The “who’s your daddy” edition.
Banks – he was in uniform tonight. Really. Only person more pissed off than a Raptors fan should be is Marcus’ dry cleaner.
Bargnani – a board shy of his third straight double double. Entered the game feeling under the weather and it showed. Fouled out late 4th quarter. Looked as much into this game in the second half as the crowd was: not at all. If he could have sustained his first half pace, it would have been a different outcome.
Belinelli – officially hit the IR with the groin pull he suffered during Friday’s game. Different kind of groin pull than what A-Dub gets from his “masseuse”.
Bosh – made it to the free throw line, hit his shots, but was miserable on the boards, ending the game with five. The Magic did a great job of boxing him out in the paint, but MVPs figure out a way to adjust or make up for it. Bosh didn’t.
Calderon – 4 assists 2 turnovers. In a game where he really had no excuse not to excel, he didn’t. If I were to donate $5 for every time he attacks the bucket in the first 3 quarters for the rest of the year, I’d feel like I’m ripping off the charity with the final total.
DeRozan – prior to the game he spoke of his admiration of Vince as he was growing up. Well, you are grown up now son and you should still admire the guy who just made you look every part of a rookie. 1 point, 1 rebound, 4 fouls in 17min. Not sure what all the people saw in this kid to dub him a sleeper for ROY. Underwhelming in every facet of the game today.
Evans - faker. Faker with horrible taste in pants.
Jack – second nice game in a row. 11 assists, 8 points and once again was a focal (and vocal) point down the stretch. He did have some brutal shot selections in the first half including one ugly airball, but he is producing now……which is a damn sight better than his backcourt mate.
Johnson – the bright spot on the court tonight. Did what he could when he was on Dwight, he was never scared of the paint, and he hustled more than 3/4 of this team did today. Hell of an effort.
Mensah-Bonsu – didn’t play. Who needs athleticism against Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis and Dwight Howard?
Nesterovic – he was good on the floor today. Pulled out his baby hook, laid his body on his cover and tried to pull the defense in. Could have used more of him, to be honest.
O’Bryant – would there even be a point on bidding on a POB “game worn” jersey? Buy one at CentreSports for $100.
Turkoglu- kind of expected a little more from him. Would have loved to see some passion in those eyes (for once) and a thirst for blood. Got none of it. His turnover in the last minute was a back breaker and made one wonder, albeit sarcastically, if he didn’t want to hand one to his old team.
Weems – bringing that second unit passion again. His stat line will never reflect his athleticism and I’m beginning to wonder if Triano has the ability to actually harness what Sonny seems like he could bring to the offensive end of the floor.
Wright – didn’t play. Last seen hoping to hell that Dwight wasn’t going to snap Amir in half.
Driving The Bus: Amir Johnson
Under The Bus: DeMar DeRozan
Game Theme:
113 Raps
I guess we didn’t want revenge so badly?!
Yeah, more along the lines of mild apathy.
The Raps have jelled .. and this is as good as it will get .. believe it.
Thanks FAQ.
you mean like jello
.
Johnsons a tough kid.
He did a decent job on Howard today
He has already went full steam in Shaq last year or the year before and bounced right up.
Last season in the playoffs he talked Lebron as Lebron drove to the hoop. Lebron got up and walked to the line after Varejao went after Johnson to no avail.
Knowing where he grew up I wouldn’t put my money on Howard so quick if they duked it out as long it wasn’t in a 2 by 4 space.
…what?
Lets try this one again.
He did a decent job on Howard today
He has already driven full steam into Shaq last year or the year before and bounced right up.
Last season in the playoffs he tackled Lebron as Lebron drove to the hoop. Lebron got up and walked to the line after Varejao went after Johnson to no avail.
Knowing where he grew up I wouldn’t put my money on Howard so quick if they duked it out as long it wasn’t in a 2 by 4 space.
My original incredulity/confusion still stands.
That’s alright you will get over it.
Remember how Mad Max took “The Master” down in Beyond Thuderdome.
The larger stronger figher doesn’t always prevail in the movies nor in real life.
Anyway, you’ll get over your confusion over time, don’t let it worry you.
