Is this not a highly successful development year?

[LBJKB24MJ23]

If this team doesn't develop any more than they have thus far it's been a great success. After decades of watching the Spurz and being envious of their development, I honestly put our org at that level.

IMO you judge development based on the development of the players that are part of the long-term plans and ignore anyone else.

thats pretty easy considering most of the bench is garbage lol but on the bench these guys are part of the core/future, imo:

Banton seems to be coming along. consistent jumper is needed to have a more complete package
Champagnie is coming along nicely - needs to add that 3 point shot.
Precious needs to recognize spacing and what the defense is giving him he is on offense. Defensively he's been above average/great.

[ItsDanger]

Must be evaluated at the end of the season. For the whole team, we still don't have large enough sample to see how OG/Siakam/Barnes works together. And, further to that, what changes management must make to rest of the roster to support that trio.

[PhilBlackson]

I would say to start the season, yes but not as of late.

We'll have to see if the Raps do a better job of blending Scottie in with the starters. He was getting a great chance to when either of Pascal or OG were out but now he's been relegated to literally taking on the role of Gasol as the occasional top of the key facilitator.

Banton is getting his reps in the G-League I guess but he's anywhere from not giving much when given time again to out the rotation. Seems like we've all but given up on Malachi and DJohnson is all but non-existent. Champagnie is the only guy other than Scottie that's standing out at the moment and I wouldn't say it's development but just a guy knowing his role and making all the hustle plays. I'd consider it developing if he was suddenly showing some additional stuff to his game but he's really just an energy guy. Not complaining because he's doing that very well just hard to attribute that to development because it's not really skill development, it's effort.

[TorontoRapsFan]

time needs to be added to the equation, Yuta, OG etc, coming off from having covid, could affect them differently.

Yes - yuta is **** today but i can foresee him playing some big minutes down the stretch.

It's in him. Pause.

At this point, what is Yuta? Is he purely a hustle guy? Is he a 3 & D type player?

Seen a variety of things from Yuta thus far, however he has never really put together 2-3 respectable outputs thus far when games actually matter.

true, give it some time still. he's not getting cut so they need him to produce.

So far in the season he's had about 10 games where he's played meaningful minutes. I don't remember what keeps him off the floor but knowing Nurse it's got to be defense related.

[Johnny Bball]

Too bad it's the opposite for our bench/role players.

Birch, Boucher, Yuta and Flynn are all arguably worse than last year. Dalano and Svi have been worse as the season progresses.

I am genuinely shocked at how much Banton's game has regressed from the beginning of the season. He looked like he was ready to firmly cement himself in rotation, and now he can barely get off the bench.

The G-league doesn't start at the same time, and if play in the G-League wasn't suspended until January 4th he would have been there sooner. I would say they found him minutes. And I don't think its regressed at all.

[WaltFrazier]

Too bad it's the opposite for our bench/role players. Their development (or lacktherof) is a disaster and shouldn't be completely ignored.

Birch, Boucher, Yuta and Flynn are all arguably worse than last year. Dalano and Svi have been worse as the season progresses.

It's enough to make a fan question the vaunted rep of the elite player development program. Shouldn't it be helping our bench guys, our projects, the most?

[ontnut]

TBH I don't think this year could've gone better for the Raptors. We got the development we wanted out of the guys we needed development from. Stayed relatively healthy (no major injuries *cross fingers*), 2 draft picks panning out better than expected, FVV stepping up, OG and GTJ improving to borderline all-star levels, Siakam maintaining 2-3rd banana status... I dno. This season could've been a complete SHITE show, but it's been fairly positive overall. The guys that haven't really panned out or taken the next leap are all expendable guys.

It DOES leave the FO in a tough position of deciding whether or not to push for a PO run, or to grab one more pick first, but hell, if we're a +.500 team with a young star on the rise, and a core of sub-30 players, I think we're doing better than most in the league. That's a pretty damn good "development year" so far.

[Dalek]

Maybe I expected this from the core guys.

FVV out of Kyle's shadow playing like all star but let's not forget the record while Kyle was out. FVV was always great. The progress is really FVV deferring to other guys to drive.

Siakam is just returning to form of when he was an all star.

OG looks a little better driving but he still looks awkward on his jumpstops. His shooting percentages are worse with the bigger load.

Trent has always been a pretty good defender and streaky shooter.

Scottie showed some early signs but has regressed lately.

All the rest look worse than the beginning. I think trades are needed, but maybe we just do a couple tweaks and force Dragic to play back up.

The winning lately is great but we are playing Coach Thibs ball. No way these guys can sustain this level with all these mins.

[refshateRaps]

Absolutely. This was a no pressure year.

Development is going better then one could have hoped & we are really only one piece away from contending again if it can be found

[Mikistan]

if you cap out a team, it better make the playoffs imo

[mrdressup]

We' re milking our roster for wins. This is not a development year. This is being done to try and reestablish relevance.

[HumbleRen]

We' re milking our roster for wins. This is not a development year. This is being done to try and reestablish relevance.

[Ell Curry]

Of course it is. Barnes is a huge hit as a draft pick and Fred, Trent, OG and Siakam all look good.

If the 35 minute a game Banton, Yuta and Svi are getting was going to like Gary Harris we'd be where Cleveland was. They've all -10 to -15.

We have 5 good players, Barnes is great for a rookie and Siakam and Fred are an injury or two away from being named to the all-star team. Good development year. Shame that Precious makes Nurkic look like Kevin McHale finishing inside, though, but even he defends decently and if Masai thinks we can sign him to an extension for cheap and he can learn to score inside at an average rate for a big and outperform that contract, I'll buy it.