PG: Need some Dark(o) Magic (1-2)

[Dennis 37]

I have lived and died the raptors for 20+ years. I just can't with these teams the last few years. I waited on the season ticket list for 7 years. I finally got my chance this season. Declined them. They wanted $100/seat per game, for the 300 section. I can't justify spending money on this team. I can't justify giving MLSE money when they year after year raise ticket prices for a worse product. I used to regularly buy Raps merchandise for my kids and such. I haven't the past two years. It will likely become 3.

Do better.

100 dollars for 300s. That's disheartening.

[bape_lovers]

Kinda of wild that in our opening night, people were saying we were 50 win team now it’s turning against everyone.

[DG88]

I don't think the needle moves much. One is 1/3 of the price & is way better at defense. One if 3x the price & is better at shooting 3's.

Neither is an elite floor general. Davion probably has the better 1st step, but neither is a great finished around the rim.

IQ is the far better playmaker, and thats what i want out from him and that he is decent from 3. That his D wasnt good applies to everyone, even Barnes. Thats more a collective problem.

Come on man. IQ's man defense has been Calderon-esque since he landed here.

IQ's playmaking looked improved in the last pre-season game.& the game against the Hawks. I will give him that. We will have to see about the rest of the season.

I've felt the same about IQ's defense. It's lacking at the PoA and with this new pressure system that Darko is using it looks worse. He has time to correct it but I don't have confidence that he'll be an average defender. It was one this when he was a bench guard facing secondary guards it's another vs lead guards.

[Dennis 37]

Darko and even Nick Nurses scrambling around blitzing defenses are driving me crazy. These defenses only work on the college level or if you have very elite personal like we did our championship year otherwise this defense gets cooked every time.

See........I love it......but you have to have the dawgs to do it. I found the Davion/ Jamal duo highly entertaining. Super competitive basketball. The level of effort & the competitive fire looked so much better.

I've thought more than once that Davion was the keeper and we should have seen what the market was for IQ, regardless of what my signature says.

[Jadoogar]

Our schedule to start the season is brutal.

November things will get a lot easier. That's when wins and losses will start mattering to me.

We are 1-2 right now and have three more games in October: Spurs, Rockets, Cavs

I'll be content if we can finish October 2-4

were these firs three games "brutal"? Bucks are essentially a one man team (and a team we are hoping to overtake to make the playoffs) and the Mavs had a similar over/under to us. Neither of these teams were juggernauts that we were expected to lose to.

[MEDIC]

Darko and even Nick Nurses scrambling around blitzing defenses are driving me crazy. These defenses only work on the college level or if you have very elite personal like we did our championship year otherwise this defense gets cooked every time.

See........I love it......but you have to have the dawgs to do it. I found the Davion/ Jamal duo highly entertaining. Super competitive basketball. The level of effort & the competitive fire looked so much better.

I've thought more than once that Davion was the keeper and we should have seen what the market was for IQ, regardless of what my signature says.

Me too. Davion has an elite skill. Elite skills are hard to come by. His.energy on defense was contagious as well. I thought his 3 point shot was also coming along. He looked like a player that could eventy break out & become a very solid contributor on a playoff team.

I really like Shead, but he is kind of a poor mans Davion Mitchell.

Looking around the league, I am seeing so many PG's that are playing at or above IQ's level for a 25-35% of the cost.

NY redemption for the Bargnani trade.

[ATLTimekeeper]

IQ is the far better playmaker, and thats what i want out from him and that he is decent from 3. That his D wasnt good applies to everyone, even Barnes. Thats more a collective problem.

Come on man. IQ's man defense has been Calderon-esque since he landed here.

IQ's playmaking looked improved in the last pre-season game.& the game against the Hawks. I will give him that. We will have to see about the rest of the season.

I've felt the same about IQ's defense. It's lacking at the PoA and with this new pressure system that Darko is using it looks worse. He has time to correct it but I don't have confidence that he'll be an average defender. It was one this when he was a bench guard facing secondary guards it's another vs lead guards.

The PoA is really just to add extra pressure to existed free spaces within a game, it's intention isn't to literally keep in front of a guard the entire time. You wear out lead ballhandlers or you get them to defer, but in the last two games the guys that have been killing us are just good ballhandlers that don't need to think about playing > 30 minutes a night.

I think where it might hurt more is when the shorter guys have to switch onto bigger guys. Shead and IQ aren't good at guarding up at all. Still, it's too early to worry about a guy shooting 12% from 3. He'll look a lot better when he starts hitting those shots.

