Moderators: bwgood77, Qwigglez, lilfishi22
Who: Toronto Raptors @ Phoenix Suns
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Revived wrote:Raptors haven’t been a good team this season. Watching their game against Boston right now and they look bad despite Boston being tired on the 2nd night of a back to back on the road.'
Nick Nurse is still a good coach but that’s about all they have going on the court.
We should be able to win this. And I also hope the Suns have some sort of a short tribute video for Baynes who, along with Rubio, helped change the toxic culture in Phoenix.
Yeah, I was hoping they would have lost tonight too. Each loss creates more motivation for them, I'd imagine.bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:Raptors haven’t been a good team this season. Watching their game against Boston right now and they look bad despite Boston being tired on the 2nd night of a back to back on the road.'
Nick Nurse is still a good coach but that’s about all they have going on the court.
We should be able to win this. And I also hope the Suns have some sort of a short tribute video for Baynes who, along with Rubio, helped change the toxic culture in Phoenix.
I was kind of hoping they won tonight. Not sure I want to go into a game against Toronto when they are 1-5. But yeah, at the same time, they don't seem that great, so as long as our shooting goes back to being on, we should be ok.
That's not to say they don't have a lot of talent though, with Lowry, FVV, Anunoby, Siakam and Baynes. Their bench is pretty weak though.Boucher has had some good games and Powell is solid, but that's about it.
Their starting lineup matches pretty well with ours though...and is fairly similar outside of maybe C, but Baynes knows a lot about Ayton and all our player's tendencies too.
And the Raptors can get hot from 3 at any time. We should beat them based on how teams have played, but you are talking about a team with 4 starters with championship experience.
bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:Raptors haven’t been a good team this season. Watching their game against Boston right now and they look bad despite Boston being tired on the 2nd night of a back to back on the road.'
Nick Nurse is still a good coach but that’s about all they have going on the court.
We should be able to win this. And I also hope the Suns have some sort of a short tribute video for Baynes who, along with Rubio, helped change the toxic culture in Phoenix.
I was kind of hoping they won tonight. Not sure I want to go into a game against Toronto when they are 1-5. But yeah, at the same time, they don't seem that great, so as long as our shooting goes back to being on, we should be ok.
That's not to say they don't have a lot of talent though, with Lowry, FVV, Anunoby, Siakam and Baynes. Their bench is pretty weak though.Boucher has had some good games and Powell is solid, but that's about it.
Their starting lineup matches pretty well with ours though...and is fairly similar outside of maybe C, but Baynes knows a lot about Ayton and all our player's tendencies too.
And the Raptors can get hot from 3 at any time. We should beat them based on how teams have played, but you are talking about a team with 4 starters with championship experience.
Revived wrote:bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:Raptors haven’t been a good team this season. Watching their game against Boston right now and they look bad despite Boston being tired on the 2nd night of a back to back on the road.'
Nick Nurse is still a good coach but that’s about all they have going on the court.
We should be able to win this. And I also hope the Suns have some sort of a short tribute video for Baynes who, along with Rubio, helped change the toxic culture in Phoenix.
I was kind of hoping they won tonight. Not sure I want to go into a game against Toronto when they are 1-5. But yeah, at the same time, they don't seem that great, so as long as our shooting goes back to being on, we should be ok.
That's not to say they don't have a lot of talent though, with Lowry, FVV, Anunoby, Siakam and Baynes. Their bench is pretty weak though.Boucher has had some good games and Powell is solid, but that's about it.
Their starting lineup matches pretty well with ours though...and is fairly similar outside of maybe C, but Baynes knows a lot about Ayton and all our player's tendencies too.
And the Raptors can get hot from 3 at any time. We should beat them based on how teams have played, but you are talking about a team with 4 starters with championship experience.
I think Ayton will struggle against Baynes. Baynes played against him in practice and knows to rough him up for a bit and that’s knocks him out of games.
