Post-Game: Raps beat Nets, go back above .500

[YogurtProducer]

How is he injury prone when we were clear as day that we were tanking as soon he got injured the first game of last season?

IQ haters are real quiet

Team best +20 as well (in a 10 point win)

Still here. Id hope he plays to that level, esp against the nets. I wouldn't call myself a hater though just annoyed at how he's turned out to be for us, his defense is terrible and he's soft and injury prone. If his shot isn't on then he doesn't provide much, really suited for a 6th man role that isn't running the team like a combo guard like Lou Williams and he's paid like a starter borderline star.

Listen, I'd love for the sake of our team that he turns it around and he's that guy we need but I'll continue to call him and others out when deserved.

I mean his entire post is just not really true in any way.

His defense is not "terrible"
He is not injury prone
He provides a lot more than just a shot (he was 7 for 9 inside the arc last night and hit multiple little lane floaters)
He isnt paid like a borderline star either. He is the 53rd highest paid player in the league. Unless we think there is 50 NBA stars lol

The guy has the best FT rate on our team of our main offensive pieces in the starting lineup to.

Why is Immanuel **** Quickley for some reason where this board has lost all ability to be objective?

[Godaddycurse]

How is he injury prone when we were clear as day that we were tanking as soon he got injured the first game of last season?

Still here. Id hope he plays to that level, esp against the nets. I wouldn't call myself a hater though just annoyed at how he's turned out to be for us, his defense is terrible and he's soft and injury prone. If his shot isn't on then he doesn't provide much, really suited for a 6th man role that isn't running the team like a combo guard like Lou Williams and he's paid like a starter borderline star.

Listen, I'd love for the sake of our team that he turns it around and he's that guy we need but I'll continue to call him and others out when deserved.

I mean his entire post is just not really true in any way.

His defense is not "terrible"
He is not injury prone
He provides a lot more than just a shot (he was 7 for 9 inside the arc last night and hit multiple little lane floaters)
He isnt paid like a borderline star either. He is the 53rd highest paid player in the league. Unless we think there is 50 NBA stars lol

The guy has the best FT rate on our team of our main offensive pieces in the starting lineup to.

Why is Immanuel **** Quickley for some reason where this board has lost all ability to be objective?

There's some unrealistic expectation of him being the next hali/maxey to justify the OG trade instead of acquiring picks. People are not satisfied with a decent/average starting PG as the (current) outcome

[raptorforlife88]

How is he injury prone when we were clear as day that we were tanking as soon he got injured the first game of last season?

Still here. Id hope he plays to that level, esp against the nets. I wouldn't call myself a hater though just annoyed at how he's turned out to be for us, his defense is terrible and he's soft and injury prone. If his shot isn't on then he doesn't provide much, really suited for a 6th man role that isn't running the team like a combo guard like Lou Williams and he's paid like a starter borderline star.

Listen, I'd love for the sake of our team that he turns it around and he's that guy we need but I'll continue to call him and others out when deserved.

I mean his entire post is just not really true in any way.

His defense is not "terrible"
He is not injury prone
He provides a lot more than just a shot (he was 7 for 9 inside the arc last night and hit multiple little lane floaters)
He isnt paid like a borderline star either. He is the 53rd highest paid player in the league. Unless we think there is 50 NBA stars lol

The guy has the best FT rate on our team of our main offensive pieces in the starting lineup to.

Why is Immanuel **** Quickley for some reason where this board has lost all ability to be objective?

It's going to take an extended performance to get people off of his back. Even though he is not paid like a star people have seen what other equivalent RFAs have signed for the last year and are made he's making more than them (say someone like Giddey). He missed a huge part of last year and wasn't great when he did play, plus he started out poorly.

All of that is the recipe for being the guy that's going to be hated on (especially when Scottie/RJ have been efficient and effective more consistently to start the year).

If he continues this type of play for a more extended stretch I think people will cool down on making him the consistent target.

Beyond that though, there's also the aspect that even when he's effective people are frustrated that he doesn't break down the defense as easily as other PGs, getting paint touches and creating offense for others. Shead is not as good as IQ or at the level of a starting guard yet, but he does get more consistent paint touches and he makes more of the passes you expect a good PG to make.

