Raptors (0-1) at Celtics (0-1) Game #2 10/22/21

[Ogaju]

Have to admit, I’m not a fan of the Celtics being used as a training ground for a new coach to cut his teeth. 

But the Celtics felt sooooo good for being progressive and hiring one of the long-ignored black assistants in the league.
Please don't tell me we hired this guy to fall in line politically.

I can't believe everyone is already throwing Ime under the bus.  This is only the 2nd game of the season.  The first we nearly won in double overtime without Al Horford.  Raptors whipped our butts tonight. It happens.  The Heat whipped the world champ Bucks last night.  We played about our worst, Jaylen was awful and Jayson was below average.

i think the concerns are legitimate and they’re not due to the losses. the way we lost both games and the coaching decisions by ime are the real concerns. he’s not making in-game adjustments, his personnel rotations are atrocious and he’s not making changes when the rotations are clearly not working, and he’s not working the refs at all. the team doesn’t seem prepared for games and i cannot seem to decipher the offensive game plan. the C’s don’t seem to be exploiting mismatches or riding the hot hand.

these are just a few examples but they’re very concerning, even for a first year coach. with an embarrassing lack of effort from the “stars” tonight, i would expect ime to chew some serious ass and remove guys from the game when they’re not hustling and playing atrociously. but nope, high-fives all around!

It’s two games into the season. RELAX.

lol…..relax? Some preached that last few seasons, didn’t really work well for the team, did it?

[Birdman]

I said in offseason that if smart is our starting PG, we are in trouble

[JSD]

"Reset for Chet" will be the saying if this thing doesn't improve soon. Going on year 2 of horrific basketball

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I just hope maybe this horrendous game was due to fatigue from their D/O game on Wednesday. I don't want to think more game like this will be the norm.

If they’re fatigued after one game, one that was played two days prior, we’re in for a long season.

[moiso]

I just hope maybe this horrendous game was due to fatigue from their D/O game on Wednesday. I don't want to think more game like this will be the norm.

If they’re fatigued after one game, one that was played two days prior, we’re in for a long season.

Jaylen had very good reason to be fatigued and it showed.  He admitted he was sore and had an invisible game by his standards.  That's pretty significant.

[Somebody]

"Reset for Chet" will be the saying if this thing doesn't improve soon. Going on year 2 of horrific basketball

Chet Walker would be great for our team

Seriously though I prefer Nikola 'Slim Chungus' Jovic over him - he looks like a Miller/Durant hybrid out there.

[Celtics4ever]

We still seem to be lacking size and a PF.

I said in offseason that if smart is our starting PG, we are in trouble

And bigs on the other teams is what has killed us both games......

[gouki88]

"Reset for Chet" will be the saying if this thing doesn't improve soon. Going on year 2 of horrific basketball

Chet Walker would be great for our team

Seriously though I prefer Nikola 'Slim Chungus' Jovic over him - he looks like a Miller/Durant hybrid out there.

Jalen Duren is my guy, ridiculously athletic at his size. Reminds me a lot of Dwight Howard

[Sophomore]

That was a cow pie of a game. Can’t polish that one.

[Who]

Folks are getting way too down after this one. It was a let-up game after a 2OT game against the Knicks where 4 players played huge minutes (45mins). It happens.

[Sophomore]

Folks are getting way too down after this one. It was a let-up game after a 2OT game against the Knicks where 4 players played huge minutes (45mins). It happens.

Agree we can’t project this game forward in a straight line; they had a let-down and also they may need time to learn the new system. That’s my hopeful case: they just need to grow into new roles. A couple years ago when Tatum started learning to get to the basket the results were just plain awful for about half a season; he had one of the lowest conversion rates in the league. Then the light went on and he got a whole lot better. It wouldn’t have taken much more to bet the Knicks in msg, so based on that game we aren’t so bad.

That said, a much worse outcome is possible, too. And while I don’t take it as given they’re going to fall apart, the last two games haven’t been great. The lack of composure when they got challenged, and then the way they lost the will to fight was not encouraging. Also, if we are going to start Al and Rob - a lineup that I believe can work for the starters - the lack of an even halfway decent backup at the 4 or the 5 is a serious problem that I think is going to be hard to solve. I hear people asking for Kanter, and I see why people are ready for any alternative, but he really really is not good. We got nothing on the bench.

[liam]

Folks are getting way too down after this one. It was a let-up game after a 2OT game against the Knicks where 4 players played huge minutes (45mins). It happens.

I know I am. It was a really bad game but 80 more!

[Ogaju]

the usual apologists are making excuses for this team again. Excuses are just plain speculations and rationalizations the fact is the team played poorly and needs to get better. Another fact is the team has a rookie head coach who has never coached a team at any level, and did not play point guard or play at an elite level, and it shows. Stop comparing him to Brad Stevens who had coached college before the NBA and still had growing pains in the NBA. The play needs to be better, the coaching will have growing pains.

[footey]

The one discouraging takeaway is that the Raptors are constructing a roster built on length and athleticism. They have a theme that makes sense. Our roster construction feels hodge podgy.

Raptors front office did a couple of very smart things:

Kyle Lowry trade for Precious and Goran
Tank and draft Scottie Barnes

Overnight they have reconstructed their roster into a long term, very talented team. Their youth will probably keep them from competing the next couple of years. But after that watch out!

[gouki88]

Folks are getting way too down after this one. It was a let-up game after a 2OT game against the Knicks where 4 players played huge minutes (45mins). It happens.

There's definitely an element of this (although it didn't seem to impact Timelord, miraculously). But I really want to see our coaching improve. Or at least the lineups we send out