Ibaka... FVV and Matt keep scoring strong in the 2nd unit. Stanley would fill mins at SG or SF not counting him out at all...

[Rap4Life_J]

One more things, I know we are excited with all the signing, but don’t I am a bit worry to use a term “Young Guns” to describe them.

We were failure to call our young core of players as Young Guns......

[gregdj]

One more things, I know we are excited with all the signing, but don’t I am a bit worry to use a term “Young Guns” to describe them.

We were failure to call our young core of players as Young Guns......

Better team overall, coaching and management. Call em whatever, just make sure they all strive to be the MIP.

[Anatomize]

I would really like to see a lot of Matt Thomas and Malcolm Miller and even Boucher playing with different lineups this year. We're going to need their stretch shooting combined with our defensive players, that's the only way teams won't sag.

[SHFT]

Good analysis. In terms of the last 5 minutes of a close game....I'm thinking we have 4 of 5 good pieces with Gasol/Ibaka playing depending on matchup/who's hot.

Kyle
Fred
?
Siakum
Gasol/Ibaka

We need either OG or Powell OR one of the new guys to emerge as that 3rd piece down the stretch. OG obviously starts with that role. Having 5 guys competing for it...one would hope one of them overachieves and surpasses our expectations.

I think Davis could be that guy -- he looks hungry and doesnt look shy from the big minutes. I would give him a try. But he is obviously too small for 3 so either FVV goes or Davis doesnt get his chance this year. In some smaller lineups you maybe get away with Davis at 3.

Otherwise I think it's either Powell or OG

Kyle/FVV/
Davis/Matt/Stanley
OG/Powell/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

I'd have Matt or Davis start at SG, you could put Powell there but I like his energy in the 2nd unit with the likes of Rondae and Ibaka... FVV and Matt keep scoring strong in the 2nd unit. Stanley would fill mins at SG or SF not counting him out at all...

0 chance we just hand the starting SG role to a guy we signed who was undrafted.

With the roster as it currently stands, its Norm's to lose. He objectively plays better with the starters anyways.

Im sure Davis gets his minutes and a chance to crack it, but its a huge slap in the face to Norm to just give it to Davis.

Cant wait for preseason lol

[sbsat]

I think Davis could be that guy -- he looks hungry and doesnt look shy from the big minutes. I would give him a try. But he is obviously too small for 3 so either FVV goes or Davis doesnt get his chance this year. In some smaller lineups you maybe get away with Davis at 3.

Otherwise I think it's either Powell or OG

Kyle/FVV/
Davis/Matt/Stanley
OG/Powell/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

I'd have Matt or Davis start at SG, you could put Powell there but I like his energy in the 2nd unit with the likes of Rondae and Ibaka... FVV and Matt keep scoring strong in the 2nd unit. Stanley would fill mins at SG or SF not counting him out at all...

0 chance we just hand the starting SG role to a guy we signed who was undrafted.

With the roster as it currently stands, its Norm's to lose. He objectively plays better with the starters anyways.

Im sure Davis gets his minutes and a chance to crack it, but its a huge slap in the face to Norm to just give it to Davis.

Cant wait for preseason lol

you have no idea how Thomas will fare with the increased speed and strength of the NBA. he will find it difficult to het to his spots, but he seems physically strong and quick. I agree, you cannot just hand it to him! This is norm's to lose, norm played very well in the playoffs.

[TerryTate]

As much as I would like these new guys to pan out.... Let's be REALISTIC

Anyone calling for these "undrafted" players to start is just insane....
You don't start people cause their clips video looks decent. Tell me if you were a coach would start someone in the NBA if his clips video looked good. How insane does that sound? Realtively speaking Bargnani clips prior to the NBA looked good too....

Nurse has be known to experiment with lineups through the course of the year. So "set" minutes isn't something we've seen. He'll try to exploit matchups, playing to players strengths. We have a lot more players and all the new ones are very "raw".
The biggest thing IMO for this year, is setting the postive/winning tone internally and development of newer / "raw" players.

2 of our "projected" starters Powell/OG have never gotten consistent starter minutes (Well maybe Powell), but not through the course of over half a year.

RHJ is a poor man Siakam, great around the basket, broken shot, can our shooting team fix that?
Stanley Johnson, has to the tools to be a good defender, also isn't the greatest shooters, can our shooting team fix that?
Boucher, who is filled with size and talent, yet at times seems very undisciplined. Gasol, should be mentoring our bigs in all facets.
Matt Thomas who I know very little about could be a Reddick or Kapono, till I see some actual play, I'll reserve judgement.
We have a few more drafted and undrafted players, who are IMO lower on the totem pole than the guys above.

