I'm not asking to win 50 million dollars

[thead]

All I wanted was a team that got somewhere close to 40 wins, remained competitive in the games we did lose and either eeked out the 8th spot or surrendered the 14th pick. That was my lowly definition of success this season. I wanted a team that seemed to be making forward progress.

but guys something is up.

Casey proved last year he knows to ride the hot hand. He knows how to handle rotations. He knows how to motivate Bargnani, and he knows how to coach defense. How do you get a better defensive PG,C and a SG taking a real step forward and still blow games?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but it appears Casey is coaching to lose and or showcase Calderon, Bargnani and Johnson.

From an outside perspective this looks a lot like showcasing and tanking.

[BasketballCrush]

I like JV, but this talk about him being a good defensive addition has to end. He is a rookie and he is playing like one, one day a good game, another day a dud. It's going to take time.


Right now, with him on the floor, we are worse defensively. He might have his moments, but overall the statistics are not making him out to be any defensive force at all.


Lowry has not always lived up to his defensive capabilities as well. He is better than Jose, but I have not seen him be significantly better defensively than his starting opposite.


So to sum it up, JV, due to his rookie experience has been a minus defensively so far. Lowry, has been in the middle. I have seen more offense from him than defence.

[Rapstor4Life]

JV has been gassed lately but what can you expect from a 20 year old rookie playing all alone in the post? There is no team in the league that survives with no post presence its a recipe for disaster.

[BasketballCrush]

I am not criticizing JV at all... I just think the idea that he is 40 minute starter is messed up. If Casey plays him that long, we will lose most games by 20 points. It's not because of his effort, just his experience. He should not have the load of a starter or the criticism of one yet. He is still learning the NBA game, and figuring guys out.

I like seeing him get burn, but by no means do I think he is a saviour at his position. He has a lot left to learn. My biggest criticism of him so far is his rebounding, his numbers are not where I would expect them to be considering he is playing with a big that hardly gets any rebounds at all.

If that is the rebounding of our front court, one of them has to go, and I lean towards AB.

[JimiCliff]

Ideally we'd have been bringing JV off the bench, but we really don't have another centre we want to start:

- Amir is pretty much useless when he isn't playing with Jose. He feeds of those sweet pick and roll plays, and those don't happen with Lowry yet, and maybe never will. So if Lowry starts, Amir has to come off the bench...

- Davis can't guard centres, so you can't start him there...

- Grey is probably the best option right now; but if you play him then one of JV/ED/AJ can't play...

Which means with the roster constructed as it is, JV has to start.

[BasketballCrush]

Like I said, I understand that, but this thread came off sounding like we gave Casey some marvelous defensive piece in JV.


We gave him a rookie, that still is learning the game, he has shown incredible promise in stretches, but overall is probably a negative. From a development standpoint, its a huge positive for us to play him, so I like it.


However, I am not going to blame Casey for his defensive woes, when he has to play Val, who is undersized and under experienced. He can look great for stretches and even bring you some WOW, but in the end his lack of experience allows him to get foiled by more experienced big men. So the end result is still that Val is a defensive liability, and the stats do bear this out.


BTW, in the NBA the center is the foundation of your defence, everything is built around that position. Us plugging a rookie in there, will have impact. I like the loss of impact due to development factor, so I am okay with it, hence I can't blame Casey for this.

[psrs1]

All I wanted was a team that got somewhere close to 40 wins, remained competitive in the games we did lose and either eeked out the 8th spot or surrendered the 14th pick. That was my lowly definition of success this season. I wanted a team that seemed to be making forward progress.

but guys something is up.

Casey proved last year he knows to ride the hot hand. He knows how to handle rotations. He knows how to motivate Bargnani, and he knows how to coach defense. How do you get a better defensive PG,C and a SG taking a real step forward and still blow games?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but it appears Casey is coaching to lose and or showcase Calderon, Bargnani and Johnson.

From an outside perspective this looks a lot like showcasing and tanking.

If so then BC needs to make a trade already.

[Sig]

nonsense...

[akashsingh]

All I wanted was a team that got somewhere close to 40 wins, remained competitive in the games we did lose and either eeked out the 8th spot or surrendered the 14th pick. That was my lowly definition of success this season. I wanted a team that seemed to be making forward progress.

but guys something is up.

Casey proved last year he knows to ride the hot hand. He knows how to handle rotations. He knows how to motivate Bargnani, and he knows how to coach defense. How do you get a better defensive PG,C and a SG taking a real step forward and still blow games?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but it appears Casey is coaching to lose and or showcase Calderon, Bargnani and Johnson.

From an outside perspective this looks a lot like showcasing and tanking.

refer to my thread: http://raptorsrepublic.com/forums/sh...ughts-on-casey

[BasketballCrush]

So Byron Scott should take some heat with Clevland as well.


They had more picks than us, 1st overall, the talent they added as well as a veteran in Verajo down low should mean they too are playoff bound... but their GM never made that claim, our idiot did.


How is the Raptors roster more talented than Cleveland's? They are 4-16, getting the better picks, and a guy down low that can rebound. Their expectations were lower.






some moron in our front office felt we had a playoff team without looking around the league.

[BasketballCrush]

Cleveland is not doing any better than us, and they got more of a running start on their rebuild.

[thead]

JV aside I don't see how the defense gets worse

[thead]

I feel 20 games is a big enough sample size now to make hard determinations.

[BasketballCrush]

JJ at SF was an upgrade to what we have now, defensively.... but offensively it sucked bad last year, so we plugged him out with fields/pietrus/kleiza.


As for how bad our defense is. It really was not that bad 10 games in. It's been getting worse in the last 10 games with lowry out and Andrea playing like he does not care anymore.



We have been competitive for the most part, the blow outs have been few, but they have hurt and made the few good games (against quality opponents) insignificant statistically.

[minks77]

For the life of me I can't understand how this team is so much worse than last year. What happened to the effort?