I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer but I know this scene all too well.
As a Wolves fan, I’ve been through my fair share of this stuff. The situations were pretty similar too.
You’ve got this ridiculously talented power forward. I mean this guy is FREAKING GOOD. He doesn’t walk on water necessarily but he’s pretty much crab walking across that piece whenever you’re looking. And you just can’t surround him with the right talent. It should be easy too.
He’s not a selfish guy at all. He wants to lead the team and he wants to do it the right way but he’d never put himself before the team. You can never seem to find the right point guard to put around him. The centers you put out there and the wing players that come through a turnstile to play along side him are never quite right. You’d love to give him a post presence to take the pressure off inside and allow him to play his mid-range style that he so loves. But nobody ever fits just right.
As the years go by and the playoff success isn’t plentiful, the frustration in his post-game comments, interviews about the future and overall declining disposition are worn on his face and sleeves. He’s tired of not having success. He’s considering greener pastures and he so badly wants a competent coach alongside a strong supporting cast. I watched it for a decade and can see the similarities with this Raptors team.
Growing up with Kevin Garnett as the best player on your favorite team is a blessing and a curse. You constantly pine for the next step to be taken. You deal with playoff failure after playoff failure and make as many excuses as you can for why things don’t go your way. You end up hating the architect of your team for not being able to put a proper posse around this man on the court. You may have a different view of him now but when Kevin Garnett was repping ‘Sota and dying with every loss, he was an awe-inspiring ball of energy and determination. You wanted him to be successful just because it meant so much to him. He was strapped with the failure tag because he was saddled with dead weight that couldn’t be moved or shaped into a winning program.
I see a similar situation with Chris Bosh in Toronto.
The guy is uber-talented and you can definitely have an argument that he’s the best power forward in the game. Maybe you can’t prove he’s better than Dirk Nowitzki (just like you couldn’t prove Kevin Garnett was better than Tim Duncan) but the conversation can be had without you looking like a completely biased zealot.
But the problem is the guy has never and may never have the proper talent around him. You can talk yourself into Jose Calderon and Jarrett Jack in the same way I talked myself into Terrell Brandon and Troy Hudson (well, not so much with Huddy) but there are some inherent problems with all of the parties here. Calderon can’t defend well enough to justify his distributorship and Jarrett Jack is never going to be a starting point guard on a legit playoff contender. I’m sure you’ve had the same reaction to Hedo Turkoglu and his enormous contract with the realization I eventually had with Wally Szczerbiak – “seriously, KG/Bosh has to share the ball with THIS GUY?!?”
Go ahead and blame Bryan Colangelo for this (which I know MANY of you do). Rob Babcock also deserves some of the blame too. It seems incomprehensible that you can’t put the right talent around Chris Bosh. Lord knows I still curse the name of Kevin McHale on a daily basis whenever I see anything reminding me of the Big Ticket in a Wolves jersey. How hard can it be? Add a steady hand at the point guard position that isn’t a saloon door on defense. Put a couple of perimeter dead-eyes that will stretch the defense and make the double team think twice before swarming your guy. Give him a couple of tough inside players that can get you a bucket in the post on occasion. All of this allows your phenom of a power forward to flourish against incapable single coverage and confused defensive rotations. It should produce absurd statistical seasons that start getting you to prematurely evaluate your guy on a historical plane of comparisons.
Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
And yet, you can’t seem to get that simple formula from your organization. Now you have to worry about him leaving when a losing streak runs a little longer than seems reasonable or when your team can’t stop anybody when they need to.
The Raptors are going to go into this post-season without a clue of how things can go. Most likely, they’ll be out in the first round. They’re a combined 3-10 against the top four teams in the East. They don’t have enough talent, defense or resources to win four out of seven games against the Cavaliers or the Magic. The Hawks might not be ready and the Celtics might not be young enough to keep a hot Raptors offensive attack from stealing a game on the road while protecting their home court.