Anything can happen of course but Raptors just aren’t very good. Siakam is extremely overrated imo. Crowder should be able defend him well. FVV and Lowry are their only two players that I’d worry about really (of course I hope the Suns players and coaches worry and prepare for the entire Raps team). I think Toronto has a good chance of missing playoffs even in the very weak East. Many of their fans don’t seem to mind tanking this season either for a high draft choice as they have an excellent FO that can help them rebuild quickly.
We should be able to win especially considering that our players should be equally pissed off after losing in our last game as well. But yeah like almost all our wins, it’s gonna come down to whether or not we’re hot from 3 because we don’t have much of inside scoring usually.
bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:bwgood77 wrote:
I was kind of hoping they won tonight. Not sure I want to go into a game against Toronto when they are 1-5. But yeah, at the same time, they don't seem that great, so as long as our shooting goes back to being on, we should be ok.
That's not to say they don't have a lot of talent though, with Lowry, FVV, Anunoby, Siakam and Baynes. Their bench is pretty weak though.Boucher has had some good games and Powell is solid, but that's about it.
Their starting lineup matches pretty well with ours though...and is fairly similar outside of maybe C, but Baynes knows a lot about Ayton and all our player's tendencies too.
And the Raptors can get hot from 3 at any time. We should beat them based on how teams have played, but you are talking about a team with 4 starters with championship experience.
I think Ayton will struggle against Baynes. Baynes played against him in practice and knows to rough him up for a bit and that’s knocks him out of games.
Anything can happen of course but Raptors just aren’t very good. Siakam is extremely overrated imo. Crowder should be able defend him well. FVV and Lowry are their only two players that I’d worry about really (of course I hope the Suns players and coaches worry and prepare for the entire Raps team). I think Toronto has a good chance of missing playoffs even in the very weak East. Many of their fans don’t seem to mind tanking this season either for a high draft choice as they have an excellent FO that can help them rebuild quickly.
We should be able to win especially considering that our players should be equally pissed off after losing in our last game as well. But yeah like almost all our wins, it’s gonna come down to whether or not we’re hot from 3 because we don’t have much of inside scoring usually.
Siakam was unbelievably good two years ago when he won MVP and then last year was an all star. But last season his FG%s went down a little in 3pt% but more in 2pt% as he was doubled on D. The rest of his #s stayed about the same.
This year he has gotten off to a rough start as well, and as fast as fans turn on people, the GB just really underrates him now. Regardless, their defense will be tough against us, as Lowry is probably the best defensive starting PG in league behind Simmons and Paul, and the rest of their starters are all tough defenders.
Again, I think we should win, but I don't think they should be taken lightly just like people said we'd beat the Kings easily and ended up losing that first game.The Raptors with the same players were a 2nd round playoff team last year. It's not like all these guys suddenly got bad. Sure they lost Kawhi, Green, Serge and Gasol who were important pieces but they were aging as well.
Revived wrote:Raptors haven’t been a good team this season. Watching their game against Boston right now and they look bad despite Boston being tired on the 2nd night of a back to back on the road.
Nick Nurse is still a good coach but that’s about all they have going on the court.
We should be able to win this. And I also hope the Suns have some sort of a short tribute video for Baynes who, along with Rubio, helped change the toxic culture in Phoenix.
SunsRback4Good wrote:[streamable][/streamable]bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:I think Ayton will struggle against Baynes. Baynes played against him in practice and knows to rough him up for a bit and that’s knocks him out of games.
Anything can happen of course but Raptors just aren’t very good. Siakam is extremely overrated imo. Crowder should be able defend him well. FVV and Lowry are their only two players that I’d worry about really (of course I hope the Suns players and coaches worry and prepare for the entire Raps team). I think Toronto has a good chance of missing playoffs even in the very weak East. Many of their fans don’t seem to mind tanking this season either for a high draft choice as they have an excellent FO that can help them rebuild quickly.
We should be able to win especially considering that our players should be equally pissed off after losing in our last game as well. But yeah like almost all our wins, it’s gonna come down to whether or not we’re hot from 3 because we don’t have much of inside scoring usually.
Siakam was unbelievably good two years ago when he won MVP and then last year was an all star. But last season his FG%s went down a little in 3pt% but more in 2pt% as he was doubled on D. The rest of his #s stayed about the same.
