Positive QUAD Talk (Scottie/BI/RJ/IQ)

[Tofubeque]

Silly goal post stat, but looking over the other teams, no one else has three players averaging over 20ppg. It could work as on offensive identity.

I’m optimistic about this offense staying top 10 even when the shooting cools off, because it has these 3 who can all create advantages inside and in the midrange.

Last game RJ was getting post ups on Ryan Rollins, and he’s not THAT small a guard. Few teams will have the size across their lineup to shut down all 3.

[Clay Davis]

If IQ rounds back into form, we'll have a starting 5 with 4 above-average, players. One of them is a strong all-star (that is, strongly not a borderline all-star and not a superstar), and three are borderline all-stars. Very intriguing! Unfortunately, glaring roster flaws make me wonder whether we can get the most out of them.

Unfortunately I still that we have, in the best case, the rizz of a team whose best player would be the third best player on a championship team and three players who'd be the fourth best player.

[WuTang_CMB]

The takeaway i read from this article is we maximized barnes. We not going to get a better version.

If ppl are OK with this version great, if not, im not against trading barnes for another player if chance presents itself

Barnes entire offensive potential is contingent on him being able to hit open 3s and no one wants to admit it.

Yep. With a reliable 3pt shot, he's a top-15 player. We saw it at the start of last season too. Let's see if he can keep it going for longer than one month this time.

crazy cuz time flies but that was 2 seasons ago when he started on fire from 3. Exactly 2 years to today (november 5th) when he had that insane game vs the Spurs on the road and hit that step back 3. Last season he was horrendous from 3.

All of a sudden getting better players means better looks = more makes. Whowouldathunkit

Really positive start for him on both ends. He's been our #1.

[tsherkin]

All of a sudden getting better players means better looks = more makes. Whowouldathunkit

Most of the major criticism and discussion around Barnes which hasn't been just pure venom has centered around positioning him more effectively.

More passing support, better actions, better spacing around him to give him a little more leeway to work. So far this season, that's exactly what we've given him with this roster.

We'll see a difference in narrative around him when his 3 starts to normalize, but around then, I think we should be looking for normalization in his middle game as well. 3-16, he's shooting far worse than usual, and I'd expect that to change. He's been getting a lot of clean looks and they're eventually going to start falling. His rip-through looks good and he's been muscling his way closer quite often, which is great.

EDIT: And I forgot, his draw rate has been quite a bit lower than usual through no fault of his own, and when that normalizes, it'll also help match off a drop in his 3P%.

[anotherhomer]

Barnes entire offensive potential is contingent on him being able to hit open 3s and no one wants to admit it.

Yep. With a reliable 3pt shot, he's a top-15 player. We saw it at the start of last season too. Let's see if he can keep it going for longer than one month this time.

crazy cuz time flies but that was 2 seasons ago when he started on fire from 3. Exactly 2 years to today (november 5th) when he had that insane game vs the Spurs on the road and hit that step back 3. Last season he was horrendous from 3.

All of a sudden getting better players means better looks = more makes. Whowouldathunkit

Really positive start for him on both ends. He's been our #1.

i'm happy it's starting out hot.....let's see how it holds up for sure

[YogurtProducer]

I can't shake-off this nagging feeling that we're over-earning at the 3pt line given RJ/BI at 37%+ and Scottie/CMB at 45%+, though I guess IQ/Gradey shooting sub 30% evens it out a bit.

Knock on wood.

Ochai at 9%
Walter at 27%
IQ at 28%

You would think those 3 all have improvements to come. The fact our best shooter (IQ) is shooting horrible is pretty positive for us going forward. Even if Scottie falls off (CMB volume isn't high enough to matter), it should be more than offset once we figure IQ out and get him back taking 7+ 3's a game at a 37-38% clip like he has his entire career.

[YogurtProducer]

If IQ rounds back into form, we'll have a starting 5 with 4 above-average, players. One of them is a strong all-star (that is, strongly not a borderline all-star and not a superstar), and three are borderline all-stars. Very intriguing! Unfortunately, glaring roster flaws make me wonder whether we can get the most out of them.

Unfortunately I still that we have, in the best case, the rizz of a team whose best player would be the third best player on a championship team and three players who'd be the fourth best player.

I'd say 5 - Poeltl is a very good center, especially if his role is just "dirty work". Not a lot of centers out there as positionally sound as he is.

[tsherkin]

If IQ rounds back into form, we'll have a starting 5 with 4 above-average, players. One of them is a strong all-star (that is, strongly not a borderline all-star and not a superstar), and three are borderline all-stars. Very intriguing! Unfortunately, glaring roster flaws make me wonder whether we can get the most out of them.

Unfortunately I still that we have, in the best case, the rizz of a team whose best player would be the third best player on a championship team and three players who'd be the fourth best player.

