Matt Devlin fresh off his debut on Raptors TV took the time to come and visit the Dino Nation Blog. We talked about a number of things about himself and early impressions of the Toronto Raptors. Like we did with Jack Armstrong recently Matt was happy to be the second guest of what we here at the Dino Nation Blog are calling the starting 5. It is designed to allow you to hear the first five minutes of our conversations with our guests when that is possible to hook up with them on the phone. This Starting 5 begins with Matt’s thoughts on his first broadcast with the Raptors…have a listen in the link below:
D’Antoni’s connection to the Raptors’ front office goes back nearly 20 years, to when he coached in Italy and his boss was Gherardini, who works under Raptors president Bryan Colangelo. Colangelo gave D’Antoni his big break in Phoenix following D’Antoni’s brief and unsuccessful run as coach of the Denver Nuggets.
Gherardini could emerge as a possible GM candidate in New York. Team president Donnie Walsh is not ruling out adding another executive to his staff. Walsh and Colangelo met before Wednesday night’s game.
Not much talk about Chris Bosh these days, which is kind of interesting. The fact is he’s got to the point where you can almost take him for granted: As long as he is healthy – and all signs are that he is — you know he’s going to deliver. I would go so far as to say that he’s going to have his best season by a margin. He’s in great shape and you can tell he’s feeling crisp. He was really quick to jump into transitions both offensively and defensively, getting up to speed in a step or two and sprinting when needed. I think he’s wisely laying off too much dribble penetration at this stage, but his jump shot is locked in already. I did notice he seemed more conscious of getting low and really focusing on sliding side-to-side when his man faced up. This is critical as with JO on the roster Bosh will have to cover more guys further out of the floor.
In terms of O’Neal, I can’t say I have ever been this excited about a new player coming to Toronto.
In some ways I can’t believe this guy is rocking a Raps jersey now. He is a presence on the floor. Sure his numbers didn’t jump off the page tonight but it was exhilarating just to see the team run plays for this guy and feel confident that good things were going to come. Even when he was given a major facial by Wilson Chandler when going up for a block, the simple attempt made a statement to the rest of the team that he was willing to put himself in harms way to make a play on the defensive end. It’s only one game, and I am probably over excited about seeing Bosh and O’Neal on the court together, but I truly believe the sky is the limit.
Over the Moon?
Not so much.
I half expected Sam’s head to actually explode (and that would have been a bad thing) when Jamario Moon launched a three-pointer and the Raptors down one with a couple of minutes left.
There had to be about nine seconds left on the shotclock when Moon hoisted the stupid shot and, even though it’s pre-season and nothing counts for real, that’s precisely the kind of field goal attempt they had hoped Moon had forgotten about over the course of the summer.
Sure, he made a smart play a minute or two later when he drove and it eventually led to a big basket but, still.
Not sure what’s up with Moon but there are people in the organization disappointed with how things are shaking out with the second-year forward.
Here’s a guy coming off a good rookie season who was the last player in town before camp, it doesn’t look like he’s changed is body or his game and he’s going into a contract season, with a chance to make more money on his next deal that he ever would have imagined.
Sure, it’s early and maybe he gets going but, so far, he’d have bethe disappointment of the pre-season.
Numbers suggest that Calderon is a true point guard. It’s important to establish the meaning of “true point guard” before the term is used, now that we’ve at least established some reasons for our obsession with the term.
A true point guard is a leader who makes his teammates better. He knows how to dictate the tempo of a game, when to be patient, and when to be assertive. He’s able to break down defenses through penetration of the bounce, and he always takes shots within the flow of the offense, rarely forcing bad shots which disrupt a team’s on-court chemistry.
He’s also his team’s first line of defense, a student of the game, and an extension of the coach’s philosophy on the court. He knows where the ball needs to go and to whom it needs to go to. He possesses great court vision, and is able to identify mistakes by the opponent and defend them accordingly.
If we’re to accept that definition of the ideal true point guard, how many areas are missing in Calderon’s repertoire?
For starters, he’s absolutely incapable of keeping his man in front of him. If he’s matching up against a Chauncey Billups or Tony Parker in the final game of a series, he’s probably going to cost you the game on this weakness alone.
Secondly, if we’re to speak of him in the same breath as Nash, Kidd, Stockton, or Paul, let’s figure out where the hell these assists are coming from.
The Raptors happen to be blessed/cursed with a coach who likes to keep it simple. I’m convinced Sam Mitchell’s earlier excuse of simplifying his offense to ease in his younger players was just an excuse for his own inadequacy, but that’s for another day, and another article.
In Toronto’s offense—which features spectacular shooters like Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono, and Andrea Bargnani when he’s up to it—Jose’s job is to simply pass the ball to stationary shooters. When he’s not doing this, he’s passing to a rolling Bosh to the basket for a dunk.
Very rarely will Calderon push the ball to look for easy opportunities in transition, or go one-on-one off the dribble against a top-level point guard. This certainly points to a key reason why he leads the league in assist:turnover ratio. But this isn’t fantasy basketball.
Just a couple of observations on the Toronto Raptors. Jose Calderon is the perfect point guard for the Knicks. Unfortunately, he just signed a five-year deal. Jermaine O’Neal needs to improve his conditioning. Chris Bosh is a stud and Andrea Bargnani is going to be a huge factor this season. Forza Azzurri!
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New York wishes they could be us.
Toronto wishes they could have been Phoenix.
Phoenix wishes they could have been the Celtics.
Pierce wishes someone would recognize him as God.
God wishes that all these politicians really weren’t SO stupid.
…what a tangled web, we weave.
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