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GAME #65 Houston Rockets vs Toronto Raptors on Tuesday March 5th, 2019 at 8:00 pm EST

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  • bertarapsfan
    replied
    Im willing to give Jlin and Marc a couple more weeks until i can start any criticism. It's hard to be placed into a winning team in the middle of the season and seamlessly fit in. Its especially hard when we dont have a set rotation and guys minutes and court pairings are changing on a game to game basis. Marc has shown flashes already when he plays with the starters. For lin it must be hard as his role has changed alot game to game. He got the start after like a week here after preparing to be a backup PG. I think 5-6 more game and we can really judge how these dudes are gonna fit with our team. JLin has been concerning lately but i think hes a guy who really needs a defined role to perform at his best. The fact these guys are both veterans and have high bball IQ will help them speed up this integration hopefully..

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  • inthepaint
    replied
    One thing that Matt/Jack said a couple of times is the possibility of Gasol at the 4. It's a long shot, he played C his whole career, but I think it would actually untangle some conundrums on the rotation:

    Lowry/Kawhi/Siakam/Gasol/Ibaka

    Gasol elevates Lowry's offence, Lowry elevates Ibaka's offence. The idea would be having Gasol play the high post as a 4 near the top of the key, working the the 2-man game with Lowry. He could screen for Lowry's 3 (it is very difficult to go over a Gasol screen and to block a 3pt shooter that is confortable putting up deep 3's like Lowry), but also popping to the 3pt line like he did in Memphis (instead of always rolling to rim like he's been doing here).

    Lowry would still have the effective bread and butter pn'r with Serge (or pop to Serge's elbow range). Having both on the court could also open up action where both come up to the top of the key for double screens/pin downs bringing both opposing bigs out of the paint, which would open things up for baseline cuts by Siakam or Kawhi. Both Siakam & Kawhi are good rebounders, so even if the 2 bigs are out on screen action at the top of the key, the wings can crash the boards (or one can stay in the corner 3, as both are good 3pt shooters from there).

    I don't know if it's mathematically doable for minutes but in this setup, I'd try to have at least 2 of Lowry/Ibaka/Gasol on the court at all times (they all played together before and have good chemistry), and 2 of Kawhi/Green/Siakam (the 3 of which also have good chemistry) always on the floor as well. Then I'd round up a tight 8-man rotation with FVV (for the 1 & 2 spots) and OG (for the 3 and 4 spots). I'd get another insurance 5 as your potential 9th man (eg Gortat) and Lin/MCaw/Norm would only see time if there was injuries.

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  • Zak24gege
    replied
    MixxAOR wrote: View Post
    To me it looks like Nurse doesn't know who his team is.
    A couple quick facts on the Detroit game. 1) We had 10 more FGA than Detroit. They had 5 more FT, but only 1 more make. J-Lin 0-9. 2) We only played 9 players, Detroit 11 YET only 7 Pistons attempted 3's whereas all 9 Raptors attempted 3's.

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  • MixxAOR
    replied
    To me it looks like Nurse doesn't know who his team is.

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  • golden
    replied
    S.R. wrote: View Post

    Nurse's approach on this is essentially the polar opposite from Casey's "role cards" and the way he would pencil in 5 starters in October and refuse to change it all year.
    That worked because we never saw a lot of injuries, load management or major in season trades during the Casey era. But yeah, Nurse is definitely not a "stay in yo lane" type of coach. The players seem to enjoy the freedom to express other parts of their game, but you also hear the little whispers about needing more structure from time-to-time.

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  • S.R.
    replied
    golden wrote: View Post
    Way more roster instability than we saw in the Casey era after the Gay trade.
    Nurse's approach on this is essentially the polar opposite from Casey's "role cards" and the way he would pencil in 5 starters in October and refuse to change it all year.

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  • golden
    replied
    GLF wrote: View Post
    I'm almost pissed that the hockey lineups didn't work in the playoffs last year because it's almost like it caused Nick to go in the opposite direction to an extreme. It seems to me that he doesn't want any lineup to get too comfortable with each other. Any time he plays the same lineup for a couple games (and it works) it's like he HAS to go back to trying something else just because. Yes I liked the idea of experimenting and trying new things, but if you're going to go to the extreme like he is and not even experimenting with lineups and players that make sense I don't see what we're gaining from it. I really hope you guys are right and by playoff time he has enough of a sample size that he only plays the lineups that work but I doubt it
    Nurse actually said something along those lines earlier in the year, where he didn't want a situation where Player A always had to be on the court with Player B to be effective (FVV needing Pascal comes to mind immediately). I get the point, but a big part of coaching is also finding player combinations where strengths and weaknesses complement each other. When you find those combinations, you lock it in and take it to the next level. Nurse does have the excuses of injuries, load management and trades. Way more roster instability than we saw in the Casey era after the Gay trade.

