Euro Selflessness

Generally the big verdict on the Raptors is we're too soft, too european. Now while both those things may be true, the problem to me seems to be not the fact that our players are too soft, i think it's just the style of play. In today's NBA toughness is a virtue, but lets face it, it's a rarity. Last years lakers won the title and with the exception of fish and kobe, nobody else is/was tough on that team and their identity was certainly not toughness. In fact, even the hawks who destroyed us in recent history are by no means a "tough" team. Within all the NBA, I would dare to venture that toughness is really only evident in the celtics and the rockets, and to a lesser degree perhaps in 2-3 other teams. Toughness is nice, but talent is more important to the real winners. After all, the playoffs are a different animal, nobody rolls over in the playoffs anyways. So for arguments sake, if toughness isn't the raptor problem, what is?

It's easy to blame the coaches, the players, the schedule and the athleticism but I think the problem is more in our seflessness. It's something that occurred to me when I read something Yao said about how when he was playing international, it wasn't good to stand out from the team and so coaches frowned upon players dunking and putting the eyes on them. When he came to the rockets, they wanted him to dunk everything and so they made it that whenever he layed the ball in instead of dunking, his teammates would run laps.

I combined this with something I read about some player in europe who played against Jennings when he had 12-15 points in one quarter. The exact details may be wrong because it was a while ago but his opinion was that jennings scoring 50+ was no surprise because scoring 12-15 in a quarter of Euroball is even more unheard of. That kind of play is deemed selfish and frowned upon.

Those two alone made me think seems to be the root of our problems. How many times have we seen jose or belineli pump fake on very open shots whereas a more selfish player might have taken those shots. It always strikes me when we play against other teams like the nuggets for example. JR knows his range and is willing to take 5-6 shots in a row while i don't know any player other than Bosh has done that. Billups constantly walks the ball up for a straight away three pointer. Again, this has never happened with this team.

Jose is our best shooter and should not care if he takes 10 shots in a quarter. If they're open, I can safely say, any raptor fan would live with his shot. Hedo is our second best player but defers to almost everyone on the court. Both players need to be selfish. Meanwhile we see Weems and Wright having no hesitation to jack up as many shots as they can. Even when Jack was shooting bricks, he never hesitated to shoot it. One thing that stands out to me about the raptors is you never really see anyone other than Bosh go off for big games. We're too much of a TEAM for that. Our best games are when everyone is in double digits rather than 2-3 guys having monster games.

The worst part of this is that the solution is that we need to change how players have been playing for most of their life. I don't even know how to begin to spread that kind of message to the players but hopefully someone in that organization does. I for one am sick of our reluctance to shoot open shots. Too many times does it let the defense recover to our shooters and forces one of our poorer shooters to take a still open shot. At the end of the day, I would have lived with Jose our Bargnani or Hedo taking the more open one earlier in the shot clock. But then again, I'm not afraid to stand out.

Jose Calderon Is Mad

Jose Calderon is pissed off. He's pissed off that he hasn't started the season with a bang since he got banged last year, he's pissed off his shot hasn't been falling, and he's really pissed off that it's only increased the doubters to the point of suggesting that Jarrett Jack should replace him as starter. That changed in New Orleans, when he stood over Chris Paul and stared him down and said who knows what; whatever it was, it wasn't pretty unlike his razor-sharp sideburns.

Since then, while it would be too much to say he's been on a tear, he has regained his shot back, and has started to somewhat consistently attack the rim - with success. Let's not kid our selves, he's been getting rocked defending opposing point guards on the point of attack, but what made it really bad was that he wasn't putting up much on the offensive end either.

And there's no better player than to turn it around against than Chris Paul, pound for pound, the NBA's best point guard. While the Hornets are sucking hard, Chris Paul himself isn't. He was scoring pretty much at will, as he would against anybody because, well, he's Chris Paul, but Calderon ended with 16 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and no turnovers, which is one of Calderon's strengths as he is low-risk, conservative guard. I noticed a little jolt in his step when he hit that deep three, and it became abundantly clear to me when he was jawing with Chris Paul after he caused the turnover...Jose Calderon is pissed. And its great to see.

He may be the nicest guy in the NBA off the floor, but on the court he's a competitor. I honestly think outside of Chris Bosh, he's the toughest player the Raptors have had in the past couple of seasons (until Reggie Evans arrived this year). Now, by tough I don't mean physically, that he doesn't get injured, or some kind of an iron-man type, but tough, as in, he stands up for himself when need be. Think about this for a second: the last two guys he confronted were Kevin Garnett and Chris Paul. That's the NBA's biggest dick/intimidator, and the NBA's best point guard right there.

With Kevin Garnett, Calderon came back with some getting-in-your-face of his own, even with a timeout being called when Chris Bosh, the franchise player and leader couldn't even stand up for his teammate. Bosh, as anytime he faces KG, plays like shit and lets KG's scare tactics get to him. So with Bosh not doing anything, the referees not calling any of the over-the-top antics KG was pulling like crawling on the ground like a dog barking at Jose, Jose stood up for himself, and with some anger too. Enough is enough.

With Chris Paul, while CP3 wasn't overtly taunting JC in any way, you could feel the tone of superiority he was painting all over Jose. Calderon going into that game knew full well what the critics were saying about his inability to perform as of late, and took it to Chris Paul in his own right, but to me, that little confrontation after both of them fell was the ultimate statement. Chris Paul looked at him and then to the referee like "this piece of shit can't get that call against me, you crazy ref?" and Calderon's reaction was something like "That's right, get your ass up and gimme the ball. You're not above me" Even though CP3 IS the best point guard, Calderon was demanding respect.

And looking at last night's game vs the Bulls, he was LOOKING for his shot in that fourth quarter and took those jumpers off the Bosh screen right above the key and nailed'em with confidence. That's the Jose I know, and it's great to see. But what I didn't realize until now is that no matter how much he may struggle in guarding the dribble penetration, he won't accept anything less than respect from opposing players, from KG to CP3.