They might need to take a few beatings to figure out their line-ups, and touches.

[Potential]

I actually have some hope IQ can become really good and live up to that contract. He needs to get his 3 pt shooting back on track

[tsherkin]

Kinda of wild that in our opening night, people were saying we were 50 win team now it’s turning against everyone.

We're 3 games in, man. Maybe the sky isn't falling yet

[dballislife]

it looks like we might have 3 potential solidly efficient 20-22 ppg players on the roster...and they can all pass it well too...so we dont even need our pg to over dribble or keep pounding the rock much at all and just keep the offense moving

[dballislife]

i think it would be great to have ochai guarding opposing small guards...maybe anthony and dlo and christie wouldn't have gone off on us

[nikster]

Trend so far in the league is an insane amount of fouls calls. We are giving up 33.7 FTA per game and that only puts us 6th worst in the league. We are getting 28.3 FTA per game ourselves and that's only 17th in the league. To put that in context, we were worst in the league in allowing FTA's last season at 25.2 FTA per game.

I feel like begging of each season always more calls, hopefully that improves

[Tripod]

Our schedule to start the season is brutal.

November things will get a lot easier. That's when wins and losses will start mattering to me.

We are 1-2 right now and have three more games in October: Spurs, Rockets, Cavs

I'll be content if we can finish October 2-4

were these firs three games "brutal"? Bucks are essentially a one man team (and a team we are hoping to overtake to make the playoffs) and the Mavs had a similar over/under to us. Neither of these teams were juggernauts that we were expected to lose to.

But it's also teams that have the best player playing and beasts inside. That opens things up for everything else.

[MEDIC]

Come on man. IQ's man defense has been Calderon-esque since he landed here.

IQ's playmaking looked improved in the last pre-season game.& the game against the Hawks. I will give him that. We will have to see about the rest of the season.

I've felt the same about IQ's defense. It's lacking at the PoA and with this new pressure system that Darko is using it looks worse. He has time to correct it but I don't have confidence that he'll be an average defender. It was one this when he was a bench guard facing secondary guards it's another vs lead guards.

The PoA is really just to add extra pressure to existed free spaces within a game, it's intention isn't to literally keep in front of a guard the entire time.

It's impossible to keep.the ball handler in front all.of the time, but some.guys get beat easily & some.don't. There needs to be some useful resistance to dribble.penetration so the help defense can get there in time & be in a legal guarding position. If you are getting blown by to easily or not navigating screens well, you put your help defenders in an impossible.position.

[YoungG]

There are options but we’ll have to attach multiple picks with Quickley if he keeps playing like this.

Who is actually a realistic target for an upgrade (even if Quickley was hitting 3s and had better trade value)

We need a pg like Jalen Suggs, someone who is an excellent defender, can shoot the 3 and is a capable passer.

Jalen Suggs really could work. Not sure what the trade package would look like, but this is a good suggestion imo.

[Reeko]

Well, hopefully IQ's shooting turns around in the short term and opens up our offense and energizes our defense a bit. The reality with Jak is that he's probably going to need to sit down for a while to get his back right. The issue with that is that we're so thin at the C position it forces us to start Sandro and have either Mogbo or CMB back him up, and that means that we're going to be too small to go up against some of these bigger front courts.

This kind of highlights the importance of having good starting players and good depth at the 1 and 5 positions.

[djsunyc]

I actually have some hope IQ can become really good and live up to that contract. He needs to get his 3 pt shooting back on track

if he hit 1 more 3 per game (which is still slightly less than his career averages), he would be putting up a

17.3 pts 7 asts 5.3 rebs 1.7 stl statline - it really is just him missing his 3's.

[MEDIC]

Who is actually a realistic target for an upgrade (even if Quickley was hitting 3s and had better trade value)

We need a pg like Jalen Suggs, someone who is an excellent defender, can shoot the 3 and is a capable passer.

Jalen Suggs really could work. Not sure what the trade package would look like, but this is a good suggestion imo.

I would love to have Suggs on this team. That guy.plays the right way.

Like I keep saying......we need to find a Jrue Holiday type in order for this team to become a successful.playoff team.

[TGM]

Calling it now, but Darko needs to go. He is not a good coach. His whole defense is our identity is such hogwash. We look like we are playing great defense cause our guys are scrambling all over the floor. However, the issue is by scrambling a guy is always open. This works in high school basketball but not the NBA when guys are trained to pass with precision and hit open shots.

Darko will not be coaching this team 12 months from now. He gets out-coached every game.

The Mavs game we could and should have won.