Want to get stuff off your chest? Head over to our forums and talk to the best minds on the ‘net.
Bargnani – he seems to be a specialist in the NBA play that I hate the most: get to the bucket from the wing and, while under the bucket, pass it up top as opposed to going up for a jam or getting a foul. Drives me nuts. Anyway, solid outing from the kid. Still blind on defence, but he worked hard tonight. He had 5 fouls tonight which is rare for him lately.
Bosh – you can tell he is getting stronger. Wasn’t gasping for air as much and he was leaning into his guy a bit more on the offensive end. Wasn’t as vocal tonight as he has been which is unfortunate as he needs to assert himself in that way. A double double but also 5 turnovers.
Calderon – brutal shooting night and he didn’t look comfortable at all. A few classic Jose passes, but he seemed out of it. I actually wondered during the game if he was sick since he looked so dazed. 6 assists coupled with 3 turnovers equals a step back for Jose.
Delfino – my whipping boy of late stepped up again. Erratic play to start the game, but he became a whirling dirvish with a plan later on. One point shy of a double double. He may look pretty, but his game didn’t. Still, leap years better than he had been playing in March.
Ford – another no headband night. Wonder if he only wears it when he is sulking? An assist shy of a double double and probably on his way to WalMart as I type this to pick up another knife for someones back.
Kapono – 7 minutes of uselessness. His wife wasn’t even there tonight. Can’t bring game and can’t bring the wife. Why even dress?
Moon – back to being the Eclipse full time it seems. I really felt he had the opportunity to go off on an undermanned Knicks team, but instead he did his usual sit back and relax and see if the ball comes to me schtick. How anybody can still mention this guy in any ROY talk is beyond me.
Nesterovic – as predictable as seeing the Leafs fold every year, Big Dog Daddy came out and manufactured something from nothing, turning in an 18 point, 8 rebound effort. If he was playing in Boston, he’d be a cult hero and have his own sandwich.
Parker – gritty gritty effort. He may not have filled up the stat sheet like we have been accustomed to lately, but he was all over the place and actually in a few of his teammates faces tonight. Nobody can question his passion and he deserves to be a co-captain on this team.
Driving the Bus: Anthony Parker
Under the Bus: Jason Kapono
Theme Song: [audio:07-bananarama-it_aint_what_you_do_(its_the_way_that_you_do_it)_(with_fun_boy_three).mp3]
Related posts:
I didn’t see the game, but it doesn’t surprise me that Moon didn’t go off. Quentin Richardson is by no means a lockdown defender, but he’s picked up a lot of veteran tricks that he uses to slow down some of the more athletic players in the league.
Plus, he’s the only guy on the Knick who probably gives a crap — sorry… who has ever given a crap.
outside of an open lane, Moon never goes off. Just once I’d like to see him actually play hard against a team that he thinks he can attack. Please. Once.
Save up enough for those Bulls playoff tickets yet?
Scott’s last blog post..Raptors Roll Call March 28 vs Knicks
No, I drank that away by December. Did you know that three years ago this April, I flew to Washington just to watch a playoff game? It’s sad and wrong and yet I miss being so sad and wrong.
Also, thank you David Stern: Houston is now 0.5 games behind the Western Conference leading New Orleans Hornets… and is seeded FIFTH thanks to some statistical hoodoo. The teams with the three best records (and an outside chance at four if Dallas turns it around) could all be in the Southwest Division.
Although I guess that’s just a symptom of how sickening the Western Conference is — it’s very possible that there will be a team with 50 wins that doesn’t make the playoffs at all. Denver has to win 6 of their last 10 to make it to 50 and Golden State has to win 6 of their last 11. Both seem like pretty good bets considering they’re both playing better than .600 ball on the season.
yeah the East really stinks… which allows teams like us to do quite well, and allows our fans (like the person writing this blog) to develop hugely inflated expectations for our team.
Look… 2 years ago we were the joke of the league, fresh off the VC heist, and looking prime for relocation to some other american city. Now, the management and coaching staff have fashioned a competitive team out of almost nothing… and yet ALL anyone wants to do is criticize everyone!
For a good chunk of this year, our starting lineup featured a 2nd-round pick, a CBAer, a euroleague import, a 21-year old who is still learning the NBA game, and a legitimate young star in Bosh. Coming off the bench, we had a melange of other people’s discards (delfino, rasho, dixon, humph, etc). And yet we played pretty well and won some games. Then, when we hit a cold streak, everyone is questioning the entire organization, from Colangelo to Mitchell to every single player.
