DeMar DeRozan was the Raptors star hiding in plain sight | SBNation.com
“I could care less what somebody thinks about my shot attempts or whatever, because a lot of times when I do take difficult shots … they feel more comfortable for me than the wide-open shots,” DeRozan said. “I think it was more understanding that I’m bailing out the defense a lot of times (with mid-range jumpers). I wanted to put more pressure on them to put them off balance when they’re guarding me, making them not sure what I’m going to do: if I’m going to drive, if I’m going to post-up, if I’m going to go for a foul or a pump fake. There are so many options. I want my defenders to have that in their minds so that whatever I do, I feel more comfortable in knowing I’m not letting them off of the hook.”
His passing has evolved, too, with DeRozan’s drive-and-kick game going from good to magnificent. Just witness Luis Scola, who hit 10 three-pointers in the first eight years of his career and has hit 40 already this year.
“Literally, all of my threes come from him,” Scola said. “If it’s not 70 percent of my threes, it has to be pretty close to that.”
Ujiri is perpetually spiritual about basketball. In his words, DeRozan is playing with more “meaning” this year. ”It’s shot selection. It’s gotten better,” Ujiri said. “The time of the game when he takes the type of shot he takes, where he’s shooting from (have all changed). ‘Should I take a jump shot? Should I pass it out?’ You see that game-winning pass in Washington (in November)? He almost had an opportunity to do an acrobatic shot, which is something DeMar would have done. You know him as well as I do. It’s something he would have tried. He made that pass to Cory (Joseph, who won the game at the buzzer).”
It’s time to take the Raptors seriously | SI.com
“No, no, no, no,” Casey told SI.com, when asked if he’s raising the bar and encouraging his team to think of itself as one of the league’s top clubs. “We are still talking about how much we have to improve. I’ve won a championship [as an assistant with the Mavericks in 2011]. I’m not being braggadocios, but I know what it [takes] to get there. We haven’t earned the respect yet. We haven’t done anything yet.”
The 58-year-old coach, who has been manning the sidelines in one position or another since 1979, then began gesturing with his hands, to demonstrate the progress Toronto has made during his five-year tenure.
“We’re proud of the fact that we’ve taken it from here, to up here,” Casey explained, raising his hand from waist level to shoulder level. “But the hardest thing in the NBA is to take that next step. And that’s where we are. We don’t even talk about being a contender. We’re the underdog still trying to get where we want to be.”
Takeaways: Raptors continue to play down to lesser opponents | Sportsnet.ca
The Raptors truly play up or down to their opponent. They’ve given Golden State two of the toughest tests the Warriors have had all year. If it wasn’t for multiple suspect calls late in both games, Toronto could have swept the Warriors. The Raptors are 6-0 against the next five best teams in the West. However, they’re just 5-7 against the rest of the Western conference. They’ve now been swept by the Nuggets and Kings, and lost their first game against Minnesota. All three teams likely will miss the playoffs.
The Jekyll and Hyde aspect of the Raptors might be the most puzzling part of this incarnation of the team.
Timberwolves make Raptors pay for horrible second half | Toronto Star
“Sometimes it’s tougher to play with a big lead like we had rather than an eight, 10 or 12 point game,” DeRozan said. “It’s real tough because every team in this league has pride and they are going to play until the end, and that young group they had out there definitely did that.”
With the game seemingly in hand, the Raptors coasted and it cost them.
“We came out like this team was going to lay down and it’s a great example to everybody that if you don’t come out and perform and do your job, any team in this league can beat you,” coach Dwane Casey said.
“We’re not good enough to come out and throw our press clippings and record on the floor and not perform. We came out and played like that in the second half.”
The players basically downplayed the “trap game” storyline that suggests teams have a tendency to shut things down early before a break if they are facing what’s deemed an inferior opponent.
Kyle Lowry said it was “one of those nights” and pointed to a coming meeting with Minnesota as a time to exact some revenge.
Foul trouble to blame for Raptors loss against Timberwolves | Toronto Sun
“Our whole disposition, we came out like this team was going to lay down and it’s a great example to everybody that if you don’t come out and perform and do your job, any team in this league can beat you,” a clearly steamed head coach Dwane Casey said afterwards.
