Raptors 2014-2015 season

[octothorp]

I think they've got the talent to easily handle anybody in the east that is not Washington, a healthy Chicago, or a clicking-on-all-cylinders Cleveland. And even amongst those three, they match up well against Washington, match up poorly against Chicago, and it still remains to be seen how they match up against Cleveland, as I don't think you can read too much from that first meeting.

So a lot will come down to how the playoff seeding ends up. The ideal seeding for getting to the conference finals might be Toronto/Cleveland/Chicago/Washington, which would ensure that the Raptors don't play Chicago or Cleveland until the conference finals. But it might even be preferable for a seeding like Toronto/Chicago/Washington/Cleveland, where you take your chances with Cleveland and hope that Washington can knock off Chicago, who they have traditionally matched-up well against.

Either way, Toronto just needs to keep winning as many games as possible, because if they can finish in first in the conference, I see no reason why they shouldn't get to the conference finals.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Like the Nets are a bad matchup for the Raps, the Raps are a bad matchup for the Wizards. The only team I think that can beat the Raps are the Buls....and themselves. They've gotten off to this start with DeMar struggling even before he got hurt. They just need to work Jonas in a bit more and they have one of the top 5 benches in the league. They can get to the Finals. Win it? Doubtful, the West-East gap is still pretty massive, but hell getting there would be amazing enough.

But this is going to be an interesting stretch, if they play just as well or even better without DeMar, he all of a sudden becomes an interesting trade piece. If you really, really get KD, a sign and trade involving DeRozan would undoubtedly appeal to OKC more than him leaving for nothing. But that's down the line obviously.

[Senator Clay Davis]

This is a pretty bad collapse but Cleveland is like Miami with LeBron, when they turn up the defense they are pretty hard to beat.

[St. Pats]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

This is a pretty bad collapse but Cleveland is like Miami with LeBron, when they turn up the defense they are pretty hard to beat.

This is why I'm still very leery of the Raptors chances in the playoffs. I don't know about their ability to fight it out in a tough game. Rebounding is awfully important in bigtime games and I think they need to go out and get another guy who can defend and rebound.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by St. Pats

This is why I'm still very leery of the Raptors chances in the playoffs. I don't know about their ability to fight it out in a tough game. Rebounding is awfully important in bigtime games and I think they need to go out and get another guy who can defend and rebound.

If I was going into a playoff series against Toronto right now, I'd pound it inside to whatever guy Amir Johnson is covering, and try to just break him down as much as possible, and instruct my guys to be as physical with him as they can be. Right now I don't think he has the durability to last a whole playoff series (he can barely string two healthy-looking games together), and I like my team's chances against JV, Patterson, Hayes, Hansbrough, and a hobbled Amir, especially since JV still struggles at times with fouls.

A legit backup C who can defend and rebound would take away that weakness.

[St. Pats]

The wins for this team are sometimes uglier than the losses. They pulled it off but it took OT to beat one of the worst teams in the league. Hopefully they can stumble bumble through the rest of the next four games against crappy teams.

[octothorp]

Yeah, that was an ugly, ugly game. I looked it up and found out that last night was only the second game in the NBA season thus far in which both teams had at least 22 turnovers and 22 fouls each. Thing is, New York is always competitive; in the last 10 games, they've had losses of 5 points or less to the Heat, Nets, Cavs, Hornets, and Trail-Blazers. I figured out early in the season that this Raptors team is the sort that is almost never going to get blown-out, but they'll very rarely blow anyone out, even really bad teams. I expect another frustratingly close win over Orlando tonight.

[St. Pats]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Yeah, that was an ugly, ugly game. I looked it up and found out that last night was only the second game in the NBA season thus far in which both teams had at least 22 turnovers and 22 fouls each. Thing is, New York is always competitive; in the last 10 games, they've had losses of 5 points or less to the Heat, Nets, Cavs, Hornets, and Trail-Blazers. I figured out early in the season that this Raptors team is the sort that is almost never going to get blown-out, but they'll very rarely blow anyone out, even really bad teams. I expect another frustratingly close win over Orlando tonight.

