Built Ford Tough

I love the 4th quarter lineup where the Raptors have Weems and Kleiza on the floor together. They really do everything possible to prevent the Raptors from winning. They are great tank commanders. The only problem is that Barbosa is playing too well in the 4th as of late and is offsetting their brutal play.

I don't know if DeRozan has more than 2 points tonight, but he has looked really solid in my opinion. He has had 2 really nice passes where he drew the defense towards him and threw a pin point pass to a teammate. The first one was him pushing the ball up the court, getting into the heart of the defense and getting Weems a wide open three. He also just had a great bounce pass to Johnson for the dunk. I've been really impressed with his passing so far tonight as we usually don't see this kind of playmaking from him. Hopefully he can continue to build on this and it can become a part of his game int he coming weeks. It will make him a much more effective scorer. Also, Bayless has been awesome. I definitely can't say that I thought he would be this productive for the Raptors. He has been abusing Augustine all night long, making plays for others, draining jumpers and finishing in traffic. I didn't see the previous two games, but he has looked awesome so far as a starter. I want Calderon moved even more now just so that he gets extended minutes. He deserves it based on how he has played since the trade.

I don't know, maybe because this topic is about whether or not Bargnani should be an All-Star and Brook Lopez happens to be one of the players he would be competing with? No, that can't be it. PS: I don't really give a damn what you talk about on other forums. I don't need to constantly see you pimp out all of the other forums that you post on.

I find it funny that people constantly harp on Bargnani's rebounding and all of that, but nobody mentions the fact that Brook Lopez averages only 6 boards a game himself. Is it because Bargnani is a Euro that people make such a big deal out of his poor rebounding and not Lopez's? They are both brutal rebounders, yet nobody ever mentions Lopez. I know he averaged 8 boards his first two seasons, but it's not like he has ever been that good of a rebounder and a lot of those simply came to him by default.

Since you seem to know how the 2012 season is going to play out, would you mind telling me where the Raptors will finish so I don't waste my time watching the games? Seriously though, I'm sure that there will be at least some protection on the Rockets 1st and I'd be shocked if it wasn't at least top 10 protected for the first year, if not lottery protected. I can't see Morey giving up an unprotected 1st considering the "character issues" with Williams.

Amazing deal for New Jersey. Getting two first round picks and a decent sized expiring contract ($5M I think?) for a head case who was never going to do anything in Jersey and a complete scrub in Joe Smith. Not bad at all. I imagine that the Houston first is going to be heavily protected, though. Regardless, this is a great move for Jersey if you ask me. Not bad for Houston if Williams ever gets his head on straight as he definitely has talent. Somebody was going to take a chance on him, so you might as well be the one to take it. It worked for Minny with Beasley, so maybe Houston will have a similar result. As for the Lakers, well,

I understand where you are coming from with your first point, but the difference between Bargnani and Ellis is huge. Look at the competition that Ellis was competing with last year with guys like Nash, Paul, Williams, Roy, Bryant etc... all being guards in the West. That list is clearly superior to the competition that Bargnani has in the East (the list you posted above. As for whether or not he should be an All-Star, it is all going to come down to the Raptors record. If he can manage to get them to around .500 by the time the selections are made, I think he has a strong case considering basically everybody predicted the Raptors to be the worst team in the East, maybe even the league. If they are close to .500 that will make them a playoff team most likely and assuming he continues to put up around 21-22 ppg and 6-7 rpg on near 50% shooting, I definitely think he should deserve some All-Star consideration considering how much the Raptors will have exceeded their expectations and him being the main reason. It will probably be Howard and Noah/Bogut, though.

