The “what the hell was that” edition
Banks – reminds you of your mother-in-law…you hate her, but it was a necessary evil to get what you wanted. Got more floor time than usual tonight, but did nothing of any value.
Bargnani – reminds you of that feeling you get when you first see some grass after a long hard winter. The only real bright spot on the court tonight for the Raptors and playing while fighting off the flu.
Bosh – reminds you of a 98 year old retiree sitting at a window, looking out into the parking lot, wondering when his family is coming to get him. He attacked the rim with authority the first few possessions of the game and then went away from it, probably feeling a bit hurt by Sammy’s D.
Calderon – reminds you of a worker, say a blogger for instance, that once showed a lot of promise and was loved by many. He then sat on the sidelines for a while, came back expecting to be loved by all, and wasn’t. Then he had to rely on the ideas of others to pull him back from the edge. Jose will be using his teammates to do just that as the season winds down: looking for his teammates to make him shine once again since the luster is fading fast.
Graham – reminds you of Roll Up The Rim……one in every 9 games is a winner for the guy. He had a fair game tonight which included one monster jam on Sammy that had Luda..er…Donyell looking like he was passing a gallstone on the bench.
Humphries – reminds you of me: a ladykiller.
Kapono – reminds you of the look you see on a surfers face when he heads to the beach and sees waves the size of a wade pool. 9 boring minutes that featured 3 shots, none of which had a shot of going in. Did grab a board, though, which had the ball fall into his arms as if it had no other option.
Marion – reminds you of the cute dog you bought from a breeder that has all the neighbourhood ladies flocking to you to pet him, only to have you find out a few weeks later that he has a flatulence problem that reminds you of those nasty days you eat broccoli and asparagus souffle. He arrived here with such promise and presented himself as a beacon of hope. Now his game looks to mimic his speaking ability.
Mensah-Bonsu – reminds you of that kid you chose second to last in phys-ed to join your volleyball team, only to find out he has a 12” vertical leap at the net. Gave us some more effort on the boards tonight but also gave us 5 fouls. He needs to be thinking of the closing weeks of this season as an extended try-out.
O’Bryant – reminds you of that daughter of a farmer from Alliston that shows up to try out to be a Dance Pak member. Give her full marks for desire, but a snowballs chance of making it back onto an NBA floor next year.
Parker – reminds you of the centre line on a city road. Solid most of the time, but shows the distinct possibility of breaking up every so often. Played well tonight, but I thought to myself that we haven’t seen his aggressiveness too much lately. Love to see it come back with a few basket attacks and some hard nosed defense.
Ukic – reminds me of this. Nice game from Ukic-i-did-it-again. Of course he never, you know, passed the ball, but his 3s were hitting and he drove to the hoop. Even though passing the ball is an important part of being a professional PG, beggars can’t be pig farmers.
Voskuhl – reminds me that I need to check my RRSP to make sure I’m still set for when i retire.
Driving The Bus: Andrea Bargnani
Under The Bus: Jason Kapono
Game Theme:
41 Raps
Reminds me of the reason I chose to watch less than half this game.
Reminds me of how hooked I am that I watched the whole game.
our franchise player and soon to be max guy was the worst player on the floor at -27.3 times stuffed.4 measly boards.6/16 from the field and 0/1 from 3…….how the fuck is he not under the bus?
As said before, he was effective at some part of the game, Kapono was just full of 6.5 million dollar bag of dog feces.
effective at what?, getting his?playing pretend d?looking off teammates?
pretending is at least doing something dude, because pretending is at least some type of “trying”
Reminds me that when the toilet cannot flush after such a hard dump taken, you close the lid and pray that nature can solve the problems existing.
What exactly is this pirate thing about? It sounds like some blogger stole Free Ukic or something…
ding ding!
Unless you’re one of the FreeDarko guys, how can anyone steal that?
For those who like to use +/-, GameFlow says that tonight:
* Bargnani was -7 … working at the #5/C spot
* Bosh was -7 … working at the #5/C spot
* Bosh was -20 … at the #4/PF, while having to work extra hard beside Bargnani [#5/C]
god damn you’re a fucking dumb bitch…..you can also word it that bargs had to work extra hard with bosh and his -27…but you wont.
Khandor,I am sorry to inform you that regardless of what you believe and find evidence and dig and write, earth rotates around the sun.
Khandor, are you the same guy that thinks that bosh is the new bill russell? would you please tell everybody the secret recipe of your morning tea? might be worth to you the next nobel prize for homebrew stimulant drug!