I second that and i have a graduate degree. Shame on me n u …
I was replying to “D Squared”
Also , in the fight in Manila , the boxer (Ali) used the ropes to his advantage to prevail over the bruiser (Frazier). Ali needed some space to tire Frazier out.
Thanks for jarring my memory on that one. I have seen that fight at least several times. All of those Ali – Frazier fights were special.
“Also , in the fight in Manila , the boxer (Ali) used the ropes to his advantage to prevail over the bruiser (Frazier). Ali needed some space to tire Frazier out.”
Don’t really understand what “needed some space” has to do with the “rope-a-dope.”
Today’s game shows that how useful Belinelli to us. If he played today, I bet we could’ve won the game.
Bang on!
yes, i kept thinking we need belli right now. He is the only person on our team who can coming me and help us instantly with the scoring.
Well, I’m not sure what Amir Johnson’s skill as a pugilist has to do with anything, but he is and always will be a one-trick pony. All he does is grab offensive boards and his offense comes on putbacks.
He doesn’t defensive rebound because he lacks size and doesn’t seem to have a knack for it. If he packs on 30 pounds he may turn into another Tyrone Hill, but that’s his ceiling.
The Raps get nothing from their guards most of the time, but this was a poor effort even for the Raps guards.
Calderon is playing so poorly that it is difficult to justify giving him long minutes — oh wait, they have no one else.
If he and Jack pick it up the Raps might actually be a .500 team.
I don’t see the issue with amir johnson. No one’s expecting him to be the next Bosh. His style of play is exactly what this team needs and it’s good enough. If he develops more of an offense his ceiling might be Joe Smith like, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Here here, If the rest of the team played with the energy he does they would be a lot better off. He will never be another Bosh but I think he was a great off season pick-up and is earning every cent of his money unlike some Raptors (Yes you Banks, POB!!!).
JJ redick 3 point shotting cost us the game, Reddick is slowly becoming a raptor killer
Slowly? I think you meant quickly becoming a Raptor killer because he’s already one. :(
Raptors were in this game, but when you give up 32 three point attempts to the Magic your bound to get bitten in the arse.
Today really wasn’t about terrible defence, but more bad decision making on offense. If Turkoglu’s going to play 40+ minutes a night then we need more production from him. Today was awful. At least Bargnani gets a pass for playing under the weather.
everyone one in the league a raptor killer, from Kobe to Ryan Anderson.
We might as well have traffic cones out there as defenders. At least then we wouldn’t have any expectations.
LMAO … too funny Stephan and yet so true on some days. :(
I know of no other coach who can get so little out of so much. Come on Jay, start coaching – real coaching. Breaking a clip board doesn’t cut it.
How about next time you’re entering the 4th quarter tied at home you get your team mentally prepared to compete for the final 12 minutes instead of letting Orlando scrubs go on a 17-6 run? When the Raps ship out Jose, promise me that Jay goes with him.
I was hoping the players would of responded to that terrible knee to the clipboard action, but it sparked nothing. I think its because it wasn’t a clear break for Jay. I think it was the clip that broke off and not the board itself. It’s been that kind of year for the Raptors. If Jay wants to get his point across he needs to throw his clip board at either POB or Banks hoping that it breaks that way instead.
The clipboard trick looked lame.
It’ll get lamer if he does it again soon.
“4 assists 2 turnovers. In a game where he really had no excuse not to excel, he didn’t. If I were to donate $5 for every time he attacks the bucket in the first 3 quarters for the rest of the year, I’d feel like I’m ripping off the charity with the final total.”
I thought he also had 16 points, but your whining isn’t as effective if you add it to your comment. You should try and leave the humour out of your comments also. Your not actually funny. Shouldn’t you strive for more professionalism considering the site is on ESPN’s Truehoop network. And why in the hell do you comment on guys that didn’t even play. I’m getting close to deleting this site from my bookmarks.
Couldn’t agree more.
Then both of you, GTFO :)
This site is like my homemade wine , always enjoying it . You want to drink Bordeaux grand crus ? , don’t come to my house.
