The “anybody ever hear of this Carney kid” edition
Banks – back spasms. didn’t play. wouldn’t have cared if he did.
Bargnani – sweeter than tiramisu. smoother than maple syrup. as handsome as a mountie. He was running hard, he was slamming, he was laying up, he swore when he missed a chippy. Only thing missing was him chestbumping the mascot.
Bosh – horrible start and then Cardinal happened. His little tussle with Cardinal seemed to zippo his play and Bosh never looked back. According to our talking heads, he still isn’t there yet, but I’ll take it.
Calderon – solid game except for a brutal mid-4th filled with bonehead plays. You know it’s bad when Triano is yelling at you when you are one of the sacred children on this team. Still, I was impressed with his active hands tonight and his willingness to give the ball up.
Graham – you think that Great Joey we saw a few weeks ago has gone away for hibernation? He had a good game tonight but, again, nothing to stand out. Right now he is like that one pistachio nut that you can’t quite get at because you can’t open the shell. Frustrating.
Humphries – chillin.
Jawai – cashing a nice cheque in a horrible economy.
Kapono – guess he and Jay are back on the "let Kap purge” diet. He’s throwing the ball up any chance he can get. Hell, he even went for a defensive board in traffic tonight. His shooting percentage took a hit, but I like him back in that role.
Marion – his first night off as a Raptor. Pretty much a non-factor, which was surprising to me since he was up against Mike Miller for a good chunk of the game. I appreciate Mike’s game, but you would think Marion would make him work. I wouldn’t say Marion looked disinterested, but you have to wonder if he isn’t already getting a bit ticked at being looked off so much. Roko had a clear path to a wide open Marion under the bucket and nothing came of it. Disappointing.
O’Bryant – Primoz Brezec v2.0
Parker – 24..7…6…welcome back, young gent. Have to wonder if the opposition being forced to pay attention to Marion is benefitting our troubled under-the-radar AP. Of course we’ve seen him string a few good games together in the past and it will be tough to continue this string given the competition coming up, but maybe the new blood is infectious.
Ukic – six shots that amounted to what his career will be in 4 years: nothing. Thank heavens Jose has played well the past 2 games because, when he doesn’t, to think that Yoko will be our next best is just…..numbing.
Voskuhl – curious……when he plays a basketball game on his Playstation, do you think he ever subs himself in off the bench?
Driving The Bus: Andrea Bargnani
Under The Bus: Roko Ukic
Game Theme:
48 Raps
BARGNANI FTW!!!
and LOL @ Voshkuls comment
LOL @ the Voskuhl comment, good work man.
I saw Voskuhl’s girlfriend at the game tonight… He’s probably not wasting his time playing Playstation.
I thought Marion played really well tonight despite the lower stats. On the other hand, Bosh put in about 75% tonight which is what I expect from him here on out. We played best when he was on the bench. He did drive a couple of times but still isn’t showing much determination. He has Vince Carter Syndrome – He doesn’t see the point of driving the lane and putting his body at risk for a team he won’t be playing for much longer. I hate to say it but we are better off without him. A max contract for him would cripple this franchinse. He needs to be paired with a Billups type player – a guy comfortabe with playing second fiddle but just as comfortable taking the last shot.
Caught this game in bits and pieces on a stream so can’t really say much except Bargnani’s first option tonight seemed to be to drive instead of shoot which is rare.
Also noticed Bargnani’s man cheating towards Marion at times which gave him a lane to drive through (as you pointed out wrt Parker).
I don’t mind some of those boneheaded players Calderon made, I think he turned the ball over once where he was looking to hit Marion or Parker on the break, I can live with that. His defense wasn’t great but better than the last time we faced them. Crowding the Minny PGs doesn’t always work but tonight he wasn’t totally burned.
Bosh almost seemed too slow for the pace we were playing, missing layups, giving up rebounds…maybe its the injury, I don’t know.
Knicks and Minny are low quality wins but we’re a low quality team so I’ll take it. Friday v Phoenix should be fun, Suns will be shooting for 200.
Parker – great game, to think he could’ve been helping the Spurs or Lakers…
Bosh is a strange one. I get the hunch we are going to be fed the old “he was really hurt most of the season” line once the season is over. Doubt it’s true, but I’m sure it’s coming.
I do think he has never been a well-conditioned athlete. Every year I have mentioned how it looks like he has been sucking on a tailpipe. Not quite sure why that is.
Bargs has shown he can take care of bottom feeding fools. Now for the next step. His boards were a little low tonight, but maybe that’s because he was focusing on the other end of the court.