However, you still hold out hope that things fall in the right places. It’s been rare in which a Chris Bosh team has been favored going into the first round of the playoffs and this year will be no exception. You don’t want the label of “playoff failure” or “incapable of leading a team to playoff success” dropped on your guy. It’s frustrating because you know it to be false. But maybe things can fall into place, the balls can bounce the right way and justice can prevail for the underdog.
I saw it happen once in 2004. Maybe the Raptors can see it happen in 2010.
Ultimately, the thousand words you read here won’t provide any answers or any real insight into a situation you’re already living in. You love your guy. You want him to succeed properly and you want him to do it in your uniform. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it. I can’t provide the light at the end of the tunnel for you to hang your hat on.
I just wanted to tell you that I get it. I know the frustrations. I know the paranoia. Even if you don’t necessarily get answers, sometimes it’s just cathartic to hash this stuff out with someone who has been through it.
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81 Raps
Thanks Zach, but I still feel like shit.
You can throw in Rafer Alston, Mike James and one Will Solomon as other PGs we’ve tried along Bosh. As for big men, how does Loren Woods, an aging Jermaine O’Neal, the defensive culprit that is Andrea Bargnani, Rafael Araujo, Kris Humphries and all the way to Mengke Bateer sound? Oh wait, there’s also Jason Kapono who was our prime free agent acquisition after the Nets beat us in the playoffs because of defensive rebounding.
We really got a “who’s who of who the fuck are you” list here, don’t we?
I don’t know if it’s players not wanting to play here (Gerald Wallace) or Colangelo just being a bad GM (Kapono, O’Neal, Turkoglu) but as you said, it shouldn’t be this hard. I just wish Colangelo had his own philosophy to team-building and would stop mimicking the Phoenix style of all-offense no-defense bullshit because that only works if you have some ridiculously talented players at three of five positions.
WRT Colangelo, I also feel like there isn’t enough objective evaluation as to figuring out why a certain player excels or does not excel in a certain situation and how that player would translate to playing with the personnel on the Raptors. There is too much “I’ve wanted this guy for a long time, and now I’ve got him! Pop the champagne corks!”
I find this kind of curious, because an objective evaluator of talent seemed to be a strength of his in Pheonix. He seemed to be able to find players that fit that system with relative ease. Now it just feels like the superior play of Nash and Nash’s ability to create open shots for almost any type of player diminishes Colangelo’s past accomplishments as a GM. Maybe he was just lucky, not good.
I agree with you re: objective evaluation, and would like to see the Raptors emulate what the Rockets do in terms of using statistical analysis alongside subjective reasoning. Billy Ball? Perhaps I wouldn’t go that far, but the numbers do matter.
Bright man.
i just realized BC might not be the one to blame, im pretty sure he relies on the coaching staff, owners to tell him who needs to be acquired and then he does his thing to make it happen. if we rely on BC to be the judge of talent, then we’ve be screwed from the beginning.
i think at this point we should assume that CB is going to walk. He’s 26 and most of the tops guys in his draft class have gone past the 1st round of the playoffs and he still hasnt. He’d be dumb to think he can still win an MVP in the coming seasons given the structure of the Raps. I think he’ll start aiming for a championship and bolt to a team where he’d have the best chance of doing so. I cant and wont blame him. Id probably give him an SO the day he comes back to Toronto in a different jersey.
Good article Zach.
I never really saw the similarities with Minny until now. The sad part (for Raptors fans) is, this may end the same way it did in Minny. Bosh leaving for another team and the Raptors sinking to the depth of the NBA garbage pile.
I totally agree with you that Raptors mgmt should stop trying to be Phoenix North. What is the ultimate goal of that style? You can win games, but you can’t win anything else with it. Does BC and upper management really believe that as fans we are that stupid, and they can snow us with making the Playoffs and exiting in the first round via a sweep?
Look at the teams play of late, (this is with a pissed off, semi interested can’t wait for the season to be over Bosh)imagine what it will be like with no Bosh. I shudder at the thought of any team built around Bargs & Calderon.
So you think if we got a player of Al Jefferson’s caliber for Bosh we’d be screwed?
I don’t.
