These are my Toronto Raptors Linkage links for February 4th from 07:25 to 19:11:

• I Heard a Rumour… –
• Why There Won’t Be Any Big NBA Deadline Deals – Does Bryan Colangelo now look at the anemic Raptors squad he has built and realize Chris Bosh is the center of its listlessness? He should.

  Have either Colangelos taken calls from other GMs about their All-Star big guys? Bet on it.

  None of this means, however, that either will be wearing another uniform in the next few weeks. The calls will continue, the frustrations will mount and so will the rampant rumors regarding their futures.

  But, until someone in the front office is quoted by Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic or the beat reporters at the Toronto Sun, I believe none of it.

• <b>Raptors vs Lakers Stream #1</b> –
• Preview & Chat: The Toronto Raptors – Before the season, there was a question about just how good the Raptors would be, but nobody expected them to be this bad. To help us out, I asked a couple questions of Ryan over at Hoops Addict.
• Would The Real Chris Bosh Please Stand Up – The more intangible thing to this talent is that rarely are these fouls committed by some schmo off the bench or a careless small forward. Bosh goes at whoever he can to draw fouls. And that is where he makes a difference for the Raps.

  When he is aggressive early on, Bosh draws fouls early and often on starting fours and fives bringing in a eighth or ninth man. That in turn forces the other starting Big to help on defense.

• Cable Politics Fade Raptors to Black – Despite the great expectations for this year’s Toronto Raptors, goosed by the general manager’s strong endorsement of his best-ever roster, the country’s lone National Basketball Association team is not very good. So maybe team owner Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment quietly knew what was coming and did the sensible thing: it hid its team from broad public view by scheduling 25 Raptor games to be broadcast on the new TSN offshoot, TSN2.
• Field Set For Three-Point Shootout – Kapono will be joined by Eastern Conference All-Star reserves Danny Granger of the Indiana Pacers and Rashard Lewis of the Orlando Magic, Mike Bibby of the Atlanta Hawks, Roger Mason of the San Antonio Spurs and Daequan Cook of the Miami Heat.
• Chris Bosh Unfairly Gets the Blame – Congratulations Raptors fans.

  Not only have you started boo-ing your own team (yes they are the league's most disappointing team, but since when did boo-ing help?) but you have named your best player as the reason for this disappointment.

  Let's get this out of the way, for whatever reason, the Toronto Raptors are not a brilliant basketball team.

  They can be. They've got some great fire power, and many skilled players, but the pieces of the puzzle aren't fitting together, and its resulting in losses.

  Of course, since this is Bosh's team, he gets the blame.

• Dynamic Duo Beatdown Part 2 – The Amazing Kobester – The guy that is billed has a big team player is actually not helping the team. He is not helping if he is not healthy. Well that is not totally true to be fair. He has been able to cut down the turnovers to a large degree at his position. However if he is hobbled by his hamstring he becomes a major liability on defense and it is even impacting on his jump shot at this point. Will Solomon and Roko Ukic have not played to a level that they can be trusted.
• Stephen A. Smith: BOSHED TWICE!!! – I've covered the NBA for 13 years now. It's not the first time I've been accused of making stuff up and it won't be the last. That goes for a bunch of my colleagues, too. It goes with the territory when you're an insider, which I've been for 10 years.

  I've said what my sources have told me. I've echoed the Raptors' denials. I never once said they were looking to trade him; only that he wants out of Toronto. Two days later, nothing has changed.

  You all will see what happens down the line. I don't need to. Neither does anyone else with sense.

• Losing to LeBron not a bad thing – I’m actually kind of happy with this loss. It showed that the Raptors can keep pace with any team in the league; they came out shooting stone cold but came back to make a game of this in the second half (if the Cavs let them roar back is another story for another day).
• Raptors game day – Lakers/Raps (Memories of Kobe linger) – Personally Kobe night as well take the night off. The Lakers second unit is good enough to handle the Raps. Last night it was closer than expected but that was only because the Cavs were bored by the end of the first quarter. This is a game where the Raps are not expected to win but it is a game where they need to show the home fans they give a shit.
• Stumbling Raptors await Kobe, Lakers – The Raptors, who have dropped five of their last six home games, were so inept against the Magic that fans didn't wait long to let their frustrations known.

  "The energy in the building isn't good," said Toronto all-star reserve forward Chris Bosh. "Everything just goes to shambles, and I think we feed off that too much. We can't pay attention to what's in the stands."

  Things didn't get better for Toronto two nights later in Cleveland. Facing the second-best team in the East, the Raptors were crushed by star LeBron James's 33 points. James became the fastest player in NBA history to reach 12,000 points, surpassing Bryant.

