Notes on Raptors, Leafs and Jays
Been away from the blog for a few days. Kinda busy with my day job.
The Raptors are now on the All-Star break. The Leafs are approaching the end of a crazy long road trip that began in Montreal last weekend and will wrap up in St. Louis Wednesday. The Jays' spring training is underway, and it can only mean one thing.
Vladdy Watch is on!
A lot to digest in the Toronto sporting landscape. A few thoughts from moi.
Raptors at the Break
We've played 59 games through the "first half." That's two more than the Bucks, who have the same number of wins that we do (43) and two fewer losses at 14. On the standings, we're 1 game back of those guys, but I am happy with where we are, considering the circumstances.
I don't know if Nick Nurse will get much love in the Coach of the Year voting, and I am clearly biased, but he's done a wonderful job with this team in his first season as an NBA head coach.
Granted, he'd been an assistant in the system and he was familiar with the system et al, but keep in mind that he had a vastly different starting lineup to open this season than what he'd been used to seeing last season. Kawhi and Danny G arrived. Serge replaced JV as the starting center. And Siakam played his way into the lineup over OG. Kyle was the only carryover from the most frequently used starting 5 from a season ago.
Then there are the injuries. Kyle and Kawhi have missed so much time that they haven't started the same game together as often as the coach and the fans would have liked. OG has had some personal issues that kept him from 1) getting into games regularly and 2) progressing the way many expected him to this year. It's only been in the recent weeks that OG has flashed the kind of potential that has had so many of us fans and hoops cognoscenti outside Toronto drooling. FVV has also been banged up and now he's going to be out for five weeks. Then following a major shakeup in recent weeks, Nurse saw four rotation pieces leavein JV, Delon, CJ and Moose. The coach now has to try to work key new pieces, Marc Gasol and Jeremy Lin, into his system with just about 20 games remaining in the regular season.
We fans may take our depth for granted but I think it's quite remarkable we've won this many games already this season.
My only worry heading into the playoffs is our three-point shooting. We're No. 12 in attempts and No. 22 in percentage. That's not good enough in this day and age.
In terms of percentage, the Bucks are barely ahead, but they attempt about 4 more treys per game than we do. They're tied for 2nd in makes, while we're 13th.
I am citing Milwaukee because I feel we're going to face them in the conference finals and 3-point shooting will no doubt be a huge factor in that series.
Their starting lineup is basically Giannis and four shooters. You just got to hope to contain Giannis a bit and keep your fingers crossed that those shooters will shoot less than 30 percent from downtown. They won the season series 3-1 and that's one team that scares me in the playoffs.
Of course, we're going to have to get there first. And there's one team that sorta scares me, and that's the Brooklyn Nets.
If the regular season ended today, we'd face the Hornets in the first round, and then the winner of the Pacers-Nets series in the second round. The Pacers have been hanging tough without Dipo, but in a seven-game series, I like the Nets' chances because of their volume-shooting ways. The Pacers have been the stingiest defense this year in terms of points allowed per game, but their D against 3-point shooting has only been in the middle of the pack.
The Nets, of course, boast your 2019 All-Star Three-Point champion, Joe Harris.
If those guys catch fire in a playoff series, not going to be as easy to beat 'em as it may look on paper.
On another playoff-related note, I am hoping the East seeds will remain this way for the rest of the season, so that the Sixers and the Celtics will beat up on each other in the first round and the Bucks get either of the two in the second round. As much as I fear the Nets, I'd obviously rather play them than the Sixers or the Celtics in the second round.
Road Warriors on the Ice
Today's 2-0 shutout loss to the Coyotes notwithstanding, I really like the way the Leafs have been playing on the current road trip. We showed Montreal who's boss, peppered the Rangers with almost 60 shots in a tough loss, and had convincting, entertaining wins in Denver and Vegas.