This year he has gotten off to a rough start as well, and as fast as fans turn on people, the GB just really underrates him now. Regardless, their defense will be tough against us, as Lowry is probably the best defensive starting PG in league behind Simmons and Paul, and the rest of their starters are all tough defenders.
Again, I think we should win, but I don't think they should be taken lightly just like people said we'd beat the Kings easily and ended up losing that first game.The Raptors with the same players were a 2nd round playoff team last year. It's not like all these guys suddenly got bad. Sure they lost Kawhi, Green, Serge and Gasol who were important pieces but they were aging as well.
They've lost all their important pieces from that championship run in 2019. They look lost as a team with no true leader. At least before Kawhi acquisition, DeRozan was their leader and best player after that it was obviously Kawhi. But now Siakam doesn't play like a leader who can lead his team to at least the ECF. I can't see them making the playoffs especially how good Nets are and hawks as well.
bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:bwgood77 wrote:
I was kind of hoping they won tonight. Not sure I want to go into a game against Toronto when they are 1-5. But yeah, at the same time, they don't seem that great, so as long as our shooting goes back to being on, we should be ok.
That's not to say they don't have a lot of talent though, with Lowry, FVV, Anunoby, Siakam and Baynes. Their bench is pretty weak though.Boucher has had some good games and Powell is solid, but that's about it.
Their starting lineup matches pretty well with ours though...and is fairly similar outside of maybe C, but Baynes knows a lot about Ayton and all our player's tendencies too.
And the Raptors can get hot from 3 at any time. We should beat them based on how teams have played, but you are talking about a team with 4 starters with championship experience.
I think Ayton will struggle against Baynes. Baynes played against him in practice and knows to rough him up for a bit and that’s knocks him out of games.
Anything can happen of course but Raptors just aren’t very good. Siakam is extremely overrated imo. Crowder should be able defend him well. FVV and Lowry are their only two players that I’d worry about really (of course I hope the Suns players and coaches worry and prepare for the entire Raps team). I think Toronto has a good chance of missing playoffs even in the very weak East. Many of their fans don’t seem to mind tanking this season either for a high draft choice as they have an excellent FO that can help them rebuild quickly.
We should be able to win especially considering that our players should be equally pissed off after losing in our last game as well. But yeah like almost all our wins, it’s gonna come down to whether or not we’re hot from 3 because we don’t have much of inside scoring usually.
Siakam was unbelievably good two years ago when he won MVP and then last year was an all star. But last season his FG%s went down a little in 3pt% but more in 2pt% as he was doubled on D. The rest of his #s stayed about the same.
This year he has gotten off to a rough start as well, and as fast as fans turn on people, the GB just really underrates him now. Regardless, their defense will be tough against us, as Lowry is probably the best defensive starting PG in league behind Simmons and Paul, and the rest of their starters are all tough defenders.
Again, I think we should win, but I don't think they should be taken lightly just like people said we'd beat the Kings easily and ended up losing that first game.The Raptors with the same players were a 2nd round playoff team last year. It's not like all these guys suddenly got bad. Sure they lost Serge and Gasol who were important pieces but they were aging as well.
Qwigglez wrote:Hopefully we aren't the team to get the Raptors back on a win. Be careful of the Bayne pain train, and the Alex Len revenge tour. Bridges and Cam should scorch em for 10 3's a piece though so I'm not too worried.
SunsRback4Good wrote:[streamable][/streamable]bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:I think Ayton will struggle against Baynes. Baynes played against him in practice and knows to rough him up for a bit and that’s knocks him out of games.
Anything can happen of course but Raptors just aren’t very good. Siakam is extremely overrated imo. Crowder should be able defend him well. FVV and Lowry are their only two players that I’d worry about really (of course I hope the Suns players and coaches worry and prepare for the entire Raps team). I think Toronto has a good chance of missing playoffs even in the very weak East. Many of their fans don’t seem to mind tanking this season either for a high draft choice as they have an excellent FO that can help them rebuild quickly.
