Lots of talk about DeRozan becoming the starter without facing competition because of the the injury to Antoine Wright. This mornings news and QOTD revolve around that.
Toronto Star – DeMar DeRozan a starter by default
Antoine Wright’s injury is making life easy for Raptors rookie DeMar DeRozan. And that ticks off coach Jay Triano. Wright, the forward who has yet to play a pre-season game because of a swollen knee, should be making life miserable for DeRozan, who is being ceded a starting role almost by default. The coach is unimpressed by that because he wants competition for jobs. “I would love to not start DeMar; the position isn’t given to him, and right now, just due to injuries, it’s his by default and I want him to earn that spot,” Triano said Saturday, while admitting he still has DeRozan in his head as the team’s fifth starter.
Boston Globe – Can Toronto keep Bosh enraptured?
First came Damon Stoudamire, then Marcus Camby, Tracy McGrady, and most notably Vince Carter. All seemingly fell in love with Canada, embraced the newness of the NBA to the city, and became fan favorites. But, eventually, they all wanted out of Ontario, and the Raptors received little in return for them. Chris Bosh is the latest Raptor with a franchise-altering decision on the horizon. The multitalented power forward, who dropped 21 points on the Celtics in 27 minutes last Wednesday, can opt out of his contract next summer and become an unrestricted free agent.
Toronto Sun – Making the Wright choice
Antoine Wright was looking for that elusive shot in the arm to raise his spirits and by extension raise the possibility of his return to the lineup. Turns out the elixir may prove to be a cortisone shot Wright was administered recently that has enabled the swingman to better push off his troublesome right knee. “It has been frustrating just watching and not being able to play, but I’m close,” Wright said yesterday following the team’s scheduled morning practice that ran well into the early afternoon.
Wright bumped knees with Andrea Bargnani in the early stages of training camp when the team convened in Ottawa. He has yet to play in a pre-season game and Wright won’t be uniform when the Boston Celtics pay a visit today (3 p.m., Raptors TV/Fan 590). Wright planned a return trip to the Raptors’ practice facility last night to get more shots off.
Toronto Sun – Foot injury leaves Evans baffled and bewildered
The known piece that was Reggie Evans has morphed into the great unknown. Evans, who is well known for his post defence and toughness, doesn’t know when he’ll be able to rejoin his Raptors in the wake of a foot injury. Evans doesn’t know how he got hurt during last week’s loss to Boston in Hartford and has yet to watch game video to determine the exact cause of the mishap. All Evans knows is that he won’t be playing in today’s pre-season home finale against the same Celtics and neither will he be in uniform when the Raptors close out exhibition play on Friday in Sioux Falls, S.D., against the host Timberwolves.
Evans doesn’t know if he’ll be available for team’s regular-season opener on Oct. 28. “All I know is that I can’t put any weight on my foot and until the swelling goes down, we can’t do any tests to find out what’s really going on,” Evans said yesterday.
DeRozan giving away tickets to reach 20K followers on Twitter
Toronto rookie forward DeMar DeRozan on Friday pledged to give away tickets to fans in every city the Raptors play in if he reaches 20,000 followers by opening night.
Raptors first-round pick DeMar DeRozan will likely start at shooting guard. But he’s far from being a finished product. He has crazy athleticism, a jump shot that’s all arms and no legs and no real clue how to defend. But they love the former USC product.
Bleacher Report – Toronto Raptors Will Bounce Back in 2009-10
And change will be the operative word for fans following the Raptors this season. But for those who remember Bryan Colangelo’s first season with the Raptors, it’ll be nothing but deja vu. The changes Bryan Colangelo made this offseason are eerily similar to the changes he made three years ago in 2006. And based on how the team has played during the previous season, a significant house cleaning was well justified in each case!
Fantasy Positional Rankings: Centers
12. Andrea Bargnani
Rondo aims for an A in ‘D’ – Boston Globe
Ray Allen remembers practices when Rivers would point out the difference between Rondo playing up on his man and back.
“When he does it, he makes it tough for the guards, we end up getting steals, and it puts their offense into disarray,’’ Allen said. “So I think he’s at the point now where he’s ready to do it full-time. “He looks strong on the ball. He provides a lot of intensity on the ball defensively and he’s very harassing of a defender. One thing he learned over the last year or two is taking possessions off defensively. He has the talent and the quickness to put pressure on his man every single time down the floor.’’
And now the Question of the Day:
From what you’ve seen of Sonny Weems, DeMar DeRozan and Marco Belinelli, does it really matter that Antoine Wright is injured?
23 Raps
It “likely does” – how’s that for an answer?!
