the samsquanch

And away we go...

2012-01-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

And away we go...

So far most of the things I have mentioned in the last post has come to fruition. The only things that have come of note is that Amir is having more of an impact then I anticipated. I don't know why, but Amir always seems to surprise me when he plays well and I guess it really shouldn't anymore. Derozan is not playing up to his potential. We have no real small forward on the team. Our bench consists of a mish mash of garbage players that other teams would avoid and tip toe around like dog doo doo.

The biggest story so far for this team is of course the play of Andrea Bargnani, who seems to have woken from some sort of 5 year long daze and seems to be a more complete player on both ends of the floor than previous incarnations of AB7. Wanna see how well he is actually doing?

He's on the front F'n page of ESPN beside Kobe Bryant for frig sakes. He's been linked to trades to LA and he's in the top 10 in scoring for the league. He's got a great PER which you can see him put together most games. He's actually putting in an effort on the boards. Still not rebounding as much as he should but the difference is noticeable and I'll take that compared to what he used to give us on the boards any day of the week. He seems more aware of his position on the court, opponents positions on the court and he's making defensive plays that a normal starting center in the NBA will make. Like once in a while actually trying to swipe the ball away from an opponent and getting his hands into passing lanes.

He seems to create a lot more contact now and that's earning him and his team more trips to the line. He's coming off a high pick and roll with Jose which Jose has the option of curling and pulling up for a jumper or slip the pass to Drea. Andrea then has the option to shoot, pump fake to draw the foul (which he does amazingly well and should get more credit for), or pump fake and drive where he has been having a lot of success hitting or drawing the foul. This is the Raptor's bread and butter play. That or they have Andrea come across the weak side of the court under the basket and iso for a post-up play. Nice and simple.None of this convoluted crap that they used to run in previous season.

Demar Derozan, Rasual Butler: We suck! Add James Johnson to that mix too. These guys shouldn't be allowed to shoot when they're on the floor. At least James J and Butler provide some decent D when they're on the floor but I think the Raptor's fanbase collectively clinch their sphincters and cringe in unison every time one of these jackasses have jacked up a shot in the past few games. Sure they might have a good game here or there between the four of them. But every blind squirrel eventually finds a nut if he sniffs around the ground long enough.

As far as the next few weeks, I'd like to see the Raptors continue doing what they're doing. Winning a few here and there, losing the majority and continue to have Drea develop and score. Hopefully by the Allstar game we'll have a new allstar on this team and also have BC pull off some half decent trades.

Breaking down the 3 stars of the team:

Amir Johnson: Defensive sound and responsible. Plays with high energy, and intensity but at the same time he plays under control and knows his limits. The work he's put in off the court regarding adding strength and working on that 15-18 foot jump shot. Teams are more then happy to let him try that shot judging by past history so it's a great opportunity for Amir to oblige. He's also always got the one-two punch combo with Jose where Jose seems to be able to pass the ball to him as he's moving up the gut of the paint. Amir uses his long arms to catch the pass and while keeping it up in the air, he deposits it for an easy 2 points. This play has been seen time and again and is very effective.

Jose Calderon: He's playing injury free and seems to be having a second wind in his career. Maybe the poor defense really was due more to his injuries that seemed to have restricted his lateral movement. He's not point guard stopper but maybe it's more his success running the team on the other end that have made me overlook his defensive deficiencies. He's running out of gas during games as he, like Andrea, have been playing a ton of minutes to make up for the lack of talent on the rest of the roster. But when he's fresh he's running the pick and roll like a champ, putting pressure of the other team's d, and just causing mass confusion for opponents while averaging nearly double digits in assists. This is the best he's played in years and I am really enjoying watching it despite the recent losses.

Andrea Bargnani: Fueled by Primo pasta and sauce. This pasty pasta peddler is finally putting it all together and showing us where all that potential they talked about on the 2006 draft night is coming from. He has always done most of these sorts of things like driving, posting up, shooting well. But only recently have we seen him put it together game after game. He looks comfortable on the floor. Some might be attributed to him not being fluent in English the past years. I mean how are you going to communicate on the court if you literally don't understand what your teammates are saying. Some of it also seems like a light has click on in his brain and he realizes what he can to do to a lot of the slower power forwards and centers in the league. I want to see him drive more and post up more and shoot that 3 pointer less than 4 times in a game. Keep on keepin' on.

Raptors through 3 games

2011-12-31T11:18:00.000-08:00

A few things became apparent to me watching the Raptors the first few games. First I just want to say that this isn't a good enough sample size so I guess I will take my own comments with a grain of salt as I suggest anyone reading this should too. First thing that I noticed is that Dwane Casey is having an impact on this team and that it is clear that this team is playing with a solid defensive system and mindset in place which is in contrast to the Triano era, very refreshing and promising. Instead of watching the team make the same defensive mistakes game in and game out. I am going to throw Triano under the bus a bit because quite frankly his time as head coach sucked. That's not to say it was his fault. He wasn't put into a situation to succeed and hence he didn't. He's too nice of a guy and that's not a bad thing in life, it just isn't the best for a role which requires you to exert some authority.

Another thing that is abundantly clear is that the talent on this team, as well as the talent level that was on the team last season is absurdly low. All i hear from people is that Bayless is good he just needs a chance, James Johnson is good he just needs a chance, Linas Kleiza's gonna be amazing you just wait till he gets back. But the sad truth is you wouldn't find any of these players on contending teams. Otherwise, somebody good would have given enough of a hoot to sign them in the first place. Instead the Raps are scrounging the bottom of the barrel for talent and maybe that's a good thing. For once they got a season with low enough expectations to justify it. Which brings the question of, what the heck were they trying to do last season to mind?

Bayless is a ball hog. He's got a decent shot but more often then not, he looks past better plays and options on the court to get his own shot up regardless of whether or not it's the best choice. Hey, it's easy for me to sit back and play Monday morning quarterback but I'm just telling you what I see. The guy cannot run a team, he cannot run an offense. That's been the knock on him his whole career and it doesn't look like he's interested in changing that aspect of his game. He's a score first kind of player and has limited court vision. Actually I am not sure he has limited court vision or he just doesn't give a crap. I really can't tell.

As for Calderon, I've ragged on this guy in the past non stop and I am sure a lot of others have too about his defense. But the truth is, as bad as the guy is on defense he's still our best point guard. Bar-none. End of discussion. Show me another guy on this team capable of running this team's offense at his level. There was a guy who did it but they traded his ass to the Hornets for a sack of potatoes. And by a sack of potatoes i mean Bayless who can't play well enough not to trip over himself, Predrag Stojakovic, (yes that's his REAL name) a guy who they kept on the bench for no reason then released him so that he could help Dallas win a championship. *cough cough Alonzo Mourning. At least they didn't gift him millions of dollars for it.

As for Demar Derozan he's shown me he's learned nothing this summer other than missing the 3 point shot more often then he used to. He still hogs the ball, drives to the lane and more often than not loses the ball on a strip, reach in or generally stupid turnover. Why do people like him? Cause he's got potential to be more. True it is early and chances are he'll play better but compared with the expectations I had for this guy coming into this league. His first step isn't that explosive. His defense is suspect at best. If it weren't for the giant Italian guy on the team that plays bad defense, Demar's defense would be a lot more apparent to people. His lateral movement is garbage for the type of athlete he is. Which is probably why his drives to the basket look more like a running back trying to push his way through. Sorry Demar, wrong sport. A good example of how it should be done is right in front of him every day in Barbosa. He's got blisteringly fast drives, amazing lateral quicks to get around people and a fantastic shot in the air. Why that guy doesn't start is beyond me. I guess they gotta try to give Demar more PT.

Leandro Barbosa is probably the only guy on the team who's a legitimate proven NBA player and the only guy on the team who someone outside of Ontario has heard of and actually seen play an important NBA game. He's got great cuts to the basket, puts pressure on the other team's defense and passes out of plays to create space for the rest of the bums he calls teammates.

Which brings me to Andrea Bargnani. Har Har. Everyone's favourite whipping boy. Yes everyone hates him because he should have more rebounds, and be a better player cause he's been drafted #1. But everyone really should back off on this guy. Look at the draft history of the Raptors and you might appreciate him more even though he was #1 in a weak draft class. Michael Bradley, Alex Radojevic, Joey Graham, Chris Jefferies, Rafael Arjauo, need I go on? Or is it too painful? What I'm trying to say is that it could be worse... much much worse. We also could have ended up with a guy who's got bummed knees and is out of the league already. Is he great? No. Is he good? I don't know about that either. But I wonder if Raptor fans can ever realize the poor guy is the best player we have. Yes his defense and rebounding blow but we didn't draft him for that, we drafted him knowing he can shoot the ball and score and he does that. He's the only player on the team that averaged 20 points a game last season and the only player on any given night that can give you that even though he could give you 30 one night and 9 the next.

Yup he sucks, but he's the best we got and what's that say about the rest of the team? Overhaul? We need like 5 trades to get our team to a skill level to even consider it a start of a rebuild. What happened to our talent? Oh it was squandered in guys who either sucked once we signed them, or took the first or second bus out of town. The only way this team is going to succeed is by drafting well and stopping the signings of has- beens and wannabes like Hakeem, and Hidiot Turkoglu. I often wonder what would have happened to that team back when they got Hakeem if they didn't blow the money on him and signed a half decent player. That was in my mind the pin to the grenade that blew up the Carter/Antonio Davis era just as the Turk's signing was the pin to the grenade that blew up the Bosh era. Which I guess is debatable but arguable. Only Chris Bosh knows the answer to that.

So what are the Toronto Raptors?

C- Amir Johnson - a hustle guy who wouldn't be starting for probably 25 of the other teams in the league
PF- Andrea Bargnani - sadly the best player on the team
SF- we don't have a real NBA starter
SG- Demar who is almost an NBA player and we have a real NBA starter but he's coming off the bench
PG- Jose Calderon who would be a fantastic backup on a semi contending team

bench:
Barbosa
insert bum's name here
insert bum's name here
insert bum's name here
insert bum's name here
insert bum's name here
insert bum's name here
insert bum's name here

I can't wait to see next years draft. Don't tank you say? Why not? Cleveland did it last year and they got the #1 pick. See anyone in Cleveland complaining about their season last year? You're not gonna say, ok let's lose these games. But it seems like Colangelo has created an enviroment which won't let his team succeed in any real terms but at the same time has enough of a foundation in Dwane Casey to point the club forward. Whatever detours that derail this along the way I am interested in seeing.

The Draft Shmaft and things of that nature

2011-07-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

As I was sitting there watching the draft in a restaurant in Maui, I said to myself, "Wow!! We got him!! We got Walker or Knight!! It's all over, suck it! But...

With the 5th pick in the NBA draft, The Toronto Raptors select: JONAS VALANCIUNAS

Along with the rest of the fan base of the Toronto Raptors, our jaws collectively dropped in unison. No friggin way! As I have said before, Jonas was one of the picks I thought would be a good choice. But not in a situation like this. Not with 2 players we clearly coveted more, that would fill a much bigger need were still available.

