Everything (2016-2017) Regular Season Game Threads

[DanH]

Casey went on about how the team didn't establish their defensive identity until the second half in his post game interview.

What changed between the start of the first half and the start of the second half, Coach?

[Lupe]

You know one silver lining of this game? Despite facing a multitude of athletic wing defenders, DeMar was able to create offense over and over again.

People like to shit on volume scoring but anyone who watched tonight's game can't tell me that having a guy who can continually break droughts and keep you in a game is easily replaced.

Of course the pessimist in me is trying frantically to erase all memories of the 1000 perimeter blowbys (not all of which were Demar's fault).

It isn't easily replaced at all. There aren't more than like 10-15 players who can do what Demar does, the bulk of whom aren't ever getting traded.

[lewro]

2016 jv ORtg 113.4. DRtg 109.2
2015. 109. 106.1
2016 siakam. 109.1. 106.2
2015 scola. 104. 106.7

Scola got worse as the year went on to my eye. I imagine siakam will get better. WAC to starting NBA #2 seed is a big jump. His reads a poor at times but he's recovering well and learning. More concerned about finding an upgrade. He's doing as well as can be expected. Siakam scores better than jv in individual defensive metrics like drpm and dbpm which I already posted. Worse in offensive obviously. Scolas dbpm was -.4, obpm - 1.1. siakam .7, -.9. I don't have rpm stats ATM but probably comparable. My eyes are telling me the same but it's been awhile since I watched scola on the raps.

[golden]

This was a heat check loss. Whenever you see players singing on the plane after beating Philly, you know they're feeling a bit too good about themselves.

[special1]

The biggest difference between this season and last season is there's no toughness around the rim.

Maybe having a guy like Biz waiting back there made guards think twice about driving to the rim?

I fear this isn't something we can fix by saying "try harder"

I fear this is a personnel issue. We need someone tough....Someone who isn't scared to put someone on their butt for thinking they can just waltz to our basket.

[Puffer]

This team needs to fix its defence and at this point, ONLY trade will help.
So Either get a perimeter defender or a rim protector. You got to make a move man.

I don't think one rim protector will help when three guys turn into pylons and the coach has instructed his bigs to hedge hard every time a guard is facing a blow by.

[special1]

If the guards are the problem......Don't you think we need a big who salivates at the opportunity to block their shots? Do we expect to snap our fingers and the guards become stoppers? This to me is unreasonable.... We currently have a turnstile in JV at the rim. The opposing teams are finding even more ways to free up their guards so that they can abuse our turnstile. Bebe is better, but he's not strong enough to bang with the big boys.

I see promise in Jakob but we can't rely on a rookie right now....Let me take a step back here. Remind myself that it's only one game, one third of the season.

Honestly, our defence scares me. Reminds me too much of 2014-15 season.

[Axel]

If the guards are the problem......Don't you think we need a big who salivates at the opportunity to block their shots? Do we expect to snap our fingers and the guards become stoppers? This to me is unreasonable.... We currently have a turnstile in JV at the rim. The opposing teams are finding even more ways to free up their guards so that they can abuse our turnstile. Bebe is better, but he's not strong enough to bang with the big boys.

I see promise in Jakob but we can't rely on a rookie right now....Let me take a step back here. Remind myself that it's only one game, one third of the season.

Honestly, our defence scares me. Reminds me too much of 2014-15 season.

Shot blocking isn't the issue, it's the lack of help when a big does step up, no one rotates to cover them. You could have Prime Dikembe and it wouldn't help because weakside help (could be another big or guard or wing - so no indictment of an individual Raptor) isn't rotating to cover his man.

If we can't stop the penetration then we need better rotations to cover off the help that comes. Ideally we would do better stopping the penetration but I don't think that is happening with the players we have in the rotation right now.

[djsunyc]

Kyle, Demar and Pat all fit our system. Looks like changes to the 3 and / or 5 will need to be made if we wanna be competitive in the CFs and beyond.

changes at the 3 and 5 may help but let me remind you that lowry and dd play worse in the playoffs. our offense was absolute dreck because derozan becomes the worst 20 point scorer in nba history putting up 6-20's in the playoffs.

our defensive issue right now is a systematic one. biz helped last year but this is an utter collapse so i have to assume one or a combo of the following:

- we miss greer's pressence
- every got worse defensively
- we are using different schemes that haven't worked
- we are more interested in shooting the ball than grinding it out.

if our scheme is set up to funnel everything to our big, then jv is not going to be the guy to bail out this defense.

it also seems like our guards jump out way to far on the pick and roll instead of fighting through the pick.

i'm not sure what to do but when i look at our team - i feel when we play a faster pace, our defense suffers tremendously. i feel we need to play like a playoff team every night - which means slow it down, play half court and work it into jonas a bit more.

this back and forth stuff opens us up to losing to any team we face in the playoffs - and we were lucky to eek by indy and miami.

[Jangles]

Was it last season or the season before that we heard JV changing his diet? I wonder if this has changed. I hope JV is working to slim down a bit. The team and league are getting faster every year.

In years past you would see guys try to involve him in the offence from time to time but that looks to be fading over the last few weeks. If this trend continues, I don't see JV being here much longer.

I'm holding out hope that when Norm becomes a permanent rotation player or starter that our defence should improve as well.

[Axel]

I'm holding out hope that when Norm becomes a permanent rotation player or starter that our defence should improve as well.

Our problems seem too systemic for one player to fix unless it's a LeBron "do it all and lead everyone" type of player which is pretty much limited to LeBron right now. Powell will be better individually than some others right now but he won't be able to change the tide on his own.

[Chr1s1anL]

Is it too late to pay Biz 17 mil a year?

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[rocwell]

Is it too late to pay Biz 17 mil a year?

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[Axel]

Is it too late to pay Biz 17 mil a year?

I think we needed to retain Greer, not Biyombo.

[jacobdr4]

Is it too late to pay Biz 17 mil a year?

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Yes, thank god. about 7 mill more than he's worth.