I suppose it was inevitable that right after I threw in the towel on this Raptors' season, they went ahead and scored back-to-back impressive victories over tough opponents for the first time this season. Of course Bargnani has had a very good three-game stretch after I had written him off as a bust. And it's only natural that Anthony Parker would score the second-highest point total in his Raptors career after I implied that you could pretty much stick a fork in his back.
Does any of this mean I'm jumping off the fantanking bandwagon? No chance. The Raptors are still 14-20 and will probably have to get past Miami in the standings if they're going to grab the sixth seed and avoid the certain death sentence of facing Boston or Cleveland in the first round. Miami's on pace to win 46 games so the Raptors will likely have to go 32-16 the rest of the way in order to have a chance at that seed. If you think this team is capable of winning two out of every three games the rest of the way, you're more optimistic than I'll ever be.
So I find myself observing with detachment as we face the possibility that the Raptors could string together five straight wins if they continue their recent level of play and go on to beat the Bucks, Wizards and Grizzlies. Unfortunately, just when you might be ready to start getting excited about this team, they follow those games with back-to-back battles against the Celtics. If the Raptors can take the next three and then split the Celtics doubleheader, then I'll be prepared to consider taking this team seriously.
Now that I've micturated sufficiently on your parade, I suppose it's time to revisit the progress of Bargnani, who just strung together his second decent three-game stretch of the season (the previous one was in mid-November against the Heat, Nets and Celtics). Looking at Bargnani's game log for this season, a few interesting things stood out. Let's set 45 percent as a reasonable field goal percentage we should expect from somebody with his shot selection. Bargnani has only shot better than 45 percent in 12 of his 34 games so far this season. It won't surprise you to know that those games have come in bunches (eight out of 11 games early this season, plus his last three straight games) but you might be as amazed as I was to discover that he went 16 games in a row (from Game 13 on Nov. 23 to Game 28 on Dec. 22) without hitting that shooting mark. That's one bricktastic month.
The buzz seems to be that his confidence has returned, though I don't know how you could tell that it ever left. Bargnani doesn't seem to care whether his shots are falling or not — if you give him playing time, he'll keep gunning. Isolating that sucky 16-game stretch from the rest of the season, I learned that he averaged a shot every 3.0 minutes during the "month of suck" compared to a shot every 2.8 minutes in his other games — that works out to a difference of about one shot over the course of a typical Bargnani game. I'd be willing to bet that minor discrepancy had more to do with guys passing him the ball less when he was missing everything than it was attributable to his own supposed lack of confidence in his shot.
Bargnani apologists like to discount his shitty games and claim that he'll be more consistent if he's given regular playing time in an established role. Bargnani haters like to remind you that his shitty games still outnumber his good ones and he wouldn't be receiving this much playing time in the first place if he wasn't Bryan Colangelo's "chosen one". The truth is that both sides are partially right. He does seem to play better when his position and playing time are established — but that doesn't mean you can discount the games where he stinks up the joint. And whatever the numbers say, the haters can't ignore the fact that the Raptors just logged their two most impressive consecutive wins of the season when he was the starting center and played in over 30 minutes both games.
I don't know that I believe that the key to Bargnani's (and the team's) success is to slot him in as the starting center for the rest of the season. But I do know that I'm tired of the ongoing debate between the apologists and the haters so I wish Colangelo would go ahead and trade Jermaine O'Neal so that Bargnani can play 35 minutes every game at center and hopefully settle this debate once and for all. J.O. isn't helping the Raptors win games now and he's definitely not part of the team's future — so at this point he's just an impediment in determining what our Italian enigma is really capable of.
Of course, O'Neal's $21 million contract is a pretty big logistical barrier to making any kind of deal so I'm not holding my breath on that happening until he's in his final contract year next season. So I fear we can expect at least three more months of some people claiming that Bargnani's getting jerked around while others insist he's just a jerk. Either way, I'm certain of one thing: both sides are fucking nuts.
The Raptors take on the Rockets tonight in what looks like another almost-certain loss for the home squad. Jermaine O'Neal and Jason Kapono are game-time decisions once again, so Andrea Bargnani might get an unhealthy dose of domination by Yao Ming. For the Rockets, Shane Battier is out but the rest of the team is healthy. I expect another very frustrating night on the boards as Yao, Luis Scola and Carl Landry are all double-digit rebounding candidates.
