PG: Raptors Win!

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

Best win and effort to date from the team. Peak Scottie game. IQ's biggest strength is the rangey bombing he can do. I'm more confident in his logo three's than his corner looks. I don't really care who's name gets called but the more he's freed up to do that, as opposed to running the offence and setting the others up, the better. In fact I thought he looked relieved and freer when he had minutes with Shead.

Depth can be a blessing and a curse. In this game it was a blessing because we had more than enough to make up for sup par offensive nights from RJ and BI. However it can be counter intuitive but trying to spread out back up wing minutes between Gradey, JW, Battle and even Ochai doesn't mean you're gonna have solid production, what more often happens is no one gets enough time, rhythm or comfort in the the role to give you a good look.

Really impressive effort Scottie, Peoltl and Mamo, as well. My issues with Quickly have never been about him. In fact I even think his early season struggles were him trying to squeeze sand, and be what we need and it was getting him away from his strengths. The fact that he's paid up for the next five years, many players wouldn't be so motivated to deliver, even if it wasn't necessarily helping him early on. My frustration has always been what I felt was a wishful thinking contract that invests very heavily in him, but then we also just collect every SG we can add to the roster to keep him from where he's shown to be most effective.

I wanna watch good competitive basketball and win. Play the right way, build good habits and watch business take care of itself like our good years. We look like a play off team currently, which was the goal. I was really down on Darko to start the year as the overall tazmanian devil def ball pressure approach that the summer league showed, made no sense for the main roster. I'm glad they've dialed that back, whether it was strategy or just better execution and understanding from the players. Overall I think our biggest weakness is front court depth, specifically the C position. Mamu is more stretch 5 our 4. Just what is up with Poeltl back and the ability to keep in check so that he can be impactful our there for us will be huge. And of course at some point we need to settle on our top 8 or 9 guys and run with them. Its more meaningful for a front office to hit big on a pick like 45 in the 2nd round or an undrafted addition than worrying about the perception of missing on first rounders. Free Battle.

[Yallbecrazy]

This pass by Scottie was a thing of beauty!

Read on Twitter

Unsure if the missed layup was a better pass than the made one

[ATLTimekeeper]

This pass by Scottie was a thing of beauty!

Read on Twitter

Unsure if the missed layup was a better pass than the made one

The missed layup was definitely the better pass, considering where it had to be placed to beat the coverage.

[HumbleRen]

I think so too. Makes everyone else in that lineup better.

Issue is, we don’t know if Shead is ready for that starting role nor do we have a back up PG to take his place.

There is no reason to start Shead. Even when we had Lowry/Fred during their best years, Fred came off the bench and still closed a lot of games. Shead can do the same.

Still wish we had last years version of Ochai because I think thats what the starting lineup needs and RJ would become a 6th man of the year candidate simultaneously. It’s just great to have enough skill on the team again where we can argue about what works best.

Just start Ochai and give him a dozen games to see if last year version is in there still.

There’s no reason to think he forgot how to play - he’s 25 ffs

That man is a goner and has had only one decent year lol.

No chance in hell Darko can keep that lockerroom by starting Ochai over RJ.

[lobosloboslobos]

I told you guys a win here would have been expected

We may never lose again

our schedule for the next few weeks seems to consist almost entirely of terrible teams. hell we could be in first place in a few weeks if we beat a few good teams in addition to all the terrible ones. i'm afraid to look further ahead because somewhere down the road our schedule must turn really really nasty.

[ATLTimekeeper]

One of the reasons why Ochai doesn't work in Darko's offense is he really struggles making decisions with the ball. He's excellent when decisions are made for him (you're open, shoot or you're cutting and they aren't paying attention, here's a lay-up). This is why Mogbo also can't play right now. Both of them are very good defenders. Mogbo might be the best on the team, really.

[Duffman100]

It's funny that once that Raptors starting showing signs of positive growth or there's some optimism, certain posters go completely MIA. I won't name them, but I think we all know who they are.

[Tripod]

I thought Scottie was a lock for statline of the night but Jalen Johnson.... goddamn

He’s a stud. 2021 draft might not have the traditional #1 option but it sure is incredibly deep.

Yeah back then I said it seems like a draft where in any given year, there would be a different "best" guy. Then the next year, it would go to someone else. And the hope was that whoever we took, would be in the mix.

Since then, that seems to be holding true. Barnes snagged the ROTY and was the 1st All Star from his draft class. He has done his part to be in the mix especially considering he was deemed a long term project who might take the longest to reach his potential.

But yeah, lots of good players from the draft, glad we got one.

[MiamiSPX]

It's funny that once that Raptors starting showing signs of positive growth or there's some optimism, certain posters go completely MIA. I won't name them, but I think we all know who they are.

Always account for the fact that on the internet, the need to be right often outweighs the need to be happy and reasonable.

[HumbleRen]

I thought Scottie was a lock for statline of the night but Jalen Johnson.... goddamn

He’s a stud. 2021 draft might not have the traditional #1 option but it sure is incredibly deep.

Yeah back then I said it seems like a draft where in any given year, there would be a different "best" guy. Then the next year, it would go to someone else. And the hope was that whoever we took, would be in the mix.

Since then, that seems to be holding true. Barnes snagged the ROTY and was the 1st All Star from his draft class. He has done his part to be in the mix especially considering he was deemed a long term project who might take the longest to reach his potential.

But yeah, lots of good players from the draft, glad we got one.

Yeah. Scottie might not ever be able to average 25 but atleast we’ll never have to worry about his impact on a game over the stretch of a season.

