Darko Basically confirming its tank season
“We’re not gonna sacrifice anything on our team development or player development”
[https://twitter.com/michaelgrange/status/1750235906680803409](https://twitter.com/michaelgrange/status/1750235906680803409)
Darko:
https://preview.redd.it/vbc96p4w3gec1.png?width=1360&format=png&auto=webp&s=5499fd397c463768c9f4d7ca4df438ea3470be63
Also from practice today. Interesting answer when @SavHamilton11 asked Darko what his priorities are for second half of season: pic.twitter.com/2ixdWdvH2W
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) January 24, 2024
by Veracsflail1
28 Comments
Team Tank has won. How the question for us fans is, who is the tank commander this time that’ll lead us to the promised land?
I mean yeah duh, we just traded OG and Siakam, we’re gonna try to keep our pick and retool almost entirely with this draft class and hopefully other young players we can turn people like Brown and Schroder into.
Gradey for sure doubling his minutes post trade deadline.
It just means we’re not chasing wins. Doesn’t mean we’ll lose on purpose either.
We trying HARD to keep this pick huh lol
It’s hard to say establish chemistry when 80% team on trade block
Feels like the second half season doesn’t start until after deadline
Long overdue honestly
Tanking means losing on purpose. Nothing that Darko said suggests that’s what they’re trying to do. It’s clear that he’s focused on development instead of coaching to simply win games. Do you think he’s going to encourage Scottie to not play as hard or put him in positions to not be as impactful?
Music to my ears!! Chemistry and development, sprinkle in a top 6 pick for good measure!
Let’s fucking go.
Ready for some ugly basketball at times, but excited to see our guys grow.
Maybe my definition is too narrow, but for me “we’re focusing on player development with our young guys” is not a tank, it’s coaching a young team. A tank is losing on purpose to draft as high as possible in the lottery.
The Raptors don’t have a lot of incentive to lose as much as possible, they do have a lot of incentive to develop Barnes/RJ/Quickley knowing that the peak for these guys is multiple seasons down the road & that there’s more roster work to do in the meantime.
They’re not going all out to make the play in like the last 2 seasons, they’re focusing on developing youth. Whatever W/L record that leads to, it is what it is.
Darko was known for his player development work as an assistant, the eventual rebuild coming up was pretty clear as soon as he was hired
Obviously the roster isn’t good enough right now, but the way he’s improved the offense has been encouraging
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’ve had more fun watching the post-OG and post-Siakam trade team than I did watching the entire last season and a lot of the beginning of this season when the half court offense was just stuck in the mud
waht do you know? team tank won! they were right all along while getting clowned on here lol. Everybody hop on the train now
confirming a tank for development basically just means theyre playing the same roster of players
yall would be blind to even think differently
Love it. Give the guys as much responsiblity they can handle with out breaking them. I dont care about a couple wins as much as I do about Scottie becoming a more confident ball handler and shot creator
Darko can’t wait til spring for bike rides, ice cream and pizza parties. He’s already working on individual loot bags.
GTJ, Chris, Porter Jr, Temple, Dennis, Ronald McDonald, are all going to be gone, and so will whatever chemistry they develop.
This season is truly meaningless.
Jontay Porters interview responses from today are honestly worth a watch as well. He’s so well spoken and he breaks down his recent success and what it means for the raptors
Darko has the reputation of being a developmental coach. I’m excited to see how the young players take the leap.
The tank is coming I guess, hoping for some shooters in the draft, maybe a big
2.5 years of tanking here we come. Still want to convey the pick to the Spurs tho.
There is a big difference between development and tanking. Tanking means shut Scottie down and send him home for six months after the all star break. Development means we are going to play our new core (but not 40 min a night) and let the chips fall where they may.
There is a lot of basketball left and Toronto could still sneak into the play in with a more settled and motivated group of players. Orlando, Indiana and Brooklyn have all been sinking lately and Atlanta looks ready to tank being a seller at the deadline.
.and who knows at the draft. What if Indiana ends up in the lottery? What if we end up with pick 5 or 6 and don’t want someone there, do we convey the pick anyway to get rid of the liability or trade down? Do we package our lower picks to trade up? Its not all or nothing.
People saying “team tank won” are only saying that because they’re in favor of tanking and want to look at stuff to make them happy. Reading this doesn’t indicate any tanking. When Poeltl comes back, how exactly is that going to help the tank? Raptors also have one of the easiest schedules the rest of the season…how is that going to help the tank? Losing on purpose is a horrible mindset and terrible for development and I guarantee the Raptors FO and coaching staff know this.
A tank with no payload
Buddy is acting like rebuilding is some big team secret. HMM INTERESTING
If Bbq keep getting better and if gradey can legit become consistent knocking down shots this season a huge success with all the picks and cap space
NOOOOOOOO, a team that traded 2 out of there top 3 players for prospects and picks is going to want to tank and develop their guys 😱😱
3 possible outcomes to the season:
– most ideal scenario: we start winning and make the playoffs. Pick conveys to San Antonio at 12+ (highly unlikely)
– medium case scenario: we play terrible and get a top 6 pick and get to keep it, albeit in a poor draft class (fairly likely)
– worst case scenario: we play slightly better but not good enough to be competitive and convey pick 7-11 to San Antonio (fairly likely)