Masai gave his press conference today. Heard a lot of heart to heart talk and really felt he was being genuine. All of his complaints and gripes are all mainstay issues and nothing out of left field. Firing Nurse had to happen. I love Nurse as a coach I do. But our team is not the same as it was in 2019, we were basically the same team as last year which went 48-34 and locked the 5th seed. And with such a regression from the year before that falls on the coaching staff.

I think the questions we need to answer this off season are the following:

1. Why did the Raptors regress so much compared to the season before. We finished 5th seed and had 48 wins. Our core did not change.
2. Why did Scottie Barnes not improve enough this year? Was it his fault entirely? How can we ignite the kid to be an allstar all game every game instead of just the 4th quarter every other game.
3. Are we going to let it ride next year considering multiple pieces of our core have contracts coming up. Do we truly believe this core can bring us at least to a Finals?
4. How can we improve the culture of the team as mentioned multiple times by Fred and Siakam.

Seeing Norm crush it yesterday really hurt. I know at the time it seemed to good GTJ is a better ball handler and we got an additional piece. but that piece was a bust and GTJ is a fucking stoner always fucks up on his defensive assignments. And Playoff Powell is fucking Playoff Powell. Oh well.

Its hard for me to be completely rational about it. But basically I believe in Fred and Siakams ability to run the team. Siakam puts up 30+ when it matters. Fred tbh its harder to find a better PG in this market. Unless we are getting a star we already have a borderline allstar. I think if Scottie gets his shit together and does better than 15 ppg and OG masters his corner 3 shooting and Poeltl and Fred learn how to pick and pop better I really think that starting 5 can beat any starting 5 on a good night.

I see Book just cooking. like the guy just says give me the ball and scores every drive. Every drive he has the ball every drive the defenders are clueless on whats coming. The floater? a drive? 15 footer? All cash money. Siakam can do that sometimes honestly but I know Fred is not capable reliably in the clutch of that unless he is having a child.

We have to resign Poeltl this off season.

This post was edited by Crunkt on Apr 21 2023 09:57pm

Throwback to 2019 Finals Game 6 where Kyle Lowry went off at the start of the game

He scored the first 8 points of the game before the 10:30 mark

Followed it up with another 3 just ~40 seconds later to score the Raptors first eleven points putting them up 11-2

They rest is history

January 22nd 2006

Kobe scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors.

RIP Kobe

Toronto starting its Marvel villain era.

Thank you for everything Fred!

Lets go RAPTORS

Gg playoff run Kawahi!!
2019 Raptors line up was loaded! Final piece was Kawahi for the Chip!! Breaking up the GS dynasty!! And restored Balance to the NBA, every year is New champion team so far