Raps @ Knicks

[consmap]

I hope Marc plays this game, wanna see what this center rotation can do.

[G__Deane]

Gasol is playing.
100%
Book it

[Rudy Bargnani]

Butler has 7 shots with 7 mins left. He gone

[bertarapsfan]

Butler has 7 shots with 7 mins left. He gone

already getting out shined by Tobias. wait for the locker room fireworks.

[bertarapsfan]

else where Bobby Portis has 30 in his wizards debut

[sanyo]

Didnt we just destory Philly? why do we need to be scared of them? lol we beat them twice easily. they beat us once with several players down.

MIL is the threat for sure. I think we could take Boston with a full healthy lineup.

[Jclaw]

watching Philly vs den. 6ers look pretty dam good. also boban is now their back up C between him and embid that's a hell of a load for opposing teams C ever night

Their 5th best player has 34 points!

[007]

I've never been so excited to watch us play the Knicks

[Jclaw]

What if... �� pic.twitter.com/J3yFzqbAoe

— theScore (@theScore) February 9, 2019

Never knew this.. wow

Mentioned it a few times in the trade deadline thread. Thought it really showed the evolution of the "culture" Masai promised to bring here

[sanyo]

Hmm maybe we pick up Kristaps after 2020 or trade in off season..

[GOLDBLUM]

Hmm maybe we pick up Kristaps after 2020 or trade in off season..

He’s gonna love playing with Doncic.
That ship may have sailed.

(... we’ll acquire him when he’s 34 )

[DanH]

Monroe had to do a lot with the overall team struggles, because he was much worse as a backup C then JV or Serge (depending on who would be the backup or starter on that day). That's why we missed JV so much while he was hurt, because whether JV was a starter or not, with him being hurt meant Monroe had to play a lot. The whole team struggled, particularly the starting unit, because we had 2 of our best players (Lowry and JV, who was a starter for several games) be out with injuries, and in Lowry's case, even when he got back his shot wasn't the same.

Serge did his best to hold the fort a C, and played great games even on losses. The main reason the starters struggled was Lowry recovering from injury, both him and Kawhi being out of the lineup, and not having the luxury to start JV on games we would have. In simple terms, injuries is why we struggled. Not that you're saying that, but Serge had little to do with the starters struggles.

All I'm saying is instead of having Serge & Monroe as your centres (while JV was hurt), we'll now see have Gasol & Serge, which is of course much better, so we should see some improvement overall by the team.

Dude, I'm literally only talking about how successful the 5-some of Lowry-Green-Kawhi-Siakam-Serge has been. The only point you are making here that has anything to do with that is Lowry's shooting.

And the only reason I brought up any of it is because there was a point made by Lowe that the Raptors were SO GOOD with Ibaka starting at C that he questions whether they will start Gasol. Which is nuts, because Serge has been fine at C but the starters have not actually been that good as a unit in ages, so we should not hesitate at all to change that up.

[inthepaint]

Dude, I'm literally only talking about how successful the 5-some of Lowry-Green-Kawhi-Siakam-Serge has been. The only point you are making here that has anything to do with that is Lowry's shooting.

And the only reason I brought up any of it is because there was a point made by Lowe that the Raptors were SO GOOD with Ibaka starting at C that he questions whether they will start Gasol. Which is nuts, because Serge has been fine at C but the starters have not actually been that good as a unit in ages, so we should not hesitate at all to change that up.

Hey man, I don't think we're disagreeing on this one. You start your best players, and if Gasol is one of them, then he'll start at C. No argument there. But let me pose a question just to be sure, since you're alluding to the starters struggles:

Do you believe that the main reason for the starters struggles are injuries? (and all the stuff that's indirectly related to the injuries, like less than ideal chemistry because of guys in-and-out of the lineup, Lowry shot being flat with the bad back etc.)

If your answer is yes, we're in agreement, and I think also in line with what players and coaches think the main challenge has been this year.

If you're answer is no, or something on the lines of "injuries are a part of it, but not the main issue", and the main issue is that Siakam should be coming off the bench, or Ibaka is not a good fit with the starters or OG should start, or some other reason, then we'll have to agree to disagree.

To me the Lowry-Green-Kawhi-Siakam-Ibaka/JV wasn't perfect, but it consisted of our 5 best players, and therefore the right starting lineup (Not that you saying it shouldn't be). They've done well carrying the team to over .710 ball to date, and if they weren't plagued by injuries they would have done even better. I also think they would do even better with an injury-free Marc Gasol as well, I think he'll be really motivated for deep playoff push.

[Tmac2darak]

Mentioned it a few times in the trade deadline thread. Thought it really showed the evolution of the "culture" Masai promised to bring here

It's the American players not wanting to play in Canada is what we have to worry about, not the Europeans.

[DanH]

Hey man, I don't think we're disagreeing on this one. You start your best players, and if Gasol is one of them, then he'll start at C. No argument there. But let me pose a question just to be sure, since you're alluding to the starters struggles:

Do you believe that the main reason for the starters struggles are injuries? (and all the stuff that's indirectly related to the injuries, like less than ideal chemistry because of guys in-and-out of the lineup, Lowry shot being flat with the bad back etc.)

If your answer is yes, we're in agreement, and I think also in line with what players and coaches think the main challenge has been this year.

If you're answer is no, or something on the lines of "injuries are a part of it, but not the main issue", and the main issue is that Siakam should be coming off the bench, or Ibaka is not a good fit with the starters or OG should start, or some other reason, then we'll have to agree to disagree.

To me the Lowry-Green-Kawhi-Siakam-Ibaka/JV wasn't perfect, but it consisted of our 5 best players, and therefore the right starting lineup (Not that you saying it shouldn't be). They've done well carrying the team to over .710 ball to date, and if they weren't plagued by injuries they would have done even better. I also think they would do even better with an injury-free Marc Gasol as well, I think he'll be really motivated for deep playoff push.

Oh, well two things here. To answer your question, no absolutely the starters regressing is not 100% injuries. There is way more there.

And lumping in JV with the starters is the problem here. He's not here anymore to provide those dominant starter minutes that boosted the other starters. The topic at hand was "Ibaka with the starters has been amazing so how do you justify starting Gasol" - and the answer is that the starters have not been amazing with Ibaka in quite some time, and even when he was (early in the season before all the injuries) the starters were dramatically better with JV. So if Gasol is supposed to be the new upgraded version of JV there is no reason to hesitate pushing Ibaka to the bench or PF to get Gasol into those C minutes with the starters.