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Ok, a lot of talk has gone on about how the raptors are in a messed up state (funny since a month ago we were all like OMG I LOVE THIS TEAMMMM). But I feel we are falling into the knee-jerk, reactionary thinking again. The sky isn't falling people, I still believe we can secure a high seed in the playoffs and advance past the first round.
However, here are the 4 things i've noticed that are wrong with the Raptors thus far
1. Dwayne Casey: This one's obvious. While he has improved greatly in terms of defensive schemes, and the team has improved on defense a good deal this year, he still doesn't work on the offence, the offence still is too much iso ball and that's HIS fault more than it is Lowry and Demar (the latter by the way has shown great effort in moving the ball, the 4th quarter bullshit is due to casey not gathering the troops and coming up with a plan, he just lets em play and demar is not a floor general sooooo). Also his subs still don't make sense even though he actually plays JV in the 4th now.
2. Bismack Biyombo: Love his defense and rebounding, but he's a major reason why our offense sucks donkey balls. Bebe is probably better than him overall at this point (CERTAINLY on offense). He has held this team back waaay too much on that end to be a net positive because of his defense.
3. OUR SHITTY ASS BENCH Besides Cojo: already talked about biyombo, but ppat and ross have sucked too, norm isn't ready to be a full time rotation guy I believe (he might be mid season though), JJ has been solid but doesn't get enough pt (screw you casey), and again, no cohesion, no proper plays. Of course, cojo is a godsend and is probably the best signing of the offseason by masai.
4. Starting PF spot: Scola is a good player still, but he won't cut it at starting pf, at least not on defense. He had good chemistry with cojo off the bench in preseason but casey gives zero shits about that, mainly cuz ppat has sucked.
5. Kyle Lowry crunch time: Demar has screwed us over for a few games in the clutch, but mainly it's because he was set up to do so, by casey, and by lowry. Demar is not a floor general, he can't consistently make plays and create shots for other players on the floor. It's not his game, and that's ok, because we have 2 players that CAN do that; they are Kyle Lowry and Cory Joseph. Problem is, the hierarchy that casey has established (screw you casey) dictates that it would be unfathomable if cojo was given the ball in the clutch over lowry and DD, so our only viable crunch time option is lowry to run a play and create a shot for himself or for DD or ANY other player on the floor. He's done it before (remember ppat's game winner against brooklyn anyone??), and it shouldn't matter who hits the game winner, but casey made it so, and i put this on casey because Chuck Hayes states multiple times when he was on this team that "there are no egos on this team, and that's great".
Suggested solutions:
1. Fire Casey and find a good 2 way coach (someone from the spurs, maybe luke walton when kerr gets back, or promote an assistant)
2. Bench him and trade him when you can, or only put him on the floor in spurts with offensive players who can pick up the slack (his problem is less of a problem if no 1 is resolved).
3. Make a move to bring in some better bench players, or solve no 4 first and move scola to the bench to help with this problem.
4. Make a trade, or, and this could be interesting, START JJ. JJ can be a pretty good 2 way player when given a proper role and motivated properly, he's also not a horrible 3 point shooter so spacing won't necessarily go to shit.
5. Give lowry the ball in the clutch, run plays in which ANYONE can have the chance to come up big. I mean if Jordan can pass the ball to kerr to hit a clutch three in the finals, we can let a role player be clutch too.
I still have faith in this organisation, mainly because Masai is capable of making these adjustments, but we're gonna have to wait on it. (firing casey might be like the rudy gay trade...think about it.)
However, here are the 4 things i've noticed that are wrong with the Raptors thus far
1. Dwayne Casey: This one's obvious. While he has improved greatly in terms of defensive schemes, and the team has improved on defense a good deal this year, he still doesn't work on the offence, the offence still is too much iso ball and that's HIS fault more than it is Lowry and Demar (the latter by the way has shown great effort in moving the ball, the 4th quarter bullshit is due to casey not gathering the troops and coming up with a plan, he just lets em play and demar is not a floor general sooooo). Also his subs still don't make sense even though he actually plays JV in the 4th now.
2. Bismack Biyombo: Love his defense and rebounding, but he's a major reason why our offense sucks donkey balls. Bebe is probably better than him overall at this point (CERTAINLY on offense). He has held this team back waaay too much on that end to be a net positive because of his defense.
3. OUR SHITTY ASS BENCH Besides Cojo: already talked about biyombo, but ppat and ross have sucked too, norm isn't ready to be a full time rotation guy I believe (he might be mid season though), JJ has been solid but doesn't get enough pt (screw you casey), and again, no cohesion, no proper plays. Of course, cojo is a godsend and is probably the best signing of the offseason by masai.
4. Starting PF spot: Scola is a good player still, but he won't cut it at starting pf, at least not on defense. He had good chemistry with cojo off the bench in preseason but casey gives zero shits about that, mainly cuz ppat has sucked.
5. Kyle Lowry crunch time: Demar has screwed us over for a few games in the clutch, but mainly it's because he was set up to do so, by casey, and by lowry. Demar is not a floor general, he can't consistently make plays and create shots for other players on the floor. It's not his game, and that's ok, because we have 2 players that CAN do that; they are Kyle Lowry and Cory Joseph. Problem is, the hierarchy that casey has established (screw you casey) dictates that it would be unfathomable if cojo was given the ball in the clutch over lowry and DD, so our only viable crunch time option is lowry to run a play and create a shot for himself or for DD or ANY other player on the floor. He's done it before (remember ppat's game winner against brooklyn anyone??), and it shouldn't matter who hits the game winner, but casey made it so, and i put this on casey because Chuck Hayes states multiple times when he was on this team that "there are no egos on this team, and that's great".
Suggested solutions:
1. Fire Casey and find a good 2 way coach (someone from the spurs, maybe luke walton when kerr gets back, or promote an assistant)
2. Bench him and trade him when you can, or only put him on the floor in spurts with offensive players who can pick up the slack (his problem is less of a problem if no 1 is resolved).
3. Make a move to bring in some better bench players, or solve no 4 first and move scola to the bench to help with this problem.
4. Make a trade, or, and this could be interesting, START JJ. JJ can be a pretty good 2 way player when given a proper role and motivated properly, he's also not a horrible 3 point shooter so spacing won't necessarily go to shit.
5. Give lowry the ball in the clutch, run plays in which ANYONE can have the chance to come up big. I mean if Jordan can pass the ball to kerr to hit a clutch three in the finals, we can let a role player be clutch too.
I still have faith in this organisation, mainly because Masai is capable of making these adjustments, but we're gonna have to wait on it. (firing casey might be like the rudy gay trade...think about it.)
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