Andrea Bargnani: "I Am Ready To Be The Franchise Player"

[Built Ford Tough]

"If Chris will leave I am ready to be the franchise player: I was never scared by responsibilities".

 

Also, he may undergo surger this summer on his ankle that was bothering him off and on for the majority of the 2nd half of the season.

 

"There is a bone spur which makes me problems. We are considering the possibility of surgery but I hope to avoid it" added Bargnani.

 

And, lastly, he won't be playing with Italy this summer.

 

"I really want to play for Italy but after the season with Raptors and the camps, I can't play two months in the summer with Italy. My body doesn't hold the effort. We must find a solution good for Italy, Raptors and me" said Bargnani.

 

Link

 

I've never heard of the website before, so I don't know exactly how reliable this site is.

 

 

As for the comments, it is nice to see Bargnani showing confidence and wanting to take on a larger role with the team should Bosh leave. It is also very good to hear that he is commited to the Raptors and will not play for Italy this summer as there are questions about his ankle and what not.

 

On the other hand, a team with Andrea Bargnani as it's premier player is going to be a difficult team to watch.

[Clutch]

he's good but he's not a franchise player...bosh is barely considered a good franchise player, everyone talks about him being a sidekick to wade or bron or w.e just like amare and boozer

[Check my Stats]

He can't be the franchise player if he can't create buckets on his own, he is still basically a spot up shooter. At least if he was 'the man' he would probably be a lot less complacent. Hopefully Demar is ready to step up by next year as well.

[Klashnekoff]

This guy is the next Dirk. If Bosh leaves i guarantee we will see a 24 ppg 10 rpg guy come out.

[Poe]

This guy is the next Dirk. If Bosh leaves i guarantee we will see a 24 ppg 10 rpg guy come out.

I can see the 24 ppg, but the 10 rpg is a bit of a stretch considering his 6 rpg in 35 minute rebounding average last year.

[Flash]

This guy is the next Dirk. If Bosh leaves i guarantee we will see a 24 ppg 10 rpg guy come out.

 

Dirk can create his own shot way better than Bargnani can.

[Kobe24]

Dirk before Avery settled for 3s alot!

[Flash]

Dirk before Avery settled for 3s alot!

 

Avery isn't coaching the Raptors though..

[Kobe24]

I know but the point was that he can change his game up too

[Multi-Billionaire]

The next Dirk is not Bargnani but his fellow country guy, Gallinari...

 

If he's ready to be the franchise player, that's good, that means Bosh is ready to go to Denver (bye bye Nene & J.R.)

[Built Ford Tough]

This guy is the next Dirk. If Bosh leaves i guarantee we will see a 24 ppg 10 rpg guy come out.

 

Even Bargnani thinks your crazy:

 

http://images.quickblogcast.com/81063-70964/Andrea_on_bench.jpg

 

 

 

(I really just wanted to get to 1,200 posts before the night is over and find a semi-valid reason to post that picture )

Edited May 15, 2010 by Built Ford Tough

[The Truth]

BFT, you should jump off right now, brah. Raps gonna be bad for a long time.

[BasX]

How has that been different than the past, oh... 15 years. Dude he's a Leaf fan, they know pain than almost anyone I think him and other Raptor fans will be fine.

 

 

I'm a Flyers fan so I'm happy right now.

[Built Ford Tough]

BFT, you should jump off right now, brah. Raps gonna be bad for a long time.

 

What, no faith in Bargnani? How can you not have faith in a face like this?

 

http://www.24sec.net/images/lib/Legal%20photos/Italy/Andrea%20Bargnani%20-%20Benetton%20III%20(euroleague).jpg

 

http://www.binarybasketball.com/sites/default/files/images/Andrea-Bargnani.png

 

http://www.exposay.com/celebrity-photos/andrea-bargnani-lottomatica-semifinali-game-2-italian-championship-basketball-series-a1-play-offs-9Iqa9V.jpg

 

 

He will scare people off with his alarmingly good looks.

 

Not to mention his amazing eyebrow raises (check the avatar for evidence) that melt the heart of everybody he comes into contact with.

Edited May 15, 2010 by Built Ford Tough

[Real Deal]

He's a taller Peja Stojakovic that needs a very good post presence, or point guard, to draw his defenders away and create shots for him 20 feet out.

 

Franchise players, and superstars (two different things, by the way) do not heavily depend on their teammates...usually, it's the other way around.

[GoldenBaller]

I think it would be cool to see Bosh join the knicks and we can pick op some others from different teams. Bosh is just costing us too much, and he ain't worth it. We had Bosh too long and haven't made it past the 1st round playoffs, something is going wrong there. I dislike Bosh as a Raptor. But Adrea is helping us. He really needs to improve his rebounding. Bosh is screwing up Andrea's stats. Bosh is taking turn around jumpers when Andrea Bargnani is wide open for threee. Argh, The Raptors are disappointing me

[Built Ford Tough]

I think it would be cool to see Bosh join the knicks and we can pick op some others from different teams. Bosh is just costing us too much, and he ain't worth it. We had Bosh too long and haven't made it past the 1st round playoffs, something is going wrong there. I dislike Bosh as a Raptor. But Adrea is helping us. He really needs to improve his rebounding. Bosh is screwing up Andrea's stats. Bosh is taking turn around jumpers when Andrea Bargnani is wide open for threee. Argh, The Raptors are disappointing me

 

First off, welcome to the forum. Glad you decided to join.