[Duffman100]

It's funny that once that Raptors starting showing signs of positive growth or there's some optimism, certain posters go completely MIA. I won't name them, but I think we all know who they are.

Always account for the fact that on the internet, the need to be right often outweighs the need to be happy and reasonable.

The hard part for me as a Mod (and obviously the other mods). Is if you only show up here after we lose and talk about how **** our team is, are you even a Raptors fan? How can I differentiate you from just someone who wants an OKC time super team vs a troll, looking to get attention.

The answer is we can't, so we have to assume the latter.

That being said, it really makes me appreciate everyone in this PG thread. I can look at everyone poster in here and see these people show up whether we win or lose. And that's awesome.

[ForeverTFC]

If we're actually going to be a good team, they will need to pay some tax.

This board loves to trash certain guys. for whatever dumb reason RJ has been that guy, even though he has far surpassed expectations and has been a 20-5-5 guy since he got here. for those who don't know basketball those are excellent numbers.

It’s not even just about the numbers, his skillset is something that’s different from anyone else on the team. His ability to attack the paint and draw fouls is something this team needs… his playmaking and on ball creation is also super underrated… the guy averaged almost the same amount of assists as Barnes last year

Who’s trashing RJ in this thread? We’re discussing how to build this team up. Every player in our starting lineup brings a skill set that the others don’t.

[PushDaRock]

If they could somehow find a 2025 version of Derrick White just like Boston did, that would really take them to the next level.

Well, you probably don't want the actual 2025 version of Derrick White so far this season.

A month ago he was a top 15 player around here…

life comes at you quick

[TorontoBarneys]

Quickley & Poeltl both rounding into form has been huge for us. Genuinely curious how the impact of Ingram will differ, if at all throughout the course of the season.

I think Barnes makes All-Star this season again. Finally some good basketball again.

[Brinbe]

It might not be doable right now, but if Shead can still capably get his offensive game off in terms of penetration/paint touches against starting quality opposition he could really be a major key figure going forward in terms of offering a different look in closing lineups and letting us get the absolute best out of IQ in terms of freeing him up to be more of an off-ball gunner. And I think that's pretty important as unlocking that part of his game really changes the dynamic of what this team can be on the offensive end. And I think that's what we signed him up to be.

Not to say he can't be a rote traditional playmaker if you need him to be but akin to asking Scottie to sit above the 3 pt line and be a half-court creator, it's not really getting the best out of him imo. What we saw last night was very similar to what he looked like at his best in NY. Let him get his Lou Will on!

And in a game like this, it was refreshing in that we really saw IQ and Scottie excel simply just doing what they're best at. Scottie pushing in transition, getting to the rim, setting teammates up and out-hustling everyone. IQ being aggressive/confident with his shot, stretching the defense, and scoring in a variety of ways.

I do appreciate that the org wants to expand their games and I think they're more well-rounded because of those efforts, but too much of that can be counter-productive at a point.

As for BI/RJ, I'm not really worried. RJ is just struggling with his shot/scoring for whatever reason but I don't think it's anything to be worried about. He'll bounce-back and even in the mean-time he's not short-changing in terms of effort at all.

As for BI, his ability to create/score in the half-court is simply invaluable and frees Scottie up from trying to do it. And because of him, we can now score in pretty much any situation. We can play slow or fast. In transition or in the half-court. Thus, it's not surprising that we have a top ten offense now.

Also shout-out to Yak who finally looks back to his usual self. He was great, grabbing boards, scoring efficiently on the inside and doing all the dirty work that frees the others up to get their games off.

The exciting part is that this is really still just the beginning of the journey with this iteration of the team. The discovery process is still ongoing from game to game and there's still many more levels to this to go, especially when you consider that there are still further consolidation trades/moves to be made. Hell, we didn't have CMB available last night.

We went through years of absolutely crap basketball but we've finally made it to the other side. Better watch out, that bandwagon will start to fill real quick, especially if they go on the run for the rest of this month that we expect.

[mihaic]

Isane game from Quickley too hes on a nice hotstreak right now but im sure ill see complaints about his 10/13 shooting 25 and 6 game lmao

I just looked at Quickley's game log and noticed something interesting. Since the first Cleveland game where he scored 4 points, he has increased his scoring output for 7 straight games. 4,9,15,18,22,24 and 25 tonight. I wonder how long he can keep it going and what the record for this is. key is starting low and building slowly.

By game 82 he is on pace to beat WiltChamberlain.

[TheGeneral99]

We are half a game from taking the #2 seed in the East, lol.

[Sandman88]

Breakout performance from Scottie, IQ has turned it around and Jak playing to his capabilities. If Scottie continues to play like this, we’re a completely different team

[mihaic]

Battle needs minutes over Dick, Walter and Agbaji. I will fight anyone over this.

Most believe this...except Darko.

I am willing to bet Walter goes to 905 after road trip.

Maybe.

Darko has patience, we should know that by now. It's a quality. He also sees the practice which we don't. Let him do what he thinks is best. Also good for rookies morale and development to know they are not yanked out based on a few bad games.

[pingpongrac]

What a joy it has been to win games this season even when a couple of starters have subpar performances. We finally have playable depth and everyone is a bit lower on the food chain with the addition of Ingram, but nearly everyone’s numbers are better (or trending to be better) than in the past 24 months. Scottie in particular looks like the two-way force we’ve been hoping for while Shead (13/4/10 per36 on 59 TS%) and Mamu (19/7/4 per 36 on 73 TS%) have been extremely productive in their minutes. To me, those three have been the keys to our success early on. Hopefully Ochai and/or JKW get going a bit too.