Are you Bosh’s mother in disguise? Are you kidding me? Are you watching the same game as us? Bosh is pitiful and if I were Bargnani I would have called out Bosh by now, but Bargs has too much class unlike our self proclaimed MVP who can’t dominate teams like Philly, let alone Garnett and other real PF’s. Then to top it off he looks past Bargs at every occasion to force another shitty shot. Bosh gets more fouls because he’s usually trying to make up for the lack of defense by Bosh, Parker and Jose. Get a life buddy and stop bashing the one real talented big man on this team with upside ( Bargs) in favour of a loser like Bosh.
“beggars can’t be pig farmers”
Best quote so far this year. Best quote in site history.
Why, yes, you certainly could say that Bargnani had a better night vs Philly whenever he was on the floor as the Raptors’ #5/C without Chris Bosh beside him, as the #4/PF:
+3 = AP + JK + JG + PMB + AB
+2 = JC + AP + SM + PMB + AB
+4 = RU + AP + JG + PMB + AB
+1 = RU + AP + SM + PMB + AB
================================
+10 = Total
… which, as I’ve said before, is NOT a position that CB4 should be playing for this team.
Man, at least VL is decent. And same with Bargnani. Bad joke, I apologize. But seriously, this Raptor team sucks. Even against average teams like Philly, its gotten to the point where we assume the Raps will lose. I’m not even disappointed anymore, I’ve lost the will to care. Oh well, I’m looking forward to the playoffs. The east is going to be awesome with a few teams that look great (Boston, Orlando, Cleveland) and the Detroit team that you never know what will do. This site should just become an overall b-ball site for the next few months, cause its pointless to rehash what makes the Raptors suck.
… or, perhaps that this game turned for the worst in the first half, when Coach Triano made the decision to use:
-5 = RU + JK + JG + SM + CB
-4 = RU + MB + JG + SM + CB
-1 = RU + MB + AP + CB + AB
=============================
-10 Total
… as the Raptors saw their -2 deficit at the end of the 1stQ [17-19] balloon to a -12 margin, in the initial 06:10 of the 2ndQ, from which they never recovered.
The Back-up PG spot has severely damaged the Raptors’ chances for success this season.
… especially in conjunction with players like Jason Kapono [$5.8 M/yr] and Marcus Banks [$4.5 M/yr]. : (
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo214/Pope410/lasagna.jpg
Interesting interviews tonight. It seems to me like the finger pointing has started….Triano commenting on Bargnani was strange, and although it’s like trying to understand a canadian government worker when trying to get a new health card, it sounded like Marion seems pissed at someone or everyone.
The radio guys interviewed Dalembert after the game. In response to a question about his national team committments, he said “If they find a real coach, I’ll think about it.”
Awesome roll-call btw. Made my morning!
Mauro,
—————————————
re: Khandor,I am sorry to inform you that regardless of what you believe and find evidence and dig and write, earth rotates around the sun.
—————————————
Solid! That means we might actual be on the same page, re: the roles of Bosh and Bargnani for this team.
In the Raptors’ universe … Whom do you believe should best be described as the sun? The earth? The other planets? : )
ChrisR,
—————————————
re: Interesting interviews tonight. It seems to me like the finger pointing has started….Triano commenting on Bargnani was strange, and although it’s like trying to understand a canadian government worker when trying to get a new health card, it sounded like Marion seems pissed at someone or everyone.
—————————————
Who do you think the fingers are beginning to be pointed at by the Raptors’ coaching staff and the Raptors’ players, when it comes to “a lack of effort” defensively and, say, “being in the wrong place” during opponent Pick & Roll/Pop Actions?
Andrea Bargnani
Jason Kapono
Marcus Banks
Roko Ukic
Pops Mensah-Bonsu
Jose Calderon
Anthony Parker
Joey Graham
Chris Bosh
Shawn Marion
Jake Voskuhl
Patrick O’Bryant
Kris Humphries
Nathan Jawai
In what order of culpability?
i can’t pick just one! they are all equally useless at it!!!
seriously, no way to single out certain guys over others…or put them in any kind of order…our point guard and wings get beat with dribble penetration, and our bigs seem to stand around and enjoy dunk contests
I’ll give you guys props for still giving a fuck about this garbage, garbage team.
ChrisR,
————————————–
re: seriously, no way to single out certain guys over others…or put them in any kind of order…our point guard and wings get beat with dribble penetration, and our bigs seem to stand around and enjoy dunk contests
————————————–
That’s precisely the type of “prioritization” that NBA coaches and GMs have to make each and every single day.
