At least it’s over. This killer road trip that everyone said would be the first true test for the Raptors has finally run its course. After dropping two tough ones in Phoenix and Denver, the hope was that the ‘moral’ victories and lessons learned would help the Raptors steal a game from an injured 4-6 Utah Jazz team. Didn’t work out that way, but the Raptors did learn a lesson on what it takes to be a top level team.
The Raptors have played more road games in the West then any Eastern conference team, having gone 2-6 (Memphis before this trip). We can be thankful that this trial by fire is over with. It wont be until February, where the Raptors play 7 of 10 at home, that we can expect to make up some ground from this early scheduling fiasco.
The game started ugly with Bosh and Calderon each fumbling the ball, leading to four quick Utah points off the fast break. This seem to be the trend the entire game: the Jazz being able to push on the break, creating very easy scoring opportunities for each other. The Raptors laboured on each and every possession and could score only in contested one-on-one situations.
In fact, the first quarter was probably the worst quarter the Raptors have played all season. D-Will and rookie Wes Mathews got the best of the Raptors back court. If it wasn’t Deron punishing the Raptors for each and every turnover, pushing the ball and making the right play each and every time, it was this dude Mathews, who I’ve never heard, getting into a nice rhythm and making the Raptors pay for some weak defense on the perimeter. Not much else to report about the 1st quarter. I could have been out on the court and things wouldn’t have gotten any worse.
In the early second quarter things went from bad to worse. Where the Raptors were going one-and-done on offense, taking bad jumpers with our rebounders nowhere to be found, the Jazz were working the ball into the paint, getting great looks from inside 15ft. The Jazz were executing so well that they had 13 uncontested shots on their first 26 attempts, the pick ‘n roll working magic for them and our bigs unable to cope. They literally scored 26 points with no one between them and the basket.
Seemed like Bosh was all alone in this quarter. My game notes literally either had Bosh losing someone on defense (4pts off layups), Bosh rotating to help with no one picking up his man (2pts off layups), or Bosh finding his game in the latter half of the quarter being active on the boards, contesting shots, and scoring.
It was Bosh who put the Raptors on his back and scored 11pts in the last three and a half minutes of the half to pace a 16-6 run. In fact, this was the problem the entire night. The Raptors were just running around trying to make things happen but not playing basketball. Every single point Bosh scored was because he created for himself. They were unassisted and weren’t the result of any ball movement. Bosh got the ball, and everyone else stood around watching him do his thing. Whatever, it cut a 17 point lead to 9 with momentum building for the Raptors slowly. You’d hope at some point either our vaunted offense or a semblance of defense would make an appearance.
The 3rd started the way the 2nd ended, with the Raptors scoring off of one-on-plays. Only one of the shots (a high-lo feed from Bargnani to Bosh) was the result of someone creating for another Raptor. This 10-4 run to start the 3rd was paced by some really good defense. Jose was up on Deron, staying with him on the penetration and forcing a contested layup (missed). Bosh contested a Boozer jumper, DeRozan stole the outlet pass from Boozer to Deron.
Then it happened, the Raptors hit the wall, going scoreless for 4 minutes. Brick after brick rained down. Every single one a jumper that was forced. With Bosh on the bench, the Jazz pushed their lead to 9, then he entered:
MARCO BELINELLI TIME
In a span of 2:30, Belinelli either scored or assisted on every made basket. The Raptors closed the 3rd on a 9-3 run, capped with an off-balance buzzer beating three by our boy. On a side note, Belinelli is going to be the end of me this season. I like him, but the dude is just plain nuts. He cut the lead the lead to 1, with a layup in traffic (assisted by Hedo), but then the Raptors reverted back to first-option jumpers. One-and-done. Catch-and-shoot. Watch as your check blows by you for 5 minutes. Literally; the Raptors were scoreless for 5:19.
This time it was another unrecognized rookie, Eric Maynor, anchoring the Jazz as they slowly but surely pulled away. This Raptors had no answer for him. He was quick, crafty and did what he wanted. 11pts and 2ast in the 4th. The Raptors as a team scored 16 and had 2 assists just to put it in perspective.
Four Factors to Losing
Shooting the Ball Well
They did not shoot the ball well for one reason: Calderon/Hedo/Jack did a poor job of creating for the rest of the team. 14 assists on the night, seriously? The Raptors scored on great individual playmaking, not as a team. When you can’t hit your jumpers, you usually move it in, try to get a couple easy layups and build some confidence. No, the Raptors kept shooting and missing. To put it in perspective, the Raptors grabbed more offensive rebounds then they dished out assists.
Raptors – 40.6%
Jazz – 50.5%
Taking Care of the Ball
Both teams took care of the ball well here, which is no surprise given Calderon’s and Williams’ track record. Sadly, Calderon had 2tos to 2ast. That hurt.