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  • GLF
    replied
    I'm almost pissed that the hockey lineups didn't work in the playoffs last year because it's almost like it caused Nick to go in the opposite direction to an extreme. It seems to me that he doesn't want any lineup to get too comfortable with each other. Any time he plays the same lineup for a couple games (and it works) it's like he HAS to go back to trying something else just because. Yes I liked the idea of experimenting and trying new things, but if you're going to go to the extreme like he is and not even experimenting with lineups and players that make sense I don't see what we're gaining from it. I really hope you guys are right and by playoff time he has enough of a sample size that he only plays the lineups that work but I doubt it

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  • GLF
    replied
    DanH wrote: View Post
    Starting to get a little frustrated with the rotations. Nurse even staggered guys last night, but then the bench offence was run the same way as ever instead of through the staggered guys (though staggered is a strong word, he mostly just left Lowry and Siakam out for super long stretches rather than staggering their minutes). We had Lowry and Siakam standing off ball doing nothing, while the bench guys failed over and over. Silly.

    Gasol playing with the bench makes no sense. Even on nights where the Ibaka starters go off (which is more luck than matchup it seems), Gasol doesn't fix the bench, and all his strengths are handcuffed with that group. If we wanted to use Gasol this way we should have kept JV. Surround the man with talent and shooting and let's see what we traded for. If Gasol can't leverage his passing to help the team (and he largely can't when working with all bench units or setting screens for Lin drives - or FVV drives when he's back), all we've done is downgrade our rebounding and scoring. Gasol's passing could be world changing for the team's ceiling, but we'll never know if we keep saddling him with these bench units. Heck, even staggered starters playing with too many bench guys probably handcuffs his effectiveness.
    Yup! The seasons coming to an end and nothing has changed with the lineup and rotations. I'm over expecting it to like some people are here do. Every time he looks like he's finally got it he goes back to his old ways a game or 2 later. Just wasting away Gasol's talents which just makes that trade look even worse

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  • DanH
    replied
    Starting to get a little frustrated with the rotations. Nurse even staggered guys last night, but then the bench offence was run the same way as ever instead of through the staggered guys (though staggered is a strong word, he mostly just left Lowry and Siakam out for super long stretches rather than staggering their minutes). We had Lowry and Siakam standing off ball doing nothing, while the bench guys failed over and over. Silly.

    Gasol playing with the bench makes no sense. Even on nights where the Ibaka starters go off (which is more luck than matchup it seems), Gasol doesn't fix the bench, and all his strengths are handcuffed with that group. If we wanted to use Gasol this way we should have kept JV. Surround the man with talent and shooting and let's see what we traded for. If Gasol can't leverage his passing to help the team (and he largely can't when working with all bench units or setting screens for Lin drives - or FVV drives when he's back), all we've done is downgrade our rebounding and scoring. Gasol's passing could be world changing for the team's ceiling, but we'll never know if we keep saddling him with these bench units. Heck, even staggered starters playing with too many bench guys probably handcuffs his effectiveness.

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  • Zak24gege
    replied
    The Great One wrote: View Post

    I'm not worried about Gasol.
    I hope your right. Being The Great One must be tough though. Like Masai, this is his year. His players, his coach. his year...

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  • Zak24gege
    replied
    slaw wrote: View Post

    Dude, I just watched them practice last night on tv! There was a whole scrimmage against James Harden and everything.
    Assume your not referring to the game...lol. Thanks for confirming Brunt is full of BS...

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  • slaw
    replied
    Zak24gege wrote: View Post

    This is what Stephen Brunt said last night on McCown's show. Talks about how important getting rest and clearly said no practise on the off days and no game day shoot arounds. May explain some of the confusion out there? Now this was from Brunt. If someone saw them practise or has tape showing them practising then Brunt is feeding us Rap fans a load of BS.
    Dude, I just watched them practice last night on tv! There was a whole scrimmage against James Harden and everything.

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  • The Great One
    replied
    Zak24gege wrote: View Post
    Gasol -30 18 mins, OG -30 14 mins, Lin -22 11 mins, Powell -16 10 mins, McCaw -15 10 mins...Gasol gets 1 rebound. 7-1 CN Tower, doesn't move. Our guys in Memphis don't seem to have a problem fitting in and contributing!
    I'm not worried about Gasol.

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  • The Great One
    replied
    Also, since Nurse loves to "experiment". Why not give Miller a chance? he can defend, and unlike Powell, he can actually shoot. I liked him a lot last year over McKinnie, look at McKinnie now.

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