Game #17: Toronto Raptors 84 - Washington Wizards 82

[DanH]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playe...tas-motiejunas

This is fun. An advocacy of getting rid of JV using post scoring stats! Delightful.

Reality is, Motiejunas would be a great get. Mostly because he would fit really well beside JV. JV can hit a short jumper and crash the boards when Motie is posting. Motiejunas can hit the three when JV is posting. And you can go into the post to whoever is guarded by the lesser defender. Killer pairing. They might be the best post big man pairing in the league in a couple years.

But trading JV for Motie would be insane.

I do think HOU will move Motie, due to the injuries and with both him and Jones being RFA's this summer. And I think he can be had for a much less steep price than JV.

[KHD]

Lol its a guards game man

and look how well that worked out. come on, wake up.

[KHD]

A lot of good teams have one player in their starting unit that is purely there for their defense.
Steven Adams
Andre Robertson
Timofey Mosgov
Ian Mahinmi

Raps have enough offense in their starting unit to compensate for BB deficiencies.

These guys are all far more capable than Biyombo at basic basketball things like catching the ball.

And they really don't. Look how poorly the offence played this last game. And look how easily shut down our Guard-ISO offence was shut down in the last playoffs.

[JimiCliff]

A lot of good teams have one player in their starting unit that is purely there for their defense.
Steven Adams
Andre Robertson
Timofey Mosgov
Ian Mahinmi

Raps have enough offense in their starting unit to compensate for BB deficiencies.

Mosgov? What? He's very good on offence.

[white men can't jump]

That still has to be seen. If you play elite defensive you will always give yourself ma chance to win at the end. Defense is more important that offense. Especially if your perimeter orientated team offensively.

Defence is not more important than offence.

That's where people start getting into trouble. Thinking one matters more than the other. That's especially not true in basketball (and other fluid team sports) where what you do on one end directly impacts what unfolds on the other. You can be a bit better at one end than the other, but if you're not great at both you haven't got a chance at any real success. And if you can't put on 5 players who are competent at both ends you're going to have a hard time winning games, and it'll get harder the deeper you get into the playoffs as you face better teams.

[white men can't jump]

Just saying he does what is suppose to be JV's calling card better and he can hit the 3 at a good rate. Don't see why its laughable their both good starters. Cant really say either is better than the other based on last year.

Yeah, we should definitely base our roster construction on improving situational FG%s while disregarding other analytics and other areas of the game....

Can we find a shooting guard who scores with better %s than DeMar? I mean, scoring's supposed to be his strength, but I feel like there may just be some guys who shoot it better from literally everywhere. Clearly they'd be better fits for this team. After all, they'd do what he does just better, probably in non-% analytics as well. I don't suppose there's a single shooting guard out there with better points per possession and better FG%s?

[DanH]

In the playoffs, there is so much more scouting and prep for specific matchups that having a serious weak point becomes much more exploitable. Biyombo on offence will be a disaster come playoff time (and is bordering on it already - just wait until the league has 10 games of Biyombo with the starting lineup in their scouting reports). Just like Vasquez's defence (and the Raptors' perimeter defence in general... and their guard-heavy offence now I think of it) got just destroyed come playoff time last year.

[hotfuzz]

What would be the point of trading for dmo? He'd barely get more than 5 shots a game.

[DanH]

What would be the point of trading for dmo? He'd barely get more than 5 shots a game.

All of this obviously assumes Casey's removal at the end of the year.

[iblastoff]

Lowry has yet to maintain star level play over the course of a season - so until then a step down from the Durant/LeBron stars. Plus his decision making leaves a lot to be desired many nights.

DD is not a star. He can have good games but he isn't a star.

Biyombo should not finish games either. He is still a huge negative on offence and his defence is vastly overrated. He's a specific matchup backup. In the playoffs, it's harder to score, so giving the defence one less threat on the court means it will be even harder to score. We aren't talented enough to afford that type of advantage to the defence.

i think we're mixing up 'superstar' with regular 'stars'. obviously KD/lebron/curry are on another level in terms of 'star' status. lowry is more like a damian lillard level star.

[iblastoff]

also, wizards are imploding

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...he-negativity/

“It’s not easy but we got to cut the negativity we have coming from players, coaches, staff, media,” Gortat said. “We just got to cut that. It’s not even fun coming here anymore. There’s so much negativity. I understand we’re losing games but, damn, we just got to cut that right now, man. It’s not fun at all.”

[Axel]

i think we're mixing up 'superstar' with regular 'stars'. obviously KD/lebron/curry are on another level in terms of 'star' status. lowry is more like a damian lillard level star.

Regardless of the nomenclature of choice, he isn't good enough to carry an offence on his own.

[GLF]

also, wizards are imploding

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...he-negativity/

Lol damn! Poor them

[tDotted]

also, wizards are imploding

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...he-negativity/

Are we really that bad? 3rd straight team we've made reevaluate themselves lol

[slaw]

Are we really that bad? 3rd straight team we've made reevaluate themselves lol

It's pretty funny. Lose to the Raptors = automatic players only meeting....