Bargnani's emotion epitomizes the win streak

"BUY MY DVD!!!!!!!!"

Andrea Bargnani's reaction after he hit what could've very well been the gave-saving 3-pointer was epic. The last time he showed that much outward, obvious emotion of sheer joy was probably when he signed his contract in the summer, or when he got to do that Italian pasta commercial. In all seriousness though, that brute emotion running back down the court and doing the whole jump-and-bodychecking-his-teammates in happiness thing not once - but - twice was exemplary of just how much this game meant to the Raptors, and to the win streak as a whole.

You can't take away any of the wins before tonight as every one was earned, but let's face it, only the New Orleans game that went down to the final minutes in Toronto was one that truly tested the Raptors. They were down 5-6 games below .500 so its not as if the Raptors had anything to be proud about anyway, but that four game win streak before tonight was delightful if not expected (then again, you just have no idea with this team). But this...this game against Charlotte was the first time since facing the Hornets that a good team (regardless of their record) took us down to the wire on our home court and how the Raptors responded really gave a better indication of this team's bonding/chemistry/whatever you want to call it. They've grown.

So to beat the Bobcats, who absolutely destroyed and embarrassed us back in Charlotte earlier, is huge. And that's a huge understatement. In that way, this game was much more important and tougher than it looked on paper. It's officially a legitimate win-streak now - take that as you may. Now I can smile instead of gulp if I read on ESPN NBA's headline somewhere "streaking Raptors" or "surging Raptors".
Losing Turkoglu in the first half evened things out a bit as the Bobcats are missing Chandler, and other players had to step up, and step up they did - from the quirky, mind boggling plays of Ginobili..er..Belinelli, all the way up to Marcus Banks, whose confrontation with Gerald Wallace had to, HAD TO have had an effect on the Raps. It definitely rose the tension up a few notches and got things more heated.

I can't speak enough about the demolition that Chris Bosh is putting on other teams, night in night out; particularly the offensive rebounds in the clutch, and the aggressive drives to the hoop rather than settling for the jumper. Or how everyone contributed to a bona-fide victory. I'm just enjoying every second of it, and tomorrow will wake up and smell the coffee..and smile while reading up Raptors related posts all over the web for the last time this year.

Turk, Bargs, and Rasho drink on a fan's dime after ignoring him in L.A.

"I left the restaurant putting the bill on some guy's tab
who just wanted to say 'hi' to us..now that's CLUTCH!"

A fan at a restaurant was shunned when he approached Turkoglu, Bargnani, and Nesterovic at their table, yet they still placed the bill on HIS TAB!

"At this table sits, Rasho Nesterovic, Andrea Bargnani, Hedo Terkoglu, and some new white Raptor that I had trouble identifying. Perhaps it was Zan Tabak after having undergone skin-rejuvenating botox injections. Letting the alcohol do the talking is something that generally has worked for me in the past. Not this time. The restaurant crowd is quite thin at this point and no one other than our table seems to have recognized these overgrown whities. “Hello fellows”, I eke out. “So nice to see you here. I’m from Toronto, as you may have guessed and we’re so glad to be in the company of other fellow Canadians. Congratulations on beating the Clippers tonight, might I add”. Silence. No eye contact. Silence. “That being said, can we offer you guys a drink”..."

Read the rest of the encounter here:

http://talanddavidsblogofshit.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/starfucking-4-when-starfucking-goes-awry/


Oh yeah, not much to say about the Minny game tonight other than it was dangerously and unnecessary close, but I guess the positive way to look at it is that we can grind out wins...at least against the Timberpups.

Hedo Clutch-A-Loo Comes Through Along With Bosh's Monster Night

Chris Bosh celebrates the gutsy overtime win

I was at Jackastor's for the game and surprisingly, people started getting noisy from the fourth quarter, making me realize - shit, people are actually watching the Raptors in here. Quite a spectacle, and when Turk hit that tough, TOUGH fadeaway game-winner - well, the place went wild. Just how impressive was that shot?

