Everything Nick Nurse

[GLF]

Yeah, it's just a baseline substitution pattern, but sh*t will happen and Nurse is gonna Nurse. The goal was to eliminate the need for Lin/Powell/McCaw, except for: foul trouble, specific matchups, injury or if Lowry/Kawhi/Green need a rest. The main idea is to play our highest positive impact players (and OG, out of necessity) the most minutes. Weird concept, I know.

That's how it should be. We shouldn't be making space for Lin/Powell or McCaw just because. They should not be playing. Injury and foul trouble or a blow out should be the only time they touch the floor. I know it wont happen but one can hope

[bertarapsfan]

Im just putting it out into the ether. Patrick McCaw is going to have at least 1 big moment this playoffs. I can feel it in my bones. The Crow will leave his mark. And we will all CAW CAW in celebration. So its been written so its been told.

[spicy_d]

why is gasol starting all the time?

[DanH]

why is gasol starting all the time?

Probably has something to do with him being the Raptors' starting C.

[spicy_d]

Probably has something to do with him being the Raptors' starting C.

what has he done to earn it ?

[DanH]

what has he done to earn it ?

Ah, I see.

Not much point in continuing this conversation, I have very little regard for the concept of players needing to earn their spots. A coach's job is to put players in a position to succeed. Gasol's talents would be wasted on the bench, and the starters will have more success with him than without, while the same is not true of Ibaka, who should be able to function very well as the bench C if he can get his head into the role. It's as simple as that.

[spicy_d]

Ah, I see.

Not much point in continuing this conversation, I have very little regard for the concept of players needing to earn their spots. A coach's job is to put players in a position to succeed. Gasol's talents would be wasted on the bench, and the starters will have more success with him than without, while the same is not true of Ibaka, who should be able to function very well as the bench C if he can get his head into the role. It's as simple as that.

gasol could do the same (ie get his head into being a bench player ) ...if he is such a good passer who stretches the floor ...then he could help FVV to improve our shitty bench .

serge has been amazing this year and gasol has been pretty underwhelming to say the least

anyway my 2 cents...agree to disagrde

[LJ2]

Not sure where to post this question, but how does the Raptors defense this season compare with last season? Are we better, worse, pretty much the same? Any big changes in key def stats this season?

[G__Deane]

Not sure where to post this question, but how does the Raptors defense this season compare with last season? Are we better, worse, pretty much the same? Any big changes in key def stats this season?

I believe it inexplicably worse

[S.R.]

gasol could do the same (ie get his head into being a bench player ) ...if he is such a good passer who stretches the floor ...then he could help FVV to improve our shitty bench .

serge has been amazing this year and gasol has been pretty underwhelming to say the least

anyway my 2 cents...agree to disagrde

Serge hasn't been that amazing, though. He's recovered from a down year last year, which is great to see. But the Raptors' starting unit is also really good and making almost anyone who plays with them look pretty good, too. The JV lineups with the starters were considerably better than the Serge lineups, but JV got traded and Serge is still here.

Gasol's season to date this year has been better than Serge's - just take a look at their numbers. Even in TO, Gasol's numbers are starting to recover from an iffy start.

I'm not sure Serge is any better as a mobile/stretch big, either. Guy is shooting 27% from deep now on the year while Gasol's at 39% in T.O. on slightly fewer attempts. I think Gasol's just as mobile as Serge out in space defensively, too.

Gasol's still got the most potential as the starting C and Siakam may well emerge as the Death Lineup small ball 5 in the playoffs (I hope this is one of the tricks Nurse is keeping up his sleeve, we've seen it just a bit).

Gasol's also 12 years younger than Serge, which definitely helps.

[S.R.]

Not sure where to post this question, but how does the Raptors defense this season compare with last season? Are we better, worse, pretty much the same? Any big changes in key def stats this season?

I think this year's defensive ceiling is much higher. When this team cranks up the defensive intensity, they're incredible. They just aren't bringing it as consistently as last year. One calling card of Casey teams was the consistent effort during the regular season.

This team's making us all a bit worried, the glass-half-full view is this is finally an experienced team with a playoff switch and they're saving it (Nurse claims he's saving lots, too). Sure hope this is true. The glass-half-empty view is the team is inconsistent and the chemistry still isn't there.

[KeonClark]

what has he done to earn it ?

Um.. how about 11 years, 3x all star, 2x all nba, dpoy all as a starting center on a really good team?

the guy earned it before he got here. He did not start existing the minute he entered the Raptors universe

[G__Deane]

I think this year's defensive ceiling is much higher. When this team cranks up the defensive intensity, they're incredible. They just aren't bringing it as consistently as last year. One calling card of Casey teams was the consistent effort during the regular season.

This team's making us all a bit worried, the glass-half-full view is this is finally an experienced team with a playoff switch and they're saving it (Nurse claims he's saving lots, too). Sure hope this is true. The glass-half-empty view is the team is inconsistent and the chemistry still isn't there.

Are you actually saying Casey's team (in particular Kyle and DeMar) brought consistent defensive intensity?

[MixxAOR]

Are you actually saying Casey's team (in particular Kyle and DeMar) brought consistent defensive intensity?

More like Demar's shortcoming on defesive end were hidden during regular season but in playoffs they got exposed.

[planetmars]

We had a good defensive team last year primarily because of our bench who played significant minutes together. That bench doesn't exist this year. We were also extremely healthy.. so chemistry wasn't a factor.. and chemistry is a big deal defensively which we struggled with this year. New coach. Kawhi/Danny are new. Kyle got hurt. Than JV got hurt. Fred was banged up all year and then had to get surgery. Kawhi missing games. The trade deadline came and we swapped three guys for 1. Had to use the buy out market to get some new faces as well. Norm played significant minutes and didn't last year. Moose had to play significant minutes as our back up center.

DeMar, JV, Miles, etc were all bad individual defenders but as a team we tried hard for the most part but were most importantly in sync with each other. A lot of that got exposed in the playoffs against the Cavs. When the game tightens up.. chemistry isn't as important as talent. And the lack of talent (at least defensively) showed in spades.

Nurse's team doesn't try hard on defense. Not all the time anyway. In particular guys like Kawhi, Serge/Marc and Siakam aren't always working hard on defense.. or are losing their man as they aren't paying attention. Perhaps our schemes need more work.. hard to say. But when the team tries they are hard to score on. That's why I think there will be a flip. I've seen it in the regular season. It just doesn't happen often enough.