Calderon is averaging 12.4 points and 6.4 assists going into L.A to face the Clippers tonight, and I expect his assists to go up as the season progresses.

Raptors pull away after some terri-bull defense

There was so much unnecessary tension this game it was remarkable. It wasn't until crunch time fourth quarter that we started pulling away behind some aggressive plays from Bosh and Calderon. The Bulls played their asses off, while we looked sluggish, but in the end the fatigue caught up to Chi-town.

• I think its really embarrassing that Jay Triano had to ask the Raptors at half time in the locker room which team played last night (Chicago), and why they're the ones full of energy and hustle.
  
• The Raptors defense is so bad its mind-numbing. I'm slowing coming to a point where I've just accepted that on defense, we're going to blow harder than the big bad wolf did to the Three Little Pigs' home.
  
• Chris Bosh continues to be a beast. He just wants it. His drive (no pun intended) and determination to get to the rim was relentless - and he didn't keep complaining on every play to the refs, just got up and came back harder the next trip.
  
• The refs sucked tonight. So many bad calls, late calls, and missed calls, especially on CB4. When Leo Rautins has to point out about 5 times that Bosh should be given the respect by the referees and get those calls, you know it's BAD.
• Another night, another unknown has a great career game against the Raptors. Presenting Taj Gibson: 18 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks and zero turnovers. You wanna know how much of an unknown this guy is? Look at this picture from ESPN's recap:

- Even Matt Devlin said he looked like a veteran out there...and dude is a ROOKIE!

• I'm going to say Jose Calderon, apart from Bosh, was the game changer in that fourth. He set up some plays nicely, but the key was he looked for his shot, took'em, and hit'em. Some clutch 2-point bombs off the classic Calderon-Bosh PNR.
  
• Amir Johnson is coming along nicely. Relentless hustle, he had six rebounds, but was responsible for many more just by tapping and keeping the ball alive on several possessions.
  
• Reggie Evans is an unbelievable teammate. Who would've guess this would be the guy to jump up and down on every play, get up from his seat and encourage/talk to his teammates at every opportunity.
  
• That fast break drive Belinelli had was crazy - off balance, lean-in jumper with two guys on him, he should've gotten a foul call too. This guy is a body contortionist.
  
• Bargnani's shot wasn't falling, but he still ends up with a decent 16 points and a respectable 6 rebounds. He had some key defensive plays down the stretch where he altered or bothered his man .
• It's transparent Hedo Turkoglu is getting more and more comfortable with the Raptors. I loved him handling the ball in the fourth - he just makes great decisions (other than that turnover where he threw the ball from half court) and has slick passes.
• DeMar DeRozan had an awesome game, and deserved more time. 9 points, 9 rebounds - both a career high, along with 2 blocks and a steal. The three turnovers are understandable - rookie mistakes, and that fast break dunk was VICIOUS off the pass from Calderon!! I appreciated that he tried to dunk it again on his next trip down even though he got blocked pretty badly. He even showed a jumper, which is good to see.
  
• I laughed when Brad Miller got stuffed by Bargnani in the fourth - Miller fell down so slow.
  
• Antoine Wright continues to look for his offense a bit too much. He's a very capable offensive threat; he's got effective cross overs, can drive decently too, but still should ease up a bit on taking all those shots. That block falling down on the fast break was ridiculous though.
  
• Jarrett Jack continues to toss bricks, and his shots are looking more and more off. He does credit for continuing to be aggressive though and driving to the rim.
  
• Luol Deng needs to shave that mustache-goatee. Just looks ugly on him.
  

What DON'T They Get!!??

The ESPN NBA page headline for this game reads:

"Duncan, Parker injured | Spurs top Raptors"

What more did the Spurs need to do in order to give us an even better chance of taking this game? Ginobili catches Rabies? We knew Parker wasn't going to play, which was a blessing. Then Duncan was announced to be out as well - that's a Godsend. Seriously, its like the heavens went out of their way to give us a dream scenario - win in San Antonio and be 2-1 in this road trip, and the real plus is that team morale would be up after getting blown worse than a porn star in Dallas. But of course, the Raptors, in their classic style, had a meltdown in the fourth quarter.

I stayed behind in school instead of hopping on the long TTC ride home because I wanted to watch this game live - this road trip includes stops in two of my favourite players' (Ginobili, other being Nowitzki) town - so I plugged in my laptop and sat on a hard bench that made my ass sore, probably what the Raptors are feeling right now, at least they should be.

So, my two favourite players - Manu and Dirk, and this is how the Raptors handled them on this trip:

Dirk Nowitzki: 29 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block.

+

Manu Ginobili: 36 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, 4 blocks.

=

FAIL

Dirk got his points so easily it wasn't even funny, and lets not forget he sat out most of the fourth because the game was long done. So lets fast forward to tonight's game. Fourth quarter, close game, who should the Raptors guard!??? Well...Duncan is out, Tony Parker is out...so of course its Ginobili!! Now its much easier said than done I know, and Manu is one of the game's best closers, but you'd think they'd be able to at least bother him somewhat or not give him easy shots - the Spurs announcer, after Manu hit that last dagger three that pretty much wrapped it up, said "Manu Ginobili is torturing your team...and what do you? Leave him WIDE OPEN!!!??"

While Ginobili was being aggressive; driving, slashing, kicking it out to teammates, the Raptors go into the fetal position and start taking horrible jump shots. Belinelli was on fire, but everyone saw that bad jumper coming - he shouldn't have taken that shot at that instance in the game, unless he was wide open. The only guy I'll give credit to down the fourth is Bosh - he tried to be aggressive and drove hard - it worked once, he got the call, the other time he tried to draw the call but didn't get it and ended up shooting a bad off balance jumper. I mean, the guy had 32 and 10, you can't ask for more. Bargnani stats wise was good too - 17 points on 7 of 13 shooting, but the four boards is ugly. And he should've attacked more - nobody out there can guard him.

• Is it just me or did Hedo look...kinda old in that fourth quarter? A couple of plays it seemed like if the ball is two feet from him he can't get it without collapsing to the ground.
  