The best of them do it without any hesitation, whatsoever. Part of why they get paid the Big Bucks and, therefore, need to be held accountable for the decisions they’ve made, in this regard.
ChrisR,
Next game, if possible … simply keep a record of the number of times the Raptors concede dribble penetration in a situation where there has been no pick set by the opposition vs the number of times dribble penetration occurs with the aid of a pick being set.
This will give you some indication of which scenario actually occurs more frequently with this team.
It’s not that hard to figure out which players are most at fault from there.
Unfortunately, I’m working in Vancouver for a couple years(from T.O), so I’ve seen every last gut-wrenching game this year, so watching them is not only possible, but a 3 day a week nightmare I keep on having…
as I can remember, it was all in full effect last night, penetration with and without picks, and we must lead the league in dunks against.
Who do you single out in particular?
re : The blogger comment for Jose… were you taking potshots at Carefoot?
it’s not a potshot
How about we start calling Bosh RP(RuPaul) instead of CB4 until he starts playing like a man again? I mean if VL worked for Bargnani…
done!
ChrisR,
————————————–
re: Unfortunately, I’m working in Vancouver for a couple years(from T.O), so I’ve seen every last gut-wrenching game this year, so watching them is not only possible, but a 3 day a week nightmare I keep on having…
as I can remember, it was all in full effect last night, penetration with and without picks, and we must lead the league in dunks against.
Who do you single out in particular?
————————————–
re: with picks being set
Not just last night but going on my recollection for the season to-date, the most frequent victim in this situation has been Mr. Bargnani.
———–
re: without picks being set
Although, I didn’t see the whole game [TSN-2?] … I can vividly recall noting specific possessions where constant-Raptors-fans’-new-wipping-boy, Jose Calderon, did in fact do a solid job of keeping either Andre Miller or Lou Williams right “in front of him” without conceding “dribble penetration” at all.
Which is not to say that he was never beaten at all in this scenario … only that, he was/is not abused as readily in this specific way as many Raptors fans seem to think he is.
A specific player, whose overall individual & team defense has been consistently atrocius, however, as a Raptor, is Jason Kapono. IMO, this was a major reason why Sam Mitchell chose not to play J-Killa for significant stretches of last season … when he had the option of using Carlos Delfino instead, not that CD was/is that much better, mind you, just that he was/is definitely superior to JK, in this regard. With the other 2nd tier players on the roster last year, Mitchell could afford to lock Kapono to the bench; not so this season, with no Delfino, Nesterovic, Ford and … goodness gracious … even, no Juan Dixon and Darrick Martin.
Neither are Marcus Banks nor Roko Ukic nor Anthony Parker, particularly adept at not conceding dribble penetration, in an individual or a team defensive situation.
IMO … Joey Graham is okay in this phase of the game, as well as Kris Humphries and Chris Bosh, when each is healthy.
WHAT!?! i dont even know what to say. calderon concedes the lane before the ball is even on the floor. williams and miller beat him like a red headed step child all game! its this problem that makes our bigs look even worse then they are at defending the lane having to over rotate to cover for calderon’s cement feet. game over at that point, thats why dalembert and young shredded us all game, sickening!
sorry that was a little unfair, bosh/botch/bitch/most overrated player in the nba’s defensive indifference also contributed
chris if you’re injured or theres some legit reason you fill your pants with fecal matter on most nights, you should come out and tell us so at least we can feel better about it,maybe respect you for playing with pain. tell us so we dont think its because your out of shape or so weak that you cant jump. that its not that being so out of shape causes your brain to cramp when your touch the ball on offense. that the 5 pump fakes and jab steps as the d settles in and our offense grinds to a hault isnt you actually just trying to catch your breath before tossing up that 15′ jumper you love so much. just tell us, ok?
calderon, same goes for you. if you are allergic to running the break, hitting cutters or head manning the ball, maybe chess would be a better fit for you. the pay isnt quite as good, but the only player you disappoint if you miss an opening is yourself, dont drag an entire roster down with you ok?
Raps Fan,
————————————–
it’s not a potshot
————————————–
LMAOROTGKAS … : )
;)
One Trackback
[...] Raptors Republic The Penultimate Toronto Raptors Blog Front PageSchedule/RecapsTeamSalariesPlayersCoachesGeneral ManagersArticlesMultimediaLogosPodcastsPicturesWallpaperVideoHistoryAll PlayersRosters & StatsDraft HistoryStatisticsRosters & StatsGame LogsStat-O-Meter 3000Box ScoresLine-O-MeterTicketsEventsFront Office RSS « Roll Call – Mar 11 vs Sixers [...]