The Antoine Wright era begins tomorrow night. Are you ready? It’s been terribly frustrating to see some of our main rotation players limp in to this preseason. First it was Chris Bosh, Hedo Turkoglu and last but definitely not least, Mr. Wright, who will definitely be a key cog on this team, especially one that lacks defensively. The fact that he had been labelled as a defensive-minded player, no less as a starter for most of the season on a 50-win team in the Western Conference, I mean this is not Marcus Banks we are talking about here. Rick Carlisle’s a fan and that can’t be a bad thing at all. Here’s what Bryan Colangelo had to say recently:
“But I’m not sure even I realized what kind of perimeter defender he was, but it became very clear, very quickly after talking to Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle that (Antoine) is a tough kid, he’s a great defender and defends multiple positions.”
Wright should start on this team as of today. Maybe it’s just the old school mentality in me, but rookies, especially barely-turned-20 year old ones, should not be starting from Day 1. Give DeMar some incentive to get better. One of the great things about him is that he is quite the observant young man, and may benefit from getting a read on what’s happening on the court. Ray Allen gave him a hard time the last game, and you know these veteran guards probably salivate at seeing a rook lining up across them at tip off. Plus, who’s going to get the benefit of the doubt with the refs?
Other things to look for:
Chris Bosh vs. Al Jefferson: Chris has gotten bigger and wants to play that. Mixed reviews so far. Let’s see if he can put it all together against one of the better 4’s in the game.
Jonny Flynn vs. Jose Calderon: Will Jonny join the list of point guards who will abuse Jose? It’s not a matter of “if”, but “how much”. We’ll get a preview of that, for those with sadistic tendencies.
Marco Bellinelli, Amir Johnson, Sonny Weems: Will they leave a lasting image on Coach Triano tomorrow night with a great game? There’s a feeling that these three have the most to prove.
It’s really unfortunate that a game against the lowly Timberwolves will be our first (and last chance) to see our full roster at work, sans Reggie Evans. We’ve seen what Reggie can bring to this team already and I don’t think elements like chemistry and cohesiveness are part of his vocabulary.
But it’s exciting isn’t it, optimism in abundance, and every team is undefeated. Opening night is just 6 days away.
37 Raps
I agree that Demar should have some incentive to get better defensively. I still stand by my opinion that he should come of the bench and be a spark for the second unit, a long with Bellineli. To bad we will see less of sonny during the begining of the season. Hopefully we can se him pass bellineli in the depth chart, same can be said for Amir.
Obviously Bosh will win this game.
No Al Jefferson, A 200% team in Minnesota, No decent front court to stop him, Bosh thrives in these situations. Beating all the bad teams.
What a terrible game and a terrible way to end the pre-season. No test whatsoever, just get Wright 48 minutes of run to make up for what he’s lost. Maybe we can see if their conditioning has improved and if they can play past the third quarter. That’s about all there’s to take away from this one.
Terrible post too, BTW.
Don’t underestimate the TWolves, or overestimate the raptors. It’s likely that we don’t come out with a win in this one just like in Houston.
This game does have some meaning though seeing as how it’s our first chance to see the rotation Triano plans on using to start the season.
I’m really hoping Wright pushes DeRozan hard.
In what sense? The best he can do is D him up in practice. Wright is a bad offensive player and is not capable of beating DeRozan for the starting position. He is a good defender but that’s not enough to put your first round pick on the back burner. As Triano said yesterday, it’s about matchups. If we’re going up against All-Star SGs and DeRozan appears overmatched, yank him, but other than that Wright has no business getting minutes over DD.
The man lost in the mix here is Belinelli who has fallen off the radar. IMHO the battle for minutes is going to be between Wright, Belinelli and Weems and so far I’d rank Weems the best option there.
It is very true now that Belinelli is looking like the black sheep in the wings due to his INCONSISTENCY streaks in shooting and his ability to recognize the right situations to do “this” and “that”. As useful as Marco Belinelli can be, his wild shooting will just count as turnovers until he can fix those problems up. At least our team allows him to fix those problems up instead of yelling “whippersnappers” to him and downing a can of Bud-light: http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2008/12/worst-of-weekend-birdmas-weekend.html
Same.
Triano’s latest comments on Johnson
“As long as he goes and gets the ball off the glass for us and makes the right plays and doesn’t take bad shots and doesn’t turn it over (he) can stay on the floor.
http://www.canada.com/sports/Raptors+Johnson+back+familiar+turf/2134124/story.html
Didn’t mention the fouls, heh.