Two MLE's gives teams over the cap roughly $10-12M to spend an offseason plus bird rights which means we could see teams who are already millions of dollars over the cap adding more than $20M to their cap in a single offseason. What exactly is the point of a "salary cap" if you are enabling teams to add $10-12M each season to their team that is already over the cap? Add to this, having two MLE's would not only give more money to teams over the cap to spend, but it will also increase the value of the MLE in general. With teams handing out two MLE's a year, or at the very least one and a half, the average salary in the league is going to increase, which in turns increases the value of the MLE. Who's to say that in 4 years after 90% of the league is dishing out 2 MLE style contracts that the value of the MLE won't become something like $7M each? Not saying that this will happen, but it is a possibility. The whole 200%+ (don't remember the exact number and am too lazy to look it up) trade restriction is just as bad. What is the point on even having any sort of restrictions on trades if you are allowed to go ahead and trade for basically anybody? Just get rid of the rule completely if you are going to allow teams to trade so freely. Basically, just ask for the salary cap to be removed completely. That is basically what this is doing in the first place, so why bother trying to sugarcoat it? And yes, I realize that these are just the NBAPA shooting for the moon and none of this will actually happen, but it goes back to my original point which is that the two sides are clearly on opposite ends of the spectrum which will lead to a lockout. When the NHL had a lockout a few years ago, the NHL and NHLPA weren't this far apart on negotiations and it was widely known that a lockout would occur, which is why I said that a lockout next year looks to be inevitable.

Here is a picture of it the next morning (I think it was taken Sunday morning or at least sometime Sunday) http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/1540/dekk.jpg

http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/mma/news/story?id=5912299 Anybody watch the fight last night? St. Pierre put on an absolute clinic. Kos' eye was swollen shut after the first round (which is when the break occured) from all of the jabs that GSP landed. You've gotta hand it to Kos, though. Despite the fact that he couldn't see out of his left eye (he didn't even notice when Joe Rogan tried to shake his hand after interviewing him), he hung in there and didn't quit. GSP is just something else. Nobody at 170 is going to touch him. Supposedly Jake Shields gets the next shot and after seeing GSP absolutely dominate Kos on the feet last night, while stuffing most of his takedowns (Kos landed one late in the 1st), Shields doesn't stand a chance. It is going to be a massacare.

So will the final score be something like 150-145? Seems plausible with how these two teams are playing defense, haha. DeRozan's jumper looked good in the 1st. Best I've seen it look in a long time. This is the kind of mid range jumper that I saw from him at USC. Barbosa has been awesome as well. It sucks that Bayless got into early foul trouble as I was hoping for 30+ minutes from him tonight, but Barbosa has been great off the bench so far. In the two games that he has played point guard, he has looked really good. Weems with a solid 1st quarter. Couple of stupid passes trying to make a highlight play, but other than that he was effective, at least offensively. Definitely the best quarter of ball that I've seen from him in about 2 or 3 weeks. Kleiza has also looked fairly good as well. He isn't just camping at the three point line chucking up long range bombs, which is nice to see. He has been banging down low and, best of all, getting on the class to create second chance opportunities.

I realize that, but it still doesn't change how ludicrous 99% of these demands are. It also isn't exactly the beginning of these negotiations either, at least as far as I know. They've been discussing this since the summer, but I don't know if this is the first formal proposal, so I guess that would count as the beginning, haha.

Why do teams star players always seem to be injured when they play the Raptors? Durant, Rondo and now Melo? They sure aren't making it easy for the Raptors to tank. I work tonight, so I'll only be able to catch the first half or so. Looking forward to seeing how Bayless does in his first start with the Raptors. Hopefully he gets some significant minutes tonight and we don't see Barbosa playing 20+ minutes at point guard. I want to see Bayless get at least 35 minutes, barring foul trouble. I'm definitely expecting even more chucking from Kleiza tonight. You just know he is going to be gunning all night long against his former team. Hopefully he provides some of his usual hilarious moments because, at this point, that is about all he is good for.