• Matt Bonner drove and dunked on us - how's that for a sum-up of the game?

• The Raptors scored 124 points...and gave up 131..131!!! We've finally completed our transformation into Phoenix North or Phoenix East, whatever you like.
  

• No seriously, we really Phoenix now - the Spurs announcer said during the game "the HIGH-FLYING Raptors!"

• As much as it pained me to watch the Raps suffer another excruciating loss, watching my man Ginobili explode on them was amazing (and painful). This guy doesn't get enough credit for how great he really is.

• Antoine Wright has been (in a Barkley voice) TURRI-BUL on offense. I get against Dallas he wanted to show his old team what they gave up (which he really didn't), but this cannot continue.
  

• Jarrett Jack needs to practice shooting..like now. Especially if he's still vying for the starter's job, when Calderon has found his stroke. Even though no matter what Calderon will always be the starter, and deserves to. Even if Calderon struggles now and then, Jack hasn't done enough to warrant it.
  

• Belinelli was doing his best Ginobili impersonation out there...until the fourth quarter of course, when we really needed, when Ginobili was being himself.
  

• Fuck this loss sucked.
  

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.
  

The Raptors, Desired?

This offseason for the raps has had a unique theme within the NBA and the history of the entire franchise. Although I'm sure many have noticed it, it has received fairly little publicity and appreciation. What I'm referring to is the fact that this offseason is highlighted by moves of players who WANT to come to Toronto. Unheard of 5 years ago, hell even just 5 months ago. Highlighted by an uncharacteristic burning of Portland, Hedo has definitely helped foster an atmosphere amongst the NBA where players want to come to join the Raps. Preceding this comes the rookie signing of DD, who seems to have been genuinely looking forward to joining the Raptors. Yes it's a rookie signing and he had no choice but still, he seems sincere in his appreciation. Couple this with Jack agreeing to sign an offer sheet with Toronto as a primary backup (which is generally unheard of for previous starters) and we're now looking at a franchise that I dare say seems credible. In recent news, Rasho turned down many suitors to join the Raptors for a ONE year deal and Delfino has done nothing but spread good publicity about the Raptors and his desire to return to Toronto, not just the NBA.

As a Raps fan, this is extremely bizarre for a team that has a history of its bright stars fleeing, demanding trades or players refusing to even show up. To me this signals the beginning of something new. Not only do we have a much more talented NBA team, but we seem to have the attention of the NBA and its players. It all points towards us seeing Bosh for years to come and other players wanting to come up north to join him and the franchise.

What's Next For BC?

Well we all now how amazing that trade was as we essentially set the grounds for getting a GOOD nba bench by trading hump and jawai. Sad to see jawai go before really seeing what he can do but it was again a no brainer for the trade. Not to mention the fact that douby is not a bad third option for point guard or even second if roko is really struggling. But now that we have 12 million left to spend on three players, what are the next steps:

Well firstly we have to look out where are the wholes:

a) 6th man - wright is a great defensive pickup and he and george both played good minutes in dallas but i see george being more of a bench warmer and wright actually having a role for about 15-20 minutes a game. Having said that, great teams have that undisputed guy who can come in and drop at least 10-12 on a nightly basis. Contenders have that guy as a star but I don't see that as an option right now. Mainly because when your sixth man is a star, that position in your starting lineup is generally a whole that is filled when he comes off the bench. The raptors pretty much have their five set and instead they just need 3 guys off the bench who play CONSISTENT. No body needs to drop 20 nightly, there is enough offense on the starting lineup but we need 3 guys who can play defense and gives us consistency.

b) another big man. I like what reggie brings us on the boards and in toughness but he is a still a bit undersized. We need someone who is tall enough, and can provide some offense to spread the floor to complement his offensive rebounding.

c) point guard: whether this is needed is debatable based on how ukic really develops but it might be a good idea to pick up someone who can be an undisputed backup capable of staring if jose goes down again. It would be a real shame if the season goes in the toilet if jose gets injured again and with the talent we have now, it might be a safe and wise choice.

So whose available?

In terms of 6th man, it seems like its a lock that delfino is coming back at around 4 million with bird rights. To me thats great, he's fast, young, athletic, can definitely play good in the fast break and more importantly, plays on both ends of the floor

Other than that, there doesn't seem to be a lot of guys out there who can come in this year and be that guy. Only other options that I've heard are being considered are josh childress and marvin williams. Whether we can get them for the mid level and whether they are ok with being a 6th man is another story. Another option is klieza who I love as a back up small forward. If we were to sign delfino and use part of the mid on klieza, that would be a stellar bench backcourt but there are still other bases we need to cover. Also I've always liked Matt Barnes game so him instead of klieza wouldn't be a bad idea just because he can play 3 positions, and is fast enough to guard three position while klieza is a little stronger and slower and one sided.

That's pretty much the only option though in terms of whose left in free agency right now.


In terms of big man it seems pretty easy again. I live around the air canada centre and have seen rasho here with maurizo many times so it seems like a lock that he's coming back. I think the only question is really whether he does so on the bi annual or at the vet minimum. Either way, it's nice to have a big man who wants to be in toronto, can play defense, and can spread the floor a little bit. He contrasts reggie evans well and I think thats the kind of big man we need so they can play together. Not to mention, if god forbid someone goes down, both those big men can step up and start for a while. Having said that, if that does happen, I would have liked to have a third big man who can still provide a spark off the bench if either rasho or reggie has to start due to injury. Enter Pops. His cheap, we have bird rights, he's young so we can add him without really hurting any of our other options. The only thing is whether he's ok with sometimes possibly not even getting in the game.


Finally, we got the point guard position. Again whether we need it or not is another question based on roko's development, but I don't want to see this season squandered because of injury to ANY one player. We have the money, the space and the appeal to build a great deep team and we should use it. Here the most prominent name for the mid level seems to be jarret Jack who is use to coming off the bench, can start, and commands around the mid level. He would be my number one choice for that position. Again this need is a little less because if jose does go down, ukic or delfino can play point and turk can be a point forward so I'm ok with them using the mid level to sign another wing like klieza. He seems to be the only great back up out there with sessions likely to be kept by the bucks. If we can't get him for the mid level, I would probably take our chances on ukic and use the mid level to bring in another wing instead.

