Everything Kyle Lowry

[golden]

Historically there is little to support that theory. Lowry even at half speed is a more impactful defender than Norm.

Any slippage would likely, IMO, come from a) Serge's return to the lineup, he's always been over-hyped as a defender, and b) a harder upcoming schedule.

But also, any defensive slippage should be more than made up for on offence. Will be nice to get Siakam and FVV some easier offence.

Can't deny there will be at least a couple of extra touchdown passes to Pascal per game. OG will also benefit greatly from another high IQ playmaker on the floor. He seems to have tailed off a wee bit since Lowry went down.

[S.R.]

Norm has a +4 on-court net rating on the season. +3.5 in the past 10 games. With or without Lowry here Norm is not likely to be a big driver of success.

And Fred's role changing is a) a good thing and b) no guarantee, they want him to stretch into that role, and thankfully Lowry can play off ball too so no real concerns there. If anything Lowry might be able to save Fred from those disastrous stretches where he's out there with the bench.

Yeah the real impact will be Kyle replacing Norm in the starting lineup and that will be an easy net positive. Lowry and FVV are both actually very good at guarding guys a size up and Nurse throws around lots of random zones and they switch everything, so it's a bit harder for teams to take advantage of the Raptors' 6 foot guards I think - you just rarely see it. Philly last year didn't abuse the Raps offensively, it was Philly's defence that nobody but Kawhi seemed able to cope with. But I really think Philly's a half step worse now than last year's roster.

The bench will be changed with everybody back, with Ibaka and Norm being the 6th and 7th men. That means next to no minutes for Boucher and probably significantly reduced minutes for Terrence Davis. The bench will lose its defensive hustle/swarm/forced turnovers identity but on the other hand will be more well rounded and should be better able to score - the previous unit was very good but definitely prone to offensive dry spells and had to have the energy at 110% at all times to be effective.

But these problems all assume 100% good health, which you almost never have. These depth guys are going to be needed again and 1-2 of them may well play a significant role in the playoffs.

As was mentioned, hopefully Lowry/Fred/Siakam minutes are paced a little better with the full team healthy. Especially Lowry, get him to the playoffs at 100%.

[DanH]

Yeah the real impact will be Kyle replacing Norm in the starting lineup and that will be an easy net positive. Lowry and FVV are both actually very good at guarding guys a size up and Nurse throws around lots of random zones and they switch everything, so it's a bit harder for teams to take advantage of the Raptors' 6 foot guards I think - you just rarely see it. Philly last year didn't abuse the Raps offensively, it was Philly's defence that nobody but Kawhi seemed able to cope with. But I really think Philly's a half step worse now than last year's roster.

The bench will be changed with everybody back, with Ibaka and Norm being the 6th and 7th men. That means next to no minutes for Boucher and probably significantly reduced minutes for Terrence Davis. The bench will lose its defensive hustle/swarm/forced turnovers identity but on the other hand will be more well rounded and should be better able to score - the previous unit was very good but definitely prone to offensive dry spells and had to have the energy at 110% at all times to be effective.

But these problems all assume 100% good health, which you almost never have. These depth guys are going to be needed again and 1-2 of them may well play a significant role in the playoffs.

As was mentioned, hopefully Lowry/Fred/Siakam minutes are paced a little better with the full team healthy. Especially Lowry, get him to the playoffs at 100%.

Even with a full roster, the bench could be incredible. The minutes FVV has been spending trying to keep the bench afloat himself can be taken on by Lowry instead, with Serge as Lowry's scoring partner, and the Davis-Norm-RHJ (or even Davis-RHJ-Boucher) bench group bringing the defensive energy. While the Pascal bench unit can now add FVV to play shooter, with Davis, RHJ, Serge playing their chaos inducing defensive games. Serge means we never fall into the trap of using RHJ in the post or PnR, leaving him in the dunker or cutting, while the guards spot up and Pascal rips benches to shreds. It's already been good but FVV there could make it lethal.

