Preseason Basketball Discussion

[Check my Stats]

Hey if Demar can score twice as many shots as he takes every night, he could be in for a big year

 

I can't wait to see us with Lowry. I still hate Jose an immeasurable amount.

[Check my Stats]

This Lucas guy is going to win us games just as easily as he loses them for us. BFT hit the nail on the head. It was fun to watch him score like 13 points in a few minutes, but damn he is going to piss me off a ton of times. Dudes got a lot of Mike James in him.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Check my Stats

[DunkinDerozan]

As long as Lucas keeps hitting his shots with consistency I don't see too much of a problem shooting. If he starts going cold though he better be riding the bench.

[JYD]

Kind of excited for Knicks Wizards tomorrow night. But at the same time, kind of not. Lol..

[Real Deal]

Nash is so niiiiiice. It's fun to have a PG in LA.

[Warren2ThaG]

Lillard already better then most PG's in the NBA

[Built Ford Tough]

As good as Amir was in the game agaisnt Real Madrid, he was equally as awful in the game tonight. He was a complete dud tonight, especially when it came to guarding Drummond. He completely lost track of him on 3 seperate occasions and they all lead to oops for Drummond. He also did a terrible job boxing him out and that enabled him a couple of uncontested tip ins as well. He was also back to the old Amir picking up really stupid fouls.

 

Calderon looked awesome on offense. Over the first two preseason games he has been less ball dominant and is spotting up in the corners/elbows in transition which is very nice to see since he is the best shooter on this team. I like how he doesn't insist on being the one to bring the ball up the floor anymore. His jumper was money tonight and I thought he did a nice job of not dominating the ball. Defensively, well, he was his usual self. Knight was able to get by him at will. Watching Knight split Calderon and Bargnani's doubles was almost comical. It was like they weren't even there.

 

For the second straight night I liked what I saw from DeRozan. He started out the game with 2 straight trips to the line after aggressive takes and then followed that up with posting Stuckey up and drawing another foul. I also remember seeing him take Knight in the post, back him down, spin baseline and finish in the paint. I like his committment to working in the post and attacking the paint. Hopefully he keeps that up.

 

Bargnani looked like crap again. Fields looked better but still not quite sure what to do at times. I think he'll play better when Lowry is on the floor as his dribble penetration will open things up for Fields to do what he does best; cutting and moving without the ball.

 

If Anderson and Kleiza play like they did tonight, Anderson should be getting the backup small forward minutes instead of Kleiza. Anderson was much, much better than Linas tonight.

 

 

 

Now, lastly, the moment all Raptor fans were waiting for, Jonas Valanciunas.

 

He didn't play a whole lot but I liked what I saw from him. Defensively he was defintiely a factor with his length. Monroe really struggled shooting over him and I believe Valanciunas blocked 3 or 4 of his attempts simply because of his length. You can tell that the Pistons were aware of his presence on defense.

 

I really like his mobility on defense. That probably impressed me more than the blocked shots. I specifically remember one play where he hedged hard on a screen beyond the left elbow arc and then quickly rotated back down to deflect the post entry pass on the right block to Monroe and then he had the presence of mind to throw the ball off of Monroe to force the turnover. I was really impressed by that play.

 

Offensively he clearly has a lot of work. There was one play where they isolated him on the left block and it wasn't pretty. He defintiely shouldn't be getting many post up opportunities during the course of the season.

 

However, I did like what I saw from him in terms of rolling. Him rolling hard to the basket resulted in a basket for himself, a DeRozan dunk and two open Bargnani 3's (one made and one missed). Him rolling hard to the basket on every pick is going to create a lot of open looks for his teammates.

 

He certainly has a lot of work to do and there will be some serious growing pains, but all in all, I liked what I saw from him tonight.

[Real Deal]

Valanciunas is going to be one of those defenders that goes after every single shot, lol...I can just see it happening. As a Raptors fan, you now have reason to smile...finally getting a defensive presence up front (well, he'll eventually be one, if he continues to work). The dude is Gasol long.

[Built Ford Tough]

Valanciunas is going to be one of those defenders that goes after every single shot, lol...I can just see it happening. As a Raptors fan, you now have reason to smile...finally getting a defensive presence up front (well, he'll eventually be one, if he continues to work). The dude is Gasol long.