I think more than anything else, this money has to be used to find players who can play multiple roles and make us strong enough to whether injuries to the playoff. I definitely think we have the opportunity to contend with the right signings and I definitely trust BC to make the right move.

Ideally it would be this:

PG: Jose, Jack, Ukic, Banks, Douby
SG: DeRoazen, Delfino
SF: Hedo, Wright, George
PF: Bosh, Reggie
C: Bargnani, Rasho, Pops, O'Bryant

I realize that is 16 players but I feel they can buy O'Bryant or Douby out and it wouldn't be a big deal. That's an injury proof 15 man team for sure provided we are healthy for the playoffs, and even if we're missing one, we would still be strong enough to do some damage for a round or two. Again it does look ugly to have 5 point guards so I would be down with buying out Douby or bringing in klieza or barnes for part of mid level instead of jack but I definitely feel a solid pg backup could prove the difference in an injury proof season.

Regardless, BC IS THE MAN and has definitely quieted all his haters in Toronto.

Can't wait for next season!

Triano, What does this mean?

Well first off, congratulations to Triano on his deal!

So what does this mean for the raptors?

In a nut shell, nothing really. Coaching is perhaps the most over estimated aspect of basketball team performance in the league. In fact, for the most, there are really only a handful of coaches whose mere presence can add to the win column while the vast majority of head coaches out there are really only as good as their roster. Look no further than Mitchel, or Doc Rivers is perhaps an even better example. The year before he wins coach of the year, the celtics had what, an 18 loss streak and a record that rivaled the worst all time in NBA history. What did it take to win, a complete roster revamp. The same thing with Mitchel and the Raptors.

With the exception of george karl, jackson, sloan, jeff van gundy and carlisle, (apologies, I forgot to include the GREAT pop and adelmen) the rest of the coaching faculty are relatively mediocre, each with their own strengths and weaknesses but are made better by the right fit. Dantoni with a running team, mitchel with a younger team, jackson with managing star personalities and so on so forth. Its in fact extremely unfair to coaches that they carry the blame for underperforming teams but ironically, i think even the gm's know that its unfair, and in most cases, its simply to keep the fan base from rioting.

So why keep Triano rather than bringing in another mediocre or even a star coach. Well, no matter how a good a coach, you still need a talented roster. What I've seem to noticed is that the star coach is what helps push teams to title contention and as the raps are far from contending, its more crucial to change the roster now, and bring in the star coaches to help push us over the edge in a few years. Which also explains the length of his contract.

Other than that, there are really only two other reasons to keep him. The most important being that the players like him. What resonates with title contending teams? continuity and consistency. These need to start in the head office to spread down to the team and truly allow them to take steps. Every time something changes, you start again and the raps definitely don't need to take another step back. The last reason really is that he will be much more affordable as opposed to another mediocre coach which is extremely important with the roster makeover the Raptors need to make. In fact you'll probably se the raps make one big financial move while trading into the draft for low cost high potential roster picks to ease the burden should bosh leave while maintaing a decent roster. With the resigning of delfino, parker and pops, a low budget sg signing and returning marion through bird rights is enough to take huge steps forward but we'll get into that more after the playoffs.

Here's to a denver cleveland final!

Chris Bosh is Rorschach from Watchmen

With many fans calling for Bosh's head and blaming him for this disastrous season, its turned CB4 into a vigilante in his own city a la Rorschach. Brian Colangelo seems like he is going to stay put with his franchise player and is just praying that Bosh doesn't leave, hoping CB4, with a better squad around him next season, can save him of his job, and the fan base from going berserk. People who want Bosh to stay are hoping CB4's mindset in the summer of 2010 is not this:


"All the fans and management will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll whisper, "no."


* cue "The End is The Beginning Is The End" song.

A Word On Douby, Ukic, & O'Bryant

As the season has been ending (thank goodness), the scrubs have been getting more playing time, although I thought this should've happened much earlier. We all have a pretty rough idea of most of the Raptors players, except Quincy Douby and Patrick O'Bryant. The last two games against Philly and Washington, we've been exposed a bit more to these guys and they've actually shown something.

Quincy Douby has shown positive signs of being a serviceable backup point guard. He's made good passing decisions, handled the ball well and has shown he can shoot decently. Fans are commenting on boards to drop Roko Ukic and keep Douby, but I think that's a mistake. I say keep Douby & Ukic. I don't know if its feasible financially, but I think that would be ideal: Douby can be the primary backup next season if Ukic is still not ready. Besides, anyone who can ball with a unibrow is work keeping right?

Speaking of Ukic, yes, he's played terribly the last month or so. He's tried to take it on his own too many times, and needs to make wiser passing choices, and of course work on that mugly jumper. All in all though, people are throwing him under the bus way too fast which is pretty typical or Raptor fans. I'm not saying he's going to be an elite player by any means, but I do think he can be a good, no very good one. He's got potential: great handles, a willingness to drive the ball, a slick-ass spin move that seems to his signature along with the floater (not that he has much else in terms of offense, at the moment anyway), and size at 6'5" as a point guard. This offseason will tell a lot about him in terms of work ethic. Is he gonna kill himself like Bargnani did last summer?

Patrick O'Bryant is an especially peculiar case. Since we've gotten him, he's shown nothing but what's been reported around him - disinterested, lazy, and (what looks like) a poor work ethic. Yet the past couple of games, he was blocking shots, rebounding, making shots, and even..(gulp) hustling. In all fairness, he hasn't really gotten decent minutes (as a Raptor) in strides - you can't expect a clear evaluation of a guy if he's gonna get the hook after 2-3 minutes of playing time. But when he did, he's shown life. Hell, against Washington, I swear I even saw him do a little drive and hook in the paint. Plus, he's mad young, and we all know big men take a much longer time to develop. So he's worth looking at in the summer again at least. And you can't say, "doesn't matter because we didn't play great teams." It's not like Philly wasn't trying, they needed to win as much as any team since they're fighting for the 5th spot, and Washington wasn't just lying down for us to run over them. Equally big offseason for Patty O' B, as Jack Armstrong and Matt Devlin likes to call him.

