Respect to the Offence?

[JawsGT]

Are you considering siakam untouchable?

lol, no he's the one that isn't untouchable in my scenario. Perhaps I worded it poorly, cause I thought it was obvious I meant he could be included but the other 4 could not.

[JawsGT]

But can you imagine a Millsap/Patterson frontcourt to deal with CLE's smallball lineups. Both can adequately defend LBJ, and could freely switch the LBJ/Frye PnR, or pick and pop as it were.

[tDotted]

Just want to clarify something here. Demar does turn it over quite a bit for a SG; the only guy listed as a SG with more than Demar's 62 TO's is Giannis.

However, taking into account Demar's high usage and high minutes, his 9.7 TO% is pretty good.

Afflalo only has a 2.5 TOV%

... but that's because he doesn't pass haha

[KeonClark]

lol, no he's the one that isn't untouchable in my scenario. Perhaps I worded it poorly, cause I thought it was obvious I meant he could be included but the other 4 could not.

I would welcome a carroll trade tbh

[JawsGT]

I would welcome a carroll trade tbh

I would too if a guy like Wilson Chandler was coming back, otherwise I think we still need him to matchup with the LBJ's and Melo's of the east. We have all obviously expected and wanted more from him defensively, but he is still a better option than Demar, Ross or Powell against those guys. And I do have some faith he will be closer to what we've wanted before the season ends.

[S.R.]

The Raptors are the only team in the NBA that ranks in the top 10 in all four offensive factors

eFG% - 4th
TOV% - 3rd
ORB% - 8th
FT/FGA - 1st

The Warriors are the best in the first by some distance, but we outrank them in all the others. I think one thing that really helps our offense a lot in particular is that we turn over the ball very infrequently, but force other teams to turn it over quite a lot.

In fact our points off turnovers differential is almost the entirety of our points differential. We score 20.0 points off turnovers per game (the most in the NBA) but only allow 12.4ppg off turnovers (2nd least to Detroit at 12.2). That's a differential of 7.6 points per game off turnovers. We're winning games on average by 8.3 points per game, so as you can see the points of turnovers differential alone almost entirely covers that.

And part of the reason we don't turn it over a lot is actually due to the lack of ball movement/over-passing and generally making a lot of low-risk but high efficiency plays. Running a pick and roll with guys like DeMar and Lowry who don't really turn the ball over much for their respective positions results in very few run-outs for the opposition. This is why there are multiple ways to play the game and be effective on offense.

On top of that our offense is pretty slow paced and methodical which helps keep the turnover rate down. We only really push the ball off a turnover from the other team otherwise it's get into our sets, initialize the action with DeMar or Kyle and go from there.

Offense isn't really a concern for us. If Lowry is healthy and focused come playoffs we'll be fine and DeMar won't feel the need to chuck and should perform closer to his regular season performance (like he did in the 2014 playoffs when Lowry was playing well also). Defense is where I'm concerned. Might not be a big issue early on but it could cause a problem against a closer opponent in the 2nd round and will give us no chance against Cleveland whatsoever. Again, LBJ has only lost to a non top-5 defense once in the playoffs and it was 8th.

This is a great point. A lot of us, myself included, threw all kinds of shade at Casey for "we don't have the personnel to pass" or whatever that quote was + the accompanying low-assist game plan. In many ways we are seeing now what they envisioned, I'll gladly eat some crow because the offence is fun to watch and when it's firing on all cylinders (Ross, Patterson, Carroll etc.) doesn't feel like a low-assist offence at all.

All the caveats about proving it in the playoffs are absolutely true, we'll see what happens. A small concern with scoring off turnovers is that you run into good teams who take care of the ball in the playoffs, some of that opportunity is going to dry up.

[KeonClark]

This is a great point. A lot of us, myself included, threw all kinds of shade at Casey for "we don't have the personnel to pass" or whatever that quote was + the accompanying low-assist game plan. In many ways we are seeing now what they envisioned, I'll gladly eat some crow because the offence is fun to watch and when it's firing on all cylinders (Ross, Patterson, Carroll etc.) doesn't feel like a low-assist offence at all.

All the caveats about proving it in the playoffs are absolutely true, we'll see what happens. A small concern with scoring off turnovers is that you run into good teams who take care of the ball in the playoffs, some of that opportunity is going to dry up.

Everybody here seems too happy to eat things like shoes and crow..I'll pass if and when the first ever rr luncheon takes place

[3inthekeon]

This is a great point. A lot of us, myself included, threw all kinds of shade at Casey for "we don't have the personnel to pass" or whatever that quote was + the accompanying low-assist game plan. In many ways we are seeing now what they envisioned, I'll gladly eat some crow because the offence is fun to watch and when it's firing on all cylinders (Ross, Patterson, Carroll etc.) doesn't feel like a low-assist offence at all.

All the caveats about proving it in the playoffs are absolutely true, we'll see what happens. A small concern with scoring off turnovers is that you run into good teams who take care of the ball in the playoffs, some of that opportunity is going to dry up.

Yeah, I remember being one of the only people agreeing with Casey on that quote. I think that's when Bud's Hawks were successfully zipping the ball around and everyone wanted to emulate them.

Don't know if Nick Nurse has been mentioned, but he should definitely be in this conversation as well.

[Chr1s1anL]

Not bad for an average coach

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[Lupe]

Not bad for an average coach

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Yeah at this point I think you'd have to rank Casey pretty comfortably in the top 5. People will want to give all the credit to his assistants, but basically every top coach has elite assistants as well. And I'm not a fan of the idea that he's just a motivator or players' coach either. Yeah he's great with that stuff, but tactically very good as well.

[Chr1s1anL]

.

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[Majesiu]

Yeah at this point I think you'd have to rank Casey pretty comfortably in the top 5. People will want to give all the credit to his assistants, but basically every top coach has elite assistants as well. And I'm not a fan of the idea that he's just a motivator or players' coach either. Yeah he's great with that stuff, but tactically very good as well.

Grading coaches is even harder than players. For quite some time Vogel was respected as TOP 3 coach in EC (Spoelstra, Thibodeau being in same tier, let's say 2-3 years ago). Yet he lost his job in IND and ORL is even worse this year than last year (much of that is on team building that is so bad there, bringing Biyombo and Ibaka just to screw Aaron Gardon development should be criminal offense). Sam Mitchell got better winning % and DRTG in MIN than Thibodeau this year (at least he is better than Rambis). But do you see Casey having more success than either of them in Minnesota (please don't bring his stint during 05-07 seasons, I'm referring to present situation) or Orlando?

You can put players in winning situation, but having coach with right mentality is as important as giving him time to build right discipline and system. I doubt you'll find many supporters that'd "rank Casey pretty comfortably in the top 5", but definitely anyone will agree that Toronto have top 5 environment to play right now, and Casey is one of the main reason that is happening. He is 4th longest tenured coach in NBA and I don't see any head coaching change right now that could benefit Raptors. The relationship he has with players and front office seems to strengthen team even more.

[tDotted]

Just handed 122 points to the team with the 2nd best OPP FG% in the league. Fun times

[JawsGT]

Just handed 122 points to the team with the 2nd best OPP FG% in the league. Fun times

The bucks just don't like crossing the border. But boy do they need some shooters to put around Giannis and Parker.

[Ebonhawke]

After tonight's game against the Bucks, the Raptors are up to 114.9 ORating per Josh Lewenberg