The Links
Chris Bosh claims that he doesn't think drastic changes are needed on this team: "I think it's more outside people saying we need change. We traded )for Jermaine O'Neal) this summer and now we have a new coach. How much change do we need?"
Jermaine O'Neal appears to be souring on this team: "I think it boils down to experience. How much experience do we actually have? I've never even looked at playoff experience on this team."
Raptors Republic points out that the Rockets have recently experienced the same kind of fourth quarter woes that have afflicted the Raptors.
Bonzi Wells is averaging 46.8 points per game in the Chinese Basketball Association. Sign him, BC!
If you're up late and at home tonight, Tas Melas from The Basketball Jones will be liveblogging the Jazz-Lakers game at 10:30 PM ET on theScore.com so feel free to keep him company if you're watching the game on Raptors NBA TV. I'll be there if I'm unable to convince one of my friends to help me install the Sirius Satellite Radio car kit I got for Christmas. As soon as I read that I'd need a putty knife to route the antenna cable, I knew I was in over my head. I'd prefer to keep all my fingers.
The last time the Raptors and Nuggets played on Dec. 2, Denver won by 39 and Sam Mitchell got fired. I don't expect the Raptors to lose by that margin tonight, but anything better than a double-digit loss would surprise me. The Nuggets are 7-6 since these teams last met, but those six losses came to the Spurs, Rockets, Cavs, Suns, Blazers and Hawks. The Nuggets don't lose to bad teams — and if you hadn't noticed, the Raptors are pretty bad these days.
Nene is questionable for tonight's game with a stiff neck and Doug Smith reports that Jermaine O'Neal and Jason Kapono are gametime decisions due to a bruised knee and a bruised leg, respectively. You don't suppose Colangelo could be working on a trade involving these two guys, do you? Nahhh.
The Links
Still on Doug Smith's blog, here's a tidbit on our favorite whipping boy: "You'd be surprised at the number of scouts who tell me their team would love to have Bargnani. Just about every coach we talk to speaks highly of him and is intrigued by what he can offer." I feel like the part they're leaving off at the end of that statement is: "...if he ever figured out that he's a seven-foot, 260-pounder and not a six-foot, three-point specialist."
Dino Nation lists his Top 10 Least Favorite Things from 2008.
Raptors Republic lists the five main decisions that need to be made about the Raptors going forward.
SLC Dunk reports that Carlos Boozer will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery on Jan. 9, which means Boozer will probably pick up his $12 million option for next year. Paul Millsap's $800,000 contract expires after this season so it seems he could be on the block because the Jazz won't be able to afford both players on next season's payroll.
The Basketball Jones has a great story about a heckler providing motivation to Chris Paul.
Fantanking — When fans root for their team to lose in order to improve the team's draft position.
Thirty-one games into the 2008-09 NBA season, I am officially throwing in the towel on this Toronto Raptors team. Their offense is subpar, their defense is even worse and their rebounding flat-out stinks. This situation can't be fixed by upgrading one of the wing positions because the only reasonable trading pieces Bryan Colangelo has for that kind of trade are Chris Bosh, Jermaine O'Neal and Jose Calderon — and trading one of those guys would simply open a new hole while he attempted to plug a different one.
I understand that the Raptors have had the fifth-toughest schedule in the league so far, but recent losses to the Thunder and Warriors don't give me any confidence that this team can turn things around by stacking up wins against so-called "weaker teams". For the Raptors to even hit .500 at the end of the season, they need to go 29-22 the rest of the way. And even if they do manage to hit that mediocre mark... so fucking what? That would be the second season in a row they went 41-41 and when you consider that they have exactly one young prospect (Roko Ukic) who even borders on intriguing, it's clear that it's time to rebuild.
This team is going to have to get worse before it can get better. They need cap space and draft picks, and the only trades I'm interested in Colangelo pursuing are ones that bring those assets to the Raptors. Trading Bosh is probably a non-starter because it would likely be box-office suicide, and trading Bargnani is also probably not worth discussing because he has no value. That leaves O'Neal and Calderon as potential trading pieces.
