Turkoglu’s play was one of the few bright spots on a very dismal afternoon.C’mon man, try to stay positive, it’s only pre-season. That’s what I was telling myself after the game, to not lose faith so early and give Triano a chance, a chance at a full training camp and pre-season. Since pre-season isn’t over yet I won’t pass judgment on whether we’re an out-of-sync unit or just a unit on its way to finding the light. As disappointing this home performance was, let’s show some faith in Triano and let him get the pre-season the management felt he needed to instill his philosophies and principles. This game made you cringe because you saw the worst of some of our supposed rotational players and another very sub-par performance from our star. But hey, it’s the C**tics, we’re supposed to lose to them, right?
Fist up, as much as I loathe that team you have to be impressed by their defensive energy, communication, teamwork, effort and most of all, ball movement. They move the ball till the seams wear off and always get a shot that they want. I counted maybe 5-7 possessions where they were “forced” into a shot, the Raptors on the other hand were forced into a shot they’d rather not take every third possession. I hope that this has all to do with our offense being very raw and not a more severe problem such as lack of creativity on the part of players and coaches. Hey hey, it’s pre-season. I got to stop getting ahead of myself.
I think I covered the individual performances well enough in the ratings post so there’s not much more to say, I suppose I could talk about the game flow, how we started poorly, picked it up in the early second only to drop the ball in the second half. The pattern was similar to the previous Boston game as in the C**tics’ quality and depth slowly and surely pulled away and fatigue hit us like a ton of bricks. There’s more to it though, the major story lines are our vaunted defense allowing them to shoot 76% in the first quarter, Bosh’s performance against the Boston bigs, Amir Johnson failing his first real test in a likely role off the bench, Bargnani showing some mettle, Calderon and DeRozan picking up their games without having the stats to show for it, Turkoglu getting into the groove, Belinelli and Rasho megafails and finally, how our offense needs to be sorted out BIG TIME.
I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it again: I don’t like the way Bosh allows himself to be neutralized. A weak front by Kendrick Perkins should be easily negotiable, even if there’s a weak-side defender waiting in case the lob is made. Just look at the C**tics, in those cases they use a pass back to the top followed by a hi-low to get an easy layup, a foul, or force the whole defense to collapse in the paint thus spawning their ball movement. If Perkins is on you, you don’t fade. Period. No excuses, nothing. You use your God-given advantage over hm which is your quickness, you don’t fade because that’s what he wants you to do. It doesn’t matter if you happen to draw a couple fouls that way, it’s still what Doc Rivers prefers. Garnett was given the Bargnani assignment leaving Bosh with the easier matchup of Perkins but we couldn’t gain an advantage. And that muscle you added, put it to use because you sure don’t need it to fade.
Bosh’s third quarter performance was terrible, it was a key stretch in the game where he went scoreless, conceded offense rebounds and became offensively anonymous. After Turkoglu sliced the lead to 5 after two quick scores, Boston went on to outscore the Raps by 10 the rest of the quarter. Bosh in this quarter had zero points and zero impact. Game over. Sometimes crunch time comes early, today was one of those days. Not to rip on the guy too much, but am I being unfair if I expect a certain level of excellence from him? Triano commented on how the team ran out of gas again:
“(In the) third quarter we were on borrowed time, really,” Triano said after the Celtics out-scored Toronto 47-33 in the final two quarters. “Right now, due to the injuries and guys getting late starts in training camp, we’re just over half a game ready. “And then you can see it, physically we can’t do it and when the physical part goes, the mental part of it goes and we’re not thinking as far as coverages are concerned.” “Thirty-one (minutes) for Chris right now is probably a little bit high and we’ve got to find a way to get that up another eight minutes (before the Oct. 28 opener),” Triano said. “Hedo struggled a little bit as far as his wind was concerned, but we tried to play them enough and push them.
