Quick Reaction: Hornets 109, Raptors 112

Still playing a very relaxed version of his game, and seemingly wants a healthy dose of pull-up reps. He’s not panicking teams by abusing mismatches or facilitating at a massive rate, but it’s nice to see him show off a bit of his touch.

Was actually bad on defense! Lost Hayward consistently and had a few blown rotations – not that it matters very much, he’s an All-NBA defender. Didn’t see a repeat of the takeover on offense, which is disappointing, but not all that surprising. A preseason game.

Hell yes. What an immensely fun performance from Fred. He is a nightmare for the opposing team when he digs in on their post players. He worked exceptionally well off the ball in the 2nd quarter, and despite a couple tough forays into the paint I liked his choice of drives.

Going through the motions a bit. Can’t turn the corner, loose handle, up and down jumper. The swap of he and Kyle Lowry in the starting lineup should be meaningful. And again, it’s preseason so this shouldn’t be read into too much.

A true bone crusher when screening. Had a couple nice lil hook shots, and I thought his defensive rotations were much better than last game. The Raptors still need to incorporate him into a few more actions offensively.

Loved every minute of his game. Hit stop and pop jumpers, canned triples against bad pick and roll defense, and did it all without the ball sticking in his hands. He plugs into the game really well, and that’s very appreciated by the roster around him. Nice point of attack defense + screen navigation as well.

A true chaos-creator. Had some really fun minutes as the de facto decision maker with VanVleet whirring off-ball, and really enjoyed his defense. Hit a three as well. He seems to fill a lot of the attributes that Nurse has typically appreciated from McCaw – so we’ll see what that means for the rotation.

Following in OG’s footsteps, a much less significant offensive punch in this one. It’s rare to see a shooter of his ilk go 1-for-5. The process looked fine, he just didn’t hit shots.

His best attribute is how well he moves within the Raptors offense. He’s shown great acumen for playing off of a number of players now, and his 3-point shot and downhill playmaking/dump-offs really help the Raptors offense punish moving defenses.

This was a really ugly game for him defensively. Jumped at way too much, was out of position often, and didn’t find space for himself on the offensive end either. It’ll get better, presumably, when Lowry returns.

As I said last game, his paint defense is for real. In preseason games that can be quite free flowing he’s a real wakeup call to players who want to probe the paint. He’ll continue to make the case for his promotion to 2nd-string ‘5’ and bumping more of Boucher’s minutes to the ‘4’.

Liked his proactive play on offense. He punched gaps and earned free throws. Even handled the ball a little bit. He’s range-y on defense, of course, and he looked good as a rover.

Not much to take away here.

Continues to make his case for a roster spot. Very smart player.

Free flowing garbage time.

Free flowing garbage time.

Free flowing garbage time.

Free flowing garbage time.

I never know how to judge a coach on preseason games. The Raptors weren’t very creative at any point in the game, and the rotations are just trying to get guys minutes. He challenged a call though, which is funny.