2015-16 Raptors and General NBA Thread

[Da_Chief]

Originally Posted by octothorp

My first choice isn't on that list: Euroleague mastermind Zeljko Obradovic.

Just read Pop steals plays from this guy? I'm sold, get him over here Asap.

[kmart]

This team is so unpredictable and there is no way to get a read on them, so regardless of what has happened in game 5 and 6 I'm going out on a limb and say that they win.

Regardless of what happens on Sunday, I doubt DeRozan will get a contract from Masai Ujiri. Masai does not seem interested in keeping players that are flawed like DeRozan is.

I expect him to give DeRozan the Lou Williams treatment where no contract is offered at all, not even at a discount.

[St. Pats]

So it's the game seven Choke job. I wouldn't even make an offer to DD / trade him pronto / trade Lowry the day after / fire Casey / rebuild correctly!

[Keselke]

I am always torn when watching basketball, I would love to see the Raptors advance

However it really doesn't matter if they win a round or maybe two, there is essentially a zero chance this team can ever win an NBA championship, or the large majority of teams. Look at what the vast majority of championship teams are composed of

You need to have either

• The best player in the game, even then they cant win alone
• Multiple top 15-20 players

This team has none of those, and they are not the pistons.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I've been a proponent of giving DeRozan the max extension through the year because A) He's going to get it no matter what so its not about "overpaying" and B) as jayswin mentioned, the Raps won't be attracting anything but B-level FAs if DeRozan is gone. I also think that expedites Lowry's departure, so letting DeRozan go becomes close to admitting its rebuild time. At the same time...

Jonathan TjarksVerified account ‏@JonathanTjarks 10h10 hours ago
DeMar DeRozan is a career 37.2% shooter in the playoffs. With a career usage rating of 28.6. That's a tough combo.

Wow that is ####ing brutal. That's one of the worst players in the league level brutal. That's a guy who can't handle the intensity and pressure of the playoffs. That alone should make him not worth the max, but he'll still get it.

[Montana Moe]

Hey, the Blazers are going to round 2!

It's tougher to celebrate a big series win when the opponent loses major players, but you can only play who is in front of you. On to the next, and hopefully sneaking a win or two against the champs.

[Da_Chief]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I've been a proponent of giving DeRozan the max extension through the year because A) He's going to get it no matter what so its not about "overpaying" and B) as jayswin mentioned, the Raps won't be attracting anything but B-level FAs if DeRozan is gone. I also think that expedites Lowry's departure, so letting DeRozan go becomes close to admitting its rebuild time. At the same time...



Wow that is ####ing brutal. That's one of the worst players in the league level brutal. That's a guy who can't handle the intensity and pressure of the playoffs. That alone should make him not worth the max, but he'll still get it.

It shouldn't be the Raptors giving him that. Attracting and overpaying those B-level FAs will be even tougher when you have an anchor of contract on your books.

Lowry can't be that stupid, he has to realize this is a business but if he wants to use derozen being let go as an excuse then so be it. Re-build it. They are still a playoff team without derozen.

If those 2 leave then hopefully a new coach can make this Jonas' team.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Montana Moe

Hey, the Blazers are going to round 2!

It's tougher to celebrate a big series win when the opponent loses major players, but you can only play who is in front of you. On to the next, and hopefully sneaking a win or two against the champs.

Portland totally earned that win regardless of any injuries. I'm really excited to see what they can do against GS, given that they played them really well during the regular season. Although strangely, part of the reason that they did well, I think, was having a PG who matched up so well with Curry and forced him to work really hard on defence. So I kinda feel like the Curry injury doesn't help Portland as much as it would other teams.

I think if Toronto's eliminated, I'll probably be rooting for Portland in the next round.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

Just read Pop steals plays from this guy? I'm sold, get him over here Asap.

I watched about an hour on youtube one time where he was giving a demonstration, in Serbian, on the offense that he ran for his Euroleague team, and I was blown away by the complexity and sophistication of it. I think he said that their offensive playbook was about 60 plays deep, and for any game they'd pick about 20 that would be their core offence for that game and then about another 10 or so that they would have on-hand for in-game adjustments. And everything flowed out of similar starting configurations, making it impossible to predict where a particular play was going.

The main knock on him is that he's got a really fiery personality and people think he wouldn't do well with NBA player personalities. I'm of the opinion that winning cures all those personality issues, but also maybe I just really like that type of coach personality in contrast to Casey.

[corporatejay]

Becky Hammon is a really curious choice. Obviously she has no better position than learning from Pop, arguably the best coach of all time. The question is, is she in line to take over when he retires? If so, you have to think there is no way she takes a head coaching job before then.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Becky Hammon is a really curious choice. Obviously she has no better position than learning from Pop, arguably the best coach of all time. The question is, is she in line to take over when he retires? If so, you have to think there is no way she takes a head coaching job before then.

