Tip-In: "Preaching Patience" - Raptors' Rebuild May Take a Lot Longer Than Anticipated

I’ve always believed we’d visit the lottery another couple of times after this year before rotating upward. Not necessarily the high lottery, more like the late lottery. It’s going to be hard to get a young point guard otherwise.

That being said, I’d say the talent on this team is a little better than it’s showing right now. We have a heavy schedule of games in January, and a very heavy road schedule meaning lots of travel-weariness. Also, I believe in critical mass – take out Bargnani and Bayless, and the team loses enough scoring punch to make everyone else’s job exponentially harder. Starting a frontcourt of Amir and Ed only places undue pressure on DeMar since he and Jose are pretty much the only guys who score. Our bigs need to be fed the ball, they can’t create and they have no jump shot.

I think the talent will look better as the season goes along, and that much better when we start Valanciunas, who is not going to come into the league quite as raw a rookie as we think, especially after a summer with the Lithuanian olympic team playing against the world’s best.

sure misses Andrea.

not as far as we might think.

To be completely honest I think anyone who is expecting that ‘jump’ that you are referring to, to happen next season is being impatient.

What we have come to realize this year is that we do not have a franchise level player, or even a complete starting unit right now. While we talk about rebuilding, this year isn’t as much about rebuilding as tearing down. When the Thunder first drafted Kevin Durant they went 23-59. It took another year for them to add Westbrook and that’s when things really started to come together.

This year is about finding out what the young players can bring to the table in Casey’s system. If it happens that DD, JJ, Davis or Amir can’t be effective players in this system expect them to be shipped out. At least this is what I hope is the case….

So far Dwayne Casey has proved he knows how to coach defence by getting a bunch of offensive minded players to play defence, imagine what he could do with a group of players who can actually play defence? That being said our offence still has to improve, and if we are going to be a defence first team we need players that can execute in the half court, which we don’t have. The key to half court basketball (which wesaw last night, unfortunately it was Portland) is spacing and ball movement.

Right now the Toronto Raptors have very few players who are good shooters, which means teams are able to clog the middle up and take away our drives. If we add JV and Barnes to this group, suddenly a PnR with Jose/JV is more difficult to cover because the raptors have Barnes, Andrea and DD spacing the floor. Barnes is also able to get his shot off very easily because of his ability to pull up and shoot over players. We also could play off JV in the post or Andrea in the high post. To simply put it, what plays would you run for JJ, DD, Amir or Ed Davis? While JJ had 23 points last night lets not mistake fool’s gold for real gold, his strengths at this point are on the defensive end. DD cannot attack off the dribble, has no post game and no pull up jumpers. Ed Davis, makes the right move, but simply cannot finish right now. While I love what Amir brings his offence comes from Oboards, running the floor and from assists. So with those being 4 of our starters last night, what offence can we even run?

That being said I am a firm believer in stability at the Coaching position. You look at the teams that have been successful over the last few years OKC, Boston, Lakers, Spurs, Orlando, Denver, Portland, Dallas and Memphis they have all had the same coach for an extended period of time. They believed in their coaches and the system, and brought in players to suit that system. Teams that are improving Philadelphia and Chicago are buying into a coach’s system and getting success because of that.

While Triano ran a system that led to more individual success is that really what we want? The fact is we don’t have the talent, personally I believe defence and rebounding wins and that is what Casey preaches and we need to bring in players to suit his system, Jonas will be a player that suits his system, Andrea is proving he can but needs to do it consistently for a season, Jose and Amir have been getting better and better, and Forbes is proving he can play. That being said if people can’t then they should go.

If we have

Jose
SG
SF
Andrea
JV

We have 3 of our 5 starters locked in, but we need to add talent on the wings. DD is disappointing but hopefully he can figure things out, if not I am sure it would be easy to move him for a draft pick. We will add a player on the wing this draft and hopefully it is either Barnes or MKG. Now if we amnesty someone like Kleiza. We only have 40 million commited this season and about 30 million the season after. We should be able to fill in a solid wing player at about 8-9 million and a bench piece or two.

he’s what 30or 31 already? Add PG to that list. Also I’d take JV off that list because if you’ve watched him play ull realize he is far from a starter in the NBA. Maybe in 2 or 3 yrs but he’s young and skinny at this point and won’t be successful in the NBA until he adds bulk and improves his overall game. JV is a longer term investment IMO. We still need a starting C for another couple of yrs at least.

everyone else is either suspect in terms of being starting material or in Jose’s case getting a bit old to be considered part of the team’s core.

We know that these guys can score, they’ve done it many times before.

But one thing these guys haven’t done many times in the past, is play D, which they are now doing better than they have in the past.

D is a lot harder to get guys to buy into, and for them to actually do it somewhat as well as the coach wants. O on the other hand, almost every player wants to score, or be apart of a bucket.

It’s been mentioned many times on here (and else where), that the Raps need an identity. Until that identity is hard nosed D, I think Casey is going to put the O in the back seat. Remember, this isn’t just about this year, it’s about the future (or at least the next few years).

