Who is the Most Overrated Team in the East ..aka.. Why Boston Sux.

[ebrian]

Its not almost anymore.. you are playing silly bugger.

I have no idea what that means. But clearly, you have no answers. Thanks DanH for taking conversation seriously.

[Demographic Shift]

I have no idea what that means. But clearly, you have no answers. Thanks DanH for taking conversation seriously.

I am quite sure you do know what it means...and yes Dan takes things seriously

Still waiting on where you see the holes in the Raptors depth 6 through 9
That would be one of Miles/Powell, Wright, Poeltl , Siakam..(the horizontal view)

Or if you prefer the vertical view

Miles/Powell
Wright
Poeltl
Siakam

I think the Raps depth is OK

You don’t..that’s fine..just say why..take a position..

[Demographic Shift]

Chris Forsberg

ESPN Staff Writer and Koolaid swilling Chief Celtic Fanboy

BOSTON -- With last nights first exhibition game of the season win last night the Boston Celtics have shown why they are a lock for the NBA finals. Kyrie Irving led the Celtics with a 4 of 11 shooting night chipping in an assist. Prized rookie Jayson Tatum went 1 for 7 in the first half against real NBA players but quickly showed why he will be ROY with a 3 for 4 second half against players bound for China and the G League.

Gordon Hayward made his presence felt in his first game in the Garden by putting up an 0 for 2 night from deep to augment a torrid 2 of 6 night from the floor overall.

There was another team wearing blue on the floor last night as well.

- - - Chris.

[ebrian]

I am quite sure you do know what it means...and yes Dan takes things seriously

Still waiting on where you see the holes in the Raptors depth 6 through 9
That would be one of Miles/Powell, Wright, Poeltl , Siakam..(the horizontal view)

Or if you prefer the vertical view

Miles/Powell
Wright - don't think he's ready to play the 25+ minutes that Cojo was playing over the past 2 seasons
Poeltl - not ready
Siakam - definitely not ready

I think the Raps depth is OK

You don’t..that’s fine..just say why..take a position..

Personally I wouldn't use such a derogatory word such as "bugger". I hope it means something else to you than it does to me.

I think my position has been pretty clear from the start of this! LOL

When Lowry misses time we're in a world of hurt, and Lowry has missed time every year since we've had him. He has played 82 games once in 12 years. We essentially have no depth at the point. I don't trust Delon Wright to start games for us or to give VanVleet the 25+ minutes that would go to the backup PG.

You guys look at depth in a perfect world; I look at depth as players who need to soak up a lot of minutes when injuries hit, and hit they will.

[DanH]

Meh, CoJo was a disaster last year. Wright is just as capable of absorbing Lowry minutes if he goes down, and the team will rely on DeMar stepping up big time as he did last year when Lowry got hurt regardless of who is running the point.

As with every team in the league, yes, we will be hurting if our best player misses time. C'est la vie.

[planetmars]

Has Kyrie ever played 82 games? How about Beal? I mean every team has the same injury concerns that the Raptors would. I thought CoJo was terrible last year.. at least until Lowry got injured. He was great the year before though. I'm not 100% convinced Wright can fill in for him completely but he was drafted as a senior for a reason.

Losing 2Pat hurts because we could use his shooting. Siakam will basically replace him and that's a big ask.

Losing Tucker hurts because he was really what altered our defense post trade deadline. It's too much of an ask to have OG duplicate any of what Tucker did.. but he'll get an opportunity and maybe he'll have a positive impact?

Ultimately swapping Carroll with Miles will be a huge bonus. And having Ibaka for the entire year instead of just 2-3 months will be a big plus too. This team could still scrounge up 46+ wins with a banged up Lowry. As long as he's healthy by the playoffs we should be fine.

[SkywalkerAC]

If Casey's shown anything, it's that he can consistently get good, winning production out of his bench, and I like our depth a lot more than some from years passed.

[JamesNaismith]

Has Kyrie ever played 82 games?

No he hasn't.

In fact HALF of his NBA career he's played under 59 games a season.

That's one thing that I don't think gets discussed enough especially when his workload is only going to increase now without LBJ.

[Demographic Shift]

Has Kyrie ever played 82 games? How about Beal? I mean every team has the same injury concerns that the Raptors would. I thought CoJo was terrible last year.. at least until Lowry got injured. He was great the year before though. I'm not 100% convinced Wright can fill in for him completely but he was drafted as a senior for a reason.

Losing 2Pat hurts because we could use his shooting. Siakam will basically replace him and that's a big ask.

Losing Tucker hurts because he was really what altered our defense post trade deadline. It's too much of an ask to have OG duplicate any of what Tucker did.. but he'll get an opportunity and maybe he'll have a positive impact?
I
Ultimately swapping Carroll with Miles will be a huge bonus. And having Ibaka for the entire year instead of just 2-3 months will be a big plus too. This team could still scrounge up 46+ wins with a banged up Lowry. As long as he's healthy by the playoffs we should be fine.

Beal averages in the same range as Irving of about 64 games a year. Last year he played in 77 ..pretty much a full season if you assume he had a few rest games. His first in 5 years.

Prior to that he put in 56...73...55 and 63.....not exactly Lou Gehrig. The Wiz held off a year in giving him his max or near max deal over his durability.

The Morrisses were acquitted today of felony assault charges...good news for Boston but Markieff is going to be on the shelf for a couple of months recovering from a sports hernia procedure. Washington May get out of the gate slow with one of their starters in dry dock. Backing him up is Jason Smith or Chris McCollough or Kelly Oubre out of their bigs and wings.

[Hotshot]

Speaking of the Wizards, yesterday they played against The Lions ( A Chinese based team) and our former Raptor Tyler Hansborugh had 29 points and 11 rebounds against the Wizards.

