Everything 2018 Playoffs!

[planetmars]

GM don't tend to survive tank that they start and I think that's a reason why Masai is hesitant to tank.

He had the opportunity when he first arrived. That would have been his shot. The Gay trade fucked everything up if you were a tank commander.

[tDotted]

We simply don't have elite defensive personnel. It's fine against the average and worst teams in the league during the regular season because their offenses don't require that level of defense to stop, and a good season-long gameplan can produce results (hence our very good defensive performances against these teams in the regular season). But when the playoffs come around and you have to face elite offenses like Cleveland, that's when you're going to get exposed, and we've seen it happen year after year now.

This is complete nonsense.

Masai has ONLY been targeting positive defensive players for the past 4 years now (besides CJ and Lou). Patterson, Nogueira, James Johnson, Carroll, Joseph, Powell, Bismack, Bruno, Tucker, Ibaka, Delon, Siakam, Poeltl, VanVleet.

That's a whole bunch of draft picks and money wasted with absolutely nothing to show for it. This is why Casey had to be let go.

[S.R.]

wtf is this wonky narrative. This Raptors team is a hell of a lot better than when Masai took over 5 years ago. It's been better every year. The Lebron playoff losses are very frustrating, but Masai has responded proactively each time.

1st time - 6 game ECF, not too bad. But added Ibaka and Tucker at the deadline next season to gear up for another shot.
2nd time - 4 game sweep - piss off, eh. Masai was pissed and said gtfo with this ride or die system we've let Casey play out, time to modernize the offense. Added CJ Miles for shooting and the picks he's been adding are looking very good.
3rd time - 4 game sweep - goddammit fire the coach. We'll see what else happens to the roster this summer.

The whole window for this group is very short. Masai signed Lowry and Ibaka to short deals intentionally. He knows what these guys are - if he were signing top 5 players he would have signed them to max deals. He's given himself a window with this core because the team was winning and getting better without going overboard because yeah, this team does not have a Lebron James at the core.

I still think he's made the right moves. Hindsight is 20/20 - most in this forum thought the Raps had a real good shot at beating the Cavs this year.

MLSE better not run out of patience with Masai. Let him play out the window with this core and let him build the roster that comes after.

[The Great One]

Mad props to the Celtics. I know it’s early, but this is already an indictment of the Raptors! Celtics, as young & injured as they are, BELIEVE! Raptors didn’t believe they could win. They were spooked by LeBron.

— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) May 13, 2018

[rocwell]

People say that hard work beats talent, so how do you beat this guy? He's a fucking robot. From memory to physical gifts.

LeBron James' photographic memory: �� pic.twitter.com/IALy2gQeFC

— ESPN (@espn) May 14, 2018

[Since95]

People say that hard work beats talent, so how do you beat this guy? He's a fucking robot. From memory to physical gifts.

LeBron James' photographic memory: �� pic.twitter.com/IALy2gQeFC

— ESPN (@espn) May 14, 2018

Apparently, you beat him with the Boston Celtics :P

[Zainab]

Apparently, you beat him with the Boston Celtics :P

or the Indiana Pacers who took him to the edge

[Scraptor]

wtf is this wonky narrative. This Raptors team is a hell of a lot better than when Masai took over 5 years ago. It's been better every year. The Lebron playoff losses are very frustrating, but Masai has responded proactively each time.

1st time - 6 game ECF, not too bad. But added Ibaka and Tucker at the deadline next season to gear up for another shot.
2nd time - 4 game sweep - piss off, eh. Masai was pissed and said gtfo with this ride or die system we've let Casey play out, time to modernize the offense. Added CJ Miles for shooting and the picks he's been adding are looking very good.
3rd time - 4 game sweep - goddammit fire the coach. We'll see what else happens to the roster this summer.

The whole window for this group is very short. Masai signed Lowry and Ibaka to short deals intentionally. He knows what these guys are - if he were signing top 5 players he would have signed them to max deals. He's given himself a window with this core because the team was winning and getting better without going overboard because yeah, this team does not have a Lebron James at the core.

I still think he's made the right moves. Hindsight is 20/20 - most in this forum thought the Raps had a real good shot at beating the Cavs this year.

MLSE better not run out of patience with Masai. Let him play out the window with this core and let him build the roster that comes after.

You cannot respond proactively. Responding is reactive, backwards looking. Being proactive is anticipating what comes next.

Proactive would have been firing Casey three years ago. Proactive would have been trading JV when you knew our coach wasn't going to play him, instead of letting his value turn to mush.

This was posted in December 2014:

It is obvious Jonas is an afterthought on this team, and in my opinion, he is being horribly mismanaged. Yet his stock is going to be pretty high around the league because of that potential. So why not just trade him for a piece that fits in better with the play style of the team (wing-centric).

https://forums.raptorsrepublic.com/s...-Jonas-already

Proactive would have been trying to consolidate the assets we had for a legit star (like was suggested with the Knicks pick several times) or preserving our cap for someone who actually moved the needle instead of spending it on Carroll.

Proactive would have been engaging the tank instead of waiting to see what happened in year one, and reacting to what happened.

The problem is that it's risky. You have to take risks to be proactive. And Masai has generally made very safe moves, which have a low risk of going wrong. Which is great if you have a foundational star to build around. But we never did.

It's not hindsight. All of these things have been discussed on these forums plenty.

And we'll probably come back in two years and have this same conversation yet again. Because there's no way MLSE will run out of patience with making money, and it's doubtful that Masai will change his MO either.