Let’s get the PF position out of the way – Amir Johnson. Oh man, you let me down today. I was hoping this could be your real coming out party against Kevin Garnett and Baby Davis but you let me down. What is up with posting up like a hunchback? What is up with trailing Garnett back on the break? What is up with the defensive rebounding positioning? What is up with the footwork? He looked terrible out there, he was given a real chance as the first big off the bench and just wasn’t into the game which is scary because with his chief rival out, he’s supposed to come out firing and make Triano’s decision simple. At the end of the day, Reggie gained points on him by not even playing.
Kudos to Bargnani for showing some pride out there today, his attitude was right and that’s a big part of what needs to be right if you want to beat a team like Boston. 3 rebounds in 21 minutes is bad and but half of his 6 fouls were utter shite. Calderon and him showed some great chemistry in that second quarter and it’s very obvious that Turkoglu and DeRozan are on the same page as him, at least on offense. I liked how Bargnani took on Kendrick Perkins in the post and shut him down, he peeled off screens looking for his shot and made a couple sweet, sweet passes from the high-post, something I think should be a part of our offense. Put him in a position where he gets to use his vision and passing ability, sure beats giving it to Bosh in the post and waiting…and waiting…and waiting…
Battier’s battering woke up Turkoglu and he looked very good – fluid movements, confident jumpers, excellent screen usage and clever with the ball. He even hit the boards on his way to 16/5/3 in 28. The offense runs much smoothly when he’s controlling the play because he’s a dual threat – can sneak by you any time for a shot and is always looking to pass to a cutter, if there is one. He’s got a PGs radar on that old head of his and I’m liking him as the point forward. Part of the reason for that is because I’m hating the Calderon/Jack backcourt combo. Neither of those two plays like a SG on offense, they just stand there on the perimeter as a three-point threat, that’s all. There’s very little off-the-ball movement by either of them and they become easy to guard, but hey, it’s early and we haven’t worked on the offense yet.
Jack had a very subpar defensive game, it’s like he hadn’t read the scouting report on Eddie House and Ray Allen. There were a lot of turnovers on his watch and the ball kept getting stuck in his hands for far too long. 4-8 FG is a nice shooting display but in a game like this we’re counting on him to do more driving ‘n kicking and break down the defense than just use a screen and pull-up for a jumper. Rondo and House over the last two games have shown us what quick, penetrating PGs can bring, it’s an element that remains lacking on this Raptors team and that’s something our offensive sets will have to compensate for.
I’ll end with Belinelli who came in as a first half sub and looked very passive. Again, Triano hasn’t put in his offense yet so I’m not sure how much to blame his confusion and incoherence on that, but it would be an understatement to say that he looked lost with the ball in his hands. Just like Johnson, he’s used to playing an open style no-defense game this pre-season, but Sunday was different. It required him to shorten his game, make it more compact and get him thinking about how to get his offense in a structured manner. He had no clue. In contrast, DeRozan knows that when somebody’s up in your face you drive on him and he did that to the tune of 7 legit FTs – excellent work man, very, very pleasing to see. His pull-up shot’s not there yet but once he gets that going he can be deadly.
A word about Calderon – he looked stronger, more confident in his approach, looked to turn on the screen and got up in Rondo’s face. The box score isn’t impressive and if you didn’t see the game, take my word that he looked more season-ready than he’s ever looked. I’d say this was the most intense he’s played and it’s not surprising, he doesn’t like the C**tics and wants to beat them badly. Too bad for him and us that we’ll have to wait…and wait…and wait…
67 Raps
Stop deluding yerself and misleading all those naive Raptor fans who post/lurk on this forum … the current edition of the Raptors stinks to high heaven, and you don’t need to wait until the regular season to come to that sober conclusion.
Bosh must hate coming to work every day, knowing that at worse he is stuck in Toronto until the season is over, or at best being traded away to a potential contending team before the trade deadline.
And there is no way Triano & Staff will magically transform this disparate group of scrubs into anything close to a playoff contender.
Only a moron would conclude otherwise …..
Just wondering like most, how much credence to give this game and particularly the performance of Bosh.
Did anybody feel that he was better the last outing against the C’s?
Also when do we get to stare at what this team is going to be…Dec. 1st? Is that enough time realistically to judge whether this is another failed experiment?
