Game #11: Toronto Raptors 101 - Sacramento Kings 107

[rightsideup]

We did collapse but some credit has to go to the kings they are putting together a nice string of games

[white men can't jump]

Some of the Raptors' good games have included a lot of the changes/steps forward that they need to take the next step (individuals and the team). They've got a bit of a Jekyll & Hyde thing going on.

Yeah, and that's understandable. I didn't expect a smooth transition to playing better ball. The question that will be answered over time is how committed are they to making the right changes?

[Demographic Shift]

I think the biggest issue is with Biz playing so much the entire unit was setup for failure. If you can pin one thing unequivocally on a coach, it's who he decides to put out there on the floor. Lowry going supernova for a while was a big reason why we got back in the game - but that wasn't sustainable. So take your gains and run when you're up by 8, i.e., get Biz out of the game and bring in JV to close out the game and force Boogie to guard him.

SAC not guarding Biz forced every Raptor on the court to become a creator of much more difficult shots outside their comfort zone, so you have to give the Raps players (Demar included) a bit of a pass on that. If the Raps actually played fundamentally sound offense, ala Spurs/Hawks/GSW, and moved the ball to find the open man, it's pretty obvious who would be the guy getting that ball. That's a no win proposition. Basically, the offense was put in a very difficult position to win the game - not even taking into account that Biz did nothing to really slow down Boogie.

I love Biz in small doses, but seriously, that was a highly winnable game that was lost by coaching - clearly.

My belief (as I wrote up in post number 544) is that Casey took a calculated gamble that he could win it with his defense when he was up 10 with 7 to go. The gamble was they could hold off the Kings and if the unit on the floor could get a piddly 12 more points in 7 minutes the Kings couldn't get 24 in 7 minutes to win against his perceived best defensive lineup..
Didn't work out that way. We got effing 8 points and the Kings threw up 25 in 7 minutes. It was on the surface a good strategy but she sure didn't work out that way. Not only did we not get 12 pts the bet on defense went pffft as well.
As they say S*IT Happens and it happened. What will be interesting is what happens the next time around. Will he go with JV and offense or will he bet again on the teams ability to shut down the other side.
Gotta love sports...

[Jangles]

Playing a backup C for nearly 18 minutes straight is a calculated risk? The team scored 10 or 11 points from the 10:30 mark of the 4th to the end of the game. Why wasn't 11 minutes enough to try something else? Casey is a dud.

[white men can't jump]

My belief (as I wrote up in post number 544) is that Casey took a calculated gamble that he could win it with his defense when he was up 10 with 7 to go. The gamble was they could hold off the Kings and if the unit on the floor could get a piddly 12 more points in 7 minutes the Kings couldn't get 24 in 7 minutes to win against his perceived best defensive lineup..
Didn't work out that way. We got effing 8 points and the Kings threw up 25 in 7 minutes. It was on the surface a good strategy but she sure didn't work out that way. Not only did we not get 12 pts the bet on defense went pffft as well.
As they say S*IT Happens and it happened. What will be interesting is what happens the next time around. Will he go with JV and offense or will he bet again on the teams ability to shut down the other side.
Gotta love sports...

Biyombo was not doing a better job defensively, so I don't really know what the benefit of having him out there was. There's really no justification for what happened last night.

*If Casey actually thought Biyombo was doing a significantly better job than anyone on Cousins, it feels like that should be immediate cause for termination, especially for a so-called defensive coach.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

My belief (as I wrote up in post number 544) is that Casey took a calculated gamble that he could win it with his defense when he was up 10 with 7 to go. The gamble was they could hold off the Kings and if the unit on the floor could get a piddly 12 more points in 7 minutes the Kings couldn't get 24 in 7 minutes to win against his perceived best defensive lineup..
Didn't work out that way. We got effing 8 points and the Kings threw up 25 in 7 minutes. It was on the surface a good strategy but she sure didn't work out that way. Not only did we not get 12 pts the bet on defense went pffft as well.
As they say S*IT Happens and it happened. What will be interesting is what happens the next time around. Will he go with JV and offense or will he bet again on the teams ability to shut down the other side.
Gotta love sports...

If Casey wanted to win on defense, I'd take a fresh JV over a worn out Biyombo, who was faring no better against Cousins. I'd also take JJ, who Casey actually played, over DeRozan.

You also can't go 7 minutes without scoring, especially when you only got that lead thanks to a 6 minute stretch of lights-out shooting. You make it much harder on yourself to score, when you're playing 4-on-5 offensively, as they were with Biyombo in the lineup.

No matter how you slice it, leaving Biyombo in for 18 straight minutes was bad coaching.

[Axel]

No matter how you slice it, leaving Biyombo in for 18 straight minutes was bad coaching.

Especially considering that Biyombo should only be getting around 18 minutes per game, not per "shift"

[white men can't jump]

Especially considering that Biyombo should only be getting around 18 minutes per game, not per "shift"

Even that's too much.

