Raptors 2014-2015 season

[bluejays]

Bad game, but will be an interesting ending!

[bluejays]

Lou Williams with a nail biting play - but again a selfish one. Last possession with full shot clock and he decides to go one on one and take on 4 feet outside the 3 point line. He's not Kobe.

[kmart]

Originally Posted by fleury

Lou Williams with a nail biting play - but again a selfish one. Last possession with full shot clock and he decides to go one on one and take on 4 feet outside the 3 point line. He's not Kobe.

Considering the strict isolation player he is, what else can he do? He had the ball team had no movement, in his mind that calls for isolation. They had time-outs with lots of time on the clock too. This one again, falls on Dwayne Casey's poor coaching.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Nice disaster of a 4th quarter. The good times were fun this season but it obviously looks like another first round elimination at this point. Defense is so awful right now.

[St. Pats]

Can hardly be bothered to post about the Raps anymore. Tanking for Wiggins was the right way to go and they missed the boat.

[Trojan97]

They had the opportunity to put together a nice little run following the Houston game to get themselves back on track going into the playoffs and have fallen on their face.

I hate to complain too much or get too negative because it's still better than all the years of 25-57 type records but it's just beyond frustrating to watch them. Iso after iso after iso on offence and repeated defensive miscues due to a system that guys either don't understand properly or are incapable of executing physically has made for total disaster.

On the bright side, Demar has been very good since early march. Lou has been hot the last handful of game, Lowry is getting closer to returning, I hold out hope that Casey will finally give in and give up on T-Ross so James Johnson can take over his minutes. There's no denying at this point that we are a much better unit with him on the floor.

More than anything, I just want to see them healthy and able to give an honest effort in round 1. I'm tired of all the injuries and all the stupid mistakes. If they go out with a full roster and play as hard as they did last playoffs, I'm willing to let the chips fall where they may and accept whatever result that leads to. I never thought I would have been saying that in November/December. Sad.

[bluejays]

I really hope that Ross is dealt in the off-season. His dunking ability is a marketing asset but he can't really do much else consistently. His dunking ability alone is enough to garner a decent trade I'd think, with dumb GM's who like that flair in the lineup. Get good value while you still can basically.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by St. Pats

Can hardly be bothered to post about the Raps anymore. Tanking for Wiggins was the right way to go and they missed the boat.

Maybe. The TWolves will likely be very bad for at least another year and maybe two. And the West is absolute hell to get through and figures to remain so for years. I suspect we see a Kevin Love redux situation, with Wiggins forcing a trade to Toronto. Or lets hope.

[octothorp]

Tanking for Wiggins was so definitely not the way to go. At best (if they finished worst in the NBA), a 25% chance at Wiggins, and so far this particular draft class is about the most injury-prone rookie class of all time. Other than Wiggins and a small sample of Parker, the top 10 of this class has shown very little.

I really don't have a problem with where this team is at, personnel-wise. They're an average playoff team in the east, which is what I expected before the season started. The fact that they overachieved against an easy schedule early in the year shouldn't create unrealistic expectations.
They've got lots of expirings, decent trade assets, multiple first-rounders next year, ownership that's willing to spend, and a young overall roster. Ujiri will have a lot of opportunity to improve the roster this offseason... but IMO, that needs to start with a new head-coach.

[St. Pats]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Maybe. The TWolves will likely be very bad for at least another year and maybe two. And the West is absolute hell to get through and figures to remain so for years. I suspect we see a Kevin Love redux situation, with Wiggins forcing a trade to Toronto. Or lets hope.

Snagging Wiggins out of there would give MU legendary status.

[St. Pats]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Tanking for Wiggins was so definitely not the way to go. At best (if they finished worst in the NBA), a 25% chance at Wiggins, and so far this particular draft class is about the most injury-prone rookie class of all time. Other than Wiggins and a small sample of Parker, the top 10 of this class has shown very little.

I really don't have a problem with where this team is at, personnel-wise. They're an average playoff team in the east, which is what I expected before the season started. The fact that they overachieved against an easy schedule early in the year shouldn't create unrealistic expectations.
They've got lots of expirings, decent trade assets, multiple first-rounders next year, ownership that's willing to spend, and a young overall roster. Ujiri will have a lot of opportunity to improve the roster this offseason... but IMO, that needs to start with a new head-coach.

The argument was always going for it to get a legit star and it was MU's plan after all. The only reason it didn't happen was Dolan killed the Lowry trade. Otherwise it would have already happened. Wasn't a decision by the Raps to slow build / Was a decision by the owner of the Knicks.

They do have some room but the roster is just so much treadmill material. MU is going to have to pull off some major moves. Casey gone should yes be the first move / then major moves to the roster through every available means he has. JV would the only player on the roster that I wouldn't entertain offers on / any of the rest of them could/should go.

[bubbsy]

just got tickets for Game 2 vs the Wizards! Not a huge follower of the team, or the nba since i was in high school, but happy to be part of the bandwagon again this year.



wait.... flames game 4 is the same night (massive oops ).....

[octothorp]

Tip off in half an hour! Sucks being the least relevant-to-US-TV-revenue market in the league.

Obviously they've done well with Washington lately, but this is by no means an easy matchup for them. I think the fact that Paul Pierce is there (and spouting his mouth off) will be a great motivator for them.
In terms of matchups, you've got to accept that Wall's going to get his points (especially against a Raptors team that doesn't defend dribble penetration well), but if you can prevent their other options from getting hot, Wall's not going to beat you single-handedly. Offensively, I'd usually be banging the 'pound it inside' drum, but JV has never had a big game against Gortat and Nene, so probably the offense is probably going to hang on the guards again. Which I'm actually okay with. DeRozan is playing great right now (won E.C. player of the month for April), and I was very impressed with his ability to draw fouls last year in the playoffs, when most (including myself) predicted that he would have trouble doing so. Lowry looked to get his shot back in the last game of the regular season. And Lou is the guy who can single-handedly win you a game when he's on, so hopefully he can find that form for one or two games this series. Those are the three guys this series probably hangs on for the Raptors. If Ross can contribute absolutely anything this series, that would be swell. I'll take a decent defensive effort from him and about 9ppg happily.

My prediction is Raptors in 6.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Well the Raps do have the easiest path to the conference finals of the top 4 teams. Will they take advantage? Pretty much comes down to what offense we see. Iso heavy and they'll be out in 5. Ball sharing and they can go far

[Finger Cookin]

Decent start to game 1.

[The Big Chill]

Not bad so far, but we need to get to work on the glass. WSH killing us on rebounding so far.

[Jbo]

Go Raps!

[The Big Chill]

We've settled into our classic chucking and no defence mode. JVs only touches are on offensive rebounds.

[JohnnyNipshank]

If I see t-Ross jack up another 3 my remote might just go thru my tv

[Acey]

Decent start but the Raps are in trouble now. Rebounds and second chance opportunities will be their downfall, and for the love of all that is holy... find a way to contain Pierce.