7. Toronto Raptors. Turk was a great pick up. He should help Bosh with a pick and pop offense. Jose Calderon is a solid PG. Andrea Bargnani should be better with another year. Jack was a nice addition, but they need some D and Bench help.
Toronto heads into the season with a revamped roster and high expectations. C Andrea Bargnani broke out last year posting career highs in virtually every category and is bound to break out into a potential All-Star candidate during the ‘09-’10 season.
The combination of Bargnani and Bosh in the front-court provides Toronto with extreme height (for rebounding, blocking, and overall defensive purposes) and shooting-ability from mid-range all the way out to three-point area.
The two together are arguably the strongest 4 and 5 duo in the East.
Brothersteve’s Green & Red Raptor Blog
Marco Belinelli has been described as a good ball handler with a good first step and the ability to finish at the rim. An excellent catch and shoot player and effective off the curl with beautiful form on his high arcing shot. He can also score with a hand in his face when he’s hot. Marco has good court vision and the ability to make difficult passes.
But Belinelli has not shot well off the dribble and sometimes shows poor judgement in his shot selection. He should be a good defender with his lateral quickness and long arms and he does get steals, but he seems to lack the necessary focus so far.
Alot of DeRozan detractors claim that DeMarksman can only dunk.
Fortunately for us, we are not the only ones who disagree, this youtube video shows off newest Raptor DeMar DeRozan’s shooting ability
18 Raps
Why would people want to rate Miami over Toronto or Washington? I am very confused.
Who do they have except for Wade?
O’Neal – Haven’t we all seen what he is capable of (last 3-4 seasons)
Beasley – The guy has serious psychological issues. I don’t understand how much he could contribute this season.
Richardson – The guy got traded 4 times in one season. (For Darko, Z BO, ……, ……)
Name me one other player (except for Wade – He is the second best player in the whole league) that is better than raptors top 4.
Did they add anyone over the summer? No. Infact they lost players.
I don’t understand the love. But then people loved our team at the start of last season.
I agree Raptors will be better than the Heat. but some people put the Heat ahead of toronto because D-Wade is one of the top 5 players in the NBA and he is good enough to lead a shit team to a good record like he did last year. and as far as the article about the raps not having a deep bench. what the heck is that guy smoking. Jack, wright. bellinelli johnson evans rasho maybe demar is the deepest bench Toronto has propably ever had.
Raps prolly will b better than most teams in the east i hope they finish atleast finish in the top 5…. I agree this is a bench that the raps neve had, and this is what they need to go to playoffs and pass the first round!
Go Raps
“The two together (Bosh and Bargs) are arguably the strongest 4 and 5 duo in the East.”
quite the bold statement! Here is the argument…
KG and Sheed (BOS); Smith and HOrford (ATL); D12 and LEwis (orl); Shaq and Anderson (cle); Jamison and Haywood (was).
I would rank them this way..
1. ORL 2. TOR 3. BOS 4. ATL 5. CLE 6. WAS
Not bad, but I’d put Boston over Toronto. Even if ’sheed ends up sucking KG is still a monster.
I hope Belinelli turns out to be as Brothersteve says he can be. Could be one of the biggest steals in raptors history
I agree that Belinelli is a talented player but didn’t showed lots of fans because Don Nelson only give most of his rookies a limited playing time. For people who don’t know about Nelson, he hates rookie players!
So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Belinelli will be our “X Factor” player.
Hey I know this is off topic but it is food for thought. Do you think that an NHL team in Hamilton would have an adverse effect on the Raptors. The reasoning being that a team in Hamilton may lower leafs ticket prices, lowering MLSE revenue thus lowering their ability to spend on the Raptors. Any thoughts?
I don’t know what type of effect a Hamilton NHL team could have on MLSE, thus the Raptors in the future but its all the more reason for the Raptors to have a successful season NOW and solidify a mass fanbase. Yes I mean bandwagoners, every successful team needs them.
Off topic, but what is up with Jorge Garbajosa keeping up with JYD?
I’m actually not surprised, given the proportions that the legend of Garbo took on (performed his own leg surgery, etc.. I think it’s because he’s more recent and he went out on a high note before breaking his leg, while JYD is five years removed from TO and his game diminished until he walked away with time still left on his contract.
“given the proportions that the legend of Garbo took on (performed his own leg surgery” … Is Jorge the Dos Equis guy? lol
apparently most voters are rather new fans, as anyone who picks Jorge over the Junk Yard Dog, is just crazy..
especially after Jorge fucked the team over.
It could also be that a lot of fans knew him more by JYD/Junk Yard Dog. The poll might be skewed not having mentioned it.
It took me a second to remember who Jerome Williams was… lol.
I thought Jorge was a much better player than JYD. I’ve been a huge Raptor fan ever since they entered the league. JYD played hard and put on a big show but I loved what Garbo brought to the Raps. He suffered a serious injury, tried to play, but could not. He never screwed over the Raps on purpose…that’s a crap statement. If we had Garbo in the playoffs we would have beat the Nets and moved further in the playoffs.
Loved the attitude, defense, and team spirit Garbo brought to the Raps. I would take him over JYD any day of the week.
Agree – don’t understand the Heats ranking. Don’t really matter. I expect to see many different ranking right up to opening night.
Raptors really are one of the wildcards out there in the East this season, Wizards being the other. Both teams can expect to take a nice jump in the standings, compared to last season. Both have tha talent to have a good season. Up to the coaches now.
I agree that the Raptors will be better then the Hawks. But if Arenas is healthy , Wizards will have a scary good team.
I think we have to be realistic on the new guys ability. The bottom line is that Amir Johnson and Marco have never been able to earn minutes in the rotation. Amir for an 8th seed in Detroit who were weak at the forward and center positions and Marco for a non playoff team although they had a lot of quality guards. So to think that either one of these guys is going to be a world beater is not realistic. Could they be like Delfino when he came to the Raptors from Detroit? Sure. I could see one of these guys earning minutes and being an efffective player for 15-20 minutes per night. But to think that Marco can defend or Amir has developed good hands over the summer is setting yourself up for disappointment. I like the pick ups but these guys will have little impact on the team barring injury.
For the Raptors to be successful which in my mind means a top 6 seed and a competitive first round, they will need internal growth from Bargnani, Bosh and Calderon. If they come back ready and Hedo and Jack can apply their talents to their new team we should be good. You know what Nestorovic and Evans are going to bring.