How many players in the league are of that calibre?
It’s not as if these quality players are sitting around waiting to be signed.
If/When Bosh leaves the Raptors will be built around Bargs. He complains now that when Bosh doesn’t play he finds the game harder because the teams game plan for him. Imagine that for a whole season.
Trust me, Dan. It looks a lot better on paper than it does on the court. When you have a bad ownership/front office screwing up putting talent around Kevin Garnett, you can’t assume getting Al Jefferson for him is going to change that. You just substitute KG with Jeff and all of a sudden, they still don’t know how to build a team around their best player.
You’re not screwed necessarily but you’re not in any better shape.
I just meant it more in the “if the same thing happened” way.
and actually, big al would be a great compliment to bargs, but no, it’s not happening. david lee is a possibility but he wouldn’t change a thing.
Kevin Garnett was a considerably better player than Chris Bosh. For a 5-6 year span Kevin Garnett was the best defender in the NBA, Chris Bosh is average to below average. Kevin Garnett was an amazing passer with point forward abilities, Chris Bosh does not. Kevin Garnett had a unique skill-set that no other PF in the game had, Chris Bosh scores and scores very well, but all he does is score. I absolutely see the similarities of the situations, but McHale was a total failure outside one year where he acquired Sprewell and Cassell. Kevin Garnett took a team where the second best player was Troy Hudson to 51 wins, Chris Bosh would not have taken that team to the playoffs.
that’s right. KG, in his prime, was one of the best in the game (at any position). and still…no playoff success. and bosh isn’t as good now as KG was then.
Couldnt agree more..Bosh-all stats no substance. Shaq was right. i would take Boozer over Bosh any day..
Let the Bosh bashing begin!!!! seriously he is the least of this teams problems.
…and you don’t think Boozer is all stats and no substance?
Boozer wiped the floor wth BOSH. Im sick and tired of Bosh blaming the team via the media. A leader would take the blame himself. Bosh is a big part of the problem.
You think that when the lakers somewhat sucked that Kobe was taking the blame? No, he was bitching, being selfish and trying to get out of LA. I would much rather have Bosh’s attitude
What game were you watching?
Boozer hit a few jumpers on Bosh and Bargs, while the majority of his points were scored off the p’n'r when the big hedged on Williams and our superb rotations began after that.
A leader would take blame for what? An overrated GM and a coach who has been embedded in the team for years by owners?
No one player can be solely responsible for a 25 point loss at home.
The Bosh smashers make me laugh. A month ago what were you saying? Now he’s the issue? lol
If you want to hate on Bosh pick a sensible reason….. like making a skit about salad tossing. When you start making the lame arguments about stealing rebounds from other players that don’t crash the boards to begin with or he just ‘puts up numbers on a bad team’, you’re conceeding that the Raps are a bad team and blaming him for it.
Look around the league, very few players are respected by their peers and coaches if they are only stats guys. You don’t go to all-star games annually and make Olympic teams if he’s the player you make him out to be. And don’t tell me the b.s about a leader. Kobe couldn’t lead this team anywhere. And he’d be the first to say it’s time to bounce cause his teammates are doo doo.
When you watch the Nuggets game tonight, tell me if Melo is the ‘leader’ on that team? As good as a plyer as he is, Billups and Martin stir that drink. Does that make Melo any less of a player? Not in the least.
I hope Bosh leaves so there are no more excuses and scapegoats. It will all come to light thereafter. When they bring in your ‘leader’ whoever that is, he’ll be in retreat mode before the all star break once he realizes the vast collection of talent we have assembled is nothing more than a cheap marketing attempt at creating a multi-cultural team representive of the city with a bunch of whack players that ain’t saying nuthin.
You didn’t even watch the game, or just read the box score…I’ve watched it now 2ce. Booz had a jumper he hit on Bosh, almost all of his other points were from PnR with D-Will.
If you are too lazy to rewatch the entire game yourself, you can look at the play by play on ESPN and wind to those time periods to see when, where, and how he got his points.
DWill emasculated Calderon…this was the primary reason for the loss.