Can you imagine Colangelo right now? Cold sweats. Muttering under his breath. A couple extra Courvoisier’s before he stares out of some ultra chic high rise at the city who could end up cursing his name.
The players are evidently demoralized because they know things are not going well, and their talent pool is shallow. It will be embarrassing to play for the Raptors because everybody in the league knows the team will tank the season. No way can any self-respecting team playing the Raptors ever accept defeat at the hands of the Raptors.
If you think that this edition of the Raptors can sustain 4 quarters of high level play in the NBA, you must be toking some awful strong shit. I mean they are starting, yes starting, a rookie who only turned 20 last August and only played freshman NCAA ball … This guy is still learning the game, and you think he can compete with proven players at the SG position ..??? Triano will have to yank him off the floor every 5 minutes to correct his mistakes, that is if he gets any playing time..!!!
Wake up people … you don’t just add 9 new players after blowing up the team and magically become a playoff contender … and don’t try to spin the story that everything will be okay by Xmas and then it’s off to the playoffs..!!!! There are better teams trying to rebuild and it’s taking them a lot longer than 2 months …!!!
Another 2 years minimum before the Raptors are totally rebuilt to compete in the NBA … and more likely 4 years …!!!!
There are some things you dont seem to understand. First off, JT isn’t even running some of his plays. They’re missing Antoine and Reggie for defensive presence. And arguably our two best players aren’t up to par?
Man, it’s easy to put down the Raps cuz ur an hater, but actually look at the facts?
On both games against Boston the Raptors were in it until the middle of the third period and as I remember , the same thing happened with Houston. The main reason they cannot keep it up any longer than that is because Hedo and CB4 are not ready to play any more than 20-25 minutes instead of the 35+ they will be expected to play in 10 days time . So far there is no indications that the Raptors will not be able to compete for the 6-8th spot and may be even better than that and we will have to wait until Xmas to review those expectations.
Great read. We really need Evans and Wright. I do not like the fact that DD has already been slated into the start without any effort AND Johnson being called our backup. Dear God, we need a saviour come the 28th. goo craps! I mean raps :D
Reggie and Wright are ‘injured’ … Reggie’s foot is mysteriously swelling up and Wrights knee is banged up … not a good sign for long term dependability. I wouldn’t count on these guys for much ….
I don’t remember conditioning being such a hot-button topic on such a wide scale on this team before. Am i the only one that finds it ridiculous that professional athletes can’t play more than a half at this point without being gassed?
The Raptors are gassed out because they aren’t good enough to compete with a superior team like the Celtics.
The only difference is that J talks and Sam didn’t.
THANK YOU! Bosh and Turkoglu get MILLIONS of dollars a year, and they’re too tired to compete for 48 minutes a night? MJ would compete when his body would hamper him (flu game) because he had the mental toughness that it takes to win. If I got paid millions to play basketball, I don’t think tired would be a word in my dictionary.
These guys are professionals. Let’s not make any more excuses for them. Hold them accountable to the highest standard, because that’s the only way this organization will go anywhere in the future.
Relax dude…they’re not politicians!
Lmao! Dude, this is the preseason! You think there’s any chance of MJ playing that game if it was the preseason? So many haters on the Raps this year.
Chris Bosh/Hedo Turkoglu are gearing up for the season, for a potential playoff berth. What use is it getting injured now?
lol, that MJ comment is priceless, I mean you know this is preseason right? You also realize that MJ was a unique kind of competitor who comes along maybe once in lifetime right? It takes time to find your legs, but more so is the chemistry issue. Once they figure out how to play with each other things’ll be fine. Not great maybe but fine.
That’s what I was trying to say from recent posts, they are accountable to every minutes of the game whether they’re playing or not. Players who has the mentality of ‘i am a winner’ (eg. the great Michael Jordan) are the people qualified for the spot in the NBA or for the Toronto Raptors squad.
