The “we aren’t a team, we are a bakery” edition.
Adams – this guy is the epitome of CoLiarAngelo’s reign here in Toronto. Amounts to nothing, taking up (cap) space, and is about as fun to watch as a sloth. Of course I made that last part up since he never sees the light of day.
Bargnani – ouch. If he was hanging out at the Upper Brass with the rest of the RR crew and was being “entertained” by a dancer that looked like this and she asked him to hit it tonight, he would have hit her elbow. That was some ugly ugly shooting. 2/9 doesn’t do it justice. He made himself a YouTube collection in 22 minutes.
Bosh – God. Head Chef. The King. The Pimp To The HO. He gets railed for one off game all season when tonights effort is more indicative of what he has done for this team. How does 40/18 grab ya? How about 16 trips to the line? With the guy who was supposed to take the heat off him playing only 26min, CB4 showed that he can still do it alone.
Calderon – showing he still isn’t mentally ready to be a starter, he remembered Jameer Nelson played for the Magic and begged off.
Graham – while it wasn’t pretty, he pulled a Humphries from 3 or 4 games back. Came in, hustled, blocked a shot and then….2 quick fouls and he got Humphried to the bench.
Humphries – some nice D, but it didn’t make up for some boneheaded play on the opposite end. This is the type of game where he has to be almost Perfect Kris to make a difference and he was far from it. He was the mini-me to Bargs tonight. Ugly is as Ugly does.
Jawai – shot to the heart and you’re to blame…Nathan, you give Coliarlangelo’s research a bad name. (thank you Bon Jovi)
Kapono – i found research video of Kapono’s 2008/09 new offensive strategy. You can view it here. At least he helped keep our 3pt streak alive, which is like saying I help keep Pizza Pizza in the black.
Moon – how far you have fallen. 13 minutes of burn and, really, 13 meaningless minutes. I’d be hard pressed to tell you one good thing he did. Well, he did have one steal. I seriously want to slap that red and white mouthguard right out of his mouth. I’d love to throw him in an interrogation room, walk in, slam the door, grab him by the shoulders and yell “WHAT THE FUCK?” Wouldn’t you just love to be this guys agent? Last year your client is in the slam dunk contest. This year, he is barely hanging on in a 13 man…I mean 10 man…roster. This time next year maybe he’ll have NBA players come play in HIS driveway.
O’Neal – great job to start the game against a not-so-into-it front line of the Magic. Defensively Bargs was taking more stands against Howard until he rang up 2 quick fouls, but then HO stepped in and stepped up. The usual happened then…he sits down, we stretch the lead. He comes back in and he gets downgraded to “good”. HO picks up a couple more iffy fouls and he takes his usual late game rightful place on the bench. I appreciate he is here to block shots, but that is all he looks to do. Never boxes out, rarely jumps in traffic for a board (although this has improved over the last few games) and when he commits a foul, it is rarely a “smart” one. He’s got 10 more games left. Use them wisely, son.
Parker – no real complaints defensively, but still not active on the offensive side. I was looking for him to be the darkhorse tonight. He’s a smart player and I thought we would see him look at tape from last year and exploit some things, but he didn’t. I also think he is the guy having the hardest time adjusting to HO. I think he is so used to playing with Bosh and a stationary big that for him to see HO there, it is throwing a curveball at him. Again, 10 games from now, that excuse goes away and we have to think that AP is done as a threat on one side of the ball.
Solomon – ah yes, the pastry chef. Do you like apples or cherries? He had 7 turnovers of his own, but easily caused 4 more by my count. That is brutal, but at the same time, all you Jose jockers need to remember what Nelson did to him last year. If Jose is all-star material and got whipped by Jameer, then you have to give some leeway to Will. Should I also point out that he was one of only 3 (!) Raptors to score in double figures tonight.
Ukic – people were calling for him in our chat tonight. He came on for them. 2 for 8 for 6 points and 1 assist. He is still a new kid on the block, sure, but still far from advertised. If we were 15 deep and able to send him to the DL for a bit, I’d be content, but to think he might need to be on the court 15min a night for some of this season…that worries me like some kid asking me to help with his algebra homework.
