PRESEASON GAME 1: Portland Trail Blazers @ Toronto Raptors in Vancity - Sat Sept 29th, 7pm ET

[DanH]

I'm not worried about Green's performance, but I also don't know if he's reliable starter material at this point in his career. As much as I'm hoping for a bounce back year and like to tell myself the undiagnosed groin issue was a factor last year, lets be real, this guy has been noticeably worse for 3 seasons now.

We'll see what happens. Of the 6 guys Nurse has mentioned as starters, Green and Ibaka are probably the biggest question marks out of the 6 guys in terms of trying to project if they'll be consistently effective. OG I guess could be a bit of a question mark, but I feel fairly confident he'll build off last year, and even if he barely produces more in terms of numbers, just being more consistent and in better shape can make a nice difference for his impact overall.

And heck, if Green and/or Ibaka don't cut it, maybe a bench guy really blossoms and takes the starting spot.

My hope is that most of the in-season starting lineup changes are switching between Ibaka starting or Green starting. That's the biggest stylistic change we can make while keeping the core elements of the starting lineup's success on the floor, and is compatible with both being the closest of our starters to "fringe" starters.

I could see some looks where Delon starts, or Pascal, but I doubt we'd see that often unless one of them takes a leap with their shooting percentage/volume, and even then I would be hesitant to break up the bench unit unless the starting unit really needs help.

[tDotted]

If Raptors fans are worried about Green's first game performance, then Wiz fans should be terrified.

Oubre was 5 of 14, Beal was 3 of 12, and Porter tweaked an ankle.

Morris got ejected so he seems to be himself

[white men can't jump]

If Raptors fans are worried about Green's first game performance, then Wiz fans should be terrified.

Oubre was 5 of 14, Beal was 3 of 12, and Porter tweaked an ankle.

I'm not worried about Green's performance, but I also don't know if he's reliable starter material at this point in his career. As much as I'm hoping for a bounce back year and like to tell myself the undiagnosed groin issue was a factor last year, lets be real, this guy has been noticeably worse for 3 seasons now.

We'll see what happens. Of the 6 guys Nurse has mentioned as starters, Green and Ibaka are probably the biggest question marks out of the 6 guys in terms of trying to project if they'll be consistently effective. OG I guess could be a bit of a question mark, but I feel fairly confident he'll build off last year, and even if he barely produces more in terms of numbers, just being more consistent and in better shape can make a nice difference for his impact overall.

And heck, if Green and/or Ibaka don't cut it, maybe a bench guy really blossoms and takes the starting spot.

[Ebonhawke]

If Raptors fans are worried about Green's first game performance, then Wiz fans should be terrified.

Oubre was 5 of 14, Beal was 3 of 12, and Porter tweaked an ankle.

[saints91]

Ya, I suspect OG will be in place of Miles in the actual starting lineup. If JV comes off the bench but plays 28-30 mins I’ll be happy, he looked great the other night.

Serg and JV can swap starting at 5 depending on the matchups. Howard, jokic, Embid, Gasol nd other large 5’s might be a problem for Serg.

Green or Norm would be good starting 2’s. It would be nice to see norm play his natural position.

My only issue with this team is there are a lot of good serviceable veterans who may not get to play, or play less than they have in the past. Monroe, Miles, Green, and Norm may be unhappy with their roles.

[saints91]

Delete

[white men can't jump]

Before doing your massive analysis here you should probably take note of the fact that OG was supposed to be in that lineup not Miles. That would make it significantly better on the defensive end.

OG being in the lineup makes little difference for this argument. He is a much better defender than CJ, meaning you need Ibaka's supposedly strong rim protection even less. And at this point,I'm not sure how much better overall Ibaka really makes your D over JV.

Also, in a scrum Nurse said he doesn't want us switching a lot, so that also shouldn't be a big factor in choosing your starting C.

Really think it was a random choice. All vets. All shooters...whatever the logic, not convinced it will be what we see most nights.

*OK, I went back and listened to the post game scrum with Nurse, because at today's scrum he mentioned they will be a switching team. So in the post-game one he talked about blown coverages, and how their foundational defensive stuff, which is all they had been putting in, involves no switching. We'll see how things evolve. Hopefully still be using the switches only if necessary.

[golden]

I dont think we need to put any stock in saturdays rotations. Our 5 oldest players started together and rested for the 2nd half. That's about it

The old guys needed to get home and in bed early. Could be a thing.