Blowout Thoughts

Well all that winning went away quite quickly didn't it? Not just losing, but getting sodomized in Indiana 130-101. TJ Ford must be gushing right now.

• After a nice 6 game winning streak, we've built up a promising 3 game losing streak. People are saying we're in full tanking mode, I don't agree - if we lose to Washington, then I'll believe we're in full tanking mode.

• Chris Bosh was laughing and having a good time on the bench in the 4th reminiscent of VC as we were getting our asses whooped. What the fuck. At the same time, should I be thinking the opposite and look at it as "hey, he can still smile while we're getting rocked, maybe its a good sign in that he may wanna actually stay in Toronto"?

• This Roy Hibbert kid looked pretty decent out there..wasn't he supposed to be a Raptor? Then again it was a meaningless game so it shouldn't be taken out of context.
  

• Who's not gonna be on the Raptors next year between Patrick O'Bryant, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, and Quicy Douby?

• Bargnani must feel lucky out of all the games he didn't play, tonight was one of them. What an embarrassment.
  

• You know you suck when the home crowd is leaving the game early because you as a road team can't even keep them interested by putting up a fight - "Indiana Pacers fans headed for the exits early Wednesday night.For once, it was because their team was on the right side of a blowout" (from AP).

• That picture sums up the game: no raptors defense in sight.
  

• Triano after the game: "We need to be competitive and try to win games." Was there ever any instance in the history of the franchise when that was not the intention? I wanna know.
  

• All of a sudden that Orlando win seems so far away..

• Every time we play Indy I forget that Rasho Nesterovic is on the team too. He's a free agent this summer, think we should go after him? Wouldn't he be a better backup then O'Bryant and Voskuhl? If my memory serves me right, this will be the first season in his career that Nesterovic doesn't go to the playoffs.

• Tonight it was Good Joey (Stephen Graham) vs Bad Joey (Joey Graham).
  

• You know how they say that you if you're gonna do something, do it right? If we are truly tanking, at least we did it right - what better way to ensure a loss than to get pounded, right?

Bosh Extends His Clutchness To 2 Games In A Row

What a game. Even in this shitty of a season. I put away my school readings to watch this, and it was not wasted.

The four game winning streak was nice, but this was a true test, against the Orlando Magic, albeit in a lost season. Both teams started out the game on fire, seldom missing shots and with little defense played, which is a regular feature of the Raptors, but not the Magic.

Now, right to it. How clutch was that Bosh jumper? Or perhaps maybe you'd prefer to say, lucky? That seemed like a desperate shot, but bottom line, it found the bottom of the net. Let's rewind it back a couple of minutes first. Most of the game, Bosh was taking stand-still jumpers without even hinting to drive. Even with an 11-point lead, you knew the Magic were gonna make a run, it just happened even much faster than I thought it would - they stormed back in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. Finally, CB4 decides to drive, but he didn't get the call and looks at the refs astonished. It's not gonna happen - you take jumpers all game, and then drive once into the lane, the refs aren't gonna be tempted to blow the whistle unless its an evidently clear foul. Then, to my surprise, he drove the ball again on another possession, and whadaya know, he got fouled. On another trip down the floor, ball goes to Bosh, and Bosh goes to the bucket, falls hard to the floor, and gets the call. See what happens when you drive?

Now, that jumper. You can say it misses 9 times out of 10, and you're probably right. Hell, I thought it was probably gonna miss - it was a crazy shot - right over the outstretched arms of Dwight Howard, much less from basically the 3 point line (he had his foot on the line). But it went in, and no matter how much of a fluke it may have been, he made the shot. No matter what way you put it, so you gotta give him credit. I'm sure Bosh's tip in and-1 against the Bulls had most fans saying "well, its only the Bulls, not an elite opponent", but the Magic are just that. Plus it made it a little sweeter that it was in Orlando, where Bosh missed the game-winning shot in game 2 of the playoffs last year - a much closer and arguably easier shot by the free throw line. I'm not saying Bosh has suddenly transformed into a clutch player, but for once, against a top-tier team, the pressure was on, the Raps put the ball in his hand, and Chris Bosh delivered. Now:

• How bad would it have been if Joey Graham missed that second free throw, and the Magic somehow tied it, and won in overtime? That was the most disgusting clutch free throw performance I've seen by the Raptors this year (next to AP's classic 1/2 last game), and you almost have to make Joey Graham the second hero by default for actually hitting one and pretty much sealing the win.
  

• Bargnani was aggressive early, scoring 12 points I think it was, on an array of dribble-stop jumpers, some free throws, and an easy dunk on a nice find by Bosh. Unfortunate he missed most of the game with foul trouble. Speaking of which..

• Third quarter, the Magic are going to Howard down in the paint consistently, drawing fouls back and forth on Bosh and Bargnani. Why did Triano wait till they both got 3 fouls to sub one of them? And somebody explain why Pops Mensah-Bonsu wasn't in the game, couldn't he have at least been worth a try on Dwight Howard. Putting Joey Graham was a worthy try, because even though he gave up numerous fouls on Howard (really, who doesn't), the Magic commentators themselves said something to the tune of (in the 4th quarter) "you know why the Magic haven't been able to take a lead yet? Joey Graham has kept Dwight Howard off the offensive glass."
  

• I was impressed to see Triano take Anthony Parker out instantaneously after AP was getting dusted by Courtney Lee out of all people...but with Kapono?

• The Magic commentators: talked about Bargnani's improved defense, particularly how he doesn't commit silly fouls anymore, and that whatever he did in the summer should be given much credit. They also know about the Good Joey/Bad Joey reference, and mentioned that Roko Ukic looks like he's 14 years old. Oh yeah and this observation about the Raptor defense: "Every pick and roll that the Magic have run, they seem to get an easy score out of it." No surprise there.
  