Driving The Bus: Chris Bosh
Under The Bus: Andrea Bargnani
Game Theme: A tutorial.
39 Raps
Andrea had awful shooting skills tonight. Bosh had great numbers, but as they said, Orlando was probably okay with that.
Solomon did not will anything tonite. Unless of course, they meant will it away.
If Caulderon starts tomorrow, then I understand. If he doesn’t, I still won’t understand.
It was like watching Will Smith on Fresh Prince tonight except Bosh was on the losing team. Way to go other Raps (other than JO). At least they kept the precious three point streak alive.
another quality “Roll Call” but Smitch’s contribution is missing and warrents inclusion.
What a sad excuse of a team
Outside of Chris Bosh, Calderon and Jermain O Neil we don’t have any talent at any position, have no strength at any position outside those 3 players. There’s 10 players on this team that are not NBA material and that isn’t an exaggeration. None of them can contribute anything when it matters most. I don’t know if its mental, coaching, lack of talent but whatever it is something has to change. There are many teams with lack of talent e.g. San Antonio right now, Cleveland maybe, but they play with heart and a sense of urgency when the game is on the line.
Those 10 players were discovered in Europe which is a whole different game in which Joe blow can be a star, In open Tryouts at Air Canada Center for scrubs and homeless men, or we traded for them because no one wanted them on there team e.g Humphries. There is no continuity with the roster, we have no up and coming star, we have poor coaching. Bosh is out of here in 2 years.
When I was watching the game it was painfully obvious the difference in coaching. The magic exploited match-ups, consistently got good quality shots and played good aggressive defense. The raptors struggled to create anything, it was either a pick and roll with bosh poping a j, or a guard driving and throwing up a crappy shot. I truly feel that we need a new coach. I am so sick of watching this freestylin (as asenalist, altraps, dinosty say) game after FUCKING game. Why no screens or drive and kicks for Kapono? When bosh was being triple covered, why not have Kaps on the strong side? Why no cutters when our bigs where posting up? Wheres our aggressive defense that comes so easily for the magic? It seems a simple pick and roll or crossover drive tears up our perimeter defense and fucks up the interior defense resulting in an open j or howard in ridiculously good position. It is so goddamn frustrating.
The most amazing/annoying thing is that if we had players who could actually pass the ball to Bosh he probably could’ve ended up with 60.
lol,bargs under the bus,what a crock of shit……have we ever had a player foul out or use all six.i was taught to use all 6.bargs gets 2 and gets sat whole game.comes in ice cold then cretins poop on him cuz he aint hittin….thats on sam and his idiotic crap of benching a dudes who gets 2 fouls….were lucky it wasnt bosh with 2 early fouls or bosh wudda been benched like sams done in the past.WHATS WITH SAM NOT LETTING PLAYERS USE ALL 6?
up 10,orlando goes on a run to tie it and make it a game=game over,sam was done.lost.confused.stumped,SHOOK.lol…he had no clue what too do and in turn it showed in the “chicken with the head cut off” “what do we do frenetic basketball” style of play weve become accustomed to in the 4th qtr of sams tenure as coach….lolerz.
Adams isn’t invisible! I saw him on the bench. And he wasn’t good looking.
Also, why is Bargs our worst player tonight? I think I know who that really was and his name starts with a W and ends in -illSolomon. He was a turnover machine and easily gave back all the points he scored (and more!) while being a defensive liability, and doing his best meJ impression on the offensive end. He handled the ball so he got his shots. 10 points on 13 FGA? C’est pas juste, mon ami.
I get it, Bargs couldn’t buy a bucket tonight, but he still played better than Solomon. Or maybe you missed Solomon’s hilarious highlight reel turnover (which they had best have up because that shit was GOLD!)
Nothing unusual with losing when your PG has 7 turnovers, and can’t make a pass, and infects the offense to make 24 turnovers.