“We’re not good enough to come out and throw our press clippings and record on the floor and not perform,” he added. “We came out and played like that in the second half.”
The loss negated what was setting up as a memorable night for DeMar DeRozan who will join his teammate Kyle Lowry this weekend in the second all-star game for both.
DeRozan had 22 points through that first half and 35 in the game, but all he had to take away from it was a bit of a lesson for the second half.
“We have to understand that every single night it is a business from here on out,” said DeRozan, whose next win will tie Chris Bosh and Morris Peterson at the franchise-high 232-win mark. “We can’t have no more games like this. Maybe it’s a good thing just to make us realize we are playing for something bigger and this second half of the season, we really have to play that way.”
Game Rap: Raptors 112, Timberwolves 117 | Toronto Raptors
IT WAS OVER WHEN
Karl-Anthony Towns made a pair of free throws to put the Timberwolves up five with four seconds remaining. Towns helped lead Minnesota in a second-half comeback as the Raptors dropped a 117-112 decision heading into the All-Star break. With the loss, Toronto falls to 35-17 on the season.
Raptors lose rough one to Timberwolves, 117-112 | Raptors HQ
The Dinos’ defense was simply not up to snuff in this contest, however they didn’t do themselves any favours in multiple regards. The referees called the game extremely tight and the T-Wolves made the Raptors pay in their 53 attempts from the charity stripe. The lone bright spot for Toronto was DeMar DeRozan, who shot 11-for-19 from the field in a 35 point effort.
Heading into the matchup, Minny had dropped 20 of their last 21 meetings with the Raptors – the most lopsided series in the NBA. At 17-37, the Wolves won’t be contending this year, but nights like this one should rightfully strike fear into the rest of the Association as their young nucleus grows together.
Towns Fuels Wolves Into All-Star Break With Comeback Win Over Raptors | Minnesota Timberwolves
The No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft had himself a night to remember. The 20-year-old out of Kentucky University put up a stat-line of: 35 points (12-19), 11 rebounds, three blocks and zero turnovers in 35 minutes of action. It was the second time in the young rookie’s career that he’s had a 30-10 game.
Timberwolves 117, Raptors 112: Dare I say… progress is happening? | A Wolf Among Wolves
In an ugly game with no flow due to too many whistles from the refs affecting both sides, the Wolves gutted out a win. They executed on both ends of the floor. They made plays when they needed to make plays. This has become a bit of an upturn in that department lately, and it’s hard not to notice the seemingly… competent effort… the Wolves are putting together as a team.
Timberwolves Wrap: Wolves come back to defeat Raptors | Dunking with Wolves
Minnesota was short-handed with Tayshaun Prince receiving the night off to head to Detroit for Chauncey Billups jersey retirement with the Pistons, and Kevin Garnett, Nikola Pekovic, and Kevin Martin all remained out.
That meant that Sam Mitchell trimmed his rotation to just eight players in the first half and nine overall in the game, which led to heavy minutes and an impressive batch of stat lines from the Wolves’ starters.
The Wolves’ depleted bench handed the Raptors their 18-point lead in the second quarter, but the starters managed to trim the deficit to just 13 at halftime. The third quarter, on the other hand, belonged to Minnesota.
The Timberwolves actually trailed significantly in the first half, down by as many as eighteen points. They were down by 13 at the half, and while they weren’t really having trouble scoring, they also couldn’t get stops and could never close the deficit. It looked like yet another night of the same old lack of defense dooming a decent effort on offense, a film which we’ve all seen too many times this year heading into the third quarter, which has been the Wolves’ biggest problem area this year.
Instead, the third quarter brought a Wolves’ run, a 13-3 stretch featuring an emphatic Towns dunk that brought the game’s first tie since late in the first quarter. The expectation? The Wolves’ bench will come in and give it all right back. Instead, from 3:46 in the third (which Wiggins was the first of he, Towns and Rubio to hit the bench) to 7:49 in the fourth (where Towns and Rubio made their usual re-entrance), the Wolves actually outscored the Raptors 15-11, giving the starters a three-point lead to take to the end of the game.