Soccer players are paid millions of dollars and in fact EPL superstars play the whole 90 minutes every match and they don’t make excuses when they lose. I know this is kind of off-topic, what I’m trying to say is that, every Raptors players should put a lot of effort on practice and games and transform themselves as a arrogant, selfish, and think ‘I am the best’ guy on the team and in the league. Look at Allen Iverson, he has that kind of mentality that’s why his team always appear in the playoffs and even appeared in 2001 NBA Finals. The Raptors squad has the skills, no doubt, that’s why they’re in the league. But really, they need to portray as the ‘bad boys’ like back in Chuck Daly’s days. Another good example is Floyd Mayweather Jr. — this great future hall of fame always do the trash talking in every press conference and during weigh-in — look at him, he never loses a fight. It’s all about the attitude, like yelling to opponent’s face, breaking the opponent’s self-esteem, and doing physical plays are proven things in every sports on winning games.
These 15 Raptors players need to read 48 Laws of Power, 33 Strategies of War, Art of War, and Atlas Shrugged as their last assignment in preseason. These books should be a mandatory reading during flights for road games and after practice.
Sometimes we just need to step back and remember that its only a game.
How much impact do fans have on the outcome? All we can do is support and hope. We are not guilty of anything, and as such should not feel like losers when our team loses or winners when our team wins. I also don’t think we should be subjected to ridicule for having hope.
there’s a problem on this squad.its tantamount to a bull in a china shop.his name is chris bosh.every product has a face and for years the face of this franchise was vincent lamar carter.for marketing purposes cb4 was selected as he was next in line at the time and the sell job was in full effect.
every opportunity to ensure his success and to make his numbers look shiny for the service of selling us the basketball product were met.we had a sub par coach who force fed him the ball in a dizzying array of i haven’t a clue, feed bosh the ball.the numbers look good.personal accolades are met but team play and team success fail miserably.
problem is,most of the fans bought into it. as have the media and the player himself. although,teammates haven’t bought it nor have players on other teams who frequently disrespect our mvp and neither has management yet they walk a fine line incognito polishing the lie as to retain its value.bosh now has the weight of the world on his shoulders as he awaits his riches.
can anything good come from a lie?
arse u rock dude.keep tellin the truth son.not one of our beat writers has ever written the truth on jose’s poor play all last season or bosh’s weaksauce in fear of reprisal.i read your shit first for an honest take.
Arsenalist, is it just me or are you also hoping that we can dump Bosh off in a sign-and-trade before next year? I think Hedo has a few more solid years left in him, and the potential chemistry between Bargs, Calderon and Hedo looks quite promising. I’m just not sure if Bosh has the basketball IQ to take his versatile teamates to the next level. Just have to wait and see I guess. Great read btw. By far the best writer covering the Raps.
I’d rather keep Bosh but if it the alternate is to lose him for nothing I obviously would do a S&T.
He’s a good player, I honestly think he has a mental block that prevents him from doing the right thing on the court. He has the skill and tools but the implementation is lacking. Hopefully Triano can get through to him and help him realize his potential, I think somebody needs to level with him and make him elevate his game by laying out his potential in front of him and telling him what he’s doing wrong.
In the Olympics he had a specific role on the team and the coaches had outlined his play for him. The results were great, something similar needs to happen here. Call it tough love maybe but its hard to pull that off in a contract year.
I think you nailed it with Bosh. I think he would be better suited to a role on a team where he is asked to do less, like he did in the Olympics. I don’t think he has a “being the man” mentality like a Lebron, Kobe … etc. And, whether through his own perception, or the team’s, or both, that’s the role he has tried to play here, and will continue to try to play. It’s just not going to work here. And expecting him to change after 6 seasons is foolish. He’s a great player, and will be great elsewhere, in a secondary role. He’s not a $130 million player. That’s why I think trade, or sign and trade, we start again around Bargnani, Turk and whoever we get for Bosh.
I disagree that he doesn’t have the “being the man” mentality…On the contrary perhaps what you meant to say is that is the mentality Bosh has which is he thinks he’s the man, the only man, and the guy everything goes through and quite frankly Bosh can be a great role player but he does not have the talent to ” Be the Man”. He could be a great player if he realized his strengths and limitations and played with the team, rather than think he’s the only real star. That’s the major problem we have with Bosh is he thinks everything is everyone else’s fault. The offence always slows to a halt when he touches the ball, and he’s a horrible passer, besides being too predictable. If he actually had a brain he could be great, but not the star he thinks he is.