Here's what I came up with in the ESPN Trade Machine: O'Neal and Jason Kapono to Cleveland for Anderson Varejao, Wally Sczerbiak and Eric Snow. Would Cleveland do this? You could make the case that they'd pull the trigger because it would improve their interior defense and scoring and they're trying to win a title this season so they might as well "go for it". Of course, you could also make the case that O'Neal isn't really that significant of an upgrade over Varejao, and besides that — why does a team that is 26-4 need to change anything?
For the Raptors, that trade would free up $29 million in cap room after this season since Szczerbiak and Snow are in the last year of their contracts and Varejao will most likely opt out after the season. With this cap room, Colangelo could make competitive offers in the 2009 off-season to guys like Varejao, Ben Gordon, Trevor Ariza, Hedo Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur. I like the idea of adding Gordon and Ariza on the wing positions and then trying to land Haseem Thabeet (seven-foot-three center from UConn, averaging 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks this season, compares strikingly to Mutombo in his prime) in the draft.
In the meantime, I would stick Bargnani in at starting center for the rest of the season, ban him from taking threes (bench him if he does) and let him sink or swim. Would this lead to a ton of losses this season? Most likely! But hey, that's kind of the point, right? We're fantanking here.
I expect there are three types of people who will say this is a ridiculous post. The first group will say that they don't believe in fantanking and no real fan would ever support that. The second group will say Cleveland won't make that trade so forget about it. The third group will say that the Raptors would be better to hold off until the superior 2010 free agent class to make any significant signings. This last group is the only one I'm really interested in listening to (although the second group is probably right) — but the risk with that plan is that if the Raptors aren't competitive by next season, they're probably going to lose Chris Bosh.
Ah, who am I kidding... this is definitely a ridiculous post. But it's more fun to dream up crazy scenarios like this than comtemplate the rotting carcass of this sorry season — so expect posts of equal and escalating ridiculousness over the next few months.
Guess who's back... back again... guess who's back... tell a friend...
Well, I'm still sick but I'm back at work again and I'm back to updating this blog regularly. In case you're wondering, I've still been watching the games — not that I would have missed much if I skipped them. Regardless, let's catch up...
Chris Bosh: Clearly exhibiting symptoms of "not-giving-a-fuckitis" — particularly on defense. I'm no longer convinced he's a Top 10 player.
Jermaine O'Neal: Heart and soul of this team, for whatever that's worth. Too bad the team defense and rebounding still stinks.
Jason Kapono: With more playing time under Jay Triano, he's proving what I've long suspected about him — when he's forced to create his own shots, his percentages go way down and his one asset is negated.
Andrea Bargnani: At this point, I'm pretty sure most Raptors fans have accepted the sad fact that he's a bust. So why do Matt, Jack and Leo still insist on hanging off this guy's nuts? In the last four games, he's grabbed five rebounds in 77 minutes — that's shitty for a six-footer, much less a seven-footer.
Joey Graham: He fell back to Earth, as I suspected he would. Could the Grahamaniacs please stop complaining that he just needs more playing time? You're embarrassing yourselves.
Jamario Moon: He's quietly returned to doing what he does best — hustling on defense and using his athleticism to snatch copious amounts of rebounds.
Bryan Colangelo: I'll grant you that he's done a subpar job shaping this team but I have a question for the people who are ready to fire him: Who would you replace him with? This is a serious question and I'd love to hear your responses in the comments. I'm pretty sure Joe Dumars and Rod Thorn aren't available, so unless you know something I don't, I'd prefer to let Colangelo try to steer this team back on the right track.
I think I covered everyone else in my last post. This team is well on its way to a 50-loss season, which will probably only be worth a double-digit lottery pick. Could we be on the verge of seeing another Curry in a Raptors uniform?
The Links
Dino Nation reports that a protest about the TSN2 situation is being organized outside the Rogers Cable building tomorrow at 8am. Not to piss on anyone's protest but as I've written previously, TSN and MLSE are the real villains here.
Ryan McNeill wonders if Jose Calderon merits All-Star consideration. I'm going to go out on a very short limb and say that Jose will not be in Phoenix on All-Star weekend.
Blazer's Edge has an in-depth scouting report on Rudy Fernandez from Blazers Director of NBA Scouting Mike Born.