 

I've seen him play plenty of times and knew he was freakishly long, but it was usually on some some grainy, choppy stream so I never realized exactly how long he is. He wasn't even jumping and he was still getting piece after piece of Monroe's shots.

[fish7718]

Pretty excited for tonight

[Sħãlïq™]

China Games on NBA TV:

 

Live early this morning and replayed several times tomorrow. Second game is live Saturday night, 6PM I think (but don't quote me on that).

[Sħãlïq™]

Just before the Lakers' exhibition loss to the Blazers tonight:

 

Kobe: TRASH was “the worst”

 

Looking around the locker room now, Kobe Bryant can laugh about the days when his teammates included TRASH Paker, Chris Mihm and Kwame Brown. Despite the number of seasons and NBA championships that have gone by, Bryant still bristles when he thinks of the 2005-06 season.

 

“I almost won an MVP with TRASH and Kwame Brown on my team,” Bryant said before Wednesday’s 93-75 exhibition loss to Portland. “I was shooting 45 times a game. What was I supposed to do? Pass it to Chris Mihm or Kwame Brown.”

 

Bryant continued, taking aim at his favorite whipping boy, Parker, calling him “the worst. He shouldn’t have been in the NBA but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. So we let him walk on.” Bryant was referring to 2005-06 when the Lakers’ roster included Brian Cook, Stanislav Medvedenko, Devean George and Parker, Mihm and Brown.

OC Register.com

Edited October 11, 2012 by Sħãlïq̵'

[NomarFachix]

Knicks up 38-21 after 1. Shot lights out. Mychel Thompson and Kurt Thomas started at the 2 and 4.

[Sħãlïq™]

Wade was too rusty in in his first preseason game after surgery on his left knee -- shot 2 for 9, finishing with five points.

[JYD]

Knicks looked solid. their reserves were wack as hell but none of those clowns are going to be on the real roster anyway so i'm not concerned. melo and novak were great, and felton looked in good shape and kidd seems like he can still be a great floor general. looking forward to seeing camby, amar'e, and rasheed though. our frontline will look much much different!

[NomarFachix]

Yeah they were the tits in 1Q and then trotted out Prigioni/Shurna/Copeland/Novak/Sims to start 2Q and the Wiz had a lead in like 8 minutes lol

[JYD]

Yeah they were the tits in 1Q and then trotted out Prigioni/Shurna/Copeland/Novak/Sims to start 2Q and the Wiz had a lead in like 8 minutes lol

Shurna was just [expletive]ing so bad man it blew my mind

 

Prigoni is alright, he's not anything special like Alan Hahn acted like he was going to be. I don't expect to see him more than 10MPG in the regular season...

 

Knicks, if healthy, are going to be a 50 win team. IF HEALTHY, which could be a tough task with how old they are.

[Abro]

Hows Miami lookin? Can't get freakin NBATV up in this damn place! Missin all the new additions and see how DWade's progress is from his Knee Surgery.

[Built Ford Tough]

Ok, so I really don't want to get too excited by a single preseason game and I know that you can't really make any real solid conclusions off of a preseason game, but man, Valanciunas is absolutely blowing me away. He looks a lot better than I ever expected from him. Assuming his play over the past two games isn't an aberration and is what he will give the Raptors on a consistent basis, there is no reason why he shouldn't be the starting center and playing 30 minutes a night

 

I love how he is just all over the floor. His motor is going non-stop. It is awesome to see him hedge hard on a screen on 30 feet from the hoop, rotate back to his man to contest the shot, grab the rebound, throw an outlet and then absolutely sprint down the floor beating the guards across the court. His energy is off the charts.

 

His length is a huge factor on defense. Monroe has really struggled scoring over Valanciunas whenever they've been matched up together. Add that to the fact that he is just everywhere and he has fantastic defensive potential.

 

He showed more offensive ability than I thought he had. That running hook to seal the game late was beautiful, especially since there are maybe 3 players in the entire league who can block that shot. He had an impressive And-1 early in the game and he showcased his solid touch around the basket, but I already knew about that.

