Built Ford Tough

Looks like Bosh has a broken nose. That looked like it was bleeding way too much for it to be just a cut. If it is in fact broken and Bosh misses time, say good bye to the playoffs. Raptors will be lucky to not lose by 20 every game without Bosh in the lineup.

You honestly think that the Raptors are capable of passing the Bobcats, who have a 2 game advantage over the Raptors, when they have to play Boston, Atlanta and Chicago and 3 out of the 6 on the road, where the Raptors are terrible? Meanwhile, Charlotte plays 1 team over .500 in their next 6 games, and that one team is at home against Atlanta who have been struggling as of late. Charlotte's two game lead over the Raptors is 99% set in stone. The Raptors are going to finish the season 3-3 at best, and a 41-41 record. Charlotte is currently at 40-36, which would mean that they would need to go 2-4 to ensure the 7th seed. They play Detroit and New Jersey. Those are basically two guarnteed wins, and even if they blow one of those, they will make up for it with a win against either Houston, New Orlenas or Chicago. The Raptors chances of blowing the 8th seed is about 100X more likely than them catching the Bobcats.

If you want to see the Cavs play the Raptors in the first round, wouldn't it make more sense to rest your starters tonight, hope that the Raptors win (I say hope because the Cavs bench can probably beat Toronto) tonight and play the starters against Chicago? That way the Raptors would get an extra game up on Chicago, which could potentially make things very difficult for the Bulls considering Toronto has the tie breaker between the two teams. Lets face it, the top 7 seeds are already determined. Charlotte, Milwaukee and Miami may jockey for position a bit, but all 3 of them are in the playoffs. Toronto isn't going to be making up 2 games on the Bobcats when you consider that the Raptors still have to play Cleveland (rest or no rest, still a likely loss), Boston and Atlanta. The only two games on paper that the Raptors look like they should win are the Piston and Knick games which would put them at 2-4 during their final 6 games. The 7th seed isn't going to happen. I don't know though, if you want to play the Raptors in the first round, I just think it would make more sense to hope for a Raptors win (even that would put them at 3-3 most likely which still wouldn't be enough to surpass the Bobcats unless they absolutely choke) tonight and beat Chicago to give the Raptors an extra game advantage over the Bulls. Neither of the two are going to catch Charlotte so who really cares about that point.

I can see why he flipped it up there instead of dunking it. With the craziness that was going on in that play he was probably more worried about getting a shot off before time expired. There was only around 2 seconds (or was it 3) when the play started and Weems tipped it to himself and then saved it to Bosh. Bosh rushed it to ensure that he managed to get a shot off before time expired. Sadly for Raptor fans, he rushed it a bit too much and missed a pretty easy look. Don't think that I am making excuses for Bosh because he certainly should've made that shot and it is inexcusable for him to miss such an easy look in such a critical game, but [expletive] happens. The sad thing is that knowing how situations like these go, Bosh is going to get the blame by the majority of fans/media outlets because he missed a gimme at the end of the game, but the fact of the matter is that Bosh absolutely carried the entire team tonight. The only other players who decided to show up were Amir Johnson (who got in foul trouble, surprise surprise) and Jarrett Jack (for the 4th quarter at least). He had absolutely no help for the majority of the game and the only reason why the Raptors were even in the game at the end was because of his play. Bosh put up 42 pts / 12 rebs / 5 stls on 11-19 FG and 20-23 FT. The rest of the teams shooting numbers are below. Bargnani - 7-23 Jack - 6-13 Wright - 1-6 Weems - 2-11 Calderon - 1-5 If Bosh had any help through the first 3 quarters, this game wouldn't have come down to a last second situation (then again, it never should have come down to this considering the choke job by the Warriors). Oh well, games like these are exactly why the Raptors are barely holding onto that final playoff spot in the East instead of fighting for the 5th or 6th seed like they were before the All-Star break. This game was an absolute must win for the Raptors considering they have Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago all coming up. This loss could very well end up costing them a spot in the playoffs becuase it is looking very likely that they will go on a 4 or 5 game losing streak. At least they will get to keep their pick.

Maggette has done a fantastic job exploiting mismatches whenever he has had Bosh or Bargnani on him. He has played a really nice game on offense so far, well, at least when it comes to scoring the rock. The Raptor bigs can't handle his quickness off of the bounce and when they give him space to compensate he has done a nice job of knocking down perimeter jumpers. Steph Curry is awesome to watch though. His stroke is an absolute thing of beauty but what I love the most about him is his vision and IQ on the floor. He rarely makes any mistakes on the floor and when he does make a mistake, he is usually able to make up for it because he is always in position due to his high basektball smarts. Bosh is the only Raptor who looks like he came to play tonight. He has done a nice job of getting to the line, mixing up his offense and has just played a nice game offensveiy overall. He has had troubles on the defensive end, but that is to be expected considering he has been guarding Maggette for the majority of the game, which is just a bad matchup for him. 29 points for Bosh and he is th ereason why this game is only a 7 point defecit right now. Pretty pathetic game from the Raptors stand point though. Your season is up in the air and you are down by 10 points to the Warriors at home? It's disgraceful.