It’s not Boozers fault he’s a better P n’ R guy than Bosh is. He played his part and he played it well. He was pretty strong in the paint you can’t deny that.
I’m not saying Booz is better than Bosh, but he definitely outplayed him in this game IMHO.
and yes…I watched the game :P
Rereading sangaman’s post and my own, and yours doesn’t quite seem to respond to either.
It was being discussed that he wiped the floor with Bosh.
He didn’t. D Will massacred Calderon and then Jazz started running pick and rolls which gave Boozer easy looks. Should Bosh not have hedged on those plays and let the embarrasing torture of Calderon continue?
Boozer was strong in the paint, cause now you have Derozan trying to take charges on him or Turk or Barg’s rotate out to him and Boozer is skilled enough that he exploited the numerous opportunities available to him.
I wasn’t saying any player was better than anyone else either. I was just saying that to say Boozer wiped the floor with him on Wednesday is a fallacy.
Comparing Bosh to KG is an insult to the game of basketball. It’s like comparing Bynum to Duncan.
+1
Bosh stats are from the lack of performance from everyone else. High rebounds because Bargs is out on perimeter; points leader because the rest of the team can’t get that percentage from outside the paint and Bosh ends up being the go-to guy. When you look at all the other stats, KG has him beat hands down.
I’m sure none of us will say CB is a bad player. I’ll disagree that he’s even average – CB is an above average asset to ANY team. But when you look at them on court … performance, movement, drive, its no competition.
CB is takes rebounds out of bargs hands sometimes.
yahhhh, otherwise Barg is all over the boards ( offensive/defensive).
For all the crap Bargs gets for not rebounding, he HAS slowly become better at boxing his man out. He doesn’t get it all the time, but just because he didn’t get the board doesn’t mean he didn’t do a good job taking his man out of the play.
someone help me…are we at year two or year three of that excuse? i guess there’s no statute of limitations when it comes to bargs & the excuses for his lack of rebounding. ah, rationality. the song that never ends.
and the belly aching against Andrea rebounding never end also . BC made the right choice in that draft of 2006 . He had TJ and Jose at PG and to pick a PG was not of the highest priority (i.e pick Roy). No one else who was considered a potential top pick would have been a better choice than Andrea . Stop the belly aching.
Sorry , I just remembered that Roy is playing SG not PG . In any case someone said that he had knee problems or something like that .
This a great piece!
Thanks Zach.
One of the best articles Ive read all year.
but how come there was no mention of the one common thread between both teams….Marcus Banks!
Thank you, sir. I didn’t mention Marcus Banks because I’ve had him erased from my memory bank. In fact, I’m just assuming right now that you just mentioned a recurring character on Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Haha, too true.
But also disturbing, considering he’s getting paid $4.5 million of OUR ticket money to NOT play…
and yet Banks is one of the most professional players on the team
I like the change in perspective Zach. Thanks. KG in his prime was one of the very best players in the league. If you asked players, they would put KG at the top of the list, especially weighing his two-way play. Bosh is in the upper echelon, but his flaws have been pointed out on this site.
Interesting, looking at the T-Wolves post-KG. A bad harbinger for the Raps……it might take more time to bottom out given our contract situation.
uh, the raps are in a considerably worse place if bosh walks than minny was after KG left. remember, they (minny) got jefferson in that deal, and picks, and a serviceable backup (gomes). you think BC is gonna be able to pull of a S&T that nets them half that? isn’t the biggest reason that minny still sucks is because of this past draft? they managed to fuck that up beyond anything i’ve seen before. not only did they take two PGs, the one they took first has been worse (with more opportinity) than most of the PGs taken after him, and in taking him, alienated the next guy they drafted to the point he’d rather stay in europe for another couple years. i’d rather be where minny WAS prior to the last draft than where TO WILL BE this summer.