I did as well expect a frustrating game to watch. But they came out in the 2nd half and matched the defensive intensity Orlando had in the first half. Considering it was a back to back and they looked tired in the first half it was a pleasant surprise. The 2nd unit was great. That was very solid effort.

[octothorp]

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised too! They really cut down the mistakes, especially turnovers, in the second half... I think just 2. Most nights, at least one of those bench guys is going to catch fire, whether it's Williams, Patterson, or less often, Vasquez. So awesome to see Fields hit a three, too, especially with the reaction after from both him and Lowry.

If they can stretch their record up to 22-and-6 on this stretch against weak teams, that provides them with a decent cushion on that tough christmas roadtrip.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I wish I still had ESPN Insider so I could actually read the piece, but there's an article up about what an anomaly the Raptors are right now: Bottom 3 in the league in assists but with an elite and rising offensive efficiency.

[octothorp]

Not sure if they discuss it in the article, but I've really started to become aware of how much this offense takes advantage of switching on screens to get the matchups it wants. It's still a team game even if it's not about making a pass to a guy who's cutting for the hoop.

Tonight was really satisfying, just to see the on-court confirmation of Brooklyn taking a step back and Toronto taking a big step forward from where they were last year.

[SuperMatt18]

Raptors supposedly unveil new logo.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/n...veil-new-logo/

[Senator Clay Davis]

As virtually everyone is pointing out, it's a total ripoff of Brooklyn's logo, which itself is pretty weak. Why are they overcomplicating this? Go back to the 90's jerseys and logos full time. They should have never stopped using them in the first place.

Ugly...

[SuperMatt18]

I know...was really hoping for the originals.



One day :'(

[bluejays]

The originals were butt ugly, and I'm so glad to see them gone. For nostalgia purposes, I don't mind seeing them the odd game here and there, but they are UGLY!

As for the new logo...wth, did they not see Brooklyn's? That slogan along is horrible. The "We The North" was a decent marketing campaign, but this is our shield? Really?? I don't mind the mangled basketball, but they should have added more to that logo to not have comparisons to Brooklyn's. Oh well, Drake getting his input in everything.

[corporatejay]

I really like it. I think that colour scheme makes it look like the nets logo but if you see it on its own it looks great. Check out that lid.

[Finger Cookin]

The new logo looks better with the red and silver in it, and I think that's what will be used. The Nets can go #### themselves.

[Tyler]

That looks fine!

[octothorp]

I'm okay with the logo, depending on how the new uniforms look. Personally, I thought the previous 'claw' version of their logo (basketball, with three claws above, in a circle) was one of the worst logos in the league. This seems like a decent evolution on that. I like that it has a little bit of old-school monster movie logic behind it: don't show the monster, show the effect of the monster. Good font choice. But there's nothing fantastic here, and because uniform decisions are always somewhat long-term, you want your team to make fantastic decisions. I'm surprised they didn't try to channel the 'we the north' campaign a little more.

I don't really care about the Brooklyn comparisons, because Brooklyn just went for the most minimal, devoid of personality logo imaginable. There's rec-league teams out there who have uniforms that just have a picture of a basketball with team name in a circle above and below. When you're so unoriginal yourself, you don't get to accuse other teams of copying you, just because they start with those same elements and do something more interesting.

I'm excited about the game tonight. Another 'proving themselves' game tonight, which so far Toronto hasn't done great at, except against Washington minus Beal, and Memphis minus their bench. Sounds like Chicago is a bit banged up but playing all of their starters. Given how well JV has been playing lately, going up against Noah and Gasol will be a great test to see where he's at.

[Antithesis]

Well, the game is certainly going better than the first one against the Bulls did. A little frustrating that they let the Bulls back into the game after taking an 11-point lead, but a six-point halftime lead isn't bad at all.