You don't think that losing your best player isn't that big of a deal? You don't even have to look back more than a year ago, when the Celtics lost Garnett, to show just how much of a negative impact losing your teams best player and defensive anchor can be to a team. The Celtics barley squeaked past a clearly undermatched Bulls team and then lost to the Magic in the 2nd round when they were widely considered the favourites in the East prior to Garnett's injury. This season, with a Garnett who is clearly not the same, they have went from being considered quite possibly the team to beat in the Eastern Conference to being the team who many believe are most likely to be upset out of the top 4 teams in the East. You take Bogut out of the Bucks lineup and not only are you losing your defensive anchor, but you are losing your only legitimate post presence on offense, and quite possibly the best big man passer in the NBA. It is no coincidence that John Salmons has increased is FG% by around 4%, his eFG% by around 3% and his TS% by 4% since his arrival in Milwaukee. Playing with a post threat who is such a superb passer like Bogut opens things up for the rest of his teamamtes. Taking Bogut out and replacing him with somebody like Kurt Thomas is going to hurt the Bucks offense tremendously, and they aren't a very good offensive team to begin wtih. Where they are going to miss Bogut the most is on the defensive end of the floor though, which isn't to say that they aren't going to miss him a great deal offensively because they will there as well. He has been one of the best shot blockers in the NBA this season and the vast improvement that the Bucks have made defensively after the All-Star break, which is when they made their surge up the standings, can be directly attributed to the play of Andrew Bogut. Bogut is averaging 3.2 blocks per game since the All-Star break, whcih doesn't take into consideration all of the shots that he alters and changes during the course of the game. He makes the Bucks defense click and replacing him with Kurt Thomas, who is a solid defensive player in his own right, is clearly going to hurt the Bucks. If you want to look at the impact that Bogut has on the Bucks, just take a look at his numbers during the Bucks wins and compare them to the numbers that he puts up during the Bucks losses. Numbers In Wins 17.7 ppg / 10.5 rpg / 1.9 apg / 2.7 bpg / 56.3 FG% Numbers In Losses 13.3 ppg / 9.8 rpg / 1.8 apg / 2.7 bpg / 45.8 FG% The blocks and assists are around the same, but every other stat shows that the Bucks need Bogut in order to win. They will need to get extremely hot and lucky in order to win a series, in which they would be an underdog in in the first place, without Bogut in their lineup. He is clearly the player who makes that team click. PS: Did you really just say Primoz Brezeec and formidable in the same sentence?

Insurance signing for the playoffs, I assume. I don't think that the Raptors are too confident in their backup bigs come playoff time. Not that it really matters considering they are going to get their asses handed to them by Cleveland anyways. Amir Johnson is a very good backup big, but he is foul prone. Rasho is solid, and could see the floor against players like Shaq and Z, but considering how he is getting up there in age, as well as the fact that he hasn't really seen too much action this year, the team might want some insurance. Reggie Evans is good for 10 minutes a game, but anything other than that and he is impact wears off. Patrick O'Bryant sucks.

Vote based on how they played for the Raptors, not how they have played for other teams. Also, how bad is this list? If you want to look for a reason that the Raptors have had marginal success under Colangelo, I don't think you need to look any further than this collection of, for the most part, scrubs.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-100326-27 (it is right after the Gilbert Arenas stuff) I'd love to see Byron Scott take over for the Clippers. Even though some people thought he was a poor coach in New Orleans, I have liked him as a coach since he was in New Jersey. It says in the article that Scott is holding out for the Lakers job as there is a bunch of talk that he will be Phil Jackson's replacement when he decides to call it quits. Also, didn't Scott and Baron Davis have some issues with each other in New Orleans/Charlotte? That could be a potential problem. I don't really know how much about Dwane Casey as a coach, other than the fact that he was fired from Milwaukee after only a handful of games and has been with the Mavs since then. Can't really comment on Jackson either. I don't know if I would like to see the Clippers hire a rookie head coach as I think it would be smarter for them to hire somebody who has been around the block with all of the young talent on the team. Then again, it could be wise to hire a rookie head coach and let him gain some experience along with his young team. Who really knows. Another thing that I found interesting in that article is that the Clippers hope to have a coach before Free Agency starts, but there is a chance that they may not hire a coach before then and use it as a potential push for LeBron. They would tell LeBron that if he were to sign with the Clippers that they would give him whatever coach he wanted. It would be a risk in doing that because the chances of LeBron signing with the Clippers is probably already fairly slim, and if he doesn't sign there they could miss out on all of the coaches who fit the best with the team.