When people want to post some hard and constructive criticism to our Raptors team, plenty of idiots take these criticisms literally and try to defend the team through stupid means.
The way we want to talk about either Bosh or RuPaul, Turkoglu or PizzaPizza, Calderon or Clapper, Bargnani or VeggieLasagna, Belinelli or Chucko, etc, we see it in a way that we want our players to read our criticisms and get so pissed off by them that they will play the next game even better either after a win or loss. The Celtics are a bigass hill to climb and this is pre-season, but this team should try to beat them once or take them to the final minute to decide who will take the game.
wtf??r ruPaul, PizzaPizza? Where the hell are you getting those names.. lol
oh and the preseason IS NOT about winning games. I don’t care about setting a tone. JT has said it a dozen times, is it that hard to listen?!
RuPaul, okay. Calderon’s clap defence, sure. VL? Done.
I’m just wondering where the hell “Pizza Pizza” came from.
You didn’t see the story where Hedo ate Pizza right before one of the finals games?
I think it’s pretty revealing that Garnett is guarding Bargnani. It says to me that the Celtics regard him as the more dangerous scoring threat.
Uh, maybe it’s because Perk hasn’t a hope in hell of covering Bargs on the perimetre and definitely cannot recover from the perimetre to help on rotations to the post whereas the much longer and quicker KG can.
It’s not like Perk can cover Bosh either. Last year when both Bosh and Bargs were on the floor, KG was on Bosh and Perk was on Bargs. Hence the change is noteworthy.
Definitely liked what I saw out of Bargnani today. He just had the right attitude, was laughing off the bad calls and seemed to take a certain amount of joy in aggravating Perkins. No more clouds hanging over his head. As for the rebounds… we might have to accept something about Barg’s game at some point. Otherwise, he’s all growed up and he’s all growed up and he’s all growed up.
As for Belinelli… ugh. That’s all.
Amir I’m willing to forgive. For now. If he keeps showing this type of performance whenever he comes up against a real front line, that’ll be a different story, but he’s still a kid, right?
Is it just me or…
Sam’s teams usually lost by a bucket, and did so often. The consensus was that his team could not step on their opponents throat when they had them down. I remember blowing out the Celtics to start the game only to have them pull it out in the dying seconds. In fact there were a lot of puzzling losses in the dying seconds.
With Jay, a close loss, gets praise. The team is working hard, they are getting better, or something like that. There is optimism. Its almost like we get blown out so much that a close game is considered a moral victory and step in the right direction.
Now maybe Jay is taking the right approach. Deconstructing, and slowly adding layers of complexity so that the eventual result exceeds Sam’s usual patch job. At the same time, Sam seemed more concerned about winning. You could see that he took personal embarrassment and felt his own inadequacy at those times. Sometimes, exhibiting insecurities due to his wounded pride.
I want Jay to succeed, and hope that he really can get consistent forward progress with this team… but I am not a fan of letting an opponent hoist up 20 3pt attempts a night and as nice a guy as he is… I feel his defensive strategy is too simple and easily exploited by other coaches in the league. This game requires constant adjustment. You should never let yourself get to a point of being outscored 32-6 from range without doing something about it. Even in preseason you can adjust… is there are law against that? Why not try it in a time out?
Taker this situation:
A player hits two consecutive three point shots. The defender knows this, he decides that statistically speaking the next shot is highly improbable, therefore he decides not to challenge the shot on the next play.
The above example is absurd.
Everyone understands that the percentages we are dealing with are for contested shots, but the example also demonstrates how certain variables influence the percentages. So a coach who has an open door policy on making his teams sole defensive focus to push all shots to the outside can make those players be more accepting of those shots and in hence the strategy of making your opponent shoot a low percentage shot, no longer applies as the defender believes that he is doing the right thing by slacking on his opposite. They are denying the inside by enticing the outside.