[HumbleRen]

Just look at how bad the Pacers are without Haliburton, and uh... Turner, and Nembhard, and Mathurin, oh, and Toppin. That's how great Haliburton actually is, oh wait, also McConnell. Their entire playoff rotation has been decimated.

TJ is playing. Nembhard too.

Pacers fans hated Mauthrin and Turner lol, hopefully they see how foolish that hate was.

Nembhard has played 4 games, Toppin has played 3 games, Mathurin has played 2 games and TJ has played a whopping 11 minutes lol. Indiana has been incredibly disappointing, but it all comes down to injuries. Not going to win many games in this league when the vast majority of their available players are rookies/sophomores, two-way guys and journeyman Cs.

I don’t think they were making the playoffs or playin either way without Haliburton.

[PushDaRock]

Post of the year.

Because our goal is to compete this year, I think many inexplicably thought we would jump out to an 8-3 record and anything less is an abject failure. We look a million times better than we have the last 2 seasons and yet there are calls to trade Barnes asap (despite no team ever trading their best player 11 games into the season when they have a good relationship and he didn't ask out).

Beat the Nets by 10? Not good enough, should have beat them by 20.
Point out that 2 of our 3 highest paid players led the way? But RJ!
Bring up that Barnes has been our best overall player? No!! He's not true #1, why haven't they traded him?

Not telling anyone how to be a fan (I hate when others do that), but I do genuinely wonder why some even follow this team. It's like they "hate watch" them.

Feels like a lot didn't actually watch the game and just checked the box score after.

There are many positive things in the game this year, like our half court offence is decent, the best since… maybe 19? This barely got mentioned. Our defence looks much better than beginning of the season, although it still needs some works.

Last year, don’t think there were many people think Pacers would be in the final.

We have to let them play and see how the season progresses.

Yeah, there are things to be optimistic about. The improved 3 point shooting has been big and something that doesn't get talked about much is our improvement in taking care of the ball while maintaining our ball movement. Last year we were 7th in assists but 24th in turnovers. This year we are 3rd in assists and 3rd in turnovers. Also leading the league in transition points as well.

[HumbleRen]

Ingram mentioned how he still doesn’t have his explosiveness after his ankle surgeries.

I don’t even think BI is operating at even 85% of what he is.

[nikster]

Quick has worked something out. Possibly some subtle habit that he and the coaching staff were trying to change but he's stuck with it and got through it.

This team really feels built around Scottie. He's a got a legit #1 scoring option and he's been unleashed on the defensive end. His team D is unreal.

I think people forget the dude missed 50 games last year and it's just taking him some time to get back into rhythm.

We know the dude can shoot the ball...he didn't average 18ppg on 40% from 3 in 2023 out of the blue.

Yeah nice to him hit some shots. And he's been great at getting deflections and steals. He will never been a great POA defender but its nice to see him getting steals at a rate significantly above his previous career high

[DreamTeam09]

Yeah, they do.

Lowry is maybe the best example in Raptors history to ever be the best player on a team while not being a leading scorer. Guess what? He still needed a Kawhi.

I mean good thing we have someone going for 20ppg on 50% then huh

I mean... 20ppg is good for 36th in the league in scoring.

Lets not confuse this team for anything close to resembling a contender

I don't care for the semantics of terms like "contenders" and "true #1s"
The Raptors don't win without FVV wife giving birth and him going bonkers against GS n waking up against Milwaukee
I saw Nesmith go for 29-30pts multiple times last playoffs, year b4 it was PJ Washington lighting up OKC. yeah every championship team has championship star players, they also have some random fairly obscure guy winning a round or several games for em too, I tend to enjoy the process and not lament about what we have n don't have yr 1 of actually trying to be good

[Kingsway_fan]

Ingram mentioned how he still doesn’t have his explosiveness after his ankle surgeries.

I don’t even think BI is operating at even 85% of what he is.

Yes, people forgetting how long he was out.

I do expect (baring injury) him to continue to improve, and to get in better game shape also ... more upside than what we see at present...

[YogurtProducer]

Beyond that though, there's also the aspect that even when he's effective people are frustrated that he doesn't break down the defense as easily as other PGs, getting paint touches and creating offense for others. Shead is not as good as IQ or at the level of a starting guard yet, but he does get more consistent paint touches and he makes more of the passes you expect a good PG to make.

