Morning Coffee - Oct. 31, 2024
Gradey shines in loss. I still hate Vince Carter.
Gradey Dick stars as Raptors lose close one in Charlotte - Raptors Republic
Unfortunately for the Raptors, after they crawled all the way back into this one, scaling the wall the 3-point deficit put in front of them – well, it happened again. The Hornets snapped off an 18-2 run, largely on the back of their 3-point shooting. As much as the Raptors battled, and they battled, they couldn’t climb all the way back in this one. They got close, but they couldn’t batten down the hatches on defense. Too many digs that didn’t break soil, too many threes given up.
A throughline though, and something that should be celebrated? Dick’s 30-point, 3 steal performance on 65-percent shooting. It might not have shocked anyone to think Barrett could go for 31 & 8 against the Hornets, but combining for 61 with Dick is a silver lining worth noticing. Dick doesn’t need anyone to do the work for him. He doesn’t need shot opportunities to fall in his hands. He is seizing the day, every damn day.
The injury luck has been horrid, the basketball has been marred with inconsistency, but not from the Raptors sophomore – who looks like he could attach the term ‘star’ next to his name at some point. Silver linings indeed.
Raptor’s young core shines in loss to Hornets - Raptors Republic
Wednesday’s starting lineup continued to feature Davion Mitchell at point guard, while Jonathan Mogbo took Barnes’ place. Both Mitchell and Mogbo played a high level of on-ball defence. But, without the All Star’s inside scoring punch, the gravity that brings, and his ability to exploit it with great passing reads, advantages will be harder to come by on the offensive end. The Raptors, particularly Dick, Barrett and the guard tandem of Mitchell and Shead did their best to ameliorate this, working to create for themselves and others.
Barrett finished with 31 points and eight assists, and continued to show the ability to distribute as a pick n’ roll ball handler, finding Jakob Poeltl rolling to the basket twice and Mogbo with a dump-off underneath. Dick scored a career-high 30 on some efficient shot making and spectacular finishing at the basket. Poeltl stuffed the stat sheet with a 20-point 16-rebound double-double. Shead and Mitchell played the traditional point guard role, finishing with nine and 10 assists, respectively.
However, there was also some ugliness. The Raptors had seven first quarter turnovers, and were bit again after two more costly giveaways to end the third. They lead the league in turnovers per game (19.0) and are 28th in turnover percentage (18.2). Both rotations and transition defence were sloppy at times, allowing the Hornets to rain hell-fire from 3 and put together momentum-killing runs. Ultimately, all of Dick’s marvellous finishing and Mogbo’s stout defence couldn’t get the job done.
Raptors Takeaways: Youngsters seize opportunity as injuries plague early season - Sportsnet
Flip side? Wins or losses over teams like Charlotte can be pivotal in the race to the bottom of the standings and better lottery odds.
This was of course before the Raptors announced that Scottie Barnes — who led Toronto in points, assists and steals and stands second in rebounds through four games — would be out for the next three weeks at minimum after suffering a fractured orbital bone when a stray Jokic elbow caught him in the face.
Right away the Raptors' short-term future got that much more daunting: trying to win games with a healthy Barnes has proven hard enough. As well, with Barnes out for an extended period, point guard Immanuel Quickley still out with a bruised lower back and RJ Barrett having just come back from his shoulder injury, the cohesion and synchronicity the Raptors were likely hoping to develop among the three highest paid members of their young core looks like it will take a little bit longer to hone.
As one might have expected, Toronto lost to Charlotte on the road in another game without their starting point guard and their star. But the Raptors' losses aren’t as expected.
Raptors’ rookies go through some growing pains in tough loss in Charlotte - The Star
Despite a hard-fought effort by the team to get back in the game, the Raptors would go on to drop a hard-fought 138-133 decision and fall to 1-4 on the season.
But in a season where growth and development is the priority, credit the Raptors for fighting back and proving head coach Darko Rajakovic’s earlier assessment of the young team right:
“One thing that I do like about our rookies in our team, they’re not afraid … of the moment. They’re not afraid to step on the court and play hard,” Rajakovic said days earlier. “And when you play hard and when you have your heart in the right place to play for a team, good things happen…”
..There will be a number of key positives to take from this one: sophomore Gradey Dick continued to show his ascendance, notching a career-high 30 points. Centre Jakob Poeltl was once again a double-double machine with 20 points and 16 rebounds. RJ Barrett chipped in a solid 31 points and eight assists.