From there, here were the Wolves’ final five scores before the game devolved into free-throw trading: Rubio 3 (!!), Wiggins jumper, Wiggins free throws, Towns jumper, Wiggins jumper. The Wolves’ three best players created and made the shots that led them to this victory, with Towns’ block above basically sealing the deal (a couple poor decisions from Gorgui Dieng notwithstanding). The completed comeback is their biggest of the season, and biggest since the very first game.
Down 18, Wolves storm back to beat Toronto | StarTribune.com
Towns’ block of Cory Joseph’s driving layup with 20 seconds left saved the game.
“For the whole game, every minute Karl was out there,” Wolves interim coach Sam Mitchell said, talking about how Towns impressed him. “Every night he does something that you just don’t realize he can do. As a coaching staff, we just made up our minds that we’re going to watch what he does and just keep encouraging him because we’re going to keep giving it to him.”
Toronto Raptors drop an 18 point lead and lose to the Timberwolves | Raptors Cage
I’ll make this simple. The Raptors gave up too many points, to a team they simply shouldn’t lose to. They failed to provide resistance on their roll coverages and lose their man in transition. Minnesota went to the line 53 times, demonstrating the lack of effort on Toronto’s end to actually defend. Not a good game defensively. Just looked plain lazy.
Raptors Officially Open State-of-the-Art ‘BioSteel Centre’ | Toronto Raptors
The BioSteel Centre, located on the Exhibition Place grounds, will be the team’s new training and development centre as well as home to the team’s front office.
“Our vision for the Raptors is to build a championship contender that represents our city, our entire country and our fans with great pride and is ‘world-class’ in every way and Masai is certainly helping the team make great strides towards that goal,” said MLSE Chairman of the Board, Larry Tanenbaum. “The opening of BioSteel Centre is an important part of that vision. It is a development home for the team and will give them the tools they need to continue building on its progress of the past two years. We are very thankful to BioSteel, and all of the Raptors partners, as well as our fans, for their tremendous support.”
Raptors, Ujiri kick off All-Star week with new practice facility | Sportsnet.ca
The new facility brings all aspects of the basketball operation together in one environment. The fitness and medical facilities are state of the industry. There are two basketball courts and even though the building does have some community access, the Raptors will always have access when required. There are hot tubs, cold tubs and underwater treadmills, and a view of Lake Ontario from the dressing room. There is even a barber’s chair. The Raptors practised in it for the first time a few days ago and came away wowed.
“Coach Casey is almost breathless when he talks about it; the players loved it; they really, really enjoyed it,” says Ujiri. “It builds your culture better. You can spend more time with each other.”
The opening was intentionally timed to coincide with All-Star Weekend, allowing the rest of the NBA to drop by for a peek if interested, but Ujiri isn’t counting on it being the difference in attracting free agents.
Raptors unveil sparkling practice facility on Exhibition grounds | Toronto Sun
The BioSteel Centre, the team’s sparkling, 68,000 square foot practice facility on the Exhibition Place grounds, opened its doors on Wednesday for a media blitz. It exceeded all expectations.
From the best-in-class training and treatment facilities, to the offices for staff and of course on to the first of its kind war room that appears to have been taken out of a movie featuring flying cars and warp drives, it was impossible not to be impressed.
Hence Ujiri’s happiness.
It took years of hard work, patience, big dreams and oh yes, money, to get it done.
Ujiri said when he was originally hired by Bryan Colangelo in 2007, his first assignment was doing the legwork for a new training facility.
“Bryan picked me up in the airport, all the trades were done, all the draft, everything, it was July 23rd or something like that, he picked me up from the airport and next morning he said, ‘Go find … figure out the practice facility, that’s something we want to do,’” Ujiri recalled.
Raptors unveil new practice facility in time for NBA all-star weekend | Toronto Star
The facility has two full-size courts. The locker-room strongly resembles the one the team will use on its game days at the Air Canada Centre and has individual TV monitors above each locker (and a barber’s chair in a separate room nearby). There’s a large gym, a training area, a rehabilitation area with hot and cold tubs and an underwater treadmill. The player’s lounge has a full-service kitchen and dining room.