I'd say 5 - Poeltl is a very good center, especially if his role is just "dirty work". Not a lot of centers out there as positionally sound as he is.

He's a very solid center, for sure. We just need him to stay healthy.

[anotherhomer]

If IQ rounds back into form, we'll have a starting 5 with 4 above-average, players. One of them is a strong all-star (that is, strongly not a borderline all-star and not a superstar), and three are borderline all-stars. Very intriguing! Unfortunately, glaring roster flaws make me wonder whether we can get the most out of them.

Unfortunately I still that we have, in the best case, the rizz of a team whose best player would be the third best player on a championship team and three players who'd be the fourth best player.

maybe too optimistic....

i say two all-star to borderline all-star in Barnes and BI.

RJ isn't a borderline all-star

[tsherkin]

RJ isn't a borderline all-star

So, strictly speaking from the POV of voting, if we're winning and he's still rocking 21/5/3.5 on 65.1% TS, then yes, he's very much in that sort of discussion.

Now, I don't really think he's going to be at that level of efficiency come the AS break, so his raw volume should come down as well, but if we're looking at how he's played so far, he would very much merit that type of consideration. If he stays north of league-average efficiency and is rocking 18+ ppg, it's a possibility. Not a lock, but a possibility. At that point, I'd expect the voters to say "Toronto isn't worth 3 All-Stars" if he's playing that way and they leave him off, though. We aren't a 60-win team, obviously.

[WiggOuts]

These guys are playing extremely unselfish ball, the kind we haven't seen around here in a long time. They're complimenting eachothers games like they've been playing together for years.

Its truly a thing of beauty to watch Scottie get up for the games with these big name players, he always seems to. You could see he was giving Giannis all kinds of fits and he looked like he was enjoying it. If he could bring that level of aggressiveness every game he's a perennial all star with DPOY potential

[tsherkin]

If he could bring that level of aggressiveness every game he's a perennial all star with DPOY potential

I don't think he's ever really looked DPOY-level, but he could be an All-D guy if he can keep locked in on that end. That would be super awesome.

[mihaic]

If IQ rounds back into form, we'll have a starting 5 with 4 above-average, players. One of them is a strong all-star (that is, strongly not a borderline all-star and not a superstar), and three are borderline all-stars. Very intriguing! Unfortunately, glaring roster flaws make me wonder whether we can get the most out of them.

Unfortunately I still that we have, in the best case, the rizz of a team whose best player would be the third best player on a championship team and three players who'd be the fourth best player.

Detroit Pistons early 2000s.

[HiJiNX]

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=PK_PTsLkYYyXkyf21hlLzg

Barnes had some type of game against the Bucks last night. Hopefully we can get more of that from him. For me, it wasn’t the scoring, it was the defensive presence and the ability to get the offence started when he got the ball. As good as his box score was, his impact far outweighed his numbers. He frustrated Giannis and the entire Bucks team defensively while making all the right reads on offence, whether he was making a direct assist, making a hockey assist, directing traffic to free up a teammate, or just getting us into actions quickly, he just makes the game easier for his teammates when he’s got it going.

[GLF]

I love Ingram's game, and he fits well.

It's really nice to have a guy you can generally rely on to create something in a broken-play scenario and who has all the range he needs coupled to a strong handle.

Barnes has been playing at an allstar level.

Scottie has looked much better to start the season. When his 3P% normalizes, he's going to take a hit, but like, he looks very much worth his role at the moment and that's BIG.

He's shooting almost 49% from 3 at the moment, but even if he drops to 35%, he'll be at 58.5% TS, which is league average. And we've been bitching and moaning for years that if he was even at league-average efficiency, he'd be tolerable. And he isn't over-shooting, he's only rocking about 16 FGA/g.

I've been fairly negative on Scottie over his time with us, so I don't usually let myself get too excited, but he looks locked-in and is doing an excellent job being aggressive. I hope he can keep it up, because he's very strong for us like this.


RJ and CMB have been quite nice as well! CMB doesn't scream 'star,' but he looks like a really valuable contributor. Just seems to know what he's doing most of the time, and doing something good for the team.

And this is why even if I disagree with you at times I respect you, because if a player proves you wrong you aren’t too proud to give them their praise when they deserve it. Too many of the negative people on here love to double down when the player they’ve be critiquing extra hard proves them wrong and starts playing well. RJ being a good example. They just disappear from the board and then reappear once the player struggles. They never give praise when it’s deserved or admit they were proven wrong or the player improved after they talked in absolutes about the player. Acting like the player could never improve bc of their years in the league or age. This is why I always said most of those posters were just trolls that weren’t really fans of this team and only cared about tanking above all. Otherwise they would be happy to be proven wrong, bc the better our players play the better this team will be and the more we win.

[tsherkin]

And this is why even if I disagree with you at times I respect you, because if a player proves you wrong you aren’t too proud to give them their praise when they deserve it.

