PG: Raptors Win!

[Chris7711]

Raptors and Barnes inspired by the bluejays and all the love they getting..Got tired of all the criticism and shifting of interest towards jays..They fighting hard to get some love and passion back. I'm all for masai firing, but he is great for that 1 sneaky, good trade..just for that, would have been nice to see what he would be cooking..hopefully, Bobby borrowed masai's testacles

[JB7]

Also, once Hali went down for the season, it became clear with the team not resigning Turner and trading to reacquire their 1st for the upcoming draft, that they were probably looking at tanking this season. Their tank has been aided by injuries to start the season (much as was the case for the Raps last season).

I'm sure competitive players like Nesmith/Nembhard/Siakam who just made it to the final the previous season, are not exactly thrilled with tanking this season, especially since they only have so many years left in their careers.

I had no idea that they re-acquired their pick. This makes sense now. They are in full on tank mode.

The best part is they reacquired the pick during the Finals. Dumars was completely out to lunch. The moment Indy called them about the pick, a day after Hali originally injured his leg (before his achilles went the game after), you would think Dumars would question the timing. Nope, Pelicans gladly traded Indy's 2026 FRP for Indy's 2025 FRP.

[HumbleRen]

This was a legitimately good win, i think our first impressive win of the season.

Easily our best one. We lose this game with ease last year after that third quarter.

[Buff]

The East is wide open this year. There's no dominant team out there.

I was thinking that today, what team in the east you'd think "oh we're going to get swept"?

[ItsDanger]

Some easy games this month, if Dick does decent, you need to trade him. His individual and team defense hasn't improved at all. What he's providing the team is replaceable. Don't see a bigger role possibly either with this roster. Plus it frees up minutes.

[AkelaLoneWolf]

Some easy games this month, if Dick does decent, you need to trade him. His individual and team defense hasn't improved at all. What he's providing the team is replaceable. Don't see a bigger role possibly either with this roster. Plus it frees up minutes.

He’s a cost controlled asset and 22. And he’s not a main contributor right now. We can afford to be patient on this

[brownbobcat]

The starting lineup so desperately needs another ball handling defensive guard in the line up.

It unlocks the 2 way potential for the starting lineup and unlocks IQ to become a lethal shooter.

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.

I worded it poorly, but I basically meant a younger version of Derrick White - the kind of guys OKC seems to churn out in droves.

[everdiso]

You could say the same thing about IQ. When he isn't on a torrid shooting streak, he doesn't bring much value.

IQ has literally never not had good value though.

BPM by year

Age 21: +0.9 (19.4mpg, 25.6usg%)
Age 22: +0.2 (23.1mpg, 22.2usg%)
Age 23: +1.7 (28.9mpg, 20.9usg%)
Age 24: +1.3 (29.2mpg, 23.8usg%)
Age 25: +2.2 (27.8mpg, 25.1usg%)
Age 26: +1.8 (31.5mpg, 20.6usg%)

And he currently has the second best EPM on the team at +1.9, behind only scottie at +2.0.


There was some question as to whether he could keep it up in a fulltime starters role but he's answering that question so far this year.

[ItsDanger]

Some easy games this month, if Dick does decent, you need to trade him. His individual and team defense hasn't improved at all. What he's providing the team is replaceable. Don't see a bigger role possibly either with this roster. Plus it frees up minutes.

He’s a cost controlled asset and 22. And he’s not a main contributor right now. We can afford to be patient on this

A great selling point to a potential trade partner. If you don't see him as a shot creator, then there are lots of players like him in the league. The only likely scenario for his defense is to improve it from very bad to bad.

[PushDaRock]

Also, once Hali went down for the season, it became clear with the team not resigning Turner and trading to reacquire their 1st for the upcoming draft, that they were probably looking at tanking this season. Their tank has been aided by injuries to start the season (much as was the case for the Raps last season).

I'm sure competitive players like Nesmith/Nembhard/Siakam who just made it to the final the previous season, are not exactly thrilled with tanking this season, especially since they only have so many years left in their careers.

I had no idea that they re-acquired their pick. This makes sense now. They are in full on tank mode.

The best part is they reacquired the pick during the Finals. Dumars was completely out to lunch. The moment Indy called them about the pick, a day after Hali originally injured his leg (before his achilles went the game after), you would think Dumars would question the timing. Nope, Pelicans gladly traded Indy's 2026 FRP for Indy's 2025 FRP.

That wasn't even the reasoning behind why Indy did the deal though. They did it to save some money to sign Turner thinking the 23rd pick from this last draft wasn't going to help them this upcoming season with all the depth they had.

[manjusaka]

Fast break points 28-6. They were on 2nd game of the b2b. Probably gased in the 2nd half. But still, a win is a win, we made a statement in this game.

[causal_fan]

Fast break points 28-6. They were on 2nd game of the b2b. Probably gased in the 2nd half. But still, a win is a win, we made a statement in this game.

Yes Cleveland were on a b2b, but their 2 best players, Mitchell & Mobley were rested. Very good win by the Raptors especially considering that BI & RJ had down nights.