[KeonClark]

I dont think we need to put any stock in saturdays rotations. Our 5 oldest players started together and rested for the 2nd half. That's about it

[A.I]

idk small ball sounds nice, but even against smaller lineups Ibaka gives up a lot of defensive rebounds and doesn't set good screens. May get enough gang rebounding to make it work though.

Depends on the 4. If you play a frontcourt of Miles/Ibaka, it won’t work. Siakam/Ibaka could work because of Siakam’s motor and energy.

[DogeLover1234]

Yeah, the only small ball looks that make sense are Ibaka-Siakam or Ibaka-OG. You could roll Kawhi at the 4 but I'd prefer not to.

That said, they still only make sense against small opposing centres (or backups). Ibaka's going to end up in foul trouble in no time if he's playing that much C, especially against opposing starters.

idk small ball sounds nice, but even against smaller lineups Ibaka gives up a lot of defensive rebounds and doesn't set good screens. May get enough gang rebounding to make it work though.

[GLF]

Yeah, the only small ball looks that make sense are Ibaka-Siakam or Ibaka-OG. You could roll Kawhi at the 4 but I'd prefer not to.

That said, they still only make sense against small opposing centres (or backups). Ibaka's going to end up in foul trouble in no time if he's playing that much C, especially against opposing starters.

As we saw in the first preseason game. Ibaka's shot blocking is great and all but he cannot handle starting centres unless the other team is starting small (which is vert few teams). He got into foul trouble as you said, he gets manhandled on the boards and he's not a good screen setter so it hurts our overall offence. He should only be playing the 5 coming off the bench or against small ball C's. Replace Ibaka, OG or Pascal in CJ's place last game and our defence looks MUCH better.

[DanH]

Before doing your massive analysis here you should probably take note of the fact that OG was supposed to be in that lineup not Miles. That would make it significantly better on the defensive end.

Yeah, the only small ball looks that make sense are Ibaka-Siakam or Ibaka-OG. You could roll Kawhi at the 4 but I'd prefer not to.

That said, they still only make sense against small opposing centres (or backups). Ibaka's going to end up in foul trouble in no time if he's playing that much C, especially against opposing starters.

[Truth Teller]

Jakob with 10 boards in 18 mins... I really think he's going to integrate well in the Spurs system and be their top centre by next year...thats the one guy I was sad to see leave but thats ok...we still got Kawhi.

In the playoffs he'll do nothing. Just like the other guy.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Yeah, and I don't expect we'll see a similar starting lineup to last night's once the season starts.

I honestly don't know why anyone was excited about it. We had 5 shooters, but no good screener. It makes it hard to actually create space despite having shooters because it makes it hard to collapse the D.

And it's not like it was a "shut down" unit defensively...can't have that with Miles on the court, and also not our best rebounding lineup.

Feel like Nurse just randomly decided to start his most "veteran" group since OG was out. Maybe thought they might click fastest with Lowry and Leonard, who were clearly slated to play limited minutes, but wasn't a huge fan of that group.

Still think we basically end up with the same starting lineup as last year, with Kawhi in place of DeMar. At least if Ibaka is going to keep starting.

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Random thoughts:
-Lowry/Leonard don't look like they'll take that long to click. One thing, though, is that Leonard and JV will have to adjust to each other on the p'n'r. JV is clearly used to DeMar's game, with more dribbling and probing...Kawhi wastes less movement. Not worried about it, but you could see the timing issues during certain plays.
-JV looks like he's in the best shape of his career and like he's ready to build off last season.
-Lineups with JV and Siakam were fun. You can have Siakam running ahead on plays and JV trailing to clean up the mess. Can cause real problems for the opponent in transition.
-Siakam's shot still looks pretty bad. Definitely better form than a year ago today, but not sure if we can expect any consistency in that 3pter this year.
-Norm still looks like the odd man out. Not sure if he can really find a nightly role on this team. Miles and Green are known quantities who seem more stable/reliable. FVV and Wright bring a lot to the table as ballhandlers/playmakers.
-The D needs work in general, but I think that's normal for this stage of preseason. Doesn't look like they've worked too much on it, and there were times where you could see just normal preseason cobwebs, as there were times where they failed to ice or switch and so forth.

Looking forward to seeing how OG looks when he rejoins the team.

Before doing your massive analysis here you should probably take note of the fact that OG was supposed to be in that lineup not Miles. That would make it significantly better on the defensive end.