 

Secondly, Bargnani averaged 17.3 ppg and 5.1 rpg on 46.4% shooting in the 13 games without Bosh this season (I included the game against Cleveland when he broke his face). Those are all below his season averages, except for the scoring which is 0.1 points per game more. However, if you take out the last two games of the season against the Pistons and the Knicks in which he scored a combined 57 points, his scoring average plummets all the way down to 12.9 ppg without Bosh in the lineup. Whether those last two games were aberrations or him finally adjusting to playing without Bosh in the lineup is unknown, but judging from the numbers, it really doesn't seem like Bosh was screwing up Bargnani's production.

 

This goes back to what Real Deal said about Bargnani being more suited to playing off of somebody who demands defensive attention, and Bosh was that guy. Bosh may be a blackhole at times and he isn't the greatest of passers, but his presence on the floor opened things up quite a bit for Bargnani. I honestly don't think that Bosh had that much of a negative effect on Bargnani's numbers this season, if he had one at all.

 

I'm sure we will see an increase in Bargnani's numbers next season, assuming Bosh leaves, but having Bosh around has not had a negative effect on Bargnani or his development.

 

 

 

Lastly, in regards to your comment about Bosh being here for 7 years and not leading them past the first round yet, sure you can look at that as a negative on Bosh, but you also have to factor in that Bosh is not a superstar player like Kobe, LeBron or Wade are and he is not capable of leading a team of average to below average players to playoff victories. Since Bosh became the number one guy on this team he has had supporting casts that consist of:

 

2005-2006

 

Mike James

Morris Peterson

Charlie Villanueva

Matt Bonner

 

Jalen Rose was on the team but he was injured for half of the season and a lot of the games that he did play in he played with a cast on his shooting hand, which effected his play. Mike James was the second best player on this team. Think about that, Mike James. Sure, he scored 20 ppg but when Mike James is your second best player you have some serious issues on the team.

 

2006-2007

 

TJ Ford

Anthony Parker

Jorge Garbajosa

Andrea Bargnani

Jose Calderon (wasn't the same player he is today then)

Morris Peterson (barley played towards the end of the season for some reason)

 

Whe TJ Ford is the second best player on your team, you know that you don't have much talent surrounding you. This is nothing against TJ Ford as he was my favourite Raptor player at that time, but it doesn't change the fact that he is a 4th option on a good team at best. Sure, the Raptors managed to win 47 games this season, but it was a combination of playing in an absolutely [expletive]ty Eastern Conference and teams like New Jersey and Washington were hit with injuries, which derailed their season. The Nets were a better team when healthy, and they showed that in the playoffs against Toronto that season.

 

2007-2008

 

Anthony Parker

TJ Ford (injured for 31 games)

Jose Calderon

Andrea Bargnani

Carlos Delfino

Jamario Moon

 

Bargnani had a terrible sophomore season shooting under 38% from the field and was a non factor when he was on the floor. Ford was injured for 31 games after Al Horford nearly decapitated him and wasn't the same player when he returned. Anthony Parker was the second leading scorer on the team. Do you honestly think that a team with Anthony Parker as a second leading scorer is going anywhere? Bosh also missed 15 games this season and, if I recall correctly, the team struggled horribly when Bosh was out because of the fact that they didn't have anybody on the team capable of picking up the slack for him.

 

2008-2009

 

Jermaine O'Neal/Shawn Marion

Andrea Bargnani

Jose Calderon

Anthony Parker

Jason Kapono

Joey Graham

 

O'Neal and Marion had some good games for the Raptors, but in Marion's case, he didn't fit in with the team or have enough time to adjust after being traded. Bargnani had a good season offensively, but we all know how bad he is defensively and when JO was traded Bosh was forced to play center and anchor the defense again. Anthony Parker started to slow down both offensively and defensively and Jason Kapono and Joey Graham straight up suck. Calderon battled injuries all season long, which you could tell was affecting his play and when he missed 14 games the Raptors had Will Solomon and Roko Ukic getting major minutes at point guard.

 

So yeah, Bosh has failed in a sense as he hasn't led the Raptors past the first round since taking over from Carter as the man, but can you really expect a second tier star to lead a team to a series victory when the best player he has ever played with is T.J. Ford pre-Al Horford?

 

 

Now I am not saying that Bosh is perfect as he definitely has his flaws, and, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be all that upset if he were to leave this summer because I don't know how thrilled I would be giving Bosh a max contract with so much money already tied into Turkoglu, Calderon and Bargnani, but management hasn't exactly put him in a situation to succeed either.