Rubio went before Flynn, but they did screw that draft up. No need to take so many point guards, then sign another one as an FA.
oops, yer right, my bad. on top of that…rubio, from reports, hasn’t exactly been tearing it up overseas, so who knows what becomes of him in the NBA.
dont forget they also drafted Ty Lawson
And previously flipped Brandon Roy for Randy Foye…oh my!
y’know, i had a thought the other day. we’ve all be playing out the bosh scenarios for months (if not longer), and our assumptions have fallen into one of three camps: 1. he re-signs for the max (we’ll call it the super-max); 2. he’s signed-&-traded (still gets a super-max deal); 3. he walks, with no compensation for TO (and ‘settles’ for just a max contract; lower annual raises, and 1 year less).
now, as the season has gone on, and we’ve seen the lows & highs, we’ve generally wavered between options 1. & 2., assuming bosh would never leave that much $$ on the table by taking option 3. BUT…we’ve also heard about how bosh isn’t a ‘real’ max player, he’s on a tier below the lebrons/wades of the world. what if bosh acknowledges this, realizes he doesn’t ‘deserve’ to be paid on the same level, and so, to accomodate his desire to play for a legit contending team & to earn a ‘max’ contract, he actually decides to leave $$ on the table & simply sign somewhere else (i.e. presumably with lebron or wade, or with perhaps – less likely – another 2nd-tier FA). if it’s with either lebron or wade, it would allow the signing team to do a S&T for one of them (super-max deal), and then sign bosh outright (still a ‘max’ deal, but not a super-max). it would allow bosh to maintain the perception as a ‘max’ player, but would keep the pecking order in place (i.e. him being a 2nd-tier, complementary player to the alpha-dog, with contracts to match accordingly).
Bosh is signing for max money, wherever he signs. Bank on that.
nothing in what i wrote suggested otherwise, merely that there are different levels of ‘max.’
Some teams who may want two FA’s like New york, may either have to get them both to take a bit less than max, or get one to sign and trade. I could see Joe Johnson maybe get a little less than max, and CB signed and traded so he wouldn’t have to take less than the max, it would benifet both, to pay Bosh the super max, worth it or not. And teams like Dallas, Houston, Lakers, S&T is the only way to get it done. It’s only really Chicago, Miami, that New York, but if they get Bosh, they get Bosh to give them a chance to get someone else. You exchange Bosh for Lee on the Knicks, I don’t see all that much improvement, unless more is brought in.
I agree.
Bosh is a good investment because he is also an asset that can traded in the future for pieces if it comes to it.
The fact of the matter is that regardless of what Toronto fans think of him NBA GM’s will trade for him as they consider him a top 15 player in this league.
For a team with very few tradeable assets (but a bunch of long term contracts) he is someone that they need either in a uniform or as a bargaining chip for other pieces.
I think Dan meant “Bosh is signing for ‘super max’ money.” Interesting theory Yertu but I don’t think Bosh thinks he’s on a lower level than Lebron and Wade though. He has the ego of a number one guy and he even said in interviews that he wants to be the ‘main guy’ who leads a team to a championship. I guess you need that mentality to get to where he is.
…or, you need to say those things to pacify a restless fanbase.
No, I think he believes it.
He’s wrong, obviously, but it sure looks sincere when I hear him talk about it.
Thanks Zach for a great piece.
i guess we all know where this scenario is going to play itself out.
Another rebuild, here we come.
Sigh.
Great read Zach…although it’s scary to now put BC in the same realm of “GMsmenship” as McHale.
However with Hedo this year and JO the year before, it’s getting harder and harder not to.
I definitely don’t think BC is there yet. Actually despite my run-in with him years ago (perhaps my next article!), I actually think he does a good job when given a good slate to start out with. But I think he tried to fix a difficult situation with band-aids when the damn thing needed surgery.
He was given a pretty damn clean slate in 2006..
When this article started out I thought it was going to go in another direction, focusing on how hard it is to build consistent teams around franchise power forwards. It seems to me you’d want the ball to be in the hands of your best player down the stretch and have them make a play, pf’s tend to be limited in that regard.