But hold the frickin phone here. Walker and Knight get passed up again, and again. Is there something about these players that us, as mere fans don't know about? Is Jonas Valanciunas the next coming of the Raptor saviour?

The term "european and soft" gets tossed around the digital social scene like cheap candy out of a pinata. To be honest, not too many people know much about Valanciunas. To add fuel to the fire, the guy couldn't play in the NBA next season either due to contract issues with his pro team in europe. So the chance for instant gratification is null. I was hesitant to warm up to the move at first but several things got me excited.

-First being the rumour that San Antonio was willing to trade up to get him. With San Antonio being such a prestigious franchise the last two decades, they to some are considered an expert in the evaluation of draft talent. On the flip side of this coin, that doesn't mean that much to me. I mean, it does and it doesn't. Just cause the Spurs wanted him doesn't automatically make him a must have player.

-Cleveland who was picking fourth chose to pass on him due to his contract issues. So basically he would have went fourth had he have been free to go where he pleased. On one side reaffirming his status as a clearer choice by another NBA team in terms of talent level over the likes of Knight and Walker. So you have the Cavs, Raptors, and the Spurs giving evidence that they would have taken him here before those two guards. On the other side of the coin, it's again just a rumour. How do we know this for sure? And this isn't something we can take to the bank.

-Like i mentioned before, the Wizards and the Bobcats pass on Knight and Walker. With that being said, I don't exactly trust what a team run by Michael Jordon thinks, or a team that used to be run by him. But again, it reaffirms the idea that Jonas is rated higher then the two guards by NBA teams at the time of draft.

-Jonas plays in the U19 tourney and not only does Lithuania win the whole damn thing but Jonas dominates, gets tournament MVP honours and puts up impressive numbers like 23ppg, and 14rbpg. Ok, so in action the guy does NOT seem like a stiff at all. He's agile, gets into dirty areas, defends well and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Awesome. The guy is only 18 years old. So perhaps it is a good thing he spends another season in Europe. There's going to be an NBA lockout anyway. So maybe this pick by Colangelo is pure genius afterall.

Gun to my head, I think the Raptors might have gotten the steal of the draft. In 2 years time we could be talking about a star on the team. Someone who will play well, give the Raps what they need on both ends, and make is fellow european, Bargnani, look a little better.

Random Thoughts Pre-Draft

2011-06-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I checked in to this blog. Reason being, I figured hey, Raptors as a team have checked out, so I might as well too. This season went exactly the way most fans thought it would go, unfortunately. But hey, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs and a team in rebuilding has to go through at least one abysmal year.

The re-signing of Bryan Colangelo is a step in the right direction. Granted he made some serious errors, nobody likes a Monday morning quarterback. That being said:

I told you so:

Hedo Turkoglu - Knew he would be a bad fit from day one. Too easy going, no motivation, not exactly a defensive gem. Blew goats. Probably Colangelo's worst mistake.

Jermaine O'Neal - Almost as bad as the Hakeem Olajuwon deal. It's like Hakeem the wet dream... the sequel. Buying a car knowing the engine on it has been blown out is stupid idea. Spending tens of millions of it is moronic. Dunce cap worthy. Saw this disaster a mile away.

Jason Kapono - A real shock to everyone. At the time the team was already loaded with 3 point shooters. Why add another one who can't play a lick of defense and really had a hard time getting a shot off? I can't say i saw this as a disaster but knew this wasn't a fit in any way, shape or form.

Turned out poorly:

Andrea Bargnani - While not a titanic disaster, from an admitted fan of his. It's time to put up or shut up. Then again, maybe it has been put up or shut up time for 3 seasons now. In fairness the poor bastard has at least scored. But being half a man out there is like leaving your team on the penalty kill 100% of the time you're on the floor to use a hockey analogy. If they don't ship his ass out at draft time, Dwane Casey had better get the whip out. But to start, I hope Andrea realizes that Andrea is the only person that can fix Andrea. No point lying to yourself, your rebounding and defense suck. At some points on D, I wondered if he could fight his way out of a paper bag.

Jose Calderon - He's gotten older, slower, more injured, and worse on D. Time to call it a day Jose. In today's NBA we need a faster, more aggressive shooter.

Eggs in the basket:

Demar Derozan - He's just one more go-to-move on offense to become a solid NBA contributor. He needs to batten down the hatches on defense. He's got the speed and lateral quickness. Now he just needs to direction and know-how.

Ed Davis - Has obvious low post talents and defensive grit. Hopefully a good summer of workouts and healthy knees will see him make a big stride in improvement. He's got a ton of upside and I for one am very excited to see what he can bring to the table. He has way more upside than Amir. Amir is almost at his ceiling and Ed is similar. I see Ed eclipsing what Ed can do.

New Coach:
So the Raptors got themselves a legitimate coach? We'll see. I was expecting a drastic improvement in X's and O's when Triano took the reigns. But all we got from him was the same old tired offense trotted out there every night and almost a complete disregard for defense on the other end.

Things I like about him:

*He comes from a winning environment. Postive and forward thinking. That, i think is the most important thing. Never underestimate a change in culture to a group.

*He's known for he defense. Good, cause our team is know for it's lack of defense. Do the two things cancel each other out be make a so-so team? Cause so-so is still a huge improvement and I'd take that. Or even better, would it make a better than so-so team?

*He's not Jay Triano. God love that guy, I loved him too. He wasn't a bad coach. Just wasn't particularly good. We needed a bit more grit from him. A bit more sandpaper. A bit more accountability.

The Draft:

Who I want:

Kemba Walker - Good speed. Seems to fit into the mold of scoring PG's the league seems to covet.

Brandon Knight - A high quality elite starting capable point. An upgrade for the Raps any way you look at it with the size to match so he won't get pushed around on the other end.

Enes Kanter - Supposedly a beast on both ends.

Jonas Valanciunas - Seems be be solid defensively and on the boards. Has good size and seems a hell of a lot more athletic for a big man than Bargs.

To a lesser extent:

Jimmer Fredette - Shoots the lights out

Iman Shupert - An athletic gem. We already have Derozan though

Donatas Motiejunas - A decent consolation prize. Although he seems like a Bargnani clone. I think he has more agility and mobility. Adding a decent 7 footer isn't a horrible thing.

That's about it. I hope we end up with a PG or a bigman. We have enought SG/SF's and enough lanky 6'9''-6'10'' PF's who aren't good enough. As well as Amir did, he wouldn't be a starting PF on many of the other teams let's face it.

A valiant effort by the Raptors in England

2011-03-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

The Raptors gave a good effort overseas today against the Nets but they did the right thing and I am really enjoying this season despite the record. I know they're not winning much but the way they're losing, and the upside and the direction this club is going is positive.

As I haven't blogged in a while I want to preface this blog by saying that I have taken a step back and tried to watch this season in backseat in terms of my mental involvement and emotional dedication. Whereas in previous seasons I would get really involved and get really high on wins and low on losses.

As I said at the beginning of the season, I predict this team to be lucky if they get 20 wins. So far my prediction has been solid. However, what I have been pleasantly surprised with is the potential that some players have shown. The growth in their skills, games, and numbers has all be positive. This team is a player or two away from taking a step forward. By that I mean that they are a piece or two away from becoming a playoff team. So lose now, lose well, lose encouragingly. Fans don't mind... in fact it's what some Leaf fans in this city kind of wishes the Leafs did the past few seasons barring the idiotic shedding of their first rounders.

Bargnani is progressing well. He's got a few go-to moves and seems more comfortable on both ends of the floor. That being said, he still sucks defensively obviously but I think if he puts up the scoring he usually does, I can live with that and can accept the fact that they needs someone in the frontcourt to make up for his defensive and rebounding inefficiencies.

Demar Derozan is also growing. In fact by leaps and bounds during the course of this season. All those hours he puts in at the gym seem to be showing up in the form of numbers. His shot has improved but it could still use more consistency. He has a very good tendency to drive which is what this team needs. I wish he would add more post moves to his game to compliment his other attributes on the offensive end.

Ed Davis has shown that he has the obvious natural instincts and attributes required to being a successful power forward in this league. Defensively, he's light years more athletic and mature than Bargnani. Offensively, he has a decent shot, and nice post moves. I'm just salivating at the idea of him adding some strength and starting to impose his will more on stronger players. He just seems to have the natural savvy and feel.

James Johnson and Bayless are works in progress. They were nice pickups but so far despite showing flashes of obvious talent, have not impressed me to the point where I would say they were sure-fire shots at being part of the backbone of this team going forward. I like James better as a player. He seems a bit more like a dog that's been kept on a chain too long whereas Bayless seems to be limited to his effectiveness depending on how and when he enters the game. In fairness though, point guard is the more difficult position to play in the NBA.

This new era of Big Threes will not be good news for the Raptors in their situation being seen as a less than desireable location in the minds of top American talent. But they're doing it the right way. In Bryan Colangelo I trust. Sign that guy now. I don't want another Rob Babcock situation here.

All hail King Bargnani... errr maybe

2010-11-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

I wanna talk a bit about the last 2 games from the Raptors season thus far. The first was against the Sacramento Kings and despite being up by as much as 16 pts. the Raps succumbed to their house of cards defense. The second game was against the Jazz where they were getting demolished for most of the game, came back strong only to run out of gas. This was the second game of their first west coast trip so I didn't expect much. Like I said before, I'll be satisfied if this team has a good showing and their guys start developing. Sure we're not winning and it's may seem stupid to argue otherwise but we're in a situation where, like it or not we're a rebuilding team so high draft picks and developing stars is perfect for the situation.

Several obvious points to talk about in this games were:

1. Andrea continuing to score
2. Reggie Evans continuing to be a beast on the boards
3. Demar continuing to be aggressive
4. Point Guards struggling

1. Andrea seems to be scoring very efficiently and with consistency now. Something we haven't seen from him in previous seasons. I know it's early still but he doesn't just ring off 3 straight 20+ performances all the time. He seems very comfortable out there on both end of the floor. He's not rebounding as much but I think we can all safely say that it's because a certain teammates been inhaling them all. He doesn't seem lost in the post, he seems to have decided what move he's making before he moves for the most part. His shot is on and he seems confident, very confident. I think he's taking this new role of The Man seriously and I think he may be getting a boost from the encouragement he's getting from Reggie. Of course I am only speculating but Reggie seems to be openly encouraging him on the floor and obviously from comments he's made to the media.

Teams seem to be respecting his shot and as usual the slower centers in the league, (so far) can't keep up with his pump fakes and leave him enough room due to the respect for his driving ability. He's cut out those horrible layup attempts where he usually, easily gets blocked right at the rim. He's showing a lot of arc on his shot which i noticed is a nice change from last season. He's got 2 moves that seem to be his favorites. First he has finally perfected a standard post up where he pushes his man in then turns towards the paint, (while protecting the ball) and either shoots over the top or tries a little hook. The main thing here that's new is that he's not getting it stripped from him cause he's going in strong and protecting the ball. He seems to be finding isolation and space on the floor a lot better.