Also our on again, off again wing players, AB, Moon, AP, Graham were missing in action on offense. Only 3 in double figures has been a loss all 5 times, and 4 or more 5 wins. Unfortunately Bosh can’t do it alone.
The Jawai line had me roaring.
FAQ accused me of naming players that need to go, without mentioning who to bring in.
For all the Sam haters – who do you believe is the right coach for this team?
Just heard CWebb say Bosh to Detorit is a done deal. Hmmmm..
HO is becoming the new AP.. OK at the start.. useless in the 4th. The Raptors – where NBA scraps come to finish their careers.
Jose an All Star – bahahahahhahahah!!
Good work, Alt. I don’t wanna be pessimistic tho.. so, Contenders! Finals here we come!
Who is Caulderon?
Joey, didn’t your hear BC say that Euro play is the equivalent of playing in the NBA? There is some dog years calculation he uses, where playing 1 year there is like 3.5 years squared in the NBA, or something. These guys are Hall of Famers, dude. How else you explain Parker being called the MJ of Europe? Do you not see the clutch performances in the 4th?
In fairness, it would have been nice to see Jose play and see where we are really at.
lol
Fuck, I’m Italian I would love an all Cosa Nostra team to win a championship but I’m not an idiot either. They cant play the game of Basketball at this level. Gayardini should realize this but his hardon and bias for his people are what is killing the team. Give me a Pau Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Ginobili, these guys are “NBA ready”.
Also, no one wanted Colangelo when word got out he wanted to leave Phoenix lol. We were the only team to interview him. That has to tell you something. Would any GM in the western Conference, add to that Detroit, Boston sign any of these scrubs on our team? Joe Dumars.
So were on year 3 and still don’t have an adequate SF or SG? Colangelo is a salesman people, listen to me. Nothing different then a telemarketer or a tv infomercial. He’s a genius at selling a product even though he knows wont accomplish anything.
Arse, I vote for Chaz’s comment as the comment of the day.
Darien, it was a dead heat with Will vs Andrea. I went with expectation level. It was like watching Andrea v1.0 again, unfortunately. This year, though, he has raised the bar and tonight was ugly for him.
Will had the turnovers, but he still had some piss in his corn flakes. Andrea turtled a bit.
lolerz….how can you ask a rook pg to just come in and wing it.no set plays,no strategy,no control,”just go out there run around and find the open man and hit the open shat”…lol,this is the motherfucken nba.pg’s run plays assigned by coaches,rook pg’s need to be told what to do, and if will n roko runnin around like dudes on pcp doin the pigeon with the ball.if thats shit thats drawn up.kill me now and offer my sincerest apologies to sam for my oversight.
It all starts at the top folks. Peddie and the Teachers pension fund are what is killing this team. This is the idiot that hired Babcock, JFJ, Fired Pat Quinn, Wouldn’t hire Scotty Bowman, Hired Bryan Colangelo. Ticket price rises and the product stays the same for years now.
So now The Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Toronto Marlies are either worst in the league or a 1st round and gone playoff team. All under this ownership. Brilliant.
Were in Big Big trouble unless ownership is replaces ASAP.
Gayardini should realize this but his hardon and bias for his people are what is killing the team. Give me a Pau Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Ginobili, these guys are “NBA ready”………LMFAO…Wow.oh man.
joey isnt who you think he is…hes pretending.
I don’t get why everyone is so freaking negative about this team. The goal of any team is to win a championship, and that clearly isn’t happening this year, and probably won’t the next either. This team’s window is in 2-4 years, when O’Neal comes off the books (or gets traded) and they can decide what to do with the plethora of expiring contracts they’ve got. In the meantime, the only thing that matters is development – so why is everyone bitching like they expect this team to dominate every opponent?
I mean just think of what this team could do with JO at 10 mil a season and the other 10 thrown at wing player? Caron butler, for example. Just imagine this team with Caron butler. Or how about Josh Howard? The list goes on and on – you just have to keep in mind that the raps are essentially playing with 10 million less in talent (but really more like 15+ given how many players they have that don’t deserve their contracts) every night.