We should be able to win especially considering that our players should be equally pissed off after losing in our last game as well. But yeah like almost all our wins, it’s gonna come down to whether or not we’re hot from 3 because we don’t have much of inside scoring usually.
Siakam was unbelievably good two years ago when he won MVP and then last year was an all star. But last season his FG%s went down a little in 3pt% but more in 2pt% as he was doubled on D. The rest of his #s stayed about the same.
This year he has gotten off to a rough start as well, and as fast as fans turn on people, the GB just really underrates him now. Regardless, their defense will be tough against us, as Lowry is probably the best defensive starting PG in league behind Simmons and Paul, and the rest of their starters are all tough defenders.
Again, I think we should win, but I don't think they should be taken lightly just like people said we'd beat the Kings easily and ended up losing that first game.The Raptors with the same players were a 2nd round playoff team last year. It's not like all these guys suddenly got bad. Sure they lost Kawhi, Green, Serge and Gasol who were important pieces but they were aging as well.
They've lost all their important pieces from that championship run in 2019. They look lost as a team with no true leader. At least before Kawhi acquisition, DeRozan was their leader and best player after that it was obviously Kawhi. But now Siakam doesn't play like a leader who can lead his team to at least the ECF. I can't see them making the playoffs especially how good Nets are and hawks as well.
Slim Charless wrote:Qwigglez wrote:Hopefully we aren't the team to get the Raptors back on a win. Be careful of the Bayne pain train, and the Alex Len revenge tour. Bridges and Cam should scorch em for 10 3's a piece though so I'm not too worried.
Just need to stay focused. They made it out of the beastly last 3 games almost undefeated. I kinda thought the raps overachieved last season and will come back to their real talent level this year. That said, they still are former Champs and Lowry is tough as nails.
Looking forward to seeing him and CP battle. Also curious to see who covers Siakam. I assume it's mostly Jae, but I'd love to see Bridges on him for a little to see how he handles guys bigger and stronger than him. We will need him to do that provided we stay the course and make the playoffs.
Revived wrote:bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:I think Ayton will struggle against Baynes. Baynes played against him in practice and knows to rough him up for a bit and that’s knocks him out of games.
Anything can happen of course but Raptors just aren’t very good. Siakam is extremely overrated imo. Crowder should be able defend him well. FVV and Lowry are their only two players that I’d worry about really (of course I hope the Suns players and coaches worry and prepare for the entire Raps team). I think Toronto has a good chance of missing playoffs even in the very weak East. Many of their fans don’t seem to mind tanking this season either for a high draft choice as they have an excellent FO that can help them rebuild quickly.
We should be able to win especially considering that our players should be equally pissed off after losing in our last game as well. But yeah like almost all our wins, it’s gonna come down to whether or not we’re hot from 3 because we don’t have much of inside scoring usually.
Siakam was unbelievably good two years ago when he won MVP and then last year was an all star. But last season his FG%s went down a little in 3pt% but more in 2pt% as he was doubled on D. The rest of his #s stayed about the same.
This year he has gotten off to a rough start as well, and as fast as fans turn on people, the GB just really underrates him now. Regardless, their defense will be tough against us, as Lowry is probably the best defensive starting PG in league behind Simmons and Paul, and the rest of their starters are all tough defenders.
Again, I think we should win, but I don't think they should be taken lightly just like people said we'd beat the Kings easily and ended up losing that first game.The Raptors with the same players were a 2nd round playoff team last year. It's not like all these guys suddenly got bad. Sure they lost Serge and Gasol who were important pieces but they were aging as well.
It’s not just the GB, Raptors own fan base does not like Siakam all that much. They say half his pts come on fast breaks and the other half on a spin move that no longer works. I don’t know if that’s true but from the games I’ve watched of the Raptors, he hasn’t looked that impressive. Albeit it’s only a handful of games but still.
He did well when they had Kawhi and he drew all the attention opening up things for Siakam. He was basically the #3 option then behind Kawhi and Lowry. But now with Kawhi gone and Lowry aging, Siakam is being asked to be the #1 option and he simply doesn’t have the ability for it. I don’t think he would be good as a #2 either but a strong #3 type player.