Defensively he's still decent on a man to man basis. He seems slightly improved on the help defense situations but I'm not sure if he's not just being masked by Reggie's rebounding. Their next game against the Lakers will be a true test and I think Bargs is going to see double teams like crazy. He's scored 20 or more in 4 straight and I got a bad feeling that the streak comes to an end at the Staples Center.

2. Reggie is a beast. Imagine if he was healthy all of last season what kinds of performances he could have had. He ran out of gas against the Jazz but I think everyone was expecting he to tire out sooner rather than later. Could have done without him taunting the Kings but hey, if you got it flaunt it a bit. It sucks that he got them going but at the same time I don't 100% prescribe to always being a clean cut, quiet and reserve goody goody. He's going at it on both ends like a rabid dog on pork chop. Beating taller guys to the ball, knocking into other guys to get the ball, stealing boards right out of the hands of his own teammates. I say, if he gets his hands on it without fouling people then who cares. That's exactly the type of hustle that this team needs and that you wish was instilled at least a bit, into every player on the roster.

3. Demar's trying hard. He's gotten stronger, braver, and he's been working on his lane driving game. Our team was in need of a wing that isn't afraid to drive through the lane and get fouled or get points at the rim. Earlier he seemed to be overly aggressive and driving himself into double teams, triple teams and just situations where he ends up turning the ball over or getting an offensive foul. The last 2 games he been more methodical and has been very successful. He's also hitting more of his free throws which seems to be a team wide epidemic. He's shown that he's developing the skills needed to become a top tier wing man. He needs to hit his shots from the outside and mid range more consistently but his willingness to stick his nose in is a real positive change and I've really enjoyed watching it.

4. About the only negative besides the actual losses themselves, has been what's lacking at the point guard position. Where's the steady points? Where's the assists? I don't expect this to keep happening. I fully expect either Jose or Jarrett or both to come out of this and elevate their game. They might not be considered #1 PG's by most people but they ARE considered good, and highly capable. At times, they've both obviously shown they can be dangerous. This will not continue, I guaran-damn-tee it.

Another thing I'd like to talk about is the play of Linas, Leandro, and Sonny. All three have shown glimpses but all three have been inconsistent. There's nothing wrong with this. Linas and Leandro are both new and Sonny has much higher expectations than he's ever had in his short NBA career. They'll come around. Linas' consistency reminds me of Bargnani's from past seasons. I'm confident he'll bounce back. Leandro's been slowed by his wrist.

Amir... big disappointment so far. I am not sure he can play well enough to justify his pay cheque but so far he hasn't played well enough to justify Roko Ukic's pay cheque. I think he's a good bench player and paying his like a starter has been a mistake. It's not his fault. Someone gives you a zillion dollars, what would you do? Tell them no? Hellz no. It's Bryan's fault. I've been a supporter of him in the past and I still am but this particular signing I DO NOT agree with.

Other tidbits:

Triano's F-bomb was a slip obviously. But it doesn't stop me from giggling every time I watch it
Marcus Banks is suddenly looking very good at least contract wise compared to Amir
I'm still excited to see what Ed Davis can do. Very stoopid move playing a pick up game but he's got a lot of upside and an up and coming team thrives on its first round picks. We're building on Demar, Andrea being our future. Davis could be a big part of that future.
BTW... like i said in the past, this Bargnani contract is looking better and better isn't it?

2 games in... pretty impressed and surprised.

2010-10-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

So we're two games in this season and so far we've seen a good defensive effort against the Knicks and a dismantling of the Cavs who just took out the Fake Thugs. The Knicks probably could have been beaten if the Raps could have coupled their good defense with decent shooting.

Andrea Bargnani's performance so far has given me reason to believe that he can do a decent job as one of the Raptor's main offensive weapons. Let's hope he can stay consistent. His rebounding has been par for the course which is sub par but with an animal on the team named Reggie, how can one get a board? Barg's post up has improved slightly but I think his go-to move should be just his turn around jump shot. If it works and ain't broke, don't fix it.

Reggie is an absolute beast but we knew that before. Only now he's getting solid minutes and has partaken in a full training camp and stayed healthy. I wonder how long he can keep this up. With the amount of energy it looks like it takes for him to run on his break neck pace, he might be shaving years off his life!! He's stealing rebounds from his own teammates but who cares? As long as he rips them down it doesn't matter.

Amir's proven to be the worst signing in recent Raptor history. It's two games in so I'm not really concerned but so far he hasn't done anything but fuel his own critics. Jose's play has been pretty much the same low level. What happened to the Spanish Fly we were used to seeing when the Raps won the Atlantic title? It's MIA just like his shot. If you're a liability on defense at least knock down some of your shots. Again, it's just been 2 games but so far he's been a useless turd.

The Young Gunz so far seem just like Youngsters. Demar seems a bit too aggressive but seeing as how the knock on him last year was he wasn't aggressive enough I am more then happy to let that slide. Sonny at the same time is doing the same thing. Overly aggressive but I am gonna predict that Sonny and Demar will get their game together and start to cruise. I expect Demar to average 15ppg and Sonny at least 12ppg.

Linas Kleiza and The Brazilian Blur have been as good as advertised. Let's hope all this adds up to a few more wins. But honestly to me, if they put in a good effort I don't mind them losing this season.... especially since I am praying for a high draft pick. YOINK!!

The Curious Case of AB7

2010-10-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

Watching Andrea on Wednesday night reminded me about a few things in terms of his game and what I can guess is his general mindset when he's out on the court. I do have to remind you that it's preseason still and I also have to remind myself about this as well as It's easy to get excited or disappointed so quickly. Proof being all the articles and blogs and comments that I've read already in regards to just the one preseason game. True it was a great success, and it gave a lot of doubtful Raptor fans like myself some reasons to get excited about but as everyone knows from that feeling in the back of our mind and from past experience that there's no need to get too excited just yet.

So the same can be said about the performance of our resident Italian 7 footer. We all know he didn't play very well and I'm sure he'd be the first person to tell you that and I know he'll only get better this season. But watching him I noticed a few things that almost have become synonymous with him. First thing being that he seems to stand around a lot during rebounding opportunities. Unless the ball bounces right to him, he doesn't seem to make any effort to move his body towards the area where the ball might land. It's almost like he freezes, his mind's telling him he needs to be somewhere else on the court but his body never responds. The other thing is that he loses a lot of rebounds right within his grasp. He fails to get rebounds that should be his to take.

I have two hypothesis about this behaviour and the first one I suspect a lot of fans might agree with as well and that is that he's afraid of contact. I strongly suspect that this is true with him. I think this is just a psychological response that he hasn't overcome. I don't know if he'll ever overcome this. The only analogy that I can think of is that he see's himself as a finesse type of player. Which in fairness he is.That was the scouting report before he got drafted so it's hard to buy a pig and then put makeup and a dress on it and expect it to act like a lady. Truth is, he's a skilled player trapped in a big man's body. And that's really where a lot of frustration and hatred comes from in terms of the feelings he provokes in frustrated onlookers. He's 7 feet tall 250lbs. and guys that size are supposed to get rebounds, mix it up under the basket and do some dirty work. A perfect example is provided to him game after game, practice after practice by the behaviour displayed from teammates like David Andersen, Reggie Evans, and in the past, Jermaine O'Neal. But yet he's never made that connection that he too can perform some of these things that would endear him to not only fans, but more importantly the coaching staff and the other teams in the league. Yet his skill set would tell you otherwise. He puts the ball on the floor better than most big men, he shoots from the outside with proficiency and when you look at those abilities one can clearly agree that there's no doubt about his talent. Trouble being that those aren't the only talents required to be successful for a man in his position. So yes it's true he's a finesse player so I guess the analogy would have to be that he can be compared to a skilled player on a hockey team that doesn't fight, doesn't do the dirty work, and doesn't rough it up in the corners but concentrates more on scoring. Unfortunately Bargnani might be the only one that thinks this should be the case. Ask him personally and he will disagree with this but I bet subconsciously his head would be nodding up and down. Throw him in to a practice where Reggie and Joey Dorsey tosses him around the court a bit. Have a MMA guy come in and do some physical workouts with him. Maybe that will help. Just a suggestion.

The second hypothesis i have regarding his lack of rebounding ability and willingness would be that he lacks the tenacity to get a rebound. Well that's obvious isn't it? During a game there are usually many instances that a rebound does bounce his way only what happens in most of the cases is that either a smaller more tenacious opponent rips it out of his grasp or a teammate does it. And this really makes me want to tear my hair out and throw things at my tv. It's there for you... just take the damn ball out of the air, rip it out and hang on to it. But yet several times even during this past game against the Suns, he's had the rebound taken from right under his nose by the likes of Linas Kleiza, Sonny Weems, and a variety of other guys on the other team. It's like he's daydreaming for a split second every time the ball comes near him. In this analysis I really don't know what to suggest. I don't know what you do with a guy like that who consistently does this. What do you do when a guy just lacks hustle? Smack him upside the head and tell him to wake up? Maybe someone needs to do that to him.

He's apparently gotten stronger this year but I can't tell a difference. Even if he is stronger what is the use if he doesn't know how to apply it. It's like giving a toddler a revolver, he's going to end up shooting himself in the foot with it. Take the revolver away and give him a rifle. Guess what? He's shot himself in the foot with it again.The one thing I've noticed with the guy is that he doesn't seem to bend his legs enough during any situation. Shooting, rebounding, posting up, his legs are too damn straight. It's like he's too lazy to bend them. That's how you build power is by bending more before you back in for a post move. Just look what KG or Shaq does when They posts up. They catch. Lean back to feel the presence of his defender, then they bend their legs and push their way back. The first thing a coach teaches you is to bend your legs cause that's where the power comes from. The only time he noticeably does this is during a free throw shot. He does that very well. But otherwise it's like he's a guy on stilts. So maybe it's not his strength so much as it's his technique. I don't know. Just a thought to kick around your brain the next time you watch him and feel like tearing your eyeballs out.

Once in a while he'll show that he can do things correctly. It's like he forces himself to do it out of his nature. Out of his comfort zone. Listen, it's been 5 years. You should be able to do this by now without having to mentally force yourself to. That's what I hope to see this season from Andrea. That what everyone's been hoping to see from him the past 5 years. Time to man up. Time to show your mettle. Time to add this physical element to your outside scoring touch.

So cause of these inadequacies and others, Bargnani is dragged through the mud. And rightfully so. But I bet any team in the league would love to take a shot at having a guy like him. I bet under the right circumstances he would have been able to shine more by now at this point in his career. He's being paid $10m a year. There's guys around the league that do a lot less than him and have a lot less talent and upside that are being paid more, similarly or slightly less. To say he's being overpaid is incorrect. He's being paid about right according to statistics. But judging by his draft position and lack of focus or general results most people would agree he hasn't lived up to expectations. Unfortunately he didn't draft himself first, the Raptors did. Like I said you can't dress a pig up and expect lady-like behaviour. Time to move past that. What we have to realize is that we have a good center who may not be worthy of the #1 pick but is still a good center. How many centers really do that much anyways? Most of the top players in the league aren't centers. They're SG's or SF's. Wade, Kobe. LBJ, Durant are all perfect examples. Even in the PG position you have top tier players like Rose, and Nash. Would you consider Brook Lopez one of the top players in the league? Probably no. But is he one of the top centers in the league? Probably yes. Let's get past that. I'll settle for him being a decent center and hope, nay, pray he becomes more.