 

The last thing I want to mention is that I love the space he creates on the defensive glass. Even though he only had 8 rebounds, he does a really great job of creating space for his teammates to grab boards. The only problem with this is that Bargnani is such a repulsive rebounder that I'd rather just see Valanciunas try to grab everything in sight. When Davis was out there with him, it worked much better, though.

 

So, yeah, I'm going to try to not get too pumped about him, but I'm ready to go into full blown cheerleader mode if he plays like this all year. I just won't be able to contain myself.

 

 

As for some of the other Raptor players:

 

- Bargnani was very solid defensively tonight. He was passive on offense, but I liked the intensity he played with defensively. If he is still struggling offensively late in the final few games of the preseason I'll be worried, but right now I'm not too concerned.

 

- DeRozan looked good early. There was a post move he had in the first few possessions of the game that was eerily Kobe-esque. I really like DeRozan in the post and I hope they make a focal point of having him there a lot this season. Considering his height advantage over most shooting guards and the fact that Bargnani floats on the perimeter, it really makes sense to have DeMar operating in the post. I wasn't really too impressed by him in the 2nd half of the game, though.

 

- Amir was invisible again, Ross was awful on offense but played well defensively and Fields, well, did he even play? The box score says he played 23 minutes but I didn't notice him once.

 

- Davis looked a lot better today. I wasn't impressed by him the first two games, but he looked good tonight. I still think he ends up the odd man out, but I do believe he will carve out a role somewhere in the league.

[DunkinDerozan]

Ok, so I really don't want to get too excited by a single preseason game and I know that you can't really make any real solid conclusions off of a preseason game, but man, Valanciunas is absolutely blowing me away. He looks a lot better than I ever expected from him. Assuming his play over the past two games isn't an aberration and is what he will give the Raptors on a consistent basis, there is no reason why he shouldn't be the starting center and playing 30 minutes a night

 

I love how he is just all over the floor. His motor is going non-stop. It is awesome to see him hedge hard on a screen on 30 feet from the hoop, rotate back to his man to contest the shot, grab the rebound, throw an outlet and then absolutely sprint down the floor beating the guards across the court. His energy is off the charts.

 

His length is a huge factor on defense. Monroe has really struggled scoring over Valanciunas whenever they've been matched up together. Add that to the fact that he is just everywhere and he has fantastic defensive potential.

 

He showed more offensive ability than I thought he had. That running hook to seal the game late was beautiful, especially since there are maybe 3 players in the entire league who can block that shot. He had an impressive And-1 early in the game and he showcased his solid touch around the basket, but I already knew about that.

 

The last thing I want to mention is that I love the space he creates on the defensive glass. Even though he only had 8 rebounds, he does a really great job of creating space for his teammates to grab boards. The only problem with this is that Bargnani is such a repulsive rebounder that I'd rather just see Valanciunas try to grab everything in sight. When Davis was out there with him, it worked much better, though.

 

So, yeah, I'm going to try to not get too pumped about him, but I'm ready to go into full blown cheerleader mode if he plays like this all year. I just won't be able to contain myself.

 

Agreed with everything you said. I don't really have anything to add, but I loved the way he played aswell. Especially on defense. It was great to see him shutting down Monroe all game long. I think he will be the starter in no time if he keeps it up.

 

As for some of the other Raptor players:

 

- Bargnani was very solid defensively tonight. He was passive on offense, but I liked the intensity he played with defensively. If he is still struggling offensively late in the final few games of the preseason I'll be worried, but right now I'm not too concerned.

 

I am starting to get a little bit worried about Barg. I know its only 3 games in but I still figured his shot would be back by now.

 

- DeRozan looked good early. There was a post move he had in the first few possessions of the game that was eerily Kobe-esque. I really like DeRozan in the post and I hope they make a focal point of having him there a lot this season. Considering his height advantage over most shooting guards and the fact that Bargnani floats on the perimeter, it really makes sense to have DeMar operating in the post. I wasn't really too impressed by him in the 2nd half of the game, though.

 

I've been impressed with Derozan in every game so far. He's forcing less jumpshots, and the jumpshots he's taking are falling at a higher rate. He's also drawing more fouls which is going to be huge this year. I hope he keeps it up, especially if Barg can't continue how he played at the start of last season.

 

- Amir was invisible again, Ross was awful on offense but played well defensively and Fields, well, did he even play? The box score says he played 23 minutes but I didn't notice him once.

