Where Do The Raptors Rank In The East?

[Demographic Shift]

Well 2 out of 4 isn’t bad.

There is no silver lining in having two of your best players go down in the same game through injury. It happens..just not to the Raps who have been pretty resilient on the injury front the past few years.

So the organization will now get a serious read on its personnel. Fred and OG and Pascal are ready. Unless there is a rent a big on Ujiris speed dial ..Chris Boucher is up to cover for Serge and Norman Powell will get a chance to show if he is here long term.

Here they go.

[bertarapsfan]

Just when he was starting to look like his old self to

[Hotshot]

Just when he was starting to look like his old self to

Still Boston is in good shape.

Raptors without Lowry + Ibaka is very much handicapped.

[golden]

Just when he was starting to look like his old self to

Dropping like flies last 1-2 weeks: Steph, Lowry, Ibaka, Simmons, Eric Gordon, Deandre Jordan, Hayward, Otto Porter, etc...

To go along with: KD, Klay, Zion, Wall, etc....

[Superjudge]

Milwaukee is the talent in the East, Toronto is 2nd behind them, injuries or not

[Demographic Shift]

It’s only a one game sample size...but the Raps bench may have solidified a touch.
Nothing like playing n the road short handed to see what you’ve got.
Boucher, Davis and Hollis-Jefferson made a hell of an audition last night....and Matt Thomas shows he can be a situational 3 point guy and see a few minutes a night.

So...

3 bigs in Marc, Serge and Boucher
2 Ball Handlers in Freddy and Kyle
5 Wings with Norm, OG, Davis, Pascal, Hollis-Jefferson

Its early...but the long term prospects of Stanley Johnson look foggy at best.

[golden]

I'm not convinced yet that we actually have "razor thin depth". Building a great bench seems to be weakness with Nurse, and was possibly Casey's biggest strength, culminating in the vaunted 2017-18 Bench Mob, which got scrapped last year. Lesser talented players who are told to "stay in their lane" seem to be suited better to Casey's approach where they don't have to make too many decisions on the fly. Obviously, it's hard to complain about what Nurse achieved in his first year, but it's something to keep an eye on.

Some role players just seem to completely fall off the map on Nurse's bench, even if they've had limited success elsewhere. That was the opposite with Casey.... caveat being.... regular season success.

Like I said.... I'm not convinced that we have "razor thin depth".

[SkywalkerAC]

I don't know why anyone would have thought we had "razor thin depth"...

[golden]

I don't know why anyone would have thought we had "razor thin depth"...

Ask this guy.

I don't know DS, it's awful early to draw conclusions about much of anything..... Sixers are in the middle of their first early season test out West and are 1-2 and a Simmons injury in the bag. Celtics are off to one of their hot starts but we'll see what happens 40 games in. Bucks look fine. Raps are sloppy and razor thin with their depth but are winning. Heat got blown out in Denver and have Lakers and Suns to go, so we'll see more this week. Bulls are bad. Not sure about the Magic yet. Knicks are horrible. Pistons will be better once Griffin is 100%. Nets are scuffling for now. Lots of time left.

But, to be fair, even Nurse mentioned that he was only comfortable with 8 guys and he just lost 3 of them in the span of a week. Could be just a mind game thing by Nurse to keep the new guys chomping at the bit for minutes. If so, it sure worked like a charm last night.

[Demographic Shift]

Another NBA game under the watchful eye of Ed Malloy goes sideways..whodathunkit....
Hard to overcome a 15 attempted FT discrepancy...

On to Portland...Let’s hope OGs WWE like eye gouge , missed by Ref Ford...is OK and allows him to play in a couple weeks.

[Puffer]

...Let’s hope OGs WWE like eye gouge ...is OK and allows him to play in a couple weeks.

Really hope it's sooner than that. Kid really doesn't need his progression slowed down by another injury.

[Demographic Shift]

Idle observation....Watched the last Q of the Hinkies vs the Cavs.

Colin Sexton drafted in the 8th slot in 2018 isn’t as good a player as Freddy or Terrance Davis. He visibly pouts when he doesn’t have the ball and is poor passer. He plays with tunnel vision. So while we lose Lowry we have Fred to back him up as a very competent floor manager. Davis is coming and busts his butt every minute he earns from Nurse.

Sexton has the demeanour and drive of your lame ass lazy brother in law. Sometimes you don’t see how good a set of players you have. If it was Sexton on the Point vs the Clips we would have lost by 30.

[slaw]

Ask this guy.

But, to be fair, even Nurse mentioned that he was only comfortable with 8 guys and he just lost 3 of them in the span of a week. Could be just a mind game thing by Nurse to keep the new guys chomping at the bit for minutes. If so, it sure worked like a charm last night.

LOL, Nurse was playing 7 guys. The Raps were razor thin. Whether out of necessity or part of a grand plan (or both) they've now apparently got some other bodies who can play. That's great. As I noted, until further notice, when you're going 7 deep, you're thin.

[slaw]

Idle observation....Watched the last Q of the Hinkies vs the Cavs.

Colin Sexton drafted in the 8th slot in 2018 isn’t as good a player as Freddy or Terrance Davis. He visibly pouts when he doesn’t have the ball and is poor passer. He plays with tunnel vision. So while we lose Lowry we have Fred to back him up as a very competent floor manager. Davis is coming and busts his butt every minute he earns from Nurse.

Sexton has the demeanour and drive of your lame ass lazy brother in law. Sometimes you don’t see how good a set of players you have. If it was Sexton on the Point vs the Clips we would have lost by 30.

We are spoiled. We take for granted a lot of stuff the Raps do/have done.

[golden]

LOL, Nurse was playing 7 guys. The Raps were razor thin. Whether out of necessity or part of a grand plan (or both) they've now apparently got some other bodies who can play. That's great. As I noted, until further notice, when you're going 7 deep, you're thin.

If there's one thing Masai has proven over and over (and over) again.... even going back to Denver, it's his ability to build bench depth.

The one thing he wasn't able to do was acquire a top 5 NBA talent, which he checked off the list last year with the Kawhi trade... and with a championship tossed in for good measure. The only thing left on Masai's resume is to successfully recruit a marquee free agent to change the narrative about Toronto..... and we all know where that's headed.