On the other hand, our team is probably back to the “beat the bad, lose to the good” .450 ball we’re accustomed to. This might end with us coming oh so close to the playoffs and not making it, and just making our pick plummet. Please, raps. Don’t win too much.
I only saw from the second period onwards and I thought the Raptors did well to battle back from that 12 point disadvantage.
Rodney Carney played well and I can see why Khandor would argue why he would be an upgrade at our wings. From this perspective, I hope that the Raptors can pick up a cheap player or draft one this offseason.
I am regretting giving up this year’s and one in the future first round draft pick more and more. Young players on rookie contracts is a fundamental way to maintain cap flexibility and bring cost effective talented players. Hopefully Colangelo can pull another rabbit out of the hat (steve nash circa 2004 anyone?) and just completely turn around this team for contention, but I serious doubt that would happen.
we still have this year’s first round pick
Just imagine if we still had Delfino to back up Marion…
Scott.
Don`t you think you´re being just a little too harsh on Roko?He showed this season he could be very useful for the Raptors in the future.His ballhandling and defence are already better than Jose´s and his stats aren´t much different than the Spaniards in his first season.
Defenders of Roko, come back next week. It’s still February! He’s not due for a good game for another 2-3 weeks.
again, this post is a game by game discussion. He didn’t give this team much of anything last night. Would you agree? If not, then I disagree with your assessment, especially given how ball movement and scoring was a focus last night.
of all the player personalities/characteristics this team could most emulate, why does it have to be joey graham’s? it’s not just game-to-game anymore, but quarter-to-quarter. the 1st Q was, hmm…repugnant. like bad joey on speed, acid & a horse tranquilizer.
2nd Q – hey, wake-up time, the tranquilizer wears off, the acid loses a bit of it’s edge, and they decide to go-go-go. amazing what happens when you force the D to react to what you’re doing, as opposed to the other way around. just incredible. too bad they can’t seem to realize that the same applies when on D…like, hey, let’s MAKE the guy i’m D’ing up do something he’s uncomfortable doing.
bosh – i hate to use it as a cop-out, but he’s not right. not sure what % (seems to be around 67.83935%), but he’s got no lift, no burst, he’s a step (or two) slow – i’m surprised guys weren’t crowding him on the perimeter & forcing him to beat them off the dribble (of course, they did have cardinal on him for extended stretches). he was more than content to take what they were giving him, and the raps were lucky his perimeter game was on in the 2nd half, or it likely would have been a different story.
a bit hard on roko, but this ain’t kindergarten, if you can’t bring anything positive to the table, then ripping is deserved. the epitome of ‘work in progress.’ and those are the kindest words i can use to describe him.
marion – no idea what his stats were, but he was pretty quiet…still, he brings a certain presence – the D has to be aware of him, and even that little, seemingly inconsequential, thing can’t be taken for granted. he might not have brought much to the table, but he absolutely didn’t take anything off it. which was the entire problem with moon – his quiet games were more noticeable because he’d not just not bring anything to the table, but he’d spill his milk on the floor, then spit in the soup.
bargs – ok, i’m more than willing to retire ‘VL’ for good, but i’m afraid that as soon as it goes away, so too will his game. all i’d like is 50-odd eight-week stretches of games like he’s had over the last 2 months. is that too much to ask? i can deal with the up/down nature of his game that’s bound to happen (he is primarily, after all, a shooter), as long as he doesn’t check out mentally. he seems to be in-tune with his game & running mates, his rookie-season confidence is back, and i’m thinking he’s got more ’stone-cold-killer super-assasin’ in him than ‘useless sack of shit.’
agree with Marion. He certainly seems to attract more attention than either the Pacer guy or the old Globie ever did. Still think that was a big factor in some of his teammates having above-average games.
Personally I’m still a bit taken aback at how quickly he has eased into things.
yertu that’s why I won’t stop calling bargnani names either. we should take full credit for the guys play!
Does anybody own the Timberwolves quite like the Raptors? Colangelo and the fat Italian guy with the sweet glasses who stands next to him sure do deserve a pat on the back for building this juggernaut. I am just happy that Ghiardini was here to witness it all and wasn’t on some inane scouting trip to Uzbekistan looking for the next Solomon or Jawai. He deserves his moment in the sun too.