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/65713/20100401/weems_benefiting_from_tight_bond_with_derozan/ I know that most people who follow the Raptors even a little bit know that DeRozan and Weems have become really close friends, but I figured I'd post this anyways. The thing that I like the most about both Weems and DeRozan is that both of them seem to be absolute gym rats. From everything that I have read and heard on tv during interviews, broadcasts etc... say that DeRozan and Weems are always in the gym together working on their game. It is great to see from these two because a lot of the time when people come into the league who are as athletic as these two are, they tend to try and coast by on their athleticism alone before they realize that they need to constantly be working on their game. DeRozan and Weems seem to have a great work ethic and an even greater head on their shoulders. Hopefully that doesn't change with success. The best part of this is all is reading about how both of them are coming back to the gym in the evening to work on their games, regardless of whether or not they had a practice that morning, of even a game. Reading about how they go to the gym after playing a game some nights is absolutely awesome. EDIT: I forgot to mention that Eric Hughes deserves plenty of credit for his role in the development of these two as well. He is constantly working with the two of them and coming in at night, when he isn't required to, in order to constantly give them advice on what they are doing right, wrong and what they should be working on. He has done a great job with these two and deserves a lot of credit for the effort that he has put in to help Weems and DeRozan improve.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/rumors/post/Grizzlies-hiring-Mutombo-for-Thabeet-?urn=nba,231547 Not a bad move at all on the Grizzlies part. Hiring somebody like Mutombo to work with Thabeet can only be a positive for the rookie. I know that a bunch of people are already calling Thabeet a bust (which is absurd by the way) but if Mutombo can harness some of Thabeet's raw defenisve ability and teach him some new things as well, Thabeet could become a very good defensive player, especially when he matures more phyiscally.

I do the exact same thing. :glasses: Like Brandon and Phightins (sorry if I spelt your name wrong) said, with the creation of Twitter it probably isn't worth it. I only use the actual Insider stuff around the time of the NBA Draft, Trade Deadline and Free Agency. Every other time of the year it isn't really worth it in my opinion.

Durant went off tonight putting up 37 points and 8 boards. He was a perfect 15-15 from the free throw line, which didn't sit to well with Kevin Garnett. Anybody else hear his post game comments? They were something along the lines of: "It felt like we were playing Michael [expletive]ing Jordan tonight. Durant damn near shot more free throws than our entire team." Can anybody who watched this game clarify on whether or not Durant's 15 free throws were legitimately earned or were there some questionable calls made?

76 points for Utah in the first half. 5 players already in double digits. Deron Williams with 13 assists. Carlos Boozer with 19/7 on 9-11 shooting.

Best game of Sonny Weems' career? I think so. Not only did he have a fantastic game on the offensive end of the floor scoring 17 points on 8-8 shooting (as well as hitting a 3) while dishing out 4 assists, but he was brilliant on the defensive end of the floor. He managed to hold Eric Gordon to only 9 points on 3-13 shooting and played outstanding defense on him all game long. Gordon was definitely getting frusturated with Sonny's length and athleticism and Sonny forced him into some very tough, questionable shots during this game. Gordon never seemed to get be able to get close to anything remotely resembling a rythym and a lot of that can be attributed to the great defense that Weems played on him. On the offensive end of the floor he played basically a perfect game for him. He took great shots all game long and never forced anything offensively, which is probably the biggest knock on him as he can tend to get caught up in the moment and start forcing things. There was none of that tonight. He caught the ball and didn't over think anything. He was flvery fluid on the floor. His mid range game has been absolute money over the past three months or so and that was the case tonight as well. He also did a great job of running the floor and setting up easy baskets in transition. He may not have always been the one finishing the play when the Raptors got out and ran, but him running the floor opened up lanes and space for his teammates. This may not have been the best stat line in his career (that probably would've been that 20/10 game he had earlier this season) but it was definitely the best all around performance that I have seen from Weems so far. Finished up with 17 points / 5 rebounds / 4 assists / 1 steal (and numerous tipped balls) on 8-8 shooting. He was also a team high +27. Jack and Turkoglu did a great job off of the bench tonight. Even though Jack didn't score a single point tonight he had a huge impact on the game and was one of the driving forces behind the Raptors pulling away in the 2nd half. He had 10 assists and 3 steals and was a classic example of how you don't have to score 20 points to have a huge impact on the game. Turkoglu did a good job of making plays as well, although not to the same extent that Jack did. He has been playing better these last two games since Triano benched him against Miami but I'm not going to get my hopes up. Bosh looked lackadaisical in the first half of the game, despite the fact that he scored 15 points, he just didn't look to be very into the game. However, that changed in the 3rd quarter when he absolutey dominated the Clippers front court. I think that he ended up scoring 15 points in that quarter and only missed a couple of shots. He looked like the Chris Bosh from the beginning of the season and that is the Bosh who is worthy of a max contract. Bargnani played some nice defense on Kaman and did a good job of contesting his shot attempts. He had some breakdowns that led to easy baskets, but on a whole, it was one of his better games in recent memory. His back to back 3's in the 4th quarter sealed the game for the Raptors. Drew Gooden looked really good tonight for the Clippers. He was hitting shots from all over the floor, mixing it up on the glass trying to keep the play alive for the Clippers and just played a nice game on the offensive end of the floor. He was in over his head defensively when he was forced to guard Bosh or Bargnani beceause of their shooting ability and athleticism, but you still have to appreciate the effort that he gave. Whether it was because he wanted to win or becaue he was playing for a contract is a question mark, but a good game regardless. Good win for the Raptors. Like I said earlier, the Raptors needed to win this game convincingly in order to gain some momentum heading into Philly on Saturday. This game, along with the next 2 against Philly and at home against Golden State, are/were absolute must wins for the Raptors.