Raptors – 11.5%
Jazz – 10.5%
Offensive Rebounding
This was the sole reason the Raptors were able to weather going scoreless for 4 minutes in the 3rd quarter: they grabbed offensive rebounds. With Okur out, the Raptors were able to use their size advantage to crash the boards and grab 16 offensive boards. The Raptors did a great job of crashing the boards, grabbing 50.
Raptors – 30.7%
Jazz – 27.6%
Getting to the Free Throw Line
Not gonna get to the line when you’re shooting jumpers, but Bosh managed 9 trips on his own to ensure that all was not lost in this department.
Raptors – 24.1%
Jazz – 34.5%
Player Impact
Not surprising that Bosh led the way, again: 32pts 17rebs – ridiculous. I shudder to think where this team will be if we run him out of town.
One the thing the Raptors have done really well is shown resiliency when the chips are down. This is a tough team that has some fight in them. It takes its toll though, you can’t keep getting into double digit deficits and expect to grind your way back every single game. Oh, I freaking hate Jarrett Jack. Hate him. He is my new Jamario Moon with that garbage jumper of his. I’d rather Rasho pop J’s from 17.
Arse has more of the grizzly details as they happened.
98 Raps
There are the facts and there there are the opinions:
1. Fact: after one month of training camp dedicated to defense we are last in points allowed and in defensive efficiency in the League. Opinions: wrong personnel, not enough time to gel, tough schedule, etc.
2. Fact: our back-up PG is last in both PG’s and SG’s PER in the League. He’s atrocious to watch: has no handles, no shot, awful decision-making. No idea watching him if he wants to shoot or pass. Bad defensive player. Opinions: too many new faces around him, shooting slump, Bosh’s friend, plays the contract length and not the real value.
3. Fact: Bargnani is the poster boy for our play so far. When he’s on offensively we usually win. Very soft defensively, poor rebounder, no communication on the floor. The way he goes we go. Opinions: everything expressed about him in reality is a reflection of the team.
4. Fact: Bosh is playing at MVP level. I’m not a fan of Bosh’s max contract level player however he’s been amazing so far. He’s better than before and he’s hungry to win. Our record is a statement of all the previous 3 facts and of the general b-ball form of the cast around him. Opinions: the usual ones. They don’t mean anything as long as we don’t know his status in Toronto after this year.
5. Fact: we are the first offensive team in the League. The offense keeps us in games however the defense makes us win the close ones (see point #1). Even with the suckness of DeRozan and Jack we still manage a powerful offense. We are built by design to be an offensive juggernaut. Opinions: offense only never won anything, the energy spent in offense takes from the defensive enrgies, too many jumpers makes for a bad offensive scheme, etc.
Well said, I agree with everything here.
One man’s court personality can rub off on another player and onto the entire scheme of things. The bench, aside from Jack’s current ineptitude, are the hungry ones. For our starting five, as much as Bosh wants to hustle, Bargnani’s and Turkoglu’s personalities (and lack of lateral quicks) is totally letting down our defense. DeRozen has till game 25 to still wear the blame shield due to his rookieness. Bellineli might be a Euro, but he looks like the guy who plays with total spunk, and “give-a-shit-about-something-ness”.
but wait… wasn’t a whole training camp supposed to help clarify Jay’s goofy defensive theories? The obvious defficiencies in that regard, as exhibited last year, were only because Jay did not have time to fully instill his philosophy from the beginning… no?
You want defence, you go with a proven coach that was successful defensively at the NBA level. He will tell you what players and staff he needs, you get them, then your team plays defence.
You don’t get a rookie coach, and than try to white out every players defensive liabilities with tactics.
Some good points. But I believe the reasons why is because the coach doesn’t put them in the role
their ask to play. Take Wright. His role is defensive. By putting him on the second roster, were telling
him no it isn’t. If he started he knew exactly his role.
Same with Jack. Caldron and Jack should not play together. It’s sending mix messages to Jack.
Derozan can score and dominate. By starting him the coach is holding him back.
Look at Orlando, San Antonio, and Phoenix. Toronto should follow their examples.
Turk, Barg, and Bosh should run a similiar offense as Orlando did last year. Use Derozan as the Spurs
use Ginobili coming off the bench. and follow Phoenix of not playing the two guards together.
Everyone would knew exactly their roles. With this system we would be at least 8-4.
Problem with this team, is that are the players mailing it in(except Bosh and Belinelli) for the season?(Because if we are 1-3 on every 4-game road trips, then at best, our record in April is 38-41 wins). Bosh is surely thinking of a way to get out of the sinking ship that is the Raptors and could really possibly leave to FA 2010.
Thankfully this trip is over. What a brutal schedule – 8 games in 13 days against quality opponents, and all but one of those from the Western Conference.
