The final from Minneapolis was 112-97. Chris Bosh got his first action of the pre-season and according to our podcast guest, John Focke of the T’Wolves radio network, looked “like a gazelle”. He even managed to get T’d up in an altercation with Ryan Hollins. Booyeah! Bring on Danny Granger. Check out the short and sweet podcast and find out which Raptor other than Bargnani (excellent game) and Bosh impressed the most. You’ll be surprised. Other topics include whether Jack outplayed Jose again, what to make of Bargnani’s 3 rebounds, Jonny Flynn’s terrible game, how DeRozan fared, how Love controlled the game against Bosh/Bargnani, what Reggie Evans was up to and a lot more.
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Highlights and more after the jump.
Some interview points:
- Raptors jumped on the Timberwolves, had 37 points in the first quarter and never let up. 54% shooting from the Raptors, 41% from the T’Wolves.
- Very impressed with Bosh, very active, went at it. Got a great steal on Kevin Love, hit a smooth jumper and drove the ball a lot. Only played in the first half.
- Bargnani “really, really impressed” and was phenomenal today with his drives and jumpers, very high percentage shooting 8-11 FG 21 points.
- Repeatedly described DeRozan as a very athletic player, got an early hoop on the break, struggled with his shot but the potential is evident.
- Asked Ryan Gomes whether he felt Bosh’s weight, he said no but John sees the extra strength.
- Wasn’t that impressed with Belinelli, didn’t show anything that jumped out as impressive.
- Impressed with Sonny Weems’ athleticism and aggressiveness.
- Amir Johnson described as very aggressive and agile.
- Toronto’s ball movement was very good.
- Jay Triano described already described as a “stand-up guy” and one of his favorite coaches whose philosophies are impressive.
- Jonny Flynn didn’t have a good game but he doesn’t think Flynn’s far from being a starter. Has been maturing in practice and has the ability to run an NBA offense. He’s the leader of the team despite being a rookie. Had a very nice AND1 today.
- Calderon was better than Jack today who looked very much like a backup and “didn’t show much”. Gives Calderon a 6.5/10 and Jack a 4.5/10.
- Toronto has a lot of big guys but the only guy who was pursuing rebounds was Reggie Evans.
- T’Wolves won the rebounding battle 45-36. Comparing Jefferson/Love to Bosh/Bargnani, he feels that our big men are more finesse players but thinks that the signing of Reggie Evans makes a lot of sense since he’s “trash man”. He compares the Reggie Evans signing to the Kevin Love acquisition. In other words, get a guy who loves to rebound to offset big men who tend to shy away.
- Pleasantly surprised with Kevin Love over the last two years who has improved his athleticism and added another dimension to his offense – a jumper. He doesn’t let a rebound “bounce” and puts himself between “man and basket” which some guys just don’t like to do.
- Sees the Raptors making the playoffs.
Triano on Bosh:
“Sometimes your first game back you’re rusty and you look lethargic out there, but he looked like he had bounce,” Triano said. “He looked good until he fatigued. “He’s going to have to be our anchor at the defensive end,” said coach Jay Triano. “He’s our most agile player, we’ve seen when he played with United States Olympic team how good a defender he can be. “He’s changed his body and he’s got a little bit more of a physical presence so we don’t think he’ll have a problem doing it. “If we’re going to be a good team, though, he’s going to have to be a better force for us at the defensive of the floor and be the guy who sets the tone.”
Bosh on the weight gain:
“We tackled all those issues,” he said. “These were our goals: ‘We want to gain ‘x’ amount of pounds but we want to have an intensity to the workouts and we’re going to work on different elements to make sure you don’t slow down, that you actually speed up. It was hard work.’ “I knew that was going to be a concern for a lot of people so I wanted to surprise everybody.”
Bosh on the upcoming season:
“Last year, we did a lot of talking,” he said. “We felt that we were going to be a good team we talked about it, we had no problem expressing that to the media and all this talking built up to the season and then when the season came, the things that we said did not translate to the court. “I would rather just not say anything. That way everybody can be surprised in the right way. Not like last year, when we were surprised in the wrong way. “Let’s just go to work and work hard and see what happens on the court.”
Kurt Rambis on his team’s effort:
“We’re going to be outmatched a lot of the nights, but we shouldn’t be where our effort hurts us,” he said.
Ryan Gomes
“We took a step backwards, especially being on our home court and losing like that,” forward Ryan Gomes said. “We did fight back a little bit, but still, you look at the start of the game, that was the difference.”
35 Raps
Great Job!
This was very informative. =)
Flynn actually didnt look that good tonight, he has the skills, but he is far from running an NBA offense. He needs at least 20 games before he figures out what he needs to do
great job with the podcast tonight.
