2020 End of Season / Playoffs

[planetmars]

Conley out for the Jazz (left the bubble for the birth of his son). Should be back soon but not soon enough for today's game I would guess

He might miss up to 3 games.. 4 day quarantine when he comes back, and games are every other day.

[S.R.]

Interesting, on Nick Nurse's versatile defence -
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...mpression=true

Playoff adjustments is when that season-long tinkering should all pay off.

[S.R.]

Also interesting:

[GLF]

Everyone likes to get hung up on "net ratings" and it being a statistic, but it's just a number that means "wins games for you." Pretty sure coaches are big fans of guys like that and play them when it comes time to win the game.

And even if we accepted your stance that winning games is not important to coaches, that doesn't mean I am wrong in saying it should be important to them.

My point with Serge is that there is literally not a single scenario where it is the right call to close with him over Gasol. Going big sometimes depending on the matchup - that's the sort of scenario you are talking about here. Throw Serge out at PF, sure, great. That can be beneficial against bigger opposition, or when we need rebounding, or more inside scoring. But there is no scenario where throwing out a guy who is worse on both ends and doesn't match up better on either end with any player makes sense. And that's exactly what Serge is compared to Marc.

Thank you! Serge literally does nothing better than Marc except score in the paint. There is zero reason Serge should play over Marc in the clutch. The stats that people here hate says it and so does the eye test.

[planetmars]

Serge has come up big though.. He and Kawhi are the only reason we won game 7 against the 76ers. I like Serge as an offensive and defensive spark plug. A timely block. A midrange shot when nobody else is scoring. A timely 3.

But Marc consistently does more and that is shown by his net rating and the net rating of guys he plays with. Even though he looks really ugly out there a lot.

[A.I]

Serge has come up big though.. He and Kawhi are the only reason we won game 7 against the 76ers. I like Serge as an offensive and defensive spark plug. A timely block. A midrange shot when nobody else is scoring. A timely 3.

But Marc consistently does more and that is shown by his net rating and the net rating of guys he plays with. Even though he looks really ugly out there a lot.

Marc is the Lowry of big men, his stats may not stand out, but he does a lot of positive things for the team.

[golden]

Marc is the Lowry of big men, his stats may not stand out, but he does a lot of positive things for the team.

Which is almost always a good thing, except when they both get scared to shoot at the same time, when the opposition D ratchets up.

[G__Deane]

I still think you're going to see Nick wring more out of Marc out of his coaching bag of tricks this post season; a touch more offense when he's open without sacrificing his passing. screens or D

[TrueTorontoFan]

Wrote up a piece on playoff rotations. Take a look if interested.

Biggest surprise for me in writing it came when I discovered that unlike most years, this year the Raps can actually give Lowry rest minutes without falling to pieces. Unfortunately, Pascal has taken his place, very hard to build a bench unit that I can be confident will succeed against good teams without Pascal. Won’t matter much in the first round, but as we get deeper, there might be some issues with finding rest for Pascal.

https://www.raptorshq.com/2020/8/16/...on-projections

so I just finished reading it.

Thank you for the analysis first and foremost.

I think you were spot on it. I think what stood out to me was two things. Siakam's impact on everyone else. This makes sense because he is the de facto number one guy since Kawhi has been gone. That is HUGE. It means that he is able to draw and produce not only for himself but for others as well. I do think he needs to pick his aggression more often, I also think he needs to do a better job of passing out of doubles as well. He has gotten better but he needs to improve. I also think he needs to get better at the mid-range and 3 pointers as well but that has come a long way in the past two years.


The second thing that stood out to me was OG's impact. I thought it would be FVV's... not to crap on the guy but it shows how valuable OG is .... the ratings especially defensively when you take him away from the floor.. is stark. We knew about ibaka/marc but if you take both of them off at the same time WOW. Obviously Lowry does his thing and is a big part of it but OG is really our defensive stalwart.


I have said it before and I will say it again. If a team is willing to potentially overpay FVV.. you let them. I wouldn't go over 21 as a maximum. I think we can get him for 21. But if another team like Detroit or even NYC comes in and tries to overpay any where between 25-30.... you say sorry bud but its been real...


I think he is good but I do think he has some limitations and that overpay isn't worth it.

[TrueTorontoFan]

Which is almost always a good thing, except when they both get scared to shoot at the same time, when the opposition D ratchets up.

i think lowry is way less afraid to shoot.

[Demographic Shift]

Serge has come up big though.. He and Kawhi are the only reason we won game 7 against the 76ers. I like Serge as an offensive and defensive spark plug. A timely block. A midrange shot when nobody else is scoring. A timely 3.

But Marc consistently does more and that is shown by his net rating and the net rating of guys he plays with. Even though he looks really ugly out there a lot.

Its why you have 13 clubs in your golf bag.
Each one does something a bit different.

Like our chances to be in the finals again this year....

[007]

Wow can’t believe how big of a Sixers fan I am right now

[Rudy Bargnani]

Man Sixers have a tough time with Embiid on the bench. Horford - 14.

Edit--Philly next season will pay $62 million to Al Horford and Tobias Harris. Yikes.

[007]

If the Sixers can’t make an easy post feed to Embiid, they have no idea what they’re doing on offense

[bertarapsfan]

Man Sixers have a tough time with Embiid on the bench. Horford - 14.

Edit--Philly next season will pay $62 million to Al Horford and Tobias Harris. Yikes.

Sixers mortgaged their whole future to get tobias and Horford when they could have just built around 2 young guys who were going to get the max.
Now they have the future of the highest payroll in the NBA with a 2nd round exit as a ceiling.