And if the NBA schedule maker didn’t already punish the Raps enough, has anyone noticed how rested their opponents were? When Toronto came into Dallas after playing New Orleans the night before, the Mavs had been sitting at home for 3 days. The Spurs were in the same rested state of 3 days off. The Clippers had only 2 days between games, but they had been at home for 7 days. To wind the trip from Hell up, the Raptors faced a Suns team that hadn’t played in 3 days, Denver resting for 4 days (and their prior game was a thrashing of the Lakers), and the Jazz sitting comfy in Salt Lake City for 4 days too. Somebody at the NBA head office doesn’t like us.
yeah the schedule to start the season has been crap… now we face D-Wade and Dwight Howard with little rest (especially if you include travel)
I am anxious for the Raps to get some home games and hopefully some home team calls from the refs.
The schedule was rough, but we get a break in February when have 7 home games (out of 10) and play new jersey twice. It all averages out.
If Jack/Calderon were not played together so much in the 4th against the Suns, the Raptors would have had a better chance at winning a game where they lost by a point. If they won that game, no one would complain about this schedule at all.
Just something to consider.
I agree, we have to end with finding excuses. Like in life, nothing is handed out to you. You have to work for what you got. Let’s just watch the team, analyze the games with good and bad and hope for the best for our team in the future. (Note: I realize life involves some luck too, however the distribution of luck is completely unknown to mortal eyes; in other wordds, we cannot plan on being lucky).
Not making excuses. Elite teams find a way to survive these brutal parts of the schedule. The Raptors aren’t an elite team. Just pointing out that for the most part their opponents on this trip have superior talent to begin with – so when you add in that these superior teams were much more rested than the Raps, the results could have been even worse.
But if there’s a team in this league that seems to always underestimated so called “terrible” teams,(i.e. New Jersey) its the Toronto Raptors. I can’t remember the last time we demolished a crappy team. :(
So come December 18th if the Nets are still unbeaten, get ready for the world to end because if we don’t change are mentality when approaching weaker opponents New Jersey stand a good chance in beating us. And I guarantee the reaction will be alot worse than when the Thunder ripped us a new one a couple years back and Raptor Nation rioted online for weeks.
amen.
agree
I can just see it happening, unless then that Courtney Lee and Devin Harris returns, but we might be the special team giving the Nyets their first win.
it looks like is going to be us for sure and if it does happen OMFG lol you no someone is going to be fired and everyone on the roster will be on the trading block
“I can’t remember the last time we demolished a crappy team”
I couldn’t resist, had to look it up.
On March 22, 2009, we beat the LA Clippers 100-76 (Their record last year, 19 wins- 63 losses)
http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/recap_032209.html
I don’t know if a 24 point win counts as “demolished” or not….but it was their largest margin of victory last season.
Damn you for trying to make me look bad. ;)
Anyhow, we’ll exclude that game and just pretend it didn’t happen. Losing to the Grizzles is the perfect example this season. haha
and also add that win against miami two season ago when we beat them like 54-96. this is the link
http://www.nba.com/raptors/schedule/results_2007.html
Alright, alright, alright …. two games I missed …. so sue me. ;)
I think that the Raptors played farily well on their 8 game 2 week road trip. You always count one home game sandwiched between two road trips of 3 or more games as a road game, because in reality except for the home court advantaage that is what it is. No time to practice for 2 weeks. Jet lag galore. Hotel beds and cooking galore.
The two games in TX were a disaster, though Dallas with Howard is one of the top teams in the league. He is now out again, bad schedule timing on the Raptors part LOL.
Other than the two blowouts in TX the only other disappointment for me was the failure to make the winning shot in Phoenix which I had said was the one winable game of the last three. Close but no cigar.
There is of coure still a lot of work to be done. With this 2 week road trip now put to bed and time available for parctice to work some of the kinks out that became obvious during the two weeks and hopefully Evans retuning in the not to distant future I am optomistic going forward.
The Raptors showed the will and ability to play very solid defense in spurts even with tired legs. More effort needed here to make it 48 minutes of solid defense but I am hopeful.
Tired legs lead to bad jump shooting and hence the Raptors losses to both Utah and Phoenix which both resulted from below par 3 point shooting on the Raptors part, especially last night. Even with relatively fresh legs I believe that they could have won both of those games.
No one likes a 5 – 7 start but it is after all a start and I think that the Raptors play and won-loss record will signficantly improve by the end of the year.
Tired legs I can totally see, but not at all any effort to try to drive it inside. In games looking like this, I’d burn all the timeouts until I get the message through, even if it might bite me in the ass if we get a winning shot opportunity.
When a team is tired, its players revert to their natural tendencies. For this team, it’s defensive scheme is still not natural or instinctive. Most of the players are jump shooters and so that is what they fall back to when they get tired.
There’s no one on this team who’s first thought on offense is to drive the ball.
One thing i couldn’t believe last night was how many raptor shots in the 3rd and 4th quarters where half way down them popped out. I would get excited thing someone made a shot cause it was on a nice line, nice arc etc, then the thing just popped out. It was hard to watch especially since the jazz didn’t light it up till like half way through the fourth.
the shooters weren’t using there legs, and they took too long on their shots! It’s Bargnani that kills me, he takes so long on he shots in the midrange game. It’s rythm that he needs.
