Raptors have no way out if Kawhi Leonard walks | The Star
“Every day, we’ve got to continue to get better,” said Kyle Lowry after Thursday’s dispiriting home loss to Milwaukee. “It’s a long year. We’re in February. We’re starting to get to that point where we need to … know exactly what we’re doing. We’re adding things now.
“We’ve got to get better, quicker. We don’t have the whole year. We’ve got a couple months. We’ve got to make sure that we kind of know exactly what we want to do and continue to work on that. Every chance we have to practise and watch film, it’s a positive.”
The Raptors started 20-4; they are 17-12 in their last 29. Over those 29 games the Raptors are 16th in offensive rating, 20th in effective field-goal percentage (which weighs the value of a three versus a two), 24th in percentage of assisted baskets, 14th in point differential.
Over those 29 games Lowry has shot 35 per cent from the field, and a miserable 27.6 per cent on threes. Fred VanVleet has shot 39 per cent overall. The bottom end of the rotation — OG Anunoby, Delon Wright, C.J. Miles, Greg Monroe — has slipped into varying types of holes.
How the Raptors' cap situation could affect their deadline decisions – Sportsnet.ca
The Feb. 7 NBA trade deadline is just under a week away and the league’s hot stove is burning as hot as ever.
New Orleans Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis has asked for a trade, the New York Knicks already traded Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks and, given how competitive the playoff picture is in both conferences, there could be more buyers trying to bolster their rosters this season than usual.
Among the more buyers that could be out there are the Toronto Raptors, whose one-year gamble on Kawhi Leonard has, essentially, boxed them into a championship-or-bust mindset.
There has already been a lot written on who the Raptors might want to target and what their greatest needs are heading into the deadline, but that’s only one aspect of it. The other is the nuts and bolts of how the Raptors might get a deal done.
With that in mind, here’s a closer look at the Raptors’ current and future salary-cap situations and how their finances might impact decisions team president Masai Ujiri and Co. make with the traded deadline so quickly approaching.
Can The Raptors Sell Kawhi Leonard On A Future In Toronto?
It’s believed Toronto could offer Leonard a five-year extension worth as much as $190 million on July 1. Leonard’s health issues (he missed all but nine games last season with a quadriceps injury) have been managed smartly by the Raptors, who rest Leonard in the second half of back-to-back games, and sometimes more.
The city of Toronto can be a hard sell for basketball players because it’s a cold-weather climate and there is no legacy of winning here. But Toronto has significant upside. It is the NBA’s fourth largest media market, it has a rabid basketball following across the country, and the city boasts some of the best restaurants and entertainment in the world.
What might sell Leonard on staying is that the media-shy Leonard isn’t the only show in town. Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam are coming up big in big moments and taking the media pressure off Leonard, who rarely gives extensive interviews.
Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri has made it clear that he is prepared to do whatever it takes to make Toronto a winner. He fired Dwane Casey, who weeks later was named NBA coach of the year after a 59-win season, and then traded the popular DeMar DeRozan for Leonard and Danny Green. To his credit, the Raptors have been consistent winners since Ujiri took over as head of basketball operations in 2013.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse has also been building trust with Leonard. They have a professional relationship. In the end, all the Raptors can do is keep showing that they are committed to winning and putting Leonard in the best position to succeed.
It’s reasonable to suggest that Lowry, the heart and soul of the team, should be in Leonard’s ear and trying to talk him into staying. But if Lowry is still upset at Raptors management for dealing his friend DeRozan, perhaps it’s unrealistic for Lowry to recruit Leonard.
Raptors in challenging times. Can they meet the challenges? | The Star
A telling quote? Or maybe not.
This, from Nick post-game, is kind of interesting, I think.
It’s in the context of the staid pace the starting group plays with far too often, like the last 10 minutes or so of the first quarter and the first three or so of the third.
“I certainly like those guys as individual pieces, maybe it’s a group thing, I don’t know. I need to take a look at it and think about it again. Like it seems to be coming and going a little bit.”
Now, please, I beseech you, don’t take that to mean he’s on the verge of making any big change to the starting five or anything like that.
They were good early, and really good to start the Dallas game and they just missed some shots last night at times and Danny Green certainly wasn’t right.