[gregdj]

As much as I would like these new guys to pan out.... Let's be REALISTIC

Anyone calling for these "undrafted" players to start is just insane....
You don't start people cause their clips video looks decent. Tell me if you were a coach would start someone in the NBA if his clips video looked good. How insane does that sound? Realtively speaking Bargnani clips prior to the NBA looked good too....

Nurse has be known to experiment with lineups through the course of the year. So "set" minutes isn't something we've seen. He'll try to exploit matchups, playing to players strengths. We have a lot more players and all the new ones are very "raw".
The biggest thing IMO for this year, is setting the postive/winning tone internally and development of newer / "raw" players.

2 of our "projected" starters Powell/OG have never gotten consistent starter minutes (Well maybe Powell), but not through the course of over half a year.

RHJ is a poor man Siakam, great around the basket, broken shot, can our shooting team fix that?
Stanley Johnson, has to the tools to be a good defender, also isn't the greatest shooters, can our shooting team fix that?
Boucher, who is filled with size and talent, yet at times seems very undisciplined. Gasol, should be mentoring our bigs in all facets.
Matt Thomas who I know very little about could be a Reddick or Kapono, till I see some actual play, I'll reserve judgement.
We have a few more drafted and undrafted players, who are IMO lower on the totem pole than the guys above.

It's obvious Powell should start the 2, I'm mixing things up a bit. Don't be so butthurt about it. It's not a decision based on video clips, you don't know enough to make any judgement call. You have no idea what nurse is going to do, period.

[gregdj]

The most "likely" lineup with current acquisitions

Kyle/FVV/
Powell/Matt/Davis
OG/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

With Davis, Matt and Stanley battling for minutes.

[Ramed Nazored]

The most "likely" lineup with current acquisitions

Kyle/FVV/
Powell/Matt/Davis
OG/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

With Davis, Matt and Stanley battling for minutes.

No spot in the rotation for McCaw? I'd start him over Thomas.

[Raptorfan2012]

The most "likely" lineup with current acquisitions

Kyle/FVV/
Powell/Matt/Davis
OG/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

With Davis, Matt and Stanley battling for minutes.

I think McCaw will back up Powell, with Davis and Matt probably down to the 905.

Honestly our SG position looks very weak right now. I don't trust Powell as a starting SG (he needs to be more consistent).

[DreamTeam09]

The most "likely" lineup with current acquisitions

Kyle/FVV/
Powell/Matt/Davis
OG/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

With Davis, Matt and Stanley battling for minutes.

I think McCaw will back up Powell, with Davis and Matt probably down to the 905.

Honestly our SG position looks very weak right now. I don't trust Powell as a starting SG (he needs to be more consistent).

We have so much options at SG

Powell / McCaw / Lowry / Davis / Thomas

[TerryTate]

As much as I would like these new guys to pan out.... Let's be REALISTIC

Anyone calling for these "undrafted" players to start is just insane....
You don't start people cause their clips video looks decent. Tell me if you were a coach would start someone in the NBA if his clips video looked good. How insane does that sound? Realtively speaking Bargnani clips prior to the NBA looked good too....

Nurse has be known to experiment with lineups through the course of the year. So "set" minutes isn't something we've seen. He'll try to exploit matchups, playing to players strengths. We have a lot more players and all the new ones are very "raw".
The biggest thing IMO for this year, is setting the postive/winning tone internally and development of newer / "raw" players.

2 of our "projected" starters Powell/OG have never gotten consistent starter minutes (Well maybe Powell), but not through the course of over half a year.

RHJ is a poor man Siakam, great around the basket, broken shot, can our shooting team fix that?
Stanley Johnson, has to the tools to be a good defender, also isn't the greatest shooters, can our shooting team fix that?
Boucher, who is filled with size and talent, yet at times seems very undisciplined. Gasol, should be mentoring our bigs in all facets.
Matt Thomas who I know very little about could be a Reddick or Kapono, till I see some actual play, I'll reserve judgement.
We have a few more drafted and undrafted players, who are IMO lower on the totem pole than the guys above.

It's obvious Powell should start the 2, I'm mixing things up a bit. Don't be so butthurt about it. It's not a decision based on video clips, you don't know enough to make any judgement call. You have no idea what nurse is going to do, period.

Butthurt?!? I'm being realistic. What else are you using to judge that an "undrafted" pg like Davis other than clips? I'm gonna say straight up Davis, Hernandez, Kagote will be seeing time in the 905 very likely starting the season there. Having them in the depth chart now, before training camp is pretty crazy. Thomas, having euro experience and being signed to a longer contract might indicate that the raps might have a role for him right away, his 3pt% even in euro are outright impressive. Also we have a need for 3 shooters with the departures of Green and Kawhi.

