I have to admit that, in what is going to be (barring contact dispute shortenned seasons) the longest offseason in Raptors history, I believe there is a lot of opportunity for individual improvement. I think of DeMarr (as the dominant example) coming back every fall with added dimensions to his game. Young players have the room and possibility of the largest improvements from season to season. With most of the US wide open, allowing access to gyms, personal coaching and informal group workouts, I think it is reasonable to expect Flynn, Harris, Trent, Yuta, Boucher, OG, Gillespie to all show significant improvement. Of the older guys, quite frankly I expect to see improvements in the play of Siakim, VanVleet and Birch as well.
Siakim is a special case I think. He seemed to be most affected by the whole COVID experience. Not sure if it was him missing his family, missing his workouts and development routines or what. I'm hoping getting back to TO, and settled into a groove gets him on a better trajectory. Certainly the last two seasons do not seem like the previous ones.
VanVleet needs to sit down and study late clock scenarios when he has the ball in his hands. Complaints about him just dribbling out the clock and then firing a hot potato to someone, or taking an ill-advised drive into a forest of trees for a layup attempt seem justified. It's had to believe there isn't something he and Nurse could work out to avoid those scenarios.
Lowry needs to continue being Lowry
OG needs to polish his midrange shot and continue to work on his handles. His passing was improved this year, as was his off-ball movement. Further improvements should be upcoming.
Trent is such a streaky shooter that achieving consistency is an obvious target. He started hot after the trade and that may have been because he was just playing fast and loose. And guys were feeding him. He seems to gamble on D too much and still has to learn Nurse's system.
In fact, all the new guys didn't have much opportunity to practice and get integrated into the Raptor's schemes. I think I was most impressed with how well Birch fit in. I also don't think he was asked to do too much other than protect the rim and provide standard help-side D. I suspect he puts more effort into developing his 3 pt shot, which he was discouraged from while with the Magic. He quadrupled his attempts and brought his % up from 19% to 29%. He is almost a career 70% free throw shooter so there is hope for an improved result next season.
Flynn shot well beklow his expected level. 80% free throw shooter and he only shot 32% from three and 37% overall. Give him a pass due to irregular minutes and his first year in the league having to deal with the COVID BS and facing such high level competition. There is certainly room for a big-time jump in his shooting. I suspect he gets steadier minutes this coming season. He did demonstrate to Nurse, in the last quarter of the season, that he could be trusted bringing the ball up. I think his turnover to assist ratio also improves. Just based on having accumulated experience playing against NBA caliber players. Ball handling is something I would expect him to work on, along with his shooting.
I can't go through all the players. I'm not knowledgeable enough and have outside work to do today that needs to get started, but the long off-season, and the flashes shown by a lot of the younger guys, as well as the past history of the vets, give me great confidence in continued improvement in the team.
Siakim is a special case I think. He seemed to be most affected by the whole COVID experience. Not sure if it was him missing his family, missing his workouts and development routines or what. I'm hoping getting back to TO, and settled into a groove gets him on a better trajectory. Certainly the last two seasons do not seem like the previous ones.
VanVleet needs to sit down and study late clock scenarios when he has the ball in his hands. Complaints about him just dribbling out the clock and then firing a hot potato to someone, or taking an ill-advised drive into a forest of trees for a layup attempt seem justified. It's had to believe there isn't something he and Nurse could work out to avoid those scenarios.
Lowry needs to continue being Lowry
OG needs to polish his midrange shot and continue to work on his handles. His passing was improved this year, as was his off-ball movement. Further improvements should be upcoming.
Trent is such a streaky shooter that achieving consistency is an obvious target. He started hot after the trade and that may have been because he was just playing fast and loose. And guys were feeding him. He seems to gamble on D too much and still has to learn Nurse's system.
In fact, all the new guys didn't have much opportunity to practice and get integrated into the Raptor's schemes. I think I was most impressed with how well Birch fit in. I also don't think he was asked to do too much other than protect the rim and provide standard help-side D. I suspect he puts more effort into developing his 3 pt shot, which he was discouraged from while with the Magic. He quadrupled his attempts and brought his % up from 19% to 29%. He is almost a career 70% free throw shooter so there is hope for an improved result next season.
Flynn shot well beklow his expected level. 80% free throw shooter and he only shot 32% from three and 37% overall. Give him a pass due to irregular minutes and his first year in the league having to deal with the COVID BS and facing such high level competition. There is certainly room for a big-time jump in his shooting. I suspect he gets steadier minutes this coming season. He did demonstrate to Nurse, in the last quarter of the season, that he could be trusted bringing the ball up. I think his turnover to assist ratio also improves. Just based on having accumulated experience playing against NBA caliber players. Ball handling is something I would expect him to work on, along with his shooting.
I can't go through all the players. I'm not knowledgeable enough and have outside work to do today that needs to get started, but the long off-season, and the flashes shown by a lot of the younger guys, as well as the past history of the vets, give me great confidence in continued improvement in the team.
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