When you look at the composition of the team, Turkoglu is by far the Raptors’ most accomplished player.
For the Raptors to excel, it is up to the team to make sure that the ball ends up in Turkoglu’s hands when it crosses mid-court.
For the Raptors to compete for home-court advantage in the post-season, it would be wise that every decision is made by Turkoglu.
Making the playoffs for this team simply is not good enough because GM Bryan Colangelo has done too good of a job of revamping his roster and revitalizing the franchise.
Jay Triano’s coaching ability will be scrutinized and Marc Iavaroni’s presence as an assistant will be realized.
The key, though, is Turkoglu and make no mistake about it.
On August 5th, taking advantage of his time in Madrid to arrange his collaboration with the television station, LA SEXTA, in the next European championship, José Manuel stopped in Toledo, where the prestigious doctor, Fernando Jiménez Díaz, conducted the pertinent tests to see his stage of rehabilitation. The results were as expected and his recovery is also as planned. José Manuel will continue his work with his coach (Joan Ramón Tarragó) and hopes to be in perfect condition by the end of September for the start of the Raptors preseason.
28 Raps
The key is the team playing to their potential PERIOD!
“For the Raptors to compete for home-court advantage in the post-season, it would be wise that every decision is made by Turkoglu.”
I find this comment very odd: If I were to rank who should make decisions it’s Triano first, Jose second and the team simply needs to execute on those decisions. Will the ball often be in Turk’s hands with the game on the line? Absolutely! But opposing coaches are kinda smart and know this – its incumbent on Jay (and then Jose, then Turk on broken plays) to create options when, for example, Turk is doubled team late in games etc.
Has Turk’s ever commanded a double team?
For sure, but I honestly can’t say with what frequency – I only saw a handful of ORL games last year. Fans on ORL blogs believe he was double-teamed more than anyone else on that time – even Howard – who if you though t he was in a position to score, you would just foul him instead.
Will a sample size of one suffice? http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/0630/nba_g_hturkoglu1_600.jpg
:)
LOL, that doesn’t count, thats help defence coming over on the drive through the lane!
So he’s lightning quick then? No? :)
If you squint it look like a double team.
one pumped fish…
i agree. what a wierd thing to say. and thats not a blogger thats an actual writer for a paper?? wierd
Its too bad we don’t have Jamario Moon making our decisions for us once we cross half court anymore – that man was money in crunch time.
I prefer giving it to Joey and seeing him do some fancy dribbles, 5 head fakes and then his golden shot from just inside the 3.
Turk sounds pretty crucial, maybe they should make him the coach and GM too.
Hey Raptor fans, here are some encouraging words from Magic GM Otis Smith about Turkoglu.
http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/61111/20090812/smith_told_pritchard_blazers_caught_a_break_with_turkoglu/
Have fun with the guy Colangelo’s “been trying to sign for years” for the next 5 years.
And sure, VC is worth every penny of his 17 million contract with the magics for the next 2 years.
Turk was the secret ingredient to magics wins, and it won’t be too long for them to finally understand that. Turk might not work out with us the same way it did with the magics, but trust me when I say the Magics blew up their team chemistry by letting Turk go…
A motivated Vince is easily a better player than Turloglu.
SVG will not put up with Carter just going through the motions, if there is anyone who knows how to utilize Carter, it will be Stan.
Remember this is a guy that single handedly took care of the 47 win Raptor team. Swap Vince for Turk, and the Raps move past NJ that year.
We knew he was getting the ball, and still could not stop him.
Im sure Kidd averaging a triple double had something to do with it as well. And that RJ guy was pretty decent as well.
Dude Vince in that season beating the Raptors averaged 25ppg and last season averaged 20 ppg. Vince’s game in declining by the day.
Also, we all know Vince always brings a bit more extra game to beat the Raptors. All of his game winning plays comes against us for some reason(mostly in the ACC).
Also, VINCE IS LIKE CANCER! He never makes everyone around him better and Hedo does. Mark my words, Magic’s win this season will decrease instead of increasing. They won 59 games last season, and this season they will win less than 55 games.
They traded their future for Vince, and trust me it will turn out to be a bust trade. Vince is already 33. This is a guy who only depends on his athleticism and agility to play. He has got 2 more years in his contract averaging 16.8 million. I don’t know, I just can’t see Howard and Vince having any chemistry together.
“Vince’s game in declining by the day.”