Time to plan the parade route and get the champagne on ice!

2010-10-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

Holy Shit!! The Raptors walked into the Rogers Arena in BC last night and trounced the Phoenix Suns like they were playin' against the Vancouver Grizzlies. The defense was noticeably better than the last 3 seasons and they held Hedouche to 6 points. Damn right it's embarrassing to lose by 50 points and that's what the Raptors are going to do to the rest of the league. Smash in skulls and wreck rims.

Ok now that the high i got from last night has worn off everyone knows not to get too excited. Especially in this city. With that in mind it was still a good start, nothing more nothing less. That is unless you're Il Mago who played like Il Crapo but hey that's what the preseason's for. It's for ironing out wrinkles like having a double team on you every time you touch the ball or even look like you might get a ball passed to you. They double teamed him and he bumbled the ball, rushed shots and looked pretty rickety.

Like I've said many times, I am not an expert but I thought running an iso for him would have been nice. Clear out the side for him and have Jose or Jarrett feed him in the post. If the PG drops down to double, swing it back out for an open jumper. If not, back in and try for a hook or fade-away or whatever. I'm probably not reading into it right but that's just what I thought would've helped.

Kleiza was as good as advertised but I would be surprised to see him do this well for an extended period. He was one of the positives as well the defensively alert and hardworking David Andersen. That guy showed me something. He showed me that if Bargnani had his Il Mago skills and half of Andersen's heart and hustle we would have ourselves a franchise player... but alas we don't. Joey Dorsey and Reggie were all hustle as well but Joey was a beast.

The defense for once was present. I haven't seen defense like that by Toronto since 2001. Or maybe ever. Where the hell was this kind of hustle last season? It's like they didn't feed the team for a week, then sprayed pork chop sent on the Suns players before the game. Then you got Grant Hill and Reggie getting tossed for touching each others bums. What on earth is going on here? I'll believe this impartial no-nonsense officiating when I see the Raptors play a team like the Lakers and the refs don't cater to Kobe's every wish or sniff Kevin Garnett's rare end. I give this impartial officiating 2 weeks of regular season. Then it's going the way of the dodo.

Another horrendous season upon us. But I'm an optimist!!

2010-09-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Caution: Huge Rant

It's almost pains me to have to sit through this season. I am unfortunately like most of Raptor-nation. Or as normal people say, I am a Raptor fan. So i am going to painstakingly sit through games where the team I have a personal allegiance to get's systematically taken apart and humiliated in front of the world. Well the first question comes up and that is, who or what is at fault? Well the real answer to that is that it's probably everyone's fault at least partially. Why isn't Andrea Bargnani turning out to be worthy of a #1 selection? Why was that draft class so weak? Why didn't Bryan trade Bosh when he had the chance? Why didn't i win the lottery last week? It's a combination of different things going wrong. A perfect shit storm if you would. If you want to point your finger at someone then you can point it at Bryan. But I guess if you did that you might as well point up at the heavens or that rabbits foot you have on your key chain.

So the big trade the might have saved this season didn't go through. MJ's fault there. MJ is an idiot. He's proven that over and over again and If I had to name one person I can't stand the most in professional basketball it's MJ. Well maybe it's not all him. It's more like 80% MJ who is a cheating, gambling, bumbling idiot and 20% his moronic followers that thinks he's a basketball god. He's a jerk and he proved it himself during his hall of fame acceptance speech.

But I digress. Now that I have blown off that steam from the nixed trade I guess I'll focus on this team. This team has 3 glimmers of hope and they are Bargnani, Weems and DeRozan. This hope lies on the potential you have here with these 3. You hope that Bargnani's finally learned enough from his previous half decade in the league to string together the skill set necessary to make him look like a legitimate NBA center and give us 20 pts and 8 rebs. Then you got the young guns who look like they have the athletic tools to become the next superstars on this team a'la McGrady and Carter, (hopefully minus the selfishness and douchebaggery). But they haven't done anything outside of this past summer league.

The rest is all garbage. All garbage parts other teams didn't want any part of. I love Jarrett Jack but he's not a starting PG on a contending team. Not consistent enough. But he's capable of bringing his level up. We've seen it before. He's also capable of disappearing but that's what sets him apart from the rest of the team cause he could still bring his level up. You cannot tell me that any other player on this team would be a coveted player by the likes of championship contending teams cause if they were, they wouldn't be here. There's a reason why no Raptor ended up on the USA dream team. There's a reason why none of them have even been at the selection camp. Bosh is the only one and he's left town. That provides enough proof to me that the Raptors' talent pool is gutter level. Nobody even wanted to look at any of them to potentially join the world championship team. So when you look up and down our roster it has 3 players on it and they're not even proven. So i will not waste my money to watch them get dismantled over and over by teams like OKC who a few years ago, the Raptors used to trounce but now have turned the tables around so much that I wouldn't bother to venture to the ACC.

It's a sad state and any fan that thinks otherwise... I hope you're right. I really do. This team needs a miracle. Either that or it needs to end up with a legit megastar in next years draft. Or maybe MJ will have another brainfart and trade us something good for nothing. If i were Bryan I would call that guy every day just to see what kind of dumb shit he has going on in his head. I mean he drafted Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison He nixed a trade to get Jose Calderon and instead made a trade with Dallas for a couple of garbage part players. Somebody just give him a bag of quarters and sit him in front of a slot machine cause that's all he's interested in is gambling. He's not even good at it since I keep hearing he's owing money here and there.

I bet if i were to stop him on the street and sell him a bag of magic beans he'd offer to buy my company out of them. The only thing the Raptors have to offer this season is the hope that we might see a few players score some decent numbers whilst losing in the process. That's what I'm going to tune in for. Watching individual player's put up stats.

The Nightmare is over

2010-07-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

First I want to start by praising BC for ridding us of the nightmare known as Turkey Poo. True he brought it on himself but he had the team's best intentions in mind even though i didn't agree with it from the outset. He also got rid of Jose who I will miss but his lack of defense was too big of a hole to continue to suffer through. I haven't blogged in a while so I will touch upon some of our acquisitions. If BC can just get a free agent signing correct he might be alright. I don't understand all this hate for him. He's trying his ass off and not screwing up Babcock-style so I don't get all the hate.

Ed"209"Davis (Trademark Pending): First impression I had from him is that he didn't seem happy coming to Toronto. Not one bit. But lets hope he settles in. How many Raps fans felt like punching that reporter that kept asking him about Canadian taxes? I felt like super-kicking him. But alas, I didn't really know too much about his game as I hadn't seen it for myself but from what I heard he can rebound and block shots. I heard from some people that he couldn't score, and from other people that he had a strong low post arsenal. I was more excited about Soloman on draft night then I was Ed. However this all changed after watching them play during the first summer league game. Ya ya it's just one game but you could tell a lot about them just from the way the carry themselves on the court. Ed was quite impressive. Seems very comfortable in the post, has some good back-to-the-basket moves and some nice hooks and footwork. Needs to add muscle... ya ya ya... they say that about every bigman not named Shaq or Dwight. Also needs work on his mid range jumper. Bet a lot of fans wished he took #33 so they can recycle their Antonio Davis jerseys. I dunno what do you think? Ed 209, or Little Baby Davis?

Soloman Alabi: Some of the words used to describe him was that he was mechanical and robotic. This does seem to be the case after watching him. Looks like he needs to stick to what he's good at which is swatting shots and rebounding. Offense can come into play slowly as he adjusts and learns. Needs to smooth out that hook shot and shoot the mid range shot more cause I know he can hit it. Well spoken guy and seems pleasant enough. He'll be a good backup center or pf and an upgrade over POB during garbage time. During draft night I had hoped the Raps traded for Lani Gawal instead. Looks like he's turning into a super stud in the summer league. I hate when I'm right.

Leandro Barbosa: I don't know much about him having only watched him play a few times but what I don't understand is why people are saying he'll be the starting PG. He's not a playmaker from what I can tell so I don't understand the logic. He's super fast so obviously you want him on the wings. I like this pickup cause he can score but I worry that his arrival will hinder the development of Sonny and DD. Nonetheless, a solid pickup which upgrades our team. I like Cpt. Barbosa off the bench as a spark plug allowing Weems to start and develop.

Boris Diaw: The man is a rock. A skilled one at that but he needs to get away from my favourite spot which is the buffet line and spend more time on the treadmill. Hopefully this comes to fruition. Plays just about any spot on the floor except the 2. Defends well which goes without saying is an overwhelming need. I like Boris coming off the bench as well or used as a defensive stopper. Too much of a log jam at the 5 and the 4 positions to justify starting him.

Tyson Chandler: Ah, my favourite pickup of the trades. What's weird is that I traded for him in my game on NBA 2k10 like a week ago. Then again I also traded for Turkoglu a few years ago and promptly realized he was a dickwad and traded him away for something good. But whatever, TC is a solid legit center. He brings intensity and is one of the quicker centers in the league. This is a definite upgrade for us on the defensive end. Let's hope he's healthy but I like this pickup more than I liked the Jermaine O'neal one back then since I always thought Jermaine was so fragile that he was one bad bump away from serious time off.... which he was. Chandler is younger and his issues seem a lot less serious. I'll take a bad toe over 2 bummed knees any day. His defense should cover up the some of the defensive inefficiencies produced by my favourite Italian bigman.

So the Raptors make some good trades today and I just like playing around with line ups cause it's fun.

Depth Chart:
C: Chandler, Amir, Alabi

PF: Bargs, Davis

SF: Diaw, Weems

SG: Derozan, Barbosa, Belli

PG: Jack, Banks

Possible Starting Line up:
1:
C: Chandler
PF: Bargnani
SF: Weems
SG: Derozan
PG: Jack

2:
Chandler
Bargnani
Diaw
Derozan
Barbosa

3:
Bargnani
Amir
Weems
Barbosa
Jack

Bench:
Amir
Davis
Bellineli
Alabi

Starting line up 1 is my favourite as it has the two towers up top and the young guns being allowed to develop with more minutes. Jack is our only real legit PG so he's going there unless there's another major trade. Another big issue is how they're going to find minutes for Amir Johnson the $34M man and their prized rookie Ed "209" Davis

Looks like it opens up some spots to sign guys like Mike Roll, Bobby Brown, Joey Dorsey or some other legit free agents that are still available. Doug Smith said the Raps are done dealing but I am not sure about that. Can a guy like Colangelo really keep the gun holstered? Also, like I said it doesn't rule out signings since we still have that $15M trade exception. Cha-ching! We also need a backup PG cause I really don't see Captain Barbosa as a legit PG.

A great day in Raptorland. I can finally stop complaining about the Turkish Shit factory. No disrespect at all intended to other Turkish people who I know are outstanding citizens. This is the biggest thing to happen to Toronto Sports in a long time. Maybe we should actually have a parade down Yonge St.

