PG: Defensive woes

[Boselecta]

If we start the season 2–10, the Darko experiment needs to end right there. Bring in a proven coach and see if they can salvage it. This roster isn’t a development project anymore it’s a final build. The time to win is now, and if it doesn’t happen, it’s time to hit reset again.

The vibes are just off. That thing he did in the locker room after their first win was just off-putting. I don't like him.

he seems like a good dude honestly. But he is not an nba coach its pretty clear at this point

Yeah pretty much I think he's a good guy and I love the passion but he's a perfect assistant not head coach

[Shakril]

I don't really blame Scottie for this one, Wembanyama is the type of player who just completely shuts down scoring around the basket, it basically neutralizes his whole offensive game.

This game was lost because the Spurs shot the lights out from three due to the terrible Raptors defence that gives up a ton of open corner threes.

They made 13 threes, that's less than league average. I would say the fouling and rim protection was the much bigger issue.

Getting one offensive rebound the entire game was also ridiculous.

The Spurs shot 48% from 3, hard to win when that happens, there were a ton of wide open corner 3s given up by this Raptors defence and the Spurs made them pay for it.

Our defense killed us. Look at the box score:

They had 36 Fts and hit 30 of them. 23 and hit 17. Thats a difference of 13 points just there. We are fouling a lot.
On 3 they had 27 and hit 13, and we shot 32 and hit 12. Thats 3 points. We gave them many open shots, no wonder they hit nearly 50%.

We also got outrebounded 44 to 20. Thats a too big of a difference.
And dont let yourself be fooled by the Fg Attempted (79 to 67 in favour of the raps), as foul calls arent included and they had a lot.

The only battle we won, was the Turnover battle by 5, and considering our defensive scheme, thats not the desired outcome.

They got what they wanted and Wemby was content to take a backseat as his teammates were balling. And he still was +35 for the night.

[Shakril]

Dawg, I rather have someone to make shots than Scottie. He ain’t giving in either end

Well the D has been really bad, but he's also not creating much off his gravity. He's clearly talented as a shot maker but there's not much flow right now with how he's scoring. It's just off talent where we give it to him to make something happen.

lol of course, I want him taking shots too. It's more the shot quality, we aren't getting him easy looks and he's not getting to the line much either.

But thats also on him. He is not really moving off the ball, and doesnt scare teams from the 3pt line. They literally wait and let him shoot.

If he wants to have easy looks, he needs to move a lot, so the defense gets scrambled.

[Mattatron]

Well the D has been really bad, but he's also not creating much off his gravity. He's clearly talented as a shot maker but there's not much flow right now with how he's scoring. It's just off talent where we give it to him to make something happen.

This is sort of who Ingram has always been. No team led by him has ever gone anywhere. Scores on average efficiency. Average playmaker for his usage/role. Gets usage assists but you never feel like the offense is running all that well. Solid self-created (talent) shot making. He’s not a gravity guy. As far as #1 option on a playoff team goes he’s low on the list.

It’s early but I never believed in him as a guy who is going to carry this team to new heights. I’ve heard him categorized as a purgatory player: too good for you to really tank but not good enough to take you anywhere in the playoffs. I think people are going to see how his stats don’t translate all that much to winning.

100% on Ingram. This is why he’s better as a 2nd/3rd option. He doesn’t have the game to facilitate and generate points for his teammates at a high level. He’s a great shot maker, especially tough shot maker but there’s a reason the Pelicans never had a top 10 offence despite having a lot of offensive fire power.

He's not even a 2nd or 3rd option... Stop it. It's like saying Lou Will is a 2nd Option player... You need more than just scoring as a skillset to have some value for the team and be a reliable 2nd or 3rd option. every 2nd or 3rd also have other skills to have an impact. Ingram is a lousy player with no skills at all.

[NBA Sheady]

I wana cry. I wanted VJ so bad

That dude is fun to watch. He and Dylan Harper are just attacking the rim with a vengeance. Dylan is laying it in and he's throwing it down.

[canada_dry]

Spent so much time talking about defense.

Thats the part that stings most.

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[ConSarnit]

Yeah, we saw how long it bothered Olynyk from the preseason. He didn't get right until January.

Hopefully he heals faster then Olynyk. If Poeltl is compromised into 2026 this season is going to be a write off.

yup. Yak is the most irreplaceable player. We refused to get a suitable backup, either through draft or FA. Mamu is solid but he's a completely different type of player.

If he's hurt for a prolonged period, we need to shift to a tank immediately.

Good backup C’s cost money and we were somehow capped out even though we’ve won a combined 55 games the past 2 seasons.

Given the pathetic state of the East we’re likely going to default into the playin, regardless of Poeltl’s health. Maybe we hit the daily double of winning 34 games, making the playin and still having the 8th best lotto odds.

[tsherkin]

Yak isn't super healthy and we're 4 games into the season, so I'm not too worried at the moment. We were never going to be amazing, and there are runs like this in a season where you win a little over 40 games. So that's still quite attainable at this point. We'll see what happens. Our D isn't good. It's actually worse so far than it was last year, which is likely an indicator that there's some normalization to occur as we go forward. Our O has been near-neutral, which would be a large improvement compared to last year. We're 20th at Net -3.3 at the moment. We've also been playing at the 3rd-highest pace in the league, so we'll see what happens (I say for the Nth time, heh).

We aren't going to be a particularly good team this year. I think most of us knew that. Except on the outside of things, most people were projecting 36-43 wins, or thereabouts, which is a pretty reasonable feel for this squad. Last year, teams that had a net rating of -2.8 to -3.1 won 34, 36 and 36 games, so that's on point for the low end if we don't improve at all. Which we ought to do, really, as the season progresses and we start finding some level of identity and rotation and all that.

