Steelo Green wrote:People use ad hominems and have no actual responses.
Did the Raptors tank when they brought Pascal and Fred back when they were on their win streak and played them on a B2B. Simple question?
When they won 4 straight and were a game back of the play in, why were they still playing?
Raptors didn’t “tank” until 5-6 games left. Nothing can disprove this.
With regard to Curry, the Warriors had Dray healthy most of the season too and he played 43 games.
Everyone knows they milked the hand injury. He broke his hand end of October and played one game at start of March. Warriors tanked. He came back just for show and that was it. He missed more than 4 months with a broken hand?
No, you just don't listen to anyone if the response doesn't align with your opinion. There were numerous responses regarding the fact that the Raptors started tanking way before the last ~5 games.
FVV played in two B2B sets post-trade deadline (March 28/29 and April 26/27), so maybe you're referring to the Raptors bringing back FVV and Siakam for that B2B against the Cavs and Nets in late April. If that's the case, Toronto wasn't in full-blown tank mode yet, but there were numerous signs of a tank as early as the trade deadline (where a proven player in Powell was traded for a young GTJ then Lowry sat out 11 of 14 games while claiming he had been well-rested and ready to play near the end of that stretch).
The game following the loss to the Nets was the clear turning point though. Boucher and GTJ were out with injuries still and FVV sat against Denver. From then on, Toronto didn't play a single game with more than 3 of Lowry/FVV/Siakam/OG/Boucher/Trent. The last 10 games were very clearly tanked, as proved by missing at least 3 of their top 6 players in all of those games and going 1-9 in that stretch (the lone win being the game where Siakam and Lowry combined for 76 points against the Lakers). The last ~5 games that you and others keep claiming as the start of the tank job is just the most extreme point of tanking where the team was playing rookies and unproven players 90% of the time.
Draymond played 43 games last season (in a very shortened season for GSW), but he dealt with a few injuries near the start of the season then sat out 8 of the last 10 games. He played in 41 of the first 55 games though. Seems pretty damn similar to what we saw with Toronto this year with most of their top players (FVV played in 49 of 62 then sat out 7 of the last 10, OG played in 41 of 62 then sat out 8 of the last 10, Lowry played in 42 of 62 then sat out 8 of the last 10, Siakam played in 50 of 62 then sat out 4 of the last 10, etc.).
Regardless, the comparison to the Warriors last year is asinine. Before GSW's 19/20 season even started, they had already lost their 1a/1b player in Durant to free agency and their 3rd best player in Klay had already been ruled out for the year. Curry then went down with a broken hand 4 games into the season. Less than a week into the season, the Warriors -- already a very top-heavy team -- were going to be without all of their 3 best players from the previous 3 seasons for several months (a few days after Curry's injury, there were numerous reports that he underwent surgery and would be re-evaluated in 3 months). At that point, GSW's season was already over, so it made sense to tank. The plan was always to bring Curry back at some point and let him play. He would have played more than "one game for show" if not for the pandemic suddenly ending GSW's season 4 days after Curry returned.
People that wanted Toronto to tank like GSW did the year prior were never going to get their wish unless Lowry was traded AND two of Siakam/OG/FVV went down with season-ending injuries in the first week.
Club Shai Shai GA