Raptors Thoughts

2010-05-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

First I just wanna say that I love Victoria day and this weekend was totally awesome. Nothing beats bbq'n with family.

Hopefully these things happen for the Raptors. And again this is speaking from the viewpoint that Bosh is gone baby gone.

The Raptors either move up in the draft or still end up with a decent player at the 13th spot. This time of year is exciting because eventhough our team blows, this time of year provides us hope to look towards the future and getting lucky in the draft like PHX did when they picked 9th a few faithful years ago.

There's been a lot of lamenting going on down south in regards to Hedo.... TRUST ME... if you guys want him back in Orlando you can have him!!! FOR FREE~!~!~! Fuck, I bet we can even get Bryan to throw in a play or two for free just to unload him. Shit, I bet we can even get the GM of Orlando a new car or something.

Please please trade away Jose. I know he's been good in the past but the guy is a stiff on D and I am sick of watching guys break down the defense at Jose's expense. He might have an amazing ASST/TO ratio but if you count how many times he lets his man go around him... well you don't let a man go around you in any situation but if you count those times.... he's not looking like too good of a player.

Bosh mentioned his top 4... let me get that right for all you people. It's 4 teams. There's only one good option here for the Raptors. Let's get that straight. There's only one good feasible option and that his to take David Lee and/or Galinari in exchange for Bosh's rights in a sign and trade. There is not option in Chicago. If we do business with them we won't get back Noah. Not with his stock so high. And in turn we would get back garbage. People complain that Lee can't defend. But regardless... the Raps are in trouble and his scoring and rebounding would help. It might not be Bosh Caliber but it still helps. Galinari would just be icing but he's a very skilled player with heart and amazing up-side. Los Angeles? Bynum is a human ACL issue. I don't want damaged goods. He would only be acceptable as a consolation prize. It's like when we got Jermaine. He's good... if he can stay healthy. Which we all know he can't. Bynum is like Hakeem. He's good but he was one injury away from retirement.

No matter what happens. I trust Bryan. All of you complain about Bryan but he does something that I love. He actually makes trades and turns every stone for a possible move. He's not a chicken. Some of the things he's done might not have worked out (ie Hedo). But at least the bastard tries his butt off to make the team better. For that... I would follow him to hell and back I would.

Penguins show their mettle

2010-05-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Montreal Candiens last night and showed their mettle in playoff situations. Coming back from a long rest between series after ousting the Ottawa Senators, it was unsure whether or not they could bring their A game.

Beating the Senators was very gratifying as the Sens were not an elite squad but one that had something to prove. They could be dangerous but I think in the end the biggest factors in the outcome of the series is of course the skill and leadership provided by Crosby and Malkin but more importantly I think is the playoff experience that the Pens have accumulated over the past 3 years. As everyone knows, this team has played a shit load of games in the past few years but seem to still be able to chug along.

The Sens have on their roster a couple of what I would call jerks in Chris Neil, Andy Sutton, and Daniel Alfredsson. Why are they jerks? Well Chris Neil is paid to be a jerk. Basically he's Darcy Tucker, or the Pen's version of Matt Cooke. Nothing wrong with that I guess but when you're on the other team you hate him, it's natural and It was pretty sweet to wipe the smile off his face. Andy Sutton as well is a jerk and it's also his job. A job he does well. He's physical and difficult to get around. Daniel Alfredsson is a jerk cause he's Ottawa's main man and he's got this jackass demeanor about him that Toronto fans have become used to. The fact that he didn't do too much in the series makes my day.

The Pens have some jerks as well but naturally we love them cause we're on their side. Matt Cooke is obviously our main agitator. Similar to Neil, he may be a jerk but he's also skilled which makes him dangerous. In fact, his skill was what got us 2 goals and the series clinchers in game 6. So, to Neil and the Sens... Suck it.

The Habs were thanked by every team in the East as well as every fan of the remaining said teams for ousting the overrated, under-prepared, and just downright stupid Washington Capitals. They just couldn't change their strategy against the Habs and kept driving the puck into the zone and firing a shot off the skate of whoever was in front of them. It's like watching a lemming hurl itself off a hill or a cliff. That being said, all credit must be given to the Habs for having heart, and to Halak for being solid between the pipes.

Last night however, the Pens dispelled the idea that Halak is unbeatable and that the Hab's will and determination would overpower any of the competition. The Pens put 5 by Halak before he got yanked. Despite coming out of the gate fast and putting a goal past Fleury, the Pen's resident moron. The Habs could not adjust to the obviously different strategy that the Pens brought in. But that's why you play playoff hockey, you never know what's going to happen. Especially with the idiotic monkey flopping around between the pipes for the Pens, it would be dangerous and stupid to underestimate the Canadiens. They will adjust. They were able to shut down Malkin and held Crosby without a goal. Let's not celebrate a trip to the East final yet people. Let's not forget we lost Jordan Staal for the foreseeable future. Staal is an absolute rock for the Pens. Extremely powerful boardwork, physical and defensively focused. Staal is a huge loss for the Pens as he was the defensive stalker for the Pens against the opponent's top line. I guess it's an eye for an eye sorta as Andrei Markov was also injured although I do not know the extent of his injuries.

Hopefully the Pens can continue to bring it on the ice Sunday afternoon at Mellon.

The Draft: hopefully it is rich and clean and goes down smooth

2010-04-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

The Draft

Let's talk a little bit about this draft since we got nothing else to talk about lately. I'm not bored though as I am being well entertained by the NHL playoffs and my boys down at the Igloo are doing well so far. This discussion is with the idea that Christopher Wesson Bosh is going to do what everyone including that jackass former espn analyst thinks Chris should do which is say SAYO-F'n Nara Toronto. I hope I am wrong. With that in mind we would draft a PF would we not? But hold on here.

Andrea Bargnani sliding over to PF. That's what Bryan Colangelo says. That has the makings of a disaster and I am guessing that if they do this, he'll either be back at the Center spot by the end of November or he's going to be injured by trying to go up against the most physical and athletic position players in the world. In comparison, NBA centres are big, heavy, and slow. Perfect for the likes of a 3 point shooting bigman, anomaly, and pasta pusher to go around, pump fake out of their shoes to make plays and/or shoot over. PF's are faster, more agile, more defensively intelligent and capable of dealing with that type of coverage. PF's would eat Andrea up and spit him out. Andrea's game is based on 2 mismatches:

A. The aforementioned slow, sluggish, only-playing-basketball-cause-I-am-7-feet-tall sloths in the NBA. There are of course exceptions to every rule and I am sure you can point out a few to me but in general most C's are usually slow. Unlike the glory years when you had guys in the league named Hakeem, The Admiral, Ewing, and the young Shaq, aka Shaq Fu: The Return.

B. AB7 also plays upon the mismatch of SF's who the other team might put on him to test out his much improved post play. As we've seen he's had much more success in this department this season.

It's like the difference between matching wits with Steve Urkel vs. Stephon Urkel. It's not much of a contest here. They might look the similar but there is no comparisons who is smoother. PF wins out.

So therefore in my estimation we should draft a PF. Positionally a PF is what we need if you want to talk about needs.

Who I like in the race:

Ed Davis. He's the anti-Bargs and seems to be a good compliment to him on both ends of the floor. He doesn't overwhelm you with size but he's got the skillz. A good example is Antawn Jamison who isn't big but who could argue with me that he isn't one of the league's best PF's?

Donatas Whatevertheheckicantpronouncehisdamnnameis. He's a Andrea Bargnani wannabe! Do two wrongs make a right? Most people say no. I say screw you, hell yeah it does. We shouldn't be stockpiling more Euros true. But Donny here is a skilled bigman. Apparently he has more of knack for lowpost play, rebounding and physicality. He's got a good jumper and seems almost like he's already got the skill set that Andrea lacked before the NBA and now has recent come to fruition with. Just the idea of having two skilled 7 footers who are pretty interchangeable seems scarey to me. That'd being said... if we take him we don't have a legit inside rebounding threat. It's not like Andrea is all of a sudden going to pull down double digit rebounds and can't expect Donatas to do that either in his first season. Having two European roosters in the hen house might not be very good for egos though.

Hassan Whiteside. A defensive and rebounding specialist. Just what the doctor ordered. He's another 7 footer who's got the size and athleticism. Seems like another perfect tonic to what ails the Raptors these days. A legit center. But I am guessing he'd handle the move to PF a lot better than the fragile confidence of Il Mago would.

Any of the aforemention 3 players would be good picks in my opinion and I would be quite happy with. Of course the team has to go with the best talent available as well and if theres a player available down at 13 that is in any floor position, take him regardless of need.

The team could also go a different route and take a PG. We are in need of one believe it or not. It's not a dire need. It's nothing we can't handle at the moment unlike trying to plug a hole filled once by a perennial all-star. But the Raps are probably going to get rid of Jose or Jarrett. Jose sucks and I pray it's him that goes but the business side of it says otherwise. Apparently it's more fiscally responsible to ship Jack off. Man that sound's bad. Anyways, even if they do keep Jack he is not an elite level PG. Jack is a very good PG especially in contrast to the swiss cheese contributions provided by Jose. So if we pick up a good PG now and develop him, it might pay dividends down the road. .

Whatever happens, this is sure to be a very interesting draft and post season for us to see unfold. Very entertaining no doubt. Will we pick up what we need to get us over the hump? Or will we be headed for another disappointing season? Oh hear me ye basketball gods, bless upon us Raptor fans the players, skills, and intangibles needed to bring glory and victory on the battlefields of the National Basketball Association and the floor of the Air Canada Centre. Bring upon 2nd round defeat for our evil monstrous green enemies.

The Squanch: First annual Squanchy Awards

2010-04-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

State of the 'Squanch
So as some may have noticed I have not been blogging much lately since the Raptors were a depressing topic in my life and all of our lives. There was no point blogging. I was just regurgitating things since the problems from this team played out in front of use like a broken record. It was just starting to bore the heck out of me.

My Expectations
So the team is out as I suspected they would be and as they deserve to be. If they had made the playoffs I worry that some people would become mislead to thinking that this is a good team. So part of my is glad people didn't get disillusioned about the quality. Part of me is glad that change is coming but I am definitely disappointed. From the beginning of the season after Bryan added Jack, Derozan, Wright, Amir, and Reggie I was optimistic. I knew it was an improvement from last season or at least the team was being pointed in the right direction so yes, I am disappointed. Then again when you look at the rest of the Eastern Conference and see what they have done as well, it should have come as no surprise and so I wasn't surprised but I guess you could say that I was hopeful about this team.

End of year awards: THE FIRST ANNUAL SQUANCHY AWARDS
Lets have a bit of fun and give out some Raptors awards. I know it is cliche and lame but what the heck let's go ahead and do it anyways.

Best Receding Hairline:
Rasho. Special mention to Jose

Best Dressed inactive player award:
Chris Bosh hands down

Worst Dressed inactive player award:
Reggie Evans for looking like a monster out of a sesame street sketch or a muppets party. Special mention to Andrea for his purple maitre d' costume. Umm garcon, hold the Parmesan on the Penne.