I was bored and started looking through Amir's game logs to see how productive he has been when receiving more than 28 minutes (changed to 24 after realizing how limited that sample size was) and take a look. In the 9 games that he has played above 24 minutes he is averaging 14.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, 1.2 steals on 62.5 FG% in 28 minutes (Not taking into consideration that he is the best defender on the team as well) I know that it isn't a huge sample size and he is still fouling quite a bit, but it just goes to show how good he can actually be when he isn't committing silly fouls and staying on the floor. People were going nuts over his contract in the summer and saying it was a joke to give him that kind of deal, but these kinds of games show that when he is actually on the floor, he is one of the better bench bigs in the game today. If he ever manages to sort his issues with fouls, he will definitely be worth the contract that he was given. PS: For those of you interested, here were his numbers last season when he played 24+ minutes: 15.7 points, 6.8 rebounds on 72.6 FG% in 29 minutes

Call me crazy, but I still think that there is a good possibility of him entering the draft, assuming his position as a top 5 pick stays the same. Scouts were going absolutely gaga over him whenever they watched Duke play and he went from being projected around 7th coming out of high school to 5th after watching him for Team USA in the summer to now 1st after watching him for a month with Duke. If he misses the entire season it will definitely make him think twice. I don't think it 100% rules him out of the draft, though.

He was starting because he was the "prized offseason acquisition". Colangelo has been hyping him up for the past two offseasons so he was obviously going to immediately insert him into the starting lineup and have him play a key role on offense. To be fair, he did play pretty well in the preseason and did earn a starting spot based on that. It was clear after about 4 games that he shouldn't be starting, though. As for Weems, it isn't just the selfishness that is bothering me, and many other Raptor fans. We have grwn accustomed to the fact that Weems is a gunner and will take questionable shots. The problem with his play as of late is that he is doing nothing but chucking up jumpers, absolutely refusing to drive to the rim, turning the ball over non stop and, worst of all, is playing without any energy, especially on the defensive end of the floor. The best parts of his game are being pushed aside so that he can continue to chuck up jumpers from deep even though he is a horrible three point shooter (like 20% for his career and that might even be generous). On the bright side, these two have been the biggest reasons for Toronto's struggles as of late so maybe their minutes should actually be increased. They have been great tank commanders as of late.

Meh, I would've liked to see him stay in the D-League if they are just going to have him sit on the bench for the rest of the season and not get any game action, outside of 20 point blowouts. Practicing with the team and developing relationships is great and all, but there is no substitute for legitimate game action, and he probably won't be getting much of that with the Raptors. If he actually gets minutes, which I just don't see happening, my opinion will obviously change.

So, umm.... He might be out for the year... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/ncaa/12/08/duke.kyrie.irving.injured.ap/index.html#ixzz17bJm4wWU :o

What, no mention of Bargnani dropping 41/7/6 against the Knicks? You mention all of those other performances, none of which were better than Bargnani's game tonight other than Griffin, but don't give Bargs any sort of credit. Also, no mention of Amir Johnson dropping 22/16 on him on Sunday? Bastard! Also, It was actually Kleiza guarding him in the 4th quarter tonight. Yup, Linas Kleiza. Seriously though, poor competition or not, having a stretch of games like he has while leading his team to something like 12-1 in their last 13 games is definitely noteworthy considering all of the talk about how he isn't as good without Nash. To be fair though, Felton has played superb ball this season as well, not to the same extent as Nash did with Amare, but definitely a lot better than a lot of people anticipated. He has been killer in the 4th quarter of games. Him and Felton absolutely torched the Raptors (which isn't saying much) in the 4th quarter tonight. He was straight up nasty.

After seeing these two play completely selfish on offense, chucking up shot after shot and constantly turning the ball over, combined with neither of them even attempting to play any defense, do you think that Triano should bench them for a game or two to send a message to them that they need to play a team game? Both of them seem to be looking at this situation of being a lottery team as an excuse to chuck up shots and inflate their stats, which is not only hurting the team, but is also hurting their own games. I think that if they both continue to play how they have been lately, they should both be glued to the bench. Start Julian Wright, who even though he sucks and doesn't have nearly the same talent as either of these two, almost always plays within himself and always gives it his all on defense. Show these two that if they want to get minutes, they need to buy into the team concept and not just use the Raptors as a stepping stool. Anybody else feel the same way?

