PG: tank engines slowly startin up again

[Boogie!]

Really not a fan of GTJ. Selfish player. Rarely passes. That is toxic to a team.

I actually prefer him knocking down clutch shots. He has that 'mojo'. He's the xfactor for us when we're in playoffs in comparison to Siakam imo.

He doesn't really make clutch shots very often... he bricked a rew tonight... his catch and shoot game has been streaky ar best not quite what you would expect from a specialist.

I agree with the guy that said he's selfish...

He got better makingvpassew as the game went on though...

Overall we played pretty fluid offensively minus some selfish play here or there but it is hat it is. Scottie needs to be higher on the pecking order than he is... I donr care if he's a rookie but the system has to cater to his plsymaking... og, Pascal and go play better around a focal point. Making them the focal point does not work.

[720]

I'm a bit confused about what this franchise is doing right now. They have a bunch of guys who have no future on this team going out there jacking up shots while playing zero defense.

They have their prized draft pick standing basically out of bounds under the basket all game. He could essentially just sit there until he has to run back on defense.

Are they developing or trying to win? Right now they're doing neither.

I agree

But Barnes needs to be more assertive, no one is going to force feed him if he doesn’t want it bad enough himself.

If we are planning to win then Dragic needs major minutes at the back up 1 spot. Not DNP

Dribble hand offs are obviously not good for him. He's way to passive. Why doesn't Nurse post him up? Make the guards and forwards run more pick and rolls with him (and actually passing it to him when he rolls, that would help). Or even isos, we know he can hit shots in the mid range.

Nurse probably will implement more schemes to get him going but atm watching every guard on our team take more shots than him and bench players almost take as many shots as him ain't it.

[Kingsway_fan]

It's time Nicky unleash Khem at the 5.

I use 'unleash' very loosely.

Problem is Khem is really a backup c at best in the NBA

[mdenny]

There isn’t a single person to pin this on. But the raps are lacking chemistry as a whole

we gave up 127 points to a Detroit team with a roster filled with + defenders who give effort every night. its on nurse. its the same philosophy every game and teams know what works.

So why have we had such a good defence through the first 13 games and why did it take 14 for a team to figure it out?

Pistons played damn well tonight and hit a lot of tough shots. Shots they missed 24 hours ago.

Fred directs alot of traffic on D by talking and pointing.....but even aside from that....his elite positioning almost pushes other guys into the spot they should be. There was alot of times tonight where a spot was empty and 2 guys both halfway there.....either both went to it or neither went to it. Some of the elite individual defense we have almost pulled it out for us in crunch-time but positionally we were really bad all night and that's all because of fred's absence.

If GTJ doesn't shoot out of his mind in first half this game could have gotten ugly alot quicker. He bailed us out on alot of offensive possessions in first half.

There were some fun flashes. Banton creating chaos. Pascal with some assists. GTJ midrange shots continue to impress. But those are all just pieces without a strong backbone of winning plays.

Fred is the heart and soul of this team.

[Morehotsauce]

Our offense suffers when we run it through OG with his clunky handles he got picked twice as much as we want he's still not there yet

[LBJKB24MJ23]

Growing pains. Y’all need to give it time lol. Trust the process.

[Ref_from_hell]

I will say that Barnes hasn't looked the same since Pascal returned. But I will equate that to working chemistry. Obviously Pascal is going to take some of his shots. But there should be enough for both. Pascal was fantastic tonight and Barnes looked okay. It can definitely work.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

Without FVV we are a lottery team.

With FVV we were a lottery team…

[rapsincr]

i hate losing, but at the end of the day i think its better in the long run. on to the next.

[Rapsfan07]

barnes with only 10 fg attempts again tonight, the least of the starters. this is becoming too much of a trend.

Like I said before - this is both Nurse's fault and Barnes'. He just doesn't have much of an offensive game besides bullying his way to the rim. He had a few solid looks, they ran a few post ups for him and they were either turnovers or missed shots.

[HumbleRen]

Watching Mobley and Allen lock up the paint, coming back from down 20. Must be nice.

Me thinks Cavs will be on the right side of history with the 2 bigs in the line up opposed to our 6'8 philosophy.

[PrinceV]

Nurse’s rotation is killing us. Boucher was hot garbage tonight.

It is starting to feel like Toronto is playing not to lose rather than playing to win.

[Boogie!]

It's honestly weird to me how nurse dnps dragic all season, then opts to start and close the game with him... why not just trust the young guys... like this is season is supposedly sbout development... why not let vanton and co learn what it's like the play in the clutch.

[Peja Stojakovic]

how much to rescue jonas from the pelicans?

[tdotrep2]

It's honestly weird to me how nurse dnps dragic all game, then opts to start and close the game with him... why not just trust the young guys... like this is season is supposedly sbout development... why not let vanton and co learn what it's like the play in the clutch.

thats him being cute

[Tor_Raps]

Why all of a sudden Dragic is playing and Svi gets benched is beyond me.. We playing too much zone and they're scoring on us at will...

It's because we're trying to play without a center and that's our way to not let a scrub like Stewart abuse us. This team desperately needs to another center to this roster.

Go watch Stewart’s highlights. He didn’t abuse us because of a lack of a C.

We’re actually top 5 in opponent points in the paint.

Dude, I'm done responding to you. You clearly have 0 clue about basketball and have 0 sense of what you're watching out there. Go study some excel sheets man lol.

[rapsincr]

barnes with only 10 fg attempts again tonight, the least of the starters. this is becoming too much of a trend.

Like I said before - this is both Nurse's fault and Barnes'. He just doesn't have much of an offensive game besides bullying his way to the rim. He had a few solid looks, they ran a few post ups for him and they were either turnovers or missed shots.

his midrange game is actually really nice, he took one shot from midrange today.

[Rapsfan07]

But more than anything else, this team DESPERATELY needs a center.

We have expendable guys like Flynn, Dragic and Boucher. There must be a good C available for something around these guys.

[Mr Funk]

We shouldn't have cut Freddie Gillespie, this team really needs another centre.

OG, Scottie, Svi, Boucher and Banton were really bad defensively.

Missing that many free throws is inexcusable.

Yes, Scottie needs to be involved more offensively, but he is turnover prone and has bad lapses on D and some fans need to realize this.

The officiating in the NBA is at an all-time low and the league desperately needs to take action: refs need to start getting held accountable for their amateur garbage and fined (we clearly had possession).

Losing to smug Dwayne Casey really bothers me.

[WaltFrazier]

From what I saw 2nd half only, Dragic played well, more of a real playmaker point guard than Fred. At his age he's not better than Fred, but he showed what we should do is play Fred a little bit fewer minutes to keep fresh, and let Goran run the team when Fred's off. never together. Goran with one of our taller secondary ballhandlers Barnes or Banton would be good bench leaders.