Former Raptor discussion thread 2.0

[Rappid]

Jonas had nothing but good things to say about the organisation and the fanbase in recent interviews in Lithuania by the way.

Said Raps vs Bucks going to go 7 games

[Kingsway_fan]

It's funny how Casey is the least mature out of those who recently left

Yeah.... a moron with no class at all.....

Props to demar and JV leading the way...much class and Toronto and the raps.....

[RaptorsNorth]

Good 3rd opinion player, great guy. People keep forgetting that demar was never suppose to be the first opinion here. It was bosh! Dude was force to take on a role that he was never cut out for.

[Vlade Divac]

He has always been a class act and great person. If only these attributes translated into his game on the court...

[Vlade Divac]

With all the money coming off the books next year, I would love to see him come home. He’d be a fantastic secondary option to Kawhi.

Lowry
Demar
Kawhi
Siakam

Make it happen (I’d love JV back as the bench 5 too).

[Courtside]

We didn't trade JV because he got hurt. That's such a baaaaaaaahd spin on it.

And we had home court the last 2 rounds. Do we get more home court or something for finishing better?

Your insanity has been already diagnosed, enjoy Marc and his bball IQ. Cause that's all that is left of him.

I'm not the one lying to himself so he sleep at night. Or the one that's been wrong for years.

I don't think JV was traded because he was hurt, but it could reasonably be considered a key part of how the season was unfolding with our frontcourt, eventually leading to the trade.

If he doesn't get hurt, we don't know whether we continue winning or get worse, get better defensively or get worse, build more chemistry with him and Kawhi or go the other way. If we were a half dozen games ahead of Milwaukee at that point and the offense was more integrated - as opposed to our Watch Kawhi offense a Team Offense, then bringing in Gasol's ball movement maybe is less of a priority and we stand pat.

Yes, Gasol was brought in with an eye on improving our defense and IQ, and matching up better with the Celts and Bucks in the playoffs, but he was also brought in to take a load off Kyle's shoulders in terms of running the O and better integrating Kawhi. These are all things where he comes out ahead of Jonas, but these things also became more clear and urgent with JV out for two months and Serge playing most of the minutes at C, and looking less than stellar in most games against a more physica or more savvy C.

It was as much about Serge as it was Jonas at that point - Serge being more exposed with Jonas out - as up to the injury, the Jobaka thing was pretty dominant and successful, but the deadline came and the arms race escalated with both Milwaukee and Philly making deals, so we did too.

So no... not traded because he was injured, but the injury factored into how things played out and the decision making that followed.

[LLJ]

So now we gonna lose.

[Smitson]

With all the money coming off the books next year, I would love to see him come home. He’d be a fantastic secondary option to Kawhi.

Lowry
Demar
Kawhi
Siakam

Make it happen (I’d love JV back as the bench 5 too).

You’re the guy who’s been bragging about how trading Demar for Danny Green straight up would’ve been a steal for us, no wonder you've been so quiet lately.

[Mikey818]

Fact is Casey and Nurse never let JV be the star he could have been. If they’d given him 30 mins a game like Grizzlies did he woulda been a 20 15 man and Raptors would be headed to the finals.

[d00lttle]

In my dream scenario Demar would be sitting beside Drake in the ACC for the close-out games of the Finals. As soon as the buzzer goes off indicating a Raptors championship, Kyle walks over to Demar and they embrace with tears on their cheeks.

[load management]

In my dream scenario Demar would be sitting beside Drake in the ACC for the close-out games of the Finals. As soon as the buzzer goes off indicating a Raptors championship, Kyle walks over to Demar and they embrace with tears on their cheeks.

Yikes. I gotta stop coming to this forum.

[Vlade Divac]

With all the money coming off the books next year, I would love to see him come home. He’d be a fantastic secondary option to Kawhi.

Lowry
Demar
Kawhi
Siakam

Make it happen (I’d love JV back as the bench 5 too).

You’re the guy who’s been bragging about how trading Demar for Danny Green straight up would’ve been a steal for us, no wonder you've been so quiet lately.

I stand by that. Danny had great regular season and completely disappeared in playoffs. Just like Demar did in all years in Toronto.

[Kingsway_fan]

Losing Jv and delon for fat bargs... #failure

[LarSiN]

Good lord, as if there are people who STILL think we would've gotten this far without Gasol shutting down 2 All stars. Yeah, I'm sure Masai is REALLY regretting not keeping 2 dudes he would have to give big extensions to, or lose for nothing.

It was the right trade to make, now enjoy the ride. If he wants them back, he can sign them in a few weeks (he won't).

We would be in ECF cause Kawhi is nuts, not like JV wouldnt add rebounding and points.

Newsflash - Gasol wasn't added for offense. Rebounding/Points aren't helpful if you can't shut down the other teams All Star Center, which Gasol has done ... twice. Having watched JV for 7 years, I don't see him having that effect on Vucevic+Embiid.

[GQStylin]

Newsflash - Gasol wasn't added for offense. Rebounding/Points aren't helpful if you can't shut down the other teams All Star Center, which Gasol has done ... twice. Having watched JV for 7 years, I don't see him having that effect on Vucevic+Embiid.