"Turkish Jordan. It was a tough shot. I tried to make him take a difficult shot, and it's exactly what happened." - Caron Butler



He clanked the 3-pointer at the end of regulation, but you just knew no matter how many times he misses he wasn't going to shy away by any means. I texted a bunch of people after that crazy shot, and my buddy Adit replied "that's why we pay him 10 mil a year". Ya damn right. It must be noted, he didn't always take the shot down the stretch of regulation - one particular play, Turk cut down the middle and made a beautiful pass to Bosh who if I remember correctly got an and-1.

Speaking of Bosh...wow, where do you start? I haven't seen Chris Bosh play like that in ages.
34 points 16 rebounds - 9 of those offensive (!!!!) 4 assists and 2 blocks

No matter how much you may dislike the guy, he couldn't do anything wrong last night. He kept driving it hard to the rim in the tension filled fourth quarter, and got some ridiculous and one's throughout the night. The one where it looked like he may have travelled, but then just glided to the left of the rim and swiped the ball in was breathtaking. And the one play that keeps replaying in my mind where he took on the whole Wizards front line it seemed underneath the basket, and kept trying to put it in, and got his own rebound about 3 straight times. Just monstrous.

My boy Bargnani was disappointing me greatly, then of course he hits that killer three in crunch time of regulation and hits some timely and oh-so-important shots in overtime.

Jack was...what we thought he was going to be when we acquired him. And that's a great thing.

What better way to finish this game, especially after all the pressure building up from the team-meeting and all huh? Crazy shit. If we lost this one it would've so dispiriting it's a scary thought just to think about it. All the hate would come out again, starting with "Why the hell didn't Triano change the starting lineup at all after he said he probably would!?"

We must win tomorrow. We have to. After a crazy night in Washington, anything less than a win will be a huge...disappointment.

Fascism in Dinoland

Raptor fans, I urge you to follow me in a revolution to advocate Amir Johnson, aka Andre 3000 as starter. I’m back at it again to talk shit about everybody’s favourite Raptor, Andrea Bargnani.

Well, fuck Bargnani! And “Fuck Bargnani!” should be a slogan. Are you listening, B.C.? You fascist son-of-a-bitch! Are we really supposed to believe we can win anything with Andrea Bargnani; a lazy, air-greedy giant that can’t even make a lay-up. We’re paying six and a half million calzones and counting on a guy, who’s only consistency, is to advertise his favourite Italian pasta.

I’ve been fortunate to watch every single Raptors game so far this season. I love the intensity CB4 brings night in and night out. But contrast CB4’s desire to play to Bargnani and Bosh looks like a hungry dinosaur; an angry motherfucker, whose dinosaur babies has just been eaten by another dinosaur versus Bargnani, who always plays like that triceratops they find in Jurassic Park that’s sluggish and constipated. Someone check this man’s shit!

Why Amir Johnson over Bargnani? First of all, the Raptors shouldn’t even waste any more time with Bargnani. If Bosh leaves, do you think the franchise is any safer by having Bargnani around? FUCK, NO! I like Amir’s game. I’ve seen Triano use the combination of Bargnani and Amir plenty of times this season. And what I noticed a few times is that when the opponent shoots the ball, Bargnani is usually not boxing out, but instead already running the other direction. Meanwhile, poor Amir is left alone, battling for rebounds and getting eaten by all three: Rashard Lewis, Gortat (the Polish beast) and Mickael Pietrus. Tell me... why the fuck is the tallest guy on the floor not even attempting to get a rebound?

If it came down to choosing between Amir Johnson and Bargnani as my new franchise player – again, this is only if it came down to it (in other words, it won’t) – I would choose Johnson without hesitation. I’ll always choose a player with fire, desire over someone who doesn’t show any bit of it.

Season Opens With Fire with Chef Bargnani

My season opener observations:

• First of all - how sizzling is that picture? Bargnani looks like he's just throwing down that dunk in DISGUST..disgust that anybody would try to even challenge that.

• For all the talk of the bad preseason, the Raps looked like an NBA ready team (conditioning and all that jazz).
  