That's a lot of mileage, from Montreal to New York to Denver and Sin City and Phoenix and now off to St. Louis. The guys wouldn't admit it but I am sure traveling took its toll. It was back-to-back from Montreal to the Big Apple. And then just one day in between the rest of the stops. Now we get an extra day off before playing the Blues, and then we get 4 straight home games.
The 'Yotes deserve a ton of credit for the win today. We dominated the opening 10 or so minutes and then it was all Arizona the rest of the way. They did an excellent job on the defensive end; played a tight checking game and really didn't give us much breathing room. As a Leafs fan, it was a frustrating game to watch. But if you were a neutral observer, you would have appreciated the Coyotes' inspired effort. This was an underdog team going up against an opponent with 11 goals in the past two games.
It was easy to see that the Coyotes were prepared for our new-look power play. I geeked out in the previous post about the way the new setup produced three PPGs against the Avs the other day.
Obviously, there are no secrets in this league. If a random hack like myself can see how well the new approach works, then the best penalty-killing team in the NHL will recognize that at a much deeper level and prepare the best they can to keep those PP units off the board.
Tavares tried the same pass that set up Kadri's goal vs. Colorado and the penalty killers got their sticks in the way. And these weren't just reactionary plays, either. They defended like they knew where the pucks were going to go. The same with the play that set up Matthews' goal earlier, with Tavares finding him from below the goal line. Lots of active sticks in the lane.
The pressure is now back on the bench to try to mix things up a bit.
Meanwhile, we're still 6-3-0 in February. I can live with that.
Hope Springs Eternal?
The new baseball season is nearly upon us. I don't know if I've ever paid less attention to offseason baseball than this winter. That's really more due to the strong regular seasons by both the Raptors and the Leafs than due to anything that the Jays have or haven't done. I mean, I have kept track with my team's offseason moves, including a recent signing of former KBO pitcher Ryan Feierabend to a minor league deal. I spoke to him on a couple of occasions when he played in Korea and I wish him all the best with my favorite big league club.
The expectations aren't admittedly high for this year's Jays. We're in a full rebuilding mode and things are going to be ugly for at least the next couple of years.
But we do have Vladdy Jr. to look forward to.
Just watch the guy swing.
At this point, all Vladdy has to do is show up and that's news. He's baseball's No. 1 prospect and he's arguably the most hyped-up prospect for a Toronto team in the last whatever years since Auston Matthews.
Since hockey isn't nearly as big in the U.S., it's probably safe to say Junior is far more recognizable/relevant across North America than Matthews ever was at the start of his career. That his dad is a Hall of Famer doesn't hurt, either.
Because teams like to have an extra year of control of their assets, the game's top prospects who looked primed for immediate big league success didn't get to make their debut right away. The equivalent of a "full" MLB season is 172 days. A young prospect who spends fewer than 172 days with the big league team in his first season doesn't have that "full" season under his belt. And that player hits free agency after seven calendar years in the bigs, rather than the usual six.
The Cubs played that service time game with Kris Bryant, who went on to win ROY and later MVP. Ditto for Acuna. You can read about that "service time manipulation" in places like here.
There has been quite a great deal of backlash over this. I personally don't have a problem with this "manipulation." For one, if it means we get to keep Vladdy for an extra year before he hits free agency, then by all means!! And secondly, having him for a few more days at the start of the season won't have any bearing on the kind of season we're in for. So why waste a year of control for a few days in a rebuilding season?
I understand why people are angry that the Jays aren't going to put him in the Opening Day lineup. There is little else worth looking forward to for us fans in 2019. Why not let the kid have a go at it from Day 1, right?
But if you consider the big picture, the Jays are probably doing the smart thing.
Now, fans are a lot smarter than front office executives may give them credit for. They know what's going on. Those front office types can say stuff like, "This is a baseball decision" or "We need him to work on his defense" (which is what the Cubs said about Bryant, as if an extra 12 days in Triple-A was going to improve his glove that much) etc etc, and fans will see right through these words. They (we?) all know this is a business decision.
So just come out and say it as much. At least be upfront about it. Not everyone is going to be upset with the move.
