What do I expect Bargnani to do as the team’s starting center?

His offensive and defensive rebounding percentages need drastic improvement. 4%/17% doesn’t cut it in the middle. A typical starting center produces 8-12 off and 22-28 def. You’ll note my favourite player Joakim Noah has numbers that good. Staying at home defensively, guarding the rim, blocking shots that come close to the basket, boxing out. He’s a good post defender, when he’s actually down there and not ranging around on the perimeter. He’s a horrendous help defender.

It’s no good having him scoring points when he’s making it so easy for the bad guys to get them right back.

Again FUFAQ you decontextualized part of my remark, assuming that says something. I was actually responding to the fact that the previous poster had expressed a concern over conditioning. I was agreeing with him. I was taking part in a discussion in a forum. That’s what most of us are doing here…still not sure what the hell you’re doing here.

If you have an issue with the conditioning comment than you should take it up with the person who actually brought it up…but oh well, you’ve decided to rattle my cage. About half of the people on this forum think you’re the drunk geek who hits on their girlfriends at parties. In other words the guy who is no where near as charming or as smart as he thinks he is…and who doesn’t know to quit when he’s way way behind.

If I need to degrade my comments to the monosyllabic variety…glad to do it. Hell I’ll even throw in a few cartoon drawings so you have something to make you giggle over your fruit loops.

Another thing is that when you’re trying to be funny or cutting with your words, it’s best to actually attack something substantively, if you invent something and then attack that, it’s just kind of sad.

Remember the red pill every two hours and the jacket ties in the back…

What exactly do you want him to magically transform into? barg’s stats have increased every year (his first two years were really a write off due to Smitch’s no plan development of Barg). This year he is shooting ~50% FG, +40% 3pt, ~90% Ft, 6.4%RPG. Let me guess he should be shooting 100% in FG percentage. He is a terrible defender for a position that he started playing one and half years ago. In Italy he played small forward and during the first years with the raptors he played small forward. Last year he became the backup centre to Jermaine O’Neal. He only joined the starting unit becuase of the injury to JO. Like Bynum (coached by Kareen Abdul jabber), he needs a coach to teach him how to be better defender at his position. Its a small investment that could benefit the Raptors in the future.

Remember we are paying Barg 6.5 million this year. When his 5- year contract kicks in next year he will be paid 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 million respectively. Very few players provide that kind of offense for 6.5 million in league.

i guess the thing is…sometimes it’s easy to overlook bosh’s shortcomings, because more often than not, he makes up for it in other areas. what seems to be missing from bargs’ game is that ability to do the ‘other’ things when one aspect of his game isn’t working. defense & rebounding is about, more than anything, hustle, focus & awareness. even when bosh’s shot isn’t falling, he doesn’t allow that to impact his focus on rebounding & defense (and no, i’m not implying that he’s some great defender – he’s limited as well – but what we rarely see is long stretches of game where he doesn’t appear to be into it. if you simply watch other guys (namely hedo & bargs), if they aren’t directly involved, they tend to float – you can blame that on the attention bosh gets on offensive end if you like, but it’s up to them to remain involved in the game.

This team is flawed because it has been built around Bosh. Bosh is not a centerpiece or franchise player. He is a complimentary piece that could work well with franchise players like Wade, Lebron or Kobe.

Bosh’s signature 4th quarter move – he holds the ball for too long with everyone clearing out and another defender strips him of the ball for an easy bucket for the other team.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine

At least they can score in the third and fourth quarters of a match. Our franchise player just can’t seem to get it done the the second half of matches. You could refer to him as 50% beast. Plays great in the first half and disappears (irrelevant) in the second half when the defensive intensity goes up a notch.