We saw front rim way too many times. If you shoot the ball, it should NEVER hit front rim.
then*
As someone who has supported Triano in the past it’s hard to say that support is slipping but he seems to think that playing JJ at the 2 and the point is something that will eventually prove him right. In the meantime JJ has lost confidence, Calderone has no competition and someone else should be given a shot to play behind Jose. It is for the good of the team and if Triano stubbornly waits for Jack to suddenly get it together this losing thing could snowball regardless of the good effort put in by most of the team. There is some truth to the statement that you are as strong as your weakest link. When he can’t score, is turnover prone and has a terrible +\-it is time for him to get a different perspective on the game by watching it from the bench for a while. Whatever happened to earning your minutes? JJ has earned a spot on the bench.
They could use Beli in relief of Caldy but they want him as the shooting guard , may be try Banks for a few minutes and see how it goes , who knows.
With Evans returning this lineup might work
Bosh, Calderon, Johnson, Turkoglu and Calderon
You have four shooters and Johnson’s defense and rebounding. Turk could play the 2. He is big enough and can make the 3 ball. Johnson can defintely guard most #3s; i.e, those that are guardable.
You listed Calderon twice
My Bad
Calderon, Bargnani, Johnson, Bosh, Turkoglue
they’ve come up with some new quantum physics theories to support this.
Sounds good to me.
Go for it.
Spot on about Jack but its only 10 games, let’s wait till the quarter pole before we throw him under the bus.
In defense of JT’s experiment with a Jose & Jack backcourt, if you look around the NBA these days you find a lot of 2 smalls or 2 PGs playing together for extended periods, Kidd/Barea or Bourbois, Deron/Maynor last night, Miller/Blake, Brooks/Lowry, Duhon/Douglas, Billups/Rook?, Felton/Augustine? Rose/Hinrich, even Jenings/Ridnour. Small backcourts be they a trend or just a fad that defences have not yet caught up with still need some sort of counter move and JT’s move is Jack/Jose. Perhaps Banks may still be of some use as he is known as a defensive stopper with questionable PG decsion making ability. Paired with Jose they could be a match for 2 PG backcourts.
When you have two PG’s who can shoot, penetrate, pass and aren’t a liability on defense, then it’s a great strategy. But when you play a PG at shooting guard who can’t shoot (and is averaging about 1 TO for 2 A) and is a poor defender, then the result is predictable.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to apply the lab rat method of experimentation to coaching when players in the same position have vastly different skills.
With Marco on fire and literally getting us back into the game single handedly on the offensive end..
Why’d didn’t we give him the ball to start the 4th? Going back to Bosh’s 17ft iso’s was painful to watch as you could see our momentum come to a screeching halt.
Who’s to say that Marco would have kept that pace up. The point was that there were no plays be called. It was either a Bosh or Belinelli iso that got the score. Can’t win games like that.
Who do you think will win? The vampires? or the native werewolves?
Vampires, they are more cerebral and don’t rely strictly on instincts.
werewolves cause the faster and bigger and more aggresive
anyways am watching new moon this sat day
Those six, eight-pack wolf boys can’t glitter and drink blood. Gooooo Vampires! lol
lol
ok…the schedule. brutal, agreed, but let’s put to rest the notion that the travel, hotel beds/food have THAT much of an influence. it’s not like they’re travelling by rickshaw, sleeping on cots, or eating KD. all professional athletes deal with travel to the point it becomes part of life. fact is, they simply aren’t that good, and certainly not good enough to consistently compete with the likes of the teams they’ve faced over the last few games. the point that certainly has merit is having to play teams that are all well-rested while in the middle of a road trip, which is difficult against any opponent, and even moreso against quality teams (esp. those with good depth). it is what it is.
jarret jack: agree with the sentiments floating around (i.e. that he’s been horrible). but anyone who expects his role to significantly change is out to lunch. remember what the big man said about him when he was signed – that he was able to play & defend the two. removing him from that role would prove that notion false, and if there’s one thing we should all be abundantly aware of by now, it’s that the big man doesn’t like being proven wrong (see; bargnani, andrea). so, all of us who’d love to see the end to the jack/jose combo need to chill; the best we can hope for is that it’s minimized. but hell, maybe JT is more than BC’s lapdog, and will sit him in favour of guys who are actually producing something positive. that would be the most positive sign that he (JT) is more than a mere puppet. i can handle 15 minutes of back-up PG duties from JJ, but that’s pretty much it. oh, and can we find another end-of-quarter/half play besides JJ killing 15 seconds of clock & then foisting a zero-likelihood 20-footer or taking an out-of-control drive? we’ve seen how they’ve worked so far, and thanks, but no more. please.
Lets not put it to rest because it is the truth, like it or not.
The only thing jack has defended was his mouth from getting slapped the eff out by me:
Click for Image
Problems with Raptors are mostly related to coaching.