With that said, DD has been a disappointment so far. I think he can be a half decent player, but he hasn’t really shown it yet.

I would love this team to go after someone like Mo Williams. I would see him as an upgrade over Jose. He gets into the paint to get easy hoops for our bigs, decent outside shot, can gaurd top point gaurds in this league. As much as Jose is steady I want a point gaurd that will actually get in the paint and dish vs dish for outside shots that dont fall. Even Steve nash with his frame creatively gets in the lane. How many times a game do players challenge Jose to take it to the rack and he just dribbles past the rim.

Victoria bro.. All my friens hate on me for being a Raptors fan. But I tell them through good and bad I am riding this storm out. Killed me when the Grizzlies left, then the sonics, so now a Raptor fan in good and bad. Kabongo has looked good, or the second coming of TJ ford.

I think ultimately that is the truth we are seeing here. There needs to be a complete overhaul of their scouting philosophies. Maybe they have already started this process, so they say by using the term “Changing the culture” but that will mean nothing if BC continues to bring in borderline players. He is super-lucky that this next draft seems stacked, and that may change everything for the team. But then you could argue that he could roll a six-sided die to make his pick and do okay.

Yes we have a few good players who could be better if they were on the right team at the right time. I will not mention who I think those players are here, because I do not want this to turn into an argument over which players I point out.

I actually wrote a whole bunch more here, but erased it because I felt that there really wasn’t more to be said then what I stated in the header. The rest was all point-in-case stuff, and as the Frank’s Red Hot lady says: when it comes to bad mid-road to under preforming players coming to Toronto BC seems to like to put that Sh*t on everything!

it might not be as drastic as Adam feels.
This is the sport where one or 2 guys do make the team a winning team.
I am sold on Bargs…at least as a top tier player.
That stud big man from Europe sounds exactly like the player I love, considering my game starts inside.

So now I think we have 2 top players.
Then a solid draft? Ya, I think so.
A good trade here and there and look what we found…a very good team.
perhaps not championship, but I am not big on playing for THE championship team.
I just want a solid second or third round competitive team. Then I am happy.

Having enjoyed a decade of championships with the Bull’s, I noticed one big thing…it didn’t change my life.
Not one stinking bit!
THEY got big money. I got to watch them demand more money.
After the championships I learned this was a business, for both the team and the players. Nothing more or less…just a business.
Some players were traded, some stayed…nothing really mattered to them about me.

So enjoy a good, solid basketball team of nice all around guys. And I think this team is really not that far away.

But then again, unlike many here, I still think this year will end up being enjoyable. When the bench is whole and they all start getting together as players and coaches, this is still going to be an enjoyable year.

His on court/off court numbers are now eigth best in the NBA among all NBA starters.

Simply amazing.

If ED’s biggest issue is a reliable shot, I’m not too concerned because a good summer of actual coaching from the likes of Eric Hughes should help. If they tell DeMar to spend the summer adding some bulk so that he is more suited to the 3, it might be ideal for the team. If James Johnson could have his shot reconstructed so that it was more reliable, I don’t see any reason to worry if the goal is to make him your 8th or 9th guy in a solid ten man rotation. What was Philadelphia’s record at the start of last year? We can get caught up in the actual record or be bothered by stretches in games, or we can take solace in the trends that translate to future success.
Hypothetically, if they get the defense down so that it is automatic, the offensive aspects can be tweaked to suit the inherent skills. The one thing about this season is that there doesn’t seem to be too many false positives. We are seeing a truthful representation of current abilities as it relates to a style of play that is common in playoff scenarios. If the goal is championships, then ultimately this is a best case because it is easier to identify what needs to be corrected.

I think there is something about Alabi that has eliminated him from the team’s long term plans, something that the team simply chooses not to bring to light perhaps out of courtesy to his agent, because otherwise it makes little sense to not play him in these situations.

Lastly, the whole “player x should be entering his prime at this point” argument may not be as valid as it was in previous generations. I’m not sure it’s fair to affix an absolute date of realization on any of these players because, especially with the one and done scenario, I seriously wonder how much time is devoted to skills development in the college ranks as opposed to coaches trying to maximize the situation in that given year by playing a style that suits what the player came into the system with.

The Basketball Jones: TBJ Video: Andrea Bargnani’s NBA All-Star Anthem

IamAmirJohnson this is awesome http://t.co/484HDQpw lol
About 1 day ago by Amir Johnson

there is no doubt this is a stron draft

Teague was average and MKG as well. Lots of talent out there tho, we need another first round pick to make this season’t torture worth it.

this draft class is stacked with potential francise players, among andre drummond, anthony davis, harrison barnes, perry jones, MICHAEL KIDD GILCHRSIT.

if the raptors are smart they/d trade a couple hot peices during the trade deadline for picks, like LB or even, amir or ed. I still have patience for Demar, i think he has what it takes, my only question about him is, is he commited to be a raptor? when iwatch him on thw court, especially with Bargs is playing, i hate his body language, looks like he rather be somewhere else, thats what scares me.

The Raptors have improved from 27th last season to 25th this season. Not significant but in the right direction. The season is still early

#poundtherock