"I think Jose is doing a good job as a starter, he should continue to start probably for the rest of the year," Ford said. "I don’t think starting is a big deal to me, I just want to get out and help the team win, and at the end of the day it’s all about wins and losses."
"Jose had to play so many minutes when T.J. was out, (so) T.J. came back right at the nick of time," Mitchell said. "It takes some pressure off Jose. Now, Jose doesn’t have to gut games out. He can play hard and when he’s spent, boom, T.J. comes in. It gives Jose a chance to get his legs back."
Mitchell suggested that Ford’s quickness and explosiveness to the basket suits the club’s key backup players, such as Jason Kapono and Carlos Delfino, while the club’s starters, including Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani, have gelled with Calderon.
Still, Kapono said it is Ford’s special motivation that helps his game as much as anything. Kapono, one of the NBA’s best three-point shooters, said Ford constantly makes fun of his athleticism, or lack thereof.
"He said that I have the worst vertical leap in the NBA," Kapono said. "(And) it’s unfair, because I was born with that, so he’s making fun of my mom and dad too. It’s more of a personal issue. So I’m just out to prove that my parents are very talented people."
Kapono cracked everyone up when asked what his vertical leap is?
"(The height) of two Ritz crackers," he said. "Crumpled up."
Chris Bosh said that he feels "blessed" that the foot problems which plagued him in seasons past have not been an issue this season, nor have any of his old knee issues.
"(All that) is behind me," Bosh said. "I still do the necessary things to make sure (the plantar faciitis) doesn’t come back on both feet."
Call him a bust if you must. Or, to be a little fairer, chalk up his lack of impact to the season-long injury woes of T.J. Ford. With Kapono playing most of his minutes as a member of a second unit that’s been largely without an experienced quarterback thanks to Ford’s ill health, the open shots haven’t presented themselves as readily as fans might have liked. But anecdotal evidence suggests that Ford’s recent return to action will reinvigorate Kapono’s shooting stroke – not to mention his not-so-well-known inside game. On Monday night in Indiana, for instance, Ford found the sharpshooter – not for a bomb, but for a chip shot, which led to the kind of three-point play that’s usually foreign to Kapono.
Recently unaccustomed to playing alongside a guard with Ford’s kind of court vision, Kapono acknowledged he was a little unprepared for the demands.
"It’s been tiring, too, because I’m out of shape to actually cut and finish. I’m getting fouled, too. So there’s, like, contact. You get sore. You can’t sleep at night," said Kapono, his tongue perhaps not entirely in cheek. "I might have to pace myself. We’ve got, what, 27 games left? Yeah, I’ve got to pace myself. Maybe two (layups) every other game. It’s a pounding out there, man. My back is sore. Actually I’m worse at it. I should stay outside. I would last longer in the NBA."
You know what, I’m sorry Canadian fans, I didn’t realize you guys do not have a sense of humor. I didn’t realize that you don’t like to laugh up in Canada. And Calderon isn’t even Canadian! I could see if I said something bad about Steve Nash, but Calderon is not a Canadian, he’s a Spaniard. All the comments I got from Spain, that’s OK, I can understand why you were mad at me. But Canada?
You’re loyal fans, but it’s not like I said anything bad, I just said he wasn’t an All-Star. I said he played great basketball. He’s playing great basketball while he’s filling in for T.J. Ford who is the starter. So he is the backup point guard. You know? He’s doing very well for himself, he’s going to get paid money this year.
At the end of the day, the Raptors might not even have him next year, so if I was a Toronto fan I wouldn’t get mad or upset right now. Calderon might be somewhere else.
He’s playing great. Over the years you can see his development as a player, and he’s really playing well. T.J. might lose that spot to him, but I don’t know. Who knows? As a backup or as a starter right now, he’s playing great basketball.
I watched Calderon last week and he had a really good game. You can take him out of being a backup. He’s a starter now, he’s a starter in this league. You know what? With Jason Kidd gone and if Calderon plays how he’s playing next year and they’re winning in Toronto and he’s still the starter? He might have a shot at being an All-Star, he might have a crack at it.
And Ford’s team-first stand will have some immediate benefits — now and in the near future.
The most obvious is that as the clear first-option on the second unit Ford is free to do what he does best — use his other-worldly quickness to push the ball for easy baskets, create open spaces for his teammates and look for his own shot.
Other teams will need two game plans — one for the more structured offerings of Calderon and another to contain the unpredictable attacks by Ford. And since most NBA teams can barely execute one game plan, let alone two, the Raptors can catch teams out.
Consider the Pacers. With Calderon in the game, they trapped him over centre and forced him to give the ball up before he could get the Raptors into their offence. This is an approach that simply doesn’t work against Ford, who turns traps and double teams into scrambled eggs.
