We were finally able to get beyond the madness of Media Day and are ready to get down to business. Day 1 had a couple themes:
Health
Bosh is on the shelf for the next few weeks, which is a big blow to this team. This is Triano’s first training camp, and you know he isn’t happy that his franchise player (sorry Hedo, but this is still Bosh’s team) is out for all of it. Not only do the Raptors have new players that need to be integrated, but Triano has to impart his system while getting everyone to play nice. Yes, Bosh can sit in class with the rest of them, but what about actually running through sets? There comes a point where Triano will run out of chalk, and the guys will need to mimic the X’s and O’s, and run the plays. This is where Bosh will be missed. Sure, Amir and Evans will get burn on the 1st unit, but long term, this isn’t the plan.
Colangelo did say that no one wins a championship in October, but what about building a solid team? How much of an issue will not having Bosh in the mix while the rest of the lot go through the motions be? My guess is minimal, since he will still be around the lot of them, and will know the plays, but I have to wonder about the dynamic of the A-squad with a B-Squad piece mixed in.
We all know why Bosh is injured: he worked out too damn hard over the summer putting on 15lbs of muscle. From what I have read and seen, he did it the the right way. He didn’t just bulk up, but he did it in a manner that wont be affecting his bread-and-butter: his quickness. Tell me you aren’t excited to see how he is going throw around his KG’esque frame in the blocks come November.
Turkoglu’s name popped up as well. There is concern for his legs from a busy Euroleague summer which saw Hedo have a solid tournament. Add in the Finals run the Magic made and the whirlwind courting by the Blazers and Toronto, our $53mil man hasn’t had very much rest. With Hedo being on the wrong side of 30 (aka older then 29) this can be an issue, but if Triano manages his minutes properly over the next few months, I don’t see this being that big of an issue.
Expectations
We all read between the lines, that BC swung for the fences this summer and put together what he thought was a solid team that improved over last season (and to a degree I do share this sentiment), but when he actually came out said the goal is 50 wins, wow. You would have hoped he learned his lesson from last season’s claim that this was the most talented team he has assembled in Toronto, and managed expectations. He went the other direction, and what that has done is fuse most fans, and the media to a degree, with a new sense of optimism.
You nab one of the centerpieces of the Orlando team that was a couple layups away from winning the championship, add some athletic wings who can create and potentially play defense to the core of Bosh, Calderon and an improving Bargnani, and we have ourselves a team that can win some games, and play an entertaining brand of basketball. Shoot, this is better then watching a labouring HO come up short from 8 feet out in the paint.
One thing that excites me is that Triano is giving Calderon and Jack free reign during scrimmages. I personally love watching free wheeling guys, who play in control, but are fluid in what they are trying to do out there. Jah knows Calderon needs to loosen up and make some plays more often as opposed to making the open pass…sorry, couldn’t resist.
Getting Smart
I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but there has been an emphasis that Triano is sitting these cats down, and trying to increase the collective basketball IQ. Call it NBA crowd sourcing. It seems as though the direction is defensive oriented. I must admit, I liked the sound of that. We have heard from numerous folks (Leo being the latest, video below), that these cats can score, but they can also be effective defensively.
We do have athletic players, some of whom have never been accused of playing defense, but apparently all they need is to be told HOW. Here I thought it took a willingness/desire/commitment to play defense, not just your coach instructing you on the proper crouching tiger defensive stance. Fortunately, they will be able to concentrate with the ban on cell phones during practice.
53 Raps
“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but there has been an emphasis that Triano is sitting these cats down, and trying to increase the collective basketball IQ. Call it NBA crowd sourcing. It seems as though the direction is defensive oriented. I must admit, I liked the sound of that.”
Haven’t I been hammering that home too? If the team is to gel, it must first bond. Bonding is a friendship matter, and now we shall see if this disparate group of bballers have what it takes to perform in the NBA.
Of course, injuries will cripple any team, and if Bosh doesn’t recover from his hamstring injury, which can become chronic, the season will be jeopardized. If Hedo comes to camp fatigued from the off-season play, that too is not a good signal.
Better start praying that the bench will step up big time or else the playoffs are only a fantasy.