• The crowd was bananas - no, apeshit - and it was great to see. I could just feel the buzz watching from my television set. I went to a preseason game and I was excited as hell, can't imagine what it must've felt like to be sitting at this game against such a big opponent.
• Andrea Bargnani..sigh..can't say enough about this guy. I've been his biggest supporter, and he couldn't have done anything better tonight - if the refs didn't call the most BS fouls he could've easily had 30-36. No one could guard him out there, and it was extra fun watching him scorch Shaq daddy. He looked like he actually FELT that he was unstoppable, you could just see it in his eyes. And really, that's how it should be. It's like he was offended that the Cavs put Big Z/Shaq/Varejao on him.
  
• It's great to see Turkoglu driving, it really revs you up. His drives almost look...unpleasant and awkward, but its always on point and effective.
  
• You know what? Jose Calderon played awesome period. He had what, 8 assists in the first half if I remember correctly? He wasn't off-the-charts or anything, but there's been a lot of worry about his play since last year, and I thought he was damn solid tonight.
  
• I LOVED Jarrett Jack's aggressiveness in the fourth. It just seemed like the Raptors would've never done that last year in the 4th quarter of an important game - take it to the whole and push the ball continuously.
  
• I'm not a big fan of Jose and JJ at the 1 and 2, but it wasn't bad in the fourth quarter.
  
• Even though Bosh didn't dominate by scoring, I still thought he had a monster game with the 16 boards to go along with his 21 points.
  
• I forgot about Anthony Parker..seriously. I didn't recognize him initially when he was on the floor in a Cavs uniform, definitely do not miss him, hope he does well though.
  
• I was on the ESPN Cavs-Raps message board, and a lot of Cavs fan seem to think if they had Delonte West it would've made a huge difference. Oh, and also, all the talk was about whether Shaq or LeBron, or the Cavs in general and whether them getting Shaq was a good idea or not. Not one word about the Raps' great game, rather how shitty Cleveland sucks. Understandable, we haven't done anything yet, especially after a dismal season last year.
• Shaq looks TERRIBLE. Like, REALLY BAD. And hell, he looks kinda fat, is it just me? He should've retired in Miami and gone out while still on top, but he keeps sagging on and has left his previous four teams on bad terms. Honestly, I love Shaq, I think he's funny as hell and would be an awesome guy to hang out with, but wtf is up with him acting like he's still a centerpiece of a team?
• How is Mike Brown still the head coach? How? I know they couldn't fire him after they went to the finals and all before, but wasn't last season's playoff exit a great excuse to let him go? They have NO offensive sets..like NONE.
  
• Do you think the Suns are roaring in laughter that Cleveland actually took Shaq aka the Big Geritol (from Basketbawful) off their hands?
• Marco Belinelli continues to wow with this...athleticism. And he looks like a total bum with that facial hair, but it kinda adds to his crazy "you have no idea what I'm going to do" game. His facial hair is basically the equivalent to Ginobili when he had his long hair.
  
• How long till LeBron gets sick of Shaq and there's bad vibes and rumours floating around about how they don't like each other? I say January. Because Shaq never adjusts to the teams he plays for, rather everyone has to adjusts for Shaq's team.
  
• If Kobe wins at least one more ring - which could very well happen this year - I wonder how much that's gonna eat at Shaq as Kobe will surpass him.
• Bryan Colangelo looked so worried during the fourth quarter it was hilarious..the man was sweating bullets. When he walked into the tunnel after the game was over, he had the biggest expression of relief of on his face, forget a tissue he needed a towel to wipe off the sweat.
  
• The twenty point lead was great - Cavs coming back all the way to TIE it was SCARY - but not surprising - but the way we responded to it was. It was a pleasant surprise, a huge horse to get off our backs with this first and oh-so-important game.
  
• Watching Big Z and Shaq go up the court is like watching a turtle and a snail.
  
• Jamario Moon! Remember him? What a bozo. I forgot about Parker, and even more so about Moon.
  

Bargnani knows how to deal with racist players; lock'em in a room with Dwight Howard

I stumbled upon this little interview from an Italian site, and used Google to translate. This little segment was the most interesting I found (translation is shaky since its literal, but you can make out what he's trying to say):
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Now a matter a little 'more delicate. In Italy the players of color are targeted by racist songs. Even an Italian like Mario Balotelli is in their sights. Nba player accustomed to playing with guys from all over the world, how you rate this?