"Indianapolis definitely tried to make Jose pass the ball early before he could use the pick and make a lot of plays," Ford said. "And then when I was in the game, I’m really not sure what they were doing. They didn’t trap early and if they did I got by them. It caused a lot of confusion. It definitely was to our advantage."
Without Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani on the floor, Ford can freelance more often than he would in the starting unit. There are not many plays called for Rasho Nesterovic, after all.
"When you don’t have to worry about getting other guys involved, you can kind of be more aggressive. And I think he’s able to do that with the second group right now," Bosh said. "He can really get himself going. Even when he’s doing that, he is still going to pass the ball anyway. That’s in his nature."
Since our November update on the free agent class of 2008, two things have changed.
One, we have a better feel now for which teams will be under the cap come July.
Two, we have a better feel for the value of some of the free agents who will be on the market.
No matter their value, many free agents will once again have trouble cashing in because of the salary cap and luxury tax situations of most teams.
Based on current projections, only two teams — the Memphis Grizzlies and the Philadelphia 76ers — will have enough money under the cap to spend on the top-tier free agents.
A few other teams — the Los Angeles Clippers, the Washington Wizards, the Charlotte Bobcats, the Seattle SuperSonics and the Miami Heat — could create some cap room, but to do so they would have to let their major free agents walk away.
To make matters worse, a number of teams are treating the luxury tax threshold as a hard cap, or a reason to put on the brakes. With 12 teams already in the luxury-tax range — and potentially more after the 2008 draft picks are accounted for — free agents will see an unwelcome sight this summer: a continuation of the trend for teams to forego using the midlevel exception.
You may have your eyes set on a star this offseason. But for most fans, unless your team clears a ton of cap room or orchestrates the rare sign-and-trade, the biggest names below will be off-limits. Still, there are some players that might fit your team’s budget and cap/tax situation, so read on.
4. Jose Calderon, Raptors Calderon has been playing at an All-Star level this season. With T.J. Ford in and out of the lineup with injuries, Calderon has become a leader on the Raptors and the best pure point guard on the free-agent market.
The Raptors say they’ll match any offer for Calderon, and I believe them. Who would let him walk away?
If the Magic fall to No. 4 they could end up facing the likely No. 5 Toronto Raptors — not a desirable matchup if they want to get into the second round.
The Magic have lost eight of their last 12 games against the Raps, and Toronto guards Jose Calderon, T.J. Ford and Carlos Delfino can give them fits. Then there’s the matter of defending Chris Bosh.
It’s not that the Magic can’t beat the Raps, but Canada has never looked so threatening.
At the professional level in Slovenia, Primoz played for KK Union Olimpija for four years. He soon declared for the 2000 NBA Draft and was selected with the 27th overall pick by the Indiana Pacers.
After playing limited minutes for the Pacers for three years, Brezec was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats in the 2004 NBA expansion draft. In Charlotte, he started at centre for three seasons, where for two years he was highly productive – averaging 13 points and 7.4 rebounds in 2004-05 and 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in 2005-06.
Calderon is (at last!) being put into this specific role – as the team’s mainframe PG – which he should’ve had a long time ago, ahead of other erstwhile one-dimensional ’starters’, Mike James and TJ Ford.
In general, Calderon’s size, consistent decision-making skills, and Leadership attributes, make him ideally suited for this role with the Raptors … in sharp contrast to TJ Ford, whose lack of physical size, unique ‘little man’ skill set and occasionally erratic play severely hurt his chances of succeeding long term in this same role.
Kudos to Rob Babcock/former Raptors’ GM for bringing Calderon to the NBA, in the first place, and Sam Mitchell for finally seeing light!
Players refused to report to the young Toronto franchise. The reasons were far and wide. It was too cold. They couldn’t find Toronto on a map. Toronto like the rest of Canada had a weird measurement system, what the hell is a litre and a kilometer anyways? I can’t have my kids learn that shit. So, when Vince Carter, a once rising superstar, had a press conference to announce he was committed to playing in Toronto the city was naturally overcome with joy. Maybe the tide was turning. Not quite. Toronto, although it has a general self-depricating style of humour as it goes about it’s business, has a fairly large ego. And the city’s ego sure took a major hit when VC decided he no longer wanted to be part of the Raptors. We took it personally.
The fact that the franchise was able to turnaround the general direction of the organization when it felt like there was little hope left is what inspires me.
Here are 3 business lessons from the Toronto Raptors that can be applied to business life:
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I don’t want to make too big a deal out of this, but boy is it ever encouraging to hear Ford say this.
Now if only we can stick Moon into the “quick unit” to match up with TJ’s speed, and have Delfino move to the “set unit”, we’d be in business!
I agree SiC, we really need to get our units “set” to take proper advantage of our two point guards. Now that Ford is regulated to bench duty, we may FINALLY be able to see this occuring.