Eloquently put cesco.
cesco…first, I don’t want to come to your house…period. Second, are you implying that were not allowed to make negative comments about the writing or that we shouldn’t be reading the blogs if we don’t like some of the content. Either way, you’re an idiot…same for you Bill.
dsr… you are free to criticize the way this blog is written but if other posters express their opinion about your criticism , they are idiots. Who is preventing you from starting your own highly intelligent blog . No one.
cesco…i didn’t say this wasn’t a highly intelligent blog. In fact, I feel quite the opposite with regards to the writers and most of the commenters. However, I do have some negative opinions which I shared and I am entitled to that. I felt that your resopnse was telling me that if I don’t like some things, that I don’t belong here which I feel is an “idiotic” remark…no offence.
Jose also took the second most shots on the team to get that amount of points. He also lost his man more times than you can count. He missed half the shots he took. Had he distributed the ball on those shots, who knows, maybe it would have resulted in a victory.
Feel free to increase your readership at the other sites. Find something more to your liking. Report back.
Calderon isn’t to blame but he sure contributed to the lose. I’m not sure what he has to do mentally to prepare himself to attack players that normally couldn’t hold his jockstrap but he better get with it quickly. 3 or 4 blow-by’s on defense can easily be overlooked if he is putting pressure on the other team. Williams can guard Jose? Er, no.
not to mention two wide open 3’s down the stretch in the 4th
Raptors offense is all good. It’s on the other side there’s just tooo many times, quite notably #8Calderone, we abandon the man to follow the ball which of course will be returned to the unguarded man and we get violated. Even if it happens only once per player per game, that’s good for 10-15 points against us and -oh look! how much are we losing by on a regular basis? I think once we correct AT LEAST this element per game we can look forward to improving our point averages and a shot at the play-offs.
I obviously agree that our defence is horrid, but it seemed like our offense went stagnant when we needed it most. Ya, I know we’re first in offensive efficiency but there a lot of times, specifically against good teams, that imo our offence is reduced to nothing more then passing the ball to Bosh or going one-on-one. The spacing disappears and the whole offence looks messy and uncoordinated.
Now of course our horrible defence is what really needs to be worked on and improving that from 30th to 20th (or so) should be the real goal. But I’m simply pointing out that it seems like the team’s best quality (offence) seems to be lost during crunch time, which leaves us with nothing else to depend on.
I am with tmk.
What tmk never elaborated on is why the failure in the clutch?
To discover that we have to ask what happened to Bosh? Our offensive leader in the game cannot disappear in the clutch. Where does Bosh go when we really need him and why?
Colangelo understood this weakness in Bosh. That is why he he worked some real magic and landed Turkoglu – Mister Fourth Quarter. Hedo is not getting the right looks down the stretch. Triano has to make some different decisions with the last 6 minutes of the game. Go Raptors!
I’ll give Bargnani the under-the-weather excuse, but he should be the one under the bus considering expectations. His help defense and hustle was atrocious, and his lack of hustle led to those stupid ass offensive rebounds. the long rebounds that Orlando grabbed was a pain to watch, Sonny bucked the trend with that hustle play, but Jose wasn’t chasing for those rebounds GODDAMMIT!
Summary of this team is that they can not beat the contenders to save their lives. An hallmark of a .500 team. Even OKC has a better record. Shame!Toronto would probably be hands down one of the worst sports city on the planet.
The Magic will probably get the honor of losing to the Lakers in June. They are a very very good team with a very good defense.
I give Bargnani credit for giving it the old college try. It was clear in the second half that his being under the weather eventually got to him.
Dude, what’s with you and Sonny? He takes way too many bad shots.
/agree. He’s like a better Will Solomon. I’m starting to cringe whenever he has the ball.
Can’t explain… I know we should not rely toooo much on him, but this guy’s way of play on the court is reasonable and effective, and him proving of his worth makes the Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems trade look so one sided for us. Give credit when it’s due, My totally biased Weems army still marches on….
“Mensah-Bonsu – didn’t play. Who needs athleticism against Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis and Dwight Howard?”
