Isaac
Years ago
Thread on r/NBA speaking very favourably of Ben Simmons' D on Kawhi
Thoughts from any who watched the games? Going by the stats, you'd think that Kawhi had his way, but a lot of commenters suggest he did very well. He played bulk minutes and got the road win.
Kawhi seems to be in supreme form. Poor Spurs!
The ultimate grade of the spurs/raptors trade will be after the season. Will Leonard head home to Clippers or have Toronto done enough. Player wise the raptors have won big time, Derozan out in the 1st round yet again, at least it wasn't a sweep by LeBron for a change. Would like to see Leonard stay in Toronto, makes east interesting with them, Bucks, Celtics and Sixers all capable of making it to finals depending on off season. Throw in Knicks potentially if KD and Kyrie rumours become true and they win lottery with Zion.
The ultimate grade of the spurs/raptors trade will be after the season. Will Leonard head home to Clippers or have Toronto done enough. Player wise the raptors have won big time, Derozan out in the 1st round yet again, at least it wasn't a sweep by LeBron for a change. Would like to see Leonard stay in Toronto, makes east interesting with them, Bucks, Celtics and Sixers all capable of making it to finals depending on off season. Throw in Knicks potentially if KD and Kyrie rumours become true and they win lottery with Zion.
Anon of course the raptors have won big time, anytime you trade a guy who is an mvp candidate in the absolute prime of his career who has forced a move out of town you will never ever come close to extracting equal value. But the Spurs with Popovich still as coach bypassed draft pick heavy packages to try and contend with what they have and rely upon their elite player development.
Yes, but my point is if he walks then they go back to just making playoffs. It's all about winning the title so kudos to them trading away fan favorite and happy all star for big gamble. But if he goes then they're in the toilet. Was it worth it just to get out of first round potentially?
Yes, but my point is if he walks then they go back to just making playoffs. It's all about winning the title so kudos to them trading away fan favorite and happy all star for big gamble. But if he goes then they're in the toilet. Was it worth it just to get out of first round potentially?
Flop Warning
Years ago
Game 1 siakam and kawhi were just on fire. D wasn't gonna stop much regardless of how good it was. And raptors run alot of off switch plays to get the mismatches and getting open looks through screens. Butler spent more time guarding kawhi in game 1 than Simmons, and he didn't have a very good game.
In game 2 kawhi got 35 still (45 in G1) and Simmons spend more time on him. The shots he was forced into were much more difficult. Sixers D was much much better, and they did do a lot of double teaming and switching from the screen to make it harder for the raptors to find spacing.
Simmons did pretty well on him. But the team D was alot more in synch in game 2. Even with Embiid looking like he was about to fall over through exhaustion?sickness?just struggling with his knee?
The stats of how the rest of the raptors shooting tell the story more than kawhi's, although they had an off night in shooting.
One of those games where the stats don't really paint a picture of how the game actually went. Especially if comparing it to game 1
LV
Years ago
Very disappointed we lost Kawhi, but once it was clear he was leaving, getting Derozan was fantastic. As they say, it could've been a lot worse
More rides on these playoffs for Toronto than any other team. They made the gutsy moves going all out for Kawhi and Gasol. Win the title and Kawhi stays, then the front office are heroes forever. Lose against Philly and they're villians who might lose their jobs! Huge moves. Big risks aiming at ultimate reward
LV
Years ago
Oh and talk about silver lining for Spurs- did better than anyone predicted this season. Bookies had us winning 44 games. White and Forbes developed heaps, suddenly we have an impressive young back court when Murray returns. Pop strikes again!
MACDUB
Years ago
Kawhi definitely "chills" in the regular season - you can see it. I know he averaged 26ppg in the regular season, but he still chilled. He could probably average 30 or more if he took the Harden approach.
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