Also, it’s a bit of apples and oranges with Bosh and KG isn’t it. KG is aggressive, CB seems passive agressive. KG get’s in the face of the other team, CB doesn’t do that. Have you ever seen even an older KG play Bosh? GEt right up in his face and invade his space and challenge him to do something about it. Chris scores, because he’s a talented offensive player, and we run our defense through him. He’s slight like KG was, but he’s not strong like KG, or imtimidating. He’ll threaten the franchise and have his manager threaten the fanbase, but threaten the other team, no.
Even when CB was bulked up this year, his base wasn’t really any bigger, and a base is more important than big shoulders. Defensively I think he’s shown that when he’s content to play a role (ie not in toronto, but on all star or Olympic teams) he’ll focus defensively, and be long with active hands and disrupt a lot of pick and roll. But we don’t see it, or even expect it from him here, even though it’s apparent we need it. People say, but he has to carry the load offensively. Baloney. Hedo wants the ball more, it’s been talked about and talked about the need to share the ball and not go one on one. As long as CB can get a double and pass it out, that’s all he has to do. He’s doesn’t have to drive in traffic, he doesn’t have to wait and wait and launch a jumper. He wants to. He feels that’s his right. If he thought helping the Toronto Raptors was the goal, we’d see him busting his ass defensively like he did for team USA and setting a tone. KG was crying in interviews over not winning the championship in Minny. CB was asked last night if he was satisfied with his career, he was, he said more than he ever imagined, and he’s been a franchise guy for 5 years in playoffs twice and never out of the first round. Are fans satisfied. Keep blaming the support staff, blame offensive players, for not being defensive players, blame the wing players, for not being all stars, blame everyone else. Not saying that wasn’t the case with KG, but at least KG gave the wolves a chance. KG was known even before he got in the league for picking on people, he’s clocked team mates. Bosh was the guy getting picked on. Go ahead and compare their stats, but there are two different bellies with two different fires in them. I wish CB well, I wish he could have had his successes here, but I don’t think he’s willing to play the role he’d have to play to be on a successful team here, unfortunately. If I ever have anything agaisnt such a classy good dude, it would be that. We gave him a lot. He said he want’s to be “THE MAN” here. He wants to be the guy making the shot not giving the high five, didn’t he say that. KG went to Boston with Pierce and Allen, and sacrificed his numbers, focused on defense, gave high fives, has been a great teammaate and won a championship. Does Bosh sound like a guy ready for that? If he is, it’s not in Toronto. When he talks about what’s been good about the raptors, he talks about them allowing him to be the face of the franchise to be the man. All pieces around him have been changed a few times over, yet we still have the same issues. At what point to we stop blaming the support staff, and not the main guy. He’s played hard, he’s played well, but maybe it’s best for everyone to move on. We’re fighting for a playoff spot, we’re going to go into the tax for that?
Blame all the Bargs or whatever, but after the all star break, we beat the teams we were supposed to beat without CB, but lost to OKC, Port, and Cavs. As bad as everyone said no one stepped up in CB’s absence, we were never any better with him back. And he’s thrown his teammates under the bus for it, and has refused any accountability or that he could do any more to help. His offense slows our offense as much as it adds to it. We’ve always played better when we shared the ball. He’s turning it over, and taking bad shots and that’s a death knell to our poor transition defense. He’s a good guy, but maybe’s he’s just not strong enough to defend in the post as much as he likes to, and maybe he’s just to introverted to be a leader of men. And that’s fine, but don’t demand to be the leader if you don’t want to lead.
“we run our defense through him” I meant offense.
Well said.
agreed
plus another.
This came up a couple weeks ago, on the yahoo front page. I threw it in the forums – Roy wanted to lead the team through the fire and Bosh said “don’t blame me”
post of the decade!…sums up chris’s tenure here.
Slow down Amir, it wasn’t even rap of the day.
Truthfully, while I believe what I wrote, there’s obviously a very credible other side that says Chris has been our best players and hardest worker for years. The truth for CB is probably somewhere in the middle, been the only thing we have going for us, and the only thing holding us back, but most likely closer to the only thing going for us side.