[Hotshot]

Boston get a hold of your announcers.

You did what, Tommy Heinsohn? pic.twitter.com/IN3OxABAru

— Chris Kroeger (@Kroeger) October 3, 2017

[ebrian]

Boston get a hold of your announcers.

You did what, Tommy Heinsohn? pic.twitter.com/IN3OxABAru

— Chris Kroeger (@Kroeger) October 3, 2017

LOL! I can't believe he said that on the air.

[Scraptor]

Oh man how have I not been keeping up with this thread. Gold.

I'm just chiming in to say that ebrian is rightfully concerned about our depth. Anyone who isn't has their homer glasses on.

That said, there is also an opportunity for some upside surprises from the bench given its youth and inexperience. But the likelihood of that is limited by limited ceilings (OG being the likely exception). All I can hope for is that they become solid rotational players... And even that is going to take a lot of growing pains over the next few months.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

The Raptors depth IS terrible.

We have 6 guys who have proven to be serviceable NBA players: Kyle, DeMar, Norm, JV, Ibaka, Miles.

3 of those guys are mediocre to bad defensively (DeMar, Miles, JV). The other 3 are above average to good, but not elite.

The other rotation players are fucking terrible: Wright, Siakam, Poeltl... fucking Caboclo? (OG?). None of these guys have shown they can play at the NBA level, and they aren't exactly high ceiling prospects. Wright is already 25, Siakam is 23, Poeltl was supposed to be an instant impact type prospect with mediocre upside.

You can actually see why Norm isn't starting. Even though it kills our spacing in the DeMar bench unit, we can't afford to start Norm because otherwise DeMar and Kyle will be out there without any sort of secondary playmaker in their bench units. We've lost CoJo and it looks like Wright is nowhere near as good offensively (which is saying something because CoJo wasn't even that good on offense).

This is what happens when you cheap out as a franchise. MLSE just paid the guys who will get us in the playoffs (DeMar, Kyle, Ibaka) and said fuck it from there and just looked to cut costs. We have a bunch of crap players coming off our bench now with the exception of Norm.

You guys overrate the shit out of these prospects. Go ask any other fan from a different fanbase what they think of guys like Wright, SIakam, Poeltl, etc. They aren't good players.

Not only that but thanks to our cost-cutting, we gave up the only assets we actually had to try to make a trade to get better. We can't afford to use Norm in a trade because our wing depth would be even more depleted, and JV has very little value. This team is crying out for a 2-way player at the 3/4, and if you guys think Anunoby is magically gonna be that in his rookie season and hit 3s while defending at a high level... you're in for a very rude awakening.

I said this from the start of our cost-cutting moves in the offseason and now it's coming to fruition. We are 6 deep. That is not good enough, period. There's a reason why projections have us winning 45-49 games, and it's not because they hate Canada, it's because the roster is thin as hell and very flawed.

[golden]

The Raptors depth IS terrible.

We have 6 guys who have proven to be serviceable NBA players: Kyle, DeMar, Norm, JV, Ibaka, Miles.

3 of those guys are mediocre to bad defensively (DeMar, Miles, JV). The other 3 are above average to good, but not elite.

The other rotation players are fucking terrible: Wright, Siakam, Poeltl... fucking Caboclo? (OG?). None of these guys have shown they can play at the NBA level, and they aren't exactly high ceiling prospects. Wright is already 25, Siakam is 23, Poeltl was supposed to be an instant impact type prospect with mediocre upside.

You can actually see why Norm isn't starting. Even though it kills our spacing in the DeMar bench unit, we can't afford to start Norm because otherwise DeMar and Kyle will be out there without any sort of secondary playmaker in their bench units. We've lost CoJo and it looks like Wright is nowhere near as good offensively (which is saying something because CoJo wasn't even that good on offense).

This is what happens when you cheap out as a franchise. MLSE just paid the guys who will get us in the playoffs (DeMar, Kyle, Ibaka) and said fuck it from there and just looked to cut costs. We have a bunch of crap players coming off our bench now with the exception of Norm.

You guys overrate the shit out of these prospects. Go ask any other fan from a different fanbase what they think of guys like Wright, SIakam, Poeltl, etc. They aren't good players.

Not only that but thanks to our cost-cutting, we gave up the only assets we actually had to try to make a trade to get better. We can't afford to use Norm in a trade because our wing depth would be even more depleted, and JV has very little value. This team is crying out for a 2-way player at the 3/4, and if you guys think Anunoby is magically gonna be that in his rookie season and hit 3s while defending at a high level... you're in for a very rude awakening.

I said this from the start of our cost-cutting moves in the offseason and now it's coming to fruition. We are 6 deep. That is not good enough, period. There's a reason why projections have us winning 45-49 games, and it's not because they hate Canada, it's because the roster is thin as hell and very flawed.

If Delon Wright is not ready to play this year, that's a bit of a red flag. He was already a 4-year college guy touted as NBA Ready on draft night and now he's entering his 3rd year. Damn.

I'm not worried.... I think he will be solid and better than Joseph.

Raptors Rookie Delon Wright Is NBA Ready Now
http://probballreport.com/raptors-ro...nba-ready-now/

“He is a little older than your normal 19 or 20-year-old coming in today, but that’s good,” head coach Dwane Casey said. “He’s a kid that’s been around the NBA, knows the NBA, talked about the NBA with his brother.

“Rookies are rookies and some rookies are younger than others and he is a rookie coming in, but I don’t think he is going to be overwhelmed. Even if he was 19 or 20, he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the NBA just because of his relationship with his brother. He has grown up around the NBA. He has been to numerous NBA games, worked out with NBA players, so he is not going to come in shell-shocked to go against (NBA) guys in practice.”

Casey just loves him some veterans.... even rookies. lol.