I hope the players don’t take any team lightly. Suns haven’t been a playoff team in 11 years and have just one winning season during that span. They shouldn’t even take games against the Knicks lightly even if Knicks were missing all their starters. These guys get paid millions of dollars to come focused to play and give their best to win for 82 games or how many ever it is this season.
I don’t think the fans on realgm taking a game lightly (like the Kings game for example) should have any impact on the players. Fans don’t get paid, players earn their paychecks by giving it their all in every game and I would hope they have that mentality for all the games regardless of who the opponent is. Fans are of course gonna talk about games which we “should” win and the others where it would be a surprise if we won. And each fan is gonna be different. I thought we should’ve beat the Kings but I also thought we would lose to the Clippers and Nuggets which we actually won. Loss to LAC didn’t bother me at all either, their a really good team that simply is a tier or two above us so even making the comeback and making the score close can be considered a win in itself.
In such a long season, any team’s gonna be able to beat any team for sure. The worst team in the league, Washington, beat the super team Nets the other day. It’s gonna happen but that’s a game the Nets should’ve won similar to how imo this is a game the Suns should win but who knows. The players obviously shouldn’t and won’t be coming into the game with the same mentality as me, their high paying job requires them to not take any team in the league lightly no matter what (and that applies to all teams in the league really).
bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:bwgood77 wrote:
Siakam was unbelievably good two years ago when he won MVP and then last year was an all star. But last season his FG%s went down a little in 3pt% but more in 2pt% as he was doubled on D. The rest of his #s stayed about the same.
This year he has gotten off to a rough start as well, and as fast as fans turn on people, the GB just really underrates him now. Regardless, their defense will be tough against us, as Lowry is probably the best defensive starting PG in league behind Simmons and Paul, and the rest of their starters are all tough defenders.
Again, I think we should win, but I don't think they should be taken lightly just like people said we'd beat the Kings easily and ended up losing that first game.The Raptors with the same players were a 2nd round playoff team last year. It's not like all these guys suddenly got bad. Sure they lost Serge and Gasol who were important pieces but they were aging as well.
It’s not just the GB, Raptors own fan base does not like Siakam all that much. They say half his pts come on fast breaks and the other half on a spin move that no longer works. I don’t know if that’s true but from the games I’ve watched of the Raptors, he hasn’t looked that impressive. Albeit it’s only a handful of games but still.
He did well when they had Kawhi and he drew all the attention opening up things for Siakam. He was basically the #3 option then behind Kawhi and Lowry. But now with Kawhi gone and Lowry aging, Siakam is being asked to be the #1 option and he simply doesn’t have the ability for it. I don’t think he would be good as a #2 either but a strong #3 type player.
I hope the players don’t take any team lightly. Suns haven’t been a playoff team in 11 years and have just one winning season during that span. They shouldn’t even take games against the Knicks lightly even if Knicks were missing all their starters. These guys get paid millions of dollars to come focused to play and give their best to win for 82 games or how many ever it is this season.
I don’t think the fans on realgm taking a game lightly (like the Kings game for example) should have any impact on the players. Fans don’t get paid, players earn their paychecks by giving it their all in every game and I would hope they have that mentality for all the games regardless of who the opponent is. Fans are of course gonna talk about games which we “should” win and the others where it would be a surprise if we won. And each fan is gonna be different. I thought we should’ve beat the Kings but I also thought we would lose to the Clippers and Nuggets which we actually won. Loss to LAC didn’t bother me at all either, their a really good team that simply is a tier or two above us so even making the comeback and making the score close can be considered a win in itself.
In such a long season, any team’s gonna be able to beat any team for sure. The worst team in the league, Washington, beat the super team Nets the other day. It’s gonna happen but that’s a game the Nets should’ve won similar to how imo this is a game the Suns should win but who knows. The players obviously shouldn’t and won’t be coming into the game with the same mentality as me, their high paying job requires them to not take any team in the league lightly no matter what (and that applies to all teams in the league really).
