Everything Serge Ibaka

[Jangles]

A coach is considered an idiot for not giving jv 25+ mins. Honestly who do guys think this guy is?

The success of this team does not hinge on JV playing a lot. As its been proven over and over again throughout his career.

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You have little credibility on this topic.

[white men can't jump]

But that wasn't really a big move though was it? I mean for any other team yes, but for GSW it's more like insurance for like $5M. Not as convinced as you that he'll play any significant minutes this season. Not a lot of bigs like him though..

GSW's only weakness was they didn't have good bigs. They still managed to find minutes for the random group they had. So yeah, I don't think they signed Cousins to be a cheerleader. How much he plays will probably depend on health more than anything, but if he is healthy I do think they'll try to get him a decent chunk of minutes.

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[white men can't jump]

A coach is considered an idiot for not giving jv 25+ mins. Honestly who do guys think this guy is?

The success of this team does not hinge on JV playing a lot. As its been proven over and over again throughout his career.

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Considering almost every playoff series we've won with this team has depended on JV being a huge part of the victory, not sure you've got that right.

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[3inthekeon]

A coach is considered an idiot for not giving jv 25+ mins. Honestly who do guys think this guy is?

The success of this team does not hinge on JV playing a lot. As its been proven over and over again throughout his career.

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Zach Lowe thinks JV has a shot at 6th Man of the Year

[KeonClark]

Zach Lowe thinks JV has a shot at 6th Man of the Year

Not if he barely scratches 20 min a game he wont..

[DanH]

Dan, do you really see success for the Raptors against say GSW, with JV on the floor for 30 mins. a game? If we should make it to the finals against them that is.

My answer is this: I don't know if any team can beat Golden State.

The one thing I'm fairly confident in, though, is that no team can beat them by playing the way they want to play. The best hope a team has is to give them a look that they cannot handle with their small ball and force them to play big. If you let them play the way they want to, no one can keep up.

I absolutely agree with developing Ibaka at C as a look. That does not, however, equate to a) playing him there for the majority of the team's minutes, nor b) failing to explore the pros and cons of playing into the mismatch, and developing strategies for trying to play smalls off the floor with big ball.

We need to develop the Ibaka at C look. He's our best small ball C after all, and if and when we need a small ball look, we want to have that developed. But if and when we want to go big against a small look, we should also have developed that in-season with just as much time investment as Ibaka at C against small looks.

This is my stance: sharpen every tool in the box. In every situation you can. In as big a sample as you can. Until you have rock solid evidence that it's not a tool and situation that fit.

[LJ2]

My answer is this: I don't know if any team can beat Golden State.

The one thing I'm fairly confident in, though, is that no team can beat them by playing the way they want to play. The best hope a team has is to give them a look that they cannot handle with their small ball and force them to play big. If you let them play the way they want to, no one can keep up.

I absolutely agree with developing Ibaka at C as a look. That does not, however, equate to a) playing him there for the majority of the team's minutes, nor b) failing to explore the pros and cons of playing into the mismatch, and developing strategies for trying to play smalls off the floor with big ball.

We need to develop the Ibaka at C look. He's our best small ball C after all, and if and when we need a small ball look, we want to have that developed. But if and when we want to go big against a small look, we should also have developed that in-season with just as much time investment as Ibaka at C against small looks.

This is my stance: sharpen every tool in the box. In every situation you can. In as big a sample as you can. Until you have rock solid evidence that it's not a tool and situation that fit.

Fair enough.

Rockets came pretty darn close to beating GSW, and Raptors have better personnel to defend Warriors than Houston. We don't have that one elite, high volume scorer, but Kawhi can get you 30pts in a playoff game and we have better scoring options around him.

Can't argue with having every player and every look sharp.

[Maury]

After watching Detroit last night, I think that may be a matchup where we want to start Serge and JV. Pascal on Blake is not a great matchup. Blake is really strong in the post and Andre Drummond would crush us on the boards with Ibaka at centre.

[KeonClark]

After watching Detroit last night, I think that may be a matchup where we want to start Serge and JV. Pascal on Blake is not a great matchup. Blake is really strong in the post and Andre Drummond would crush us on the boards with Ibaka at centre.

Definitely wanna start JV. Does Blake venture into the post a ton? I haven't watched Casey's pistons yet but he basically dicked around the perimeter all year last year. I think Pascal and OG would do fine putting pressure on him

[Maury]

Definitely wanna start JV. Does Blake venture into the post a ton? I haven't watched Casey's pistons yet but he basically dicked around the perimeter all year last year. I think Pascal and OG would do fine putting pressure on him

Blake exclusively backs down his man and does a spinning baby hook. It’s a really tough shot to guard because he can get it off deceptively quick, especially if he can back his man down under the rim which he can do with ease when it’s someone like pascal.

[Chr1s1anL]

Zach Lowe thinks JV has a shot at 6th Man of the Year

I do too

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[Shaolin Fantastic]

I do too

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Same... it's exactly why I've been pushing for him to be in this role for a while (well not winning the award, but what he's capable of doing in that role).

The opposing benches do not fucking know what to do with him right now. Dude's averaging roughly 20-20 per 36 with a like +40 individual netRTG. He's terrorizing them. Any kind of defensive issues he has are basically irrelevant too, because other teams don't have benches good enough to take advantage of them.

Honestly I totally disagree with the idea of Serge at starting C being a "look". It should be the first option. JV starting should be situational in matchups where Serge is simply going to be completely outsized and the opposing center is actually a serious offensive threat.

[Chr1s1anL]

Same... it's exactly why I've been pushing for him to be in this role for a while (well not winning the award, but what he's capable of doing in that role).

The opposing benches do not fucking know what to do with him right now. Dude's averaging roughly 20-20 per 36 with a like +40 individual netRTG. He's terrorizing them. Any kind of defensive issues he has are basically irrelevant too, because other teams don't have benches good enough to take advantage of them.

Honestly I totally disagree with the idea of Serge at starting C being a "look". It should be the first option. JV starting should be situational in matchups where Serge is simply going to be completely outsized and the opposing center is actually a serious offensive threat.

couldn't agree more

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Starters with Ibaka at the 5 have an 88.2 dRTG through 5 games.

You literally cannot score on that unit. Unless it becomes inept offensively (which I simply do not see how that is possible with the amount of shooting around Kawhi in addition to the fact that he plays with another all-star in Lowry), it should be our go-to lineup.

[DanH]

Same... it's exactly why I've been pushing for him to be in this role for a while (well not winning the award, but what he's capable of doing in that role).

The opposing benches do not fucking know what to do with him right now. Dude's averaging roughly 20-20 per 36 with a like +40 individual netRTG. He's terrorizing them. Any kind of defensive issues he has are basically irrelevant too, because other teams don't have benches good enough to take advantage of them.

Honestly I totally disagree with the idea of Serge at starting C being a "look". It should be the first option. JV starting should be situational in matchups where Serge is simply going to be completely outsized and the opposing center is actually a serious offensive threat.

JV terrorizing benches hasn't been helping our bench (well, it's been preventing complete disasters). Need to get a real sample of what the bench really looks like and whether they can be a net plus.

Meanwhile, JV beside the KLs is putting up otherworldly lineup numbers in a decent sample. We'll see how the lineups trend as the season goes along. But definitely great to have that lineup as a defensive weapon even on nights where it's not the defacto starting lineup.