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re: But like everyone else, they don’t visit your blog.
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You are entitled to hold your own perception about what it is you ‘think’ others do or do not do with their time in this world.

For my part … I am glad that I do not share THAT perception with YOU regarding the on-line activities of the individuals mentioned in the prior two comments.

As the old saying goes, “Ignorance is [indeed] bliss.” : )

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Enjoy today’s game against Charlotte.

I know that I will. : )

http://raptorsrepublic.com/liveblog/raptors-vs-bobcats-live-blog-chat.html

But like everyone else, they don’t visit your blog.

This is not an accurate observation, as a skilfull practicioner can most definitely hide ‘weaknesses’ in ball.

re: His name is Joey “don’t call me Rod” Graham. A defensive specialist in college with freakish genetics but no basketball court sense…

This is not an accurate comment, as Joey Graham was generally perceived to be an ‘offensive’ player during his US college career.

theres a reason why khandor posts his blogs here.its because nobody goes to read his blogs on his own page

The fact that individuals like Kelly Dwyer [Yahoo Sports!], JE Skeets [Yahoo Sports!], Matt Moore [Hardwood Paroxysm], ‘Dave’ [nbaroundtable], Tom Ziller [nbafanhouse.com], Dave Zirin [Edge of Sports, Welcome to the Terrordome], Michael Grange [From Deep], and a host of others, thus far, DO NOT agree with YOUR perspective about this … is of far greater significance to me. : )

The old saying which goes,

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit”,

happens to be accurate because it means the practicioner is just this side of being ‘witless’, and is incapable of making others laugh ‘with’ them, not ‘at’ someone else, but together ‘with’ that person, plus the other by-standers, at an authentic life situation which ‘all’ involved recognize and accept/value as being funny/humourous but without attempting to put anyone else down, in the process.

Genuine humour is not an easy thing to do … especially, for the witless … : ) … for whom we should all have sympathy rather than scorn. : )

To wit:

There is someone, active in this thread, for whom I have great sympathy.

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Let’s hope the Raptors play better today, against the Bobcats, in a game which could go either way … as, IMO, the ability level of the players on these two rosters, grouped collectively, is actually quite close to one another.

If the Bobcats are at all distracted by the Gerald Wallace [and to a lesser extent, the Sean May] trade speculation … this might be a solid opportunity for Toronto to get back into the Win column quickly … which would be a nice boost for the team, prior to heading into Boston tomorrow night … a game for which the Celtics should be ready to rock-n-roll, given their memories of how the Raptors dealt with them when they last visited Beantown.

As I mentioned prior to the start of the regular season, today’s contest versus Charlotte is a key game on the Raptors’ schedule this season, given where both these teams are right now in their developmental curves.

So THIS means you don’t have a single example of a specific possession in a game so far this season of Joey Graham getting beat off the dribble by an opponent he has been assigned to check on that possession who is similar in size to him and plays a Wing position?

Hmmmm …

: ) , : ) , : )

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re: khandor: Joey Graham cannot guard anyone. This is probably the biggest misconception out there. The guy cannot move laterally, he just can’t. Just because he has the physical attributes does not make him a good defender.
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If you could … please pick out a possession which has happened so far this season in any one of the Raptors 5 games … and identify the quarter, the time and the score when it happened, so that I can look it up for myself … during which you believe Joey Graham has been beaten to the basket off the dribble by his individual check [i.e. a player of comparable size, who plays a wing position for his team].

I’m not saying that it hasn’t happened thus far this season, only that I am asking you to point it out to me.

On my part, and by way of contrast … I will show you at least one possession that has happened so far this season during which a pretty good NBA wing player tried but was unable to go by Joey Graham on the dribble in an attempt to get to the basket, i.e. during the Pistons’ 3rd possession of the 2nd quarter, at approximately the 10:28 mark, approximately, when the score was Det 24, TOR 25 and Joey Graham was isolated on the Right Wing versus Tayshaun Prince.

IMO, there’s a difference between making a specific claim based on specific possessions in an NBA game … and the generalized statements of others which are largely perception-based but without concrete possession-by-possession examples which we can all go back to on videotape, re-examine thoroughly and attempt to understand clearly what someone else is seeing that we might have missed ourselves when it happened in real life.

Obviously the ideal thing is to run your guards out and either force penetration to the paint or a pass down low and rely on HO and Bosh to get a stop or a board. That isn’t going to last long and, as Doug Smith said, scouts talk. If they can duck under Moon and hit that 20footer, we are doomed. If a PG can jab step or simply beat Jose, ditto. If anybody is standing still, they can beat Kapono.

This is one of my issues bringing HO in at his value. Sure, you protect the paint, but what else? His rebound numbers are still alarmingly low for a man his size and his lack of effort boxing out surprises me.

I can’t help but worry that Bosh could feel like a one-man team again by February.