In other Blazers news, John Canzano reports that Greg Oden frequently uses Blazers owner Paul Allen's bedroom at the back of his private jet. "I bring this up today because the franchise has one set of standards, rules and expectations for the majority of players -- and apparently another for Oden. And this is how a team aiming to make the playoffs for the first time in five seasons ends up starting a player at center who hasn't earned it." Of course, Canzano wrote this before Oden posted 16 and 10 against the Raptors on Saturday.
Stephen Jackson claims Baron Davis told him that he wants to come back to the Warriors. You know, because the Warriors' 9-23 record is so much more appealing than the Clippers' 8-21 record.
Meet Lonnie Cooper — agent for six NBA coaches who have been fired since the beginning of the season, including Sam Mitchell.
Bummed about Bargnani? Hey, it could have been worse — the Raptors could have drafted Adam Morrison.
Back when Bill Simmons used to at least pretend that he gave a shit about his column, many of his best pieces were the ones where he would select quotes from a particular movie or lyrics from a band and apply them to a sports topic. For my return to RaptorBlog after a rough last few days, I'm going to apply quotes from one of my favorite movies, Pulp Fiction, to the mess that is this Toronto Raptors season.
Butch: "You okay?"
Marsellus: "Naw man. I'm pretty fuckin' far from okay."
That's how I've been the last few days. You saw what happened to my eye in the last post? Well, it happened to my other eye. Yesterday, I spent over three hours shovelling snow and ice while half-blind and coughing up most of my internal organs. Not good times.
Jules: "Normally, both your asses would be dead as fucking fried chicken, but you happen to pull this shit while I'm in a transitional period so I don't wanna kill you, I wanna help you."
This one's for Jay Triano, who I think we were all rooting for but clearly isn't going to coach this team beyond this season. Since the Raptors are in "a transitional period", he's probably going to get to finish the season — but that loss to Oklahoma City was an embarrassment. Say what you will about the man, but I doubt Sam Mitchell would have let that happen.
Mia: "I do believe Marsellus Wallace, my husband, your boss, told you to take ME out and do WHATEVER I WANTED. Now I wanna dance, I wanna win. I want that trophy, so dance good."
This might as well be Chris Bosh talking to Bryan Colangelo. He wants to win. He wants that trophy. Of course, Mia proved to be a huge pain in the ass and Chris Bosh probably isn't ever going to be "the man" on a championship team. I'm not saying I don't care if he leaves Toronto in 2010 — I genuinely like the guy and hope he wins a title somewhere — but I can think of a number of players that wouldn't have let this team freefall the way the Raptors have lately.
Jules: "Well, the way they make shows is, they make one show. That show's called a pilot. Then they show that show to the people who make shows, and on the strength of that one show they decide if they're going to make more shows. Some pilots get picked and become television programs. Some don't, become nothing. She starred in one of the ones that became nothing."
This is for Andrea Bargnani. I don't even want to hear from anyone defending him anymore. I know it's not his fault where he was picked but he is never going to put the pieces together to be the Dirk Nowitzki clone we all hoped we were getting. At this point, the only value he brings to the Raptors is ensuring they'll lose more games and increase their chances of a high draft pick. If you don't believe that Colangelo is mandating his playing time at this point, you're fooling yourself.
Marsellus: "You see, this profession is filled to the brim with unrealistic motherfuckers. Motherfuckers who thought their ass would age like wine. If you mean it turns to vinegar, it does. If you mean it gets better with age, it don't."
That's for Anthony "Vinegar" Parker. Nice guy, but he's lost it and I don't think he's getting it back. He can still hit the open three but he doesn't have the quickness to create and make his own shots anymore and he's increasingly being exposed as a liability on defense.
Vincent: "That's a pretty fucking good milkshake. I don't know if it's worth five dollars but it's pretty fucking good."
Roko Ukic will never be more than a backup if he doesn't learn to shoot, but he appears to have the potential to be a better defender than Jose Calderon and is definitely more comfortable with running the floor. I expected he would get more playing time under Triano and he's shown well with the extra burn.
Marsellus: "The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps."