"For me it is such a thing outside the world that it is difficult to give an answer. It is inconceivable, but we must also be careful not to give too much importance to these people. And we must not do the whole apples and oranges, because it is a minority. In the world's all, you encounter all sorts of people and sometimes also deficient.

Italian football is, however, the victim of this scourge. While the basketball players have already played as Carlton Myers and Daniel Hackett.Why basketball is more than skin color?

"I do not know. If I have to tell the truth I like to be black. I have always envied their physicality. Jumping all like mad and it's great to see them play. If only jump as they ...».
Perhaps you would be the strongest player in Italy dell'Nba but you peck whistles and someone would say that you're not Italian. Have you ever thought about how to react if you were in a similar situation?

"I do not know how to react, but I have the solution to this problem. Take one of these racist and place it in a room together with Dwight Howard and let alone a few minutes to clarify (he says jokingly, ndr). I am sure that would work ... It is a fact that has cultural roots associated with 70 years ago. People who have this kind of problem in the wrong time, perhaps living in the wrong century and is out of time and the world. "
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It's interesting to hear Bargnani say that he'd love to be black because of the physicality and athleticism most black players seem to have so easily, at the same time I'm sure a lot of players (especially his size) would love to be him and behold that infinite range he has on the floor when he shoots.

I must say it's also nice and impressive that he answered a huge issue such as racism so candidly and handled it with grace. Football (or soccer if you're North American) players of colour playing in Europe facing incessant racism on their 'homecourt' is nothing new and it's cool to hear Bargnani address the issue. And the Dwight Howard thing, that had me laughing - you can't say the guy doesn't have humour.

Fantastic 4 - & Like The Movie Its Disappointing Considering The Potential

I'm not sulking, in case you think I am by looking at the title; I just mean, who knows what woulda happened had we started winning (and playing) like this earlier on in the season. Anyways, that was a crazy game. I came home from work at about 6:15, and didn't bother turning the tv on because I figured

a) the game was over, as it started at 3:30 and
b) this season was over a long time ago.

So Rachel calls me and feverishly asks me "are you WATCHING!?" I reply "is it still on!??" She informs me that she called me just to know if I'm witnessing, the Raps, up 1, with something seconds to go, have Anthony Parker at the line and how we always joke that he always, ALWAYS misses one of the two free throws - and of course he did. Which allowed the Bulls to tie it on a very difficult Ben Gordon jumper over Bosh.

That's when I'm tuned in to the game, on my couch, ready to take in some Raptors ball - this game looked so intense. Like, playoff atmosphere intense. Which is kind of a sad reminder since we're not in it, but I wasn't feeling down about it, I was too into the game and taking it for what it's worth. The Bulls go on a 4-0 run as Derrick Rose blazes by Calderon, and then came that slick, sharp Bargnani 3. Just drilled it, and I loved how he let out a roar running back down the floor, with his unshaven face, untucked jersey and all.

Calderon almost threw the game away with that awful turnover with no one to pass to in the air. On the steal and fastbreak, Bargnani was outnumbered 2-1 and he still made it really tough for Derrick Rose on that drive - that was good defense and even better offense by Derrick Rose. Then came the moment of truth - down one again, with the ball in the franchise's hands. Chris Bosh drives to the basket hard, and instead of getting blocked by Noah this time, he gets off his layup, misses, but quickly tips in his own miss and gets fouled at the same time. Free throw is good. That was really great to see, not just because we won the game, but just to see CB4 finally make a clutch play when on the game is on the line and put the ball through the basket. Again, yes, the Bulls are no defensive juggernaut, but that was a tough, clutch basket nonetheless.

This was an impressive win, I mean I guess the joke is any win right now is an impressive win, but still it was impressive considering the fact we blew a huge lead, but instead of bending over and getting rocked we actually countered and were able to withstand the attack and win. Wow, our longest wining streak of the season, at four games, and this late into the season. This Bosh quote sums it up:

"I wish we'd been playing like this earlier [in the season] but you can't change the past."

If only.

• Calderon ties franchise high NINETEEN assists. Daaaamnn! He was almost (young) Jason Kidd like (except you know, the defense..and the rebounding). But seriously, dammnnn, nineteen assists!
  