How is rebounding 'not helpful' for defense and offense? Having the ability to grab rebounds so that your opponents only have one shot and not multiple shots per possession to score is an important part of defense. Having the ability to grab offensive rebounds so that you or your teammates can have more than one chance to score per possession is an important part of the offense.

Also Gasol's defense is overrated as while he's doing a decent job, he's far from being an elite shutdown defender that even remotely compensates for his complete lack of consistent offense. If he could score at even close to a half decent rate, the Raps are winning games much more easily. It may not be all his fault for his lack of offense since Nurse and the team didn't do much to integrate him into the offense during the regular season, but there's no question that so far this trade has been a failure and I'd much rather have JV and Delon playing for us than Gasol.

[SharoneWright]

Your insanity has been already diagnosed, enjoy Marc and his bball IQ. Cause that's all that is left of him.

I'm not the one lying to himself so he sleep at night. Or the one that's been wrong for years.

I don't think JV was traded because he was hurt, but it could reasonably be considered a key part of how the season was unfolding with our frontcourt, eventually leading to the trade.

If he doesn't get hurt, we don't know whether we continue winning or get worse, get better defensively or get worse, build more chemistry with him and Kawhi or go the other way. If we were a half dozen games ahead of Milwaukee at that point and the offense was more integrated - as opposed to our Watch Kawhi offense a Team Offense, then bringing in Gasol's ball movement maybe is less of a priority and we stand pat.

Yes, Gasol was brought in with an eye on improving our defense and IQ, and matching up better with the Celts and Bucks in the playoffs, but he was also brought in to take a load off Kyle's shoulders in terms of running the O and better integrating Kawhi. These are all things where he comes out ahead of Jonas, but these things also became more clear and urgent with JV out for two months and Serge playing most of the minutes at C, and looking less than stellar in most games against a more physica or more savvy C.

It was as much about Serge as it was Jonas at that point - Serge being more exposed with Jonas out - as up to the injury, the Jobaka thing was pretty dominant and successful, but the deadline came and the arms race escalated with both Milwaukee and Philly making deals, so we did too.

So no... not traded because he was injured, but the injury factored into how things played out and the decision making that followed.

I also heard Kawhi was not on the JV train. Anyone have confirmation?

[cruwinas]

I'm not the one lying to himself so he sleep at night. Or the one that's been wrong for years.

I don't think JV was traded because he was hurt, but it could reasonably be considered a key part of how the season was unfolding with our frontcourt, eventually leading to the trade.

If he doesn't get hurt, we don't know whether we continue winning or get worse, get better defensively or get worse, build more chemistry with him and Kawhi or go the other way. If we were a half dozen games ahead of Milwaukee at that point and the offense was more integrated - as opposed to our Watch Kawhi offense a Team Offense, then bringing in Gasol's ball movement maybe is less of a priority and we stand pat.

Yes, Gasol was brought in with an eye on improving our defense and IQ, and matching up better with the Celts and Bucks in the playoffs, but he was also brought in to take a load off Kyle's shoulders in terms of running the O and better integrating Kawhi. These are all things where he comes out ahead of Jonas, but these things also became more clear and urgent with JV out for two months and Serge playing most of the minutes at C, and looking less than stellar in most games against a more physica or more savvy C.

It was as much about Serge as it was Jonas at that point - Serge being more exposed with Jonas out - as up to the injury, the Jobaka thing was pretty dominant and successful, but the deadline came and the arms race escalated with both Milwaukee and Philly making deals, so we did too.

So no... not traded because he was injured, but the injury factored into how things played out and the decision making that followed.

I also heard Kawhi was not on the JV train. Anyone have confirmation?

Difficult to say. They haven't played much together, but analyzing everything - Raptors needed someone like Poeltl, somebody who could defend well. Kawhi can alone score plenty, and maybe he expected that other guys could do their part too. Little did he know about the Raptors and post-season. Only Norman plays with fire in his eyes. Others are missing in action. JV always played better in the post season, but it's just pure speculation now. OG is injured, FVV - horrible. Gasol just old and tired and washed out...
While DD trade was a huge upgrade, I don't know about JV. If starting line-up had been set KL, Danny, Siakam, Kawhi and JV - maybe they could have became a smooth operators. Instead - Kawhi was resting, JV would come from the bench more...JV played 6 and a half seasons in Toronto, I guess time come to part ways. Whatever. JV exploded in Memphis, while Gasol is getting older every day. This off-season will be interesting, that's for sure.

[Kabookalu]

It was only speculation based on how much Kawhi disliked playing with big men who sagged so much on defense in pick and rolls (Aldridge).

[metafisical]

In my dream scenario Demar would be sitting beside Drake in the ACC for the close-out games of the Finals. As soon as the buzzer goes off indicating a Raptors championship, Kyle walks over to Demar and they embrace with tears on their cheeks.

Tears on their butt cheeks.

[Hero]

It's funny how Casey is the least mature out of those who recently left

Yeah.... a moron with no class at all.....

Props to demar and JV leading the way...much class and Toronto and the raps.....

I saw Demar supporting Lupus Canada which was neat.