Jose Calderon had a very good first quarter offensively. He did a nice job of mixing up his offense between looking for his own offense and trying to set other guys up. He was really dangerous in pick and roll scenarios as the Clippers weren't really sure what he was looking to do when he turned the corner. He had some really nice passes and would have 5 assists already if Bosh/Bargnani weren't fouled when going up. The thing that I liked the most about his game in the first quarter was his aggressiveness. He was decesive when he had the ball and wasn't just standing there pounding it 25 feet away from the basket. He had some nice drives into the paint, which is something that he needs to do more of instead of settling for jumper or just not looking to score at all. The Raptors ball movement in general was very impressive in the first quarter. They were making the extra pass when swinging it around the horn which led to some nice looks from 3 for guys like Bargnani and Wright. They were keeping the Clipper defense moving which opened up passing lanes for Bosh down low. For all the positives that they had offensively in that quarter, their effort defensively basically nulified them considering they were giving up easy looks to the Clippers and when they did get stops, they weren't able to seal the deal and grab the board. This start to the 2nd is pretty lackluster as well. The Raptors need to win this game decesively in order to gain confidence and try to get on a roll. They have a relatively easy 3 game stretch here and they need to take advantage of it and get on a roll for when they have that four game stretch against Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago.

I'm not getting into the whole discussion about how Bosh will be playing in Miami, Oklahoma City, New York, Chicago, China, Venezuela or basically anywhere other than Toronto next season because I'm tired of discussing about it but I will post about the original question of this thread (which I think was posted with the intention of this topic turning into a Bosh to Miami situation anyways, ). All you have to do is look at the stats and you will see that Bosh hasn't been playing at nearly the same level post All-Star break than he was pre All-Star break. You literally don't even have to have watched him play a single minute in my opinion. Just look at the numbers. Pre All-Star Break 24.4 ppg l 11.4 rpg (3 offensive) l 52.6 FG% l 8.8 FTA l 2.3 topg in 36.2 mpg post All-Star Break 21.7 ppg l 9.1 rpg (1.9 offensive) l 47.0 FG% l 6 FTA l 2.8 topg in 36.6 mpg Before the All-Star Break Bosh had only one month of the season in which he grabbed under 11 boards a game and averaged at least 24 ppg in every month aside from one (21.8). During this time the Raptors have manged to go from 29-23 to 35-37. The substantial decrease in his numbers can be attributed to two things: 1. His knees are still bothering and he isn't at 100%. 2. He has mailed it in and is looking towards the offseason.

