LeBron’s Cavs loom over everything Raptors want | Toronto Star
As for the slumps, they seem so often to be about a team that’s bored, that’s saving itself, that’s waiting to gear up when it has to. Frye, one of the wisest veterans on a team jammed with them, scoffed when this idea was presented.
“That’s not an excuse,” he said. “Who doesn’t like winning? F— that. I like winning: every day, every game. I just think sometimes you play a lot of games, and sometimes you just don’t have it.”
But they have it when it matters, and the swagger and laughs outweigh any worries. LeBron James hosted a birthday party for Dwyane Wade at Drake’s new restaurant Tuesday night; at the end of Wednesday’s practice a Cleveland staffer imitated various free-throw techniques to laughs from the players. The Cavs speak well of the Raptors — Thomas called Toronto a very good team, and Lue said they look really good. Frye spoke admiringly of DeRozan in particular.
But they also speak admiringly of themselves, and ooze confidence. Jose Calderon, the former Raptor, talked about Cleveland’s unusually extensive camaraderie on the road, and marvelled at the roster’s depth. Frye talked about the team’s shooting beyond LeBron, pointing to all the gunners available. Cleveland is second in the league in made threes per game, and fourth in percentage at 37.9 per cent. Toronto, in its new style, is eighth in makes, and . . . well, 27th in percentage, at 35 per cent.
“We’ve had our way with a bunch of teams (in the playoffs),” said Frye. “It’s just, we’ve got a lot of guys who shoot threes. And it’s rare, in this day and age: to have vets that are ready in those situations to shoot the three and shoot them at a high clip is pretty amazing.”
And Calderon spoke about LeBron, who at 33, in his 15th season, should probably win his fifth MVP.
“What makes him better: we talk about DeMar’s (work ethic), same strength,” said Calderon. “I’m usually the first one in the gym. I like to drop my kids (at school) and go in and do my thing. He beat me a few times. He’s the first one there. He works. When you see that work from your best player, it’s like it demands a lot from players, coaches, even front office. Everything’s got to be ready, because I want to work, work, work. And that makes you be better. That pressure of, we have to win.
Stopping Cavaliers the ultimate test for new-look Raptors – Sportsnet.ca
For all the talk locally about a “culture reset” and shifting the way they do things offensively due to their post-season struggles, figuring out how to compete defensively against the likes of the Cavaliers was a big part of the soul-searching also.
What were they doing to allow teams like the Cavs feel so comfortable from beyond the three-point line and what can they change to fix it?
“This summer we spent a lot of time coming up with different ways to guard the pick-and-roll and limit the rotations we were having to make defensively,” said Raptors assistant coach Rex Kalamian, who serves as the club’s defensive coordinator. “A lot of problems defending the three come from having too many bodies guarding pick-and-roll and getting caught in rotations.”
The Cavs represent the ultimate test. In their four-game sweep of Toronto last May, the Cavaliers shot an astounding 46.6 per cent from three, converting on 61 of 131 attempts. Their offensive rating was 120.3 per 100 possessions, far outpacing the current Golden State Warriors’ 113.2 mark, which will be the highest ever recorded if it keeps up.
Against the Raptors, in other words, the Cavaliers were better than the best offensive team ever.
This season, the Cavaliers have continued the same path as they are third in the NBA in three-point attempts with 33.9 and second in makes with 12.5 a game.
But Toronto (28-11), which enjoys a 2.5-game advantage over the third-place Cavaliers (26-14) in the East, isn’t the same club either.
“They’re different,” said Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue. “They have a lot of young guys playing well. Offensively they’re doing a good job moving the basketball, moving bodies and defensively they look pretty good also. It’s kind of a makeover for those guys, but they really look good playing the game.”
Ujiri: Raptors’ lack of U.S. national TV games ‘a bunch of BS’ – Sportsnet.ca
“We don’t play as many of the so-called ESPN games, why is that? We’ve had one of the best records the last five years in the league so I don’t understand why the NBA does not give us, I think it’s a bunch of BS if you ask me, that they don’t give us more games.”
The Raptors have made the post-season four years in a row and look poised to make it five, though they’ve never made it to the Finals. They’re currently sitting in second place in the East, above the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Honestly, if you haven’t won an NBA Championship you are not in the same category as Cleveland and Golden State,” said Ujiri. “But otherwise, I think we compete well with the other teams and they haven’t done anything to surpass us, we think. We feel strongly about that one, we are not scared of anybody. All the other teams that they are putting ahead of us, do I respect it? Yeah, it’s everybody else’s opinion but we are here to compete.”
This weekend’s pair of matchups against the Cavaliers and Warriors will surely get some national attention—especially if the Raptors can win.
“I could really care less about what all these people say and the whole ‘disrespect’ thing. I feel for our players, I feel for our organization. What do we need to do? We need to win a championship. That’s what we need to do and hopefully we can continue to build and grow and get to that level because all these other teams built and they grew and they got to that level too,” said Ujiri.
“I think it’s a bunch of BS that we don’t play on as many national so-called TV games as we should.”
Delon Wright can be the difference maker the Raptors need – Raptors HQ
The bulk of Wright’s minutes this season have come with various iterations of the bench unit, but he has played 87 minutes with the big three (Ibaka, Lowry, DeRozan). That lineup is +34 in those minutes, which, outside of the starting five, is the best four-man plus-minus that includes all three stars. The short-term plan will be for Wright to slide into Lowry’s place for the games that he misses, but there’s an argument to be made that he should play major minutes with the big guys even after Lowry’s return. And especially if he can continue to develop his outside shot and maintain a decent long-term long-distance percentage, he can change the way the Raptors do business down the stretch.