I mean at this point we are approaching where it might not even be fair to compare someone to Sheads playmaking, considering on a per 36 basis he is literally 1st in the NBA in assists among PGs, and 2nd behind only Jokic. Kind of wild how much of a jump he has taken in that regard this year.

And it is not like IQ is a slouch here - he is 20th among PGs and 11th among starting PGs in assists per 36 as well.

Crazy enough, among the top 25 in APG, only 4 guys have less than 2 turnovers per game. SGA, Quickley, Davion, and Tre Jones.

[HiJiNX]

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[bape_lovers]

ikr! only player that i had bad vibes are gradey. Apart from the first half of the season when he was in the starting lineup and the first game of the hawks game, he seems be still terrible at everything. As Boogie said, his only contribution is shooting 3s, and he still suck at this. Ja'kobe showed a lot of potential in the SL and end of the season but seem to be regressed. Ochai still a great defender, but can't seem to do anything else. Hopefully as the season goes on, Gradey has to show signs of sthing or guarantee he will be sent to NOLA or the BK for picks/salary back.

How is he injury prone when we were clear as day that we were tanking as soon he got injured the first game of last season?

Still here. Id hope he plays to that level, esp against the nets. I wouldn't call myself a hater though just annoyed at how he's turned out to be for us, his defense is terrible and he's soft and injury prone. If his shot isn't on then he doesn't provide much, really suited for a 6th man role that isn't running the team like a combo guard like Lou Williams and he's paid like a starter borderline star.

Listen, I'd love for the sake of our team that he turns it around and he's that guy we need but I'll continue to call him and others out when deserved.

I mean his entire post is just not really true in any way.

His defense is not "terrible"
He is not injury prone
He provides a lot more than just a shot (he was 7 for 9 inside the arc last night and hit multiple little lane floaters)
He isnt paid like a borderline star either. He is the 53rd highest paid player in the league. Unless we think there is 50 NBA stars lol

The guy has the best FT rate on our team of our main offensive pieces in the starting lineup to.

Why is Immanuel **** Quickley for some reason where this board has lost all ability to be objective?

[Madvillainy2004]

I find more and more this board succumbs to the No True Scotsman fallacy. Everything is measured against an idealized standard and anything else is 'mid' and 'mediocre'. We are not 'true contenders'. So-and-so is not a 'true #1 option'. And all of this is proclaimed with an aspect of definitive foresight where future outcomes and the ceiling of the players and the team are assured.

In this one, we beat the Nets by 10 points. We didn't trail since about the 9:30 mark in the second quarter. And yet to read the PG it's presented as if this was an L for the team. Truly bizarre.

Post of the year.

Because our goal is to compete this year, I think many inexplicably thought we would jump out to an 8-3 record and anything less is an abject failure. We look a million times better than we have the last 2 seasons and yet there are calls to trade Barnes asap (despite no team ever trading their best player 11 games into the season when they have a good relationship and he didn't ask out).

Beat the Nets by 10? Not good enough, should have beat them by 20.
Point out that 2 of our 3 highest paid players led the way? But RJ!
Bring up that Barnes has been our best overall player? No!! He's not true #1, why haven't they traded him?

Not telling anyone how to be a fan (I hate when others do that), but I do genuinely wonder why some even follow this team. It's like they "hate watch" them.

At one point IQ was 16, 4 and 4, with no turnovers on like 6-12 from the field and the GT was acting like the guy was losing us the game. I'm sort of neutral on him, but that was a little wild to watch.

The micro analyzing of our PGs since Lowry left has been kinda funny. I think people want IQ to stand in the corner and take 3 shots a game.

[raptorforlife88]

Beyond that though, there's also the aspect that even when he's effective people are frustrated that he doesn't break down the defense as easily as other PGs, getting paint touches and creating offense for others. Shead is not as good as IQ or at the level of a starting guard yet, but he does get more consistent paint touches and he makes more of the passes you expect a good PG to make.

I mean at this point we are approaching where it might not even be fair to compare someone to Sheads playmaking, considering on a per 36 basis he is literally 1st in the NBA in assists among PGs, and 2nd behind only Jokic. Kind of wild how much of a jump he has taken in that regard this year.

And it is not like IQ is a slouch here - he is 20th among PGs and 11th among starting PGs in assists per 36 as well.