• Bosh-enomics – Still mulling over the whole Stephen A. – Bosh thing. I had a colleague who knows the ins and outs of ESPN very well explain to me that the news desk over there is pretty tight when it comes to using anonymous sources and they stick to a high standard for their news gathering. He also allowed that while Stephen A. is a bit of a character to say the least; he's also pretty connected. A further point was that – as a third-party observer – he can totally see why Bosh, Colangelo and agent Henry Thomas are denying any aspect of the story being true. And when you consider the ramifications of Bosh actually letting it be know he wants out – the damage to the franchise's credibility around the league; the damage to Bosh's reputation in this market and the message it sends to fans – yeah, that's a story they might want to quash, and fast.
• Deal or No Deal? … You make the call for the Raptors –
• Behind the Box Score – Hell, this game was the lead NBA story on the ESPN ticker all Tuesday, and you're telling me the Raptors weren't aware of Cleveland's 22-0 home record heading into the game? Credit the Cavs all you want, they won this game by taking it to the Raptors early, but Toronto just moped through that first quarter like it was the third week in April and they were just playing out the string.
• 10 Players GM’s Should Call About – Much like Brad Miller, Kapono's name has floated around in trade scenarios over the past few weeks. It's not hard to understand why. Kapono is the reason Toronto is the seventh best team in the league in three-point shooting, as he ranks 18th in the league in three-point field-goal percentage (42%). There's no doubt general managers around the league haven't forgotten how Kapono contributed to Miami's title in 2006-07 and won't hesitate to drop a line up North to inquire about his availability. If not, they should.
• Bosh Says Stephen A. Smith’s Pants Are On Fire – The truth is that Bosh will be a highly sought after commodity amongst the amazing Class of 2010 NBA Free Agents, and somebody is going to offer him a boatload of money. Toronto is a beautiful city and everything, but it doesn’t have the same appeal as somewhere like Miami or Bosh’s hometown of Dallas.
• Fireside Chat with 2nd Round Reach – In our continuing-but-irregular series of intimate and interactive chats, Pete Marasmitch welcomes Brendan K. O'Grady of 2nd Round Reach. Aside from being a fantasy guru, Brendan also happens to be a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Raptors' executioner opponent tomorrow.
• Who Wants Chris Bosh? Why Not the Lakers? – But how about this: The Lakers just lost their PF, again, for three months. Assuming he doesn’t return for the playoffs – like last year – what are LA’s chances of taking down Cleveland or Boston or even Orlando? Bosh could be the answer. He’s on the hook for $15 million next year before he can opt out in the summer of 2010. Dreamer stuff: Lamar Odom and his expiring contract, Luke Walton and L.A.’s low 2009 1st round pick for Bosh? Then the problem becomes, can the Lakers juggle the playing time for three very good frontcourt players, and handle paying four guys over $12 million?
• The Q, with Toronto guard Jose Calderon – Until you went 1-for-2 from the line against Milwaukee on Jan. 30, you'd made 87 straight free throws since April 11, 2008, the second-longest streak in the NBA. What's your secret?
• Game 51: Raps vs. Lakers – Pre-game – The thing that has been so disturbing about the Raptors losses lately is the astonishing lack of effort seen on both ends of the court. The Raptors have looked like they were simply walking through practice. Watching them lately has reminded me of back in school where we would continuously work on bunt coverages, not fully going at it, but not dogging it enough to have to do laps. Just enough effort put out to keep you warm. Well, if we see that kind of effort again against the Lakers, they’re going to be warm all right, because they’re going to get cooked.
• Raptors to lack bite for Lakers – One of Bloguin's latest blogs is Hoop Heads North – a Canada-based Raptors blog. I asked Romy there some questions (and he asked me some – I guess they'll appear there!), coming just before my preview of the game… here they are:
• Game 50: Raps vs. Cavs – Post-”game” – Yeah, I had to put the “game” part of “post-game” in quotations, because really, that’s exactly what this was, just a game. This wasn’t a matchup and certainly wasn’t any sort of competition, this was essentially a game where one team felt like playing and the other team ran around in circles showing an appalling lack on conviction and determination. You can guess which team was which.
• Bosh needs help – What's been lost in the media-driven hysteria surrounding Bosh's future in Hogtown is that Toronto's franchise player needs a supporting cast to properly showcase his skills. As the Raptors move forward, the need to provide Bosh with a creator becomes paramount.

  Rumours and speculation aside, the biggest question with the Raptors heading into the Feb. 19 trade deadline is the urgency to acquire a guy who can create his own shot, no small task but one that must be addressed.

  The acquisition of Jermaine O'Neal hasn't been fruitful in part because he and Bosh like to initiate their offence in roughly the same spot on the floor. When Bosh was playing off guys such Howard — the game's most dominant post player — King James, Kobe and CP3, the game came easy.