And yes, the starters should be incredible, now that Lowry and FVV don't have to play 40 MPG with Davis and Powell in the guard rotation. Plus, with the starters showing they can work with Powell in for Lowry, it becomes even easier to sub him out early and stagger him in with the bench in the 2nd Q.

[golden]

Even with a full roster, the bench could be incredible. The minutes FVV has been spending trying to keep the bench afloat himself can be taken on by Lowry instead, with Serge as Lowry's scoring partner, and the Davis-Norm-RHJ (or even Davis-RHJ-Boucher) bench group bringing the defensive energy. While the Pascal bench unit can now add FVV to play shooter, with Davis, RHJ, Serge playing their chaos inducing defensive games. Serge means we never fall into the trap of using RHJ in the post or PnR, leaving him in the dunker or cutting, while the guards spot up and Pascal rips benches to shreds. It's already been good but FVV there could make it lethal.

And yes, the starters should be incredible, now that Lowry and FVV don't have to play 40 MPG with Davis and Powell in the guard rotation. Plus, with the starters showing they can work with Powell in for Lowry, it becomes even easier to sub him out early and stagger him in with the bench in the 2nd Q.

Powell usually falls off a cliff for awhile when they change his role - especially going from starter to bench. This will be a good test to see if he's matured.

[Puffer]

Powell usually falls off a cliff for awhile when they change his role - especially going from starter to bench. This will be a good test to see if he's matured.

Took the words out of my mouth. The magic question surrounding Norm has always been "consistency?"

[DanH]

Powell usually falls off a cliff for awhile when they change his role - especially going from starter to bench. This will be a good test to see if he's matured.

Lowry being such a boon for the bench should help with that transition - if they sub Lowry out early to have him play the start of the 2nd (which they should), they can bring Norm in to play with the starters in his place, where he had some success of late, and that should help him ease into the game in the role he's been in, and hopefully that carries over to any bench minutes he plays (ideally with Lowry who is the tide that lifts all boats).

[DanH]

Speaking of which.... he's back!

[bertarapsfan]

[007]

Kyle’s played 86 minutes in the last 30+ hours. He averaged 31/7/9.5 on 50/40/80 splits over the two games, basically willing us to victory against Dallas and almost doing it again tonight

Contrary to some reports he does, in fact, remain over everything

[Puffer]

....Contrary to some reports he (Kyle) does, in fact, remain over everything

You ain't lying.

[Jclaw]

Kyle’s played 86 minutes in the last 30+ hours. He averaged 31/7/9.5 on 50/40/80 splits over the two games, basically willing us to victory against Dallas and almost doing it again tonight

Contrary to some reports he does, in fact, remain over everything

The crazy things is, I can remember back to the old ESPN Daily Dime days where there would just be a running thread through basketball games and I kept seeing this all caps KLOE and had no clue what it meant. And he's still doing it. Crazy.

[planetmars]

Kyle comes in at 7th. Not too shabby. Hope he makes it to the hall.

[bertarapsfan]

Kyle comes in at 7th. Not too shabby. Hope he makes it to the hall.

We got to be cheering for chauncey to make it first. They have pretty similar careers. Except Chauncey has the FMVP, 2 more all NBAs and a All defense. Kyle has the olympic gold and he may end up with higher counting stats then Billups. Either way Chauncey is the bar, he gets in Lowry has a good shot

[007]

Kyle comes in at 7th. Not too shabby. Hope he makes it to the hall.

Lowry making it to the HOF would probably cause a meltdown across the wider NBA community. I would absolutely love to see it

[bertarapsfan]

Kyles going to have a pretty good shot at an All NBA team this year. No steph, Kyries on the verge of missing to many games (if he doesn't just take the season off). thats already 2 open spots. Westbrook may not get the love being a number 2 to Harden. Kemba and Harden are the only guards i would 100% say are on the All NBA teams right now.