Toronto is just all I’ve known — and all I’ve wanted to know. I never asked for a trade. Maybe this sounds naive, but I felt I could be one of those dudes who spends his whole career on one team. That was my mentality even with the rumors. Like: I helped the Raptors win their first NBA title. So eventually I’ll help them win their second. I always took that as a given, you know?

Toronto made me feel like I belonged from day one. I loved the diversity — I’d go out and I’d see Cameroonians, Ghanaians, Mexicans, Koreans, Jamaicans, Europeans, just all types of people from all types of communities. It made me feel comfortable. [...] It was like, OK, if so many people somewhere are foreign … maybe you’re not feeling as foreign.

Jakob, Fred, Norm, Delon….. man, those were good times. That was such a tight group. Like, we were some underdogs, but we weren’t just “scratching and clawing.” We were coming for heads!! We used to play “5 on 0” at the gym before practice most days. Just t

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/13256679

I was looking for a relatively quick analysis to experiment with some of the NBA stats APIs, so I examined player performance before and after the Raptors-Knicks trade on 2023-12-30 from a Raptors perspective.

I excluded the shorthanded game they played against the Pistons that day, and compared players' average game scores for the ~31 games prior to and ~7 games after the trade (including the pitiful loss to the Jazz on January 13th).

I chose the Hollinger Game Score to summarize player performance, which can be calculated from a player's box score.

The formula is: PTS + 0.4 * FG - 0.7 * FGA - 0.4*(FTA - FT) + 0.7 * ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK - 0.4 * PF - TOV.

Game Score was created to give a rough measure of a player's productivity for a single game. The scale is similar to that of points scored, (40 is an outstanding performance, 10 is

I must say I thought Darko looked a little annoyed with how much the lineup change seemed to improve the team during Wednesday's game (even if it the 5-win Wiz). I haven't seen a press conference with him yet. I'm really looking forward to the Celtics game now, although beating them won' be easy. Hopefully we get at least 10 games with this new starting lineup. 1-0 baby!

"So where are you when you can’t win games and have no reason to lose them? When you won’t commit to your best players and can’t get rid of them? You exist in limbo, in liminal space. Toronto is Schrodinger’s basketball team, both alive and dead. It doesn’t know who it is as a front office or as a playing unit. There is an identity crisis that begins on the basketball court and echoes all the way out. Masai Ujiri latched onto selfishness as a lifeline to explain last season, and then he guaranteed the team would not be selfish this year, and now the Raptors are … this. They may not be selfish, whatever that means, but they surely aren’t good."

The Raptors lost to the LaMelo-less Hornets - and practically trailed them the entire night - on Friday. Sheesh. Per Will Lou on the sportsnet Raptors Reaction podcast afterwards: "I'm warning you: don't get excited about this team." (that quote's from memory, it might be off by a word.)

There has been one positive this year: Scottie Barnes' ascendance towards looking like a perennial all-star player. Is any other player who will still be on this team when Scottie gets there currently on this team? Probably not.

3 of the Raptors' 4 largest contacts are expiring this year - Pascal, Gary, and OG (who has a player option next year, but I don't think he'll pick it up since he's rumoured to fetch much more as a FA). The Raptors' performance as a team this year suggests no reason to keep this team together to me. Some other team in the league will probably offer Pascal and OG close to max contracts - but do we want to? Given their expiring contracts, they're not going to fetch anywhere nea

Link to article (post as URL wasn't working): [Joe Wolfond] The Raptors are testing the limits of an offensive philosophy shift

I thought this was a good article. I'm curious what others who've been watching the start of the season are thinking so far and expecting the rest of the way.

Some article snippets:

Toronto is testing the limits of a philosophical shift. Because practically speaking, this is a very similar roster with similar (in some cases starker) limitations to the one that finished bottom six in true shooting and half-court efficiency each of the last two years.

The Raptors are off to a 1-3 start, with the worst offensive rating in the league. While they've offered plenty to feel encouraged about - they continue to thrive in transition, their more conservative base defense has been tremendous, and Barnes appears to have taken a sizable leap on both ends - their half-court offense has been inept enough to undercut most o

Samson Folk is doing some excellent work at Raptors Republic

I'm looking forward to seeing the boys again and seeing Darko for the first time!

Raptors starting 5: Dennis Schröder, Scottie, OG, Pascal, Poeltl
Injuries: Precious (groin injury), Koloko (respiratory condition)
Venue: Rogers Arena; Vancouver, BC

A statement from an MSG spokesperson added that the lawsuit was filed after the ex-employee "illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position" with the Raptors.

"These files include confidential information such as play frequency reports, a prep book for the 2022-23 season, video scouting files and materials and more," according to the statement. "Given the clear violation of our employment agreement, criminal and civil law, we were left no choice but to take this action.”

According to a source, the Knicks reached out to the Raptors and NBA about the issue before filing the lawsuit.

"MLSE and the Toronto Raptors received a letter from MSG on Thursday of last week bringing this complaint to our attention. MLSE responded promptly, making clear our intention to conduct an internal investigation and to fully cooperate," MLSE and the Raptors said in a statement. "MLSE has not been advised that a lawsuit was being filed or has been filed following its corresponde

So this year they have a new type of group ticket package called a 42 game pack. It's basically season seats but with no option to renew.

This is probably because they gave season seats holders the option to take a one year break without paying for their seats, so they have a bunch of seats available.

And I can't imagine demand is high this year.

Ok Raptors fam here…are we having trouble keeping a conversation going because it’s midsummer or because we’re not getting reason to hope for an interesting season ahead?

Personally, I’m seriously wondering if there’s any point to keeping our SN and TSN subscriptions.

Will I really be willing to invest my viewing time in a season that promises to be no better than last and without the exciting of seeing a crop of new players develop? Seriously, a couple of seasons ago I was more invested in watching Banton and the others in 905 games. I just feel weary thinking about taking in the main team in the fall.

How are others feeling?

Take a break from the Siakam trade rumour pile-on and checkout some behind the scenes at Summer League.