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OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

File it under "I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin".

It's why not losing guys like Fred for nothing is so important to a program. Eventually someone real gud becomes disenchanted with their situation and looking for a new home. Toronto is a good place to play, we're way beyond the days of Antonio Davis complaining about his kids going to school here instead of the US. We're not going to beat out elite destinations for top tier free agents, but we don't have a problem keeping good players on reasonable money deals once they're here.

Whether it's Maxey, or someone else, we're going to be in a position to make a significant trade at some point in the next 24-36 months to push towards being a contender.
 
the improvements in Dick and Agbaji, usefulness of a couple of the rooks Mogbo and Battle, and now Poeltl carrying his good play into full starter's minutes now and even getting better in them (and i've been trying with my uneducated eye to see how he's handling the pick and roll and perimeter rotations defensively and.....i think he looks pretty good there)......there's way more to be excited about now than at the start of the year.

Sure would be nice to see us get healthy. And then see if all these nice hopeful improvements are actually real or not or just a temporary bliip.
 
A quick EPM/BPM update with a quick note on updated EPM. EPM is now predictive and uses the player's entire career stats (weighted by recency) to predict how many points above or below 0 the players will contribute per 100 possessions. So the two aren't directly comparable anymore and have to be looked at differently. BPM is based on this season's data only and can be prone to wild swings based on relatively short streaks or slumps. EPM being based on an entire career's data can be slow to identify break out players, major changes in role, etc.

Jake: 0.8 BPM, 1.1 EPM: Puts Jake in the 87th percentile of NBA players overall and it's kind of hard to argue with that. Both metrics have his defence at 0.0 which I think is more a function of how wonky our team D is and his usage against oppo starting units more than anything else. He's been excellent so far, this is Austrian God of Efficiency Jake.

RJ: -0.5 BPM, -0.3 EPM: RJ grades out in the 80th percentile or better offensively, which is encouraging given the super expanded role he's been given. I don't think he'll ever be an efficient 1st option on the ball, but just seeing this level of play for him as that 1st option means that it's not just Scottie that we can overlap with the 2nd unit. RJ can be the primary ballhandler for short stretches against the right matchups too. I'm looking forward to him getting back to that cutter/spot up heavy role he was in last year though. He still gets into trouble when he's asked to do too much, too often.

Gravy: -1.7 BPM, -2.0 EPM: Both metrics think he's an above average offensive player and an atrocious defender, which tracks sort of. I think the overall team D definitely does nothing to help him, but he does get cooked a lot whenever he gets matched up on someone with some scoring ability. The flashes of higher end offensive ability definitely warms the heart though. Still don't think I'd have him in my starting lineup when everyone else healthy, I still think we get the most mileage out of him right now cooking 2nd units without worrying about him matching up on starting quality wing players

Ochai: 0.8 BPM, -2.0 EPM: The first player on our list where the metrics have a pretty heavy disagreement. The upside is that even EPM projects him to be a very legitimate bench player (47th percentile overall), while BPM thinks he's been a legitimately decent starter. So it's entirely possible that he's mid breakout and EPM will be slow to catch up. Also entirely possible that this is as streak he's not capable of keeping up to and he slides closer to that EPM projection going forward. To my eye he's played really solid basketball and does all of that 3&D glue stuff that we've missed since the OG trade. He's not going to be as good as OG at it, but I don't see why he can't turn into a starting calibre 3&D small wing.

Davion: -3.6 BPM, -0.2: Big disagreement #2 and I don't know what to make of it. To my eye test Davion's D has been legitimately very good but BPM says it hasn't been (EPM has him at 85th percentile defensively, which tracks to me). I'd say that BPM is shit kicking him for his shooting, which I definitely get. All in all, quite happy with him and I think he's going to be a really solid backup when IQ gets back.

Boucher: 2.3 BPM, -0.7 EPM: Even the lower EPM score says he's a 65th percentile player, and off the bench I'll fucking take that. BPM loves him this year, and so do I. He's been peak Boucher so far this year imo.

Mogbo: -0.5 BPM, -2.6 EPM: EPM says he's a back of the rotation NBA player, BPM a 7th type guy. I think the truth is somewhere in between. Looks like a full time NBA bench player though who deserves a role when the team is healthy.

Battle: -1.5 BPM, -2.7 EPM: The only other guy currently on the roster that I think has earned consideration for minutes when this group is healthy. The quick trigger shooting is welcome on a team generally lacking guys who can let it fly without being wide open. Both metrics think he's dogshit defensively though, and I tend to agree. While I think he's earned a spot at the end of this rotation when it's healthy, it's probably better to send him to the G League and let him play big minutes there while working on his D.
 
Gc3gHm_WUAAH5aY
 
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