If I was to suggest one thing – and I’d do it knowing full well that Nick doesn’t give a rat’s butt what I think, nor should he – it would that he find a way to stagger the minutes of Lowry and Leonard so that one of them is on the court at every minute.
It’s been said before and it’ll be said again, I believe, but the second group has struggle enough that they need one guy to bail them out of lulls that seem to keep coming.
Hunger caused Delon Wright to wear that awful suit
Based on my refined journalist analysis of this video, I’ve come to the conclusion that it can safely be said that Wright made that questionable wardrobe decision due to his hunger. As the 26-year-old point guard so candidly revealed in the ad, this hunger was directly responsible for his loss of ‘swag’.
And, perhaps thankfully, that directly impacted his play on the hardwood. The former first-round pick only scored four points and picked up two rebounds in sixteen minutes of action. Toronto lost the contest 105-92 to fall to 37-16 this season.
Why was Wright’s poor performance a blessing for the young man, though? Could you imagine if he walked in wearing that suit and went on to shoot the lights out? He wouldn’t have any other choice than to wear that thing before big games for the rest of the season.
Therefore, I speculate that he played poorly against the Bucks on purpose and I think people should respect that. One bad game in the middle of the season to ensure that you don’t have to ever wear those brutal threads again is a small sacrifice that the Raptors and their fanbase simply have to accept.
One final thing: If SNICKERS helped get you your swag back, why didn’t you take a bite of that delicious chocolate bar at any point in that 25-second commercial, Mr. Wright?
“I think the one thing that I saw — and we saw the same from Pete Carroll — is the organization,” Nurse said. “It’s really an organizational job with a football team to watch them go through their day. And also just the leadership style, what motivational things they’re doing, what team themes they’re using — it was a pretty broad learning experience for me, going there.”
There are some technical aspects of the NFL game that Nurse wanted to see and perhaps poach. Terminology, for instance.
“I see a lot of similarities offensively in how the plays are called, how you organize things,” Nurse said. “Football is a pretty complex numbering system most of the time. Run the three back through the four hole, things like that.
“We kind of do the same thing — the three man sets for the four, or whatever. The screen-and-roll with the 1-5 (point guard-centre), 15. There are some similarities there.”
And some athletic manoeuvres.
“When (NFL teams) put two receivers on the one side and kind of run that pick action, that’s a basketball action, but we usually run them from the other direction,” he said. “But I don’t see why we can’t run them running down the floor like you would trying to open up a receiver. Those are the little things I look at.”
Raptors Ex-Files: Bruno Caboclo finding playing time in Memphis – Sportsnet.ca
NBA playing time. That’s what Bruno Caboclo was two years from being two years away from, apparently.
The former Raptors 905 star and unofficial king of Mississauga appears to have found a home in Memphis in his fifth NBA season, averaging close to 23 minutes per game over four games with the Memphis Grizzlies and celebrating with a block party that included four swats (two of the sick, wicked and nasty variety on Canadian Andrew Wiggins) to go along with seven points, three rebounds and three assists in his last game, on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Incredibly, with at least 22 minutes against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night, Caboclo will have surpassed his entire minutes total during his three-and-a-half seasons in Toronto in just over a week with Memphis.
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WOZ BLOG: Bucks offer more proof Raptors need more to win East | Montreal Gazette
With five all-star nods, Lowry is now tied with Vince Carter and Chris Bosh for the all-time Raptors record. He also has as many berths as one of his mentors, Chauncey Billups, and other standouts like Pistol Pete Maravich, Reggie Miller, Chris Webber, Chris Mullin, Wes Unseld and senior Raptors executive Wayne Embry, amongst others. Billups has the most similar resume to Lowry’s, as the former Colorado star bounced around to a number of teams early on, including the Raptors, before becoming a perennial all-star.
If we voted for reserves, I would have gone with Khris Middleton — who was excellent in this game — over teammate Eric Bledsoe, who had a heck of a night himself. But Bledsoe’s had a fantastic season.
So many Bucks have been strong this year, perhaps in part because of the classic contract-season bump. Bledsoe, Brook Lopez and Middleton are going to be unrestricted free agents on July 1 (can’t imagine Middleton picks up his player option) and Malcolm Brogdon, another stellar two-way guy, will be a restricted free agent.