The only person of those three Pops would guard would be Lewis, and I’m pretty sure Bosh/Bargnani were checking him most of the game. So yeah, lets play Pops instead of them.
But wait! There’s more!
“Nesterovic – he was good on the floor today. Pulled out his baby hook, laid his body on his cover and tried to pull the defense in. Could have used more of him, to be honest.”
Could have used him more? He plays off bulk, not athleticism, but you seem to think we need athleticism against Howard? But yeah, more Nesterovic and less Bosh/Bargnani!
“Johnson – the bright spot on the court tonight. Did what he could when he was on Dwight, he was never scared of the paint, and he hustled more than 3/4 of this team did today. Hell of an effort.”
Bosh and Bargnani who?
Let’s just split the minutes between Rasho, Pops and Johnson!
Wasn’t aware that someone had to face someone directly in order to offset their skill. Say, Chris Paul. His efficiency doesn’t help the Hornets in close games against a team that doesn’t have a very good point player? If stations pump a Hornets/Magic game, would they not mention Howard and Paul? Guess Paul better bulk up during his injury, huh?
I’m no Rasho fan, but if you have someone getting pushed in the low post, throw a big guy in to stem the tide. If your problem is giving up offensive boards, put someone in that can box out.
If you didn’t appreciate Amir’s game today, I can’t speak to that. I’d be surprised if you weren’t in the minority.
Amir did exactly what was expected of him and did it well.
But the Raps are not going to win if Bosh and Bargs don’t play well.
Amir did what we brought him to T.O to do today…
Raptors guards.
Reddick, Carter and Williams scored 59 points which interestingly enough are the same exact number of points that Willams, Reddick and Nelson put up against the Raptors in their first meeting.
It seems to me that defensively the Raptors are really weak at the guard position.
I like Calderon and think he is a good player but in him and DeRozan the Raptors just do not have much if any defense in their starting guards. Jack doesn’t add a lot defensively.
Hit the nail on the head, But it is not all Calderons fault, if the other starters were better defensively his shortcomings on defence would be less of a problem. Bosh is our best defender in the starting unit and Wright is the best defender off the bench, that in itself is the problem.
I will agree on Bosh, but I am not so sure about Wright. Before today Johnson had a defensive rating of 113 and Wright 118. (The lower the number the better). I think when one looks at defense it is not just how one plays defense against the guy they are guarding but thow their defense impacts the entire team’s defense when they are on the court.
Career wise Johnson is at 102 and Wright 110. Some of that has to do with 2007-08 Pistons second unit of which Johnson was apart of. It was very very good. In fact it was the best second unit in the league that year by far.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wrighan01.html
Lets revisit this after the season.
Want to know why the Raptor guards don’t seem to measure up?
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/10687/whats-working-for-the-raptors
Calderon and Jack together on the floor give up 136 points per 100 possessions, the team gives up about 112 on average.
See Jack and Calderon on the floor together at the end of games – See opposing guards (like Chalmers 18 points in 13 minutes) go off for BIG numbers!
Jack or Calderon running the point, things usually go okay – together = disaster.
Right on Brother Steve!
So if NOT Calderon and Jack – Calderon and who?
Conventional wisdom says – the fifth game finisher must be a superior defender – Wright? This was Colangelo’s pre-season plan. The question is why does Triano feel that Jack and Calderon is the next best combo when Wright is out.
And maybe, we need to take a page out of Phoenix’s playbook and simply just out score our opponent. Triano should go with Belinelli – pound it in to Bosh only to have him redistribute to 4 pretty good three point shooters down the stretch and bombs away!
We should be minimizing our defensive weakness and highlight our team strength. Offense is more entertaining than defense. Phoenix has proven that offense can consistently win! Go Raptors!
Why is it that everyone but Triano realizes that the Jose/Jack combo isn’t working?
Our wings… although none of them are all-stars…. have all been effective in one fashion or another. I see no reason to keep Jack/Jose on the floor together with our wings playing like they are.
I’m sure its a matter of getting Jack his minutes… but if its not working its not working. Jack should get his minutes if he is playing better than Jose. If he’s not… he better work his ass off the next game to earn them.