This is for Bryan Colangelo, of course. He may not want to admit that this team is a failure, but it most certainly is a failure and he needs to start thinking about a rebuilding strategy. Step One is trading Jason Kapono for a shorter contract. There's no point to keeping him here and some contending team will probably take a shot on him as a situational shooter. Step Two is exploring the market for Jose Calderon. Most of us thought he was a bargain when Colangelo signed him to a five-year, $45 million contract in the off-season but I think it's clear that his defense is just too porous for him to cut it as a starting point guard for a contending team. If the Raptors can clear some cap space and get a first round draft pick out of the deal, I'm quite comfortable with handing over the reins to Roko for the rest of the season.
Lance: "Are you calling me on the cellular phone? I don't know you. Who is this? Don't come here, I'm hanging up the phone! Prank caller, prank caller!"
This is also for Colangelo. If Rod Thorn calls to inquire about the Raptors' fire sale, hang up the damn phone. I can't handle getting fleeced by that guy again.
Butch: "Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."
And so is this season. I'm still trying to figure out how this team went off the rails so badly, but the sooner Raptors fans come to terms with this, the less anguish they'll feel. The real question is: Will we accept this reality before Colangelo will?
You want to know how much I care about you people? I'm updating my blog today even though I look like this...
No, Doug Smith didn't run me over with his truck. You're witnessing the effects of not getting sleep because my whole family (including myself) is sick with the flu, and then waking up this morning with my eye swollen shut with pinkeye. But Raptors fans are angry these days like an old man in a deli sending back his soup, so I figured I should pop in to share the news and thoughts of the day.
(If you're wondering about the beard, I figure that as long as I'm feeling like this, I might as well complete the homeless look to increase the chance that people will throw change at me when I go outside. Hey, this is an expensive time of year!)
The Links
Doug Smith reports in his blog that Jay Triano said he emphasized rebounding in practice: "Guys in the lane, guys in the perimeter, throw the ball up, go get 'em, box 'em out. We did a little bit of three-on-three, we had a scrimmage, we stopped the scrimmage if we didn’t have fours and fives going to the basket. It made it a huge point of emphasis today."
Michael Grange confirms statistically what we already knew about Jose Calderon — his assist-to-turnover ratio is really a reflection of his conservative nature rather than his playmaking skill.
KnickerBlogger's excellent "Seven Seconds or Mess" video series shows off the most underrated aspect of Shaq's game — his superb big-man playmaking skills.
I'm quite proud of this year's Carefoot family Christmas card, but Wizznutzz's holiday piece is awe-inspiring. I wonder if Peter Gabriel plays when you pull that card out of its envelope.
Rod Benson departs France and looks for his next team. Here's hoping he lands somewhere so he can keep blogging.
Oklahoma City Thunder chairman Clay Bennett has been named "Oklahoman of the Year" by Oklahoma Today magazine. Perhaps not coincidentally, Bennett was universally picked as "Douchebag of the Year" by basketball fans in Seattle.
The flu is a vicious thing. I spent all weekend wearing two sweaters while huddled under two blankets as I simultaneously shivered and sweat profusely. You know what else gave me cold sweats on Sunday? The Raptors' defense against New Orleans.
It's become clear in his brief run as Raptors coach that Jay Triano likes to pack the paint and force his opponents to try and beat the Raptors from the outside. I can see merit in that strategy against some teams, but not against a team that leads the league in three-point shooting percentage. The Hornets actually had an off-game from behind the arc — they made 36 percent of their shots (12-for-33) compared to their season average of 41 percent — but they were allowed enough open looks that they knew to keep bombing. Sure enough, James Posey and Rasual Butler made the Raptors pay for that strategy.
The Hornets are one of those teams that I tend to underestimate until I actually get to watch them again. David West is a less-athletic, bulkier Chris Bosh and James Posey has to be up there with Rasho Nesterovic among the most underrated players in the NBA. Posey's a solid defender, a great shooter and probably the smartest player on the floor at any given time. I can't believe the Celtics let him go and they're still that good.
As has the been the Raptors' trend this season, they continue to lose to obviously superior teams like the Hornets so they get their wins primarily from clearly inferior teams. Against teams that are probably around their level like the Hawks and Nets, those are the only games that could go either way — which is why they'll probably lose tonight's rematch against the Nets.
You know the saying about how on any day, any one team can beat any other team? Not this team, apparently. The predicatability of the Raptors' game results are so incredibly boring this season that part of me wants to see them get blown out by Oklahoma City on Friday so I could finally say, "Wow, I didn't see that coming!"