Weems, DeRozan and Belinelli have all be decent on offense, but not on D.
Wright (and I’d like to see him to to fully judge) by most accounts is a better defender. And if the pre-season has revealed anything, it’s our continued deficiencies on the D. *Maybe* Wright helps in this area – and thus it does matter. Gives us more flexibility at the 3 as well – Wright can play at this spot against many lineups.
Isn’t it just a little early to be deciding just what kind of a game these rookies (or virtual rookies) will develop?
Not one of them has even played a whole season’s worth of games in the NBA yet.
What they’ll give the Raptors this year is questionable – no way to know really as they don’t have much experience.
I’d expect it’ll take about 2-3 years before we’ll know what kind of players they’ll be. But it seems worth the wait since they all look to be able to contribute something right away.
Should remember Wright only really played well during that 10 game stretch in last year’s playoffs (albeit that’s longer than the other prospects). Wright only got to play at all during the regular season because of injury problems. (I do like Wright’s size at the 3 spot over the other options)
As you correctly pointed out, Wright could be the correct player to use in specific situations, and I’ve got to say that a defensive specialist is never useless to a team like the Raps. Never. The difference between some teams is often due to details, and being able to play someone like him against strong opponents could be a nice one. But I agree that he probably won’t be in the heavy rotation.
I just want to point out that on this subject – who starts, who’ll be the main b-up – mostly depends on the first part of the reg season. Raps have to get to playoffs no matter how, and have to try to achieve the best territorial position, so I don’t think Triano will have too much patience with developing DD from the start position if he doesn’t deliver what expected, or with Beli’s unbalanced shots if they don’t start to diminish, or with Weems if he goes back to D-League level.
On paper, right now, Antoine’s injury doesn’t change much to this team, but as the season goes through, and guards/wings start to live up to expectations or don’t, he might become an important piece in the rotation loop. He’s got experience and he defends well. Two characteristics not very common in our team.
good thing you declare DD starter
after seeing wright play 0 minutes in preseason
DD his defense is shit what we need is defense from the 2 …
so surely he jay will chose DD as starter euhm
seriously
The Boston Globe is perpetuating the myth, a myth often maintained by Toronto’s own media, that the Raptors lose all their star players without compensation.
They failed to note that
1) Damon Stoudamire was traded for Alvin Williams. Alvin Williams was the PG for the team’s best years ever, including the 47 win season.
2) Marcus Camby was traded for Charles Oakley, who was also on the team for that 47 win season and had 9.6 ppg/ 9.5 rpg that year.
Unfortunately for Toronto, the T-mac trade for a draft pick didn’t work out and the VC trade in hindsight was done by the worst GM the team ever had.
Players change teams. The Raptors have never lost their stars for nothing (couple of deals that didn’t work out). And this is the normal in the NBA because of the CBA – which keeps evolving to make getting nothing less likely each time. Of course a team still needs a competent GM to keep from getting hosed in the deal.
don’t get mewrong but didn’t Damon ask to be out of Toronto? Vince obviously did. McGrady wanted to be the #1 man so he left. Camby I can’t recall asking to leave.
Not exactly a stellar record of players wanting to stay….
Damon asked but it didn’t have anything to do with the city. He was just jumping on his buddy Isaih’s as he headed out of town.
Why not put Sonny Weems as a starter or Quincy Douby? They’re proven to be in that spot instead of DeRozan for god sake. He doesn’t even have an idea what’s a real NBA game looks like. This isn’t NCAA, dude! We have some defensive problems on SG way back in 2004. I don’t know if I’m the only one who only noticed, but DeRozan play like Fred Jones. He’s unable to nail a mid-range shot and 3-pts. I know there will be nitwits out here will say, “we have 9 new players”, “DeRozan is a rookie”, “It takes time to create chemistry”, and etc.. I’m tired of that silly excuses. We heard them since 2006-07 season. I’m enough of that crap.
All of them are getting paid to win games. Are they saying that they need a socialization inorder to have that “chemistry”? Very funny! Look at Chicago last season, they have a lot of new players came in and a new coach, and guess what, they made a playoff appearance and they almost beat the Celtics in Round 1. Winning has nothing to do with chemistry, it’s all about the will to win. It’s really silly to hear not making the playoffs because we have ‘9 new players’.
DeRozan is a rookie. Well, look at Derrick Rose last season, he averaged 16.8 ppg, and 19.7 ppg in the playoffs and he was a rookie and became Rookie of Year! If Rose can do that amount of ppg, so does DeRozan. He should understand the fact that he need to put a lot of effort inorder to win games not to brag to his high-school and college friends that he’s now employed as a basketball player in the NBA. Being a rookie is NOT an excuse why he can’t perform well in the NBA. It’s NOT also an excuse that he can’t perform well because he’s only a 9th overall pick. Screw that!