Everyone talks about how this could be the one season for the Raptors to go for it, but under the radar, Milwaukee is in a similar boat. Ownership is going to have to pay through the nose to re-sign everybody (luxury tax-wise) and keep Giannis happy. Keeping Giannis happy, by the way, is probably the most important job any NBA team has. He’s that good.
Raptors' struggles raise urgency of trade deadline needs – Sportsnet.ca
They’ll need Lowry to become a potent scoring threat again. Prior to Thursday’s game, the veteran point guard was named an all-star for the fifth consecutive season, but has been mired in a troubling scoring slump. He managed 10 points in Thursday’s loss, the sixth time in 10 games he hasn’t scored more than 12.
On paper the team’s secondary scorer, Lowry is averaging his fewest points average (14) and shooting percentage (40.9 per cent) since arriving in Toronto. He’s still managed to make an impact, playing solid defence and counteracting his relative shooting slump that with an impressive 9.2 assists per game — a career-high and good for second in the NBA — but Lowry’s roller-coaster season could be one of several reasons the team is looking to be active ahead of next week’s deadline.
It’s not just Lowry who is shooting the ball poorly. The Raptors’ three-point shooting as a whole has been one of the most unexpected disappointments of the season. Coming off one of its best shooting performances against Dallas on Sunday, the team shot just 25.9 per cent from beyond the arc against the Bucks — an area of distinct advantage for Milwaukee.
Nick Nurse chalked up some of the Raptors’ issues in Thursday’s game — and this span of three losses over their last four games — to a “pace-and-energy thing.” The upcoming all-star break will probably aid the latter, but another way to infuse some energy is by bringing in new bodies.
GANTER: Sometimes, these Raptors just defy logic | Toronto Sun
Pascal Siakam said there was just a lack of energy that seemed to take over the bulk of the team for the bulk of the night.
As the man who provides that boost and that energy on a nightly basis, Siakam tried to take the blame for it, but on a night when he put up 28 points – two shy of his career-high and almost single-handedly brought the team back from a 24-point deficit against a top-notch club – that sentiment rang hollow.
Kyle Lowry, like Leonard, had one of those nights he would sooner put in his rearview mirror and forget ever happened. Even with the taste of that egg his team had just laid still fresh in his mouth, Lowry chose to paint things in a positive light.
“We’re in February,” Lowry pointed out to those unaware the calendar was turning. “We’re starting to get to that point where we need to be. We know exactly what we’re doing. We’re adding things now. We’ve got to get better, quicker. We don’t have the whole year. We’ve got a couple months. We’ve got to make sure that we kind of know exactly what we want to do and continue to work on that. Every chance we have to practise and watch film, it’s a positive.”
Yes, there’s a sense of urgency buried in that meandering statement, but it’s lost when he suggests the team knows exactly what they are doing.
How can a team know exactly what it is doing and come out in a regular-season game that actually meant something and perform with such lacklustre apathy?
Why it doesn't feel as 'safe' in the Raptors locker room
“In San Antonio we didn’t make many moves or shake things up,” said Raptors’ shooting guard Danny Green on a recent episode of Inside the Green Room. “Most guys felt pretty safe in that things weren’t going to happen or any big changes (would occur). But here, because of the whole DeMar (DeRozan) situation, guys, you know, nobody feels kind of safe.”
Following eight seasons and an NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs, Green was part of the summer blockbuster deal that brought him and Leonard north of the border in exchange for DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl. The trade, which seemingly came out of nowhere, was a good reminder that anything can happen in the world of professional basketball.
“At the end of the day, guys know that it’s a business and they know that most teams are not going to pass up on a guy like that,” said Green in reference to Davis. “And, a lot of the times, you might be a piece to be moved… By February you could be in a whole new city with a whole new team.”
We’ve already seen Kristaps Porzingis get traded this week and there are plenty of other rumours about who may be on the move shortly. With the NBA trade deadline at 3 p.m. on Feb. 7, who knows what the Raptors will look like in a few days.
With players coming and going seemingly at the snap of a finger in the league, you can’t blame them for feeling a little nervous once this time of the year rolls around.
