bigpoppa
Well-known member
I’m trying to remember why the Vancouver grizzlies don’t exist anymore, did they move to Memphis?
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
2018 Raptors/NBA
- Thread starter shanekingsley
- Start date
Yeah they did move that team to Memphis - Vancouver might be too small a market to support a basketball team even today. Too bad, because it's such a beautiful city.
1st in the East - Go Raps!
1st in the East - Go Raps!
bigpoppa
Well-known member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugapzBk3A2E
this illustrates the point of team play and ball movement perfectly.
this illustrates the point of team play and ball movement perfectly.
Watched Cleveland totally dismantle Boston today. They will be a force and even better once Kevin Love returns. That roster shakeup was pure rejuvenation. Boston is slipping.
Raps hit 18 threes with 35 assists today. Total domination once again. It's crazy that they have won their last five games by an average margin of 21 points, while resting the entire starting unit for the entire 4th quarter each time. Raps have the second highest point differential in the league (better than Golden State) and are the only! team in the top 5 for offensive and defensive efficiency. And they are still getting better every month.
And you know, the fact that they're on a 5W streak, #1 seed, 3rd best record in the league and huge playoff potential helps too.
So when is that?
It's time.
And the Raps have played the west more times than any other Eastern team and have no more road games against the west, except maybe one against Minnesota.
They are currently 16-9 against the west and 23-7 against the east.
They have one of the easiest schedules left in the season, because they had one of the harder schedules to start the season.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
Rest for the starters will pay dividends. One of the problems Raptors having been having is that Lowry and/or DeRozan are banged up around the time the playoffs start.
bigpoppa
Well-known member
All the problems are because of the same root cause. They played iso ball, a side effect is a lot more wear and tear because essentially only 2 people are playing even though there are 5 players on the court.
Not sure if you were watching the games last year, but that's not quite correct.
Last year both Kyle and Demar were injured for significant portions of the regular season, so the other star played much heavier minutes to compensate - which in itself can lead that remaining player to wear out. Demar was injured at the start of the season and then again midway by a freak ankle sprain, so Kyle really shouldered a lot. It was actually right around this time last year that Kyle had surgery and was out for around 6 weeks until the playoffs essentially began, so Demar stepped up. Alot of this was due to, out of the 5 starters on the floor, 2 of them were shooting very poorly in Patterson and Carroll - especially in the playoffs which increased the usage rate of Kyle and Demar to compensate. They also had essentially four players who were on their first season of NBA playing time in Siakam, VanVleet, Poeltl and Wright. Valanciunas was playing a lot of the traditional big man game with his back to the basket and he was having a tough time closing out on opposing bigs who shot the 3ball, so Casey elected to sit him rather than expose them defensively.
This year they got rid of Carroll, Patterson, Joseph and brought in 3 point specialist CJ Miles and drafted defensive stalwart OG Anunoby. VanVleet is absolutely ripping it up right now, Poeltl is an awesome backup to JV, Siakam has improved immensely from last year and Delon finally has a full season of NBA experience and is injury free to showcase the eurostep. JV and Demar are now spreading the floor by adding in frequent 3 point makes and JV does a much better job of closing out.
Casey now has two defined 5 man units which is a huge change from last year where he would always keep Kyle or Demar on the court with the 2nd unit, because of their lack of experience and productivity. He has never played 10 players so often, because he was never able to - now they are all playing well defensively and offensively, except for Lucas and Norman who either ride the bench or are injury replacements.
To the casual observer, it might seem like it's just a switch from ISO ball to a balanced attack, but it's much more than that.
One major problem with the current team is that they seem to lose a lot of close games. They may have a lot of blowout victories, but they lose too many close games right now and the playoffs are going to be much more about close games that they need to be able to execute.
Alright, I will give them look on the weekend ... too cold for garage or anything else anyway.
This weekend it's all star weekend and coincidentally, the Raps have Demar and Kyle in the game and the entire Raps coaching staff is coaching one team.
This is their best record ever before the break and now with their current 7 game winning streak - their average margin of victory has been by 18 points! And they also have the best home court record in the whole league at 23-4.
Next game is on Feb 23rd against the Bucks - which are a good team, so it should be a good one to watch.
Go Raps!
He wasn't voted in as a starter, but made it via the coaches selections to the reserves. I think he might also be in the 3 point competition.
I thought it's a 3 day thing? I guess they need a lot of time to get and out ....