And Hedo’s is just on the rise… that explains whyALL of his stats dropped from the 08 season to the 09 season
“Also, VINCE IS LIKE CANCER!”
All-Rookie First teamer (and a guy who owned O’Kneel last season) Brook Lopez would strongly disagree with you on that statement:
“He was our leader. He was always there for us,”
“A great teacher for me, he definitely made the transition easier. Obviously he is going to be missed, but I’m happy for him. He’s in a good situation.”
Yeahhh! That Vince Carter, what a cancer huh?
“He never makes everyone around him better and Hedo does.”
For the past two seasons Hedo averaged 4.9 APG. Vince Carter’s career 4.3 APG is mighty close to that. I must also add that Hedo had the luxury of thowing the ball at the backboard to Dwight Howard, who completed the alley-oops virtually every time. Which is great only we don’t have Dwight Howard! Nice try though.
“Vince is already 33. This is a guy who only depends on his athleticism and agility to play.”
And he’s also a guy who never averaged less than 20.6 points (save for his rookie year) and doesn’t seem to be slowing down that much.
“He has got 2 more years in his contract averaging 16.8 million.”
And a rapidly-declining Hedo got 5 years and 53 million.
I’d love to hear your stance on that deal when Hedo’s 33.
“I don’t know, I just can’t see Howard and Vince having any chemistry together.”
You don’t sound so sure pal. In fact you sound quite peeved that Vince finally got a chance to play for a legitimate contender. It’s okay though, you seem to be just happy cheering for the man who Orlando ditched in Vince’s favor so good luck to you!
I have never said Hedo’s contract was good. If you had read my previous comments about Hedo’s contract, I said that in 3 years time, we will have a really bad contract on our hands.
But still if I had to choose, between Hedo and Vince I would choose Hedo, Because Vince is a CANCER. Guys like VC and AI are never meant to win a championship, because they are selfish. They are not coachable and they are not team guys. They are never guys, who would lighten up the locker room. These are two guys that no smart Gm would sign up for. Look at AI for ffs, no real contender is willing to sign him. And last year fucked up a “well-oiled machine”.
I guess if you don’t believe me, we will watch and see. And next time you comment please don’t be as aggressive. We are just having friendly debates, we are not going to about fight about it.
“A motivated Vince”
oxymoron
Not sure if EVERY decision should be made by Turkoglu, but Hedo is the SF Toronto has needed since Jorge Garbajosa went down and it isn’t unfair to put the “gel” responsibility squarely on his shoulders.
BCo, probably isn’t expecting a deep playoff run in the first season of his newly reconstructed team, but if it was to happen one of Demar DeRozan or Marco Belinelli is going to have an amazing season and Turkoglu is going to led the charge. ( + CB4 will have the typical”contract year” season we’ve come to expect from pro players)
I think its important to understand the difference between a double team and player colapsing into the lane to stop a penetrating player. The picture above from Tom is a help defender not a double team. A double team is when the Defensive team either sends a 2nd defender when the offensive player catches the ball or when they start to dribble. If you consider what is going on in the picture a double team then every player on every team is doubled every time they drive with the exception of Golden State and Phoenix where the help defenders just run down the court calling for the ball!
Hedo will rarely see double teams (the exception being late in games). Bosh gets a steady dose of them but usually on the dribble not the catch.
Luke, why so harsh?
+1
Bargs 17-6
Bosh 23-10
Hedo 15-6-6
Demar 10
Jose 13-9
Jack 13-5 with some games as a scorer, some as a distributer
Belinelli 8
Wright 8
Evans 6 boards
Rasho 16 mins
Douby-if there are injuries, he could have a four to six game stretch with decent scoring numbers that get him a week of love from the fans
Banks, O’Bryant and Ukic, don’t figure to see meaningful minutes
Hedo will drive down peoples stats, but improve their overall play
Now that’s some optimism right there.
so on the conservative side of your averages, you have every player playing amazing and the team scoring approx 110 ppg, if they all play to their best you think theyll score something like 118?
really?
really??
if bargs avgs 18 and 10 and bosh avg 23 and 11 theres no way, at all, that Hedo can avg 16-5-5 with jose avg 13-9
they’re going to have to play 5 seconds or less offence and shoot 50% to reach these numbers
bargs 15-7-2
Bosh 22-9-2
Hedo 16-5-4
DD 9-5-1
JC 12-3-9
JJ 10-3-2
Evans 5-5
MB 8-2-2
Rasho 5-5
102 ppg 44 rpg 22 apg