Thanks for the podcast with John Focke. It was great to hear from someone who actually got to see the game.
arse u rock.good stuff.
Bosh got involved in an altercation? With whom? Sweeet!!
“…He even managed to get T’d up in an altercation with Ryan Hollins…”
Pretty specific.
Scott.
I hope you know it’s an irony. I meant to say Ryan Hollins because I don’t know who heck this guy is.
that would be called sarcasm bud, not irony…
Actually sardonic, not sarcastic. Sarcasm, by its nature has an intent to wound.
Irony is when you point out that someone used the wrong word, and then you correct them with a different wrong word.
+1 Touché
I appreciate Mr. Focke’s efforts and his effort to bring us what no media outlet (save Doug Smith) seems prepared to do, but I really don’t see how Love “complements” Jefferson at all.
Love is a nice trashman/rebounder who works his tail off and understands the game well(a la a better version of Reggie Evans) but can’t shoot and has no other game. Sure, he got 14 rebounds, but he also shot like 3-10. Want to guess how many of those rebounds are followed misses?
Jefferson was a great rebounding piece at the 4 as it was. They didn’t need to play two undersized fours who rebounded, they needed a guy with some upside and scoring ability at the two (and SCORING). They also needed a taller half decent center to make up for Big Al’s lack of size.
They passed on OJ Mayo who would have solved their problem at the two (they are one of the few teams in the league with a shooting guard who can’t shoot–we happen to be another, although at least we have shooters everywhere else). Instead they pick up retread Mike Miller and McHale ends up with a clone of himself without the other hall of fame talents to make up for Love’s lack of ability.
This year they pick a guy who won’t play for them and about fifty point guards. I have no idea what they are doing. The Raptors “Euro” experiment may fail–but at least it’s a plan to begin with.
Would I like to have him on ths team? Sure. He’d be a nice bench complement. But there’s no way I’m taking him in the lottery–ever.
Judging by Ryan Gomes last response regarding losing to the Raptors, I still sense that the Raptors are still far away from getting some RESPECT in this league by other teams, meaning that even the bottom feeders of the NBA who are used to being a sub 500 team for years, feel confident enough that they have a shot at beating the Raptors at their home court.
Hopefully this season we will gain some of the RESPECT back by beating teams we are supposed to beat on the road and also stealing games from other teams who are far superior then us. It will be nice if the Raptors are able to catch the Cavs napping in their first game of the season.
Thanks for the podcast, wicked stuff. Interesting to hear how Calderon impressed today and Jack looked like a back up.
About love adding a jumper. I watched a lot of him in college and its just not the case. He showed really nice range at ucla and made people play for leaving him open on the outside.
College balls are smaller.
No there not. All mens balls are the same. from high school to the pros.
A better effort from the Raptors last night hopefully means a bigger crowd on Sunday (but I doubt it) Still Sunday’s game will be a good early test for Jose, it looks like Arenas is in good form already.
From the boxscore, full play-by-play, and the podcast it sounds like Sonny Weems as outperformed his SG competition again. Weems is basicly a rookie. If he outperforms DeRozan and Belinelli, there is no reason not to give him the nod to start! Competition for minutes – got to love it!
Bargnani looks ready offensively. 8 of 11 for 21 points in 22 minutes, A plus 18. Looks like starting lineup dominated.
Weems got the start and led team with a plus 22. 27 minutes 5 of 7, 11 pts and 6 assists. Banks had nice numbers, 3 of 5, 7 pts 2 assists in 12 minutes played. A minus 5 but was probably on with C unit. If we are believe in Triano’s mantra, you got to earn your keep, these two have been trying hard.
We got killed on the boards,45 -36 giving up 15 offensive to only 6. Lucky we shot the lights out, shooting 54% overall, 9 of 19 for three. Sill missing FT’s, going 21 for 31. Triano’s been with this team to know you can’t live by that.
Bosh had 7 in 11 minutes which looks promising. Have always stated key to success is him deferring offensively to Bargnani and crashing the boards. He’s worked hard to get stronger, lets see smash the boards. 10 boards should no longer be the goal. Become a monster.
Bargnani’s 3, zero offensive, in 22 minutes, DeRozan, 3, zero offensive, in 24 minutes. Belinelli, 2 in 27 minutes. Cannot be excused.
I hope Bargnani is extremely efficient in his shooting,
’cause the rest of his game sucks ass (okay man-defense aside)
IMHO, this guy is the 2nd most overrated player in the league (1st is Iverson)
I hope you don’t mind if we ignore your ill-informed opinion.