• Bosh took a fadeaway jumper on Gortat.

• Mickael Pietrus looks like a skinny/fit version of Nathan Jawai.

• Love seeing Calderon passes to Marion on fast breaks, it gets me excited about the possibility of Marion signing here in the offseason and it actually working out.

• Calderon took it upon himself in the third with Bosh and Bargnani out, great to see. In fact, he actually drove whenever he could straight to the hole - just how badly did that hamstring injury affect him??

• For once, Dwight Howard didn't get a 20-20 on us. Not only that, he actually didn't even get a double-double, very rare, as he's the sole player to average double figures in rebounding this year in the league.

• Stan Van Gundy apparently told his squad before the start of the 4th that they'd need to limit us to 20 points in the final stanza, along with scoring 27 themselves to win the game. They ended up holding the Raps to 19, but scored 22.
  

• Marion with FIFTEEN rebounds. I'm just going by mere observation, but it seems like Marion gets us the same amount of rebounds, if not more, than Jermaine O'Neal did.

• April fool's joke at halftime from ESPN's game recap: "In an April Fool's joke, the Magic made the crowd think a real fan was shooting a half-court shot for $100,000 at halftime. The fan was blindfolded, and the crowd was told beforehand to cheer as if he made the shot. The young contestant missed badly but acted as though he believed he won and danced around the court in a frenzy. Before being told it was a joke and showed the replay he said, "I just got laid off at work." He was given a 100 Grand Bar of candy, but the joke was on the crowd."

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."

Offseason Fantasy

I know it's early to be talking about it considering the raptors still aren't eliminated but one can still wonder about what changes are coming. Mind you, my hopes are really based on just that, what I want to happen so here it is, a list of changes that I think can really help us turn us into contenders.

Personally I feel that doing a trade for a powerhouse player like the Marcus Camby trade is very unlikely to happen. If we only have to give up Kapono or graham to get a Michael Redd or a player of that caliber, I find it really hard to believe they can't get a better offer than that. But as with the Camby trade, you really never know. As such, a lot of the moves I'd like them to do are based on their 10 million cap space and basically just negotiating with free agents.

So here are my list of offseason priorities for 2009.

1. With Iverson being unable to fit into the Detroit system, his value has certainly diminished. I don't really understand the shock however. Detroit was famous for being a system without a star, yet now you bring in one. What did you really expect? I still think he has a lot of game left and is still one of the best at playing angles, and getting his own shot. I can only imagine how good he'll be playing the passing lanes and a run and gun system instead of the bogged down half court set of Detroit. If we can get him to a 3/4 year deal for around $7 million, to me thats a great bargain, a chance for Iverson to prove something to the rest of the NBA and a nice fit. To me the only problem is with jose, we have a very weak defensive guard rotation but that will probably only help speed up the tempo of the game.

2. Resign Graham to a deal similar to his current one, 3 years 2.5 million. What this season has proved is this boy can play. He may not be the smartest but his power speed and around the rim play are a good spark off the bench for our new style of play. He is definitely not an appropriate fit as our sixth man but he can be a strong solid 7th man for us.

3. Resign Delfino to a 3 year 3 million deal. He has expressed a desire to get back to the NBA and has always had an appreciation for Toronto. Of all the moves that are possible, this definitely seems to be the most likely of all moves to happen. BC has expressed an interest many times throughout the year in bringing back Delfino. With his improved play over seas, he can be a high quality 6th man for us. With his addition we finally get a VETERAN as our leader off the bench. Something that this franchise has taken for granted.

4. Finally, with all the cap used up, we can resign Marion making use of bird rights. As my previous article pointed out, his impact on the game after just a few practices has been undeniable. His knowledge of the game, athleticism, fast break ability, quick second jump and strong short passes are invaluable to anyone's fast break game. To me it's very likely that he'll resign simply because he knows he has to go to a system that runs, it makes him better, it makes his team better. Unfortunately for him, the warriors, knicks and raptors are the only teams going in that direction and the raptors are the only team with the money to resign him.

5. Finally the last move is to use our veteran minimum, or perhaps biannual exception to bring in a veteran big who can play off the bench, but fill in incase of injuries. For me, the best move is to bring back our beloved Rasho. One of the few NBA players who loves Toronto as his family still lives here. He can be a solid calming presence on the bench, and more importantly, step into the starting lineup if injuries demand it.

The best part of these moves is that they are not costly. The Raptors are one of those few buyers out in the market and lets hope they can capitalize on the abundance of sellers. These moves are all affordable and attainable and gives us a very solid, fairly deep rotation

Calderon/Ukic/Banks
Iverson/Delfino/Kapono
Marion/Graham
Bosh/Humphries/Jawai
Bargnani/Rasho

If that lineup can't get you far in the post season, then the Raptors really are doomed to be Mediocre Forever.

The Marion Effect

I know its fairly late to write a Marion review but I wanted to see his impact over a few games before talking about it.

What did I dislike the most about this trade? Really what stung was the loss of one of our only two way players.

In today's NBA, the ability to play on both sides of the court has really become such a lost art. So much to the point where those who do it, generally win it all, Jordan/Pippen, The Dream, Kobe/Shaq, Duncan, KG. That's some pretty fantabulous company to be in.

What I didn't know about this trade however, was how great Marion's skill set really was and how great a two way player he really is. His defensive capabilities are a little harder to understand because he played fast break defense for most of his career. With this style, you basically play defensive by blocking shots, playing the passing lanes and if neither works, don't foul. Because I didn't watch him in Miami, I and am sure many other fans weren't really aware of his defensive abilities in the half court. He's combination of athleticism, speed, IQ and his INSANE second jump allow him to stay in front of his man and also recover from minor slip ups. With his immediate arrival, one can see a stronger defensive impact than with the arrival of JO. The problem being that with JO, he was forced to compensate for our non existent perimeter d and either give up a layup, a foul, or in rare instances a block on a dunk. With Marion, our need to scream "HELP" is diminished. With Marion on the primary weapon and parker delegated to the next best, getting blown by has become less of an issue and as a result, we see the perimeter playing on the passing lanes much more. This style of defense has definitely stemmed from Marion's style and is imperative to our running game. The opposition gets a quick bucket that allows us to run or we get the steal and lead the fast break. Although JO is probably the better individual defender, both players are in more favorable systems and what more can you ask for?

