Tim Chisholm, basketball writer for TSN.ca was kind enough to chat some hoops with us. You can check out his regular blog here. Here’s a very brief summary:
- Sam Mitchell’s X’s and O’s: Feel’s like Sam’s not capable of having a great assistant which takes a large role in how the team works.
- Mitchell’s gone if he doesn’t win a playoff round. Maybe even early this year if the team struggles because Colangelo will not stand by.
- O’Neal Trade: Had to be done, doesn’t think we gave up too much. Risk is if things don’t work out, it’ll end up being minor rebuilding.
- The small forward situation
- Voshon Lenard: Agrees with me that he cost us Lebron James.
- Takes the Raptors to beat the Sixers tonight.
- Old Raptor teams: The Vince Carter Raptor teams were a “flash in the pan” while what Colangelo is doing can be sustained.
- Colangelo’s philosophy: Hasn’t succeeded in doing this in Phoenix, he’s learning to build for the first time in Toronto.
- Leo Rautins’ handling of the Sammy D situation wasn’t great.
- Predicts 45 wins
- more…
You can listen to the podcast by simply clicking on the play button. You may also choose to skip my rambling and go directly to the interview which starts at 5:07.
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Apologize for the audio quality/production, it’ll improve in future podcasts. Once again, thanks to Tim.
14 Raps
Arsenalist,
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re: Takes the Raptors to beat the Sixers tonight.
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Based on that assessment there … you are doing podcasts with the wrong people. : )
We’ll see after the game ;)
Sixers have lost 3 of 4 home opener. Either way, he knows what he’s talking about. Khandor, what option did you pick in the poll?
Arsenailist,
Just hearing those intro sounds again … makes the heart feel good!
Thus far, what’s given you the impression that Tim Chisholm “knows what he’s talking about” when it comes to understanding how the NBA game works?
Poll? What poll?
Please point me in the direction of a poll, so that I can cast my vote. : )
It’s on the front page of the site. I’ve been reading his articles for some time now and happen to agree with a lot of his assessments including those of Mitchell, the JO trade and others. Maybe he’s not a natural basketball genius prodigy like yourself but he’s more right than wrong.
He’s liking Philly tonight but takes them to finish with a better record than us…that doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m glad somebody else thinks that Philly’s overrated too…half a good season does not a great team make.
great interview, not sure i agree with the flash in the pan thought though. grunwald was forced to sign davis/j williams/a williams or the team would have returned to obscurity. had they kept mcgrady, or traded him for someone with value, things would have been much different.
raptors2009:
“He’s liking Philly tonight but takes them to finish with a better record than us…that doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m glad somebody else thinks that Philly’s overrated too…half a good season does not a great team make.”
i tend to agree that the raptors will tonight, but finish with a worse record.
if you look at what the raptors did in the offseason, they added o’neal and lost depth. philly added brand, while keeping almost all their depth (they lost lou williams and rodney carney i believe).
when you talk about half a good season, you are right, but what you aren’t taking into consideration is how they finished their season with the team they had – very strong. and added very strong pieces. so looking at momentum and added talent, they are on a steeper upswing.
the raptors finished the season poorly, got dumped in the first round and added talent. so there is an incline, but not as steep as what philly did.
are they are a great team? no. but neither are the raptors who took bigger steps backward in securing their big acquisition.
Very good interview … I feel like I’m being spoiled by all this new media. I think everyone involved has done a great job on all the features. Very enjoyable. Good guest by the way.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Raptors finish ahead of either Phily/Cleveland. Phily looked like they were suffering some integration problems in preseason so they might start of slowly, plus until they play more with Brand I’m not sure how much of a regular season force they’d be anyway. Cleveland are a dodgy regular season team, their weaknesses make them just as vulnerable against Charlotte as it does against Boston, and that’s why they’ve struggled (for a contender) in the regular over the past two seasons.
I think there’s a good chance these three teams – Toronto, Phily, Cleveland – are all within striking distance of one another’s regular season records and could finish in any playoff seed order. Of course if injuries hit … yada yada yada.
I’m excited for the opener now. Should be a fun competitive game – darn Blazers in LA, you could see that coming a mile away, too early in the season for that matchup (youth, Oden debut), bad scheduling.
Arsenalist,
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re: It’s on the front page of the site. I’ve been reading his articles for some time now and happen to agree with a lot of his assessments including those of Mitchell, the JO trade and others. Maybe he’s not a natural basketball genius prodigy like yourself but he’s more right than wrong.
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IMO, Tim’s a solid writer.
Sometimes I agree with his position; sometimes I do not. Either way, I agree that his approach is generally not of the KOOL-AID variety, which is a definite plus.
I disagree with Tim’s take on tonight’s match-up with the 76ers. Unlike Tim, it says here that there’s a strong likelihood the Raptors are going to get waxed pretty good this evening, in the home debut of a team on the rise in the EC.
Philly has lost 3 of their last 4 home openers?
Means nothing.
Each game in this League needs to be evaluated on its own merits.
In general, historical, trend handicapping of that type is a recipe for disaster.
Why was Tim a relatively ‘poor’ choice for your podcast today?
You just did a 20+ minute segment with him and he didn’t raise the names of the 76ers best young upside players even once, when asssessing where their team is headed this season and beyond?
Not Elton Brand.
Not Andre Miller.
Not Andre Iguodal.
Not Samuel Dalembert.
Names like Thaddeus Young, Louis Williams, Willie Green, Royal Ivey & Mauresse Speights, even the injured Jason Smith … are a major part of the authentic optimism which exists these days in the City of Brotherly Love for this current ‘76ers Resurrection’, under the steady hand of a former favourite son, Little Mo [Cheeks].
There’s a cupboard full of young talent on their roster … to go with veteran names like, e.g. Elton Brand, Andre Miller, Samuel Dalembert, Reggie Evans, Theo Ratliff and Donyell Marshall, who are all highly serviceable NBA players who know & understand their individual roles in this League.
Yes, indeed … there’s a good chance that the Raptors are going to get smacked tonight to kick-off this campaign.
Hopefully, they’ll be able to rebound and right the ship in their home-opener vs a Golden State team that appears to be in disarray.
So Khandor, what poll option did you pick?
although i have doubts, i chose “1st round win, good fight in 2nd round”. just a playoff appearance, with our ‘upgraded’ team would be a step back considering the salary situation, and all the talk surrounding the trade.
…good job arse.
khandor, I assure you if we had more time we’d talk about every Sixers player. Next time. As he said, they can withstand injury better than us because of their depth and that’s really what you’re referring to also.
whoa.
I had to stop this interview after this guy says that we mismanaged the salary cap during our VC/AD/AW days and BC is doing a better job in building a contender within the cap. That has to be the funniest thing I have ever heard. Ever. Seriously. Ever.
I’d rather have purple fever than have a purple ass from being kicked out in the first round. The day Colangelo brings us to within a shot of a conference final will be the day he earns the title of a creator.
Until then, being $100,000 shy of the tax with only 13 players (and 10 healthy) is hardly worthy of a Capology degree.