(Oh, and Vince's oh-for-13 on Friday? I always see that coming. I also see it coming when he scores 40 points the next game. Incidentally, I wrote that last sentence before I checked how much he actually scored in the next game — he dropped 39 on the Bulls the very next day. That's our Vince!)
You might think it's terrible that part of me would enjoy the Raptors getting blown out by the worst team in the league, but I find myself having to get increasingly creative in finding ways to get pleasure out of this drearily, predictably mediocre team. I mean, surely you see where this will end up, right? They'll grab either the sixth, seventh or eighth seed and face either the Celtics, Cavs or Magic in the first round. Those three teams are a combined 60-12 so far. How do you think that will turn out? If you said, "With the Raptors getting destroyed in the first round for the third year in a row" you get no prize for stating the fucking obvious.
I suspect Bryan Colangelo isn't going to sit still with this current roster but I fail to see what position of strength he has to start from in order to address this team's many weaknesses (rebounding, fast breaks, inside scoring, perimeter defense, bench depth... am I forgetting anything?) I know some of you don't like how negative I've been on this team lately but getting killed in the first round of the playoffs every season with no apparent plan to break that pattern is not my idea of a good fan experience.
Look at teams like the Cavs, Magic and Nuggets. Their GMs have figured out how to surround their star players with complementary pieces that help form a winning package. Cleveland traded for Mo Williams and Delonte West and held onto Zydrunas Ilgauskas and they're now a legitimate threat to take down the Celtics. Orlando signed Rashard Lewis and Mikael Pietrus and those guys have been a great fit with Howard. Denver traded Iverson for Billups, which has proven to be a genius move.
The Jermaine O'Neal trade was supposed to be the difference-maker on this team. I'm not going to point a finger at Jermaine himself, because he's certainly bringing more effort and heart than any other Raptor this season. But if he was supposed to help bolster team rebounding and elevate the Raptors into a Top 10 defensive team, why are the Raptors currently dead-last in rebound differential and 22nd in Defensive Rating?
I know Colangelo had to trade T.J. Ford before this season, but let's say instead of making the O'Neal trade, he traded Ford for some form of upgrade at one of the starting wing positions, kept Rasho, kept his 17th overall draft pick and used the pick to draft seven-footer JaVale McGee — who was taken 18th by the Wizards and is having a very nice rookie season. Can anyone tell me the Raptors wouldn't be better off in that scenario? I bet they'd have a better record now and they'd also have an impressive 20-year-old center prospect who could learn from the crafty Rasho.
Maybe Jay Triano can do something with this roster that Sam Mitchell couldn't. I guess we'll see. But in the spirit of the mundane predictability of this season, I'm going to try to call the next 10 games on the Raptors' schedule and we can see how close I am.
vs. Nets: Loss
vs. Mavericks: Loss
@ Thunder: Win
@ Spurs: Loss
@ Clippers: Win
@ Kings: Win
@ Blazers: Loss
@ Warriors: Win
vs. Nuggets: Loss
vs. Houston: Loss
You might notice that I've predicted the Raptors to lose all four of their home games. Well, they're 5-6 at home and 5-7 on the road this season so I don't think there's any home court advantage with this team. Frankly, the only one of those games that I could consider a toss-up is tonight's game against the Nets — and I'm willing to give the Nets the benefit of the doubt because Lawrence Frank is too smart to not have a better gameplan in the rematch and you have to know that "motivated Vince" is going to make an appearance.
I went to see David Sedaris at Massey Hall Wednesday night (he was great, go see him sometime) but I did watch the Raptors-Pacers game afterward on tape. It was nice to see the Raptors break their losing streak, but let's keep in mind it was just another example of beating a lesser team after they lost to a series of better teams. Lately, it's a surprise when the Raptors win any game, but it would be nice to see them win a game they're not supposed to win soon.
The highlight of the game was obviously Jason Kapono's performance (check out this sick spin move by J-Nilla if you missed it). It seemed like a recipe for disaster to start him at two-guard, but instead he put up season-highs for points and rebounds with 25 and 8. (He must like playing against the Pacers — his career-high for scoring came last December when he dropped 29 on them.) He wasn't just hitting his shots, he was dribble-driving and not looking completely unsuited for the task — he only turned the ball over twice in 38 minutes. I'm going to have to assume that performance was an anomaly, but we'll all be very interested to see how he follows that up tonight against the Nets.