• Was that Kapono, back to swishing jumpers like it's nothing again?
• Text from Rachel while at work: "POPS HAS SOME NAAAASTTTYY DUNKS!" I saw a replay of the game...(gulp)..wow, she wasn't kidding. Pops attacked that rim like it was gonna leak out his next contract if he slammed it hard enough.
• Bosh with 31 and 15...now that's the Bosh we were used to until midseason of this year. Nice to see not just such a solid performance, but some enthusiasm as well. He looked...lively, which has been rare in this brutal season.
• I've never seen any Bulls games this year other than when we've played them, but I hear from all over that Vinny Del Negro is just a terrible coach (I mean for God's sake, Basketbawful creator Matt McHale, has invented a Dull-Negrometer), and he might've helped in our win tonight. I don't why Tyrus Thomas was still on the court in overtime with all those bonehead shots.
  
• That Roko Ukic spin-and-jumper was just dirty!
• Rachel saw Gherardini today. From her tweet, used of course without her permission: "saw maurizio gherardini with a tall euro-looking man. scouting? left with abercrombie and sporting life bags. said hi but didnt hear me.jerk" and "Hes also not as short and stubby as the tv makes him out to be. quite handsome old man actually. not a silver hair out of place."

Shaq-Fu all up in this joint!

Another opportunity, another loss, another record-setting by an opponent. Sad to see when all our opponents chasing the eight spot loss tonight. Some quick thoughts:

• What on earth is the point of having Bosh in the game with 5 fouls...defending SHAQ!!???
• When scrubs like Louis Amundson (I just had to look his name up, seriously) are dunking on us with and-1's, you know it's not going well. Guy had 20, 10...isn't that like..what Bosh is supposed to average? Oh, Admunson's 20 was the career high by the way. Shaq's is the season high.
  
• Shaq Diesel - smelling blood, and then drinking it by the gallons. The headline on ESPN: "Shaq's biggest offensive performance in six years powers Suns past Raptors." The stats: 45 points, 11 rebounds. The second headline (espn recap opening line): "Shaquille O'Neal feasted on the Toronto Raptors in a dominating performance that harkened to his best days alongside Kobe in Los Angeles."
• Okay, I knew the game was over in early 4th quarter, but why still let Shaq embarrass you every play down the floor. Get Patrick O'Bryant there, he's worth 6 fouls. I know either way the game was a loss, but things like that still bug me. Like when Kobe scored 81, why Smitch didn't double and triple team him, when you know, his scoring was only like in the fifties..
  
• Horrible officiating: night in and night out, the NBA officials will leave you mystified with stupendous calls. Not that we lost the game due to officiating by any means, I'm just noting how bad it is Bill Simmons talks more about that here. As we were watching the game, Rach was saying why Shaq isn't getting called for 3 secs. Bosh after the game: "He was just camping down in the lane, I mean, if they're not calling three seconds -- I thought it was a rule, but I guess not."
• The more I see Bargnani's reactions against an opponent, the more I love it. Yeah, Shaq dominated with 45 points, but Bargnani didn't just bend over and take it. Really like that sequence where Shaq got fouled trying to dunk, then was starting down Bargnani and talking some smack. Instead of turning around and heading the other way, Bargnani walks right up to him and they bump shoulders. Against Shaq, that's something.
• You know what? I love Jake Voskuhl. Yes he had 4 fouls in less than five minutes. Yeah, I know he's got no shot or really talent for that matter, but he scraps like his life is depending on it (well his NBA career does depend on it), and he scraps HARD. Liked the Matt Barnes altercation, and even the Shaq one. There was one play where he got subbed in late in the fourth, and then was pushing and shoving Shaq with all his might and exchanged words. God bless you Jake Voskuhl. You can never say he doesn't give an all-out effort.
• We all started laughing when Rach said she thinks Marcus Banks is good looking.
• One of the girls said how Bosh looks like a gazelle, and that he should be "in the forest getting chased by lions."
  

