Game #70: Toronto Raptors VS Detroit Pistons - 17/03/19 - 4:00PM ET - TSN

[JimiCliff]

It's easy to forget this team has the second best record in the NBA. Second best. Given all of the injuries, load management, and roster turnover, this is a miracle. And Nurse deserves more than a little credit for it.

[KeonClark]

It's easy to forget this team has the second best record in the NBA. Second best. Given all of the injuries, load management, and roster turnover, this is a miracle. And Nurse deserves more than a little credit for it.

Also factor in games missed by Kawhi, Lowry, valanciunas, Ibaka, vanvleet..only a handful of teams have had as many games missed by players of that importance

Have we had our best 10 players all dressed in the same game even once this year? Knock on wood that we're almost there..

edit: I glazed over your post and didn't realize you already mentioned missed games

[MixxAOR]

It's easy to forget this team has the second best record in the NBA. Second best. Given all of the injuries, load management, and roster turnover, this is a miracle. And Nurse deserves more than a little credit for it.

damn...I had to check the standings.

[KeonClark]

damn...I had to check the standings.

If u only check RR for perspective, raptors are awful and players cant shoot or even dribble and chew gum at the same time

[golden]

If u only check RR for perspective, raptors are awful and players cant shoot or even dribble and chew gum at the same time

That's because we scared off all the old RR posters who used to say "....we'll be fine in the playoffs, just check our regular season record." So here we are... totally confused.

[G__Deane]

It's easy to forget this team has the second best record in the NBA. Second best. Given all of the injuries, load management, and roster turnover, this is a miracle. And Nurse deserves more than a little credit for it.

You're not going to find that here ..... it's dump-on-Nurse day, every day. Note the post on here earlier that said every contributor on RR could coach this team to no worse or a better record .... a 2nd place team in the entire NBA with all the injuries and trades and load management they've had.

And not one single person bothered to disagree.... that's the problem with the current hot takes after every loss. Poster here actually think they know better than an experienced Assistant or Coach that has made his way to the friggin' NBA over thousands of professional hopefuls

Armchair coaches making eye test ploclammations are actually pretty hillarious. The odds of the Raps making the NBA finals are X% and the odds of winning the NBA finlas are considerably less. But at least were all ready to blame the coach who's doing pretty damned well with the odds stacked against him.....jmo

[KeonClark]

You're not going to find that here ..... it's dump-on-Nurse day, every day. Note the post on here earlier that said every contributor on RR could coach this team to no worse or a better record .... a 2nd place team in the entire NBA with all the injuries and trades and load management they've had.

And not one single person bothered to disagree.... that's the problem with the current hot takes after every loss. Poster here actually think they know better than an experienced Assistant or Coach that has made his way to the friggin' NBA over thousands of professional hopefuls

Armchair coaches making eye test ploclammations are actually pretty hillarious. The odds of the Raps making the NBA finals are X% and the odds of winning the NBA finlas are considerably less. But at least were all ready to blame the coach who's doing pretty damned well with the odds stacked against him.....jmo

Raptor fans have never liked a coach in the history of the franchise, we're not about to start now damnit

[GLF]

https://stats.nba.com/teams/traditio...ost%20All-Star

Ranked 1st in the league in 3PT% since the break. 9th in attempts.

Damn. That's a big improvement. The thing that's sad is we thought if Raps started shooting the ball better it would be over for the league lol. Looks like that's not the case. We are shooting the ball considerably better but playing worse than we were earlier in the season to some extent. Our defence must have fallen off a lot after the All Star break. I know JV going down for a considerable amount of time hurt our defence as well.

[GLF]

Raptor fans have never liked a coach in the history of the franchise, we're not about to start now damnit

You gotta admit Nurse is doing some really obviously foolish things though. Especially with the lineup and the role certain players are given. He's definitely no where as bad as we act in the heat of the moment at times but this all bench unit, not using Marc enough in the high post (you would swear they've never watched film of him in Memphis before trading for him) and giving guys who cannot run a team way too much freedom isn't some really questionable decision making? And it's cost us a few games down the stretch here that we should have won. I'm just praying us being 100% healthy and getting rid of this all bench unit once playoffs come around will be all we need to get to the finals. I hope our talent wins out and cancels out any of Nurse's bad decision making. But that's all wishful thinking at this point.