Guys like Kyrie Irving, Perry Jones, Harrison Barnes etc... aren't going to skip the draft when they are assured a top 5 pick. This is more in regards to players who are borderline 1st rounders or in that 20-25 range. I don't care if there is a lockout or not, guys aren't going to pass up the guarantee of being a top 10 pick in a draft, especially considering that next years draft is supposed to be much better than this years, especially if some of the fringe mid/late 1st rounders decide to go back to school. With guys like Michael Glichrist, Andre Drummond and Austin Rivers all being more heralded than every member of the '10 high school class, Barnes excluded but we all know his struggles to start the year, guys who are a lottery pick in this years draft could find themselves as a 25th pick in next years draft. That alone may convince them to enter into the draft this year as the rsik of them falling to the 2nd round is much less than if they were to go into the draft this year. Just look at the last time there was talk about a lockout. That didn't really hurt the 98 draft, did it? You still had Vince Carter, Paul Pierce, Antawn Jamison, Mike Bibby and Raef LaFrentz, all of which were highly touted collegiate players enter the draft even though they knew that there was the possibility of a lockout. I don't care what they say though, if a guy is a lock to go in the top 10, he will be entering the draft, lockout or not.

Did anybody else get the feeling that Triano was tanking that game today against the Knicks? Not that I am saying they should've won because Felton and Amare came up big for the Knicks when they needed them, but he made so many questionable decisions today, mainly in the 4th quarter, that it was unusual. He isn't exactly the best coach in the league, but he has definitely improved so far this year, however, almost all of the decisions he made in the 4th quarter were complete head scratchers. Just off the top of my head: - He played Kleiza and Weems for the majority of the 4th even though they were both complete garbage all game long, while DeRozan was benched until about 4/5 minutes left despite playing fairly well. - Bayless got yanked early in the 4th for a very ineffective Calderon. I know he usually has Calderon finish games, but Bayless doesn't usually get benched that early in the 4th, especially when he is outplaying Calderon. - He randomly decided to take out Bargnani for 2:30 in the final 4 minutes of the 4th quarter. Granted, the Raptors did go on to cut the lead to 2 with Bargs on the bench, but that was just a strange move considering Bargs didn't even look all that tired and was carrying the team. - He refused to put Amir Johnson, or even Ed Davis, into the game in the 4th despite the fact that Amare was absolutely destroying Bargnani and Kleiza. - The final play of the game. He is usually solid at drawing plays out of timeout, but he decided to have Bargnani receive a pass 30 feet from the basket? The play didn't even look broken as it seemed to be run exactly as drawn up. I'm not necessarily saying that he did tank or anything, but I was shocked to see some of his decisions considering how he has actually been pretty solid for the Raptors, substitution patterns aside, this season.

http://jeffgoodman.yardbarker.com/blog/jeffgoodman/dukes_irving_could_miss_a_month_with_toe_injury/3755970 Luckily for Duke, their schedule is really weak in December so they should be able to manage just fine without Irving in the lineup. It also doesn't hurt that they have guys like Seth Curry and Andre Dawkins off of the bench either, both of which would be starters on the majority of teams in the nation. EDIT: He might be out for the year... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/ncaa/12/08/duke.kyrie.irving.injured.ap/index.html#ixzz17bJm4wWU

That sounds really awesome. I love watching these early season matchups between some of the power house schools. It is so much fun watching games like these compared to seeing the best schools just beat up on unranked and unknown schools for the first 10 games. It would be absolutely sick if they could manage to squeeze in 4 more schools and have an early season Elite Eight type thing go on. Having a tournament at the beginning of the season featuring schools like these 4 along with, say, UNC, OSU, K-State, etc... Would really start the college basketball season off with a bang.

It doesn't suck at all. It is how it should be. There is no way in hell that you can give the MVP award to a player when he is on the same team as another top 3 player in the game and another top 15-20 player. It is why I never complained about Shaq not getting more MVP awards during his prime, even if he had arguably the most dominant prime out of any player in NBA history. It would be an absolute joke if Wade or James wins an MVP award while they are still playing together, especially if you also have Bosh on the team.