Rok-A-Fella: Roko leads Raps to a gutsy win over Spurs

Look at it anyway you want, but that was one hell of a win by the Raptors. Let's face it, no one realistically expected the Raptors to beat the Spurs, and even more so, no one could've predicted Roko Ukic would be the clutch performer down the stretch to lead Toronto to that win. Especially without Bosh, Calderon, or Graham for that matter.

Even though we were up around 6-8 points most of the game, us Raptors faithful knew the lead would vanish in the fourth, but we couldn't even hold on that long - the Spurs came out halftime focused and disciplined and led in the third. And we started out the fourth quarter missing 8 of 10 shots. Yet somehow, we found a way to come back, and guys like Bargnani, Kapono, and Ukic stepped up big time. Bargnani may have shot 8 for 21 but when it mattered most he was huge, finishing with 23 points and 8 boards. You've got to love this guy's confidence, he started out in a slump but kept shooting and never hesitated. And he started out the game with a couple of strong drives in the post on Tim Duncan nonetheless. Kapono was given the green light to fire at will by Triano, and he did just that, scoring 21 points - a significant amount of them actually included him dribbling the ball and even driving.

Finally, of course the player of the game - Roko Ukic, scoring a career high 22 points. This kid has great potential. He's figured out his niche - driving the ball straight at his defender and dropping floaters or getting layups, something Calderon used to do last year. As frail as he looks, he's got good size at the pg spot (6'5") which gives him a good advantage and he's wiry with some long arms. His most impressive asset are easily his handles - they're just smooth, and look so natural - add that to his quickness, and you've got a potentially superb point guard in about 2 years. It's almost a good thing that he can't shoot well yet because that forces him to drive and we all know how much of a dire need that is on this ball club. That clutch 3-pointer he hit was just pure confidence, and must have the shocked the hell out of Spurs fans, and probably Raptors fans as well. But of course it was his next bucket that was the dagger. You'd think the ball would be passed around to Bargnani, O'Neal, Parker, or Kapono, but instead Roko saw single coverage and had the balls to do it himself; dude just TOOK it to Parker. He almost travelled too, spinning and almost losing his footing but was able to put up the shot and it rolled in. That drive reminded me of a lot of the one he did on Jameer Nelson against the Magic which was also the game-clinching play.

I wasn't even going to bother watching this game, but I did because I love Manu Ginobili, appreciate Tim Duncan to the max and admire Gregg Popovich. Ginobili is just a joy to watch - he looks awkward on his drives but just slithers through the lanes with great precision and has surprising athleticism. He dropped a season high 32, 15 of them in the fourth quarter.

Jermaine O'Neal deserves a shout out for his defense on Duncan; he didn't shut him down by any means (Duncan had 20 and 10), but he made it difficult and that's all you can ask. I thought Paul Jones had a good point on the post-game show on the FAN 590 : he said J.O., having been an all-star plenty of times and some juice to his name from previous years, got the leeway to play Duncan tighter than most other players would've gotten to (without getting called for fouls). Yes, he still finished with 5 fouls, but he would've probably been out much earlier in the game if he was just any other player.

• You've got to love Popovich's honesty and point-blank answers. When asked if his team wasn't ready or maybe looked past this game, he said "no, we were ready, we busted our ass out there, the Raptors just played better and earned that win" (I'm paraphrasing)
• That last play was definitely not what the Spurs wanted - a Tony Parker fadeaway with J.O. contesting, so we should actually credit the Raps for once on a clutch defensive play - hey, Pop even said so.
  
• Speaking of the last play, how many of you thought Roger Mason was gonna burn us with a 3?
• Parker almost blew it with that turnover, but did that 3 right before.
  
• I was scared as hell when JO was taking those free throws, not because I thought he was going to miss, but because I had no idea how he is with clutch free throws.
  
• Thank God Triano didn't pick Solomon to play the pg slot tonight.
• I was watching some of this game from a stream, and the live chat that goes on with it are filled with hilarious comments from users. Such as: "Chris Bosh looks like a malnourished alien."
  

AB, most improved?

For those of you who read the awards race on espn you all must have noticed one thing, for the most part, people in the race rarely change. One of the most stagnant races has been the MIP award with Harris at the forefront since day 1. But after looking at the numbers, is Harris really most improved, has he got that much better? In my opinion, there are more deserving players who have made huge strides in their development.