 

- Davis looked a lot better today. I wasn't impressed by him the first two games, but he looked good tonight. I still think he ends up the odd man out, but I do believe he will carve out a role somewhere in the league.

 

Amir was ok, nothing special. Ross looked very bad offensively, he only had one make I think, and I didn't reall notice him much defensively. I saw Fields a lot throughout the game, throwing up bricks. I think he took about four 3-pointers. All of them were open looks, he just missed them all.

 

I was happy with Davis for the most part. Nothing special but he was solid. He wasn't great offensively but nobody was tonight.

[Check my Stats]

I haven't been so excited about the Raptors since we won the 1st pick in the draft lottery. I know we might not even win 40 (actually probably won't) but I think our team has some actual bright spots (for once). This could easily shape into the best Raptors team ever, which isn't really saying much lol, but still. Like BFT, I am doing my best not to set myself up for disappointment with JV. He is going to hit the rookie wall hard this year... he isn't going to be able to play at full speed for 82 games, but if he can give us good production all year, we are going to be in the mix for one of those last playoff seeds for sure (the less Gray is on the floor, the better). Still, I love his energy, and the kid loves to get after it on D, which is a nice change for our bigs.

 

JV-Davis-Demar-Ross-Lowry is a lineup I really hope we get to see throughout the year.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Check my Stats

[Teletopez]

Nets leading the Sixers 30-17 at the end of the first. D-Will looking great.

[Teletopez]

Lopez with six or seven boards at halftime along with twelve points.

[Teletopez]

First points as the Brooklyn Nets

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LE7w2bsCJ4

[Built Ford Tough]

I am starting to get a little bit worried about Barg. I know its only 3 games in but I still figured his shot would be back by now.

 

He had a really poor preseason last year if I remember correctly and we both know how well he played to start the season.

 

I really am not overly concerned about Bargnani simply because he has been in the league for 6 years now. I put more stock into how a younger player who is still developing (such as Davis, Valanciunas or DeRozan) play in the preseason than a guy who has been in the league for 5+ years.

 

Now, if he continues to brick all preseason and for the first handful of regular season games, yeah, I'll start to worry. 3 preseason games is hardly enough to panic about, though.

 

 

I've been impressed with Derozan in every game so far. He's forcing less jumpshots, and the jumpshots he's taking are falling at a higher rate. He's also drawing more fouls which is going to be huge this year. I hope he keeps it up, especially if Barg can't continue how he played at the start of last season.

 

His jumper really isn't falling much more. He is just taking less of them so it looks like it is falling more since you aren't noticing him missing too many during the course of the game. I could be wrong so I don't have the actual numbers in front of me, but from the eye test it really doesn't look like his jumper is falling more.

 

I'm talking more about mid range shots off of the catch or a couple of bounces, though. I'm not including stuff that he is doing in the post, so that could be a reason why he doesn't seem to be sticking more jumpers to me.

 

 

I saw Fields a lot throughout the game, throwing up bricks. I think he took about four 3-pointers. All of them were open looks, he just missed them all.

 

I was being facetious about the Fields comment. It was more in tune to just how bad he was. I didn't literally never notice him out there, haha.

 

 

I was happy with Davis for the most part. Nothing special but he was solid. He wasn't great offensively but nobody was tonight.

 

This is the only thing that you said that I completely disagree with. I think Davis was awesome offensively last night (according to his standards). Last night he showed how much he has been working on his offensive game. He made 3 plays that he simply doesn't make last season.

 

1. He caught the ball at the foul line, surveyed the defense to see where the help would come, pumped once, pumped twice and got the defender off his feet. He then took an explosive step around his man and finished with a nice finger roll at the front of the rim.

 

2. He caught the ball off of a kickout from about 16 feet on the left elbow, rose up and buried the jumper without hesitation.

 

3. He completely outmuscled his man for an offensive board, went up and finished through contact.

 

Those three things were very impressive to me sicne his jumper was awful the first two seasons, he always seemed to be in a rush offensively and hie is usually the one getting outmuscled, not doing the outmuscling. Sure, they aren't jaw-dropping plays or anything like that, but given what Davis has shown his first two seasons in the league, those 3 plays really stood out and highlighted parts of his game that he has worked hard on over the summer.