1)Supposedly Triano was going to change Calderone’s approach of walking the ball up the court waiting for the defense to get back and setup and then passing the ball to the man being double teamed with the clock winding down. The Raptors will never win if they don’t utilize fast breaks and better transition offense. What they don’t seem to realize is that the opposing players have a more difficult time on offense when they have to worry about fastbreaks. But with Calderone, they can all go after offensive rebounds because even with a 3 on 2 break, Calderone is going to wait for them to get back and setup before passing the ball to a well guarded teammate.
2)A couple of times Triano substitution of Jack as shooting guard resluted in a close game getting out of reach. What is the thinking? Jack can’t shoot so his man double teams Bosh. And while he may be a better defender than Calderone,he’s a poor defender by any other measure. The fact that the game quickly gets out of reach doesn’t seem to impact Triano’s thinking.
3)Insisting that Bargnani play center and become a post player is just undermining the one effective role he fills; his ablity to hit deep 3 pointers when he is stationary is practically indefensible. The more he moves around and tries to become a post player (despite a few dunks)the less effective the Raptor’s offense. While he can vary his shot depending on the circumstances, he’s usually only effective after he establishes his stationary shot and spreads the defense. However he can not cover opposing centers on defense and reliably get defensive rebounds. His peripheral defense is not bad for such a tall player. As long as the Raptors don’t accept his limitations, they will never win consistently against better teams with athletic post players.
The big man doesn’t like to be proven wrong but looking at Jack last year you could agree with what he said. In reality this year, his statement has been proven wrong by the play of JJ. BC is man enough to admit when he is wrong about something and I trust something will be done about it. As far as Bargs goes he’s still improving his game but has to learn how important consistency is if he is to justify managements faith in him.
Still improving? When was that again?
To-date +/- stats . Andrea +28 , Beli and Hedo +8 , DD +3 , Bosh +1 , everybody else in the negative. Now try to think how +/- stats are calculated. Then if you think Andrea has not improved then everybody else on the team including Bosh are BUSTS , need I say more ?.
Schedule and +/- are like, the same thing.
Who decided to gunk up this site with that picture/video of “the midget”? Its bad enough I had to put up with all “the midget” supporters last season on Pistons websites now here too?
Iverson had his day in/court. Time to move on.
He should retire.
Collectively the team are a bunch of Pussies.
A franchise player does not allow his teams to be 30th in the L in defense year in and year out.
He doesn’t allow his teams to finish 15th in the east every year with our only winning season as a result of the rest of the League having injuries.
Our wins this season against Cleveland, New Orleans, Chicago was more so them beating themselves as supposed to us winning it. We did not truly beat Cleveland.
Our players 1-15 are all soft, mentally weak individuals who other then Turkaglu maybe, are career losers.
Too afraid to rebound, to play defense, dive for loose balls, give a tech, give a hard foul.
Bosh – Put up all your 20 points and 17 rebounds all you want but your teams finish last in the East every year with you at the helm.
Agreed…just like the Orlando Magic of the McGrady era.
Agreed, just like Paul Pierce in Boston…oh wait…they surrounded him with Garnett, Allen, Rondo and Posey…and then won a title.
or Gasol in Memphis…oh wait…traded him to the Lakers…won a title…what about hockey…Ray Bourque in Boston…traded him to the Avalanche…won a title. You can say anything you want about Bosh not winning but name one marquee player that won a championship that didn’t play for a great team.
Cant see where the ops were complaining about Bosh not leading the Raps to a championship. Fundamentally the op is bang-on…”pussies” is an apt descrip. It goes to the core of the team’s problems (for quite awhile now). They were jacking up the ball from the outset and kept jacking it up after timeouts when the rule-of-thumb is to go inside (being physical) for at least a foul in order to break the momentum of being scored on. And this is just on offense. Lets not even begin to describe the parting-of-the-ways to allow layups defensively. The Jazz were smirking…like..”this is too easy”.
” A franchise player does not allow his team to be 30th in the L in defense year in and year out” ” He doesn’t allow his teams to finish 15th in the east every year with our only winning season as a result of the rest of the League having injuries.” …This has to be the most ridiculous comment I have ever read on RR.
“Bosh – Put up all your 20 points and 17 rebounds all you want but your teams finish last in the East every year with you at the helm.”
I understand that some people feel that he is not worth max money, which is fair because the players that are worth it can carry their teams on their shoulders…Wade, Kobe, Lebron, Melo…but to constantly criticize him for everything that is wrong with the Raptors is just ridiculous.
