Raps are Good But CAUTIOUSLY optimistic thread

[MoneyBall]

Maybe, but if i told you before they season that they'd go 7-2 vs CLE ATL IND PHI MIL to start the year would you have said those were teams we should beat?

If you told me that without any context of who those teams would be missing due to injury or resting I wouldn't have believed it.

missing players:

1. ATL (W) - none ---------------------------------> CMB, Jakobe
2. MIL (L) - none ----------------------------------> CMB, Jakobe
3. DAL (L) - Gafford, (Kyrie 33) -----------------> Jakobe
4. SAS (L) - Fox -------------------------------------> none
5. HOU (L) - (FVV) ---------------------------------> Poeltl
6. CLE (W) - Mitchell, Allen, Garland, Strus ---> Poeltl
7. MEM (W) - Morant, Edey -----------------------> Poeltl
8. MIL (W) - none -----------------------------------> Ochai
9. ATL (W) - Trae, Kennard ------------------------> none
10. PHI (L) - Barlow, (George 35) ----------------> Poeltl
11. BKN (W) - Thomas -----------------------------> Mamu, Ochai
12. CLE (W) - Garland, Strus ---------------------> CMB, Ochai
13. IND (W) - (Hali), Nesmith, Toppin -----------> Ochai
14. CHA (W) - Miller --------------------------------> Ochai
15. PHI (W) - Embiid, (George 35) ---------------> CMB, Ochai

To be fair, us missing Jakobe or Ochai is probably an added advantage for us lol.

[PushDaRock]

but i think this team is much better than that 13-14 team anyways.

That team did win 48 games. So we should maybe let things play out a bit first

But I am on the edge of somewhat agreeing. Looking at that 2014 roster I have no clue how we won 48 games.

Through the power of friendship

[LoveMyRaps]

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[MoneyBall]

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I'm going to defend Zach Lowe. Although he finds this combination of players to be a weird fit (I agree with him), he consistently defended them prior to the start of the season.

I find Simmons entertaining, but his take that there's no way for the Raptors to improve when they still have all their picks and a young core to build around is super bizarre.

[kalel123]

I agree with this too, however I am not suggesting playing this 3rd stringer 30 minutes in these situations. More like 15 minutes just so you don’t get physically demoralized and exhausted against the biggest of opponents, otherwise they sit. This is basically having an Orlando Robinson instead of Mogbo. So this is a not much of a pressing issue, until it is of course.

An Orlando Robinson doesn't make an ounce of difference. We've had those before and they did nothing to help us in absence of Poeltl. Wouldn't even be having this conversation if they did. You need a real NBA player who can play in regular rotation to make a real difference or at least someone with an actual shot/window at being one in the not too distant future. If that means some less minutes for CMB/Mamu and/or CMB/Mamu getting pushed up a slot to 3/4 then so be it.

Nah, I'd rather us not give less mins to Mamu and CMB. Mamu has been by far our best bench player and CMB has been really good for a rookie and needs the reps.

We are also murdering the other team's benches this season with Mamu at the 5, so the idea that we don't want him to play there just to have someone else with more size makes little sense.

As I said in my first post on this topic, our biggest and most obvious problem persists. But not surprisingly, winning against weaker competition is putting false sense of security on some folks and making it easier to ignore.

[Potential]

I was watching our 2014 playoff highlights against BKN last night. That team was really fun. I miss all those guys

[PushDaRock]

An Orlando Robinson doesn't make an ounce of difference. We've had those before and they did nothing to help us in absence of Poeltl. Wouldn't even be having this conversation if they did. You need a real NBA player who can play in regular rotation to make a real difference or at least someone with an actual shot/window at being one in the not too distant future. If that means some less minutes for CMB/Mamu and/or CMB/Mamu getting pushed up a slot to 3/4 then so be it.

Nah, I'd rather us not give less mins to Mamu and CMB. Mamu has been by far our best bench player and CMB has been really good for a rookie and needs the reps.

