Dwane Casey's inability to draw up crunch time plays

[Puffer]

... One more thing the coaching staff needs to look at when looking for a closing lineup.

They have so much other stuff to look at I can pretty much guarantee they'll never get around to looking at that.

[DanH]

"Our clutch time ORTG this year ranks 21st (overall offence is 5th)."

I mean all samples are small at this time of year, but this sample is particularly small. Not as bad as Barolt's very handpicked Demar clutch time stat in his main page story, but still probably too small to have any sort of meaning.

Yeah, that's why I quoted the past two full seasons as well - the offensive drop off is a trend, though not to the degree we've seen so far this year.

[S.R.]

Clutch time per nba.com is the last five minutes of the fourth within 5 points. We're 23rd in the league on offence, 19th on D, and 24th net.

Contenders in the top 10: Warriors 1, Spurs 4, Cavs 8.
Celtics are 9th, Rockets 23rd and the Thunder are 30th with an amazing -49.8 rating.

By way of comparison, we were 8th in the NBA last year. Three of our most clutch guys (Tucker, Joseph, Patterson) are gone.
http://stats.nba.com/players/clutch-...mID=1610612761

Still, sample size is small.

Yeah, that's why I quoted the past two full seasons as well - the offensive drop off is a trend, though not to the degree we've seen so far this year.

This is the thing - this team in the clutch about meets my expectations for this roster. They've had an inflated (imho) ORTG the last couple of years through drawing fouls, a short-sighted strategy that everybody knows is not dependable when the whistles go away - which happens in crunch time and in the playoffs. Here's a shocker - that's when this team's offence drops off, which we all knew already.

The only new frustration this year is there was supposed to be some sort of self-awareness of that fact around the team, which led to adjusting the offence for this season. We've seen that played out some games and not so much some games, but it's early. But we definitely haven't seen it in clutch time yet, that's playing out the way it always has, which is okay but not great. If the new offence is worth doing, it's not worth doing in the first 3 quarters and not the 4th - arguably the 4th and the playoffs are where it's needed most. The first 3 quarters of regular season games were fine otherwise (very good, actually). Just plain silly to adjust the play there and not elsewhere.

Anyway, end of the day the most this team can aim for is top 10 in these situations. Those teams mentioned above have MVP calibre players in Durant, Curry, Lebron, and Kawhi, and there's a top 5 GOAT coach in Popovich. The Raptors are not going to be competing in that group with Casey and DeRozan, no matter what they do to the playbook.

[JimiCliff]

Psssst…

The Raptors are fifth in offensive efficiency and 16th in defence.

— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) November 13, 2017

20th (O) and 6th! (D) in 4th quarters https://t.co/KNQwyQLtMF

— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) November 14, 2017

The problem, of course, is that in the playoffs, every quarter is the fourth quarter (and the fourth quarter is, like, the twentieth quarter).

[S.R.]

Psssst…

The Raptors are fifth in offensive efficiency and 16th in defence.

— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) November 13, 2017

20th (O) and 6th! (D) in 4th quarters https://t.co/KNQwyQLtMF

— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) November 14, 2017

The problem, of course, is that in the playoffs, every quarter is the fourth quarter (and the fourth quarter is, like, the twentieth quarter).

Play offence in the 4th like you do in the first 3 quarters and play defence in the first 3 quarters like you do in the 4th and all the problems are solved. Shut this thread down, we're done here.

[rocwell]

Psssst…

The Raptors are fifth in offensive efficiency and 16th in defence.

— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) November 13, 2017

20th (O) and 6th! (D) in 4th quarters https://t.co/KNQwyQLtMF

— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) November 14, 2017

The problem, of course, is that in the playoffs, every quarter is the fourth quarter (and the fourth quarter is, like, the twentieth quarter).

I don't look at Raptors early-season stats anymore... Remember those days when Raps were the best offensive team in the history of the NBA? Good times. Ha.

[KeonClark]

Psssst…

The Raptors are fifth in offensive efficiency and 16th in defence.

— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) November 13, 2017

20th (O) and 6th! (D) in 4th quarters https://t.co/KNQwyQLtMF

— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) November 14, 2017

The problem, of course, is that in the playoffs, every quarter is the fourth quarter (and the fourth quarter is, like, the twentieth quarter).

[JimiCliff]

I'll dumb it down for you next time Keon

[Scraptor]

Those teams mentioned above have MVP calibre players in Durant, Curry, Lebron, and Kawhi, and there's a top 5 GOAT coach in Popovich. The Raptors are not going to be competing in that group with Casey and DeRozan, no matter what they do to the playbook.

Yep. But I think there is value in doing what you say you're going to do, and playing the right way, even if the outcome is ultimately meaningless in the near term.

We are basically locked in for three years. Assuming we hang on to Poeltl and Norm and OG, do we want them to develop the same bad habits or get locked into the same scenarios? Will Poeltl become a spectator like JV? Will Norm and OG emulate the iso ball-pounding of DeMar?

That's what bugged me so much when Masai dialled back the culture change comments to just "a little bit"/"not a drastic change". It said that we weren't really serious about change. And the latest ride-or-die comments just reinforce that.

If we know we're not competing for a championship then at least play some smart, aesthetically pleasing basketball, and lay the groundwork for our supposed winning culture. We're capable of it, because we saw it earlier in the season.

[KHD]

Yep. But I think there is value in doing what you say you're going to do, and playing the right way, even if the outcome is ultimately meaningless in the near term.

We are basically locked in for three years. Assuming we hang on to Poeltl and Norm and OG, do we want them to develop the same bad habits or get locked into the same scenarios? Will Poeltl become a spectator like JV? Will Norm and OG emulate the iso ball-pounding of DeMar?

That's what bugged me so much when Masai dialled back the culture change comments to just "a little bit"/"not a drastic change". It said that we weren't really serious about change. And the latest ride-or-die comments just reinforce that.

If we know we're not competing for a championship then at least play some smart, aesthetically pleasing basketball, and lay the groundwork for our supposed winning culture. We're capable of it, because we saw it earlier in the season.

powell is already emulating the ball-pounding of Demar, and Poeltl is probably going to once again be one of the least passed-to players in the NBA.

This team plays ugly, individualistic basketball and they're not even that good at it anymore.

in three years they will have next to nothing to build upon if they keep dwane casey.