I'll ignore your first point about DeRozan simply because I completely agree with it. He has the potential to become an 18-5-5 (assuming he improves his handles as his ability to slash would open up opportunities for others around him) type of player, similar to Andre Iguodala. It is way too early to tell with him though. He is a gym rat from everything that I have heard/read and you can see the improvements in his game from the beginning of the season until now so I do have faith that he will become a good player in the future. Also, I won't respond to the comments about Weems or Johnson because, once again, we agree on what they will become as we both basically said the same thing. Solid depth guys are their ceilings, which is necessary on any team in order to be successfull. Bargnani isn't really what I would consider to be young as a basketball player. Yeah he is only 25 (or maybe 24? I can't remember exactly) but when you consider the fact that he has been in the NBA for 4 years now while also playing professional basketball over in Italy for another 3 years before he came over to the NBA, I don't really think that it is realistic to expect much more from him thatn when he has shown so far. If he hasn't become a competent rebounder in 7 years of playing pro basketball I don't think that he will ever become one. If he still had the tendancy to start the game on the inside and gradually fade further and further away from the hoop as the game progresses, I don't think that will change either. Also, Bargnani has openly admitted that he is lazy when it comes to rebounding and defense, which shows that he doesn't exactly have a great work ethic. There is no denying that the man is a very talented player and possess a unique combination of size, shooting ability and athleticism, but that doesn't really mean much when you have a poor work ethic to go with it. Derrick Coleman had all of these natural tools as well but he didn't have the work ethic to turn them into anything special which eventually led to him having some great seasons in the first 5 years of his career, but eventually into a 16-6 kind of player after that. I would be absolutely shocked if Bargnani ever averaged anything close to 24 points a game. If he was on a poor team where he was force fed the basketball, I still think that he would only ever manage to score around 21-22 ppg and that would be on pretty lousy percentages. Bargnani needs a big man down low who draws attention away from him on the perimeter in order to be at his absolute best. Maybe average was a bit of an understatment, but he wouldn't be any better than above average and I still stand by what I said in regards to him being a bench player on a legit contending team, unless he is paired with a big man like Tim Duncan who can dominate offensively while being able to anchor a team defensively. If those 4 years of crappiness led to the Raptors winning an NBA Championship, then I could easily deal with it. I am just used to the mediocrity though. The Raptors have made it out of the 1st round one time in their franchise's history, and have had a combined 5 playoff berths (which isn't too bad considering they are currently in their 15th season). The Vancouver Grizzlies didn't even come close to sniffing the playoffs when they were in the league and my favourite NHL team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, haven't made the playoffs since the 2003-2004 season. When you aren't a fan of teams like the Lakers you have to realize that you need to take the good with the bad and your window for winning a championship is slim. If sucking for 4 years is what ultimately leads to your favourite team winning that championship then so be it. At least, that is the way I look at it. The last 4 years for Seattle/Oklahoma City would've been hard to deal with, but the reward is being able to watch a team who looks like they could be contenders for the next decade. It is well worth it as far as I am concerned. The Clippers struggles can be more attributed to the fact that they had a terrible owner who would rather save money then put out a winning team in my opinion. Yeah they have made some poor draft choices in the past, but the thing that has held them back is Sterling not willing to break the bank, and when he does break the bank he overpays players like Baron Davis. Their future looks pretty good though if you ask me. A core of Blake Griffin - Eric Gordon - Chris Kaman - 2010 Lottery Pick while having substantial cap space in this years free agent class is definitely something to look forward to. It all depends on how patient you are willing to be with the team that you follow though. I've never really experienced success as a sports fan (unless you consider my hometown Junior A. hockey team win a National Championship last year and Italy winning the World Cup in 06) so that could factor into my feelings as well. Tasting success could easily change my opinion and make me become less patient. The Raptors don't have a good core with a good mix of youth to eventually take their place though. Its not like Amir Johnson or Andrea Bargnani are capable of taking over for Chris Bosh if he were to leave this summer. Sure they can make up for some of his production, but neither of these two are what I would consider to be an integral core piece like Bosh is. Outside of DeRozan they don't have any real potentially franchise building block youth. Even their veterans this year aren't exactly ideal. The Raptors young wing players (DeRozan, Weems and Belinelli) have Hedo Turkoglu and Antoine Wright to learn from. Not exactly what I would consider "solid" or 'ideal". Calderon and Jack aren't bad though. Again though, it goes back to the point of where you stand on the "whole first round exit vs. lottery team" debate. I don't thnk that being first round fodder is a good thing at all, and you think making the playoffs is valuable no matter what (which I can understand if you have a great young core). I'm not saying that I would just rather let Bosh walk and start from scratch. I would've loved for the Raptors to actually build the team around Bosh and not just throw a rag tag assortment of players around him. The problem is that they have done a horrible job of building around Bosh. The one time that I think they did a good job of trying to build around him, the players that they managed to put around him were simply not as capable as they used to be. Jermaine O'Neal was unreliable and inconsistent due to his knee problems, Anthony Parker was not the very good defender that he was in his younger days, Jose Calderon was exposed as a full time starting point guard, Shawn Marion never really intended to stick around and even then he wasn't the same player he used to be (whether it was because of a decline or not fitting in the system) and Joey Graham, Jamario Moon and Jason Kapono were all too one dimensional/stupid. Now Colangelo is just deciding to throw offensive minded players who don't have a clue what they are doing defensively around him, which is a terrible idea considering Bosh himself is an offensive minded player with average defense. Again, its not like I want Bosh to leave, but when you consider that the Raptors will have $50M tied into a mediocore core, two of which are untradeable (Turkoglu because of his contract and Bargnani because Colangelo won't move him), and Calderon who won't land you anything significant anyways, I'm just saying that the Raptors might be better off losing Bosh and trying to start from scratch. PS: The jury is still out on whether or not Bosh is actually fit to be a franchise player. It is very much up in the air whether or not Bosh is in fact fit to be a franchise player, or if he is just a really great 2nd option. Personally, I think that Bosh could be a franchise player if he is put into the correct situation, but unfortunately for Raptor fans, we may never see this situation occur in Toronto. It depends on what your view of successful is. Is making the playoffs but advancing to the 2nd round at best each year a success? Or sooner or later does the playoff appearances lose their luster and it becomes a finals appearance or an NBA Championship that you determine as a success? That core you described it certainly capable of making one of those scenarios a reality, but not the other one. PS: This is somewhat irrelevant to this discussion, but I always find it funny how when people talk about the Raptors they list Bargnani as youth and Bosh as a vet, but if you actually look at it they are basically the exact same age (Bosh is less than a year older than Bargnani if I'm not mistaken) and have the same amount of pro basketball experience (7 years for Bosh in the NBA compared to Bargnani's 4 NBA years and 3 in Italy). Anyways, onto the rest of this. The thing is though, where are these pieces going to come from? I don't disagree with any of your points in regards to chemistry, experience and confidence, but where are these pieces going to come from when you have limited trade resources (Banks and Evans' expiring contracts are really the only trade chips they have for next season), only the MLE and LLE to use in free agency for the forseeable future and no 1st round draft pick (for this year at least)? The Hawks weren't a borderline playoff team though. They missed the playoffs for 8 straight years and the most wins that they managed to get in those 8 years was in 2002-2003 with 35. They had 5 seasons of under 30 wins. They were landing good picks in the draft, which is where they built their core. They drafted Al Horford 3rd overall, Marvin Williams 2nd overall, Josh Smith 17th overall, Sheldon Williams who they turned into Mike Bibby and Boris Diaw (granted he was 21st overall), who they turned into Joe Johnson via that sign and trade with Phoenix. They built a large part of their core through the draft and then added the necessary pieces to compliment them in guys like Bibby and Crawford. They were also fortunate enough to land a top 4 SG in the NBA through free agency, which is rare and not a possibility for the Raptors. Now compare the way that the Hawks built their team (through the draft and with nice complimentary signings/trades, some which involved players that they had drafted) to the way that Toronto has built their team. The Raptors have Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani and DeMar DeRozan as the only players on the team that they drafted. The rest of the team was acquired through free agency or trades. Also, Toronto has been closer to the playoffs than the bottom of the standings for the 4 years, while Atlanta was closer to the bottom of the standings than the playoffs for the better part of 8 years. I understand what you are trying to say, but the thing is, Atlanta has basically built their team, for the most part, the way that I am describing that I want the Raptors to build their team. They got a solid core through the draft, used their expendable pieces to acquire the necessary pieces that they need and gave the team time to mature together. The Raptors are trying to build their team through trades and free agency, which in a salary cap world hardly ever works. But what about when that highest possible position is a 7th seed and first round playoff exit year after year? Would it be better to settle for this mediocrity year in and year out, or would it be better to blow it up and attempt to build a team whos highest possible position would be top 3 in the conference and an NBA Finals appearance? Its not like this is a team who used to be a contender and has had an off year or something. This is a team who has been over the salary cap and has been the same general team (same philosophy, different personnel) for the last 4 seasons and they have 2 playoff appearances, and a combined 3 playoff wins to show for it. - Chris Bosh is a tremendous player and there really isn't much more that you can ask from him other than for him to play aggressively every night and not settle for jumpers when the going gets tough. However, when you are paying a guy a max contract, which is what Bosh will get, I definitely think that you can ask for more from him night in and night out that he has given the Raptors, particularly on the defensive end. Then again, it is hard for him to make an impact defensively playing with Bargnani, who may have the worst help defense among starting centers in the NBA. - Calderon hasn't even been that good offensively this season though (he has been good, but he hardly deserves the moniker of "one of the best defensive point guards" based on his play this year), and that makes him fairly useless on the floor because he is such a liability on the floor. Even though his numbers don't really reflect much of a difference between this year and last year, just ask any Raptor fan which version of Calderon they would rather have. On a different team I think that Calderon would thrive because of the fact that they would be able to make up for his limitations defensively, but when you are already the worst defensive team in the league, it is really hard to have the worst defensive point guard in the league as your starter, and it is even harder to be paying him $9-10M over the next 4 years, unless he is an elite offensive talent, whcih Calderon is not. - Don't disagree with anything you said about Jack. I actually think that he could be a valuable piece heading forward and is one of the players that I would like Toronto to hold onto. In fact, this season he has actually been the better shooter than Calderon has. The only thing that Calderon has on him is being a better passer really. - Lets be real with Turkoglu, do you honestly believe any of what you typed about him? I think it is pretty clear that he is no longer worried about making an impact on the floor or exploiting any mismatches that he may create. He got his pay day and now he is going to coast on it for the next 5 years in which he will probably retire and head back to Turkey. When talking about a teams future, a player like Hedo Turkoglu (this version of Turkoglu at least) is a stain on that team, regardless of what anybody else has to say. - Bargnani will never be a franchise center. He is talented and brings a lot to the table offensively, but he will never be a franchise center. Like I said above, I think that if he paired up with the right power forward/center he could be a valuable piece, but if the Raptors continue their insistence on having a Bosh/Bargnani frontcourt, neither of them will bring everything that they can to the table. Offensively maybe, but not in terms of all around players because one will be forced into situations that he isn't capable of doing (like Bosh anchoring a defense). - Agree with you the DeRozan, Johnson and Weems points. - Reggie Evans actually sucks in ever catagory other than rebounding, hustle, cheerleading and having a great beard. He can't shoot free throws, thinks he is an offensive threat and is a bad defensive player. His most appealing quality to the Raptors is his expiring contract next season. I still love him though. The biggest hole that this team has is the lack of a true second option, All-Star caliber player on the wings. The problem with this is that unless DeRozan develops into this player (which is possible, but not a given) the Raptors have little ways to acquire this player. They are either going to have to luck into one in the draft or hope that a team is desperate enough to dump a long term contract onto the Raptors in exchange for cap relief in the form of Evans and Banks' contracts along with another asset. Another problem is that they need to completely change the culture of the team, which is extremely difficult to do. I'm not worried about them finding the complimentary pieces that they would need because Colangelo, despite all of his flaws, is very good at finding these kinds of players. The rest of the players on the Raptors aren't bad pieces, but aside from Bosh, DeRozan and Jack (Bargnani and Calderon on a different team) none of them are what I would consider to be real good pieces either. Johnson and Weems, and even Wright, are solid pieces as well, but they are the kind that are easy to replace. You build with your core 3 and surround those players with the necessary talent to compliment them. The problem for Toronto is that the only player who as of right now can be considered as a legit core player is Chris Bosh, who might not even be with the team next year.