Best "Shoelacer":
Jarrett Jack for being a showstopper and providing one of the positive moments in this season.

Worst Interviewer:
Andrea Bargnani for not answering questions asked to him and instead going off on some preconceived rants and looking as comfortable as a kid who just wet his pants.

Best interview:
"Ball"

Best Dancer:
Sonny "Money" Weems. Probably has a career in teenage rhythm dancing if his NBA career falls through.

Most improved player:
Sonny "Money" Weems for being better than he was last year. Not really fair since he didn't really do anything last year. So I will have to reluctantly tie him with Andrea Bargnani since he increase his scoring by a few points and grabbed a few more boards and swatted away a few more shots. Andrea's defense sucked but it sucked more last year trust me.

Team MVP:
Chris Bosh obviously with special mention to Jarrett Jack

Team LVP:
Hidyet Turkoglu

Defensive Player of the year:
No Recipient. If i had to give it to someone I would give it to Antoine but I don't have to do anything I don't want to.

REPORT CARDS:

Marcus Banks: Going from a turd left on our bench by Miami to a fathomable backup point guard is not bad. He certainly didn't disappoint when he was called upon. His price tag still makes me cringe but when you got another guy on the team that is the nuclear equivalent, Marcus Banks looks like a friggin pope. B-

Andrea Bargnani:Needs to work on everything else he was working on but more this summer and like Jay Triano says, he needs to learn the meaning of team defense. Not that stupid shit he does where he reacts to everything like a 2 year old on too much sugar. Maybe we can somehow tether him to his man. It's like this, if he were told just to stick on his own man like glue he would still be better off even if the other team gets a few buckets as a result of it. Better then the crap he's shown us where he completely loses his man somehow. Still scored 17ppg on a team where the next best scorers are closer to 10ppg. It's nothing to sneeze at. The name of the game is still scoring. His rebounding sucks but he improved it. This summer he needs to hit the weights and maybe spend a few weekends with Reggie in a mosh pit to train his mind to take contact more. If I were Bryan Colangelo I would force him to do a boot camp or force him to train with an MMA trainer. B

Marco Bellineli:I dunno what this man needs. I guess he just needs confidence. He shows he has the skills but seems so scatter brained about things that he should be in some kind of athletic remedial class for stupid animals. It boggles my mind too cause he plays so well for Italy internationally but he's just lost in translation here. D

Chris Bosh: What can you say about this guy. He bulked up and gave us all he had. Top 10 in PPG, top 10 in RPG. What else can you ask out of your franchise player? Some say he wasn't a good enough leader. I say that's bullshit. He's a better leader than most captains I've seen in Toronto pro sports. The guy was an absolute animal at some times during this season. It's too bad he was hampered by a few nagging injuries and that his team couldn't hold down the fort without him. It'll be a sad day to see him go. A+

Jose Calderon: I don't know whats wrong with this guy. He's not the Jose I knew 3 seasons ago. He's a human turnstile on defense and he's definitely lost a few steps on offense as well. I didn't foresee him aging this quickly right before my eyes. I am sure some team out there is willing to part ways with something for him. For now though, if he were to stay he would make a good serviceable backup point guard. C+

Amir Johnson: This is exactly the type of hustle guy we needed on this team but he needs to get more consistent and develop his go-to moves in the post. He also needs to learn how to shoot a jumper. That being said, I wouldn't say he had a disappointing year by any stretch but being the first big off the bench he should have given us a lot more. Let's hope the last 2 games of the season is a positive indication of the future and not just a few drops of water in a bucket of crap. B-

Demar Derozan: Give this guy a break. He's a rookie playing for a coach that guaranteed to sit his ass down in the fourth quarter regardless of how good or how bad he was playing. I think he did alright in his first year. Sonny's will and determination will rub off on him and he certainly has the work ethic *cough Bargnani cough*. I only see upside when I look at this kid. He needs to learn how to go after people on the defensive end like a doberman on a pork chop. Offensively he needs to work on the jumper a bit more. Considering it was his biggest weakness in pre draft reports, he has definitely improved but obviously he needs more. C+

Sonny Weems: Like i have been saying all season, everyone keeps sleeping on this kid's jumper. I think next year teams will think twice before daring him to take a shot. He's got quicks, lateral movement, good instincts on offense and defense and a good attitude. He just needs more. He needs to push himself to the next level. Spend the summer playing pickup games with better players. He's got a good jumper so he's got half of it figured out already. Imagine where this team would be if he would have started all season. B-

Antoine Wright: Our defensive stopper. Had a bad start to the season with an injury that really seemed to screw him over. Once he finally righted the ship he has been good for us. He also needs to be more consistent. Go down to the courts with Sonny and Demar and play summer ball with the hardcore guys down there. Work on every aspect of your game and I hope the Raptors welcome you back cause god knows this team needs any speck of defense it can get its dainty little Raptor claws on.

Hedo Turkoglu: You know how I feel about him. I know how you feel about him. He's a walking, talking, smirking, $55million dollar mistake. He's a black hole on both ends of the floor. That game he had where he got 19 rebs was a slap in the face of every Raptor fan out there. Here's what I can do when I try, the rest of the time, I frig off! What's his problem? Attitude, effort, focus, should I keep going? He's proven to have the skills but he doesn't have the will. I'll trade him for a sack of shit. How to improve? Do something Hedo, do anything. It'll all help more then whatever it is you're doing now. F-

My wishlist: If Bosh has to go, trade him to NY for either David Lee or Galinari. You know we won't get much in return since it's a sign and trade but either of those 2 pieces are good and I bet NY would be willing to part with just about anyone to get their hands on one of the top prizes this summer. I say we should blackmail them into taking Hedo and Jose as a part of the deal. I doubt even they are that stupid. Then again they did get Marbury, Steve Francis, Eddy Curry, Johnathan Bender, Larry Hughes... should I keep going?

Fire the coach? Sure, he hasn't proven he should stay. Why waste time on a guy like him when there are proven coaches out there with NBA experience? Why indeed. Do we keep him cause he's Canadian? Sure that's cool and all but as long as he's a winner. Which he is most certainly not.

Positive Note: We get some sort of mid first round draft pick this year. Which is better than nothing.

See you next season I guess. In the meantime I might blog about trades, the draft and the NHL playoffs. I hope you enjoyed this blog.

Raps make it a streak and build momentum

2010-04-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

The Toronto Raptors won an early Saturday game today against the Sixers in extra time despite blowing a 17 point lead. A win is a win and in my opinion this was still a good win and a character win as they still stuck in there in OT and didn't fold like they usually do. First team to play defense wins, or maybe this game was more like, last team not to play defense wins cause this game was like a scoring clinic. Everyone was hoisting 3 pointers and long shots and everything went in. The Sixers and Raptors shot 55% and 56% respectively as indication of that.

The work of CB4 and AB7
The Killer Bees were at it again and the important thing was that they both mostly shot good percentages from the floor and quite well from the line too. This wouldn't be my blog though if I didn't have anything to nit pick at. Bosh had a very very solid game and both he and AB7 seem to be catching a second wind in the season even though it's late in the season. What I have to complain about is really the same thing I and many other Raps fans have mention many times over this season and nothing has really improved. It's the ball possession and handling by Chris Bosh. He can't seem to pass out of the post very well. I just realized the reason for that recently and it's because he fails to recognize the double team or he realizes but only when it's way too late and he ends up coughing it up or passing it to a player with the wrong jersey on. This as a result will negatively effect your three point shooting as you can't create enough open looks for your teammates when a double team occurs. Hence the Bosh Butterfingers. Turk seems to have this problem too but it usually happens to Turk closer to the arc.

Sonny could be the best accidental positive in Raptor history
In the last two games, Weems has only missed two field goals. Compare that with Turk's shooting. Now tell me who was this year's big free agent acquisition. Sonny finished this game with an impressive 18 points which is a very nice supplement to the starting squad as early in the season, the starting squad seems way too stagnant to start games. Sonny seems to have all the tools that a player in his position needs to develop into a solid slashing sharpshooting wing. Only things he needs to work on is his free throw shooting and his three pointers. He defends well, has a great mid range jumper which he hits off screens very well, he rebounds, runs the floor and isn't afraid of driving to the hoop. All this at under $800K which makes Bryan look a bit less stupid after picking up Turk. I've been calling to have him replace Turk in the starting line up for months. So far I'm feeling pretty good about that but it's not like it took any sort of genius to figure it out. Just not a Triano. Sonny Weems is a diamond in the rough and the Raptors accidentally buffed it just a bit.

More Ab7... more damn you!!
The Big Italian Cool showed more evidence that he's nobody's robot by noticeably smiling on several occasion during this game. And he had reason to smile as he hit a very impressive and unexpected 3/4 court heave to end a quarter. Either he's playing well or he's discovered the secrets of the spending quality time with the opposite sex. His 3 pointer was a bit more "on" than it has been in this later part of the season and he seemed very focused and alert. He wasn't lock down on D but he was still effective for the most part. Coulda used a few more boards from him but I guess the ends justify the means so they say. What I really really wanna see from this guy is a two handed dunk where he hangs on the rim a little bit. Only time i can remember him do that was in his first or second season when he did it against the Clippers over top of 2 bigs including Kaman. I believe it's on Youtube.

Jose was very effective on the offensive end.
You certainly notice deficiencies a lot less when the offense is rolling and Jose's play was good especially against. This is important as the Sixers are a team whose point guards have historically torched him.
Line: 16pts 10assts 1to. Can't really argue about that. This is the least I have complained about this guy since January.

Just like the Jenifer Aniston's boss said in Office Space
You call that flare? There's people who do the bare minimal and don't put on enough flare. Then there's people who go above and beyond. Unfortunately for us, Turk is the Jenifer Aniston in this situation. He just does the bare minimal game in and game out. Sometimes he does less than that but this game was a good example of doing the bare minimal. I think 11 must be his favourite number cause he seems to hit that on the offensive end quite often. He wasn't noticeably bad in this game, he just wasn't noticeably good either.

So yeah it's three in a row late in the season and I know all of you wished they could have regain their composure a lot quicker after the post All star game slide but at least they have proven they have a heart beat lately and hope that they can bring this on in the post season. What's troubling me is that you know and I know that the playoffs require a 6th gear that a team needs to kick into and this does not exist for the Raptors. Unless they show me something I have never ever seen before or could never expect. Like Bargnani all of a sudden averaging 30 and 10 outta nowhere. Which would never ever happen. I have a feeling the Raps are in for a rude awakening.

2010-04-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

So the Raptors get a win tonight against one of the world's worst franchises. This may be so, but the Clippers are in my opinion still a semi decent team hurt by injuries. It was a very good effort overall by the Raptors as many Raptors chipped in well in one way or another. We also finally see that spark back in Bosh's game that seems to have been vacant since he sank 2 free throws to help win it for the East All Stars. They didn't fold and pack it in at the fourth quarter. They remembered that the game is 48 minutes and played through the entire game without too much of a lull.

