Game 66 of 82: Toronto Raptors @ New Orleans Pelicans, Friday March 8th, 8 PM Eastern on Sportsnet ONE

[MixxAOR]

if you guys like more of a professional academic Toronto analysis.

[Scraptor]

if you guys like more of a professional academic Toronto analysis.

So this is what DanH looks like in real life

[bertarapsfan]

if you guys like more of a professional academic Toronto analysis.

lol. I always thought it would be awesome if just two or three knowledge raps fan started their own play by play with any language allowed. somehow be able to listen to it live instead of matt and leo. Not as over the top and annoying as this guy but just some good fans drinking beers/ bullshitting about the raps and calling the game.

[The Great One]

Respect

https://www.chron.com/sports/rockets...f-13665636.php

[Zak24gege]

Respect

https://www.chron.com/sports/rockets...f-13665636.php

Here's a good one from Coach Nurse

"I don't see a lot of load management for us down the stretch," Nurse said. "We've had so many injuries we've load managed ourselves right into perfect load management."

[inthepaint]

I like Harden stoicalness. Durability is a valuable trait in a league with 82 plus playoffs, though there's one thing to keep in mind too: Harden doesn't post up, doesn't bang in the paint and doesn't defend very hard. His bread and butter are step back 3s, and drives where if the defender as much as looks at him wrong it's a foul. So he's got mostly highway miles on his minutes. Derozan is another player that is very durable, but also plays a low risk game that is not super active on defence. All in all you can say he's a durable player though, and that projects well in the league. Anybody not playing much have their all-star/all-nba/MVP candidacies rightly affected by it.

[bertarapsfan]

I like Harden stoicalness. Durability is a valuable trait in a league with 82 plus playoffs, though there's one thing to keep in mind too: Harden doesn't post up, doesn't bang in the paint and doesn't defend very hard. His bread and butter are step back 3s, and drives where if the defender as much as looks at him wrong it's a foul. So he's got mostly highway miles on his minutes. Derozan is another player that is very durable, but also plays a low risk game that is not super active on defence. All in all you can say he's a durable player though, and that projects well in the league. Anybody not playing much have their all-star/all-nba/MVP candidacies rightly affected by it.

Its an admiral trait for sure but the con... Harden always burns out in the playoffs. As we also saw with Derozen. What were doing with kawhi this year seems like it may be the first time this hardcore of a approach has been taken. Even lebron who was notorious for taking the regular season lightly still played game he just didn't try his hardest. Where taking popavichs resting gameplan to the next level. I don't think we will be able to judge the effectiveness of the strategy until we see our playoff results/ and or kawhis free agency decision. It's bold cotton lets just see if this strategy pays off.

[Joey]

Its an admiral trait for sure but the con... Harden always burns out in the playoffs. As we also saw with Derozen. What were doing with kawhi this year seems like it may be the first time this hardcore of a approach has been taken. Even lebron who was notorious for taking the regular season lightly still played game he just didn't try his hardest. Where taking popavichs resting gameplan to the next level. I don't think we will be able to judge the effectiveness of the strategy until we see our playoff results/ and or kawhis free agency decision. It's bold cotton lets just see if this strategy pays off.

Doesn't the NBA have a rule against resting players for Nationally Televised games? So I assume part of the reason we are allowed to do this, is because we have so few Nationally Broadcast games? Which again, I assume is maybe unique to Toronto?

[G__Deane]

i can see where his frustration comes from. Its was a contract year for him and usually coaches will give a guy a chance to increase his value before free agency. He never really got that chance here, a guy espically one who was drafted and groomed here i think deserves a chance to show his game. The fact that we had his RFA rights and could match any offer might have made him and agent second guess what our goals were for keeping his value low. The only reason we would have not to trade him was if we would be able to resign him on the cheap this offseason. The move to memphis benifits delon the most out of the 3 shipped out. Way better for his carrer and i can understand his frustration watching norm and FVV get paid then get playing time over him when he was performing better

Honestly, there's not a chance in hell that a coach (especially a rookie coach on the hot seat) would hold back a talented player from minutes just to hold back his value in (R)FA. Nurse is in win now mode and Masai sure is. Wright showed flashes but really isn't that good. Oddly enough with FVV injured, he would have got his chance to further show his stuff in regular minutes here.

[bertarapsfan]

Honestly, there's not a chance in hell that a coach (especially a rookie coach on the hot seat) would hold back a talented player from minutes just to hold back his value in (R)FA. Nurse is in win now mode and Masai sure is. Wright showed flashes but really isn't that good. Oddly enough with FVV injured, he would have got his chance to further show his stuff in regular minutes here.

ya probably not intentional tanking his value but from delon and his agent prepective he might not have gotten a fair shot at showcasing him self. I mean i think delon deserved some more burn earlier in the year. their were game he was doing great and out playing FVV but nurse would give freddy more mins. I mean he benched delon for a game and gave miles and Mccaw who was relatively new to the team his minutes. This year was very important to a dude who is coming off his rookie deal and is actually pretty old. If i was in delon spot before the deadline i think i would have quietly asked out and it seem to be what happened.

[Zak24gege]

ya probably not intentional tanking his value but from delon and his agent prepective he might not have gotten a fair shot at showcasing him self. I mean i think delon deserved some more burn earlier in the year. their were game he was doing great and out playing FVV but nurse would give freddy more mins. I mean he benched delon for a game and gave miles and Mccaw who was relatively new to the team his minutes. This year was very important to a dude who is coming off his rookie deal and is actually pretty old. If i was in delon spot before the deadline i think i would have quietly asked out and it seem to be what happened.

What hurt Delon was lack of a jump shot. If he had developed a simple pull-up jump shot, he would've played ahead of FVV as he has a good handle, length and quickness.

[Zak24gege]

I should have added 3P shot too.

[Mitchell Duong]

Doesn't the NBA have a rule against resting players for Nationally Televised games? So I assume part of the reason we are allowed to do this, is because we have so few Nationally Broadcast games? Which again, I assume is maybe unique to Toronto?

The main reason Toronto has gotten away with it is Kawhi missed most of last season. The Raptors can say this rest is all about his recovery from last season. When he signs a new deal. He will likely play more, because the league does hate "load management" and doesn't want a trend where stars miss 15 games a season and talk about how little the season matters.

[S.R.]

The main reason Toronto has gotten away with it is Kawhi missed most of last season. The Raptors can say this rest is all about his recovery from last season. When he signs a new deal. He will likely play more, because the league does hate "load management" and doesn't want a trend where stars miss 15 games a season and talk about how little the season matters.

I don't love it as a fan either, understand a bit of it but it seems like too much sitting/resting/undervaluing of the regular 82. I want to watch 6-7 months of basketball, not 5 months of practice and 1-2 months of real basketball.

Only positive I can take out of it is that hopefully this is finally a Raptors team that has a playoff switch. They've settled into the 2nd seed, they're making sure Kawhi is healthy, they're giving lots of different guys run. Please let all this be for the purpose of cranking it up and performing at the next level as soon as we hit round 1 game 1.

[LJ2]

Well for his part, Kawhi sure talks like he has another gear saved for the playoffs.

I'm still waiting to see what Nurse plans to do with Gasol. Start him or don't but give him his defined role and let him build chemistry. It's too late in the season for this juggling act. If you want this team to be playing at it's peak going into the playoffs then you need to start nailing down the playoff roster.