Some think that Messina is in line to take over from Pop when he retires, too.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Toronto already has problems signing players, being the first team in the league to have a female head coach would only make that issue even worse. People can say it shouldn't have an effect on the players, but we all know it would. Despite their NCAA "educations", these guys aren't exactly brain surgeons here and show it on a frequent basis with their idiotic sound bytes and ridiculous Twitter posts. Is there room for a female coach in the NBA? Maybe. Should Toronto be the one to test that out? Absolutely not. Leave it to a market that has no issue attracting and retaining talent and go from there. Toronto needs a name coach that people respect and want to play for in order to get free agents. Being the first team to have a female coach is just another reason for players to not to be in Toronto until it is common practice across the league.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Toronto needs a name coach that people respect and want to play for in order to get free agents.

The Raptors have never had that. Ever. And they almost certainly will not be getting that this year considering all the best coaches (i.e. Thibedeau) are gone (nevermind that great a coach as Tom is, his players hate him). Going after someone from the Spurs organization is pretty much the best move by far. You can't ask for a better pedigree. Raptors bigger concern should be ensuring no one (like say the Knicks) poaches Masai. This franchise is beyond ####ed if Masai leaves.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Speaking of the Spurs....what a massacre so far.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

The Raptors have never had that. Ever. And they almost certainly will not be getting that this year considering all the best coaches (i.e. Thibedeau) are gone (nevermind that great a coach as Tom is, his players hate him). Going after someone from the Spurs organization is pretty much the best move by far. You can't ask for a better pedigree. Raptors bigger concern should be ensuring no one (like say the Knicks) poaches Masai. This franchise is beyond ####ed if Masai leaves.

Did you forget about Lenny Wilkens?

Most playoff games, most playoff wins, highest winning percentage both in the regular season and playoffs for the franchise. They need a guy like this, or a recently retired player from the game that has a nose for coaching that is still widely respected among current players and young guys coming out of college.

I agree with the Spurs Organization, I competely disagree with a female coach. Playing in Canada already has enough issues for Americans.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Wilkens was well past his best days when the Raps had him as coach. Beyond that he inherited a team with Carter and McGrady. I think any average coach could have done well with two future Hall of Famers on his team, and he won exactly one playoff series which Casey can match today. If you're saying the Raps need to hire a coach who's done a lot in the past....nah. Steve Kerr pretty clearly shows you don't need to do that.

[Trojan97]

We will win tonight.

Demar has done so much for the franchise in terms of getting them back on the map as a relevant NBA franchise that it absolutely kills me to see him not getting it done in the playoffs. I believe that deep down he has what it takes to perform in the playoffs, he just needs to have that "moment". Hopefully tonight is the night his career reaches new heights.

Alot of people on various sites are jumping off the bandwagon because of game 6. For me, moments like this are part of what makes being a fan so amazing. The nervous energy, the pit in your stomach that lasts up until game time, and then the overanalyzing/overreaction that comes along with every possession during the game. I've been a Raptors fan since the 99-00 season and was lucky enough to be at game 5 of this series. The fourth quarter of that game was one of the most proud moments I've had being a sports fan. Not getting it done tonight would be devastating and grounds for an organization review from top to bottom. But if they win tonight? we'll be witnessing a franchise defining, "monkey off our backs" moment that will completely change the course of the franchise going forward. A game where guys could have rolled over and given up, but instead ignored the past and decided to battle to an incredibly important victory.

This team has its warts, absolutely. But days like today is what is so great about living and dying with a team. Now we just need to go out and get it done. Can't wait for tipoff!!

[Senator Clay Davis]

The only prediction I will make is I think every conceivable result wouldn't surprise me. Raptors win close? Can see it. Raps win big? Can see it. Raps get blown away and DeRozan booed off the court? Yup. It's too bad because they spent all year convincing us they could be consistent enough to be a great team, and it's taken 6 games to totally undo all that.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Casey has to be willing to sit Derozan down tonight if he's off. If he doesn't, it should cost him his job.

[jayswin]

This is arguably the biggest game in franchise history, and not necessarily in a positive way. That fanbase is at a huge breaking point. They've spent years building it up to regular sellouts, and last year's whimper saw the beginning of a significant exodus, however this year's dominate regular season kept everyone on board.

The feeling is very "Yeah, I'm here to see if you guys can show ANYTHING in the playoffs, and if you don't that's it for a while".

They'll likely need to change things up this summer whether they win this round or not, but with a loss they'll be changing things with a much smaller fan base, and will have to spend likely years getting them back in a rebuild.

Hopefully they somehow step up and realize how important this is.