[Tripod]

Some easy games this month, if Dick does decent, you need to trade him. His individual and team defense hasn't improved at all. What he's providing the team is replaceable. Don't see a bigger role possibly either with this roster. Plus it frees up minutes.

At least Gradey is winning his minutes when he plays.

Gradey: 12 games and has won his minutes in 11/12 games. His 1 loss was a -2. On the season, +84.

Walter: 9 games and has.won his minutes in 3/9 games. Overall is -42 on the season.

Walter needs to go to 905 to get his confidence back and play lots of minutes. Battle needs to play WAY more and at least get Walter's minutes.

Battle 10 games, and 9/10 games has won his minutes and his loss was -2. He is +64 on season in just 74 mins.

[GoRapstheoriginal]

SpiderMunn make the next Game Thread soonish please; For tomorrow night's game.

[Basketball_Jones]

Scottie’s handles have improved
Much tighter now

Yeah a lot of those open court drives and left handed finishes he wasn’t even doing a year ago. Now, if he can figure out how to get those in half court sets he’s really cooking.

He can’t do it in half court sets because he doesn’t have the first step for it… it works in transition because it always has… why do you think the raptors try to so hard to push every time they can… it’s easier to exploit defenses that aren’t set and are scrambling back… stop expecting things that will never happen.

lol you’re so negative bro. I am well aware of Scottie’s limitations and don’t expect him to be a franchise player or even all star to be honest but let’s wait and see.

[Godaddycurse]

Some easy games this month, if Dick does decent, you need to trade him. His individual and team defense hasn't improved at all. What he's providing the team is replaceable. Don't see a bigger role possibly either with this roster. Plus it frees up minutes.

At least Gradey is winning his minutes when he plays.

Gradey: 12 games and has won his minutes in 11/12 games. His 1 loss was a -2. On the season, +84.

Walter: 9 games and has.won his minutes in 3/9 games. Overall is -42 on the season.

Walter needs to go to 905 to get his confidence back and play lots of minutes. Battle needs to play WAY more and at least get Walter's minutes.

Battle 10 games, and 9/10 games has won his minutes and his loss was -2. He is +64 on season in just 74 mins.

Our best bench line up is

Mamu
CMB
Battle
Dick
Shead

Agbaji will keep getting minutes over Battle though similar to how mitchell got minutes over shead last year (to boost trade value and hopefully return a 2nd)

[ReggieSlater]

The first few games of the season something just seemed off. I couldn't see how the team would be that bad defensively and that good shooting threes. The wrong people were hitting, and the wrong people were missing. I was genuinely perplexed. This team might be overachieving, but at least it makes sense.

[tsherkin]

Yeah a lot of those open court drives and left handed finishes he wasn’t even doing a year ago. Now, if he can figure out how to get those in half court sets he’s really cooking.

He can’t do it in half court sets because he doesn’t have the first step for it… it works in transition because it always has… why do you think the raptors try to so hard to push every time they can… it’s easier to exploit defenses that aren’t set and are scrambling back… stop expecting things that will never happen.

lol you’re so negative bro. I am well aware of Scottie’s limitations and don’t expect him to be a franchise player or even all star to be honest but let’s wait and see.

Boogie's not wrong. It doesn't have to be received from a perspective of perpetual negativity, though. Just consider the criticism. Everyone already knows that Scottie doesn't have an impressive first step. And we don't REALLY want him creating a ton in isolation in the half-court. That's what hasn't been working for is in volume for several years.

What we have right now is a space where Scottie is thriving in transition, off-ball and when he can post. And that's what we want. We've found the happy place where we can enable him in sets where he's strong, and look elsewhere for the things he cannot do. That's what BI is for. That's a bit what Quick can do. And if our ball movement is good, we've got some spacing now, and the odd guy who can attack a closeout.

No need to task Scottie with stuff we know he isn't good at. He's thriving right now in the role we've crafted for him this year. We just need to maintain that environment for him.

[JB7]

I had no idea that they re-acquired their pick. This makes sense now. They are in full on tank mode.

The best part is they reacquired the pick during the Finals. Dumars was completely out to lunch. The moment Indy called them about the pick, a day after Hali originally injured his leg (before his achilles went the game after), you would think Dumars would question the timing. Nope, Pelicans gladly traded Indy's 2026 FRP for Indy's 2025 FRP.

That wasn't even the reasoning behind why Indy did the deal though. They did it to save some money to sign Turner thinking the 23rd pick from this last draft wasn't going to help them this upcoming season with all the depth they had.

I think the timing of the deal leads me to think Hali's injury played a role. They could have traded that FRP at any point up to the draft, to clear money. I wonder if Hali actually partially tore his Achilles in a game earlier, before it actually tore completely. This injury has shades of the Durant Achilles tear.

[aminiaturebuddha]

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

What playing against a bottom feeder does to a statline

I know Utah is seemingly on year 67 of deliberately trying to be bad as part of some long term tanking strategy, but how an NBA is starting Svi Mykhailuk in 2025 is beyond me.