(Edit: The Jays or any other club can't come out and say that because it'd be illegal manipulation of service time, MLB.com tells me.)
The Raptors are now on the All-Star break. The Leafs are approaching the end of a crazy long road trip that began in Montreal last weekend and will wrap up in St. Louis Wednesday. The Jays' spring training is underway, and it can only mean one thing.
Vladdy Watch is on!
A lot to digest in the Toronto sporting landscape. A few thoughts from moi.
Raptors at the Break
We've played 59 games through the "first half." That's two more than the Bucks, who have the same number of wins that we do (43) and two fewer losses at 14. On the standings, we're 1 game back of those guys, but I am happy with where we are, considering the circumstances.
I don't know if Nick Nurse will get much love in the Coach of the Year voting, and I am clearly biased, but he's done a wonderful job with this team in his first season as an NBA head coach.
Granted, he'd been an assistant in the system and he was familiar with the system et al, but keep in mind that he had a vastly different starting lineup to open this season than what he'd been used to seeing last season. Kawhi and Danny G arrived. Serge replaced JV as the starting center. And Siakam played his way into the lineup over OG. Kyle was the only carryover from the most frequently used starting 5 from a season ago.
Then there are the injuries. Kyle and Kawhi have missed so much time that they haven't started the same game together as often as the coach and the fans would have liked. OG has had some personal issues that kept him from 1) getting into games regularly and 2) progressing the way many expected him to this year. It's only been in the recent weeks that OG has flashed the kind of potential that has had so many of us fans and hoops cognoscenti outside Toronto drooling. FVV has also been banged up and now he's going to be out for five weeks. Then following a major shakeup in recent weeks, Nurse saw four rotation pieces leavein JV, Delon, CJ and Moose. The coach now has to try to work key new pieces, Marc Gasol and Jeremy Lin, into his system with just about 20 games remaining in the regular season.
We fans may take our depth for granted but I think it's quite remarkable we've won this many games already this season.
My only worry heading into the playoffs is our three-point shooting. We're No. 12 in attempts and No. 22 in percentage. That's not good enough in this day and age.
In terms of percentage, the Bucks are barely ahead, but they attempt about 4 more treys per game than we do. They're tied for 2nd in makes, while we're 13th.
I am citing Milwaukee because I feel we're going to face them in the conference finals and 3-point shooting will no doubt be a huge factor in that series.
Their starting lineup is basically Giannis and four shooters. You just got to hope to contain Giannis a bit and keep your fingers crossed that those shooters will shoot less than 30 percent from downtown. They won the season series 3-1 and that's one team that scares me in the playoffs.
Of course, we're going to have to get there first. And there's one team that sorta scares me, and that's the Brooklyn Nets.
If the regular season ended today, we'd face the Hornets in the first round, and then the winner of the Pacers-Nets series in the second round. The Pacers have been hanging tough without Dipo, but in a seven-game series, I like the Nets' chances because of their volume-shooting ways. The Pacers have been the stingiest defense this year in terms of points allowed per game, but their D against 3-point shooting has only been in the middle of the pack.
The Nets, of course, boast your 2019 All-Star Three-Point champion, Joe Harris.
If those guys catch fire in a playoff series, not going to be as easy to beat 'em as it may look on paper.
On another playoff-related note, I am hoping the East seeds will remain this way for the rest of the season, so that the Sixers and the Celtics will beat up on each other in the first round and the Bucks get either of the two in the second round. As much as I fear the Nets, I'd obviously rather play them than the Sixers or the Celtics in the second round.
Road Warriors on the Ice
Today's 2-0 shutout loss to the Coyotes notwithstanding, I really like the way the Leafs have been playing on the current road trip. We showed Montreal who's boss, peppered the Rangers with almost 60 shots in a tough loss, and had convincting, entertaining wins in Denver and Vegas.
That's a lot of mileage, from Montreal to New York to Denver and Sin City and Phoenix and now off to St. Louis. The guys wouldn't admit it but I am sure traveling took its toll. It was back-to-back from Montreal to the Big Apple. And then just one day in between the rest of the stops. Now we get an extra day off before playing the Blues, and then we get 4 straight home games.