We are also murdering the other team's benches this season with Mamu at the 5, so the idea that we don't want him to play there just to have someone else with more size makes little sense.

As I said in my first post on this topic, our biggest and most obvious problem persists. But not surprisingly, winning against weaker competition is putting false sense of security on some folks and making it easier to ignore.

Ignore what exactly? You think adding what you deem a "legit" Backup C is going to save the day and allow us to compete with the top teams in the league?

[Zeno]

Read on Twitter

I'm going to defend Zach Lowe. Although he finds this combination of players to be a weird fit (I agree with him), he consistently defended them prior to the start of the season.

I find Simmons entertaining, but his take that there's no way for the Raptors to improve when they still have all their picks and a young core to build around is super bizarre.

The vast majority of podcast early in free agency said this exact same message over and over and over. Weird roster, no way to improve, over the tax. Over/under comes out at 33.5 and they dig the under too. It goes up to 39.5 because that line was obviously stupid. Then nothing happens but slowly a trickle of podcasters start to say, roster doesn’t fit but I think they have talent and .500 upside, someone in the east has to win, still too expensive, weird roster, blah blah blah. The vast majority of these guys don’t have time to cover the entire league so the just go with the flow of a few guys that have the time to do that. Just people being lazy af their jobs and seeing an easy target/take and piling on with near zero research. Podcast echo chamber.

[Psubs]

Nah, I'd rather us not give less mins to Mamu and CMB. Mamu has been by far our best bench player and CMB has been really good for a rookie and needs the reps.

We are also murdering the other team's benches this season with Mamu at the 5, so the idea that we don't want him to play there just to have someone else with more size makes little sense.

As I said in my first post on this topic, our biggest and most obvious problem persists. But not surprisingly, winning against weaker competition is putting false sense of security on some folks and making it easier to ignore.

Ignore what exactly? You think adding what you deem a "legit" Backup C is going to save the day and allow us to compete with the top teams in the league?

Yes. Just be a relentless team. Run hard, play physical and the refs will call less in the playoffs. Jakobe got 3 steals in 14 mins! The other backup C is for injury insurance.

[TheGeneral99]

I was watching our 2014 playoff highlights against BKN last night. That team was really fun. I miss all those guys

Love that team as well.

Lowry turning into a superstar, Derozan becoming a real iso threat, Valanciunas and Amir were a really nice big men duo, Ross was a nice 3+D player, and we actually had some decent bench pieces with Vasquez, Patterson, Hayes and Salmons. They fought hard against a very experienced Nets team and nearly came out on top.

[TheGeneral99]

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It just proved they didn't have a clue about this team at all.

Last year we intentionally tanked. We sat our starters in 4th quarters to lose games. Our starting PG missed 50 games, Poeltl missed 25 games, RJ missed 24 games, Bruce Brown was hurt all year. We didn't have Ingram. Despite all this crap, the team battled in the 2nd half and we won 30 games.

We are a very young team getting more experience, we added Ingram and we also added the #9 pick in CMB for depth, obviously we were going to be better than a 30-35 win team, lol.

[DreamTeam09]

I wished someone asked those guys how much over the tax we were, they act like being over the tax is the equivalent of being in the 2nd apron, haters gonna hate tho, that's what they do

[anotherhomer]

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I'm going to defend Zach Lowe. Although he finds this combination of players to be a weird fit (I agree with him), he consistently defended them prior to the start of the season.

I find Simmons entertaining, but his take that there's no way for the Raptors to improve when they still have all their picks and a young core to build around is super bizarre.