Did anybody see the semi cut-the-throat look that Colangelo gave the camera after the Parker basket with two minutes to go in the fourth to indicate that “it’s over.” Absolutely priceless. Thanks for the memories this season, BC – your capped-out team just took it to the Knicks and the Timberwolves at home!! Next stop, the playoffs!! BTW, I want someone to put up a montage on Youtube of horrific Raptor losses punctuated with BC giving the “cut-the-throat” look after each game-losing basket. Start with the VC dunk as time expired in the New Jersey game earlier this season.
Marion’s stats may have been off but his overall influence on the team’s play can’t be denied. I forgot how much fun it can be watching a team that actually runs up and down the floor. And like Jack said, Marion will make the extra pass where Jamario would have hoisted a silly shot. The ball movement and offensive fluidity has improved.
You were a little hard on Joey, considering he left the game with an injury.
leading up to the injury, he wasn’t playing any better than we have seen in past seasons, in my opinion. If he came into the game on one good leg, he’d get a pass. To my knowledge, he didn’t.
Nice Roll Call man. I especially enjoyed the theme. :P
I don’t understand the enthusiasm some people have for the Raptors tanking the rest of the season. Do you really see ANY of the guys outside of Blake Griffin being anything close to an impact player in the NBA? This is for all intents and purposes a weak draft, one of the weakest in years. And well sure, there are going to be a couple surprises here and there and a few might turn out to be borderline All-Stars at some point down the road but is that the plan you guys want? You want us to tank so we can grab a guy who MIGHT make it to the starting lineup in two, three, years if everything works out well. So let’s tank this season to grab a guy who could be the next Joey Graham. And I love Joey Graham this year but I am not tanking a season for him. Sorry Mr. Graham. There isn’t a huge difference in potential between any of the players targeted to be high to mid-level first round picks and to tank the season for one of them would not make a lot of sense.
Exactly. It’s a crap shoot.
uh, it’s a little out of their control at this point, no? i mean, they’re already out of it, they don’t have to ‘tank,’ they just have to play like they have all season. so many things would have to fall into place for them to qualify (like, playing much better than they have all season for a prolonged period, and 6/7 teams ahead of them all faltering). the only reason anyone should hope for the playoffs is that the teams in 6th-13th are almost as bad as the raps.
and no, there’s no one special in the draft (where they’ll be picking) that’s going to turn their fortunes around immediately; it’s a matter of whether it’s better to get into, say, the top-10, or to squeak into the playoffs (which isn’t happening) & become fodder for a beat-down at the hands of the cavs/celts. the difference, though, in a guy picked at #15 & a guy picked at #8 can be substantial.
let’s dream a little…even if they go undefeated the rest of the way, it puts them at 46-36, which would be good for 5th or 6th…meaning they’d be facing the magic or hawks on the road. while they’d have a higher chance against those two than cle or boston, it would still be unlikely that they’d advance (even if they were hot enough to win 25 in a row to finish the year – which they won’t do).
it’s not a matter of wanting to tank, it’s simply a realization that they aren’t good enough anyway…they don’t have to try to tank, they’ll do so by ‘accident.’
The problem is they’re not good enough to make the playoffs, but they’re too good to “tank”. And who knows if the 8th pick will be better than the 11th or 12th pick or vice versa in a draft like this? Even the 15th?
Netting a top pick at this point is highly unlikely. The Raps could lose every game from here on out and Sac, Washington, OKC, or Memphis would not catch them. Beating the T-wolves last night didn’t help either.
How good is Bargnani gonna be in another year or two? Could be off the charts.
and don’t know if anyone mentioned here, but wtf was that TSN crap all about? curling? thought I’d lose my mind. feeling very abused by TSN this year. and I was hoping Devlin wouldn’t say ‘killer B’s’ … but of course, he did. what a maroon.
were you actually surprised by either?
Yes, Killer B’s is lame, and so is “Rockin’ Roko”. Swirsky’s shtick got tiresome after a while, but it was NEVER as lame as Devlin’s. Speaking of Devlin, is it just me or does he think Shawn Marion is a woman? He keeps calling him Shawn-a Marion.
And don’t get me started about the Capital One “What’s In Your Wallet” routine. Give it a rest, already. Read the damn promo and leave it alone. I don’t EVER want to hear another stupid reply to that line from Leo or Jack unless it’s “A strip of six rubbers, since I’m going for drinks after the game with the Raptors Dance Pak.”
that Capital One thing annoys the hell out me. More than the team itself on most nights.
that’s what i mean…they’re so shitty, that to expect anything else is stilly. so, expect still/shitty/stupid/inane…it’s par for the course.
i’m retarded today…’silly’
ratings for curling (granted, mens curling) far outweighs that of basketball on TSN. If I was an exec there, I would have done exactly the same thing.
