Will Lou sits down with coach David Thorpe of TrueHoop to discuss the Raptors lineup struggles, Darko Rajaković’s rookie season, the decision to start Dennis Schröder, who is most likely to move at the trade deadline, and Scottie Barnes’ growth this season.
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31 Comments
I can't sleep until I watch everything on this channel 💕
When Pensare was saying this, the fan base said it was hate.
Now Thorpe is saying it… watch them finally accept the truth that we’ve known all along 🤦♂️
Thorpe multiple times said that Darko called Pascal selfish. Wasn't it Masai that did that??
David Thorpe has a relationship with Siakam manager.
So there's clear bias in regards to Siakam.
So him being positive about Siakam season & saying he's the only one to adjust to Darko offense change is a flat out lie and coming from disenguine place.
(HE'S RIGHT ABOUT DENNIS)
Also him saying Scottie only had a great start, eluding to him not being consistent or great overall in comparison.
Given the fact Scottie started season great with him being highest usage player, Siakam at that time was struggling in his role playing off others & spacing for Scottie. So didn't adjust.
Siakam struggled badly without the ball on offense, teams dared him to shoot.
Scottie was the one who had to adjust to Siakam and swapped roles with being that spacer for Siakam.
Darko adjusted to Siakam by subbing Scottie out early every 1st quarter so Scottie can run the 2nd unit while Siakam gets to play with an extra shooter + removing Scottie plays type clash.
Scottie at his best is operating in exact same spots as Siakam, they both can't do it at the same time so have to take turns on whose initating or spacing.
When Scottie is initiating offense with Siakam on the court, Siakams defender always have a foot in the paint so he's always hurting Scottie on offense.
Scottie usage rate has been gradually going down & Siakam usage going up.
David Thorpe doesn't know Scottie nor does he know his people, he does however know Siakam people.
He was never gonna say anything honest on Siakam if it was negative, especially in a contract year.
People think he knows Scottie because his son during Covid college season was a teammate of Scottie.
He doesn't know Scottie personally, nor his people/trainers.
He has however watched alot of college Scottie who is a completely different played to this current version.
Scottie averaging 20-9-6 on 47/38/76 splits with 1.3 Blocks, 1.8 Steals.
Scottie shooting 38% from 3 on 5.3 attempts on the worst 3 point shooting team in the entire NBA with worst spacing in NBA.
Scottie is 5th in entire NBA for 4th quarter scoring.
Scottie is top 10 in NBA for BPM, VORP and EPM.
Showing Scottie is performing & having huge individual impact to winning in spite of being on a struggling team, awful spacing and bench.
If you could create a roster or lineup to limit Scottie game, it would look like this current team.
But Thorpe off this season is saying Siakam is the best player.
Hmmmmm….. perhaps it would be better for Dennis to come off the bench to provide that 6th man score that he used to do in OKC. And have GTJ to start?
tell it exactly like how it is. Raps are full of average players that both the front office and raps nation overrate. Dennis as a replacement for FVV is laughable. Trade Pascal for Zion
i been saying, you cant rely on shroder.
darkos coaching is getting all players involved. this team only has 3 good players. you cant have 15 players get touches smh
I like Dennis, what I've noticed is that when it comes to initiating the offense it lags. When Malachai is subbed in the speed picks up. He may be tried and needs to come off the bench. Trent plays decent when he starts, also Dennis needs to back up a bit on the leader part of his role. Tough love may be needed by Coach Darko. Coach D, was spot on, enjoyed the insight.
This coach knows basketball and how to win . He clearly thinks the coach and management are purposefully trying to screw Pascal out by not extending him and not wanting to give him the ball
I like his insight. He tells the truth 😮
This is what I hate about Darko the most. Stop forcing us to watch the Dennis show and actually put the ball in your best players hands.
If you build your team around shooting, you'll lose in long run vs better shooting
Dennis off the bench makes the most sense the problem is we have no one to come into the starting lineup
Our gm failed to address the main weaknesses of this team and they will continue to struggle until they do
Everyone blames the coach 😂. Players win and lose games. The Raptors are not very good and need to get better. If we got Phil Jackson we would not make the playoffs
Agree 100% with coach Thorpe.
Barnes and Siakam should have the ball in their hands not Dennis. Dennis off the bench.
Thorpe talking sense as always. Move on from Jakob ASAP and let’s get this thing moving.
lol Scottie’s been our best player avg 20 points a game … what’s he talking about
Lou you should have corrected him that Masai made those comments about being selfish and not Darko. If anything he's been on the right foot from the start with the culture and that narrative is unfair to make.
Just feels like the Raptors are not sure who their best player is and are trying too hard to get too many people involved in the offense.
If I was a player and I hear You. Fans talking about trading every player I wouldn't wanna make an effort either..
This is all the fans fault. With there two cent opinions all the time about trading players.
Will Lou you are the worst host in the world. If you can’t factcheck this trash like David Thorpe you become the problem. I just don’t know how you still have a job at Sportsnet. Just disgusting, from lying about Scottie Barnes last year to lying about Darko. Wow. This is a trash show!
Here we go another self-proclaimed basketball "expert". Man this guy calls himself a basketball coach but doesn't understand elementary what Coach Darko is trying to do with this team. Why do clowns like this keep repeating the mantra that Dennis is being favoured and put in the position of the "leading scorer", "decision-maker" oh and this guy added another one – "quarterback"? No he's not! Dennis, sometimes Malachi are put in the classical role of ball-handler/PG to quickly bring up the ball and hand it of to Scottie who is the main man on the team. Secondly, why is this "expert" lying and claiming Darko called Siakam selfish which never happened. If anyone it was Masai who suggested certain players were selfish but even he didn't name him by name. I can't stand liars!
Darko is trying to create more off-ball opportunities for Scottie to reduce his workload. It's pretty much the exact same thing Mavs are now doing with Luka Dončić. They have brought in Kyrie Irving to bring up the ball and play the classical ball-handling PG role because leaving it all to Luka the offence was slow and it exhausted him. This change has allowed Luka to step it up a degree and really shine this season in terms of shooting. Now he is implementing more catch-and-shoot rhythms to his game. Scottie needs someone like Luka has in Kyrie who will allow him to play faster to exploit transition opportunities and make his job easier. We need a PG to be unselfish and quick in transition pushing the ball to Scottie. Is that going to be Dennis or do we need to bring in someone to fill that void…
Darko didn't say anything about Pascal being selfish. and W Lou should be correcting this point as he was there onsite. BS
Raptors just need better shooters around Pascal, Scottie and OG. Fans just dont understand
Raptors need Kyle Lowry back. Hopefully we can trade Jakob and Dennis at the trade deadline for some picks
People are really arguing about starting Trent Jr over Schroder. Its a debate about how the deck chairs of the Titanic are arranged. Depressing stuff.
Why you guys allow David Thorpe to blatantly lie about Darko calling pascal selfish. Masai talked about selfishness not Darko. You guys should correct his nonsense because you guys know better, not agree to it. Terrible journalism
Not one person called Siakam selfish. They said the entire team as a whole was selfish last season. They weren't wrong.
Masai spoke about selfishness seveeal times but never called anyone out. But everyone knew it was FVV and Pascal