r/torontoraptors

Most lottery teams from the year prior don't even make the playoffs, and most rookies outside the lottery struggle to make a playoff rotation.

So it's really amazing to think CMB is getting the opportunity in his first year to be in the playoffs.

Rookies drafted last year who will be likely featured the playoffs include:

Dylan Harper (Spurs), VJ Edgecombe (Sixers), Kon Knueppel (Hornets), CMB (Raptors), Carter Bryant (Spurs), Hugo Gonzalez? (Celtics, so I kinda doubt he's in the playoff rotation tbh), Sion James and Ryan Kalkbrenner (Hornets, still in the Play-in for now and situational minutes probably). That's it.

A very short list. I bet Colin feels pretty blessed to be playing meaningful basketball in his first season!

PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

Date	Event	Time
April 18th	at Cavaliers - Game 1	1pm EDT (SN)
April 20th	at Cavaliers - Game 2	7pm EDT
April 23rd	vs. Cavaliers - Game 3	8pm EDT
April 26th	vs. Cavaliers - Game 4	1pm EDT

Also use this as your free talk thread. Typical free talk conversations that may be moved here include:

• Trade proposal posts, draft simulator posts or trade machine posts
• Free talk stuff, Bad shitposts and "off season" questions, fantasy basketball
• Questions about the NBA or the sub, ideas for the subreddit (or message mod team directly using the "message mods" link in sidebar)
• League Pass/online streaming tech support/questions, Trade ideas, OC that didn't exactly fit as a thread
• new user questions (finding a team [aka pick the Nets], rules, general questions)
• self promotion on a minimal level - not heavy handed/please don't spam

Mainly just a 1-to-1 team comparison from the view of a cavalier's fan. He does it objectively as much as possible to show how much of a threat the raptors are (aka our edge on them) and how to take advantage of us (aka our weaknesses to exploit).

Main topics discussed:

- Team stats before and after Cavs trades (mainly focused on the improvements post trade)

- Team stats about the raptors throughout the season

- Raptors play style compared to Cavs style -> discusses strengths, weaknesses, concerns, and even pointed out the mismatch which can lead to interesting games

- Player matchup comps: Scottie vs Mobley, BI vs Wade AND Tyson, RJ vs Harden, and surprisingly he even credited shead to defend mitchell with IQ facing injury concerns.

- X-Factors on both sides but i'll just list the raptors

- Key raptors include: Mamu, CMB, IQ

There's a lot more he discussed indepthly which I won't list out, but if you want to watch an up to date comparison (since we never fought new cavs yet), his video is supported by a ton of data that takes into consideration pre and post trade cavs to grasp who we're up against.

In his opinion, he said that this could be a very interesting matchup depending on how the game develops. It can be a close intense game where raptors have the edge by relentless offense carried by fast breaks, TOs, and steals and strong defense or it could end up being a blowout in favor of the cavs if the cavs are able to breakdown the defense and make their shots consistently.

Does anyone know if they are still selling the Ingram new City edition jersey at the arena? It's pretty sold out online except at some American stores. I think I may have missed the boat unfortunately.

Anyone else from the bench you want to get some run in the series? I have narrowed it down to Battle and AJ Lawson, but those two would still be risky to play in the series for serious minutes

This should be our anthem for the upcoming series fckkkk Cleveland that mistake by the lake, we CLE NOT CLEVELAND

At times throughout the year, every rotation player for the Raps has looked fantastic. Could we get the prime version of all of them this playoffs? Here's my take on who's on a roll heading in, and who's not:

Peaking lately

1. Scottie: solid play all year, have to feel he'll be ready to go

2. Ja'kobe: Has shot 60 for 126 from the 3pt line since the all-star break. 47.6%. That's a big sample size. Defense solid all year.

3. Mamu: Has shot 40 for 100 from the 3pt line since the all-star break. 40%.

4. Brandon: In the biggest game of the year, put up 38 points. Has history as a monster playoff performer (averaged 27 points over a 6 game playoff series in 2022.)

5. CMB: to quote Zach Lowe: "(he's) impacting winning on a real team. And since he came back from his thumb injury, particularly the last 10 games of the season, that guy has been a freaking force, on both ends of the floor. He makes winning plays all game long. Tipped out rebounds, offensive putbacks, good extra passes. I'd like to see him shoot more, he has a little bit of layup-phobia, that's probably linked to his thumb injury. He's an ace defender."

Not at their peak lately

1. Jakob: When actually healthy, Jakob had a few great games. But only a few. Notably a 3 game stretch in mid-March where he averaged 31 minutes, 20pts, 12 boards. Nobody happier about avoiding play-in than him.

2. Quickley: Bad timing for injuries. But the best version of him was on display for a solid couple months earlier in the year.

3. RJ: plenty of solid play this year, but feels like he's been under fire a bit more than average lately. Some memorable matador defense moments.

4. Jamal: Had a multi-month run of solid play over the winter, but recently has looked overmatched (at times).