The next biggest effect has to be the increase in short passes. As early viewers can attest to, it sure was frustrating since even three years ago seeing Barg and Bosh try to find each other in the key with short hard passes. JO in fact struggled the most with both expecting these passes and trying to dish him out. Granted, he's never in his career probably ever played with another big who was worth passing to, or had the ability to pass back but still. I commend his effort here because if it worked, it would have been deadly, but 90% of the time it became a turnover. What impressed me the most about Marion was his short passing. In his Phoenix and Miami career, critics have always felt the one aspect of his game that sorely lacked was his ability to create for others and literally "see them". To be honest, I have not seen any evidence of this and his short passes are spectacularly efficient. With his crisp execution, it's definitely proven to improve our play in the paint and also when he dishes it off he generally gets great position for the rebound. He already has seemed to develop a good chemistry with parker and his ability to always find the bigs has been great. Just ask Jawai for his first points. The best thing about his short passes is that he knows he's good at it and as a result, he creates from the key out. When it falls to him, he quickly post ups and from there sees what the options are. This is something no Raptors currently do and it is painfully obvious now how effective it is when done by someone with great around the rim play.

Finally, he brings something the Raps haven't had since Davis in an offensive rebounder. It's amazing how instinctive it is as he's already averaging around 3 a game. It's definitely easier for him given that since almost all our shots are jump shots, rebounds are longer and he can more easily chase them down. In every game he's played so far, we've needed each one of those boards and with our great spot up shooters, his rebound and quick out almost always guaranteed a second chance point. In fact, I could be wrong, but I can't seem to think of a time yet where we missed on a second chance if it wasn't blocked. What's the best part about offensive rebounding, just like his passing, its proved contagious. You can already see Bargnani and Parker being influenced by Marion simply be playing in the key more, attempting the risker short passes and crashing the offensive glass.

These signs all point to more complete two way players as they learn what they can from Marion's short stay. To me, he's already proven he has significant ability left and with the recession undermining his true value, BC hopefully will keep him at a bargain. He needs to be where he can run and not many systems are doing that these days. Colangelo can save this team in one offseason simply by using the cap for a trade, and signing Marion with bird rights. Hopefully someone makes an offer to Delfino, we match and we suddenly have a nice looking 7-8 man rotation again.

To me, the future off this season and even the next still look bright so don't give up yet Raptor fans! After all, things could be worse, we could be the Clippers.

Picture Fun: Steve Nash

"Those silly Raptors, they must be crazy if they think I'd actually end my career playing there."

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."
  

Momentum

Momentum is a strange thing. A bridge that can connect the weak to the strong and swing an entire series, an entire playoff run, an entire championship run.

Someone asked me what is the most important element in the playoffs. What separates the best from the rest and helps teams win. I would have to say the answer depends on what seed you are. The higher seeds, the NBA elite, for them the most important factor is mental toughness, the focus to be able to always play at the highest level, always be prepared and never underestimate your opponent. For the lower seeds, it's all about momentum, which leads to confidence, which leeds to hustle, which leads to wins.

Ask any coach and more often than not, what worries them the most is not how teams react to losing, but how they react to winning. When teams feel a sense of entitlement to winning, they feel they've already proven how great they are, they don't have the motivation to show their best. This mental weaknesses is often the hurdle that many great regular season teams fail to overcome. For the younger NBA fans, I guess some recent examples would have to be Detroit's championship run, Furious George, Miami's championship run, Dallas's first round exit. In almost all of these cases what we witnessed was not the best team winning but was simply a fact of teams wanting it more, and being more than the sum of their parts.

What am I getting at now?

In spite of the Raptors current plight, I feel fans, teams, hell the entire organization should be reminded of the fact that mediocre teams sometimes achieve greatness. Miami's championship team was viewed as the worst team to ever win a title in the history of the NBA. Is it likely that the Raptors have enough games to get it together?

Probably not.

But if they do, hell they'll be going in full steam. For the record, I honestly feel, if the raps somehow get seeded, it will be the best playoff series they'll play in the last few years. This regular season has proved one thing, too many players lack mental toughness and the only solution to this problem is really momentum. 2 years ago, I knew we had no chance against the nets. With no answer at sf, no playoff experience, our players lacked the confidence and focus to understand the magnitude of each possession. Our run against Orlando was expected to be a better matchup, but the way we stumbled out of the regular season killed what little confidence and semblance of maturity and chemistry we had left. If the raps put a run together now, for once, we will be playing our best basketball of the season when it matters, in the playoffs. When this happens, usually the real test goes on the higher seeds and it becomes a test of their mental focus. As Atlanta proved, the effect momentum carries can stretch beyond one game and can carry on to multiple seasons. To me, they have to be the surprise team of the eastern conference, but if we look at how they ended the series, it really shouldn't be that surprising. Their momentum was a big reason why Boston proved to be overconfident and was pushed to a seven game series. I honestly believe what carried them forward to a championship, was the momentum they had to create by rallying together to get through long first, second and third rounds while the Lakers cruised to the finals.

As we witnessed with Knicks round 2, Marion is bringing a new intensity, fantastic rebounding and a great fast break attitude. If it proves contagious and spread to a few games, the Raps will give Chicago a run for its money for that last spot and could honestly capitalize on some over confident higher seeds.

Time To Study Jose.

I haven't been reading what people think of Marion's debut but I loved it. He really gave us what we needed and what became the most evident to me was how everything will fall into place when Bosh gets back. With him getting the board, Marion is free to run and play the fast break. It's hard for him to do that when he has to get the defensive rebound but what's harder and perhaps more painful, is running the fast break but not being passed to.

What am I on about?