There is still the possibility that management will offer him max money and he accept . They may think that DD and Weems will improve enough and thus make us more competitive . Andrea is at least admitting that he has some work to do to improve his defense and he seems to achieve that at the speed of a turtle but at least you know he can do it . At this point it may be the best we can hope for.
Well said. Thanks for having the balls to tell it like it is. All you others who subscribe to the build around Bosh theory should remove your heads from your own buttocks.
koutos. Well said, mate.
Chris Byotch: a brick. Let him go, and let’s move on. It’s like a relationship that just won’t work. If we want to tell him it’s us not him, fine. But we need to break up. Right now CB is playing like he’s screwing someone he can’t stand, and he can hardly get up for anymore. Sometimes it just don’t work.
Thanks for the eulogy …. even though the cadaver is still warm and moving somewhat ..!!!
Those movements are just nerve pulses causing involuntary movement of the carcass.
Or, the Raps are even more pathetic than the Wolves were. With a Bargs, a Hedo and a Caldy starting no less, would it be that surprising? And just think, you get to see them next year without. Enjoy.
How could the raps be more pathetic? ..potentially equally pathetic ..Minny has won less than 20 games each of the three seasons since Garnett left.
Kevin Garnett in his prime was so much better tahn Bosh in his prime, it’s hardly even worth mentioning. I mean, I seem to recall KG getting his team to conference finals at least once, as well as winning an MVP award. If Bosh ever wins MVP, I’m denouncing the NBA.
In the current NBA, Chris Bosh is a max player, no doubt. But that just says so much about the current NBA, that I something in me doesn’t want the Raptors to be the ones paying him that max money he’s going to get, just for the sake of keeping him and being 1st round losers for 5 more years. Comparing him to KG in his prime just justifies what I just said. KG. Prime. Now that’s max money.
We already have 2 (maybe 3 – Bargs) overpaid players.
But good article. I still feel disgusted, but am consoled a bit by the realization that we do, in fact, resemble Minnesota a while back. And sadly, unlike Boston, we don’t have the pulling power to suddenly attract aging free-agents in search of a title.
Thanks for the post – I am glad to have my frustrations and thoughts validated from someone who actually followed the Wolves. I have thought the same for a long while, whenever the “franchise” label is brought up, I always bring up KG.
Blame it all on Bosh then. Or, Bosh is a very special player in today’s NBA.
BOSH who ? The “Give me the ball I am a superstar ? “
Hypothetically…if the nets become the next Boston Celtics. Could we sign and trade Bosh AND Jack for Devin Harris and Brook Lopez? lol. They get there garnett in bosh…there superior rondo in Wall. They could try and sign Johnson and Amare…and then they have a shot :P
I like that except insert Calderon for Jack. Calderon has gone from being my favorite Raptor in the TJ final year, to my least favorite. He must go.
Bulls lose badly to Heat and look weaker and more disorganized than the Raptors. The team that lands in 9th place will be due to it’s own self-destruction.
the bulls are in a similar predicament to TO. not good enough to win a 1st round series (although i’d give them a better shot than TO, as long as rose, deng & noah are all healthy), and if the bulls pick is outside the top-10, the bucks have the right to swap picks with them – part of the salmons deal. that might go down as the deal of the year.
Looking at the Eastern Conf. playoff picture, I’m having a really hard team seeing any of the top 4 seeds going down to the lower seeds.
Milwaukee, Miami, Charlotte, Toronto or Chicago will all lose their first round match-up.
I could see Milwaukee beating Atlanta … other than that no.
I have trouble seeing that Milwaukee tema beating an Atlanta tema that has more experience and better players than Milwaukee does.
Salmons and Stack have been good for them but in the playoffs I’ll put my money on Joe. J and Crawford. Bogut should have a good series but I think that Atlanta team is strong.
The Bucks are garbage, any team can go on a good run. They just are peaking at the right time. They will get swept by whoever the play, the only thing that is holding them together is Skiles. What a coach.
A healthy bulls team can run with the celtics and the bobcats are nightmare match up for the cavs.