Joey would like to point out, however, that he is not injury prone, has never been packaged ALONG WITH a first round pick and a scrub with salary for future cap relief for just a SECOND ROUND PICK and has actually had to contend for his minutes on a winning team while posting better stats than Rod.

Wait, better news! Since Joey is likely better than Rod that means we can esily trade him for TJ Ford straight up with no salary implications because…well just because. We can then trade TJ for Harrington or G.Wallace and bring home a championship banner. What is Colangelo waiting for?

FireSamMitchell:

SMitch deficiency #78,112: There isn’t a prevailing defensive system, that the Raptors can revert to when their shots aren’t falling.

Very good point. Every good team goes through offensive droughts but the good ones retain their advantage through playing defense when their shots aren’t falling. The only time the Raptors managed to do this was against Philly this year and as is being proved, they’re not that good.

I think Sam needs help coming up with defensive schemes, I’ve always been an advocate of hiring a D-Guru as an assistant coach much like Tom Tin Boston or KO under Larry Brown in Detroit. Great assistants can add a lot to the team if the head coach gives them some sort of autonomy but as pointed out by Tim Chisholm, Sam doesn’t strike me as the guy who’ll play second fiddle to anyone on his coaching staff when it comes to anything.

khandor: Joey Graham cannot guard anyone. This is probably the biggest misconception out there. The guy cannot move laterally, he just can’t. Just because he has the physical attributes does not make him a good defender. In the preseason he had one good game against Minnesota where he took a couple charges but that’s it. Joe Johnson would KILL Joey Graham off the dribble, just destroy him and leave him for the dead. Joey might slow him down in post-ups by playing physically or by fronting but JJ is a multi-talented player and can take you inside or outside. In this case he’d take Graham in the 12-16 foot range and drain jumpers all night because Graham would have to respect his drive by giving him space.

yertu: I hate speculating on who we could acquire because I have no clue whether the player is available or whether MLSE is willing to take on salary. With that in mind I wouldn’t mind seeing someone like Raja Bell on the Raptors. He’s not going to put us over the top but he’ll bring a defensive presence to the perimeter that is lacking. I doubt the Suns make this move though.

L: I don’t know if the sword’s hanging because its only been 5 games, as I said give it some more time. I think if we see a few more losses like last night then questions will be raised. If you’re been reading arsenalist.com or even this site you know what I think of Mitchell. As But as AltRaps keeps pointing out, he’s been given nothing to work with at the SF position. There’s a school of thought that this is where Mitchell needs to earn his money and hide team weaknesses while there’s another POV which feels sorry for him. I used to be in the latter but am drifting more and more towards the former.

Our interior presence combined with our outside shooters will win us more games than we lose but if want to be a top tier team we need another one or two bench players to step up (we all knew it was a crap shoot from day one as to who would step up or not). Kapono and Barg’s have been better than I expected but outside of those two we have been dreadful. I expected we would struggle until Solomon got up to speed (with Ukic likely needing half a season to get acclimated with NBA life on and off the court) and either Moon or Joey or Adams gave us some respectable defensive presence a the 2-3. Still not clear what we will get from these guys but I’m still holding out hope that it will be better than what we are getting now (or it may affect the psyche of the starters if they don’t pull their weight). 15 more games before I start dishing out some heat!

“What can you do when you have a horrible defensive team? Rely on your GM to bring someone in, in most cases. Not so lucky here.” (AltRaps)

Agreed. Somewhat.

SMitch deficiency #43,782: Player motivation/accountability/stick-to-it-ivity

Old dog/new tricks corollary here. Sure, NBA players coddled practically their whole careers, have the ability to do what they want, whenever they want, with little reproach.

Example: Anthony Parker did a stellar job with his defensive intensity in last years playoffs – a notable increase in his aggression/activity, miraculously from his in-season effort.

A respected coach and his staff *could* ensure/instill that kind of tenacity even in players without a predilection to turn back and crash the boards. (Anyone agree that Joey Graham, if drafted by the Pistons, under that system/tutelage, would be a more aggressive rebounder and post player?)

Jamario. Hump. Bargnani. Jose, even – the natural defensive ability is undoubtedly lacking, but the ineffectual effort sticking to what (hopefully) is practiced is more glaring.

SMitch deficiency #78,112:

While crossing fingers and awaiting the GM to deliver the magic swingman who can D up the stud 2/3’s in the league, schemes can be devised, practiced and ingrained to offset poor penetration D (and rotation D).

There isn’t a prevailing defensive system, that the Raptors can revert to when their shots aren’t falling. Granted, not many teams can boast this either but whether Woodson outcoached Smitch or not, there ARE coaches out there who are much, much better than Sam (and staff) in preparing teams, prior to the tip-off.

Unscientific anecdote: I’ve seen the Raps 8-0 down, far more times than I can remember them UP by a few buckets.