It was always going to be a long road up, folks. On the plus side, Quick will find his 3, BI probably will too, Poeltl should get healthier, and maybe we'll see more from CMB. We'll see what Scottie's usage and approach looks like, but it's been pretty reasonable so far, which is also encouraging.

[ConSarnit]

Yeah, we saw how long it bothered Olynyk from the preseason. He didn't get right until January.

Hopefully he heals faster then Olynyk. If Poeltl is compromised into 2026 this season is going to be a write off.

yup. Yak is the most irreplaceable player. We refused to get a suitable backup, either through draft or FA. Mamu is solid but he's a completely different type of player.

If he's hurt for a prolonged period, we need to shift to a tank immediately.

Good backup C’s cost money and we were somehow capped out even though we’ve won a combined 55 games the past 2 seasons.

Given the pathetic state of the East we’re likely going to default into the playin, regardless of Poeltl’s health. Maybe we hit the daily double of winning 34 games, making the playin and still having the 8th best lotto odds.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

It was always BS to think that because the Summer League played one way, that the main roster should play that way. The only reason they didn't realize what a bad idea that was, was they were playing against themselves.

[Jadoogar]

I wana cry. I wanted VJ so bad

That dude is fun to watch. He and Dylan Harper are just attacking the rim with a vengeance. Dylan is laying it in and he's throwing it down.

Read on Twitter

Good thing we chased the #9 seed instead.

[LoveMyRaps]

Positives:
- RJ (our best player so far this season with a 1.4 BPM); also shooting 80% from the FT line
- CMB stellar performance (made some 3s and his defense was unreal)
- IQ reduced touches (2/4 from the 3pt line)

Negatives:
- Poeltl (liability on both ends)
- BI and Scottie combined for only 18 shot attempts
- Bench (Gradey, Ochai, Walter... someone needs to step up)
- Darko


Overall game performance: 5/10

[sbsat]

Darko has coached as many games as Darell Walker with the same win %. And you expect me to think he is an actual nba coach? Also FYI, Walker was coaching relatively worse rosters.

[ATLTimekeeper]

I wana cry. I wanted VJ so bad

That dude is fun to watch. He and Dylan Harper are just attacking the rim with a vengeance. Dylan is laying it in and he's throwing it down.

Read on Twitter

Good thing we chased the #9 seed instead.

Dude, Darko was pulling starters with the lead just to lose games. San Antonio and Dallas jumped ahead of us in the lottery.

[PushDaRock]

Positives:
- RJ (our best player so far this season with a 1.4 BPM); also shooting 80% from the FT line
- CMB stellar performance (made some 3s and his defense was unreal)
- IQ reduced touches (2/4 from the 3pt line)

Negatives:
- Poeltl (liability on both ends)
- BI and Scottie combined for only 18 shot attempts
- Bench (Gradey, Ochai, Walter... someone needs to step up)
- Darko


Overall game performance: 5/10

Interesting RJ development so far on the small sample size is he's shooting 80% from 3-10 ft. Obviously, that won't sustain but he's a career 36% from there. But, not being completely useless when he doesn't get all the way to the rim will really help him out as a scorer. He looks very confident in that push shot right now and it makes him very difficult to stop if he's going to be able to make it consistently.

[PushDaRock]

I wana cry. I wanted VJ so bad

That dude is fun to watch. He and Dylan Harper are just attacking the rim with a vengeance. Dylan is laying it in and he's throwing it down.

Read on Twitter

Good thing we chased the #9 seed instead.

If we are going to use this logic, seems like we should have chased the play-in harder considering that Dallas was able to capture the Flagg from doing so themselves.

[nowayguy]

That dude is fun to watch. He and Dylan Harper are just attacking the rim with a vengeance. Dylan is laying it in and he's throwing it down.

Read on Twitter

Good thing we chased the #9 seed instead.

Dude, Darko was pulling starters with the lead just to lose games. San Antonio and Dallas jumped ahead of us in the lottery.

Yep. Raptors had back luck in the lottery, it is what it is.

The four worst teams in the league got screwed even harder. Early returns on CMB look like he's probably in a similar tier to other players picked after Edgecombe in the top 10, so the bottom teams tanked all season for little in return.

[PushDaRock]

Hopefully he heals faster then Olynyk. If Poeltl is compromised into 2026 this season is going to be a write off.

yup. Yak is the most irreplaceable player. We refused to get a suitable backup, either through draft or FA. Mamu is solid but he's a completely different type of player.

If he's hurt for a prolonged period, we need to shift to a tank immediately.

Good backup C’s cost money and we were somehow capped out even though we’ve won a combined 55 games the past 2 seasons.

Given the pathetic state of the East we’re likely going to default into the playin, regardless of Poeltl’s health. Maybe we hit the daily double of winning 34 games, making the playin and still having the 8th best lotto odds.

Sounds like a plan, Dallas captured the Flagg with worst odds!!!

[YogurtProducer]

Good backup C’s cost money and we were somehow capped out even though we’ve won a combined 55 games the past 2 seasons.

Were in the bottom half of the league in salaries.

[PushDaRock]

Read on Twitter

Good thing we chased the #9 seed instead.

Dude, Darko was pulling starters with the lead just to lose games. San Antonio and Dallas jumped ahead of us in the lottery.

Yep. Raptors had back luck in the lottery, it is what it is.

The four worst teams in the league got screwed even harder. Early returns on CMB look like he's probably in a similar tier to other players picked after Edgecombe.

Utah did everything they possibly could and went from 1st to 5th lol. Ace Bailey also off to a bit of a rough start.