Overall though, I feel that of all the teams in the NBA, the team that improved the most from the end of last year to the beginning of this year would have to be the Toronto Raptors. The differences are astounding when looking at the team before and after. There are only three players, four if you count the soon to be traded Marcus Banks, still on the team, and with the addition of Turkoglu, the Raptors have a fairly strong front five. The bench is greatly improved, which should allow the starters to rest, knowing they can hold the fort.
They were almost as bad at offensive rebounding as us (28th to our 30th). That felt great to write that. As bad as we are at offensive rebounding, we are tops in limiting opposing teams from getting offensive rebounds. I bring this up because we finished the season giving up only 34 more shots than we took. Toronto gave up a little over 150. That is just under a 2 shots a game.
I just scrolled through all the stats looking for some gem of a comparison. There is a general trend that the Raptors follow a lot of the patterns the Spurs follow. The major exception is defense though. The Raptors give up a better shooting percentage than they make themselves. They have more assists than us but are still in a negative margin to their opponents. One thing I really like about the stats is that the Raptors got to the line fairly well and were the top free throw shooting team in the league. That is very un-Spurs-like.
Remember the kids problem I had with the Magic’s logo? Well this is even worse. The franchise was named after the popular creatures in Jurassic Park, which was released three months before the NBA awarded Toronto their team. That’s a good way to date the name of your team (e.g. Mighty Ducks). And their logo includes a raptor in basketball shorts, a jersey, and sneakers. If this doesn’t scream “marketed toward children,” I’m not sure what will. It’s a clean looking image, which is good, but the name Toronto is too small.
4 – Chris Bosh, PF, Toronto Raptors
Four All-Star appearances and a Gold Medal in 2008 get CB4 this spot. His career averages of 19.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game don’t hurt either. Finished 2008-09 with a career-best 22.7 ppg.
Honorable Mention: Yadier Molina, C, St. Louis Cardinals; Vincent Lecavalier, C, Tampa Bay Lightning
28 Raps
Pounding The Rock’s article assumes Bellineli will be our starter next season. It’s interesting to see what team fans outside the Raptors believe will happen. It also claims that Turkoglu will average 6 RPG since we’re such a bad rebounding team. It’s an interesting read, albeit a little choppy, to see how we’re viewed by non-Raps fans.
a very minor mistake but it is Belinelli .
The important thing is that you corrected him immediately.
i have read at least 3 different articles making fun of the name Raptors. is it really that much worse then Bobcats, Grizzlies, etc. i happen to like the name raptors.
I like the “Raptors” team name too.
Raptors were one of the deadliest land predators ever!
Worst name: NETS (no imagination)
BTW – What the hell is an “Oriole”
An oriole is a bird, part of the Oriolidae family of birds…um they’re also yellow? That’s about all I know, but considering the logo it’s pretty obvious it’s a bird.
I also like the Raptors name, and what exactly is wrong with marketing to kids, worked for me, I’ve been following them since I was in kindergarten.
I think the Raps name is great! Would like to see a switch to the claw logo though – use the other for throwback jerseys, but make the claw the official team logo.
Plus, if the team really wanted to, they could get rid of the dino and use a hawk – since raptor is actually derived from teh latin word for birds of prey.
But, again, I’m all for the Raptors/Claw Logo.
‘teh latin word’
And… uh ‘teh’ is the latin word for ‘the’….
I’m down with the Raptors… It just sucks to be forever be known as a cash grab after a big blockbuster movie.
Well… at least we ain’t the Mighty Ducks…
I’d rather have the team be named after some kind of dangerous animal than some guys who used to do some stuff a while ago but aren’t relevant and no one is really sure what they did? 76ers? Knicks? (I thought they were named after shorts) Pacers? Lakers? Nets? What?
I rarely see the older logo used anymore.. what’s this guy on about?
I was in high-school when the Raptors were born and I thought then (and now) that using a pop-culture trend (Jurassic Park) to name your team was lame. Although a raptor does translate well to sports, since it was an aggressive, ferocious dinosaur, I prefer team names that at least have some appropriate reference to your team’s city/region/province etc…
For example, if the team was located in Calgary, even if was largely due to a movie that was popular at the time of inception, “Raptors” would be more fitting here than Toronto because of this area being one of the richest sources of dinosaur bones in the world.
I like team names that are good from both a marketing perspective and a relevance perspective, such as the Atlanta Thrashers in hockey. “Thrasher” evokes good mental imagery that seems appropriate to hockey, plus it is the state bird of Georgia.
PS: this is a slow news day for Raps fans! LOL
The Huskies could have worked a 2nd time around. The Towers would have been the weak, IMO.
There are really very few teams with names that reflect their city – especially with all of the relocations that occur (i.e. Jazz, Lakers, Grizzlies).
Honestly, I LOVE our team name: RAPTORS! ;D
Huskies would have been the way to go
The name was voted on by the public and chosen out of 10 finalists, so Torontonians had their say! Raptors was my pick out of the 10, with maybe only 2 of the other 10 being anywhere near respectable. I think also this contest influenced the Grizzlies franchise moniker (was this a national contest?).
Ya, Jurassic Park definitely had lots of influence but there are one or two amateur teams with the name Raptors, which should go to show the name isn’t subject to being dated like the Mighty Ducks.
a mascot marketed towards kids?
Of course is marketing kids! Just how many fully grown adults are wooed by giant stuffed animals do you think?
Adult fans are wooed by the sport, and if they need any extra incentive, a synonym for mascot has been afforded to us loyal patrons: cheerleaders.
Now how many of you think scantly clad women, dancing at halftime and during free throws while we sip our 8 dollar beers has anything to do with marketing to the children?
As for the name.. its a deadly predator. Its dated, perhaps, but honestly, its just a name and one I happen to think is pretty cool. It seems that is kind of the point anyways, ‘get a cool name and hey, if it has something to do with the region the team belongs too, you get bonus points’
But there is no way in hell I would have supported the Toronto Beavers, so I’m thinking this works out perfectly for us.
Is it true that MJ was killed ??
Whaaaaa?
Oh fuck… I thought you meant Michael Jordan. WTF does that have to do with basketball? Don’t give me a heart attack.
You’re not the only one. Again, wtf does that have to do with basketball?
P.S. I heard it was his doctor.
The Raptors name works especially well when their star player resembles one.
haha, chris bosh :P
the velociraptor is at its best when it hunts in packs –meaning, the raps are at its best when they play like a team. anyway, thats how i always interpreted the name.
I think you meant …. [the velociraptor] WAS at its best …
Remember, Jurassic Park was a movie … :-)
That Chrisholm aritcle, the Triano interview, is a good read.
It’s on the frontpage’s latest web articles. Worth checking out.
Definitely a worthwhile read. Well-thought out questions and detailed answers with some meat on the bones. It will be interesting to see how he distributes the minutes in order to maximize the greatest amount of players.
I’m still concerned that the gelling period may not happen during a very important stretch of games to open the season but it definitely sounds like Triano and his staff are prepared to do whatever it takes to maximize the time they have during training camp and pre-season.
Ha. From hating on the country to hating on our name. So it’s marketed towards kids – I don’t see the problem. In fact, if it encourages kids to get out and play some ball instead of rotting in front of a TV, all the better! Geez, some people just nit-pick for the sake of nit-picking.
I mean, there are worse names out there. The one that immediately comes to mind is…’Nets’. What the hell, Nets? Really? Why not Rims, or Baskets? Or Balls? Haha, I like the last one.
I remember there was an article from awhile back that said the Magic were almost named the Juice. And I have to laugh. I know there’s a reason (though for the life of me I can’t remember it), but JUICE?