Everything Round 3: Raps vs Bucks

[Just Is]

I've got Raptors in 7.

[MixxAOR]

Put Gasol/Ibaka on Giannis and let Siakam guard Lopez. Green on Bledsoe and Kawhi on Middleton.

[Mitchell Duong]

I'm a little leery of the Raptors chances against the Bucks.

Bucks had an easy road to the finals. Pistons without Blake were one of the worst teams in the NBA, and Boston was a disaster and completely imploded. Fair game to the Bucks though. They blasted them off the floor.

Raptors had a hard road. I feel the Magic were the best team of the bottom four eastern playoff teams in terms of how they were playing heading into the playoffs. Philly has one of the best starting lineups (if not the best) in the NBA. Hard fought wins.

The hard fought wins could put the Raptors in a position where they overwhelm the Bucks to start the series, or they could be gassed and get shot off the floor.

If OG is back. He along with SIakam, Gasol, Ibaka and Kawhi as options to share the burden of Giannis.

I think i'd put Kawhi on Middleton and ask him to "erase" Khris. If Brodgon is a 100% then we can't give him corner 3s. Do to him what Philly did to Danny. Bledsoe is a tough assignment. He's strong and tough and gets to the rim. Lowry and Fred suck with that kind of play.

Bucks pack the paint and try and take away the corner 3. You need to pick and pop from mid-range and above the break. Those shots are there all day. We have lots of guys who can shoot from out there. Danny, Kyle, Kawhi, Gasol, Serge and Fred.

But I don't think I trust a lot of the Raptor shooters. We can't just play six guys the whole game against the Bucks. We need meaningful contributions from Fred, Norm and hopefully OG. I just can't say I trust them. I think the Bucks take it in 6.

[bertarapsfan]

This is the series Danny Green comes to play..
Something like this. Maybe not 27 threes. But i could see him hitting 20+ 3s this series.

[Scraptor]

Put Gasol/Ibaka on Giannis and let Siakam guard Lopez. Green on Bledsoe and Kawhi on Middleton.

I've seen this Gasol on Giannis floated around but I think it's crazy. Giannis will put him in foul trouble constantly. You need someone with footspeed covering Giannis. So Siakam or at worst Ibaka.

Lopez is slow and can't drive so I don't have a problem with Gasol covering him out on the perimeter. If you want to send a double team on Giannis inside use Kawhi and rotate the guards.

[DogeLover1234]

You trust their supporting cast less than ours!? Are you crazy lol. Have you seen how bad our supporting cast aka bench has been lol

Yeah their bench is better for sure. Thing is it doesnt matter how much better their bench is if Raptors go 7-8 deep with starters playing 35+ minutes. Plus this is the Bucks first series against a talented team that doesnt want to fight each other.

[Zainab]

[rocwell]

[GLF]

Yeah their bench is better for sure. Thing is it doesnt matter how much better their bench is if Raptors go 7-8 deep with starters playing 35+ minutes. Plus this is the Bucks first series against a talented team that doesnt want to fight each other.

That's the thing. Nurse has to realize and finally accept that our bench is trash and THEY can go 9 deep WE cannot! If we stick to playing 7 guys their bench being good probably won't matter. But if he goes back to trying to play 9 guys it's not gonna work out well for us

[KeonClark]

That's the thing. Nurse has to realize and finally accept that our bench is trash and THEY can go 9 deep WE cannot! If we stick to playing 7 guys their bench being good probably won't matter. But if he goes back to trying to play 9 guys it's not gonna work out well for us

Do you really wanna count on 7 guys for 7 games every other day? Guys 7 thru 9, vleet, Powell, hopefully soon OG, are capable nba players that have to figure out again if they're going to contribute. 2 days to decompress and take a long hard look in the mirror. Watch some Kawhi Leonard videos..

[GLF]

Do you really wanna count on 7 guys for 7 games every other day? Guys 7 thru 9, vleet, Powell, hopefully soon OG, are capable nba players that have to figure out again if they're going to contribute. 2 days to decompress and take a long hard look in the mirror. Watch some Kawhi Leonard videos..

I would love for them to contribute but I'm not holding my breath with those guys. Obviously give them one more chance to prove themselves but if they play like they played last series we have no choice but to only go 7 deep. We aren't getting past this round if those guys play like they did against Philly and we continue to let them play like Nurse did for about 5 out of those 7 games. Taking them out of the rotation or just not playing them much minutes along with going big is what helped win us that game last night. Because it's not like our shot was falling. Oh that and our stellar defence (down the stretch particularly).

