ballocks

we're again hearing calls for patience. but patience implies improvement is on the way- exactly what raptors are improving? if anything it's the opposite. we find players like parker, garbajosa, moon, even bargnani in the rough, they play well for awhile and then... regress. who is responsible for this? or what is responsible for it?

without exception, i think the only players who have improved noticeably over the past two seasons are jose calderon and kris humphries. jose is a much more useful player than he was. humphries, despite the missed charity stripers today, is slowly becoming a rotation piece. but i'm losing faith in the others. chris is a good guy and an important leader but he's looking evermore plain by the day. one thing that bothers me and is a sign of how his entire game looks (imo) is his drives to the basket. in his second year he was clearly working on going to his right. he couldn't finish very well, but at least he was trying to improve his move to the right side of the rim. now? now it looks like he's given up on it entirely- as if it was the biggest challenge in the world and he just couldn't hack it. he either goes left every time or, on the increasingly rare occasions he does choose to go right, he either attempts finishing with his left hand or takes some wild, off-balance fadeaway/curl along the base line. he might as well put his right hand in his pocket.

i had no idea that he was that weak.

my point is that it seems as if he simply gave up trying to improve on that part of his game. well, if we're waiting for him to improve and he's chosen not to, what exactly are we waiting for now?

bargnani's development (or lack thereof), to me, is a crime. it's like pulling teeth. he made two nice plays today- one drive on ilgauskas where he finished on the left, and another pump fake on the perimeter followed by a one-dribble pullup jumper for two. but those were his only baskets of the game. the rest of the time you might as well have had maceo baston on the floor. bargnani looks so out of sync right now that i couldn't be more frustrated with a 23 year-old.

something's gotta be up with this team. we're now sitting in seventh in the conference, just 1.5 gms out of ninth, third in the division, so even swirsky and doug smith must be hard-pressed to talk about home court for the first round. we have so many ready-made excuses before every game that i can hardly pay attention to the media coverage anymore (and i'm usually pretty tolerant of it). we just give up. sam mitchell says, "that's the one thing about our team. we play hard." no you don't, sam. actions speak louder than words. that might be what you want to believe, but it's not true imo.

i want to see this team disappointed and angry for once. i no longer want to see them holed up in a shell begging for mercy. they should be ashamed of themselves for today's collapse- but i'm sure they'll just pull out one of their excuses and pretend like there was nothing they could do about it. "you can't stop a player like lebron when he gets hot." i'm so tired of it, man. something's gotta give.

and something to keep in mind: when the raps were up by 15-20 in the second quarter, swirsky went off on a tangent about how unimpressed he was with the cavs (even named mike brown), not only today, but this season. "there's no energy. this team just doesn't have it." he may have been right. but if i had a chance to speak with him right now, i'd ask him how he feels about the raps collapsing like divas to said "team with no energy" and the fact that they're now tied in the standings. maybe it's come time to criticize the raptors in a similar way. un-im-pressed.

peace

southeasy

maceo baston is the best in close finisher on the raptors including bosh & humphries.

& no one on the raptors can guard lebron.. no one in the league can.. we just did not score enough to win the game as he scored more then our whole team.

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Primero Veinte Con La Enfermedad
1AJosh Howard/1BGerald Wallace/2Amare Stoudemire/3Chris Bosh/4Rajon Rondo/5Sean Williams/6Travis Outlaw/7Al Thornton/8Caron Butler/9TJ Ford/10Dwight Howard/11Antawn Jamison/12Dorell Wright/13Leandro Barbosa/14Samuel Dalembert/15Thabo Sefolosha/16Stromile Swift/17Jose Calderon/18Trevor Ariza/19Jamario Moon/20JR Smith

Cierre pero ningún Puro: Julian Wright, Renaldo Balkman, Ronnie Price, Jeff Green, Amir Johnson, Louis Williams


RIP to the Career & The Man, Jonathan "Best Practice Player In NBA History" Bender & Eddie "Most Known Unknown" Griffin

Dee-Zy

ballocks, please get to the point faster, I really like your posts so I want to read them, but geez, ever heard of the term concise?

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The "I'm still bitter about the CV-TJ Trade" Club

trick

i've never been disinterested and frustrated by this team since the 02-03 season.

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SkywalkerAC

did you mean this as wrote or did you miss out on a "this" between "been" and "disinterested"?

For me, my frustration with our team stems from TJ's absence and Bargnani's immaturity.

I'm happy with our wing situation, though much moreso with TJ AND Jose AND each other feeding them open shots. Kapono is exactly what I expected - near perfect shooting mechanics. AP is solid. I feel bad for Joey. And then there's Jamario.

I'm still reveling in Moon's acquisition. He's the guy that is going to complement our PGs by finishing off the dish or putback and is athletic enough to follow and get back on D to help Bosh and Bargs around the hoop. Moon is the glue guy, along with Delf, that is going to make this team work. They aren't consistent shooters yet but I think they can get there. Jamario has to get a lot stronger and work his dribble game but he's already one of the better above the rim play-makers in the league.

With TJ and Calderon, this team will work. Sam made a commitment to playing Moon early in the season and we'll see how that plays out but it is an EXTREMELY young/inexperienced frontcourt to start in today's NBA. Sam's playing for development and we'll see how much better Bosh, Bargnani, and Moon can get playing together this season.

