Everything Nick Nurse

[LJ2]

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.

This team would greatly benefit from a player like PJ Tucker whom can be vocal leader on defense. We have all the defensive talent you could ask for but it feels like they are under performing in that area. I think in the past though we didn't have that type of player we had Casey to act as one. With Nurse he's opening up the offense so much, but the focus on D seems lacking. It's like one or the other, but never both LOL.

[slaw]

This team would greatly benefit from a player like PJ Tucker whom can be vocal leader on defense. We have all the defensive talent you could ask for but it feels like they are under performing in that area. I think in the past though we didn't have that type of player we had Casey to act as one. With Nurse he's opening up the offense so much, but the focus on D seems lacking. It's like one or the other, but never both LOL.

Nurse made a comment early in the year where a reporter asked him about getting 48 minutes out of his team and Nurse basically shrugged it off with a, 'well, you can't expect that night in and night out' or something. It rubbed me the wrong way coming from coach but it was indicative of how they've done everything this season. Thing is, they are so deadly in transition and at pace that if they crank the defense up and start generating turnovers, they are going to be extremely hard to beat for everyone not named GSW.

[golden]

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

Let’s just bring back KG then.

[KeonClark]

Let’s just bring back KG then.

Lets bring back Hakeem. Lets bring back Wilt the stilt. How far do you wanna go? Marc was an all star in 2017, and was playing just as good in memphis as serge was here. He's not sure where he fits in to the heirarchy here, but everybody is shooting lights out since he got here..

l think a lot of people just really really liked JV. I liked him too. He wasn't the missing piece to a championship. Let's not forget, he was just as much a part of all the "Chances" Masai gave the guys. Everybody likes to separate him from Lowry, DD and Casey, but he's been playing 25 a night every single year alongside them, and where did it get us. This is a new team.

[DanH]

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.

The starting lineup last year had a DRTG of 102.7 in over 800 minutes.

I do think this team has more to offer defensively. Not sure how confident I am in them flipping a switch yet though.

[DanH]

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

Gasol could indeed get his head into being a bench player, and then his passes could find OG and Jeremy Lin and Norman Powell on the perimeter instead of Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam. Who would you prefer to be getting open shots? Or perhaps he could find cutters into the wide open lane, which is definitely not packed with defenders who don't respect our bench players' shooting.

Or, here's an idea, we could start our better C instead of bringing him off the bench behind our lesser C, in a lineup he fits less well in.

Serge has been amazing... and Gasol underwhelming. Well, yeah, we're going to have to agree to disagree, no idea where you are seeing Serge being amazing.

[Zak24gege]

Lets bring back Hakeem. Lets bring back Wilt the stilt. How far do you wanna go? Marc was an all star in 2017, and was playing just as good in memphis as serge was here. He's not sure where he fits in to the heirarchy here, but everybody is shooting lights out since he got here..

l think a lot of people just really really liked JV. I liked him too. He wasn't the missing piece to a championship. Let's not forget, he was just as much a part of all the "Chances" Masai gave the guys. Everybody likes to separate him from Lowry, DD and Casey, but he's been playing 25 a night every single year alongside them, and where did it get us. This is a new team.

Agree, example - recall the end of the pivotable game 1 vs Cavs last year, how many bunnies did JV miss? Painful (figuratively) memory. He was a big part of the teams success and failures...

[planetmars]

The starting lineup last year had a DRTG of 102.7 in over 800 minutes.

I do think this team has more to offer defensively. Not sure how confident I am in them flipping a switch yet though.

Oh okay.. I didn't realize the starters had a decent DRTG last year.

The good news is that GSW had the 11th best defense last year and still won it all. They have the 15th best defense this year and might still win it all.

[GLF]

The starting lineup last year had a DRTG of 102.7 in over 800 minutes.

I do think this team has more to offer defensively. Not sure how confident I am in them flipping a switch yet though.

Do you know what our defensive rating after the all star break has been? I'm assuming pretty bad lol

[S.R.]

Do you know what our defensive rating after the all star break has been? I'm assuming pretty bad lol

Nobody's been really great, Raps #7 overall with a 106.8

[DanH]

Agree, example - recall the end of the pivotable game 1 vs Cavs last year, how many bunnies did JV miss? Painful (figuratively) memory. He was a big part of the teams success and failures...

Players miss shots sometimes. JV on the whole missed shots very rarely, including in the playoffs. Single game outliers are exactly the sort of argument one needs to resort to in order to equate JV's contributions to our playoff struggles to DeRozan's or Casey's.

[GLF]

Nobody's been really great, Raps #7 overall with a 106.8

Isn't that our overall rating? Since the All Star break when we made the trade we've been 7th?

[DanH]

Isn't that our overall rating? Since the All Star break when we made the trade we've been 7th?

We're actually 5th in DRTG since the trade deadline (106.9). 10th in ORTG (111.4), 7th in net (+4.5).

In March, 8th in DRTG, 13th in ORTG, 7th in net.

[GLF]

We're actually 5th in DRTG since the trade deadline (106.9). 10th in ORTG (111.4), 7th in net (+4.5).

In March, 8th in DRTG, 13th in ORTG, 7th in net.

Much much better than I thought. And I know when we actually starts playing the right lineups our offence should get a lot better. That's the hope at least

[rightsideup]

This team would greatly benefit from a player like PJ Tucker whom can be vocal leader on defense. We have all the defensive talent you could ask for but it feels like they are under performing in that area. I think in the past though we didn't have that type of player we had Casey to act as one. With Nurse he's opening up the offense so much, but the focus on D seems lacking. It's like one or the other, but never both LOL.

pj was offered more money to stay here but chose Huston