Ujiri’s workspace might be the most impressive part of the entire building.
He shied away from calling it the war room (“We’ll get a sexy name for it, but it’ll be the best war room in the NBA,” he said). There’s a broad, interactive touch-screen stretching across the back wall of the room. There are interactive screens built into the tables that provide every conceivable piece of data that could go into comparing, trading or drafting players. It looks like the computer tools of a futuristic sci-fi movie brought to life. All of the information can be carried with team executives and can grow and change with them through a mobile extension as they travel.
IBM Watson Teams With Toronto Raptors On Data-Driven Talent Analysis | TechCrunch
IBM announced today that is has teamed with the Toronto Raptors to bring cognitive analysis in the form of IBM Watson to the NBA team’s talent evaluation process.
The new tool called IBM Sports Insights Central, pulls in data from a variety of sources including statistics, video, social networking sentiment analysis, medical records and much more. It compares this data against the team’s needs, a player’s likelihood of succeeding, staying healthy and working well with coaches and teammates for the duration of the contract.
The idea behind it is to help them draft the best players and find free agents and trade targets that not only meet the needs of the team, but also fit well with the team’s on-court philosophy.
Raptors All-Star Kyle Lowry finds home in Toronto | USA Today
“I’m not Russell (Westbrook). I don’t shoot the ball like Steph (Curry). I’m not as fast as John (Wall). But I’m smart,” Lowry said. “I understand which spots I can be as fast as John or I can get shots like Steph or explode at points like Russell. You have to understand time and situation and who you are.”
Examples: He blew by guard Reggie Jackson in a halfcourt set in a recent game against the Detroit Pistons; made 7-of-9 three-pointers against Brooklyn in January; turned steals into layups against Atlanta in December.
Lowry is one of the best catch-and-shoot players in the league, shooting 47.8% on those plays, including 48.5% on three-pointers, and he is scoring 1.21 points per possession in spot-up shooting.
The two-man game with Lowry and DeRozan has helped pushed Toronto to the sixth-best team in offensive efficiency, scoring 105.6 points per 100 possessions.
That he’s doing this in his 10th season is a testament to Lowry and his desire to prove himself. He knows some players at this stage of their careers are not improving.
Dwane Casey: the coach who could take the Raptors into uncharted waters | The Guardian
The man they call “The Rock” is the reason why the Raptors have turned it all around. He’s the reason why DeRozan and Lowry compliment each other, rather than work against other. He’s the reason why Jonas Valencunis can pass, shoot and rebound (9.4 boards per game, ranked 17th in the NBA this year), making him hard for opposing teams to match up on. He’s the reason why his bench guys like Patrick Patterson and Terrence Ross can slip into swing roles when called upon, without worrying they’ll screw things up. He’s the reason why the Raptors are the fifth-best defensive unit this season and why they play a more versatile and dynamic brand of basketball built around plugging in players on court at any given moment to win. And sure, there have been periods where things haven’t worked for Casey, where their defensive efforts has had some slips and shots didn’t drop at the front end of the court, but that’s why Casey constantly refers to his team as a work in progress. During his tenure he’s never gone too for ahead of himself.
Vince Carter put Toronto Raptors on map at 2000 all-star game weekend | Toronto Star
Carter’s all-star moments — and notoriety — aren’t limited to that perception-altering Oakland weekend. In 2003, after three years of being the leading vote-getter in fan balloting, Carter famously gave up his starting spot to Michael Jordan, who was making his final all-star appearance. It was seen as a contentious move in some quarters and an overblown non-story in others but again underscored the level of fame Carter had achieved.
But it was the 2000 all-star weekend that put him, and Toronto, on the map.
“It was something I always wanted to do, as much as just being an NBA player . . . when I had the trophy it was a totally different world. Right after holding that trophy up and going into the back . . . life was different.”
Irreverent NBA TV hoops show The Starters a Canadian success story | Toronto Sun
For Melas and Skeets (real name Phil Elder), who used to split Raptors season seats, the journey is hard to believe.
