Team Stats-not many reasons for optimism

[halfcourt]

ok, last year a lot people taught that we were better than our record indicated and there were numbers to prove it, even Hollinger thought we were a much better than our record. But this year our team stats simply don't look too good.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/TOR/2009.html
Offensive Rating: 104.9 (16th of 30)
Defensive Rating: 106.7 (19th of 30)
last year we were
07/08 season
Offensive Rating: 110.2 (9th of 30)
Defensive Rating: 107.0 (13th of 30)

http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortable_ ... &prd=1#top

we are even more of an half court team than last year, Sam needs to do something about this and Jose needs to take some responsibility and pick up the pace.
last year
Pace Factor: 90.2 (22nd of 30)
this year
Pace Factor: 88.8 (26th of 30)

we are 18th in the league in point deferential, we give up 94.37 points and allow 96 points
we are 16th in the league in opponent FG%, we allow teams to shoot .448 against us
we are 14th in the league in opponent 3pt FG%, we allow teams to shoot .357 against us(looks decent, but we played philly twice)

we are dead last in offensive rebounding which isn't surprising because JO has never been a great Of rebounder

we are 13th in the league in turnovers which is horrible because that has always been a strength of ours, we need to do wayyyyyy better than 13th

and the worst of all
we are 28th in the league in rebounding differential our opponents on average grab 5.75! MORE rebounds than us, that is huge and depressing when you think about it. Last year the scape goat was clearly Bargs but there is no excuse this season for this disgusting rebounding, sam needs to take some blame for this.

All the stats more or less indicate we are middle of the pack or worse, so buckle down people because things might get a whole lot worse

[itbobby007]

All the stats more or less indicate we are middle of the pack or worse, so buckle down people because things might get a whole lot worse

Or they could get better, no? Usually as the season goes on, teams improve. If they don't that blame falls on the coaches pretty quick. I trust that BC will make the right choice with his personnel and fire Sam or make trades accordingly. To be honest, the rebounding is what scares me the most. The addition of JO should have helped, but so far its hasn't. That can be attributed to Moon not rebounding and the loss of TJ who is a pretty good rebounding PG.

[gcsw]

I did say before the season even started that we will be lucky to even get the 7th seed based on that poorly assembled roster.

[J Dilla]

What are the stats for fast break points?

[Mr.Raptorsingh]

I was going to make a thread somewhat related to this topic. Now this is just me personally, but I don't have a good feel for this team, as far as what this team is capable of as the season progresses. It could go either way. We may take off, or we may be battling just to make the playoffs. This team is just lacking something....I don't want to say wing player b/c that's obvious...meh, I don't know.

[Rooster]

If we were 5-3, everything would be fine. We're 4-4 because Boston is basically an auto-loss. Who's to say we wouldn't have won a dfferent game in that slot? If anything, I'd see it this way: if we can play .500 while having these terrible stats, we can only play better than that when the stats are more in our favour. Besides, why increase the pace when we have JO?

[Hendrix]

Meh. Early in the season with some major adjusments, stats arn't going to mean a whole lot at this point.

Rebounding from watcing the games you can tell we're rebounding the ball pretty good, probably atleast as good as the other teams if not better no where near dead last in the league. But there's been 2 games in the season that just sqewed the #'s big time. The very first game getting out rebounded by 23, and the Hawks game I thought we were actually the better rebounding team in the game, but they couldn't miss, and we couldn't hit a jump shot which is naturally going to give them a lot more defensive opportunities. At this point in the season there hasn't been any nights when we couldnt miss, and they couldnt hit to sway it back yet.

I mean if you look at the games since Detroit when we got it going we're -9 on the boards, tied in offensive rebounds, and we shot worse then our opponents letting them have mroe defensive rebound opportunities. If we could start shooting better then our opponents like we're supposed to then we'd be looking pretty decent. Still -9 over 5 games is a far cry from -46 when you include the 1st 3 where we sucked.

[rdtx2005]

there is still a feeling out period needed for JO and co

[halfcourt]

there is still a feeling out period needed for JO and co

why have we gotten worse on the glass?why are we dead last in offensive rebounds?why are we playing at a snail's pace? why has the goddamn offense gotten worse? why has the defense gotten worse?

are you saying the answer to all these questions is JO getting used to playing with Chris. I'm not even gonna get into the fact that the team on a whole is actually playing worse when JO is on the floor, there is something fundamentally wrong and it seems like its not just one thing like Smitch or the swingmen

[breignchile]

For every thread that suggests the Raptors are no good, I am going to say "look at the schedule!". Please suggest using previous examples why the Raptors should be anything but a .500 team for most of the season. The Raptors have not played well against fast paced teams (76ers and Hawks) the past few seasons. Also, Detroit and Boston are a better half-court team's than the Raptors. But in Raptorland, we expect them to win every game?

I made a thread (The Schedule: A Closer Look)...

http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=851642&p=17683472

I tried to make the point that the Raptors do not have a stretch of 5+ games where they play "inferior" teams until March. Until that point, the Raptors are going to have to find ways to win against teams they normally struggle against, while winning ALL the games against teams they "should" be winning.

The Raptors are a solid team, but this early into the season they are going to have learn to play a new style. Bosh doesn't have the freedom of having the post all to himself anymore. O'Neal is definitely going to take some looks away from Bosh. But once they get on track, the Raptors will have a definite advantage against the majority of the teams in the post. It's a learning process, sure it would have been nice if they could have gelled "better" in the preseason, but that wasn't the case.

No matter what your opinions are regarding the Raptors, they are definitely a better team then the one that lost in five games to the Magic.

[raptor21_85]

The Sky is falling