Oh yeah, I know a number of Raptors fans are down on Pascal too, but we know how that is...a team's fans are as fickle as can be about a lot of players based on a few games or even a couple games.
Lowry has always been their leader. Kawhi was their best player one year...Siakam the year after he left and an all star last year.
He's had a poor 6 game start...doesn't mean he's suddenly bad...same with Booker, or Ayton, regardless of what people were saying about Booker after his start or Ayton after a few games this season and some bubble games.
Sure the Wizards beat the Nets, as did the Hornets and Grizzlies...and Hawks...and with 4 losses, one less than the Raptors, I don't think the Nets are "not that good" either...just going through a rough patch after an impressive start, one of those big wins against the Warriors, who certainly didn't start well in Curry's first game back and their new signee Oubre along with a rookie starting.
Revived wrote:bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:It’s not just the GB, Raptors own fan base does not like Siakam all that much. They say half his pts come on fast breaks and the other half on a spin move that no longer works. I don’t know if that’s true but from the games I’ve watched of the Raptors, he hasn’t looked that impressive. Albeit it’s only a handful of games but still.
He did well when they had Kawhi and he drew all the attention opening up things for Siakam. He was basically the #3 option then behind Kawhi and Lowry. But now with Kawhi gone and Lowry aging, Siakam is being asked to be the #1 option and he simply doesn’t have the ability for it. I don’t think he would be good as a #2 either but a strong #3 type player.
I hope the players don’t take any team lightly. Suns haven’t been a playoff team in 11 years and have just one winning season during that span. They shouldn’t even take games against the Knicks lightly even if Knicks were missing all their starters. These guys get paid millions of dollars to come focused to play and give their best to win for 82 games or how many ever it is this season.
I don’t think the fans on realgm taking a game lightly (like the Kings game for example) should have any impact on the players. Fans don’t get paid, players earn their paychecks by giving it their all in every game and I would hope they have that mentality for all the games regardless of who the opponent is. Fans are of course gonna talk about games which we “should” win and the others where it would be a surprise if we won. And each fan is gonna be different. I thought we should’ve beat the Kings but I also thought we would lose to the Clippers and Nuggets which we actually won. Loss to LAC didn’t bother me at all either, their a really good team that simply is a tier or two above us so even making the comeback and making the score close can be considered a win in itself.
In such a long season, any team’s gonna be able to beat any team for sure. The worst team in the league, Washington, beat the super team Nets the other day. It’s gonna happen but that’s a game the Nets should’ve won similar to how imo this is a game the Suns should win but who knows. The players obviously shouldn’t and won’t be coming into the game with the same mentality as me, their high paying job requires them to not take any team in the league lightly no matter what (and that applies to all teams in the league really).
Oh yeah, I know a number of Raptors fans are down on Pascal too, but we know how that is...a team's fans are as fickle as can be about a lot of players based on a few games or even a couple games.
Lowry has always been their leader. Kawhi was their best player one year...Siakam the year after he left and an all star last year.
He's had a poor 6 game start...doesn't mean he's suddenly bad...same with Booker, or Ayton, regardless of what people were saying about Booker after his start or Ayton after a few games this season and some bubble games.
Sure the Wizards beat the Nets, as did the Hornets and Grizzlies...and Hawks...and with 4 losses, one less than the Raptors, I don't think the Nets are "not that good" either...just going through a rough patch after an impressive start, one of those big wins against the Warriors, who certainly didn't start well in Curry's first game back and their new signee Oubre along with a rookie starting.
I don’t think the Raptors aren’t a good team based on their start to this season. I projected them to be a bad team before the season began. I had them missing the playoffs. Their start to this season isn’t that surprising to me and I think their struggles will continue for remainder of the season with a few wins here and there (hopefully not against us). Masai may embrace the tank fully and just blow up the roster to rebuild anyway since the ‘21 draft is projected to be one of the most star studded drafts in recent history.