So I found out today that even though my brain has been saying that I want the Raptors to lose in order to ensure that they keep their first round pick in this years draft, my heart is still pulling for a Raptors win regardless of the possibly long-term repercussions that it may lead to (Bosh leaving after a first round sweep and no draft pick this year). I guess I just can't bring myself to openly cheer against the Raptors and hope for a loss, no matter how much I tell myself that I want to. It is also about time that the Raptors caught a damn break. Against Denver they had one rebound go off of their hands out of bounds which led to a Billups 3 to tie the game at 95 and then they had that 50/50 ball off of Melo's first miss happen to fall into the Nuggets hands which led to Melo getting a 2nd chance at winning the game, and he made no mistakes. Then yesterday against Miami they blew a 17 point lead, and despite how bad the Raptors are defensively, it still takes some bad luck/bounces to let a team come back from a lead like that and end up winning the game (at least in my opinion, if Heat fans take exception to that I'm sorry. Not making excuses because the Heat deserved the win based on their play in the 4th quarter). When Weems missed both of those free throws that would've sealed the game I thought "Here we go again, the Raptors are going to choke down the stretch and lose another heartbreaker". Luckily Felton made a questionable pass to an unsuspecting Chandler which resulted in a Raptors win. PS: The officiating in this game was absolutely terrible. It was one of the more entertaining Raptors games of the season (I love tough, physical games like this) but the reffing was just terrible for both sides.