When is RR going to let us block certain posters so we don’t have to see this incompetence, let alone attempt to read it.
To answer the question. Of course it matters. BC didn’t acquire Wright in hopes he would get injured. He acquired him to contribute. And we definitely haven’t seen enough out of the other three to cast away Wright.
People are reading way too much into these pre-season performances. Our worst players are playing against our opponent’s worst players in these games. I’d say it speaks more positively about our depth as a team than it does the ability to make an impact as an individual.
Hold on just a minute.
Other than Turkoglu and Bosh on occasion when have the Raptors starters ever shown that they can play NBA defense?
“Why not put Sonny Weems as a starter or Quincy Douby?”
Because we would like to have a chance to win the game. And (esp) Douby starting would make that near impossible.
#9 in a week draft versus a #1
Hey guys, it’s a waste of breath with this one. He has the basketball IQ of somebody who huffs paint. I tried fielding a few of his less out there ideas…he came back even crazier.
He doesn’t seem to have the capacity to put together any number of different factors in a cogent way.
Two days ago he was arguing with me about how Colangelo sucks and all the Raptors suck, and they’re losing because they don’t have the will to win. And he knows because he won the High Gold in his Ballet competition.
Not even an ounce of perspective.
Still not completely convinced he’s a joke persona.
Hey popat, I didn’t say anything that Colangelo sucks! I’m only criticizing him for not spending over the tax on acquiring players. The way this league works is when you spend more cap money is equals to a chance of getting in to The Finals. The top 8 teams in the NBA are spending over the tax like Cleveland, Boston, Lakers, Orlando, and etc and look at them, no one questions their toughness and they always appear in the playoffs. I know that this is not Colangelo’s fault, he’s only obeying orders from MLSE, as a matter of fact he was hired in the first place to get rid of the tax threshold.
It’s sounds pretty stupid to hear that they don’t have the will to win. Yes, they don’t have the will to win! Most of them are contented of being a basketball player in the NBA as long they can deposit their paycheque on every other friday.
If we get players who has a mentality of ‘I am a winner’ like Ron Artest, Stephon Marbury, Allen Iverson or Stephen Jackson, no one would question our team performance. They are arrogant, selfish, and think they’re the best — which is the best attitude to be portrayed on and off the floor. These people mentioned always play the game as if it’s their last, imagine how would they portray themselves to their teammates in practice. If we have players like that, no doubt that we can advance to the second round and we can even end up in The Finals!
A team of Ron Artest, Stephon Marbury, Allen Iverson and Stephen Jackson scares me, and not in a good way.
Just want to point out that you can’t compare Derrick Rose to DD. Just because you have the “will to win” doesn’t mean your going to become the next MJ. There’s this thing called ’skill’ and its the reason DD was drafted #9 instead of #1 (like Rose was)…hell, compare DD with Lebron while your at it and question why he cannot be as great.
Of course it does. None of those guys are starters.
it turns out wright might just happen to be the most important asset for out starting five. none of the 2’s or 3’s are starters(except hedo)and none with the baksetball IQ he posesses. his numbers from dallas dont even tell the whole story with all the rebounding and scorers on the mavs wright was just expected to defend every night. when he returns-hopefully to the starting line-up- much more will hopefully expected from him then just defending as im sure he can do more damage on the glass then his stats show. we better hope he can bring another “dimension” that we havent seen.
The coaches never have Weems guarding the 3s. It’s usually DeRozan or Belinelli, so I think they will welcome Wright back. Aren’t you guys are always complaining about defense?
Having to get cortisone shots to the knee is a very good sign for the future of that athlete.
DeRozan is a rookie. Well, look at Derrick Rose last season, he averaged 16.8 ppg, and 19.7 ppg in the playoffs and he was a rookie and became Rookie of Year!>>
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D. Rose, I swear I took the SAT, was over hyped by the media starting with ESPN.
Rodney Stuckey of all people scored a career high of 40 plus points in one game that he was guarded by Rose.
K. Love should have won the ROY award last year.
I know this is completely off topic…. by why do people have this fasicnation with K.Love? Not saying he is a bad player but…..
Lets say D.Rose didn’t win… how could:
Brook Lopez
Eric Gordon
OJ Mayo
not win it over Love?
If there’s one positive I can take from the Reggie Evans injury, it’s that Jason Kapono won’t be entering the game.