The Raptors have never finished last in the east with bosh at the helm, never.
bah! you & your fucking facts. always interfering with senseless yammering.
it’s funny…i’m thinking joe doesn’t get the irony in the statement, ‘Put up all your 20 points and 17 rebounds all you want but your teams finish last in the East every year with you at the helm.’ like, wtf else is one guy supposed to do? lebron’s gonna go down as the most physically dominant player of this generation, exceptionally gifted in (nearly) every respect…yet we’ve seen that without stellar teammates, it doesn’t mean diddly-poo. one man can only do so much…in the case of bosh (or any other big), it’s doubly difficult, since he relies on someone else to get him the ball. kobe, wade, ‘bron…then can all take the ball in backcourt & decide what to do with it. all bosh can do is work for position & hope he gets the rock when/where he can make an effective move. oh, he’s also gotta make up for his 7-foot noodle of a centre’s rebounding ‘ability.’
Agreed, Chris Paul is playing redonk, but his team is crap. Is he soft? Is he a max player? Is he a winner? I’m not saying Bosh is better then Paul, but I’m saying they are in the same category. Both elite players with subpar teams that need to be reconstructed.
But Andrea +/- to-date is +28 an Bosh is +1 . Andrea had 11 rebounds last night (could easily have got 13 but tiredness , same as everybody else caused a lot of mistakes ). Be patient , Andrea will have a 7-8 rebounds stats by year end . He also is the best shot blocker the team has.
And arguably it’s worst defender.
The team in summary is just a bunch of nice guys that get their asses kicked after each game and still hug and greet the winners after the win. No wonder, this team is a laugher in the NBA. What happened to storming out after a loss and not greeting the opponents and actually flattening guys like Melo that score at will against us(especially when the refs are against us and you have to send a message to an unstoppable player)?
Ya, it’s be the schedule. LOL. Schedule is just something to talk about. No really, I think Bargs was being watched really closely during this transition phase. He can’t excuse money or the team’s commitment. Fail. Pretty sure it be happenin’ soon. Can’t wait like he did for JO. Or FAQ is right. Bosh be gone. This sets us back a couple years again. Course, JO may have been the damage all along. Maybe cannot be undone so soon.
Hello Kandor , that is you isn’t it ? .
I have watched every minute the Raptors have played this year and a few things have jumped out at me so far.
1. There is no clear offensive pecking order. This hurts them a number of different ways. They don’t have a good idea of who to go to if the offense stagnates. No one passes the ball with less than 12 seconds on the shot clock. Everyone is standing around waiting for the ball at their spots instead of finding the open spots on the floor (or god forbid going for rebounds) because they figure someone will realize how awesome they are on offense and give them the ball.
2. Jason Kapono still haunts the Raptors. Did anyone else scream Jason Kapono at their TVs whenever Bargnani accepted the pass at the top of the arc, passed up a 3 with a defender running wildly at him took one step inside the arc and launched a long 2? I know I did, and as the game progressed I just kept picturing Bargs as a taller Kapono.
3. Some observations on the defense. It is bad, obviously, but not as bad as some think (Hollinger just wrote about how it may be historically bad). Other than Memphis in the 2nd game, the 6 Raptor losses have been to teams currently ranked 2,4,6,7,8 and 12 in offensive effeciency(surprised Hollinger didn’t look at that) and all but the Orlando game were on the road. #12 is Dallas, which would arguably be higher if Josh Howard had played in more of their games. Part of the reason for those rankings is the numbers boost they got from playing Toronto, but its not like the Raptors are the only team that got scored on by the Nuggets. A big part of defense is trust in teammates and that will be much easier to develop once they get a stretch of games against less offensively gifted teams.
were those offensive-efficiency rankings taken before or after they played the raps? cause we all know that nothing ails a struggling offensive team like a game against the raps (unless you’re chicago or NO, who are just bad all-around offensively).
They are after, and I mentioned that the ratings got a boost from playing the Raptors. But seriously, getting scored on in Denver, Phoenix, Utah, SA and Dallas is not a problem confined to the Raptors.
I also wonder why Bargs passes up the 3, does the fake, steps over the line, and shoots for a 2. In a number of those situations he seems off balance, or not set. I’d prefer that he shoot the 3.
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Put Calderone on any winning team such as the Lakers or the Magic and give him full reign to run the team the way he does the Raptors and I’ll guarantee you that they’ll have a loosing record. The Raptors have great shooters it just hard to consistently win games when the opposing players never have to worry about getting back on defense and almost every play on offense is a contested shot with the clock winding down. Add his defensive skills into the mix and …
wrong. he’d just have a steve blake-like role…much less control of the offense, and he’d be hidden somewhat on D (like, say, the lakers…put him as the starting PG along with kobe, ron-ron, bynum & gasol or odom, and that’s a pretty scary unit. if he ever learned to play off-the-ball, he’d be open for myriad corner 3’s…which is what they should be working on now (hedo controlling the rock, PnR w/ bosh, look for the kick-out to jose in the corner, bosh rolling or popping, or stepping back for the J…with VL a bailout option on the wing).
Jose is a great PG , I mean look at his Assist/TO ratio, off the chart !!!!!!!!!! He must be a top PG !!!!