So with the Raptors inability to grab a rebound on two crucial possessions against the Nuggets ending up costing them that game and their collapse yesterday against the Heat, I figured that it might be an appropriate time to bump this thread. With the win today against Charlotte, the Raptors are now 2 games back of them for the 7th seed in the East. If the Raptors wouldn't have blown the two previous games leading up to this one they would be sitting at a record of 38-35, which would put them in a tie for 7th place in the East (Raptors would own the tiebreaker with the Bobcats though, so they would be in 7th). Now here is the kicker, if the Raptors would've held on against the Heat, Miami would be at 39-35 instead of the 40-34 record that they currently have. That would put the Raptors a mere half game back of the 6th seed in the East and would also have assured the Raptors the tie breaker over both the Heat and Bobcats, which would mean that they would only have to match either of these two teams records to finish ahead of them in the standings. Lastly, the Raptors would be only a game back of the Bucks (although Milwaukee owns the tie breaker) for 5th place in the East. It is amazing how much those two games that they should've won are going to come back and bite the Raptors in the [expletive]. Instead of talking about how depressing this team is to be a fan of, we would've been talking about a potential 5th seed in the East. I just found it pretty interesting how a mere 2 games has completely changed most Raptor fans outlook on this season. Anyways, I know that this is worthless to discuss as what's done is done, but I figured I'd bring it up anyways. EDIT: Some of my calculations may be off. I wrote this while studying for a test tomorrow so I wasn't paying complete attention.