[Demographic Shift]

Biyombo was not doing a better job defensively, so I don't really know what the benefit of having him out there was. There's really no justification for what happened last night.

*If Casey actually thought Biyombo was doing a significantly better job than anyone on Cousins, it feels like that should be immediate cause for termination, especially for a so-called defensive coach.

What you and I think on how BB was doing or not doing defensively is mildly interesting. Casey thought BB was either doing better in the overall scheme or would do better given what he and Greer had in mind. What you call a command decision. He made his decision and went with it. It didn't work out. It's 1 of 82. It's now in the rear view. Who knows..maybe a couple of guys don't shake loose and we get a stop and make a couple more made baskets and we win. Didn't happen though. To bad for us Raptor fans.

Again.. It's sports...It will be interesting to see what happens next time round and how he approaches how to close out a game under similar circumstances.

FWIW...don't bet big on his termination in the short term unless he gets into a serious pissing match with Ujiri. Given both their demeanours that's unlikely to happen.

[white men can't jump]

I'm not getting big on his termination....don't think it's likely til after the season....but I do think the type of thing we saw last night will factor into his evaluation, and hopefully "termination" by not bringing him back.

Seriously, the use (or not) of JV was clearly an issue management brought up with him last year. So far there's little change...if any...except that Jonas has gotten even better.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Demographic Shift]

I'm not getting big on his termination....don't think it's likely til after the season....but I do think the type of thing we saw last night will factor into his evaluation, and hopefully "termination" by not bringing him back.

Seriously, the use (or not) of JV was clearly an issue management brought up with him last year. So far there's little change...if any...except that Jonas has gotten even better.

Pretty sure JVs minutes are up year over year and he is playing better. Cousins is a tough matchup for anyone but mt eyeball analytics say that Jonas is not as fluid/coordinated/quick as Biyombo on the defensive end. Casey took a gamble and it simply didn't work out.
There was a game earlier this year where Casey tried Biz and defence to close one out but Biz took his 6th foul and JV went back in and the Raps won it. DC now has two data points to base his next decision on.
Let's see where he gravitates to.

[white men can't jump]

Pretty sure JVs minutes are up year over year and he is playing better. Cousins is a tough matchup for anyone but mt eyeball analytics say that Jonas is not as fluid/coordinated/quick as Biyombo on the defensive end. Casey took a gamble and it simply didn't work out.
There was a game earlier this year where Casey tried Biz and defence to close one out but Biz took his 6th foul and JV went back in and the Raps won it. DC now has two data points to base his next decision on.
Let's see where he gravitates to.

Well, JV is averaging 1.2 more minutes per game and 1.1 more FGAs per game. That's not much of a change. The minutes are still lower than his 2nd season. And his USG% (per bballref) is not even 1% higher. Given how he's started the season, those increases are pretty small.

If he gravitates anywhere else there's a problem. There may be some random nights where Biyombo's a better option (still never for 18 minutes in a row) for parts of the 4th. Last night was not one of them. And it's the root of the biggest problem the team had down the stretch. In other words, the biggest problem the Raptors had was due to a really obvious coaching error that no one can find any way to support.

[Scraptor]

Pretty sure JVs minutes are up year over year and he is playing better. Cousins is a tough matchup for anyone but mt eyeball analytics say that Jonas is not as fluid/coordinated/quick as Biyombo on the defensive end. Casey took a gamble and it simply didn't work out.
There was a game earlier this year where Casey tried Biz and defence to close one out but Biz took his 6th foul and JV went back in and the Raps won it. DC now has two data points to base his next decision on.
Let's see where he gravitates to.

His minutes are up by 1, and remain lower than in his sophomore season. He plays 27% fewer minutes than 4th year peer Andre Drummond. His usage is up but he still remains an afterthought to our guards.

[Demographic Shift]

His minutes are up by 1, and remain lower than in his sophomore season. He plays 27% fewer minutes than 4th year peer Andre Drummond. His usage is up but he still remains an afterthought to our guards.

We are 11 games in.... Let's see at the All Star break if Jonas is getting to 30~32 mpg.

Have you considered that Drummond is simply better than our guy right now and merits the extra time ? Still the Pistons are about to limp home 5up and 6down after the west coast swing. Hope we do better than they did.

Last night simply didn't work out for us.. we gave up a 10 point lead with 7 to go and coughed up a two possesion lead with 3 to go. Not pretty and regardless of who or what you want to blame it on ...it happened. Just have to move on.

[tDotted]

We are 11 games in.... Let's see at the All Star break if Jonas is getting to 30~32 mpg.

Oh my god man, stop this "we're only X amount of games in".

This is the 4th straight year of JV playing under 30 minutes a game. This is Casey's 5th season with the team. We are not 11 games in, we're actually about 234 games in.

JV has played 30 or more minutes 83 times... out of a possible 234 games. So about 35% of the time in his career (hey, that's Caseyball efficency).