Siakam never really impressed me even when he was considered a good player before this season. I think he’s a role player at best that’s taken advantage of Kawhi drawing a lot of attention. And now he’s being exposed with Lowry close to being washed and FVV being their only other good player. Toronto’s gonna regret that Siakam contract in a year or two imo. Someone mentioned swapping Ayton for him but I wouldn’t even do that. I wouldn’t even trade Cam Johnson for him quite honestly.
He’s fouled out now in 2 or 3 straight games and then been suspended for another game. Bit of a headcase for sure. Hopefully we can take advantage of it tomorrow.
bwgood77 wrote:Revived wrote:bwgood77 wrote:
Oh yeah, I know a number of Raptors fans are down on Pascal too, but we know how that is...a team's fans are as fickle as can be about a lot of players based on a few games or even a couple games.
Lowry has always been their leader. Kawhi was their best player one year...Siakam the year after he left and an all star last year.
He's had a poor 6 game start...doesn't mean he's suddenly bad...same with Booker, or Ayton, regardless of what people were saying about Booker after his start or Ayton after a few games this season and some bubble games.
Sure the Wizards beat the Nets, as did the Hornets and Grizzlies...and Hawks...and with 4 losses, one less than the Raptors, I don't think the Nets are "not that good" either...just going through a rough patch after an impressive start, one of those big wins against the Warriors, who certainly didn't start well in Curry's first game back and their new signee Oubre along with a rookie starting.
I don’t think the Raptors aren’t a good team based on their start to this season. I projected them to be a bad team before the season began. I had them missing the playoffs. Their start to this season isn’t that surprising to me and I think their struggles will continue for remainder of the season with a few wins here and there (hopefully not against us). Masai may embrace the tank fully and just blow up the roster to rebuild anyway since the ‘21 draft is projected to be one of the most star studded drafts in recent history.
Siakam never really impressed me even when he was considered a good player before this season. I think he’s a role player at best that’s taken advantage of Kawhi drawing a lot of attention. And now he’s being exposed with Lowry close to being washed and FVV being their only other good player. Toronto’s gonna regret that Siakam contract in a year or two imo. Someone mentioned swapping Ayton for him but I wouldn’t even do that. I wouldn’t even trade Cam Johnson for him quite honestly.
He’s fouled out now in 2 or 3 straight games and then been suspended for another game. Bit of a headcase for sure. Hopefully we can take advantage of it tomorrow.
Interesting you never thought he was good even when he had a 63% TS% in his 3rd year, being in the all star game and 2nd team All NBA last year.
Not sure why you think Lowry is washed either...the guy has gotten more savvy every year and has been an all star 6 years in a row.
Anyway, they have started out rough and are adjusting but I'd be a little surprised if they didn't make the playoffs, despite the east getting tougher. I think Nurse is a quality coach and will get things ironed out.
I know you are a big tank advocate, but the Raptors are not going to tank. That's absurd...you don't tank with mostly a young core who are coming off the a conference semifinals appearance they lost in 7 and two years removed from a championship.
They have a somewhat similar core to us. FVV compares about the same to Book...similar in overall efficiency butfar better 3pt shooter, more assists, rebounds, steals, far fewer turnovers per game (1.3 vs 5.3) and far better defense. https://stathead.com/tiny/rWbRG
I don't think he's a better offensive player than Booker other than 3s and playmaking/passing, but has been better this year. OG is similar to Mikal.I don't think he's good,but WG pointed out he thought they should get similar contracts the other day. He does have elite D and is shooting 70% inside the arc. Then Siakam in some ways, is similar to Ayton...got that most improved in year 3 that we hope for with Ayton as he became a premier defender and very solid offensively. Then an all star in year 4, along with 2nd team All NBA to earn the contract.
Then Lowry is somewhat similar to Paul, and has been the best PG in the east for awhile, though Kyrie may be better right now....but is a solid savvy vet with elite defense and team leadership and a vet in Baynes who works hard and has played for playoff teams like Jae.
Make no mistake, I do believe our lineup is better at every position and we have a deeper bench, and should beat them, especially with two days rest and them in a funk, but they do have that championship and playoff experience with their core