• Raptors mere jesters in King James’ court – James made an epic block of a Chris Bosh dunk attempt to rouse a sleepy house and Cleveland went on to seal a victory that improved its homecourt record to a franchise record 23-0.

  "There's not much you can say – it's not the first time (James) has done that and it won't be the last," said Bosh of the Cleveland all-star's early-game dominance.

  Said Jason Kapono: "We cut the lead (in the fourth quarter) and had a fighting chance, but when you're down 22 in the first quarter you're not going to win many games."

• Go big, and go home – Interim head coach Jay Triano went big by starting Chris Bosh, Jermaine O'Neal and Andrea Bargnani in a desperate bid to dig the team out of its rather big hole.

  The only problem was the ball hardly got moved on offence as players stood still.

  Defensively, the Raptors went with a zone that basically dared the Cavs to shoot from the perimeter.

  Cleveland seldom missed, spearheaded by an efficient and effective LeBron James, who hardly broke a sweat.

  Triano has tried just about everything, tried just about every conceivable lineup, and still the results aren't good.

• Bron for 12000 – The Raps played a bit better in the second outscoring the Cavs in the second 25-22 and the Cavs had a 19 point lead at the half. The Cavs shot 52% from the floor vs. the Raptors' 38%. For a team that is normally a good three point shooting team, the Raptors only hit one three in the first half. With the three bigs in O'Neal, Bosh & Bargnani there to defend the middle, the Raptors were still outscored 22-12 in the paint.
• Delfino, where are you? – I'm not going to lie, its pretty difficult to write about the Raptors when you're sick about speculating on rumors, venting frustration or praying for a rally. So let's take a refreshing take at not someone who can save us now, but may be integral in the future. A player we all came to love last season for his calm demeanor, do it all attitude and fantastic two way ability, Mr Carlos Delfino.
• Tip In, Raptors’ Post Game: Déjà Vu All Over Again – No matter how much we talk about defense, scoring below 100s points consistently, let alone 95 points, is going to make it very hard for you to win in the NBA.

  To start off, this three big experiment has just got to stop. Every time I've seen it, Bargnani has looked lost on defense, so unless the Raptors figure out to move Bosh to the SF position, it's just not going to work. Bargnani's defensive energy just isn't in the game when he's a small forward because he's never sure whether he's supposed to guard the perimeter or drop down to the middle to help the interior.

• Alex English Interview – The veteran NBA player and coach joins Paul prior to Tuesday night's Raptors game in Cleveland to discuss the team's attitude during a tough season, how practices have been after their recent tough losses, and what teaching points have been made by the coaching staff during recent practices.
• Raptors-Lakers Preview with Don of With Malice – With Malice, is an NBA blog covering the Lakers and Don of With Malice was able to answer a few questions about tonights game.
• Colangelo Has 2 Weeks To Save His Job – A few things the Raptors desperately need: A new starting point guard, a new starting shooting guard, and a new coach. Nothing against Jay Triano, but the Raptors have been considerably worse since he took over for the fired Sam Mitchell.

  And Calderon is nothing close to the starter they figured he'd be when trading T.J. Ford to Indiana for O'Neal. Still, I'd make that deal a thousand times over because O'Neal is bigger, and a better player when healthy. But let's be honest, the man has scrambled eggs for knees.

  It will be interesting to see who takes the fall for this disaster of a season in Toronto. My guess is general manager Bryan Colangelo, who erred terribly in drafting Andrea Bargnani with the No. 1 overall pick in 2006.

• Thoughts on Cavs v. Raptors – Bosh had a great shooting night for 29 pts, but didn’t crash the boards with his usual vigor. Only 3 rebounds for him tonight.

  The league’s third highest-paid player, Jermaine O’Neil, had a decent stat line with 20 pts and 8 boards.

  Calderon, who averages over 13 PPG, didn’t make a field goal until 5 minutes to go in the game. He shot a paltry 1-9, but was able to dish out 6 assists.

• Raptors Rewind- King James Court Edition – You may have heard Cleveland is undefeated at home. So if I were to say anything to suggest the Raptors can win this game who would believe me? I would not even believe me. It is safe to the Raptors are desperate want some proof? How bout a return of the big 3 line-up to start the game. HELLO and I am not talking Jack Armstrong. This line-up has had little to no success and Bargnani is being moved to the 3 spot. What in the name of hell is going on with this team. It is not that I am upset Jamario Moon has been put to the bench. That part should happen and should have happened already.

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Related posts:

1. Toronto Raptors Linkage for February 13th through February 14th
2. Toronto Raptors Linkage for February 14th through February 15th
3. Toronto Raptors Linkage for February 4th through February 5th
4. Toronto Raptors Linkage for February 17th through February 23rd
5. Toronto Raptors Linkage for February 9th through February 10th