This scheadule was absolutly brutal, back to back in New orleands (with Chris Paul) and in Dallas and, in Denver and Utah, that’s two of the best teams playing at home. In the first 11 games we played only one team that didn’t make the playoffs last year, all the rest were winning teams last season. I certanly expected the raptors to have a worse record that the one they actually have. Plus, the luck is not in our side, Deron Williams was out for a week and retourned in time to play against us. Chris Paul injured his ankle a week after playing against us. Josh Howard made the season debut against us and then he got injured again. Dallas was healthy against us, but now they’re without Marion Dampier and Howard. The luck was just not in our side in the first month of competiton.
This is not an excuse, because we made no effort defensively in the last two games, just like against SAS and Dallas but there’re a lot of bright spots in this team, Bosh is playing exceptionaly well, Bargniani has been playing like in January of last season. Belinelli has provided the spark we need from the bench, Hedo proved to fit well on the team and Jose is getting back to his level. Only Jarret is having problems adapting to the team.
If we wanna really play well against the elite level teams, the Bargnani and Bosh frontcourt must be broken up in the future. Highly talented, but the wrong play styles and priorities to mesh that cannot become a winning traditional team. Yes the coach is to be blamed a lot about it too, but I rather have one power forward or center that can score and one power forward or center that just puts all his effort to rebounding and block shots and be the muscle and intagible guy, with a few hook shots. It’s the balance of skills that make a winning team along with the talent.
So true. Every time Bosh attacks the basket or takes a jumper, Bargnani, our center, is just standing on the three point line. Thus there is no one to rebound the ball except for Bosh because everyone else is also standing by the three point line. We rely too much on Bosh to create the offense. Bargnani will never be as good as Dirk if he keeps playing the way he does now. In Dallas with Dirk, he positions around the free throw line and attacks the rim or shoots from there. Bargnani catches the ball at the top of the three point line and shot fakes his defender and then pulls up for a 20 foot jumper.
Could Bargnani stand around where Dirk is playing on offense now? Maybe, maybe not… but you know who is residing on that area for us now on offense currently and you should leave him be.
because also Eric Dumpers or any scrub center is going to just focus on rebounding the ball n the paint after the shot, and waste Cuban’s money.
I keep saying that a Bargs for Brooke Lopez or Andris Biedrins would solve the problem at the center position for the Raps. But RR fans keep ignoring me.
This team should have come off this swing 7-5 (w’s last night and in Phoenix). The fact that they didn’t is attributable to a lack of leadership. Every time the pendulum swung back towards our opponent it was being outhustled or a bad call by the ref. If this team wants to win Triano either has to learn to MOTIVATE, or we need to make a deal to bring in a leader on the court. Even when it isn’t pretty when guys are diving for balls, moving their feet and crashing the glass, this a bona fide good team.
Bargani is 7 feet 1 250 pounds NBA starting center which means he plays gurantee minutes 33-38 minutes and he averages average 6.20 rebounds per game.
Deron Williams is 6 feet 2 207 pounds and he is NBA starting point guard which means he plays gurantee minutes too he averages 5.20 rebouns per game. So if deron williams was at least 6 feet 5 he would have average more rebounds than bargani.
you not going to win a playoff round when bargani is your F***** starting center even YI Jianlian average more rebounds than bargani out of all people Yi come on man like Yi i almost cried when i saw Yi’s stats
It’s how the plays are drawn that is pulling Bargnani 20 ft from the basket. The current plays and his tendencies are making him into a 7ft Kapono now. Bargnani might probably be playing where Bosh is establishing position, but from how Bosh is playing, you know that Bargnani has to stay clear of that area to let Bosh operate on offence. If you want Bargs to pull more rebounds, he will have to put on 10 more pounds, get ripped more (if he can), and stand in the way of where Bosh needs to operate on his iso’s.
They run plays to get Bargs the ball, but he can decide what to do with it. He could go to the hole, and frequently dunks and gets fouled when he does so.
Bargs on defense tends to range out and lose his man. He’s the first one to put a hand int he face of a long range shooter, when he should be bodying up a post player, boxing out, or just standing there protecting the rim. He plays that way because he grew up as a guard. But those tendencies are playing bloody hell with the Raps interior defense. Teams just cannot be allowed to get to the hole as easily as Raps opponents have done so. And it is the center’s job to stop it.
It’s somewhat true that players can improve and change their games over the years, but to expect Bargs to handle the demands of the center position is asking too much in my view. He should be a 4, and that means he can’t start with Bosh. One of them has to go. And I would not want to trade the best player in the NBA when I can trade Bargs instead.
Trying to turn Bargani into a post player will never work. He’s not Dirk and he never will be. Every time the Rapts have won, a big part of it is because Bargani was hitting deep 3 pointers and the opposing teams had to send a big man to play peripheral defense opening up the post up to Bosh and others. Every time they go away from this (such as the entire first half of last season) Bargani becomes ineffective and Bosh has to take on 2 or 3 guys in the post to score. It’s a classic case of denying reality and blindly following a strategy that doesn’t work. When ever B gets a dunk (about 1 or 2 a game) that all people remember and they say that’s what he should be doing. But every time they’ve won a game, it’s because of his three point shooting.