10 6 and 6 is not bad, but it would have been higher stats if Jose could play well with him. I don't know how many of you watched him in Phoenix, but what you'd probably notice is that Marion is great without the ball. He's a good slasher, always moving and quite frankly, I don't think Jose knew how to play with that. I can't really blame him being use to playing with Moon and Graham who basically don't move until they get the ball. On a separate note, that 6 assists is amazing. For years people have criticized his passing game but I'm sure you noticed that he has great passing around the rim. Something all our bigs tried to do but lacked the ability. Should be interesting to see how that plays out.

If you get a chance, watch that game and you'll see lots of Marion moves to shake his defender and hang around the rim. A classic alley oop set up from his phoenix days. What was obvious however was that Jose wasn't looking or couldn't see him and instead almost always swung the ball the other way.

Just after seeing a few of those plays I noticed something immediately. It's not about Marion fitting in and learning the system, or even Bosh learning how to play with him. The success of this deal is going to be on how quick Jose can learn Marion's style. So many analysts are out there saying the great thing about Marion is that he doesn't need the ball, he doesn't need the play, what he does is outside of any system. This is where Jose will struggle because although he is a great half court set point guard, he is probably one of the worst fast break point guards in the league.

This is going to be a huge adjustment for him because he is so careful so cautious. To run and gun however, you have to be prepared to accept mistakes. I haven't checked, but I'm sure if you look at Nash's stats last few years during the glory days he probably led all point guards in turnovers. To really run, you have to make those passes that are either going to be an easy two or a turnover and be ready to accept whichever.

Marion loves the quick post up. Get the rebound, run down the key and start posting up ready to do a shot in literally, seven seconds or less. Jose biggest flaw however is holding the ball too much. Watch him on fast break and you'll almost always see him drive towards the rim, see that he's not fast or strong enough to beat the opposition and pull it out. He needs to worry less about doing that himself, and simply look out for Marion the moment you get the ball because he will already be in a position to score. Jose is not faster than most pg's and should know that Marion is faster than most forwards and bet on him during the fast break instead. In fact, Marion almost out of habit always first runs towards the rim, hangs there for about 2 seconds to see if people notice him and then veers back towards the three. If Jose can find him when he gets to that key, Marion has a pretty nice touch around the rim. Many raptors fans would live with a missed shot in the paint for a change. I for one am a little sick of Jose and Parker getting rejected on fast break layups and would rather see Marion get fouled on a fast break DUNK. (which he did attempt in this game to prove my point and was one of the few fast breaks that didn't get rejected.

The second thing Jose needs to learn is something I'm sure all raptors fans have noticed since the beginning of the season. Jose's weakest pass is the alley oop. I remember a few games where he tried 2 or 3 and it was just beyond a disaster. Granted, he has made significant improvement in that area but he needs more. Marion may be the next best transition alley oop player in the NBA behind James. Jose is going to have to throw some more up there because the Matrix is very likely to convert that to at least free throws.

The great thing about it however is that Jose has proven to be a hard worker and a quick learner. Not to mention the fact that if I can notice these things with one live viewing, you can bet your ass they see it when they study tape. With Bosh coming back, things are still looking good for the Raps push.

The Viewership Motive

You read about these trades and the analysis always comes down to one thing. Why?

Almost everyone agrees on the motives for this Marion O'Neal swap:

The Raptors: Athletic, defensive true SF who knows he can't shoot and cap space now.

Miami: Post presence, cap in 2010, shed Banks and some kind of pick.

But everyone has left out one other motive, the corporate motive or what I call, the viewership motive.

How many of you will watch on Wednesday with renewed faith? It's so bizarre how one move can inspire, how one move can renew our faith in a team that is beyond a one player fix. Yet we look on, hoping and believing that maybe Marion is our white knight. In the end, we, like all true fans are suckers for punishment. We watch always hoping that this is the one that gets them going. We believe so desperately that this game is the one, that this player is the guy. But how money would put your money where your hope is? If you do, then all I can say is, marry me.

Take this one step back and just reflect on the O'Neal trade again. When it first happened, I believe in Raptor nation that the true INITIAL reaction was we gave up all our assets for someone who WAS great and is likely to get injured. But as time went on, our small snowball of hope grew to a boulder. Yes his last good season was 3 years ago, but maybe, JUST MAYBE this is the year he's healthy and comes roaring back. Maybe he really is that one player solution when we all knew and recognized that with our pieces we needed 3 things, a back up pg, a defensive wing, and a solid scorer. But despite the fact that everyone recognized the gaps, we all believed, myself included that maybe if this works, none of those things matter.

Note to self, any deficiency you can see at first glance, MATTERS!

At the end of the day however, we were still happy, but do you know who was happier? With hope at its highest point in years, the bandwagons so full they might have to refuse passengers, MLSE was probably having the time of their lives. Whether the trade worked or not at the end of the day, people were watching and sadly, thats all MLSE wants. What's even sadder is that we can't help but buy in. Our love for our team, our hope to be part of something special is being exploited. We've come to exaggerate and overhype any move as time progresses much to the appreciation of MLSE. After all, word of mouth is the most powerful marketing. In fact, I bet so many people are talking and hyping this trade, that there is a contingent out there determined to see Banks solve our PG woes. Hopefully, the contingent believes enough to exist for the three years we'll have him. Ironically, it spreads to the players to. I couldn't help but notice Bosh's initial reaction being fairly mellow, but after a night of digestion, he was more convinced this would work, more excited. At least we're not the only suckers.

I'm right up there with the fans hoping that this will help us get over the hump but at the end of the day, a first round exit is still a failure of a season. Since thats likely to be the peak of our season no matter what, why bother with the trade anyways. The grass is much greener in 2010. An answer has to be the viewer motive. The trade that isn't about winning, not today, maybe not even for the future. In times of uncertainty, marketers use what is dependable and unfortunately for us, that is our hope. This move is a move to renew faith, gain interest, and with more and more vowing not to watch the Raptors again, the motive is simply get more people watching again.

Unfortunately it's probably on TSN 2 so we can't.