You have, but it is nice to hear these things from the horses mouths. Injuries will cripple any team, but you can’t tell me that if the Raptors lose Bosh or Turkoglu, that they are as good as say the Celtics when they lost Garnett and made a run into the 2nd round of the playoffs last season.
I’ve always been somewhat of a conspiracy theorist, but I’m wondering if Bosh and Hedo really aren’t hurt. What if maybe the objective of them sitting out has more to do with getting the others ready to compete for 2nd and 3rd string at those respective positions??
There are quite a few guys that are big question marks and those questions need to be answered and fast..
The injuries are legit if not serious, but this is another way to get the bench people on par with each other. It is a fortune coming out of a misfortune.
Defence isn’t just moving your feet and being in the right spot, communication is a key and Johnson said Wallace taught him a lot about communicating with teammates.
http://altraps.com/2009/08/26/toronto-raptors-linkage-for-august-21st-through-august-26th/
I watched a lot of Pistons games and you especially later on during the season you could see when Johnson was on the court that he was directing the defense both verbally and with hand signals.
If Johnson just plays defense like Wallace did in the post, wow, we would be in good shape.
Actually Johnson’s career defensive rating is 100 compared to Wallace 101
Of course those are only numbers for what they are worth.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DET/2009.html
82games. com shows Johnson with a +5.4 on court production last season, best on the Pistons vs Wallace 5.0 2nd best on the Pistons. Then again those are only numbers.
http://www.82games.com/0809/0809DET.HTM
The Reggie video still freezes at 13 seconds… did he scare the video to the point at 0:13 and the video does not want to complete itself so it does not want to get grabbed at?
He knocked the camera over when he saw a new tray of donuts being brought in.
July 13, 2009, 2:05 pm
The Doughnut Wars Begin
By Libby Nelson
The Canadian doughnut invasion has begun.
Over the weekend, 12 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn underwent a transformation, emerging Monday morning as the first New York City locations of Tim Hortons, a Canadian chain that sells coffee and baked goods. The Riese Organization, which owns the stores, recently ended its affiliation with Dunkin’ Donuts, hoping that another franchise would produce better profits.
“As the boss, I knew I wanted to replace a doughnut with a doughnut,” Dennis Riese, the company’s chief executive, said before a ceremony inside Penn Station on Monday morning at the opening of Tim Hortons.
The ribbon-cutting included two former New York Rangers players, Rod Gilbert and Glenn Anderson. Tim Horton, the founder of the doughnut chain, played for the Rangers from 1969 to 1971. City Councilman David Weprin, who was also on hand, said the chain’s arrival “shows New York City is on the move, that we’re a desirable market,” Mr. Weprin said.
Customers at the Penn Station location and at another new Tim Hortons on 34th Street near Seventh Avenue had more varied reactions. Some had tried the chain’s offerings in Canada and were lining up for more.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/the-donut-wars-begin/?scp=3&sq=tim+hortons&st=cse&apage=2
What Yank who probably has never had Horton’s donuts before wouldn’t push a camera out of the way to get some? Seems like the normal thing to do.
Every Dunkin Donut I’ve had has been stale. It’s no wonder you have to dunk them. They’re so rock hard you have to soften them up first.
Tims Donuts aren’t winning any prizes either – they make them in bulk, then ship to the stores.
You are aware that Tim Hortons is an American owned company and has been for awhile right?
Was.
Not anymore.
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/658256
Make no misatake I love all things Canadian and bleed maple syrup et al. but its the headquarters that has moved back to Canada per the article.
Its still a 100% American company.
Thanks for the HT:
I was not aware of that.
However, I do think that most people think of them as Canadian donuts.
According to their last 10K they had over 200 locations in MI so I would imagine that Johnson knew about Hortons donuts while he played for the Pistons.
I seem to recall when he was a rookie with the Pistons that he actually dropped the box of donuts or something like that.
Good thing the Raptors don’t play any donut teams.
“The Reggie video still freezes at 13 seconds… did he scare the video to the point at 0:13 and the video does not want to complete itself so it does not want to get grabbed at?”
Well Played Sir.
Fixed. Enjoy! ;)
how do i watch raptors games online on a mac, is this possible. thank you
Someone somewhere usually posts a link to a stream.