Thank you CBC for this lousy Raptor schedule and a number of top games @ noon or 1:00 pm throughout the season. Don’t mind the occasional game especially in Feb/March….. But no, all overlapping NFL and after a Friday night game…. Not an advantage at all and to add insult we are 0-2 as of now. 3-4 okay….. But no 10 Sunday early starts, which is lousy….
Can’t stand it and just checked a few other teams Home schedules to look for quirks and this is solely a Toronto thing for the CBC. The Lakers have about 5 Sunday games and are the closest to the Raptors and only because they are the biggest draw and national games for ABC. Celtics, Suns, Spurs, Blazers, Cavaliers & Magic all under 3 games…..
Ughhhh….
NFL = boring. The No Fun League!
You should be watching CFL playoffs (after the Raptors game of course!)
NFL = Not for long. That’s how long the majority of players last in that league.
Invest in a PVR
I have season tickets and am at those Sunday games. The point is the schedule is dictated by the CBC, which results in too many Sunday games imo…. I am using the NFL/CFL as an example in that there are choices I’d like to have Sunday…. I don’t as I’m at the game.
Defense horrid once again, gave up way to many open threes when everyone knows that will bury you against a team like the magic (not to mention you would think we’d have learned from our first meeting), and the players could not be motivated to put in the effort (mainly defensive) in the final quarter.
At what point do we stop blaming the players and look directly at the coach as the cause of these shortcomings. 9 new players, it’s a team wide problem, and defence was actually stressed more than anything throughout training camp. This tells me it is not a personell problem, but a coaching one.
My confidence in Triano is being chipped away at with every game.
I try not to think about this, but I can’t help but wonder how things would be with Messina.
Oh and don’t even get me started on his substitution patterns thus far this season…
We hold Orlando to 41% from the field and 28% from three, so the perimeter defence wasn’t the problem. What game were you watching? It’s the 14 offensive rebounds and the second chance points that hurt us the most.
And some of those stupid rebounds were supposed to be the ones that your PG and SG should run for but they don’t because they are too lazy. Dive for those balls if you have to! If Howard overpowers you, you can’t do shit, but the ones that the Raps could get bouncing 15 ft away from the basket, they let those ones drop on JJ Reddick’s lap. Btw, run some plays for DeRozan if he gets matched up with bad defenders, our offense looks a little too predicable as usual.
Among the guards that qualifies for the stats (NBA.com) , DD is #35 out of 97 and Jose is # 65 in term of rebounds per game.
Compare Jose to Andrea who is # 17 out of 35 centers (he is the worst according to the majority of Raptors fans ) then you can see that there is room for improvement in that area for Jose.
If those stats include Mark Blount and Jarron Collins …that isn’t a stat you should rely on.
“At what point do we stop blaming the players and look directly at the coach as the cause of these shortcomings. 9 new players [...]”
Certainly not after 14 games. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the new players (though it’s now 10 new players as only Bosh, Bargnani, Calderon, POB, and Banks remain, though honestly, considering two of those are POB and Banks, it’d be more accurate to say only 3 actual players remain from last year).
Anyone who thought this team would be even average defensively so quickly is the kind of tribal honking fan FAQ constantly refers to, I’m saddened to say. The offense has been a positive surprise, though it could still be better (they get the points when they’re playing like a broken sieve, but often can’t score when they need to). The defense — I did expect it to be slightly better than what’s been had, but certainly not lockdown like that first Cavaliers game.
If the players can’t get it together by the 25th-30th game, blame the players. If they can’t get it together half way through the season, blame the coach.
New team, new coaches, only 3 players in the rotation from last year.
They are playing BETTER than expected considering 8 road games against the West already.
+ playing Cleveland, Orlando 2x at home in the first month!
It’s a bloody miracle the team is 6-8.
No real reason to believe the Raps would have been any better than 4-10 at this point.
The Raps can acquire Emeka Okafor if they don’t think Brags is working out as the starting center. All they’d have to give up is Johnson, O’Bryant, and Banks — assuming N.O. is willing to take another year of his ruinous contract.