Jermaine O’Neal is averaging 7.9rbs this year…5.4rbs last year…Bargnani is averaging 6.2rbs…does anybody think that Miami can’t win a playoff round…oh wait…they have D.Wade.
Motivation by a coach is a lot of nonsense when it comes to BB. Teams win when they have a fluid playing style that maximizes players’ strengths and minimizes their weaknesses. The team needs an effective coach who can implement a system and rotations that make sense. The Raptors have pretty good team in terms of personnel but they’ve been playing the same style of basketball for the past 3 years and it doesn’t work.
They consistently give up a high percentage of uncontested layups while rarely make any irrespective of what team they’re playing. The only way they win is by individual effort involved in shooting the lights out on contested shots.
The way the team executes is still Smitchy, I don’t know if Triano actually created his own playbook at all. If you get a totally outside coach and drop him into our team, then you will see something very very different, good or bad.
You got that right. Toughness, toughness, toughness….physical and mental. Its a pity Evans cannot play…just waiting on him coming back to see if his attitude rubs off.
Bargani’s defense is okay/passable at times but at others it’s just brutal. This can probably be explained by effort/intensity. I think this is where we miss Reggie Evans. Amir has been doing an exceptional job off the bench in the last couple of games filling in for evans, but the effort and intensity that Evens brought to the team during practice is what we miss the most. When evans was healthy we saw barg’s defence was alot better and some were saying better than bosh’s. Since Evan’s has been injured Barg’s intensity/effort has declined with time. I hope we get Evan’s back soon so his 24/7 intensity and effort can rub off on the other guys especially Barg’s.
Evans might not be the Black Jesus, but he sure is trying to grow that beard. I wonder what happens if we see him playing with Bargnani and how he changes his complexion on defense or just toughness, Bargs looks like a guy who is a shell and whomever emotion he feeds off of, he plays like them.
I’m pretty happy so far.
This is essentially a new group of guys who are gelling early in the year. Aside from those awful 35 point quarters, we are seeing flashes of this being a middle of the pack team defensively.
Jack looks terrible, but give him some time. He is still about as good as T.J. with half the price and half the bad attitude.
Derozen has been really good for a rook. I like getting him those first unit minutes in the first quarter, then sitting him. By the end of the year he might even be earning some 4th quarter burn.
The team looks like a 43 win team, 6th or 7th in the east.That is fine by me
A new group of guys but unfortunately the same style of BB.
Your expectations are pretty modest. They have a pretty good group of players (other than at PG). Bosh is playing amazing but as we’ve seen shooting while being triple teamed with clock winding down is not a formula for success.
Intrestingly Derozen seems to be the only player who understands how to play transition offense. Hopefully as he improves, he won’t be overly influenced by the Raptor’s system.
As far as Bargnani goes being 7 ft when you can’t jump and have poor reflexes doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to play center. O’Bryant averaged 2 rebounds in summer ball.
Bah this had to be the most boring I’ve watched in awhile.
the 1st q was horrible, but the 2nd and 3rd was worse for me because of all the missed jump shots and just sloppy play overall. Also it felt like we were stuck 5 until the 4th q.
Bargs and calderon are horrible defenders. But at least with Bargs this is his first season playing steady minutes at centre.
Bosh was awesome.
If Bosh stays, Derozan needs to be a star for this team to get to a championship level. My Opinion Derozan>Bargs in importance for this team
How the hell are you going to tell Colangelo to move a 10 million/year contract? You also have to stomach the fact that if you move Bargnani and keep Bosh, do you want to see Bargnani play like an All-Star for another system, thus saying our current system sucks, maybe?
Derozan doesn’t look like he has star quality to me. Mo Pete level. Slightly different game, but that’s the ceiling I see so far. That’s not too bad.
I do think Reggie will make a difference. Just 3 or 4 plays per game. A hard foul, a tough rebound, making an opposing player think twice about going into the paint … it’s contagious. I think he’s the glue guy. Not saying we vault to the top of the standings, just saying he’s a culture changer.
Reggie can not turn this pussies into men. Even if you brought Oak or Dennis Rodman back to this team, they are going to give up.Lol.
Thank you Raps Fan, great post. Also, thank you Daniel ( first post on here) you mentioned some great points.
This team has some seriuos issues, being a new system or new players or … I think we need another 10 games to see how things are and after that BC is going to make some changes or I think his job will be on the line.
Stop blaming the schedule and making excuses. We suck defensively, that’s why we lose. You guys think this team is actually better than this?
Yes, Bosh is a monster on offense. But what about his deficiencies? Lack of defence a lot of times, stopping the flow of offence…
Raps stink. Period. It’s not pessimism. It’s true.