To simplify the last paragraph:
When you entice a shot, you can no longer count on the same percentages holding true as they only apply for properly contested shots.
So a coach that thinks he is playing good defence by pushing everything to the outside (letting the defence slack in order to prevent penetration) is seriously failing with his use of logic. Those percentages are only for properly contested shots.
Rap of the Day!
Ah, but Triano’s theory is not to entice 3-point shots, but outside 2-pt shots, which are the lowest percentage (points-wise) shot in the game.
The idea is to “defend the house” and then run the shooters off the 3-point line. Quick help, very quick recovery.
It is the failure of implementing this properly which leads to open 3-pt shots.
Does anyone happen to remember that this is the Celtics we are playing? And not the Celtics we saw at the end of last year… this is the Celtics with KG back? (Plus Wallace and Daniels who looked good last night)
There defense is god damn stifling. There is a reason they were champs just 2 years ago. DO get me wrong I think this Raps team will be good, but when did we ever think of them as equals to the Celtics? There is a reason they are elite and we are 2nd tier.
Did we ever think that the Celtics play had just as much to do with the result as the Raps play? Their 1st and 2nd unit defense. Ray Ray driving and releasing shots that didn’t deserve to go in. KG not missing a shot from 20ft. Perkins defensive presence. Eddie House with a hot hand. Big Baby’s energy.
If this was Min, Philly or Houston again I’d understand. But its the damn Celtics…. and as much as I hate it they are an amazing team.
edit: “Don’t get me wrong…”
I couldn’t agree more. The Celtics are very, very good. And I wish the Raptors could play more or even most of their exhibition games against them. Lucky to get two, really.
I do think we’ll be ok and even more so … but, I also think it’ll take patience and chill to not completely lose our minds during the first weeks of this season. But I think we’ll get there. (‘There’ being way better than last year … and maybe, with a little good fortune, even then some.)
I agree with you. We’ve had good competition this preseason. Washington, Houston, two against the Celtics. As JT pointed out, better competition exposes the team’s weaknesses and doesn’t allow the players to get too complacent.
Those first twenty games are brutal though, so they’ll continue to get exposed for a while. Just win 7-8 games in those first twenty and I’ll be happy.
One blogger made the outrageous argument that the Raptors should extend Johnson’s contract. This is ridiculous.
My guess is that he will be out of league at the end of this year.
When he plays aggressive he plays well. The only problem is that when he plays aggressive he fouls out out in 10 – 15 minutes. So when he plays aggressive you get a very good player for 10 – 15 minutes a game tops and that is it.
When he doesn’t play aggressive so he can stay out of foul trouble, like yesterday, he plays like sheet.
Now in his 5th year in the league he has yet to learn how to play aggressive without being a foul machine. I doubt that that will ever change.
Hammond knew what he was doing when he unloaded Johnson on the BC and the Raptors. Don’t forget Hammond knew Johnson from Johnson’s start in the NBA when both were with the Pistons.
So BC has a choice with Johnson.
1. Keep him on the end of the bench except in srub time
2. Tell him to go all out and hope to get 10 – 15 good minutes from him before Johnson fouls out.
3. Tell him not to commit fouls and get more performances like yesterday.
If Evan were around choice #1 would be the obvious. With Evans gone its anyone’s guess which choice BC will make.
P.S. Johnson has no back to the basket game. The Pistons tried to convert him into a low post player and he still thinks of himself as a PF. The Pistons really screwed up on this just like they did with Darko who they tried to do the same thing with.
As one prominent Piston’s blogger stated many times going back to Johnson’s early days with the Pistons. “Play him at the #3″ I think this guy was correct.
AJ is not the second coming…but can you name the bigs from last year…ya !!!! I’ll take AJ .
Even if we wanted Amir Johnson back, there is little possibility of us resigning him next year. We have no ‘bird’ rights (or any other rights to him, I think), so he’s completely unrestricted. All the money under the tax will be targeted at resigning Bosh.
Now, if Marcus Banks’ contract would mysteriously disappear…
Problem with AJ at the 3 is he has no range and poor handles. What you might get is decent D but he’d have to play with Bargs where he can D up the 3 but slide back to the post on O. He’s not a 3, and he’s still better than POB(S).
