Andrea deserves NO blame for Pops abusing the Raps inside. In the first half Pop’s was matched up against Amir and Bosh, never against Andrea. There were 2 instances in the first half where the two engaged though.
The first was when Andrea was one of the first Raps to actually get position on Pop’s and box him out, unfortunately he could not coral the rebound and it went out of bounds.
The second was when Andrea tried to front Pop’s instead of just standing his ground. This resulted in a Pop’s dunk, I’ll give you that one.

Andrea was taken out of the 3rd at 6min mark and never came back. Pop’s never entered the game until the beginning of the 4th. They were never on the court together for the second half. So I’m just baffled how you can lay blame on Andrea when the facts speak differently.

*did you mistake Rasho for Andrea?

I said that Bargnani sucks in another article comment and you disagreed with me. You also got a little personal while I didn’t get personal at all. You disagree with Yertu and get a little personal with him as well.

What’s up with that?

1. It’s not necessarily a bad thing if Bargs camps out at the 3 point line. In fact, it often creates offensive rebounding opportunities for others by drawing an opposing 7-footer out to the top of the key (Bargs takes most of his 3s from the top of the circle), where they’re likely to snag only long boads.

The problem is that the Raps don’t have player anyone in the starting unit that will crash the boards aside from Bosh. It could be a powerful tool if the Raps had the right personnel to take advantage of it (especially since you’re playing in a conference featuring Dwight Howard for X number of years to come), but you need above average rebounders at the other spots to take advantage.

2. The big thing that nobody seems to be talking about this pre-season is that the Raps have beaten two teams that have also made big offseason adjustments, and lost to teams that have remained to some degree stable (Philly is debatable in either category, but really they still play the same style aside from moments of trying to integrate Brand). This is because the established teams are practicing established plays out of their book, running them to get back into rhythm and maybe throwing in some new plays or new options here and there. Contrast this with the Raps, who have been playing a new offensive setup that’s been very erratic without it’s old standby pick and roll, and a defense that’s been getting used to a lot of new faces and a new system.

In short, the Raps are trying more stuff out and making more mistakes than the other teams. Hence they are losing. It’s pretty simple. Offensively it’s not worrying, and defensively it isn’t either because working on a system is different from keying your defense to opposing players and playing defensive match-ups. I think the Raps are going to be steady enough offensively to steal more games early in the season than people think, and the defense will improve a lot with meaningful substitution patterns, match-ups and (hopefully) an executed gameplan based off sound scouting. This isn’t a team that’s going to stop you with defensive talent, so to expect it to be there while learning the system and without full scouting is unrealistic.

Sorry, guys, but if I sound like FAQ, its because the Raps suck right now. Wow. They stink. They have two weeks to get their heads out of the backsides, or they will be o-for-october.

Slashing, rebounding, squaring up your man, fight for the &^*(&%^&^ b-ball. This team has not been known for this for 3 years, and they need to start doing it NOW. Soft floating jumpers, waiting by the perimeter, being a pylon on the floor, watching somebody else get a rebound, recieving a hard foul and doing nothing in return – that is the team I have watched the last three years.

If nothing changes, Toronto finishes above NJ and NY, but get 28 to 30 wins on the year.

I’m fully confident that some confusion will leak from the preseason into the regular season and the team will be bad for (hopefully short) periods. Especially with the tough opening schedule, it will be amplified.

However, this will improve the team long-term and they’ll be a real force as the season progresses, especially with the schedule softening. I’m very excited with Triano, I think he has a keen eye for how to use his talent effectively.

I agree in the respect that you have to overcome that lack of ability with increased effort. Even if you don’t know where to be to grab the board, make damn sure your man can’t get it either. Hopefully once the offense gets more fluid Bargs can afford to extend himself further on D. Also with Rasho, Evans, and Amir behind him who are more than willing to take his minutes by D’ing hard.

Finally, you can’t help but appreciate Triano’s attempted schemes. Sure, some things look confused, but it’s still preseason. I don’t think anyone can argue that he’s 500% more innovative than Sam ever was and that makes the games more interesting if nothing else.

A starting lineup of Bosh, Bargs, Hedo, Demar, Jose … isn’t that a vulnerable group, particularly on defense ???

JT is talking about an 8-9 player rotation .. so why not just go to 10 man platooning … Bosh, Rasho, Hedo, Demar, Jose … then … Bargs, Amir/Reggie, Weems, MarcoB, Jack.

Just brainstorming …..;-)

Lakers are doing it with Bynum, Magic are doign with Howard. If not, he will be doing what he has done for last 3 years.

They may be better at protecting the paint, but the Raptors seem unable or unwilling to close out on shooters. I think Triano needs to stress that when he says protect the paint, he doesnt mean abandon the perimiter.
Theres a good peice on this over at RaptorsBlog (sorry not sure if its ok to mention other sites here)

Ofcourse, this will never happen.