So much depends on Andrea. He's got the potential to have a huge turnaround in his all-around game but he's got a fantastic amount of work ahead of him. On most teams he wouldn't be asked to guard starting centers but that's the level of conditioning he's going to need. Il Mago is being put through the NBA Wringer and is looking like more of a sissy than a freshman Harry Potter. There's a lot of time left in the season and I think he'll find his wind. We can't win many big games without him playing like a player.

I'm still on the DON'T PANIC! button. We're still in fine position to finish 4th or 5th in the East, which gives us the first round if TJ is playing IMO. Past that, anything can happen.

Right now we need to build a winning record through January and get TJ back in the lineup. We've seen some very good stretches of defense this season. BC has plenty of assets to work with, including a draft pick that I'm starting to get excited about. Personally, I think you ride this out and save your moves for the offseason. Either way, it has become abundantly clear that BC has a lot more work ahead of him. And so do Bargnani and the boys. I'm looking forward to watching both.

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AC

SkywalkerAC

As for our potential? With expiring contracts and a couple of draft picks I'm not that concerned. After all, this is the Raptors that we're talking about. Our depth used to be as shallow as the cartilage in Boogie's knees and now we've Ukic, Georgios, and a tasty pick in the late teens, on top of a deep roster.

We've taken some hits and unfortunately been jinxed into a roster characterized by injury and weakness but we haven't peaked just yet. Have a little faith.

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AC

lucky777s

This game just highlights our need for a star wing player. Someone who can create off the dribble and get to the FT line in clutch time. Bosh doesn't seem to be able to carry the load.

Our PGs can't do this because they are too small. If we had a Chauncey Billups type PG that would be a better fit. In the East you have guys like Pierce, Lebron, Arenas, Wade, Billups/RIP, Vince/RJ who can take over games by getting into the paint and getting to the FT line.

Problem is these type of wing players are hard to get and take big money.

seifer0406

Even if we can't find a wing that can go inside and score 20 a game, we should at least find someone that can guard these kind of wings. Delfino is someone that can do the job adequately, but I think his inconsistencies are beginning to show as the season progresses. I think Raptor fans are starting to see why he couldn't find time in Detroit. With Moon and Parker, one has the athleticism and another has the skills. If we can combine the 2 of them we would have a lockdown defender but as it stands, neither can guard the star wings of the league.

If you look at the big picture, there is no need for anyone to jump on the panic button right now. Our cap situation looks great and we don't have anyone who is greatly overpaid, the closest being TJ if he can't recover from his injury. We are not like some teams that are stuck in mediocrity because of bad contracts. However, if we are going to do anything this season, then there is some urgency for us to make a move in my opinion. This isn't like last year where guys are just getting used to each other. Our core has remained the same from last season and the new guys have already played 2 months together.

lucky777s

Not sure we can say the core is the same as last year with TJ, Garbo, MoP out and Rasho's role greatly reduced. Bball IQ may have fallen with the changes.

I can live with Delfino's incosistent shot. He can contribute in other ways. I would almost just go with Delfino and Kap most of the game so we always have that strong defender who can rebound and handle the ball (Delf) and also have that pure shooter (Kap). If Kap is off that night you go with Parker more and if Delfino gets in foul trouble you go with Moon more. Essentially switch the starting wings with the bench wings.

We need to jumpstart this season and also look to the future. Parker may need to play a reduced role if he can't pick up his play consistently.

Ultimately the combo of Bosh and Bargs is going to have to get to the FT line more down the stretch of games. I still think if this combo is going to work that Bargs need to play that Chris Webber point forward role more and be the central passer in the O. Bosh is not a good enough passer to do it.

Just using Bargs to space the floor for Bosh as a 3pt threat is not enough. It puts too much pressure on Bosh to get to the FT line in crunch time and fight his way inside. Bosh doesn't have the strength to finish inside with contact.

TRON

This team just plays scared with a big lead, just waiting for the other team to make run instead of stepping on thier throats.

Poor game management, closing out quarters poorly, inability to stop star players when hot......blah, blah, blah

similar themes that will sure to happen again in the future as long as Sam is our coach

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"and they aware of us though,
but we don't give a flying 747 **** though,
stayin on my hustle" -Nas

"To be honest, sometimes in this game, telling the truth is the best smokescreen of all." - Raptors GM Bryan Collangelo

SkywalkerAC

you really think Sam is the issue? I see our players lacking the toughness and drive to finish these games. a lot of this is experience and some of it is makeup but i don't see Sam being the problem here.

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AC

Victor Page

Guarding Lebron is hard - you have to make him work hard to get the ball, and once he gets it, make him go somewhere he doesn't want to go (you can't stop him, but you can try to bait him into taking a long jumper). Everyone has to help when he drives, and when he kicks it out, try to recover and get hand a in the 3 point shooter's face.

The Raptors didn't do it in the fourth quarter - Lebron got into the lane at will, and was able to take wide open 3s. He barely had to break a sweat. The Raptors just didn't have the desire, the mental toughness, to close out the game.

Victor Page

Also Jose ran out of gas - he stopped creating good shots for the team early in the fourth. He's not a 40+ minute guy - he plays too hard and with too much emotion at both ends of the floor to play an entire game. What makes him so likable (the fact that ne never coasts), makes him unable to play effectively after a certain number of minutes.

Victor Page