[Truth Teller]

If you're open shoot it. Play the Bucks 1 on 1. Lets win.

[planetmars]

I was looking at the head 2 head stats between George Hill and Fred and their stats are pretty close. Fred is 4-2 against Hill in the RS and Hill is 4-0 in the playoffs (the Cavs series last year). In the playoffs last year (small sample size) Hill averaged like 32mpg and Fred 23.. they had similar stats (about 10/2/3 give or take). So Fred can neutralize Hill. In the RS its more of the same (averaged about 13/3/4 again give or take).

And we've seen Norm against the Bucks 2 years ago. It's a different team, but Norm's job has to be able to neutralize Pat Connaughton (who's been great for the Bucks this year) and play passable defense on guys like Middleton, Snell, Brown, etc. Connaughton is a sneaky offensive rebounder and can shoot. But so can Norm. It's just that Norm has to be locked in.

Serge is obviously key too. Probably our best Giannis defender after Siakam.

I'm not too worried about our 6-8 guys (I guess the 9th guy here would be McCaw or Meeks, but it's really a coin flip and would rarely play IMO). Maybe I'm just being a homer or naive. But I'm feeling more confident with our bench in this series.

The only guy I'm worried/nervous about is Marc Gasol. He really has a limited role. Giannis will get the best of him. He's afraid to shoot so doesn't really spread the floor. He can't rebound. You put him on Lopez I guess.. but you could really put anyone (other than Lowry/Fred since their too short) on him. But if Lopez is sitting and they go small with Giannis at the 5, it's tough.

I hope Marc averages about 20 mpg against the Bucks.. and we see more Serge. I think it just makes more sense in this series. And bring out Marc again against Boogie who is probably going to be available for the finals.


As for the Bucks.. I'd be scared as hell for Kawhi. Who the hell is going to cover him for 40+ minutes? I'm guessing Middleton but that's a tough, tough task man.

[bertarapsfan]

I was looking at the head 2 head stats between George Hill and Fred and their stats are pretty close. Fred is 4-2 against Hill in the RS and Hill is 4-0 in the playoffs (the Cavs series last year). In the playoffs last year (small sample size) Hill averaged like 32mpg and Fred 23.. they had similar stats (about 10/2/3 give or take). So Fred can neutralize Hill. In the RS its more of the same (averaged about 13/3/4 again give or take).

And we've seen Norm against the Bucks 2 years ago. It's a different team, but Norm's job has to be able to neutralize Pat Connaughton (who's been great for the Bucks this year) and play passable defense on guys like Middleton, Snell, Brown, etc. Connaughton is a sneaky offensive rebounder and can shoot. But so can Norm. It's just that Norm has to be locked in.

Serge is obviously key too. Probably our best Giannis defender after Siakam.

I'm not too worried about our 6-8 guys (I guess the 9th guy here would be McCaw or Meeks, but it's really a coin flip and would rarely play IMO). Maybe I'm just being a homer or naive. But I'm feeling more confident with our bench in this series.

The only guy I'm worried/nervous about is Marc Gasol. He really has a limited role. Giannis will get the best of him. He's afraid to shoot so doesn't really spread the floor. He can't rebound. You put him on Lopez I guess.. but you could really put anyone (other than Lowry/Fred since their too short) on him. But if Lopez is sitting and they go small with Giannis at the 5, it's tough.

I hope Marc averages about 20 mpg against the Bucks.. and we see more Serge. I think it just makes more sense in this series. And bring out Marc again against Boogie who is probably going to be available for the finals.


As for the Bucks.. I'd be scared as hell for Kawhi. Who the hell is going to cover him for 40+ minutes? I'm guessing Middleton but that's a tough, tough task man.

I have a hard time using George Hills stats with the cavs as a measure for his play this season. He looked like shit last year. So far in the playoffs he's playing like he did in indiana. And remember how much of a problem he was in that 2016 series?

[golden]

Key player for the Raps is Siakam. He's absolutely feasted against the Bucks (24PPG, .643 FG% in 4 games). And this was before he got really, really good.

The bigger problem for the Bucks is that Giannis is the only guy with the size/speed combination to guard him effectively and Pascal's used that to our advantage to get Giannis in foul trouble. Of course, the refs probably won't call fouls on Giannis, so there's that too.