The two biggest surprise "successes" of the season so far are the two teams ahead of the Raptors in the standings — the Nets and Knicks. Both teams are very well-coached and have changed their tactics to suit their personnel. The Nets have been a particularly fun team to watch thanks to their offensive prowess (they're fifth in Offensive Efficiency with 110.2 points per 100 possessions) and the unexpected contributions from point guard Devin Harris and rookie center Brook Lopez.
The Nets aren't difficult to score on (they're 27th in Defensive Efficiency with 111.9 points allowed per 100 possessions) so this could be a high-scoring affair tonight. Unless you've been living in a cave for the past month, you know about the tear Harris has been on lately. His nickname should be "Ron Jeremy" because of his prolific displays of penetration. To say that this is a tough guard for Jose Calderon is a massive understatement. Devin dropped 30 on the Raptors a few weeks ago and a repeat performance is to be expected tonight. It's safe to say that the Raptors need to score over 100 to have a chance in this game.
The Links
Jose Calderon has your motivational quote of the day: "Right now, we're not the best team in the world, but we're getting better and we're better today than we were yesterday." Well, that got me fired up. How about you?
Depending on who you believe, the Rogers and TSN2 are close to an agreement that will result in Rogers carrying the channel. Or... maybe not. Starting on Monday, 10 of the next 24 Raptors games are being shown on TSN2.
Ball Don't Lie snagged a lengthy interview with everyone's favorite truth-speaker, Charles Barkley.
Knickerblogger has a great post diagramming a sweet Knicks play against the Nets on Wednesday.
Henry Abbott writes that few players are willing to go on the record about what they think of Kevin Garnett's on-court antics. Never-shy Q-Rich was an exception: "I come from a neighborhood where you can say what you want to say, but 'til you do something, it don't mean nothing. Some of those guys are happy to get a ring, but you ain't been in the league long enough to talk to people like that. I don't have a lot of respect for that. Like I said, I'd be curious to hear what they have to say in a different setting, I'd be very curious to see that." KG=fugazy?
The end result of last night's game was not a surprise — I predicted a curb-stomping and that's what we got. Cleveland set an NBA record by winning their ninth straight game by a margin of 12 points or better. Kind of an obscure record, but it certainly shows how dominant they are right now.
The most discouraging aspect of last night was how uninspired and unintelligent the entire starting lineup played. Chris Bosh looked defeated out there and hasn't really been himself in the last week-and-a-half — he scored fewer than 20 points in four of the last five games. Andrea Bargnani has regressed back to being a non-factor offensively and on the boards, as he's averaged 7.3 points and 3.8 rebounds over 29 minutes of play. As for Anthony Parker, I hate to say this but I think he's pretty much washed up at this point. He's basically a spot-up shooter now who should be coming off the bench.
There was one moment in the second quarter that typified everything that is wrong with how this team is playing defense right now. Cleveland had the ball and Parker was guarding LeBron James, but then he cheated off him to help in the post. As I saw this transpire, I said out loud, "Oh god, no." Sure enough, the Cavs passed back out to LeBron, who glided down the lane and rammed the ball down.
Look, I'm not a coach and I haven't played organized basketball since I was a teenager so maybe I'm missing something here. But could somebody please explain to me why it would ever be a good idea cheat off LeBron fucking James? I just don't understand it. This incessant need for the Raptors' wings to provide help in the paint doesn't work on any level. Not only are they leaving shooters (or in LeBron's case, flat-out scorers) wide open, but none of our wings are really able to provide any significant help towards stopping decent post scorers, anyway.
The one Raptor who has played well during this ongoing five-game shitshow is Joey Graham. I admit that I wrote him off after last season, and now I'm saying that the man deserves to take Bargnani's place in the starting lineup. Bargnani isn't a small forward, he can't guard small forwards, and he's been a pile of hot garbage during the same time period that Joey has been playing the best basketball of his career. I don't know what kind of organization the Raptors are trying to run, but it seems to me that if you're on a five-game losing streak where the average margin of defeat has been 20 fucking points, MAYBE YOU WANT TO TRY SWITCHING THINGS UP A LITTLE.