Anyways have a great summer everyone. Hopefully something cool will happen but I'm not holding my breath.

[The Great One]

😂

There is subtweeting, and then there’s LeBron calling Jordan Clarkson “Jordan Crawford” while otherwise perfectly demonstrating a photographic memory pic.twitter.com/XdpgpzW1wM

— Pablo S. Torre (@PabloTorre) May 14, 2018

[white men can't jump]

wtf is this wonky narrative. This Raptors team is a hell of a lot better than when Masai took over 5 years ago. It's been better every year. The Lebron playoff losses are very frustrating, but Masai has responded proactively each time.

1st time - 6 game ECF, not too bad. But added Ibaka and Tucker at the deadline next season to gear up for another shot.
2nd time - 4 game sweep - piss off, eh. Masai was pissed and said gtfo with this ride or die system we've let Casey play out, time to modernize the offense. Added CJ Miles for shooting and the picks he's been adding are looking very good.
3rd time - 4 game sweep - goddammit fire the coach. We'll see what else happens to the roster this summer.

The whole window for this group is very short. Masai signed Lowry and Ibaka to short deals intentionally. He knows what these guys are - if he were signing top 5 players he would have signed them to max deals. He's given himself a window with this core because the team was winning and getting better without going overboard because yeah, this team does not have a Lebron James at the core.

I still think he's made the right moves. Hindsight is 20/20 - most in this forum thought the Raps had a real good shot at beating the Cavs this year.

MLSE better not run out of patience with Masai. Let him play out the window with this core and let him build the roster that comes after.

My hope is basically the short deals are so that hopefully in the next year he can turn DeMar (whose contract length doesn't really matter), Kyle and Serge into as many assets as he can. Stockpile as quickly as possible because if Giannis demands a trade it'll happen within the next couple of years. And if not Giannis, then maybe another legit top 10 talent, but I don't think Masai ever got over not being able to snag Giannis in the draft.

[golden]

wtf is this wonky narrative. This Raptors team is a hell of a lot better than when Masai took over 5 years ago. It's been better every year. The Lebron playoff losses are very frustrating, but Masai has responded proactively each time.

1st time - 6 game ECF, not too bad. But added Ibaka and Tucker at the deadline next season to gear up for another shot.
2nd time - 4 game sweep - piss off, eh. Masai was pissed and said gtfo with this ride or die system we've let Casey play out, time to modernize the offense. Added CJ Miles for shooting and the picks he's been adding are looking very good.
3rd time - 4 game sweep - goddammit fire the coach. We'll see what else happens to the roster this summer.

The whole window for this group is very short. Masai signed Lowry and Ibaka to short deals intentionally. He knows what these guys are - if he were signing top 5 players he would have signed them to max deals. He's given himself a window with this core because the team was winning and getting better without going overboard because yeah, this team does not have a Lebron James at the core.

I still think he's made the right moves. Hindsight is 20/20 - most in this forum thought the Raps had a real good shot at beating the Cavs this year.

MLSE better not run out of patience with Masai. Let him play out the window with this core and let him build the roster that comes after.

Having to drag your coach into the modern age should have been a huge red flag, though. Not just because you expect more, but also because it has a strong influence on roster construction and cap. Every year Casey made excuses publicly about what we didn't have, and then every off-season Masai used assets to get Casey what he asked for to remove those excuses. We didn't really prioritize shooting, because we wanted guards who could slash (Delon, CoJo, Norm) and energy bigs who could get the ball back to Kyle & DeMar (Yak, Siak, Ibaka). We needed big wing defenders to stop Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson, Lebron & Melo, so we got PJ & Carroll. We needed 3-pt shooting, so we got a one-way streaky shooter in CJ Miles. Everyone of those players were good-to-great in the regular season and everyone of those players fizzled or flat-out sucked in the playoffs. Those are 9 assets that were acquired for Casey, on spec. And none of those guys were useful when we needed them - more like useless (except for Delon, in the Wiz series).

All the while, we were ignoring the way the NBA was going: multi-position defenders who can shoot. That's what a modern thinking coach would have been saying. And on top of that we didn't even force Demar to improve his 3-pt shooting until December of last year (again Masai had to read him the riot act, not Casey).

I'm not complaining about the #WeTheNorth ride we've been on. I'm not a championship-or-bust guy. It's okay being the Stockton/Malone era Utah Jazz. But, I think Masai missed the boat by not trying to groom a bright young, modern coach (like Brad Stevens) a lot earlier. I'm a huge Masai supporter, but for years I was never on board with his support of Casey for the 3 commonly cited weaknesses: (1) Ride & Die style of play, (2) in-game management & (3) holding stars accountable for defense. I was hoping for the best, but deep down knew that Casey, Kyle and Demar would probably revert to old habits under pressure and cost us winnable games. Casey and Demar did have the predictable relapse, but Kyle was actually decent.

[Hotshot]

Raptors got too many young finesse players, need more grit and shooters.

[golden]

or the Indiana Pacers who took him to the edge

Pacers still won that series as far as I'm concerned. Game 2 was a complete joke from the refs. They iced Dipo real early, but they still came back in the second half and were ready to blow the doors off the Cavs, but the zebras always called a foul to keep them under double digits. Like clockwork.

[Sonny]

Raptors are already out but they continues to be the joke of the league.

Blow it up.

[sanyo]

GM don't tend to survive tank that they start and I think that's a reason why Masai is hesitant to tank.

Exactly!

Look at Sam Hinke - built up that team and got fired and now Colangelo is the one benefiting...