2016-17 Toronto Raptors and General NBA Thread

[St. Pats]

Casey is an inept clown. But the real end point of any discussion about the Raptors is you have no legit star player. Derozan is a joke in the playoffs and a useless player in every facet of the game other than volume scoring. Lowry is always injured coming into the playoffs in part because you have an idiot for a coach who constantly overplays his favourites to rack up meaningless regular season games. A coach who is out coached in each and every playoff series . Kidd once again embarrassing this bozo.

MU wanted to burn the thing to the ground when he came in. The Raptors got so unlucky in Dolan nixing the Lowry trade. Then the dufii from the Gay trade played well for a stretch. Of course they are gone now or playing like the garbage they were in the first place i.e. PP.

Now MU is so far through his contract he will probably do the stupidest thing yet and sign Lowry to a max and the Raps will suck for a decade.

IF he has the balls and the brains to make the moves he will rip the team to shreds. Try for some sign and trades but otherwise let Lowry et. al. walk. Trade DD for a top pick at the draft. It is actually the perfect time to sell it to MLSE as the Leafs are moving up fast and will be raking in playoff dough for years.

Rip it to pieces!

[Jason14h]

As much as we bitch about DeRozan, there isn't another player who wants the ball on this team. They are terrified to shoot.

I've never seen so many wide open hesitations in my life

[TheAlpineOracle]

This basketball team is so stupid it's hard to watch. 8 point lead with 9 minutes left and they are jacking up threes and taking low percentage shots with 15 seconds left on the shot clock.

[The Big Chill]

I'm glad Powell is finally getting minutes. Not sure why he was stapled to the bench in the first couple.

Edit: right on cue! A Powell 3!

[Jason14h]

DeRozan leads the team in PTs rebounds and assists.

He also looks so tired he may not make it back down the court

Some guys better look in the mirror and come ready to play in game 5

[The Big Chill]

Well that was certainly better.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Thank god they changed it up In the last 5 minutes. Taking Ibaka out was smart. He was taking stupid shot after stupid shot with too much time Left on the clock.

[St. Pats]

Give them credit / their offence is so bad but they cranked it up on defence. But this is them struggling to beat a lower seed while the Cavs are in cruise control. Frankly I don't think I'm convinced till they win this series and actually compete with the Cavs.

[Senator Clay Davis]

It's been very ugly so far no doubt, but I had the Raps winning in 6 with it being 2-2 after the first four games. As ugly as it's been, they're right where I thought they'd be. As far as beating the Cavs, the Raps have to bring the defensive effort we saw yesterday and then it's not really about the Raps at that point, it's about the atrocious Cavs defense. The Raps can score 105-110 a night against the Cavs. If they put forth a complete, 100% committed defensive effort they can absolutely win the series and have a better chance than last year IMO. Just haven't seen them keep the intensity up in this series for a whole game until yesterday. Gotta be able to keep it up for seven games against the Cavs.

[jayswin]

The Cavs will get calls that will help them win that series, without a doubt. They will be advanced as far as possible because of Lebron.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I don't think so, NBA cares if the Warriors make the Finals and that's it. Remember they are the new villain team after the Heat, the NBA only cares that it's big driver makes the Finals, and that's not the Cavs. Nobody in the East can hang with the Warriors so who gets to lose to them is a moot point for the league, so long as the Warriors are there.

[Senator Clay Davis]

So if you watched the end of the Houston-OKC game, you saw everything that is wrong with the NBA in a five minute period (that took 30-35 minutes of actual time to do). Horrible officiating, flopping, exceptionally poor offense, hack-a-Roberson, poor coaching, drawing out the end way too long. Excruciating to watch really.

[octothorp]

If they can get by Milwaukee, beating the Cavs is always a 'puncher's chance' thing. You're not going to be the favorite, but you want to put yourself in position to win games when Cleveland's not firing on all cylinders. I think they've given themselves a better chance to do that than last year with the changes to the roster. Maybe it's hopeless optimism but I think the Raptors roster is better designed to counter a team like Cleveland more-so than Milwaukee.

[Strange Brew]

Pretty crazy finish to the Rockets/ Thunder game. A couple of deep 3 pointers by the Thunder to keep them in the game but Rockets pulled it out. Nene a perfect 12/12 from the field.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Should be a 25 point game right now, but true to form as soon as they got a big lead they went into lazy mode. Full effort for the second half please.

[The Big Chill]

Powell was a monster tonight! He's made a huge difference the last two games. Really great performance all around this game.

[St. Pats]

Ahhh the life of a Raptors fan. They putz out bigtime in a bloody playoff game and then come right back after a solid game with a blowout. They are such a weird team to follow. Of course, I'm expecting them to have to do it over again in a game seven. Cause that's just what they do to ya.

[Senator Clay Davis]

First game in a loooong time where you can say nobody really played badly, everyone contributed and especially in the second half. Powell always has to do this once every few weeks to remind Casey to actually use him more, but he does and Casey usually responds. Be nice to finally win a series without going the distance.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

The Warriors got 45 points in the first quarter? Is that a typo? Wow.

[kmart]

Only Casey can have a player who is a difference maker sitting on the bench from games 1-3 in favour of old crappy vets like Carroll and Joseph.