Rookie Jonathan Mogbo, who stepped in the starting unit for the first time in his career, scored 11 points, four rebounds and two blocks.
But the growing pains were there for all to see
Raptors stung early by turnovers, show some fight late in loss to Hornets - Toronto Sun
Everyone knew the Raptors would miss Barnes, knowing the team is also missing starting point guard Immanuel Quickley and key rotational players in Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown.
Everyone was fully aware of the difficult transition without Barnes, but what played out in the opening 12 minutes at the Spectrum Center wasn’t good enough.
Charlotte began by going on a 9-0 run before the visitors were forced to call a timeout. When play resumed, the Raptors responded by going on a 7-0 run.
The team’s biggest deficiency remains its inability to protect the basketball. Turnovers once again bit the Raptors, who would allow the Hornets to go on a 13-0 run.
Toronto Raptors: were having so much fun, until they weren’t - Raptors HQ
Ochai Agbaji is another name that has been floating around so far. After being traded at last season’s deadline and not impressing too much through the end of a rocky season for the team, he’s turned it around big time. He looks like a completely different player out there, and seems to be developing into the prospect the team hoped he would when they got him from Utah.
It’s so hard to see where the chips will fall with this team, and what their potential is. With Scottie now out for a few weeks and their schedule extremely hard, it may be too late for them by the time everyone is healthy. Sure, that probably doesn’t matter too much in a rebuilding year, but it would be nice to see if the blueprint is at least going in the right direction.
For now, at least the younger players who are seeing minutes are doing really well. This team is ultimately fun to watch.
The Raptors will be back for a home back to back Friday and Saturday for the Vince Carter festivities.
Charlotte Hornets nearly had to learn things the hard way in holding off Toronto Raptors - Charalotte Observer
In typical Hornets’ fashion, they didn’t make it easy on themselves. Despite Toronto being shorthanded and missing its rising star Scottie Barnes, the Hornets needed a big late second-half surge to power past the Raptors 138-133 on Wednesday night at Spectrum Center.
Consider it another educational moment for the young Hornets (2-2). They learned a valuable lesson in holding off the scrappy Raptors.
“Just turning the knife,” Tre Mann said. “That’s one thing I like to say for myself — turn the knife. When you’ve got a team down, don’t just stab them. Turn the knife. Execute more, play harder defense, communicate more. Just things like that. It’s going to happen.
“I was just proud that we were able to course correct and get the win, so when we do get in that position again this helps us grow. And we’ll be ready for it.”
School was certainly in session. Luckily for the Hornets, they didn’t wind up being forced to stay after the bell rang for a makeup session.
The highs and lows of Carter's memorable seven years with the Raptors - TSN
Carter and the Raptors took a massive step back in 2002-03, finishing seventh in the Central Division with a 24-58 record.
Still dealing with knee problems, Carter was far from his electric former self, only averaging 20.6 points over 43 games.
With Kevin O’Neill now serving as head coach, it was much of the same for the Raptors in the 2003-04 campaign.
The team finished with just 33 wins as Carter averaged 22.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists alongside a career-low (at that time) field goal percentage of .417.
With the losing and poor play, Carter became noticeably disgruntled with the organization as rumours began to fly that he wanted a ticket out of Toronto.
The bad vibes continued in 2004-05 despite Sam Mitchell joining the team as head coach and Chris Bosh emerging as a star in his second NBA season.
During an early season media scrum, Carter was asked by a reporter why he didn’t dunk as much anymore.
“I don't wanna dunk anymore," Carter quipped back, adding later that “dunking was overrated.”
This was right around the time of Mitchell’s famous “zero, zero, zero,” rant where he encouraged unnamed players to “quit” after a blowout loss to the Washington Wizards.
This stretch of time was a low point for the franchise.
It all came to a head a week before Christmas in 2004 when general manager Rob Babcock dealt Carter to the New Jersey Nets for an underwhelming package including Alonzo Mourning, who never reported to the team, Aaron Williams, Eric Williams and two first round draft picks.
Fans were furious with the return and with Carter as many felt he had quit on the team. The once high flying talent was averaging just 15.9 points over 20 games before being dealt, a far cry from what he was producing just a few years prior.