You can’t. Mac’s are only good for artsy things. Sports are too low brow for the mac.
there are a couple sites that offer live tv…
this is one: http://www.atdhe.net/
another is: http://www.justin.tv/directory?category=sports
there are also normally links on raptors republic homepage… quality is never that good but its better than nothing.
not sure when it starts (or whether it’ll run on Macs) but NBA league pass broadband is supposed to be accessible in Canada this year. It’s not too too much ($120/season last year) considering all the games you get.
Why not. Go for it.
Christ, Matt Devlin is back? Well that’s just so great.
I hate listening to him, HE IS SOOOO FAKE!
I gotta point out the context of BC’s “50 wins” statement:
What he said (and I’m paraphrasing) is that the goal of this team should be to position themselves to advance in the playoffs, which would be facilitated by finishing the season as, realistically, the 4th or 5th seed, which would very likely require the team to win 50 games. And if this team is as good as they are, winning 50 games should be a goal the team should strive to reach.
That said, he’s absolutely right.
If BC had said “45 wins” instead, than the goal would be to finish the season as the 5th-7th seed, which wouldn’t facilitate advancing in the playoffs which starts with winning a first round series.
The goal for this team should be to finish the season as the 4th seed (i.e. 50 wins).
I took part in a demonstration/experiment one time that showed how having a ‘specific number’ for a target produced results that were (roughly) 80 per cent better as compared to a ‘best as you can’ target. Made me a believer.
To be fair James, the eastern conference is comprised of 3 teams that will beat up everyone else, and about 9 teams that will be within about 5 games over/under of .500 (including us) and 1 or 2 teams that underperform and ultimately tank for draft picks. 4th and 5th seeds last year were Atlanta (47 wins) and Miami (43 wins). Since then the parity in the 2nd tier group has become more competative and therefore separating your team from the pack will be that much more difficult. 45 wins will get a team into the 4th vs 5th matchup, which is what we’re hoping for.
Now as far as BC’s quote, its hard to say his motive, but he’s not going to put together a team as aggressively as he has and not have high expectations for this team. Its not as if he’s going to fire everyone if that expectation isnt met, its just good practice to push the organization for results.
I absolutely agree. He wasn’t being overly optimistic at all. 60 wins would have been overly optimistic. 50 wins might actually happen.
We’re all familiar with the 3 tier structure of the Eastern conference. It might be unrealistic to think we can finish with a better record than the Orlandos, the Bostons, and the Clevelands of the East, but it is not unrealistic whatsoever that we finish with a better record than the Atlantas, the Philidelphias, the Detroits, what have you.
I’m not saying they WILL reach 50, but I am damn sure if things fall into place that they CAN do it.
Go Raps!
50 wins is being very optimistic, 60 wins would be just be dumb.
I have to agree with Justin in the sense that 50 wins is our best case scenario. By definition, that means being optimistic.
That being said, I think that our mostly-injury-free worst case scenario is 40 wins (worse if we have to deal with significant injuries).
Realistically, I would be very happy with around 45 wins this season, and so should any sensible fan. If Bosh resigns with that, we can have great continuity (from having our core group signed for several years) and a fairly young group of players that are still improving (Bargnani, Derozan, Belinelli, Johnson). That win total could thus grow to 50, maybe even 55 wins if several of these young guys develop well.
OT … have to get it off my mind … sorry
Chris Bosh has had a good run with the Raptors and I think fans should think about Chris’ feelings as to where he will work for the next 6 years under a max contract.
I read that a max contract with the Raptors could be as high as $125 Million .. whereas with any other team it would only be about $100 Million. Fans in love with Bosh claim he loves Toronto and will not give up $25 Million by leaving.
I think this is the wrong way to look at Bosh. He has strong ties to his Texas home and family living there. Why would he want to stay in Toronto, buy a mansion and try to start a family in Canada when his family lives in Dallas??
Fans tend to be selfish and only think of their own needs and feelings. Chris did say “money is not everything” in an interview a couple of years ago … and we should take him at his word. $25 Million over 6 years living unhappily in Toronto is meaningless .. he wants to improve the quality of his life away from basketball.
I can see Cuban finally releasing his friend Dirk to bring in youthful Bosh in a trade with Toronto. Older Dirk will come in much cheaper than Bosh, and the Raptors can even pick up another good athletic player to even out the deal.