FVV could easily start at the 2. McCaw could easily Backup PG. Powell has never really excelled in the starter role, though I would give him the opportunity to start the 2 this year. Powell could additionally slot into the 3 position with certain matchups. I would place Powell & McCaw ahead of S. Johnson in the depth chart. Powell is still proven to be more NBA impactful that Johnson, who is a career 43% eFG, which is straight up horrible. Personally, I see Johnson in a 3/4 role who excels as a defender and some slashing to hoops, where he is far more efficient @ >50FG% (Which still isn't that good in the 0-3 ft range) vs everywhere else shooting <35%.

I was a big fan of the RHJ signing, but if you look at the stats and what Nets fan have said of him.... he's pretty inept offensively outside the 0-3ft basket range, his shot is broken. Maybe similar to Siakam 2 years ago?

[gregdj]

The most "likely" lineup with current acquisitions

Kyle/FVV/
Powell/Matt/Davis
OG/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

With Davis, Matt and Stanley battling for minutes.

No spot in the rotation for McCaw? I'd start him over Thomas.

We have so much at the 2, it's gonna be a fight for 2nd and third string... which is actually good because it's healthy competition and at least one shall emerge as an efficient backup at SG.

[SharoneWright]

The most "likely" lineup with current acquisitions

Kyle/FVV/
Powell/Matt/Davis
OG/Stanley
Siakam/Rondae
Gasol/Ibaka

With Davis, Matt and Stanley battling for minutes.

I think McCaw will back up Powell, with Davis and Matt probably down to the 905.

Honestly our SG position looks very weak right now. I don't trust Powell as a starting SG (he needs to be more consistent).

We have so much options at SG

Powell / McCaw / Lowry / Davis / Thomas

Time to trade Norm.

[gregdj]

As much as I would like these new guys to pan out.... Let's be REALISTIC

Anyone calling for these "undrafted" players to start is just insane....
You don't start people cause their clips video looks decent. Tell me if you were a coach would start someone in the NBA if his clips video looked good. How insane does that sound? Realtively speaking Bargnani clips prior to the NBA looked good too....

Nurse has be known to experiment with lineups through the course of the year. So "set" minutes isn't something we've seen. He'll try to exploit matchups, playing to players strengths. We have a lot more players and all the new ones are very "raw".
The biggest thing IMO for this year, is setting the postive/winning tone internally and development of newer / "raw" players.

2 of our "projected" starters Powell/OG have never gotten consistent starter minutes (Well maybe Powell), but not through the course of over half a year.

RHJ is a poor man Siakam, great around the basket, broken shot, can our shooting team fix that?
Stanley Johnson, has to the tools to be a good defender, also isn't the greatest shooters, can our shooting team fix that?
Boucher, who is filled with size and talent, yet at times seems very undisciplined. Gasol, should be mentoring our bigs in all facets.
Matt Thomas who I know very little about could be a Reddick or Kapono, till I see some actual play, I'll reserve judgement.
We have a few more drafted and undrafted players, who are IMO lower on the totem pole than the guys above.

It's obvious Powell should start the 2, I'm mixing things up a bit. Don't be so butthurt about it. It's not a decision based on video clips, you don't know enough to make any judgement call. You have no idea what nurse is going to do, period.

Butthurt?!? I'm being realistic. What else are you using to judge that an "undrafted" pg like Davis other than clips? I'm gonna say straight up Davis, Hernandez, Kagote will be seeing time in the 905 very likely starting the season there. Having them in the depth chart now, before training camp is pretty crazy. Thomas, having euro experience and being signed to a longer contract might indicate that the raps might have a role for him right away, his 3pt% even in euro are outright impressive. Also we have a need for 3 shooters with the departures of Green and Kawhi.

FVV could easily start at the 2. McCaw could easily Backup PG. Powell has never really excelled in the starter role, though I would give him the opportunity to start the 2 this year. Powell could additionally slot into the 3 position with certain matchups. I would place Powell & McCaw ahead of S. Johnson in the depth chart. Powell is still proven to be more NBA impactful that Johnson, who is a career 43% eFG, which is straight up horrible. Personally, I see Johnson in a 3/4 role who excels as a defender and some slashing to hoops, where he is far more efficient @ >50FG% (Which still isn't that good in the 0-3 ft range) vs everywhere else shooting <35%.

I was a big fan of the RHJ signing, but if you look at the stats and what Nets fan have said of him.... he's pretty inept offensively outside the 0-3ft basket range, his shot is broken. Maybe similar to Siakam 2 years ago?

Ok I agree that FVV COULD start at the 2, in this scenario who would fill in at PG coming off the bench? I think FVV provides what we need in our 2nd string lineup as PG IMO