How’s this for an alternative analysis:
Had Garbo not missed this whole season, we’d be in much better shape at the big positions. This would allow a rotation of garbo, bosh, bargnani, and rasho, with humph stealing minutes from whoever didn’t deserve them (cough drea cough). Had Ford not been hurt a good chunk of this year, we’d still have the most lethal two-headed pg in the league. Had Bosh not been hurt over the summer, he’d have started the season in top form, rather than limping through the first 15 or so games.
This paints a much prettier picture of where our team could be at, and while it’s undeniable that things haven’t worked out as well as we would have liked this year, I really think we’re doing everyone a disservice by being so negative about it. We’ve made great strides, have brought excitement back to the ACC, and, with a little help and injury recovery this off-season, will be in great shape to make a run at the top half of the conference next year.
Having said all that, I really think we can beat the magic if we see them in round 1. Let’s stay right where we are at #6!
That’s a serious comment, and I hope someone addresses it. From my perspective, the comments about the bench don’t really wash — most teams’ benches are made up of cast-offs, low draft picks and role players who really only have one or two bankable NBA-level skills. This is why: If you’re an NBA contender, you probably have two players making maximum salaries. That’s 2/3rds of the way to the luxury tax for just two players. So for that reason, you want a collection of unsigned free agents, guys making the veteran minimum or the biannual exception or on rookie contracts. The Raptors only have 1 guy making a max salary but a surprising number of characters in the $4 million range — probably more than most teams. And even though they’re toward the bottom in payroll, the league is made up now of teams skirting close to the luxury tax. With Jose’s presumed $8 million+ salary, they’re going to leap into the top 10 payrolls next season, with some relief the season after but with hardly anyone on the roster.
That’s the major issue with Kapono coming off the bench, if he’s actually going to be stuck there: you can’t afford to have too many guys making the MLE and not contributing. At one point just a few weeks ago, you had Ford ($8), Nesterovic ($8) and Kapono ($5) all on the bench. There’s the disparity: 3 of the 4 highest paid guys on the team, making $21 million, were bench players. A team can’t compete for long if that scenario becomes permanent.
What’s to argue, Granville. Obviously Scott G is the ideal fan from the Raptor perspective. The sun will come out tomorrow, after all.
Washington hasn’t had the services of their “best player” all year, and Caron and others have been out for fair stretches, yet they are right there with us.
Nobody gave Philly a chance, yet look at them.
New Orleans has a manageable salary structure (this year) and they are tops in the West for stretches.
Portlands #1 pick hasn’t played a second, yet look at the run they had.
I could go on, but Scott can look at other posts and in our forums to see why the sun might or might not come up. I sure hope it does.
However, using Garbo as a fallback is hilarious considering Mitchell wasn’t even playing him during pre-season or the early part of the regular season.
Ford going down coincided with his backup playing his best basketball as a Raptor, so that was a wash.
You want to argue that without Bosh we are nothing, fine, I’ll give you 8 games. We are nearing the end of the year and we are at .500. We had our butts handed to us by the Hornets and barely beat the Knicks and a barely-moving Pistons team….and we are at “full strength”.
Granville already has used my usual “are these guys worth it” argument. Are they Scott? Who do you trade? Who do you pick up with all you have this off-season (the MLE?)
All interesting questions to be handled by BC.
And, if you think many on this site never said a disparaging word about BC before this latest dip, you have a lot of catching up to do.
Scott’s last blog post..Linkage – March 30
(Just a correction: Above it says 2 max players = 2/3rds of the way to the luxury tax. That should be 1/3rd: $25 million-ish of $72 million-ish.)
Obviously the Raps can’t add much payroll next year without breaking the luxury tax. I think that threshold has become, if anything, even more important in the last few months, with Dallas, Phoenix, the Lakers, etc all adding significant salary for contracts that would have expired this season. That increases the number of teams that it looks like will be paying the tax, which is obviously of more value to teams that have been enjoying Isiah Thomas’ largesse. I don’t see Toronto being in a position in which *this* is a team worth paying the tax on.
You often hear a lament that the team might not be able to afford Calderon because TJ Ford is there. To my mind, it’s more because all of the other contracts. I expect that BC will hold on to a valuable asset at whatever the price; I also expect that he may have to do what Phoenix did last summer with Kurt Thomas and basically sell off a body or two, giving up a draft pick in the process, for the honor of having someone else pay them. The cap situation clears up the following year, but as I said, there will be almost no one but Bosh, TJ, Bargnani, Humphries (and presumably Calderon) from today’s team on the roster then.