[A.I]

You gotta admit Nurse is doing some really obviously foolish things though. Especially with the lineup and the role certain players are given. He's definitely no where as bad as we act in the heat of the moment at times but this all bench unit, not using Marc enough in the high post (you would swear they've never watched film of him in Memphis before trading for him) and giving guys who cannot run a team way too much freedom isn't some really questionable decision making? And it's cost us a few games down the stretch here that we should have won. I'm just praying us being 100% healthy and getting rid of this all bench unit once playoffs come around will be all we need to get to the finals. I hope our talent wins out and cancels out any of Nurse's bad decision making. But that's all wishful thinking at this point.

He did say from the beginning the season and I believe after the mid season trades as well, that he would be experimenting with lineups even if it cost them some games. Reason why I haven’t really bothered complaining for most of the season. I don’t expect all bench lineups to show up in the Playoffs and Nurse to settle down on some things. The team has barely been healthy all season, part of the reason why I think Nurse has thrown random lineups out there on occasions. As long as the team is fully healthy, Nurse tightens the rotations to 8 or 9 players I think we’ll be fine.

[KeonClark]

He did say from the beginning the season and I believe after the mid season trades as well, that he would be experimenting with lineups even if it cost them some games. Reason why I haven’t really bothered complaining for most of the season. I don’t expect all bench lineups to show up in the Playoffs and Nurse to settle down on some things. The team has barely been healthy all season, part of the reason why I think Nurse has thrown random lineups out there on occasions. As long as the team is fully healthy, Nurse tightens the rotations to 8 or 9 players I think we’ll be fine.

Yeah, playoffs will save Nurse from himself

Bench:
1. Fred
2. Serge
3. OG
4. Situational/whoevers rolling at the time out of Powell, Lin, McCaw

[GLF]

He did say from the beginning the season and I believe after the mid season trades as well, that he would be experimenting with lineups even if it cost them some games. Reason why I haven’t really bothered complaining for most of the season. I don’t expect all bench lineups to show up in the Playoffs and Nurse to settle down on some things. The team has barely been healthy all season, part of the reason why I think Nurse has thrown random lineups out there on occasions. As long as the team is fully healthy, Nurse tightens the rotations to 8 or 9 players I think we’ll be fine.

He did and I completely understand his logic behind it but I find he's experimenting with lineups that don't make any sense and obviously wouldn't work. I want to see him experiment with more logical lineups and lineups that we may actually see in the playoffs. Why bother at this point in the season running an all bench unit when you won't be playing that in the playoffs? Like I don't get it. Why continue to have players do things they aren't good at when you have more than half the season of proof that says they can't do it? If Fred can't run a pick and roll now he for damn sure won't be able to do it in the playoffs so why are we still wasting time doing that for example? That's more my frustration. I understand giving a guy like Fred that freedom in the beginning of the season even mid season but not now. Let's experiment with more of the transitional lineups (mix of starters and bench players). That to me is productive. Not these all bench lineups.

[golden]

He did say from the beginning the season and I believe after the mid season trades as well, that he would be experimenting with lineups even if it cost them some games. Reason why I haven’t really bothered complaining for most of the season. I don’t expect all bench lineups to show up in the Playoffs and Nurse to settle down on some things. The team has barely been healthy all season, part of the reason why I think Nurse has thrown random lineups out there on occasions. As long as the team is fully healthy, Nurse tightens the rotations to 8 or 9 players I think we’ll be fine.

We saw a short leash on Lin yesterday. You'll see 9-10 guys in round 1, 8-9 guys in round 2, and maybe 7-8 guys in the ECF and Finals. Ibaka, Gasol, Siakam, Kawhi, Green, Lowry, FVV & OG is the likely 8-man playoff rotation. Powell "might" get a shot at a regular spot, but will be banished to the bench quickly if he doesn't perform reliably. Everybody else is situational depth (foul trouble, injuries, matchups, energy, etc...)

[GLF]

Yeah, playoffs will save Nurse from himself

Bench:
1. Fred
2. Serge
3. OG
4. Situational/whoevers rolling at the time out of Powell, Lin, McCaw

He did say this in the post game interview so I'm glad to hear that. He also said there will be the starters and then Serge. So that means he's finally settled in on Marc starting which is great.

[G__Deane]

Raptor fans have never liked a coach in the history of the franchise, we're not about to start now damnit

Some like Smitch (and still do) ..... which I've never understood

I still have a bit of a soft spot for Butch Carter . It's worth noting that we never had a single winning% coach until Casey, a run of 7 head coaches before him.....