I don’t mind the fouls, as long as they are good hard fouls. Fouling has a place in this game. And if his (and Evans’) fouls are used towards greating some sort of “toughness” where the opposing team is even slitghly intimidated, I think it’s all good.
totally agree… a good hard fould at the right time is one of the best forms of defense.
However… its the offesive fouls that always concern me (with both Amir, Evans, and to some degree Bargs.) Especially on those screens.
I would have loved to see Bosh in the 80’s
A prime Rodman, Laimbeer, Olojuon, Barkley, Parish, Mc Hale, Jordan, would have slaughtered Bosh and make the guy literally cry.
Ah well
OK, you’ve made your point. No need to drill it any further.
The players you are mentioned are all either in the Hall of Fame or will soon be getting there. Yes, Bosh is not on par with them.
I say we all let this team play a few games before forming an opinion. Maybe Bosh has something under his sleeve that might even please you. Last year after an average pre-season he started off like a man on fire but couldn’t keep it up, maybe this year he can. Not saying he will, just saying we should wait a couple more weeks.
I just miss the tough minded defensive players and that mindset that all the greats had.
To be fair, I want to give BARGNANI, BOSH, TURKOGLU, WRIGHT, CALDERON, Johnson (and Evans, eventually), DeRozan & Jack to the end of December. Then BC will have some decisions to make …
Even the 2008 Celtics or 2009 Lakers would get crushed against the “worst” team during the 80’s, Jordan era
Get over your romanticism, past always seems better, so don’t get stressed about it. They were then, we are now, so relax and have fun.
Wow, that’s not even close to being true. As great as some of those teams were, I mean all time great, Average Ball in the mid 80’s to mid 90’s involved slow, halfcourt games that played out like a Kevin O’Neil fantasy. If all you ever watched were the games they show on “hardwood classics” I can understand, but if you were an avid fan back then and actually watched average games I don’t think you’d be saying this.
I miss some of it. Especially post players who played well at both ends but with all the rule changes and the expansion of teams coupled with the flood of underclassmen and Euros has dramatically changed the way the game is played. Sure Lambier would crush Drea or Bosh down low but no way he was guarding them up top or on a cut.
Personally, I would describe the 90’s as The “Jordan era” and the 80’s as the “Bird-Magic” era.
As someone almost 50 I have no problem saying in general athletes of today are superior to athletes of the 1980’s … that’s a natural evolution – i would expect athletes of 10 years from know to be better than those today. However with the expansion of the NBA and the salary cap, I don’t think you will ever see a team again with as many great players on it as The Celtics and Lakers of the 1980’s – for that reason I go with those 1980’s teams being the best ever.
…but kids (I can say the same for myself) don’t get off there ass anymore due to all the distractions we’ve created; basketball blogs being one. Not only is the talent pool shrinking, those in it spend less time on the court on average. The talent pool will continue to evolve physically but I fear the level of superior-talent might diminish…or maybe I’m confusing talent with grace, and the new talent of power is winning over grace. As much as I love watching Lebron, DWade and Dwight, I find they all lack a feathery touch that past great players had (Kobe included) that was beautiful to watch.
…or, or maybe my eye is distracted by their physical presence and I’m not noticing the grace in their talents. I guess my taste hasn’t evolved with the times and I will eventually come to appreciate that sheer physical talent will be a necessity to dominate.
It’s good that Wright gets to play at least a few minutes against someone other than his teammates before the 28th. Maybe he won’t be winded within 6 minutes?
The Raps will need Wright this season!
Still expecting DeRozan to start.
The one thing DeRozan has shown in preseason is that he’s not afraid. He’ll drive, get knocked down and drive again at the next opportunity.
The other thing is he plays under control. It might take something away from his game, but when you don’t know what you’re doing – it pays to be conservative.
I like DeRozan’s attitude in preseason, he earned a chance at starting.
You cant really say that derozan earned his chance to be in the starting line-up since there was no one else to look at. Belinelli has been as inconsistent as the leafs, Weems defence is still suspect and wright hasnt even played one minute. Sure hes shown flashes of optimism by getting to the line frequently which is a good thing, but his shot selection has not been great at all. The other reason is that we havent really seen him try to actually get involved and make his mark on a game. plenty of times we seen him take some plays off and not really assert himself at all missing defensive assignments and many offensive plays when he could of easily cut to the basket when he should of. I know hes still learning of course but some tenacity and a sence of him trying to make an impact on the floor shouldnt only be needed, it should be expected from youre rookie shooting guard who should be desperately wanting to earn a starting spot.
