I’m not a pre-season kind of guy: on the one hand, I don’t get excited when the Raptors win a game – it’s pre-season, means nothing; but on the other hand, when they lose…WTF! Irrational, I know. Fortunately, Triano doesn’t care either way, it’s how the boys on the 2nd and 3rd units are gonna do. So far, what we’ve seen has been a mixed bag of results:
Jack – looks to make things happen, the guy is a proven commodity in the league, so we know what we were in for when we got him.
Wright – been injured, but should be ready to go when the games mean something.
Banks – he can play, but he wont be doing much of anything for the Raptors, doesn’t matter what it isn’t regular season. My candidate for worst player in the league.
Weems – when he gets the call to enter the game, folks wont be groaning and actually hoping he gets a clear look at the rim with some steam behind him.
Belinelli – Lots of game, no consistency.
Johnson – Gets at it, but no consistency.
O’Bryant – if he picks it up, we will start a shrine at RR for the guy, swear to God.
Nesterovic – giving us exactly what we thought he would.
Keys to the Game
Rebounding
The Wizard have always given the Raptors problems. How many times have you felt violently towards the career games Brendan Haywood would have against us? Jamison, Oberto, Young and Blatche will all be tough to contain. Bargnani needs to crash the boards harder, 3rebs in 23mins is unacceptable. I don’t care how efficiently he is scoring. Luckily, Bosh should be getting more then 11mins.
Arenas
For a guy who has been PAID, and hasn’t really done anything, it is amazing he kept yapping up until this year. He has been playing a little gun shy, but with happy-clapper covering him to start things off, the stage is set for him to come out of his early funk.
3-Point Shooting
The Raptors were 47.4% (9-19) from beyond the arc against the Timberwolves. If they can keep that up against a Wizards team that doesn’t play great defense, they will be tough to stop.
Quick Hits
- Whatever happened to that playbook? Looks like the high pick n roll is still standing tall with one or two newbies
- DeMar needs to step up his rebounding a bit. He could be devastating at the SG spot with his size and athleticism.
- It’s only pre-season, but so far, I have been wrong about Weems – the guy isn’t a write off
- If Johnson could stay out of foul trouble, he may not be that bad
We will be running a live-chat during the game, so come back and drop some knowledge.
11 Raps
I think Beli and Amir have been consistent is what their required to do. I do hope that this will carry on to when it really matters. I want to see Jose play against a better PG. Time to stop clapping your hands Caldy :P. Tomorrow’s game should be an interesting one.
Johnson – Gets at it, but no consistency.
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Okay last game his rebounding fell off but
Scoring
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Game 1 – 8
Game 2 – 8
Game 3 – 9
Rebounding
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Game 1 – 10
Game 2 – 8
Game 3 – 2
Scoring wise he is has been the most consistant Raptor of all.
Having said that it looks like he is out of the rotation as he has clearly fallen behind Evans, and Rasho.
When Hedo and Wright start playing Johnson will not get any minutes at the 3.
Pretty much looks like a bench warmer at this point.
Johnson was never going to get minutes at the three. He’s a 4/5. And as far as his consistency, I was talking about he dissappears during the game and picks up cheap fouls.
Johnson has disappeared during games?? When? What games did you watch where he wasn’t hustling?
From a rebounding perspective. It’s probably just me, but I expect only rebounding and defense from him. We have guys who can score.
If Johnson could stay out of foul trouble, he may not be that bad>>
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If Johnson could stay out of foul trouble and stay aggressive on offense like he was in the last game he would be the 2nd best Raptor player next to Bosh!!
However, I doubt that he will ever stay out of foul trouble because he always plays super aggressive on defense until he piles up the fouls especially when he comes off of the bench. That is why he plays better as a starter because he will tend to pace himself a little better in gathering fouls. Kind of like the difference betwee a pitcher coming in out of the bullpen vs starting.
Johnson also has this personality trait on the court of wanting to cross the line and try and get away with stuff which result in a number of fouls being called.
The only hope Johnson ever has of getting his fouls down to a more manageable level is to stay as aggressive on offense as he was in the last game and maybe even a little more so.
If Johnson stays aggressive on offense it should get him some breaks on calls from the officials. NBA officials tend to be more lenient in calling fouls on guys that can and do score because after all scoring is what gets the fans to watch.
He can definitely put up 15 – 20 a night and shoot over 50% doing it if he is aggressive on offense which he never was with the Pistons because they didn’t want him shooting. The Pistons since the days of the Bad Boys have always been and continue to be a very heavy guard oriented offense.
As a note. In Johnson’s first NBA start in 2007 he scored 20 points including making 2 out 3 from beyond the arc. It was the Pistons desire to freeze him out of the offense and his being a good team soldier going along with what his commander in chief wanted, that has led to this false image about him that he can’t shoot or score.
Having said that I still think he is going to the bench. However stranger things have happened.
The Raptors got him to play defense, rebound and block shots. Not to score, so when I talk about consistency, it is not in putting up baskets. Plus, I don’t he has the ability to score 15-20 a night because he isn’t that type of player, and, he would have done it already.
I hope you are wrong about him going to the bench, but it does look like that.
I don’t even mind the number of fouls, since he would never start for the Raptors (will always play behind Bosh and Bargnani), but if he could play 15-20 min a night, that would be huge. Hard to do that when you keep racking up fouls and killing your own mojo.
I like Amir,
The dude is a rebounding hero, EXACTLY what this team needs.
I’d like to profess a man-crush on Jose Calderon.
Did you know that he produced more wins last year than Bosh did, According to Dave Berri?
Did you know that he was 3RD IN THE LEAGUE in offensive rating last year, behind Paul Gasol and Chris Paul?
Did you know that he was in the top 10 in effective field goal % last year?
I’d like to say that I think that Calderon is a hugely-underated player.
Offensive rating is completely relative to USG%. Jose had a very low USG% which allowed for his unusually high ORtg. There is a HUGE difference between being highly efficient while baring a USG% of 26 and being highly efficient while baring a USG% of 16. And there is no way Jose was responsible for more wins last year than Bosh. Not only does basketball-reference have Bosh being responsible for more wins offensively an defensively than Jose, saying Jose was responsible for more wins then Bosh last year is effectively saying that Jose was better than Bosh last season, which just isn’t true.
Lol -1? Ok I am wrong, Jose is a top 3 offensive player in the league and is a better overall player than Bosh. My bad guys.
Justin,
I don’t disagree with anything you said. You did however quote basketball reference to prove your point that Bosh contributed more than Calderon whereas I quoted another statistical source indicating that Calderon produced more wins than Bosh. So all we are really doing is comparing statistical sites, no?
Point well taken about USG rates, however I my overall point is Jose is underrated and I think we can agree on that.