Why they won
The main reasons for this win were 2 fold in my opinion. First and most importantly is that the Clippers are despite several good players were not good tonight, not by a long shot. It was like role reversal for the Rap's opponent as they folded in the fourth quarter and kind of packed it in the same way the Raps usually do. Even Bosh said that part of the reason for the win was that the opponents were not quite that good when Jack Armstrong asked him about it.

The other reason they won was that their 2 main scorers actually scored. When's the last time both players played well offensively? Must've been a while cause I can't recall. Bargnani had a good game offensive and was decent on defense. His FG% wasn't that good but he still made an impact. Oh, and he grabbed a good number or boards, most of which were right to him but some of which he did go and get. He tallied 21 8 rebs 3 blks and only 1 turnover. Stunning. And Bosh added in 34 and 11 rebs!!! Haven't seen production like that out of him for far too long.

The Supporting Cast
Turkoglu played his least embarrassing game for this team in a long time. He hasn't bitched of moaned about his benching too much. Not publicly anyways. He ran the floor well and facilitated the offense pretty well. I even spotted him playing good defense on one instance.

The real x-factor hero of the night is Sonny Weems with no doubt. His jumper was pinpoint accurate tonight and teams continue to underestimate him. He was a perfect 8/8 if i remember correctly. He even hit a late 3 just for fun. He works on defense and is an obvious choice to me as a starter.

Double J played well too distributing 10 assists while only turning the ball over once. He made very good passes to Sonny in a key stretch in the game that blew the game wide open. Him and Turk were noticeably good distributing the ball. Demar chipped in quite well too off the bench. He seems to be comfortable coming off the bench and he adds a nice little kick off the bench. Antoine was decent too continuing his strong play of late.

Where on earth was Amir? Barely noticed his skinny ass on in the game at all. We didn't need him tonight though. Our two bigs woke up tonight and realized that they were once the productive useful duo known as the Killer B's.

A look into the future of the Toronto Raptors.

2010-03-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

Okay so the obvious question that fans are asking now is would you rather see us in the playoffs and get blown out in the first round by the Cavaliers or would you rather ditch out of the playoffs and get back our first round draft pick? It seems like a logical, and easy choice. Given that Bosh is gone. We'll need some bit of talent to add to the team. I wonder if there is some way to buyout Hedo's contract. Or have Tonya Harding "Tonya Harding" his knee caps.

The Outlook
I don't think they need to blow this team up. I am quite comfortable with having Andrea, and Jarrett as good starting pieces with Demar and Sonny as a good pair to build on too. What we need is a legit wing. I know people say that a good player is a good play regardless of the position but history has shown us... and I mean really recent history... that a good wing is key to success in the NBA. E.g. Kobe, Lebron, Melo, Wade, Durant... need i go on? How about his so-called heirness Michael Jordan? Can't argue with that line of success. Not a knock on Bosh cause I love the guy and he is phenomenal but this is all being said with the assumption that he's leaving town to follow up with his brain that already seems half way there.

Roster:
C: Andrea
PF:???
SF: Demar/Sonny
SG:Sonny Demar
PG: Jarrett

Bench:
Sixth Man: Antoine(assuming he's back)
Jose
Turk
Amir

Everyone else is expendable. Reggie and Macro are good pieces but not crucial. That be said I would prefer to see them back next season.

The Strategy
We got some really decent talent here despite the handcuffs of Jose and Hedo's contract.

Needs:
A prototypical power forward - One with wide shoulders, a good jumper and a very strong rebounder

A high scoring SG/SF - One who is quick, has a pinpoint jumper and is fearless when it comes to driving the lanes.

Well Duh!!
Question is, where do you find one of these players? Everyone in the league and their grandmothers are looking for these 2 types of players. Problem before for this team was... we never were. Reason being that we used to have one that turned out to be a douchebag, or we have one right now but we don't have another. And he's probably on his first bus outta town when the season is over.

So again the shopping wish list is a wicked sick ass shooting guard or small forward. And a replacement powerforward. Something like Carlos Boozer but younger and better. Hopefully we get that first rounder this year but the pick won't be one of these wishlist players but still, any talent infusion would be welcome.

Time to plan out the parade

2010-03-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

Time to get out the salami and cheese mama! Man, the Raps finally win a game against a decent opponent. I almost forgot what it felt like to get a win like this. No collapse this time, in fact it was the Bobcats would collapsed. Despite themselves, they were able to pull out this win. Turk played and the team survived a late boneheaded out of bounds turnover by him. He even hit a clutch three pointer. I'm not too excited though. It's a good win but that doesn't mean they're not going to blow the next 5 games.

I like probably most of you, are very skeptical still. This team is shaky at best and is still full of problems. Turkoglu got benched finally in the last game and it was a long time coming. I didn't blog about that game cause that game made me sick. Turkoglu needed to be benched for his shitty play all season long but it took him having to party out all over town when he was supposed to be sick to finally get him benched. I am glad it did but it still didn't seem to spark him like it should have. He hit that clutch 3 but with that 3 he made only 11 points. For $53 million I at least expect 16ppg not 11.9. Jarrett is averaging 11.1 and he cost $5 million a season. Now that is a deal. Bargs is going to be making about the same per season after this season, but at least that clumsy ogre scores 17ppg.

It's still a win and I hope they can build something off of it. I am liking this idea of Turk coming off the bench. Now if they can only get Jack off the bench and back into the starting spot. For now there's not much more to say. As Raptors fans at this point, we can only sit and wait. See if they continue to play like garbage, or pull themselves together.

Stupid Stupid Stupid!

2010-03-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

You can thank the moron coach for this loss. Things were going so well in the third so what does he do? Goes completely away from the what was working and inserts his usual stupid line up in fourth to lose the lead and lose the game. I was just waiting for this team to screw up and they did in many many ways. Most of these errors can be traced back to the decision making of the coach. Apparently he's never heard of using strategy to maintain a lead. I mean that is the best way to win a game is it not? You build a lead, and you hang on to that lead or expand it. It's not rocket science but yet Jay seems to do whatever he can to tear leads down. Everything he does serves that purpose. He's a moron!!! I am just some lowly fan who observes from afar. I am not a professionally employed through basketball in any means. Yet I can see these errors as clear as day and I am sure all you fans can too. If a dog gets yelled at enough times for pissing on the rug, the dog eventually knows it needs to be in the great outdoors to squeeze out even a drop. But this breed of Triano dog is sooooo dumb, it'll piss all over the rug, your bed, your couch and your shoes.

The Perpetrators
Did anyone else notice how the team just lost all their energy and enthusiasm as soon as Bosh and Jose entered the game in the fourth? They started turning the ball over like crazy and the offense went limp. Suddenly the Raptors turned into just the Chris Bosh show as the offense completely went through him and everyone else just stood around. Usually when Chris is on this is a good thing but since it was the Chris Bosh Butterfingers and Turnover bake off, it wasn't so good. See that turnover he made off the two missed Melo free throws that leads to a game tying 3 by Billups? Just pathetic. Talk about shooting yourself in the nards. Don't see it too often but Chris was part of the key plays that cost this team the game. First he had that particular turnover, then he missed one of his two free throws. Game over.

Coach? Please explain
Why on earth would you have your biggest defensive deficiency on the floor during crunch time? Why would you sit Jarrett who had played so hard for you during their hot stretch? Why would you have Jose on the floor who is so bad defensively that they had to make Demar or Antoine guard the other team's PG? It escapes logic. Everyone who did well: Belli, Demar, Jarrett all got nailed to the bench for most of the fourth and their lead gets dwindled down. Jarrett got put back in eventually but alas, your lead is gone. That entire stretch where they lost their lead coincided with Jose entering the game. Stupid coaching. Stupid stupid stupid.

Why did they play a bit better? Can't Credit the Coach
First of all it was addition by subtraction cause when you get rid of a black hole on defense and offense you would logically do better so no surprise there. Turkoglu didn't play. Don't know why, don't care, just glad he didn't. Sonny was inserted in place of that jackass and he played well. Which is immediately a humongous plus. Weems played with some passion and some pride in his game on both ends of the floor. As did Antoine who replaced Demar in the starting lineup. Demar, Belli, Sonny, and 'Toine stepped up big time. They get rewarded by getting their asses nailed to the bench in the fourth. If we were training dogs, and not managing a basketball team, we'd end up with the wildest, stupidest dogs in the history of man. They would probably run around chasing parked cars and piss and shit themselves. You punish for doing well, and you reward for playing like shit. Good job coach.

Rebounding
It's what Captain Picard would call a anomaly. Something that is odd, peculiar, a strange condition, situation, or quality. Something that never happens and you probably couldn't have foreseen, but somehow still occurred. The rebounding for once wasn't an embarrassment. Don't get too excited about it. Don't expect it to happen with any type of consistency from now on. Don't use it as a source of hope. Your heart as a Raptor fan will be broken. Andrea was a magnet for rebounds. Three Raps end up with double digits in rebounds. That's fantastic but I am not counting my lucky stars that it happens again.

Andrea the Giant
He was a force. I don't think I have ever seen the guy get teed up for slamming the ball on the court in frustration. And it was in regards to him getting a rebound too! I have been dying to see that since he came into this league. For him to play with some emotion and some passion. His rebounding tonight was also an anomaly as we all know. That being said, it was still really really nice to see.

To Conclude, take me to the vet and put me down
When you make these changes and they work, you'd think logically that you should stick to these changes. Instead logic has escaped us as Triano goes right back to the losing formula. Somebody please get us a real coach. Somebody please take Jose and Turk off our hands. Somebody please shoot me.

Raptors waste their time, my time, and your time

2010-03-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

Why watch? Why bother to waste 3 hours of your life to watch this team that is giving no effort and cower against their opponent? Well I wouldn't so I changed the damn channel and found something else to do with my life. This is pretty bad when a die hard fan like myself would change the channel. It's the perfect shit storm and that's what it was yesterday as the Raptors acted like a little kid getting his ass kicked by a bunch of bullies. Except the difference being that hopefully the kid would eventually get up and stand up for himself. Here, the Raptors went fetal and just took an ass kicking and a curb stomping from the Jazz.

The Glaring Weaknesses
The point guard play was atrocious, let's not kid ourselves here. Jose was a Spanish turd on both ends of the floor, and Jarrett seemed disinterested. Not unpredictable to anyone, Deron Williams was on fire. It's too bad the Raptors couldn't put together any type of game plan to at least try to contain him. But in my mind, Jose just couldn't handle him, the same way he can't handle any point guard in this league. At the same time, the Raps either helped out too much with double teams, or didn't double at all. Listen, you assign one person or a person at a particular spot on the floor to come over to double. Everyone else stay on YOUR man. Instead, you have Bargnani floating over and sticking his nose into the business and his man ends up getting an easy jam. Or you got Bosh swinging in as well, next thing you know you got 2 opposition players on the other team with wide open shots. Or Turkoglu would just completely blow his cover and leave his man wide open.