In my mind, Wright should deffinately be the starter, at least for now. His defensive awareness will help making the starting 5 better defensively as a team and hopefully contribute in keeping the communication on the floor, which is key. This also may give derozan that hungry mantility he needs-and i know he has- to be the player that he has the potential to be.
I’m surpised no one has mentioned cutting O’Bryant or Douby and picking up Ime Udoka. Not a starter, but a solid defender who can hit 3’s. Having more guys like that on the Raptors could help a lot. I always liked his game.
Ime Udoka would be an excellent signing.
I think Udoka could be the fifth starter on the Raptors too. He’s a better defender than any of the other perimeter players on the team … and he’s also an outstanding rebounder for a shooting guard which is another much needed contribution.
And why would we think that someone who was just waived by Portland is good enough to be a starter here? Granted they are better than us, but come on, we don’t need another mediocre shooting guard (who btw is 32, and averaged only 4.3 points/2.8 rebounds last year) to muddy our already muddied waters.
Same reason we thought Primoz Brezec was going to make a difference. That’s the mentality of Raptors fans – the grass is always greener on the other side.
But still, Udoka wouldn’t be a bad signing for the reasons Dave pointed out. Back out the stuff about the fifth starter, that job is DeRozan’s.
Fifth starter or first wing off the bench … whatever the role is … Udoka is good enough to play a substantial role on the Raptors and improve this team.
I think the starting lineup would be better off with Udoka in there rather than DeRozan.
Unfortunately, I believe he signed with the Blazers already. How is that for an underrated, low-key pickup?
Agreed! Waive Douby – I like having the extra big – esp with Evans hurt now and Rasho looking – well, not like Rasho of old.
The Raps are in desperate need of better defenders – he’s perfect.
There’s no way Flynn can abuse my man Jose Calderon! Im wearing his jersey right now. lol
I don’t see Wright starting this game or the season opener (unless DeRozan implodes). I don’t know for sure but I doubt his stamina is there yet, plus I thought DeRozan started the whole pre-season and they were trying to establish chemistry? I do get your point A-Dub, he’s a rookie and will get burned, but my guess is he’ll start for the first few preseason games and if his game isn’t up to par they start Wright afterwards. He should start (and I was expecting him to), but injuries happen.
While I agree that Wright seems to be the player most fit to start at the 2, it seems that starting Derozan was the plan all along.
What I (and others who think/thought that Wright should start) need to keep in mind is that Triano is likely to yank DeDe out if he is getting burned or hurting the team. Just because he is starting doesn’t mean he will get guaranteed minutes without at least earning them a bit.
The nice thing about him starting is that we don’t need much from him offensively (and he is shown that he can be aggressive and draw fouls, which probably all we want him to do offensively).
But since Wright is no offensive powerhouse either, I think we should always have 2 of: Bosh, Bargs, or Hedo with him on the floor at all times.
What message do you send if your “best” defensive player, starting 53 games for playoff contender comes in off the bench. The decision to shut your guy down is definately a personal decision but its largely predicated on the expectations the coaching staff puts on the team. If you really want to send a message, not just to DD but everyone on this team (and in the city for that matter), you’ll concede the offence production and make a very concious decision to hang our hat on defence… THAT’s when this team starts to win some ball games.
What’s the obsession with who starts? Who cares who starts? Let DeRozan start, get his minutes and play with the best offensive players so he can concentrate on playing off them and other things, like rebounding and defense, without feeling the pressure to score. What is WAY more important, is who will finish the game, and at this point, it will probably be Wright, because of his defense and experience. What DeRozan can earn is finishing a game.
Maybe they’re starting Derozan to give him a taste of what being a starter is like on Opening Day. They’re giving a sample of what his goal should be; if he earns the spot out right in the process you’ve struck gold. That’s the very least of what potential buys you.
Gotta agree with Tim. Especially with how many games the raps let slip away last year. Having a guy like wright to shut guys down on defensive end will help us close out games and maybe even help to get some come back wins with all the offensive weapons we got. We can’t let games get away from us, especially early on, and get discouraged like last year.
Enjoy what’s looking to be a very exciting season this year everyone!