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Was last season a disaster?

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  • #31
    After the good old fashioned beat down we took from the Whiz I was sure the season was a disaster. Not because we got crap kicked out of us in a 4 game sweep but because why would any FA want to come to play for a team that appeared to be on the way down rather than the hackneyed phrase "a team on the rise."

    Regardless of how we did (49up and 33down) changes were going to come. We didn't have any speed on the roster.. our rebounding on both the offensive and defensive ends was worse than crap and we needed better ball handling. Lou could shoot us in and out of games but he just could not handle the ball in traffic or under pressure. GV could handle it but he was just so darn slow that every team with a quick 2nd unit PG made his life miserable when he brought it up and on the defensive end. Amir did what he could on the boards and protecting the rim but even his big heart could not overcome his faulty ankles.

    Low and behold the disaster in the playoffs didn't deter us in getting a quality FA right out of the gate to fix a major hole on the wing. The out of the blue trade for GV got us a 1st in 2017 and Norman Powell the surprise of summer league. Better to be lucky than good sometimes. The under the radar signing of Biyombo should help us on the boards and the drafting of Wright and the signing of Joseph in FA got us better ball handling and more speed.

    So while the 26th of April sure was Black Sunday the season wasn't a disaster in that we were still able to attract a couple of quality B level FA in Carroll and Joseph. To get the A level FA you have to have a base and we are building that. We added to the store of draft picks (now 4 firsts in the next two years) and are hearing that a guy like Nic Batum wants to come play here next year. We got a D league team in place to give our projects a place to play. We may have lucked out with Powell in the 2nd round and we added a younger faster PG in Wright at 20.
    There's no such thing as a 2nd round bust.
    - TGO

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    • #32
      3inthekeon wrote: View Post
      In hindsight, I should have made 2 separate posts, one concerning the season, which everyone seems to be focusing on.

      But what I should have separated was the possibility that maybe none of the returning players on our team actually saw their value increase despite a 49 win season, which is both unusual and a bit of a disturbing outcome for the future of the Raptors franchise.
      I understood your post perfectly and totally agree. Last season was really all about short term gain. The only person who benefited from a 49 win season where team wide player development regressed is the coach, since years from now the details of the season will be long forgotten, and only the W-L record will stand against the coaching record.

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      • #33
        Snooch wrote: View Post
        I had no faith in them for most teams, and I thought american media)espn) was picking washington for the win.

        And early in the season I think alot of writers outside of Canada/Toronto thought team was 1st round exit.
        ESPN also picked the Raptors to win (if only by a slight margin) not sure what you're talking about.

        http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015...ctions-round-1

        You should really stop making things up. (Edit: Saw another poster already corrected you)

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        • #34
          golden wrote: View Post
          I understood your post perfectly and totally agree. Last season was really all about short term gain. The only person who benefited from a 49 win season where team wide player development regressed is the coach, since years from now the details of the season will be long forgotten, and only the W-L record will stand against the coaching record.
          Will last year benefit Casey when he's canned here and looking for a new job? i dunno.
          If we knew half as much about coaching an NBA team as we think, we"d know twice as much as we do.

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          • #35
            3inthekeon wrote: View Post
            Will last year benefit Casey when he's canned here and looking for a new job? i dunno.
            he wears a championship ring Carlisle won, pretty sure he can just mumble when they ask about his playoff performance

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            • #36
              i dont know about a disaster but it was defiantly a step back ... even when we were winning at the beginning i was concerned about the lack of defense and the way our offense was structured. But when i was watching on TV ( Leo Rautins ) was always going on about how they will get it together at the end, so while i was concerned i wasnt upset until as later on in the season the problems were not fixed and were obviously glaring ...

              we were a top 10 defense the year before but dropped to i believe 25th that is what had pissed me off the most and in that sense i was really upset about the direction of the team but in a good way its been a wake up call for ujiri and i really like the moves that were made during the summer to address the team's weaknesses

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              • #37
                Niagara Raptor wrote: View Post
                i dont know about a disaster but it was defiantly a step back ... even when we were winning at the beginning i was concerned about the lack of defense and the way our offense was structured. But when i was watching on TV ( Leo Rautins ) was always going on about how they will get it together at the end, so while i was concerned i wasnt upset until as later on in the season the problems were not fixed and were obviously glaring ...

                we were a top 10 defense the year before but dropped to i believe 25th that is what had pissed me off the most and in that sense i was really upset about the direction of the team but in a good way its been a wake up call for ujiri and i really like the moves that were made during the summer to address the team's weaknesses
                Pre Gay - DRtg 16th
                Post - DRtg 5th ( 7th overall )
                End of Season - DRtg 11th

                In other words 4 players one of whom was GV, and TRoss replacing Gay immediately improved defense to elite. It then fell off a cliff before the playoff and was terrible in the playoffs. The players didn't change but the over helping did

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                • #38
                  JWash wrote: View Post
                  ESPN also picked the Raptors to win (if only by a slight margin) not sure what you're talking about.

                  http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015...ctions-round-1

                  You should really stop making things up. (Edit: Saw another poster already corrected you)
                  again, I said I thought.

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                  • #39
                    raptors999 wrote: View Post
                    he wears a championship ring Carlisle won, pretty sure he can just mumble when they ask about his playoff performance
                    Yeah, that's about all he can do. However, even though I've never worked in HR, I have helped conduct job interviews, and I've never been impressed by incoherent mumbles. But maybe that's just me.
                    If we knew half as much about coaching an NBA team as we think, we"d know twice as much as we do.