Michael Grange most recent article had some great comments on Turkoglu that I thought I would post here. The entire article was a great read but I'll just highlight the Turkoglu portions of it. And the best one of them all... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/basketball/from-deep/no-hope-for-the-raptors-none/article1515947/ This move could quite possibly be the worst move in Raptors franchise history. Yes, worse than drafting Rafael Araujo over Andre Iguodala and worse than trading Carter away for scrubs. The guy clearly doesn't give two [expletive]s about playing basketball anymore. Honestly, I'd rather the Raptors just pay him his money and send his [expletive] back to Turkey. Just get him away from this team.

I mentioned that in that post you quoted. I didn't exactly call him a cashcow or anything like that, but that was basically the point I was trying to get across with those two sentences. In regards to the talk about Yao wanting to win, if you think about it, any team that would pursue Yao would most likely become a playoff team with the acquisition of Yao. If the Clippers were to sign him they would have a great core of Yao/Griffin/Gordon with players like Chris Kaman and Baron Davis as well. Not to mention a top 10 pick in this years draft which could end up being a nice piece as well. If they get Yao I don't see how they wouldn't be considered a team capable of winning it all (assuming Yao doesn't miss half the year). I'm not saying that they would win it all but I could see it as a possibility. This team would have a pretty large window of competitiveness as well.

Honestly, do you think that you would be making this thread if you weren't a Heat fan? I don't mean anything by that but I definitely think that played a part in the making of this thread. I mean think about it, why would a team go after Joe Johnson instead of Dwyane Wade? No GM in the NBA would consider taking Johnson over Wade. Wade is a top 3 player in the NBA who is in the prime of his career. He has shown the ability to lead an average supporting cast into the playoffs and take over an entire series. The only thing that Johnson does better than Wade is shot 3 pointers. Wade has him beat in basically every single other aspect of the game. Then you also have to consider that Wade is going to make you more money than Joe Johnson ever would. That would definitely figure into the equation as well. Brandon did a good job of explaining why Wade would fit in fine with the Bulls so I'm not going to say anything about that. The bottom line is that if you are able to land Dwyane Wade, you do it. You don't choose Johnson over Wade if you are the Bulls, or any other team.

Yao is actually in a pretty tough position if you ask me. On one hand you would think that the most logical decision is for him to not opt out of his contract this season and play out next year with the guarnteed money. He has to realize that plenty of people around the league are going to be rather skeptical about his ability to bounce back from this recent injury of his. Even though those rumours of this latest injury possibly being career ending was basically shot down immediately, I am positive that some GMs are still going to have that in the back of their minds and be hesitant to throw big money at Yao without seeing him play since obtaining the injury. However, on the other hand, with all of the uncertainty surrounding the CBA it could possibly be in his best interest to take the chance and opt out of his contract. Who knows what is going to happen with the next CBA and it could very well be worth the risk of opting out of his current deal in hopes of landing that one huge payday. Even with his injury problems there is no denying Yao's status of one of the elite centers in the NBA. Another thing to consider is that Yao is an absolute marketing dream. If you sign Yao to your team you are guarnteed to see a ten fold increase in your fan base with the drawing power that he has. It is definitely a tough position if you ask me. Do you take the safe route and just play out your current deal even with all of the questions regarding the CBA? Or do you take a risk and opt out this summer in hopes that somebody is going to overlook your injury history and throw that huge contract at you? If it was me, I would probably opt out just because I know that somebody would throw money at me. I would find it extremely hard to believe that nobody would offer Yao a huge deal.

It is working fine for me now.