Joey Graham has his cheerleaders who are undoubtedly starting to feel pretty vindicated right now. I have no idea if he can keep up the quality of his recent play, but he's in the last year of his contract so let's find out what we've really got here. He's finally playing the way we've been begging him to play for years — with controlled intensity.
Not that I'm actually pinning any of this mess on Jay Triano, but I do have to wonder how bad things will have to get before Colangelo convinces MLSE to suck it up and give him the go-ahead to hire another coach. If it's really Ettore Messina of CSKA Moscow that is his target, I suppose he might have to wait until after the season, anyway. But this period ranks among the most depressing periods in the history of this franchise. I mean, there have been some awful Raptors teams, but we either knew they were awful or they had injury problems. This team is just inexplicably, unexplainably bad and there is no way they should be getting beaten this badly on a consistent basis.
Let's look at some other "bad" teams around the league, shall we? The Pacers come into Toronto tonight with a worse record than the Raptors at 7-13. Two of those wins came over the Celtics and the Lakers. Sacramento is 6-16 and they beat the Lakers by 12 points last night. Washington is 4-15 and they beat Detroit by 13 points last night. Are the Pacers, Kings and Wizards all better than the Raptors? If so, strap in tight because we're in for a long freefall.
I'm not going to bother to preview tonight's Raptors-Cavs game because we all know it's going to be a curb-stomping. The Cavs haven't lost in 11 home games this season — the Raptors aren't going to break that string. I will say that Joey Graham should start in place of Andrea Bargnani because he's earned it with his recent play and I'm not looking forward to Bargnani trying to guard LeBron James.
The Links
I say it a lot, but Michael Grange is that dude. He debuted his "Ask Hump!" feature today in his blog, and not only did he let me set the title, he also included my question. I think we can all agree that Grange does not deserve to rot in the depths of some very hot and uncomfortable place.
Doug Smith ranks "The Five Most Fake Loud Arenas In The NBA".
Jay Triano ran an interesting drill in practice yesterday — a version of "tag" where players have to dribble while chasing the guy who's "it".
Dave Feschuk reports that Triano's "pack the paint" defensive philosophy is inspired by ex-Raptors coach Kevin O'Neill.
Jeff Blair writes that Triano thinks the Raptors are "not yet physically ready to play the kind of game he and, by extension, Colangelo want."
This week's Court Surfing Sweet 16 power poll is up. Needless to say, the Raptors are out.
DallasBasketball.com wonders if Dirk Nowitzki is the NBA MVP so far. There's a guy we'll be watching tonight who probably would have something to say about that.
3 Shades of Blue already posted the joke I was going to make about Darko ripping his jersey in half, so I'll link to him instead of Youtube.
I'm squeezed for time today so I'll make this a quick one. I don't want to get into any pointless hand-wringing or overwrought analysis about why the Raptors blew another lead and lost their fourth straight game — this time a crushing 98-97 defeat to the Portland Trail Blazers. It's quite simple to figure out, actually. This team can't rebound for shit.
The Blazers crushed the Raptors on offensive boards by an 18-4 margin on Sunday. The Blazers' final possession was typical of the kind of lax approach to boxing out that has killed this team...
0:18 Brandon Roy misses layup, 95-97
0:17 Greg Oden offensive rebound, 95-97
0:15 Greg Oden misses layup, 95-97
0:13 Rudy Fernandez offensive rebound, 95-97
0:08 Steve Blake makes 25-foot three point jumper, 98-97
I'm sorry, but Rudy Fernandez should not have been allowed to get the offensive rebound in that situation. If Anthony Parker had boxed out Brandon Roy on the Oden miss, then he wouldn't have been able to tip it to Fernandez. That should have been game over right there. But as has been the case all season, their pitiful execution on boxing out cost them a crucial possession — one that, in this case, cost them the game.
The Raptors are dead last in the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage and 20th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage. They have been out-rebounded by their opponents in nine of their 11 losses. Interestingly, they were also out-rebounded in five of their eight wins so it's not like that is the be-all and end-all to fixing this team's woes. But if Jay Triano wants to start somewhere in terms of improving the Raptors' fundamentals, he should give them a lesson in Rebounding 101. Raptors fans can't bear to keep watching this team hand over games like they did on Sunday.