Actually he has good range. The idea that he doesn’t is just rumor. Just because he isn’t allowed to shoot from 20 feet and out doesn’t mean that he can’t make them.
He made a 20 foot shoot last night.
In fact in 2007 in his first NBA start he made 2 out of 3 from beyond the arc.
He has good form on his foul shot. Yes he had that one bad game that he missed 5 in a row but other than than he is something like 10 out 12 from the free throw line.
I do agree his handles are weak but this is because he was excluded from the Pistons offense ever since he joined the team. You don’t have to put 20 ppg to be an effective #3. You just need to outplay your opponent and help your team win.
In any case it is all moot now as he is probably stuck at the #4 and #5 and will be gone come next summer, probably out of the league. Europe would be a possibility unless some NBA team just wants him on the roster as a practice player and Duffy, his agent, can talk him into taking the NBA minimum.
“You don’t have to put 20 ppg to be an effective #3. You just need to outplay your opponent and help your team win.”
Agreed. In fact, I hate to use another Piston to solidify your point, but Tayshaun Prince is the exact 3 you are talking about.
He won’t always foul out in 10-15 mins and I think your a bit harsh on him. I still don’t think a contract extension is the right thing to do.
Nice post Arsenalist. Very interesting point that Garnett was given the assignment of guarding Bargnani. And, Bargnani still had a good game and showed some fire despite being dogged by KG the entire game. Gives you a sense of what opposing coaches think about Bosh’s ability to step up. Again, I’m not a Bosh hater, I’m just saying lets not be Toronto delusional here about our home town heroes – he’s not a max contract player. Not on this team anyway.
‘but am I being unfair if I expect a certain level of excellence from him?’
For a pre-season game yeah you are. It also doesn’t help that you obviously have some kind of grudge against him, but to each their own.
The last game in Hartford you decided to criticize his second half and ignore the 20 he dropped in the first half.
Biased observations.
Just read that recap, and I didn’t criticize his second half nor did I ignore his 20 in the first.
You’re commentary is often very critical of Bosh which you cannot deny.
That’s fine if you want him traded but to say Garnett and Sheed own him is going a bit too far. Do they present tougher match-ups for him, yes they do, but you act like they shut him down continually which is not the case.
It’s fine to expect a lot from Chris cause he’s the only player on this current team that has brought it consistently for the past 5-6 years but he’s also never had a good supporting cast to play with.
The problem with the Raps team is not Bosh or getting ‘a couple of athletic’ players for him (we’d still be where we are or worse as he is the only player that attracts double teams). The problem is this team has no vets! No guys that have been stars in this league (Garnett, Allen , Pierce, Sheed) and are now just about the winning and knowing what it takes to win night in and night out. They are a bunch of young guys trying to learn one another and learn how to win regularly.
No matter how talented you are you are going to need some of the dudes that knows what it takes, to take you to the next level, if you’re a young team.
As talented as the Blazers are for instance I assure you they probably won’t make it out of the first round again this year and it’s simply because you need that veteran experience to be a contender of any sorts.
if reading criticisms of bosh is too painful, it’s likely best to stick to reading the ‘real’ journalists – they’re always ready to make excuses for the guy. RR is one of the few ‘pull-no-punches’ raptor sites that is equally adept at handing our praise as it is criticism. yes, bosh is criticized for his play, but he’s also recognized when he has a good game – and as the de facto franchise player, that is his burden to bare, whether he asked for it or not*.
*he did.
No pain bredren, I can read criticisms and think they are fine……… when they are objective as opposed to opinions that slag on without any focus on the most pressing matters.
I read such optimism about guys like Johnson and Weems around these parts, that I laugh when you talk about a ‘pulling no punches’ website.
You’re right, maybe I should stick to reading real journalists or maybe just ignoring foolish commentary.
No one’s making excuses for anybody.
ummmm but they do shut him down, almost with complete regularity.