Ha – maybe I’m a sleeper agent that Sam is paying to speak well of his squad!
There’s plenty of fixing to do, but I just don’t like pure negativity about a team that has gone from the league joke (eg Kobe’s 81 being discredited by some bc it was against us) to a solid eastern conf team.
Anyhow, here’s some thoughts for the off-season:
- sell high on jamario – find a better wing player that is also willing to scrap a little more, ideally by packaging him with another player (ideally ford or kapono, realistically humph, delfino, primoz, or bargs)
- somehow get rid of TJ – I don’t think there’s any possibility of long-term success with him around, so we may have to take a hit on this one (eg take picks and an expiring deal, etc which should have been done this year)
- get a bruiser – there must be more muscle in the front line, so whether this is a signing, drafting, or trade, beef is needed!
Thoughts?
haha…maybe so, Scott!! Wouldn’t put it past the deep coffers of MLSE.
- sell high with Jamario….problem is in the NBA that you have to match salaries. Jamario is making $500,000 this year and slightly higher next. Unless they re-negotiate a new contract (and take a further salary cap hit), you aren’t getting any player of substance in return for him, even if packaged with someone else. I’d suggest a Kapono package, if anything. Primoz is worth nothing, as is Humph realistically. Delfino is marginal and no way is BC giving up on Bargs.
- I truly feel the only time you will get value back for TJ is around the trade deadline when a team on the bubble or one affected by injuries would be willing to turn a blind eye to his injury history and swallow his deal. Unless we accept less than market value, I think he will be back next year…and if so, if he gets hurt in any way he will be a Raptor forever.
- agreed. But how? Who? Hell, I’m not even sure “beef” is needed. This team is soft and will continue to be, even with the addition of an Oakley-type. I’ll turn a blind eye to that if they get someone in here that consistently works hard and crashes the boards on both ends of the floor. This is a tough and expensive type of player to get, so BC will have to sacrifice some bodies in order to get that player here.
Scott’s last blog post..Linkage – March 31
Moon’s insanely cheap deal is why I suggested packaging him with someone (Kapono or TJ being the ideal person, given their inflated deals) to make things work salary-wise. Alternately, they could arrange a renegotiate and trade deal with Moon alone, which would add salary, but might make a deal more palatable to a trading partner.
As for dealing TJ outright, it’s obviously a tough sell given his medical history. To be honest, during a good portion of this year I thought (and probably still think) that the best thing that could happen for the raps was for him to retire. Sure, that would mean we would get essentially nothing for CV, but I think we’d be in an infinitely better situation team and cap-wise than we are now. The problem with not being able to “afford” Calderon with Ford’s salary has more to do with tying up too much money at a single position than with Ford’s salary actually being prohibitively high. If Jose re-signs at around 8M, that’s like 16M at PG alone, which is fine if that PG is Chris Paul, but not fine otherwise. However, if these two figure out how to effectively play together (which they have yet to do), then maybe I’d think twice about dumping TJ.
As for some team toughness/rebounding… here’s some ideas: Ike Diogu seems stuck on the bench in Indy; Matt Barnes is probably available on the relatively cheap side given the development of Ellis and Azibuike; Chris Mihm for similar money since there’s no room for him now; Pietrus for a little more than that. All of these guys would play significant minutes immediately, and none of them are very pricey, nor are they highly valued by their teams at the moment. (Diogu being the possible exception to this because he’s young)
I mentioned how much I enjoy crushing the trade fantasies of others. This:
“I don’t think there’s any possibility of long-term success with him around, so we may have to take a hit on this one (eg take picks and an expiring deal, etc which should have been done this year)”
for TJ Ford is the best case scenario. Getting him off the books for an expiring would be a deal BryCo takes in a second. Getting a pick to boot would be larceny. You get that for assets, not liabilities.
More realistically, you’re looking at the Tim Thomases and/or Jared Jeffries of the league: not-as-bad contracts but worse-than talent.
As far as Diogu, toughness is just what he doesn’t have, in addition to footwork. He’s apparently got plenty of self-satisfaction though from what I hear.
a deal I heard rumored from a friend who works in NBA circles:
TJ Ford for Jared Jeffries and Renaldo Balkman.
I think we can do a little better, but this is along the lines of what I think needs to be done. Balkman, I think, could help us a little bit, but I don’t think he’s enough to part with Ford’s talent.