Had you been a curling fan, how would you have re-acted to missing out the end of the competition for the start of a 2hour basketball game that, to most non-ball fans, doesn’t really get exciting until the final 5mins?
AltRaps,
Exactly. And when the Raptors game went long it cut off the beginning of the curling that was supposed to start at 9:30. How would Raps fans have liked it if TSN cut from the end of a reasonably close game to get to the ever-thrilling first rock of the curling game?
Oh, and coincidentally, I missed last night’s game since Tuesday is my curling night.
isn’t it more important to ponder who good the team will be? if he’s awesome, and they still suck, does it matter?
it’s hard to be an optimist sometimes, even though I am when it comes to the Raps (on days like today), but if he’s as good as he’s looking like he might well be, it’s a good-sized piece of the puzzle, intact. the rest, I’ve got to leave up to … the gods of hoops. but I’m hopeful.
Curious if you had to redo the draft, knowing what we know now, do you go Roy-LMA-AB in order? If Bargnani’s trajectory holds true, he could way overshadow LMA (and Bosh for the matter). On the other hand,Roy seems to have the leadership tools and mental makeup to lead a team, something that AB seems to lack (or maybe its the language issue). By the way, BC has steadfastly stood by Bargnani in the darkest of times to the point he was fast losing credibiity from the paparazzi. Haven’t seen him getting much props for the Bargnani pick so far.
ive thought about this before….if we are still including potential or “upside” then it looks like this…
1. roy
2. bargnani
3. rondo
4. aldridge
5. milsap
6. gay
7. thomas
8. foye
but based on what theyve done so far it looks more like this
1. roy
2. aldridge
3. rondo
4. milsap
5. gay
6. some other role players im forgetting
7. bargnani (only because of the last 2 months)
8. foye
9. some other guys im forgetting
10. thomas
obviously roy was the best player in this draft by far…but hindsight it 20/20
drafting an older 6-5 guard with bad knees is just as risky as a 7 foot sweet shooting, non rebounding, euro.
***********************PAPER BAG ON MY HEAD*****************************
I heard it was a weak draft year also. Now that college ball is approching March Madness we’ll have a better idea what to expect. Nobody is make headlines at this point. Doesn’t sound like there is a LeBron or Shaq Daddy coming up. ‘A Dimond in the Rough’ is best senario.
I know Tanking is really going to help but I feel like my heart’s has been ripped I’ve been chasing in the last few years in Raptorville wondering if I should let it go. That’s just the side in me that says piss on them.
The only guy who seems to care anymore is Bargnani. I’m not going to care if the Raptors don’t care. !!!Go Bargnani Go!!! Cold Blooded Killa!
I’ve always been a big fan of Marion, but welcome to Raptorville where nothing is as it seems….
PS….. Can I get a PaperBag as my ICON.
Wooo Hooo…. we beat T-Wolves… wow, how low are our standards?
Ooopsss… Should say “Tanking ISN’T going to help”
you can change your Gravatar here:
http://en.gravatar.com/
OK… I hate setup up things. In the end it usally never works out, but thanks AltRap I gave it a shot. Just seein’ if it worked….
Arrrrrraaaaaa…… I hate computers! Yeah, I’m Old School. I’m going with the sure fire….
*********************PAPER BAG OVER HEAD******************************
Thanks anyway!
And to think I’ve setup the network at our company for 6 computer. Build the last 3 computer with just parts… and can create MACROS for our companies spreedsheets. Even did a little Q-Basic in the day. I did all this because of the budget. Can I get a little ICON or Gravatar to show up…. I swear my computer is laughing at me….
My solution for any computer problem is ‘Re-Format’. That’s the school of HardKnocks.
still a tough call for me, when that subject comes up … how can you not love what Roy does after all (and imagine how he’d look doing it for us)? But right now, it’s fun enough for me to imagine and guess at just how good Bargnani’s gonna get, as we watch him get better and better in front of our eyes it seems, every other week or so … so, I wouldn’t change it. I’d take Bargnani.
that was suppose to be a ‘reply’ to Peacedog – 15.
^^^My question is posed to nunya
Interesting stat involving Bargnani:
Home 28 32.5 FG% 45.533 3FG% .412 FT% 86.667 PPG 16.0
Road 31 29.3 FG% 40.828 3FG% .369 FT% 77.895 PPG 12.6
I hadn’t really noticed this until I looked at the splits in depth.
calm down.
judging how accurate you are on most of your comments, I’m sure Roko’s agent is counting his commission as we speak.
Do you play on the LPGA?