What's the Raptors Biggest Weakness?

[Joey]

DEFENDING THE 3-POINT LINE
While the Toronto Raptors probably need to find a way to get more ball movement going in their offense, their real weakness is how well teams shoot 3-pointers against them. Specifically, the North was the second-worst team at defending the 3-point shot in terms of accuracy against them, allowing 37.3 percent, which wasn't much better than the 37.7 percent the Phoenix Suns allowed from deep.

A big reason for this is the Raptors simply couldn't defend the corner 3-point shots -- opponents shot 39.5 percent from the right corner and an absurd 44 percent from the left corner. The Raptors were also tied with two other teams for the ninth-highest percentage allowed above-the-break, but really it was the corners that did them in.

The remedy for this is effort and awareness. DeMarre Carroll and Patrick Patterson have to be able to help over and then recover to the far corners. DeMar DeRozan also can't get as lost in help as he often does, and that goes double for Terrence Ross. They're playing with fire if they can't curtail this, even with as good as this team was last season.
Source

What do you guys think? Is it our outside defense? Passing? Our outside Shooting?
Thoughts?

I have to agree with them ... I don't know how many times I almost broke my TV because our opponent got a WIDE open 3.

[Maury]

Our 3 point defence has always been bad, but it has to have been better than when we had that scramble defence scheme that Casey used. Our one on one defence is pretty bad sometimes, and we rely on our team defence to compensate for this.

[rightsideup]

I think the three point defence was viewed(and rightly so) as one of our weaknesses but their was a focus for point defense and not giving up drives. To some degree most teams that have either a defensive or offensive identity will have positive traits on each end of the floor but give something away as well. OKC did extremely well in the playoffs but resorted to hero ball offensively allowing the W's to come back.

[Cody73]

Lack of size at the wing.

Besides Carroll, we have no-one whose taller than 6'7 who can play minutes at the 3. If a team has a quick trigger SF or PF, were usually screwed.

I agree with what CBS wrote, I just chose to expand on it because it's real issue we have. Yet because of small-ball , no-one cares.

[Axel]

Our 3P defence has been an issue for a few years now and has been discussed fairly well (whole debate on whether preventing 3PA is more important than actual 3P%). It's definitely one of our biggest weaknesses. I still think that our lack of ball movement/predictable offence is the biggest issue.

[LJ2]

I think with Amir gone and no clear starting PF available last season, they sort of had to give up the open shots somewhat, so they could pack/protect the paint and rebound as a team. With Sully our likely starting PF and a good rebounder, the perimeter guys might be able to stay closer to their man now. Add a healthy Carroll and increased minutes for Powell, should hopefully get us trending the right way.

[Axel]

I think with Amir gone and no clear starting PF available last season, they sort of had to give up the open shots somewhat, so they could pack/protect the paint and rebound as a team. With Sully our likely starting PF and a good rebounder, the perimeter guys might be able to stay closer to their man now. Add a healthy Carroll and increased minutes for Powell, should hopefully get us trending the right way.

I'm not sure I see Amir leaving as much of an impact like you're suggesting. If it had, then DD and KL would have likely seen an uptick in rebounding (even a small one) but they ended up with the exact same per game (4.6 and 4.7).

We actually improved our rebounding numbers (up 3 DRB per game) but I doubt it's as much about scheme as about adding better rebounders (Carroll over Ross, Biyombo over Hans/Hayes, progression of JV) as much as anything. Amir leaving may have led to more open 3PA by PF (since we played slow footed Scola) but don't think it dragged the whole defence in.

[golden]

I think we need to separate this into regular season weaknesses vs. playoff weaknesses. Our biggest playoff weakness is that our offense can be much more easily game-planned against vs. the regular season. That was painfully obvious.

[KeonClark]

Our biggest offensive weakness is "my turn your turn" ride or die ball from you know who. It didn't work for durant and westbrook, didn't work year 1 of lebron and Wade, so Mr casey enlighten me on why it's a good idea for a couple fringe all stars.

[Sinbad]

I think we need to separate this into regular season weaknesses vs. playoff weaknesses. Our biggest playoff weakness is that our offense can be much more easily game-planned against vs. the regular season. That was painfully obvious.

We don't have to separate it. They can get away with the bad habits of depending on FTs and heroball to bail them out of bad situations in the regular season, but its still a problem. The immediate rebuke will be, "But we won 56 games and reached the ECF!", but its still bad basketball. I don't think anything will be done about that since Casey is back and the two main guys remain. The 3 PT defense drives me crazy though. Our guards die on screens far too often, and solid closeouts are few and far between.

[LJ2]

I'm not sure I see Amir leaving as much of an impact like you're suggesting. If it had, then DD and KL would have likely seen an uptick in rebounding (even a small one) but they ended up with the exact same per game (4.6 and 4.7).

We actually improved our rebounding numbers (up 3 DRB per game) but I doubt it's as much about scheme as about adding better rebounders (Carroll over Ross, Biyombo over Hans/Hayes, progression of JV) as much as anything. Amir leaving may have led to more open 3PA by PF (since we played slow footed Scola) but don't think it dragged the whole defence in.

Maybe, but going into last season without your starting PF and with only Scola or PP as options, wouldn't you have been worried that the guy whom was anchoring your D for the last few years as well as covering for your young C was no longer there? I think it's plausible that they by design asked for the players to pack the paint and not give up points there while realizing they would be opening themselves more to perimeter shooting.

I'm pretty sure it was said in an interview or something that the Raptors did this by design, but that being done due to Amir leaving is just something I'm speculating may have prompted it.

[LJ2]

Our biggest offensive weakness is "my turn your turn" ride or die ball from you know who. It didn't work for durant and westbrook, didn't work year 1 of lebron and Wade, so Mr casey enlighten me on why it's a good idea for a couple fringe all stars.

Define "didn't work". OKC and the LeBron Heat were two of the most successful teams in recent memory. Saying that, that style of play didn't work makes it sound like if they played a different style it wold have led to a championship for sure.

[Axel]

Define "didn't work". OKC and the LeBron Heat were two of the most successful teams in recent memory. Saying that, that style of play didn't work makes it sound like if they played a different style it wold have led to a championship for sure.

Regardless of whether one believes OKC's success being enough, it's pretty clear that our players aren't on the same level as KD/Westbrook or Wade/LBJ, yet our offence continues to be built like they are. Lack of ball movement is still our biggest weakness.