Raptor fans should think of Bosh’s feelings rather than their own for once.
FCUK THAT!!!!! I’ll consider my nuts before I consider Bosh’s feelings. The dude is getting paid mucho deniro to play ball, my heart bleeds for him.
At the end of the season, Chris Bosh can and will sign with whichever team he wants that can meet his salary demand.
Whether he stays or goes is his choice. (So no one need be concerned with his feelings because his feelings will be fine).
I do hope Bosh does decides to stay. But if he doesn’t, I hope he has as much success at Tracy McGrady has had since he left town in 2001.
So for the tribal honking fan it’s a “love-hate” mentality and a “friend or foe” approach ….???!!!!
I enjoyed watching TMac playing bball and didn’t care for which team he played for … unlike small-minded fans who want to win at any cost … me me me me ….
I’m betting Bosh will walk at the end of the season for less money than the Raptors can offer him just to be closer to his family in Texas rather than suffering needlessly in Toronto … or … he may be traded mid-season to a potential playoff team and the Raptors continue their development phase.
It’s called grey. Get used to it, it’ll be November before you know it.
If things go well this season, there’s no reason why he wouldn’t stay. If they don’t go well, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t try to move him.
Either or, somehow, we’ll survive.
Whether Bosh stays or goes next summer, I think he’s going to give it his all this season – and that’s all that matters and all we (fans/team/org) want to see.
“I enjoyed watching TMac playing bball and didn’t care for which team he played for … unlike small-minded fans who want to win at any cost … me me me me ….”
I wish selfless heroes like McGrady knew what an amazing friend they have – a guy(?) who isn’t afraid to stand up to the honking fools that can’t see how stupid and selfish and greedy they are. Fans of teams are so stupid with their me-first, win-at-all-cost outlook. It’s so selfish to not support TMac in his ongoing efforts to make the world a better place. All this dude has ever done is give and give. With him, it’s never “me…me… me..”. It’s more like, “here… no, you first, … please, I insist….” If fans could just stop being so stupid for half a second they could learn a lot from this guy because he’s obviously really huge-minded and is clearly above all this cheering for a team crap, which makes him better than everyone, especially you. Yeah, you.
Well played sir. Touché!
Nice post. Agree on everything.
Tim Hortons is the worst (no offense canada). I don’t think they stand a chance making it much further south. Let alone making it here in ny.
It was a nice post. And adding the video clips was a great touch.
Thanks, Raps fan! ;)
tim hortons was good before once. before the whole wendys ownership thing. now yes it isnt very good.
Bearvon we can handle the Tim Horton slight just watch what you say about Celine Dion.
But seriously I have not seen a training camp roster – has someone got a link? – thanks.
The training camp roster is EXACTLY the same roster as the regular season one. There are no invites to camp. No one is fighting for a job, aside from O’Bryant and Banks’ eternal fight over who has to keep the Gatorade cool.
Good thing? Bad thing?
I’m gonna say good thing. Colangelo knew Hassan Adams was never going to play. If that’s the case, why even have him on the roster at all?
Maybe Doubs will get some burn this year. I hope not.
Thanks Raps Fan
Wow, I don’t recall another example of such a small training camp roster. At the LT + 15 guaranteed contracts = no interest in looking for a 12th to 15th roster spot occupier I guess.
Just a note to the admin, this site crashes Windows 7 and IE8, had to install firefox.
Before you give me a computer lesson, and how firefox is better, etc, I am just pointing it out, becasue this site is geared to the general audience of sports, not techies, it would be nice if it was accessible to all.
I mean it crashes ie8, not the entire operating system (thought i would mention the OS just in case).
Thanks Trizzo, we will look into it. I actually think it is the videos we have posted on this page, been getting grief everywhere about it.
Thank god I am still running Windows 3.1! Netscape Navigator biatches!
You would know all about Hamstrings wouldn’t you Jose? xD Kinda bugged me how CB4 and Hedo didn’t come. I understand how they both worked hard and CB has a bit of an injury but cmon Turk. We’re not paying you 50 mil + to sit there and look pretty. Gah, hope this doesn’t turn into a habit.