Okafor is a superior rebounder at both ends, and a good offensive player too. His presence would radically alter the nature of these types of games. No more excessive second-chance points for the bad guys.
More enticingly, if CP3 demands a trade, the Raps could get him (with filler) for Bargs, Numero Ocho, DDR, and filler. The Raps would be adding millions to their payroll, but would become perhaps the favourites to take it all, or at least get to the finals.
By “can acquire” do you mean in a fantasy world with gumdrop homes, streets paved in gold, and New Orleans out of their minds?
They have to dump salary, and will give him to whomever is willing to take the contract.
CP3 isn’t going anywhere moron. As for Emeka, I’m not really sure why they made that trade with Charlotte in the first place, as more than half the BB community and I think Chandler was better suited to CP3’s style. Emeka could be on the move, but that wont happen anytime soon.
But thanks for your retarded comments!
1. They’ll dump everyone before they think about dumping Paul, *unless* they get a good offer and that’s not a good offer.
2. This isn’t a 2 team league. That’s why your “scenarios” are a bit unlikely.
And in what dimension does Emeka have any offensive game? Not to mention he can’t jump.
Remember when the debate was whether Orlando should pick Howard or Okafur # 1 in the 2004 draft – man has that guys stock fallen.
WOW…whatever this guy is smoking I would like some too : P
New Orleans will be looking for salary cap relief.
If they suck over the next month without Paul. Okafor might be available for Evans and Banks – saves Horents $1.25 million in tax plus their contracts expire with Peja’s = Cap room.
Dream!
the only really likely best trade piece we can have is Emeka Okafor on this odd scenario, and I think Bargs could be the piece if Colangelo suddenly gives up on him. It can be bad or very good if Okafor is our center, our system is half court and we would end up getting an upper level traditional NBA center that can block shots and gobble those rebounds that you have to muscle, though the paycheck will be inflated more than Bargs. I can’t tell if this trade will even make us better at all because no Bargs means we have to remove 2 or 3 plays from our playbook.
No way in any frozen hell we can get Chris Paul, NO WAY!
We have to suffer and wait till our entire bench is assembled to see if our team is a tad better than mediocre 0.500. Honestly we are no where near Orlando’s coaching, system, muscle, and talent. 2, no 3 tough players (Belli, Evans, and Wright) were gone today and we played like a bunch or softies on the boards. People act differently when certain personalities are not on the court.
So far CP3 has been loyal to the Hornets franchise, but for how much longer? They have little or no talent other than him, and they have an alarming number of disastrous contracts (Stojakovic for instance).
Okafor cannot shoot like Bargs, but do the Raps, already the best offensive team in the NBA, need Bargs’s offense? What they need is a post defender, a guy with some career defensive win shares on his resume.
Triano was out coached….PERIOD !!
Sadly, get used to it. Elevating an over-matched Jay Triano to the full-time head coach position may be Bryan’s worst move so far.
Sadly, I’m starting to agree with that statement.
Triano is starting to suffer from a bad case of stubborn.
Stubborn or that retard makes badly timed substitutions just for the hell of it. If our lead is at 11, don’t sub those players out that helped build that lead.
Agreed !! You can see how Van Gundy calls times out as soon as the Raptors showed any kind of life. Triano let them kill the 10 point lead in the 2nd before he stopped the play. Not to mention subbing out players that had the hot hand for cold starters riding the bench.
Very funny!
thanks. It’s a tough economy, you know.
Not at all funny. Alt raps, give up on trying to be hilarous, and maybe just throw in the occasional debatable funny comment. But, then guys like “Dave” here won’t be able to shit themselves laughing while helping fuel the fire for your aspirations to be the next comedian from the great white north.
No such fire, no such aspiration. Thanks for taking the time, though. The fact that you posted a comment shows you care. Kind of like getting a D- in gym because at least you showed up.
I was at the game today and noticed during timeouts that Jay spends 3/4 of the time in a huddle 10 feet away from the team, then slowly makes his way to the players on the bench to give instruction. Meanwhile, over at the Orlando bench, Ron Jeremy is giving instruction face to face to his players, getting in their faces and actually coaching. I have a few issues with what Jay has done in his first full season as a head coach (overplaying the combo of Jackerone being atop the list), but I found this highly bizarre during the timeouts.