Hose B
It's been quite clear to me these issues with Jose. He has no lateral quickness or general foot speed to keep up with a driving point guard. Secondly, he couldn't cover the 3 point arc if his life depended on it. He dips into the lane way too much to try to wave his hands at a post player who is already covered. Leaving his man wide open for 3's. Let's examine. He dips away from his man who is standing on the perimeter to try to disturb another play who probably isn't in the slightest bothered by Jose's half assed double team. And his man sinks a 3. So to conclude... he's completely useless on defense. He might as well not be there. In hockey, this is called a powerplay for the other team. So in essence, the Raptors are penalty killing the entire time Jose is on the floor. Let's not even mention how much it gets worse when Turkoflu is on the floor.

The Curious Case of Jay Triano
I am not blaming this loss on Jose, this loss was a result of many factors. Jose being one of them. When I take a step back and look at the big picture I see an issue with the coach and it's a tough issue because I obviously don't know him, I don't know how his schemes are. I don't know how his relationships to the players are. All I know is this... this is a team sport. Yes it's up to the players to ultimately perform but when a team performs like this night after night, displays glaring defensive weaknesses game after game, the eyes start to stare at the man who is in charge.This team is soft yes, but it's also a team absolutely loaded with talent and I believe it's talent that hasn't been harnessed to it's potential. That's the coach's job. It's the coach's job to come up with defensive plans for the opposition's best player. It's the coach's job to bench a jerkwad for blowing a defensive coverage multiple times. To these eyes, Jay is in over his head. I guess I wouldn't replace him since it's this late in the season but I would be shocked if he's head coach next season.

Ok jackass, what would you do?
What would I do? Well I would remove Turkoglu from the starting lineup effective immediately. Start Sonny Weems in his place. Then I would remove Jose and replace him with Jarrett. I would have Antoine in my back pocket ready to sub in at the first sign of defensive trouble from Demar or Sonny. I wouldn't keep my scorers out of the game when we are trying to catch up, I wouldn't keep them out of the game if the other team is starting up catch up. If players whine about their playing time, they can kiss my ass and show me their effort to justify me changing my position on the matter.

Chris would be in the game as much as possible. Amir would be his sub still but Chris would play the entire 4th or at least from the 10 min mark on. At no point would I have Bosh AND Bargs out of the game. You can't take both your top scorers out at the same time no matter how shitty Bargs is playing D. You still have to score to win and this team ain't gonna beat anyone with their defense no matter how good it is on a certain night. Turkoglu would not enter the game unless we had a very comfortable lead. I would just run ISO to Bosh with Bargs on the perimeter feeding the ball to him. They double Bosh, Bosh kicks it out to Bargs on the perimeter. Either that or clear the lane for Bargs to take his slow ass defender iso up high so he can shoot or drive the lane. That would be the basis for the offense. Add to that Jack's slashing and Sonny's strong mid range game.

One last funny thing, a few games ago Sonny was asked why he did well on that particular night. He mentions he was given the gift to penetrate... he he you can see where this is going. I am gonna go out on a "limb" and say all men were given that gift. Unfortunately for the Raptors, only some of them have the will.

Toronto Raptors Vs. The Handsomest man in the NBA and his T'Wolves

2010-03-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

So the Raptors barely pull out a win against the second worse team in the league. This doesn't bode well for them seeing as how they're about to take on some of the top talent in the association. I am hoping they can build on this though and use it to increase their level of play to another standard that can allow them to challenge. That being said, this game against the Wolves was one of the uglier games I've ever had the misfortune of watching. I can't say it was the ugliest since I was at the ACC to witness their predictable,(I predicted it anyways), ass whooping that was handed to them by OKC on their own home court. Seriously, people were leaving by half time. Some people left before half time, and me? Well it's the first time I've ever left a Raptor game early. And that's saying something cause I usually stay right till the end but this was really just too brutal to watch. It's like watching something get skinned alive. It's just not pretty.

So last night they took on the NBA's most handsome man and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Al Jefferson of course is who I am talking about and if you know who I am talking about then I wouldn't need to tell you I am being sarcastic. The poor bastard looks like a foot with a body attached. Good thing for him he's a hell of a basketball player. Al Jefferson is the real deal and is a post offense machine. He's got more moves than a jelly roll and is about as hardworking and hardnosed as every Raptor fan wishes Bargnani was. He made Chris Bosh look like a pylon early on. I know Bosh isn't the best post defender but he's not too shabby. Al made him look like a rookie on his first week in the NBA. Too bad for him his teammates don't give him the ball every single possession. I have a feeling they'd be a lot better off if they just ran ISO for him all game long.

This game was so ugly I was almost worried it would start giving fans at the ACC leprosy. It was like watching a dog try to eat a pork chop that's been stapled to its own head. Both teams were under 40% by half time. I thought I was back watching an elementary school game. They were serving up more turnovers than the Pillsbury Doughboy. They really couldn't throw it in the ocean if they were knee deep in shark crap.

Shit you might have noticed... AGAIN.

Jose Calderon really is a turnstile. I was watching him play D, and I said to my gf... watch him. Watch how easily his man is about to go around him. Right on queue the jerk lets his man blow right by him. I think there's something wrong with this guy. His defense wasn't this bad when he first joined the team. He needs to stay the heck away from the Spanish National team and get some rest and treatment cause he's killing us on the other end. Bring Jack back as the starter. If you wanna sit anyone, you sit Turk.

Jack is like Andy from Shawshank Redemption. He's been wrongfully put in the doghouse and Jose and Turk roam around free to play their shitty brand of defense. Jarrett has been showing up when he's called upon and so far he's made the decision look silly.

Does Chris Bosh spray his hands with Pam before every game cause he's got a case of butterfingers worse than Bart Simpson. He should try some of that chalk that KG and Lebron uses. He turns the ball over sooooooooo friggin much!!

Thank goodness Minni sucks. Outside of Big Al and Brother Love, they are short on talent and even shorter on execution. Jonny Flynn and Corey Brewer have been busts so far in my opinion but they're still young. Or maybe instead of saying Minni sucks, I should say they suck just a bit less than the Raps at the moment.

You CAN'T start Amir Johnson. There's been a lot of suggestion about this move but Barg's confidence is as frail as Glass Joe. Not only that but he's your best centre like it or not. Amir is suited for a bench role because his offense is limited to that one move he does well. The hook when he can get it off against secondary units. Bargs creates way too much space on the floor due to his shooting. It's too much of a benefit to Chris to ignore. Pulling Bargs and putting in Amir would be a typical knee-jerk reaction. Pulling Turk would be a jerk-pull reaction.

The Rant
In response to all of those negative things said lately about Andrea and him saying he's been lazy. All I can say is that he might be lazy, he might be a shitty rebounder but at least he's a player which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for Hedo who night after night is a walking, talking, smelly piece of turd who barely scores, plays worse defense than Bargnani, commits stupid fouls on both ends of the floor, sometimes to compensate for his shitty defense, and grins, smirks, and jokes around with the opposition about it. Andrea has at least admitted he's bad. How many athletes in the world would do that? Hopefully he takes the next logical step and stop himself from being so dumbass lazy. Oh, and did you hear his response to Jack Armstrong's question? It was hilarious. Jack asked him what his focus was on this game in response to his poor showing the game before. He replied, "Nothing". He focused on nothing? LOL!! He said he has to let his teammates pull the reigns sometimes and he just played his game. I seriously doubt Andrea started the NJ game thinking that he should tone it down a bit and give his teammates a chance to score more.

I am sorry to sound like a broken record but it just continues to be the story of this season. Bargnani with all his shitty D is at least averaging 17 ppg and is the blocks leader on the team. At the very least he's at least pulling some weight. I dunno if I have hated an athlete who was on one of my favorite sports teams more than I hate Hedo. He's like poison to his team. His footwork on defense is worse than Jason Kapono's. It's like trying to watch a horse shuffle form side to side as fast as it could.He did play well in the final quarter of this match but like I've said before. You don't pay a man $10m to average 12ppg. That defense he played on the last shot of the game by the T'wolves was the best, bar none, BEST DEFENSE I have ever seen that bastard play. If he played like that for 50% of his time on D, we'd probably have a few more W's. Hopefully he's gotten sick of being a joke, a laughing stock, and the object of everyone's ridicule. Hopefully he's waken up a bit.

BBIAB

2010-03-18T20:26:00.001-07:00

The Samsquanch will return next week... got business to take care of.

Toronto Raptors: Why Bother?

2010-03-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

Why bother?

GUTLESS!!!

2010-03-10T21:37:00.000-08:00

Starting on the lighter side:
Did anyone notice how much Leo was tootin Tyreke Evans' horn? I was tellin him to shut his pie hole the entire game. Well actually, I was telling my TV. I do that a lot, yell things at the screen. But Leo, if you love him so much why don't you quit your job with the Raptors and go move in with him? I think he's got a man-crush on him and is going to buy him candy and flowers.

The Game:
A gutless performance in the second half. The Raptors mailed it in during halftime, put on their night caps and went to sleep. Their offense consisted of a lot of standing around and shooting an ill-advised jumper first thing down the court. Bosh was off big time and he kept forcing up that jumper that just wasn't working. He needed to post up every single time but he didn't. They needed to get the ball to him in the post, or post up Bargnani or run high ISO for him... they didn't. They needed to get Jose the heck off the court and out of the arena. They lost to an obviously inferior team and might as well pack it in this season. This ship seems to be sinking faster than Reggie Evans in a above ground pool.

The Complaints:
Jose was awful, just frickin awful. He should NOT have been left on the floor but yet after missing shots, turning the ball over and getting a flagrant foul, Jay was adamant about leaving him in the game cause things were going so well. With Jack our offense had a flow, but he remained on the pine again way too long. Jack at least can pass as an NBA pointguard even when he's having a bad game. Jose lately, seems like some dude they picked up out of the crowd. It pains me to say it since he used to be such a good player but he's just been a shadow of his former self. As his hair has gone, so has his game.

Again, Andrea does well in the first half and they don't go to him in the third till the end of the quarter when they've realized they've just been jacking up errant jump shots. By that time he's worn out and ready to come out for a breather. To say that the Raptors have been stoopid is an understatement. Even Devlin and Rautins noted it. I get tired of saying, you must be tired of hearing it. I just put both my hands up in frustration, that's what I'll do from now on.

For the first time ever, I've felt that Jay Triano is not fit as headcoach. I've always been a supporter but now I see the idiocy of his ways. Bad substitution management, bad play calling, bad time-out timing and management. Ask yourselves this question Raptor fans, do you think any team would hire him if he got let go tomorrow? Uh-No.

The usual Turkoglu plea:
Dear Jay Triano and/or Bryan Colangelo. You made a mistake with regards to acquiring Hidayet "The Turnover" Turkoglu. Please remove him from the team. At least remove him from the starting line up. He is the newest version of Stephon Marbury. Last version was Tracy McGrady but he's playing again now. Hedo needs to leave the team, go home and keep from hurting his own team during games. He is the worst free agent acquisition in sports history, no wait hat was Hakeem. He is the second worst acquisition in sports history. If Jason Blake can be removed from the Leafs, the Raps have some sort of chance of getting rid of him this off season. I bet the Blazers are laughing their asses off at us.