Crazy enough, among the top 25 in APG, only 4 guys have less than 2 turnovers per game. SGA, Quickley, Davion, and Tre Jones.

That's true about Shead, and beyond that in the comparison with IQ (who seems to have improved a bit there), I think I also suspect the quality of Shead's assists are higher than IQ's.

I think there was a website that measured this though I can't recall which. The PBP site seems to show that while Shead is 32nd in total assists, in terms of assists at the rim he's 14th. So a very high ratio of his assists are leading to rim looks. IQ does not fare quite as well in terms of those kinds of easy scoring assists. Scottie and IQ seem to create a lot of short mid range looks.

https://www.pbpstats.com/totals/nba/player?Season=2025-26&SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason

Shead really has taken a huge leap this year, and I think at worst he winds up an elite backup and has a shot at even being an ok starter if he can ever improve his ability to score.

[nikster]

Ingram mentioned how he still doesn’t have his explosiveness after his ankle surgeries.

I don’t even think BI is operating at even 85% of what he is.

Yes, people forgetting how long he was out.

I do expect (baring injury) him to continue to improve, and to get in better game shape also ... more upside than what we see at present...

And what's crazy is he has the highest TS% of his career despite him shooting below 30% from 3 (tho that might be balanced out by his insane shooting from midrange). We are getting him in good spots. He has a career high fg% at the rim, career high in percent of 2 point fga assisted. A lot to be excited about for a guy thats been off for so long

[raptorforlife88]

Ingram mentioned how he still doesn’t have his explosiveness after his ankle surgeries.

I don’t even think BI is operating at even 85% of what he is.

Yes, people forgetting how long he was out.

I do expect (baring injury) him to continue to improve, and to get in better game shape also ... more upside than what we see at present...

And what's crazy is he has the highest TS% of his career despite him shooting below 30% from 3 (tho that might be balanced out by his insane shooting from midrange). We are getting him in good spots. He has a career high fg% at the rim, career high in percent of 2 point fga assisted. A lot to be excited about for a guy thats been off for so long

Yeah I imagine those two stats will flip a bit and balance out.

I was pretty skeptical of the whole take four guys who are below average to average efficiency scorers and stick them together to reduce their shots and make them more efficient plan, but somehow it has worked.

I think from what I've read ORTG for a team can be a relatively reliable indicator 13 games into a season. We're getting close there, and so far they're slightly above average. We'll see how it continues.

[LoveMyRaps]

Standings are beginning to sort themselves out (i.e., teams are falling into their rightful categories)




Our goal is to sneak into that top 6.

Bucks are a one-man wrecking crew - a Giannis injury and they'll plummet.

Pistons won't finish 1st, but they'll still hold onto top 6.

Cavs, Knicks, 76ers will likely finish top 6 as well, which means I think the Raps can overtake the Heat and Bucks at some point in the season.

[NBA Sheady]

Quick has worked something out. Possibly some subtle habit that he and the coaching staff were trying to change but he's stuck with it and got through it.

This team really feels built around Scottie. He's a got a legit #1 scoring option and he's been unleashed on the defensive end. His team D is unreal.

I think people forget the dude missed 50 games last year and it's just taking him some time to get back into rhythm.

We know the dude can shoot the ball...he didn't average 18ppg on 40% from 3 in 2023 out of the blue.

Fair point. My eye test see's a guy in great shape but that says nothing about his timing, rhythm.

[Jerry Lucas]

The Nets are so bad, I don't even think NinjaBro could have jinxed it if he guaranteed a Raps W yesterday.

[PushDaRock]

Standings are beginning to sort themselves out (i.e., teams are falling into their rightful categories)




Our goal is to sneak into that top 6.

Bucks are a one-man wrecking crew - a Giannis injury and they'll plummet.

Pistons won't finish 1st, but they'll still hold onto top 6.

Cavs, Knicks, 76ers will likely finish top 6 as well, which means I think the Raps can overtake the Heat and Bucks at some point in the season.

Not sold on the Sixers. They're running Maxey into the ground to squeeze these wins out.

Also don't really trust the Pistons' ability to score.

I think the Celtics will still be out there lurking. Tatum probably comes back after the new year.

It's probably wide open really. Only 2 teams I have as locks are the Cavs and Knicks.