Kapono, Graham, Parker, Humphries, Solomon, Adams, Jawai, Moon, Ukic, Garbajosa, Uros Slokar, Maceo Baston,Delfino, are not NBA players. There mega stars in leagues in Siberia. Fact
That’s 35 million + right there of waste of skin. With that coin we could have signed a SF, SG, Backup Centre
add drafting Brandon Roy or Rudy Gay and were in the Conference finals
Joe Dumars scrubs on his team?
0
Team is deep 1-15
Anthony Morrow with 25 points for golden state. there stacked at the wings
Why couldn’t BC sign this guy
I’m not saying I like the team the way it’s built, I’m just saying sit back, accept what it is and wait to see how things play out. Just because they’re on the team now doesn’t mean they will be in 2 years (and they won’t be, with the possible exception of Kapono’s bad contract). In the meantime, enjoy the fact that Bosh seems to be developing into a guy that could take you very deep into the playoffs if he’s got talent around him. That alone means that this franchise’s fortunes are better than most teams in the league.
lol…joey,u aint white and you aint italian and your name aint joey,dont front kid.
Anthony Morrow with 25 points for golden state. there stacked at the wings
Why couldn’t BC sign this guy
ummm because colangelos crystal ball was broken that day,so was all the other gm’s crystal balls ,nellies crystal ball was working one day,so they snagged him.
True. Plus his heart is healthy we look at guys with enlarged hearts who might never play an NBA game. Its sad y0
Take all of golden states wings and add them to Bosh, Oneil and Jose?
We win the Chip this year no questions asked
calderon
monta ellis/azabuki
stephen jackson/morrow/maggette
Bosh
Oneil
DAMN!!!!!!!
flux,lol,i mean joey.you need to get off your meds so you can get back to reality world….fantasy land is fun but it wont make a point.
IMAGINE IF!DAMN!!!!
I think Arsenalist said it best when describing Joey’s profile here
http://raptorsrepublic.com/blog/team/players/
“This should have been a paragraph about Danny Granger”
Nuff said.
screw these damn yt’s yo,IM WIFF JOEY YO,im italian and i hate those damn euro softies ,i prefer a more rugged type of baller, NAWMEEN.
screw dem gayardini picks they MY CUZINS!
we need more ballers like,jelani mccoy,loren woods,chris jeffries,michael stewart,john thomas,lamond murray,rick brunson,lonny baxter,eric williams,arron williams,fred jones,carlos rogers,roy rogers,reggie slater,jermaine jackson,we need ncaa athletes NORF AMERICANS not no damn italians!
…and im italian yo.
Or how about a brandon roy, rudy gay, tim duncan, joe johnson, danny granger, josh smith, al thornton, greg oden, vince acrter, chris paul, deron williams, lebron james, dwayne wade, kobe bryant, tmac, artest, rodney stucky, jason maxiell, josh howard ?
Thanks for the dose of reality, Mark.
For me personally, it riled me up when BC claimed this was the best Raptor team on paper. I completely disagree, 4-13.
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re: For me personally, it riled me up when BC claimed this was the best Raptor team on paper. – by AltRaps
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Others need to fully understand that this is ‘actually’ what the GM for this team said.
IMO … his direct quote should go down in the anals of MLSE … right along with the likes of,
<i<”Draft, Smaft.” – Cliff Fletcher [former & current GM, Toronto Maple Leafs]
For everything else there’s MASTERCARD.
He meant it as in the best Raptor team he has assembled, not overall. I was confused by that comment too until somebody cleared it up for me.
And about that ^^^ specific interpretation of what he said … he is going to be proven wrong this season, as well.
As constituted … this version of the Raptors is not better ‘on paper’ than the 2006-2007 edition.
This team needs some 10 day contracts – quick.
BC should appeal to the league to have Hassan Adams contract nullified as he wasnt clear about being a nocturnal south american tree mammal. There has got to be a loophole somewhere!