Do what you gotta do
i hate dumb people.
where’s that “dislike” button when you need it….
are you trying to be ironically sarcastic?
lol, yeah.
that and the like/dislike buttons weren’t showing on my mac . grrr.
Which rest of his game exactly sucks ass as offensively he’s dominant, and his man defense is as good as any other on the team. If you and everyone else are slamming basically his rebounding get over it. He could easily get 7 to 9 boards a night if he played under the hoop like other centers but clearly that is not where he plays nor where the raps want him to play.
You know very little about seeing a special talent.
The 7 to 9 rebounds that he could get if he played under the hoop would only pertain to the offensive end, no? He is away from the basket because of his perimeter oriented offensive game. That says nothing about the defensive end, where the majority of rebounds are collected. He is under the hoop on the defensive end, yet still can’t corral any rebounds. He is so awful at rebounding that I believe Scott Carefoot pointed out that he has the worst rebounding % of any 7 footer in the last 30-40 years or something like that. It’s not that he is simply a terrible rebounder, but he is HISTORICALLY TERRIBLE.
I don’t mind Bargnani’s offensive game, but if he doesn’t shoot efficiently, they shouldn’t keep him on the floor, as he has zero concept of team-defense, can be turnover prone, and is absolutely allegeric to the ball when it comes to rebounding.
Dave Berri and his Wins Produced measure had Bargnani as the worst player in the entire F’N league a couple of years ago and still pretty awful last year. His PER score (PER is a measure which takes to put more value on scoring) was 14.8 last year although I acknowledge that from January onwards, it was likely better than that.
In short, IMHO, poor team defense + absolutely god-awful rebounding numbers + okay man defense + turnovers trump efficient shooting.
We have the biggest pussy in the NBA as our starting centre, HELP!
I should say that I am a huge Raptor fan and would love it if Bargnani developed an all-around game, but based on what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like it’s gonna happy.
If you’re a huge Raptor’s fan and would love it if Bargs developed an all round game then wake up because he is developing before your eyes and you’re blinded by thinking all big men need to play like Howard. When you call him a pussy I’m wondering why you don’t single out Bosh or others since they are softer still. Bargs is arguably the best scoring option on the Raps, developing a better and better post game, a great passer and a good defender and the best man to man defender of the bigs for sure.
You obviously know nothing but what you already believe because his shooting percentage is almost as high as Bosh’s and he shoots almost equally as well from the three which Bosh does not: his shooting percentage is also higher than Turk’s. He led the team in blocked shots with 20% less playing time than Bosh. He is not turnover prone as you mistakenly say; Last season his TO percentage was less than Bosh, Calderone, Turk, Marion…
You obviously have no clue and cannot appreciate a rare talent. Look at every players stats and they all have weaker spots. He averaged 6 rebounds per game as a starter last year playing 20% less time than Bosh and playing the perimeter.
Get your facts right if you want to say you love the team and hope he develops but think he is a pussy. He also played hard last year against Yao, Howard and other big men in the league.
I disagree that he is a good defender. I will conceed that he is an average man-defender but his help defense, recover defense, overall team defense is shoddy. 6 rebounds/game is simply not good enough and his rebounding rate is bloody awful.
You can disagree because that’s your right. No problem. But you also got most of your facts wrong. Also you obviously think the only way to play the game is with a traditional big under the hoop and I disagree that that’s the only way to play. For the most part I find that rather boring and I love seeing an athletic big man that can shoot. He will never be a big rebounder because that’s not where he plays nor where they want him to play.
Why is Turk a poor rebounder,poor defender, with a mediocre shooting percentage, and rather unathletic worth $10 million per year? Because he brings alot of other things to the game others at his position do not..great instinct, passing, and court vision as well as basketball IQ.
Similar to Bargs who does not rebound as well as some bigs, but brings way more than most others at everything else..great vision, passing, dribble, shooting, man defense, range..things most bigs do not have.
Weems a winner … Belinelli a bust ..???!!!!
As JT said after the Sixers game, he’s watching to see which of the new players can earn a spot on the bench rotation in the regular season. Looks like Weems may be in and Rocky needs to work off some of the pasta because he looks like he can only play below the basket .. and yer SG/SF has got to be able to elevate and slam..!!!
It’s going to be interesting to see if JT is going to stick with the PNR when Bosh and Hedo are on the floor … or whether it’s going to be a passing team Euro-style to set up for the open shot.
Calderon, Turkoglu, and Bosh are masters of the PNR, and a big reason to bring in the Turk. It will remain the staple of the offensive half court sets.
Arsenalist any reason why my reply to Statement was pulled? It was not offensive and merely pointed out he was mistaken with facts.