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                    • #40
                      3inthekeon wrote: View Post
                      Will last year benefit Casey when he's canned here and looking for a new job? i dunno.
                      A guy like Casey will always have an NBA job because he is non-threatening to management and ownership. Despite his strategic and tactical flaws, the guy knows how to get along (er, kiss-up) with the important decision makers and key players. And he won't embarass you or say/do controversial stuff off the court (like Butch Carter, or even JVG). He's a safe hire.

                      Whereas alpha-male coaches (as Butch calls them) like Thibs can get fired for non-basketball reasons and can develop a bad reputation in the GM community. Same reason why guys like Terry Stotts keep getting jobs and I could even see Jay Triano getting another shot.
                      Last edited by golden; Fri Jul 31, 2015, 09:26 AM.

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                      • #41
                        He's also got a good reputation for being a players coach and at the end of the day I think you look at his record and say this guy coached back to back near 50 win seasons and someone will give him another shot I think (if he gets fired).

                        Agree he's not a great x's and o's coach, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he coaches this years roster since we seemingly have gotten better on the defensive end of the floor. I say seemingly because losing Amir in free agency puts a lot of pressure on Jonas to anchor the defense. I'm not sure he's ready to shoulder that responsibility yet.

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                        • #42
                          LJ2 wrote: View Post
                          He's also got a good reputation for being a players coach and at the end of the day I think you look at his record and say this guy coached back to back near 50 win seasons and someone will give him another shot I think (if he gets fired).

                          Agree he's not a great x's and o's coach, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he coaches this years roster since we seemingly have gotten better on the defensive end of the floor. I say seemingly because losing Amir in free agency puts a lot of pressure on Jonas to anchor the defense. I'm not sure he's ready to shoulder that responsibility yet.
                          Carrol is our new defensive anchor...haven't you gotten the memo?

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                          • #43
                            LJ2 wrote: View Post
                            He's also got a good reputation for being a players coach and at the end of the day I think you look at his record and say this guy coached back to back near 50 win seasons and someone will give him another shot I think (if he gets fired).

                            Agree he's not a great x's and o's coach, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he coaches this years roster since we seemingly have gotten better on the defensive end of the floor. I say seemingly because losing Amir in free agency puts a lot of pressure on Jonas to anchor the defense. I'm not sure he's ready to shoulder that responsibility yet.
                            I wouldn't say he's not a great x's and o's coach - he'd run circles around any of us in an x's and o's discussion, but he does have this square peg/round hole problem. He's a bit like a defensive Mike D'Antoni (at least so far) - he's got this idea of how things should be running, but if his guys can't do it they all end up looking bad. And he doesn't really adjust or maximize his talent - he'll bench a more talented player who doesn't fit in favour of a less talented player who can execute the system slightly better. All coaches run systems, but they also deal with the talent they have on hand and make adjustments as necessary. I mean sometimes Casey has denied the need for adjusting at all (laughed at it basically), but in other interviews he admits adjustments that amounted to letting Lou and DeMar run wild because these guys are offensive creators/ISO scorers (inmates running the asylum is what it ends up looking like). Casey seems to me like a smart guy who has made the wrong strategic decisions, but he's defensive about himself and most of his players - it's hard to tell what he really thinks when everybody can see something's going wrong on the court and he gets questioned about it.

                            We'll see how things go with a more defensive roster. We'll see if any of the behind-the-scenes issues from last season are still around, too.
                            "We're playing in a building." -- Kawhi Leonard

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                            • #44
                              LJ2 wrote: View Post
                              He's also got a good reputation for being a players coach and at the end of the day I think you look at his record and say this guy coached back to back near 50 win seasons and someone will give him another shot I think (if he gets fired).

                              Agree he's not a great x's and o's coach, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he coaches this years roster since we seemingly have gotten better on the defensive end of the floor. I say seemingly because losing Amir in free agency puts a lot of pressure on Jonas to anchor the defense. I'm not sure he's ready to shoulder that responsibility yet.

                              I think this gets overlooked quite a bit. For a fan base that has basically been putting up with complete garbage the last 10 years, we sure are quick to insult a coach who was a part of two of the best seasons in franchise history. Again, while I don't think Casey is perfect, the guys in the locker room seem to like him. I would much rather have Dwayne + team chemistry = 50 win seasons, than George Karl + whatever the hell is happening in Sac town.

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                              • #45
                                92TillInfinity wrote: View Post
                                I think this gets overlooked quite a bit. For a fan base that has basically been putting up with complete garbage the last 10 years, we sure are quick to insult a coach who was a part of two of the best seasons in franchise history. Again, while I don't think Casey is perfect, the guys in the locker room seem to like him. I would much rather have Dwayne + team chemistry = 50 win seasons, than George Karl + whatever the hell is happening in Sac town.
                                What also gets overlooked in the W-L record is the depth of talent that Masai assembles. We may not have the so-called elite franchise superstar, but our bench was simply destroying other benches at times last season.

                                And let's not forget playing in the Eastern conference and especially Atlantic division at a historically low point. Not taking away from the winning seasons, but Casey's led a pretty charmed life under Masai.
                                Last edited by golden; Fri Jul 31, 2015, 11:30 AM.

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