Thanks.

Too many of the negative people on here love to double down when the player they’ve be critiquing extra hard proves them wrong and starts playing well. RJ being a good example. They just disappear from the board and then reappear once the player struggles. They never give praise when it’s deserved or admit they were proven wrong or the player improved after they talked in absolutes about the player. Acting like the player could never improve bc of their years in the league or age. This is why I always said most of those posters were just trolls that weren’t really fans of this team and only cared about tanking above all. Otherwise they would be happy to be proven wrong, bc the better our players play the better this team will be and the more we win.

I feel like it's important to look at things as stuff develops, right? I'm cautious right now because the sample is quite small and we've seen both Scottie and RJ play well overall... but man, why not just enjoy it while it's good? And maybe the new environment, about which we've been talking for quite some time, is doing what we hoped it would and enabling this style of play, right?

I don't want to bitch about Toronto all the time. I'd love to just dive in and enjoy the Raptors. That'd be cool. Like, there's always SOMETHING, sure, but it'd be nice to generally be happy with them the way I was back in like, 2018 and 2019 (and really, 2017 before the Cavs series, heh).

When guys are playing well, it's worth noting. AND this is the positivity thread. So I'm not here to rain on anyone's parade. This is the "let's be happy about this right now" thread, right? xD Plenty of time to bitch later, potentially, but for now? They're crushing it on O. Time to enjoy that.

[GLF]

And this is why even if I disagree with you at times I respect you, because if a player proves you wrong you aren’t too proud to give them their praise when they deserve it.

Thanks.

Too many of the negative people on here love to double down when the player they’ve be critiquing extra hard proves them wrong and starts playing well. RJ being a good example. They just disappear from the board and then reappear once the player struggles. They never give praise when it’s deserved or admit they were proven wrong or the player improved after they talked in absolutes about the player. Acting like the player could never improve bc of their years in the league or age. This is why I always said most of those posters were just trolls that weren’t really fans of this team and only cared about tanking above all. Otherwise they would be happy to be proven wrong, bc the better our players play the better this team will be and the more we win.

I feel like it's important to look at things as stuff develops, right? I'm cautious right now because the sample is quite small and we've seen both Scottie and RJ play well overall... but man, why not just enjoy it while it's good? And maybe the new environment, about which we've been talking for quite some time, is doing what we hoped it would and enabling this style of play, right?

I don't want to bitch about Toronto all the time. I'd love to just dive in and enjoy the Raptors. That'd be cool. Like, there's always SOMETHING, sure, but it'd be nice to generally be happy with them the way I was back in like, 2018 and 2019 (and really, 2017 before the Cavs series, heh).

When guys are playing well, it's worth noting. AND this is the positivity thread. So I'm not here to rain on anyone's parade. This is the "let's be happy about this right now" thread, right? xD Plenty of time to bitch later, potentially, but for now? They're crushing it on O. Time to enjoy that.

Couldn’t agree more. Being cautious makes sense because as you’ve said Scottie won’t continue to shoot the 3 this well, but I do see other improvements to his process that I’ve enjoyed beyond the 3. Also guys can improve, and if he sticks to the catch and shoot 3s like he has who knows what can happen. He won’t be the first player to improve their shooting later in their career. But yes it’s more about giving praise when things are going well, just as much as we critique when things are going back. It shows that there’s no hidden agenda. When all a poster ever does is pop their head in when things are bad to me that’s when the hater label is valid. No one is above critique, but praise is also deserved when they play well.

[Agimat]

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=PK_PTsLkYYyXkyf21hlLzg

Barnes had some type of game against the Bucks last night. Hopefully we can get more of that from him. For me, it wasn’t the scoring, it was the defensive presence and the ability to get the offence started when he got the ball. As good as his box score was, his impact far outweighed his numbers. He frustrated Giannis and the entire Bucks team defensively while making all the right reads on offence, whether he was making a direct assist, making a hockey assist, directing traffic to free up a teammate, or just getting us into actions quickly, he just makes the game easier for his teammates when he’s got it going.

Same and I was also keying on his leadership. He is the key to everything the Raptors do.

[Tha Cynic]

It’s kind of funny, but bringing in Ingram has just reinforced that Barnes will have to be the guy to lead this team anywhere as the team’s best player on this current roster. He’s easily the most impactful player on the team, but it’s also very clear he needed a goto scorer beside him.

Like what we’re seeing so far. Also just let the dude play on offense. He’s a smart player and he’s unselfish.

Let’s hope RJ can keep doing what he’s doing. He can be the modern day Derozan with the way he’s improving.

[Saul Goodman]

I feel like as I get older the idea of constantly tanking for a saviour gets old. I really hope this team is a playoff caliber one because it’s just much more fun to watch as a fan. And also, aside from OKC there are no super teams the Raptors have little to no chance against so it’s overall a much more exciting product this season than in years past