So here it is, the top 5 candidates for MIP. You may be surprised where I think people should rank.

5. Devin Harris
Thats right, as many people have already crowned him, I feel he is not the most deserving guy out there. Why? Let's take a deeper look into his improvement. After the trade last season, before even a training camp, Harris averaged 15.4, 3.3, 6.5, 1.4 and .3. This season he is averaging 21.5, 3.1, 6.4, 1.6, .2. 6 points more. Does 6 points more really warrant an end of season award? Especially on a team where they have almost nothing and he and Vince take almost every shot? AKA the John Salmons effect? To me, his growth is more the reflection of being on a team where he is the system rather than his own development as he has only improved in one category, scoring. I'm sure you could make the case that he's developed as a leader and captain as well, but who else is going to lead those scrubs.

4. Danny Granger
Again if the case for Harris is look at what a great scorer he's become, then Granger wins this battle with a 7 point increase from last season. In my opinion, his progress in scoring is even more impressive because Harris gets so many of his points in transition on the fast break while Granger is getting the bulk of his points in the half court set. Considering that he is not only their #1 option on offense and is also their primary perimeter defender, Granger has certainly shown his growth and development on both sides of the court. Sigh, why Joey?

3. David Lee
We all know Lee is perhaps one of the smartest rebounders in the league after he nearly led that category two seasons ago from the bench. One could of course argue that with Curry out indefinitely from Day 1 and with the shipping of Randolph to the Clippers, these numbers are expected of Lee, after all, who else is there? But to me, the fact that any team's primary big will always be handling Lee, the fact that New York has no other bigs, the fact that he is undersized at the PF position as it is and yet is scoring so effectively all bodes extremely well for Lee. On a team with no greatness, Lee is shining in the spotlight and is huge factor for New York's success this season. Shooting a blistering 57%, making the most of his free throws, and with his tenacity and hustle on the boards, it is very possible that come season end, Lee could be challenging for most double doubles, rebounds per game and this very award.

2. Andrea Bargnani
You heard me. I think AB ranks this high. Why? Well in the case of my #1 and #2 option, we really have to look at stats from a particular point and not the from the beginning of the season. Being on the bench early on in a lesser role is squandering the true value of their presence. Since he's been a consistent starter, he's come to consistently give more than we've asked for, averaging around 20 and 7 with a block a game. He's going to obviously have to sustain his performance till season end to get his numbers up to where he belongs but if he does so, he has a strong case for MIP. This is mainly because, he is one of the few candidates this year who shows progress in almost all areas of the game. Being avid Raptor viewers, we witnessed his penchant for taking himself almost immediately out of games with foul trouble last season and his improvement in this area alone could warrant this award. But after developing into one of our best defensive players, learning how to use his height, creating unique playing sets by pulling away bigs from the basket, and having a more diversified offense, Il Mago is rising in value daily and is proving many doubters, myself included, wrong. As he's average become more reflective of his current performances, Andrea will have a case much like Bobby Simmons and Boris Diaw a few years back, unprecedented improvement in all areas of the game and isn't this the requirement for Most Improved? His role in helping the Raps push for the playoffs may also have a huge impact on voters.

1. Paul Millsap
To me, even if Bargnani is able to get his averages to 20 and 7, this is Pauls award to lose. Again, as was the case with Andrea, we have to look at this numbers post Boozer. What makes him so remarkable is that he is in fact outplaying Boozer averaging 20+ and 12+. An added benefit is that boozer doesn't give much in the way of steals and blocks while Millsap is proving to be quite effective in that department as well. Like David Lee, playing undersized at the PF position but with a formidable bulk, perhaps we are seeing the new round mound. Bargnani shows progress all over, but Millsaps development is unprecedented, nearly doubling all his stats in only 10 more minutes. With an ever changing lineup due to injury, Millsap has been the one consistent force for Utah and has done it so well, that Boozer may have to find a new home. I agree with Van Gundy in that I think Boozer deserves to not only carry this award home, but be invited to be an all star this year and perhaps as an underpaid all star for years to come.