The 'Yotes deserve a ton of credit for the win today. We dominated the opening 10 or so minutes and then it was all Arizona the rest of the way. They did an excellent job on the defensive end; played a tight checking game and really didn't give us much breathing room. As a Leafs fan, it was a frustrating game to watch. But if you were a neutral observer, you would have appreciated the Coyotes' inspired effort. This was an underdog team going up against an opponent with 11 goals in the past two games.
It was easy to see that the Coyotes were prepared for our new-look power play. I geeked out in the previous post about the way the new setup produced three PPGs against the Avs the other day.
Obviously, there are no secrets in this league. If a random hack like myself can see how well the new approach works, then the best penalty-killing team in the NHL will recognize that at a much deeper level and prepare the best they can to keep those PP units off the board.
Tavares tried the same pass that set up Kadri's goal vs. Colorado and the penalty killers got their sticks in the way. And these weren't just reactionary plays, either. They defended like they knew where the pucks were going to go. The same with the play that set up Matthews' goal earlier, with Tavares finding him from below the goal line. Lots of active sticks in the lane.
The pressure is now back on the bench to try to mix things up a bit.
Meanwhile, we're still 6-3-0 in February. I can live with that.
Hope Springs Eternal?
The new baseball season is nearly upon us. I don't know if I've ever paid less attention to offseason baseball than this winter. That's really more due to the strong regular seasons by both the Raptors and the Leafs than due to anything that the Jays have or haven't done. I mean, I have kept track with my team's offseason moves, including a recent signing of former KBO pitcher Ryan Feierabend to a minor league deal. I spoke to him on a couple of occasions when he played in Korea and I wish him all the best with my favorite big league club.
The expectations aren't admittedly high for this year's Jays. We're in a full rebuilding mode and things are going to be ugly for at least the next couple of years.
But we do have Vladdy Jr. to look forward to.
Just watch the guy swing.
At this point, all Vladdy has to do is show up and that's news. He's baseball's No. 1 prospect and he's arguably the most hyped-up prospect for a Toronto team in the last whatever years since Auston Matthews.
Since hockey isn't nearly as big in the U.S., it's probably safe to say Junior is far more recognizable/relevant across North America than Matthews ever was at the start of his career. That his dad is a Hall of Famer doesn't hurt, either.
Because teams like to have an extra year of control of their assets, the game's top prospects who looked primed for immediate big league success didn't get to make their debut right away. The equivalent of a "full" MLB season is 172 days. A young prospect who spends fewer than 172 days with the big league team in his first season doesn't have that "full" season under his belt. And that player hits free agency after seven calendar years in the bigs, rather than the usual six.
The Cubs played that service time game with Kris Bryant, who went on to win ROY and later MVP. Ditto for Acuna. You can read about that "service time manipulation" in places like here.
There has been quite a great deal of backlash over this. I personally don't have a problem with this "manipulation." For one, if it means we get to keep Vladdy for an extra year before he hits free agency, then by all means!! And secondly, having him for a few more days at the start of the season won't have any bearing on the kind of season we're in for. So why waste a year of control for a few days in a rebuilding season?
I understand why people are angry that the Jays aren't going to put him in the Opening Day lineup. There is little else worth looking forward to for us fans in 2019. Why not let the kid have a go at it from Day 1, right?
But if you consider the big picture, the Jays are probably doing the smart thing.
Now, fans are a lot smarter than front office executives may give them credit for. They know what's going on. Those front office types can say stuff like, "This is a baseball decision" or "We need him to work on his defense" (which is what the Cubs said about Bryant, as if an extra 12 days in Triple-A was going to improve his glove that much) etc etc, and fans will see right through these words. They (we?) all know this is a business decision.
(Edit: The Jays or any other club can't come out and say that because it'd be illegal manipulation of service time, MLB.com tells me.)
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