“There aren’t really any words to explain it,” Melas said over the phone from the set.
“The timing is very funny how it’s all played out. Yeah, 10 years from when we started, 10 years from when Kobe killed the Raptors (with his 81-point performance), 10 years from when we just decided to do this because we wanted to do something creative that we really got behind and kind of put our heads down and worked for.
“The NBA asking us to speak on behalf of them as part of their company was surreal enough, and now to be doing it back where we started, we got home, we got off the plane, we were walking around the Air Canada Centre, it just felt like we were going in to see a Timberwolves-Raptors game on a Sunday afternoon, it doesn’t feel like we’re about to do a show. It’s a little unbelievable when you step back and kind of look at it from a bigger perspective.”
Indeed, it has been a remarkable journey.
Toronto Raptors: NBA Championship Worthy? | Hoops Habit
Some of that is due to the state of the East as it lacks legitimate championship threats to the Cavaliers while being much improved overall and that leaves the door open for the Raptors to sit comfortably above those middling East teams.
However, the Cavaliers are still the overwhelming favorite and that won’t change regardless of the Raptors being able to keep playing at the pace they’re playing.
There’s still plenty of basketball left to be played and it’ll be curious to see if this Raptors team can avoid the same pitfalls that last year’s team went through at the end of last season.
But with the impending return of DeMarre Carroll, the team’s big free agent acquisition, as well as how active the team’s front office reportedly is ahead of the trade deadline, the Raptors may be deserving of more respect than they’re currently getting if things hold up.
NBA Deadline Watch: Atlantic Division | Basketball Insiders
General manager Masai Ujiri has traditionally been active on the phone lines, but operates in stealth. If the Raptors do make any moves before the trade deadline, expect it to be inconsequential to Dwane Casey’s rotation.
As of right now, multiple sources familiar with the front office’s thinking tell Basketball Insiders that manufacturing a roster spot in order to call up D-League standout Ronald Roberts remains a priority for the team. There has been some gossip related to Anthony Bennett and Lucas Nogueira, with those two names seeming to be the most logical casualties to make room for Roberts.
In the meantime, one source confirms that multiple NBA teams are keeping an eye on Roberts, with a call up expected to occur fairly soon. Aside from that, the Raptors do not seem likely to make a big splash this trading season.
NBA Trade Rumour: The Raptors are interested in the Nets’ Thaddeus Young | Raptors HQ
For the Raptors, Young would represent yet another option at power forward to presumably liven the team’s starting unit and provide even more defensive flexibility. The question, as always, is what do the Raptors have to give up to get him?
Young is in the first year of a four year deal worth $50 million, so any deal would have to include, presumably, Patrick Patterson and James Johnson to make the salaries work. Now, a deal including Patterson would weaken the team’s “stretch 4” capabilities and not exactly solve the team’s weakness at PF. Windhorst also doesn’t believe the Raps should give up that Knicks draft pick unless a blockbuster deal is in the offing. As such, the team may have to consider including one of their young guys (Delon Wright? Norman Powell?) in the offer. This could be a lot to ask for a non-stretch power forward.
On the flip side, a starting lineup that featured Young at the four instead of Luis Scola would suddenly be a legitimate defensive terror (assuming a healthy DeMarre Carroll). And if you’re looking ahead to playing LeBron James in the playoffs, you can do worse than a combo of Young and Carroll to sap his strength.
Guide to the NBA trade deadline: Raptors | Yahoo Sports
TREASURE CHEST OF PICKS
Loaded
Toronto has its own first-round pick, projected to be in the late 20s.The Raptors also have the lesser of the Nuggets’ or Knicks’ first-round picks. This pick is projected to be in the late lottery.
The Raptors own their future first-round picks.
As part of the Greivis Vasquez trade with Milwaukee, the Raptors have the Clippers’ lottery-protected first-round pick in 2017. The pick is also lottery-protected in 2018 and ’19 if the Raptors do not receive it in 2017. If no first-round pick is conveyed by 2019, Toronto will receive 2020 and ’21 second-round picks from the Clippers.