He got that from Smitch
But you can’t break your clip-board in a huddle – someone might get hurt! lol
Jackerone = giving up many many points.
Why can’t Triano read the same stats the rest of the world has?
In a huddle with the assistant coaches that is
y does this guy keep referring to Evans as a faker? Since wen was AltRaps a doctor?
took me as long to get my phd as it took you to be too lazy to type “wh”.
Piled higher and deeper seems appropriate here! lol
hahaha…nice!
This game was lost in the stretch after howard picked #4 and left the game; instead of driving and crashing we folded like a lawn chair.
1) Messina is a better coach than Triano. He is a proven winner, and a good teacher also. the only question is: get him players that would listen to him, get him loyal assistant coach.
2) Bargs for Okafor? honestly, doesn’t change a thing.
it would another bosh’s clone.
the O’neal experiment should teach us something.
bosh (or Bargnani) companion must be a Tyson Chandler type, a Ben Wallace type: someone that focus only on defense and rebounds, with no shots other than offensive rebounds.
I hope Reggie can be that player.
he can’t.
He doesn’t have the body or the talent
Pop and Amir may have the body…but it’s still a huuuuge leap
With Okafor’s contract… it could possibly be another JO situation because he will “shoot the ball” more times than he is allowed.
Tyson Chandler is under Michael Jordan ownership, he can be fooled easily if you have the right pieces in place. Remember what Bryan Colangelo did with Stephon Marbury and Isiah Thomas in 2003?
Empowering ACC Raptors fans
Toronto is lucky to have a very knowledgeable/high basketball IQ fan base – just compare the quality of postings and comments with that of the other teams. Also I notice that after every loss, RR is inundated with analysis, suggestions, and other bright ideas. Why are we not communicating these before the game is over? Perhaps we can still influence the outcome!
Here’s my proposal to implement this when the Raptors are at the ACC:
(1) A core of RR basketball technologists/analysts is created
(2) This core group concurs that the current play/strategy or player is INEFFECTIVE and comes up with a suggestion/strategy
(3) This suggestion/strategy is then packaged (or formatted) as a fan CHANT or CHEER
(4) This CHANT or CHEER is then quickly communicated to seating fans at the ACC as a TWEET
(5) Seating fans shout the TWEET!
Sweet eh? Seems easy but some things for serious consideration:
* core group composition – selection, number of members, who leads, criteria for an ineffective play or player, decision making process, avoidance of nuisance, when to communicate to the fans to end the cheer (or duration of the cheer)
* infrastructure – TWEETER account set up, account administrator (must a core group member for efficiency reason), advertise/inform ACC fans to subscribe
* person who can create nice sounding chants or cheers (this is a special skill I guess aside from a high basketball IQ, and also a core group member for efficiency reason)
Maybe every ACC Rap fan wants to participate in this undertaking and if very well coordinated, this is an excellent real time feedback to the Dinos including their bench – surely a fan’s positive contribution to the Raptors success at ACC.
Test run this Sunday against the Suns? Go Raps Go!
Yeah, this will go over real well with the coaching staff.
wow dude…that is a next level idea. @raptorschant…i can see it now:
SUB OUT JA-CK clap, clap, clapclapclap
A very very good example – you’re very much into it already!
This is just a simple proposal to harness the vast talents here in RR. So instead of reacting after the game, we now have an opportunity to influence the outcome! I think the RR-guys can implement this quite easily and perhaps should give it a try.
Fan power – go raptors go!
One of Triano’s Assistants: Hey Jay, the old guy in the front row with the beer gut who looks like he has never played basketball in his life says he just got a tweet saying that we should (insert suggestion here)
Triano: What?! He got a tweet?! that sounds like a great idea! here we are using all our basketball knowledge and years of experience when we can just listen to the old guy who just got a tweet! Let’s do it!
I pay to watch the game. to coach it, i leave it to the professionals. although i disagree with some decisions, at the end of the day there is a reason why they are coaching, and im watching. The world doesnt work like that.