In Monday’s late collapse in Brooklyn, we saw what can happen to the Raptors in tight games as they clutch up and feed the ball to DeRozan for late-game isos. Twice in that game, quarters ended on DeRozan misses, and the shot at the end of regulation was taken in stifling double-coverage. As much as DeRozan may be proving with each passing day that he is an elite scorer, the league as a whole is moving away from Kobe-ball. The loss to the Warriors in October was an example of what happens when a one-dimensional boxer meets one who’s the class of the division. The Warriors stuffed Lowry and DeRozan on three successive plays while Curry and Durant reeled off an 10-0 run to close the game out. The Raptors were like a puncher who kept going in with the heavy right, but had no jab. DeRozan may be the best scorer on the team, but at some point game theory — and specifically the value of surprising your opponent — has to come into play. Up against the best of the best, they needed to find another weapon.
If Delon can use these extended minutes to expand his playmaking, shoot more threes and — perhaps most importantly — earn the long-term trust of the starting unit, he can become that weapon. A closing lineup where every Raptor is dangerous with the ball in his hands and a threat from three-point range has a chance to hang with the best offensive units in the league. Lowry, DeRozan, Ibaka, a new-and-improved Wright, and C.J. Miles/OG Anunoby can be that unit. It might not rebound at all, but the Raps’ late-game lineups already don’t, and with DeRozan’s improvement with the three, that suddenly starts to look like a modern NBA unit that can threaten offensively from any spot on the floor.
Raptors need Ibaka to put team before temper – Article – TSN
Yes, toughness can be a great thing and it’s something the Raptors organization has lacked for most of the 17 years that have gone by since Charles Oakley wore purple.
However, these disputes have not come as a result of Ibaka standing up for or defending his teammates, but rather his temper getting the best of him. Three of them have now cost him games. In other words, these displays of toughness aren’t helping the team. They’re hurting the team.
The league has changed a great deal since the Oakley types policed locker rooms and threw down on the court. Certainly Ibaka isn’t the only tough player left in the league. He’s not the only physical player. But he is one of the only players that have continuously faced disciplinary action for crossing a strict line, drawn by both his team and the NBA.
The Raptors need Ibaka to play tough, it’s one of the biggest reasons they traded for him last February and gave him $65 million over the summer. There’s more finesse to his game than there was early in his career, especially on the offensive end, where he’s turned himself into one of the league’s best three-point shooting bigs.
Still, much of his value comes on defence, where he remains a deterrent at the rim. He was acquired to be a difference maker, the piece they were missing and one that might be able to take them to the next level in the playoffs, where they’ll need his toughness more than ever.
However, they need him to play smart. They need him to do a better job controlling his emotions and channelling them in a beneficial way, a way that will help them win games and keep him on the court.
Sneaky MVP candidate and evolution make these Raptors different | New York Post
Toronto is currently top five in both offensive and defensive rating, and third in the NBA in net rating, trailing just the Warriors and the Rockets. They are outscoring opponents by an average of 7.4 points per 100 possessions — considerably better than the Cavaliers and the Celtics.
It starts with DeRozan — the three-time All-Star who, much like his team, always has seemed to be an afterthought. Not anymore.
An underrated MVP candidate, DeRozan has upped his game tremendously, expanding his range and proving to be a much better passer in the face of double-teams and traps.
The 28-year-old is averaging 25.3 points and a career-high 5.0 assists, while shooting 48 percent from the field and a career-high 36 percent from deep. His confidence beyond the arc is rising steadily, as he nailed a season-best five treys in back-to-back outings last week, including a franchise record 52-point performance on New Year’s Day against the Bucks.
In Tuesday’s 90-89 loss to Miami, which snapped Toronto’s undefeated January, DeRozan’s would-be game-winner with three seconds remaining was spoiled by Wayne Ellington’s layup just before the buzzer.
DeRozan’s offensive development mirrors the entire team’s improvement. The Raptors are playing with far more pace than ever before, averaging 100.6 possessions per 48 minutes, good for 10th in the league. They are attempting the fourth most 3s per game at 31.9, compared to 24.3 last season and 23.4 in 2014-15.
“It’s a fun way to play,” coach Dwane Casey told the Toronto Sun of the Raptors’ new approach before the season. “That’s the way the game is going, it’s harder to scout. The game is so sophisticated now that teams scout you so well, they know exactly what you’re going to do before you even get the rest of the sentence out of your mouth as a coach. They’re prepared because of video, internet, whatever it is.
Handing out midseason awards in the NBA. | Sports on Earth
For your consideration… Raptors rookie OG Anunoby’s stats don’t jump off the page, but as a starter on one of the top teams in the East, he has been a difference-maker, especially on the defensive end. Lonzo Ball is shooting just 35.3 percent from the field (and we assume you know about all of the headlines his dad has been generating), but he is averaging 10.2 points, 7.0 assists and 6.9 rebounds as a rookie. His court vision has been impressive, as advertised. The Bulls weren’t sure what they were getting in Lauri Markkanen, but he has been a bright spot in their rebuilding plan and is up to 14.9 points and 7.6 rebounds as a rookie. The most encouraging part about Markkanen has been his confidence and assertiveness on the floor. It’s been a while since the Mavericks have found an impact player in the draft, but Dennis Smith Jr. (14.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.5 assists) certainly qualifies as one.
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