I thought so at the time of the trade, and still think so. We would be a better team with Pops and Delfino instead of Johnson and Weems.
the numbers couldn’t work
uh…it was delfino & ukic for weems & johnson. i’m not necessarily debating your point (that the raps would be better w/ CD & pops than w/ amir & weems), but that wasn’t an option, at least at the time. delfino wasn’t going to sign for what the raps thought he was worth, and ukic proved himself expendable (to put it kindly). they basically turned two guys who were going to contribute nothing (CD, since he wasn’t going to be on the team) & next-to-nothing (roko) into serviceable (hopefully) bench players. the problems start to mount when the expectations rise for what amir & sonny can actually provide – if used properly, they can be positive contributors. to over-rely on them to provide more than they are capable…well, that’s just dumb.
the same argument could be made w/ respect to the belli/george trade. the raps gave up nothing (george) for a guy with potential (belli), so it looks like a great move…as long as belli isn’t a negative contributor, like he was vs. the c**ts…and like he’s been for far too many stretches this post-season. if he is a negative factor more often than a positive one, then it doesn’t matter that the trade was a ’steal,’ ’cause the raps will still suck.
I know what the trade was (with Ukic), and the numbers, but have confidence that Colangelo could have worked it out. Weems and Johnson have potential to be average players at best, while Delfino and Pops are already at least average. AND, Delfino has what we need (good defense, toughness and a SG who can hit threes). AND Pops brings two other things we need (energy and rebounding). No way Weems and Johnson add as much as Delfino and Pops would have.
Did anyone see Eddie House’s hand to crotch gesture after he hit his 3rd straight field goal?
Discussting! Distasteful! Unprofessional!
One of the many reasons why I hate the C***tics
Did anyone see Eddie House’s hand to crotch gesture after he hit his 3rd straight field goal?
Disgusting! Distasteful! Unprofessional!
One of the many reasons why I hate the C***tics
dont know if anyone else mentioned this but ” is it me or do these replacement refrees officiate like fans ? crappy calls all pre season ” the JJ offensive foul is a perfect example !!! my boy was close to tears sitting on the bench after that call …
There’s always an excuse with Bosh. Poor coaching, poor players it’s never on him. We give him Shawn Marion, Jermaine Oneil, Parker, a healthy Calderon, Ford, a motivated Bargnani, and we still cannot win a playoff round?
Now we get a proven Turkoglu, we get some rebounding, a bit of defense, some toughness and were back to our same old habits of losing games. Colangelo is bending over backwards for Bosh and he does nothing with the help.
Give Dwayne Wade our players currently and I gaurantee you they go to the conference finals.
Bosh will just lead them to dead last in the east, as usual.
It’s still pre-season. Relax like ‘Frankie Goes to Hollywood’.
Playing the C**tics isn’t as likely to end in a win as playing the Knacks! ;)
True but you would think our “core” would think that hey, we get our asses handed by them every time we play. Why not for a change we dominate them and throw some elbows and some hard fouls.
This would never be tolerated by the all time great Power forwards. Loosing 9 of 10 to Boston
Yesterday proved that their second and third units are also better than ours.
I think our “core” will begin surpass theirs in the next two years, and complete do so in the 3-4 years. Until than, I expect the C**tics to hand us losses, but not ‘ass-whippings’ like yesterdays game.
No team led by Chris Bosh will ever make it past the first round of the playoffs.
Utterly unclutch
Very limited game, pump fake drive/pump fake fade. Take 10 seconds off the clock while he goes through the routine,
For some reason never replicates the efforts he expended on the Olympic squad on his actual paying team.
Lets WAAAAAAAAAY too many players get in his head: Garnet, Rasheed, Varejao and a host of others.
Very thorough.
I like everything… except your take on Jack’s 4-8 shooting night. He missed 2 layups (too short to dunk) (sigh) and bricked 2 shots. He made up for it with a bit of pressure on Rondo, but the guy doesn’t seem to play within his limitations, worrying.
If I was disappointed by anyone, it was Jack. Amir needs room to operate, and Boston is great at taking that away on both sides of the court, so it’s not a surprise that he struggled. But Jack disappointed.