The vast majority of podcast early in free agency said this exact same message over and over and over. Weird roster, no way to improve, over the tax. Over/under comes out at 33.5 and they dig the under too. It goes up to 39.5 because that line was obviously stupid. Then nothing happens but slowly a trickle of podcasters start to say, roster doesn’t fit but I think they have talent and .500 upside, someone in the east has to win, still too expensive, weird roster, blah blah blah. The vast majority of these guys don’t have time to cover the entire league so the just go with the flow of a few guys that have the time to do that. Just people being lazy af their jobs and seeing an easy target/take and piling on with near zero research. Podcast echo chamber.

tbh, it is a bit of a traditional misfit

Hawks team has more talent than us
if you looking at the SL, it's kinda weird.

It's really a testament to Darko's coaching ability that he's helping us win regular season games

[kalel123]

Read on Twitter

No idea what our current cap situation is though I vaguely remember it being said we are slightly over 1st apron. I'd be concerned they can't find a way to get off of that with the current team. Current iteration shouldn't be a tax team. Maybe they go over to get a few steps above where they are but should not be right now.

[brownbobcat]

but i think this team is much better than that 13-14 team anyways.

That team did win 48 games. So we should maybe let things play out a bit first

But I am on the edge of somewhat agreeing. Looking at that 2014 roster I have no clue how we won 48 games.

There are some interesting similarities. The EC minus the Heatles was not great Chicago had the shell of Derrick Rose, PG13 somehow carried a mediocre Indy squad to 56 wins.

[iBall101]

The coach and center position will be the determining factor come April.

[Boogie!]

I'm going to defend Zach Lowe. Although he finds this combination of players to be a weird fit (I agree with him), he consistently defended them prior to the start of the season.

I find Simmons entertaining, but his take that there's no way for the Raptors to improve when they still have all their picks and a young core to build around is super bizarre.

The vast majority of podcast early in free agency said this exact same message over and over and over. Weird roster, no way to improve, over the tax. Over/under comes out at 33.5 and they dig the under too. It goes up to 39.5 because that line was obviously stupid. Then nothing happens but slowly a trickle of podcasters start to say, roster doesn’t fit but I think they have talent and .500 upside, someone in the east has to win, still too expensive, weird roster, blah blah blah. The vast majority of these guys don’t have time to cover the entire league so the just go with the flow of a few guys that have the time to do that. Just people being lazy af their jobs and seeing an easy target/take and piling on with near zero research. Podcast echo chamber.

tbh, it is a bit of a traditional misfit

Hawks team has more talent than us
if you looking at the SL, it's kinda weird.

It's really a testament to Darko's coaching ability that he's helping us win regular season games

How does the hawks starting lineup have more talent? On paper our starting lineup is super talented. No superstars but all legit starters/borderline all stars, with 2 that have already been all stars…

[LoveMyRaps]

I was watching our 2014 playoff highlights against BKN last night. That team was really fun. I miss all those guys

Our goal is to replicate that 2014 series

[Spates]

The vast majority of podcast early in free agency said this exact same message over and over and over. Weird roster, no way to improve, over the tax. Over/under comes out at 33.5 and they dig the under too. It goes up to 39.5 because that line was obviously stupid. Then nothing happens but slowly a trickle of podcasters start to say, roster doesn’t fit but I think they have talent and .500 upside, someone in the east has to win, still too expensive, weird roster, blah blah blah. The vast majority of these guys don’t have time to cover the entire league so the just go with the flow of a few guys that have the time to do that. Just people being lazy af their jobs and seeing an easy target/take and piling on with near zero research. Podcast echo chamber.

tbh, it is a bit of a traditional misfit

Hawks team has more talent than us
if you looking at the SL, it's kinda weird.

It's really a testament to Darko's coaching ability that he's helping us win regular season games

How does the hawks starting lineup have more talent? On paper our starting lineup is super talented. No superstars but all legit starters/borderline all stars, with 2 that have already been all stars…

It's crazy! They have no defense with Trae and no offense without.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

they'll go through a rough patch and we will see how they overcome it.

i love the inside passing and its fun to watch. they finally have a great product on the floor and the talent to show for it.