"I was terrible since January," Calderon said in a candid interview at the Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham yesterday.
"I couldn’t play defence for the last part of the season. On offence, I was just settling for jumpers because I couldn’t go one-on-one with my man.
"Last year, my numbers were better, but I was playing at 50%," he continued. "So, this has to be my year. I just want to win this year, forget about last year and work at getting this team into the playoffs and being a contender."
A sore hamstring suffered part-way through the 2008-09 season limited Calderon’s ability to pivot or cut on the court.
"I’m not worried about (Bosh leaving)," Bargnani said. "He loves Toronto."
"He said to me, and he’s a good friend," added Calderon, "that he’s happy in Toronto."
Bosh spent a week at Calderon’s youth camp in Spain this summer.
The 25-year-old power forward originally felt some discomfort while working out in Dallas last week and aggravated the muscle during an informal workout here Wednesday leading up to the start of camp.
He is going to travel with the team to Ottawa but will be re-evaluated when the team returns to Toronto on Oct. 3.
Continuity will be something to keep an eye on this season — last year, the Raptors’ roster was in constant motion between trades and injuries. The latter, however, may ultimately determine the team’s fate this season.
Bosh is expected to miss the start of training camp after sustaining a hamstring injury, while Calderon (finger) and Marcus Banks (foot) underwent surgeries this off-season, but are expected to be ready when camp opens in Ottawa.
This list struggles to evidence a player that can provide Luke Walton effort, or Leon Powe dependability, or even Kyle Korver single-talent help. Meanwhile, Reggie Evans, Marcus Banks and Rasho alone will combine to take up $16M of cap space this year, and are effectively untradeable due to their talent-to-contract ratio.
Toronto, on the back of their recent successes should be starting another year as potential conference finalists. But they don’t, because the 82 games of the regular season will drain their studs, and there’s zero depth to pick up the slack. On the upside, watching DeMar’s ridiculous hops all season should make for great TV.
Brothersteve’s Green & Red Raptor Blog
Chris Bosh hasn’t been alone in this media speculation. His 2003 draft contemporaries, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are facing similar speculation. Most coming under the heading of if you don’t have any real news, make something up! Major media outlets have even gone so far as to poll their own writers to create stories about which stars are most likely to change teams in the blockbuster 2010 free agent pool.
What they are not saying is NBA players who can command maximum dollar contracts almost never leave their original team except by trade. And there are really sound reasons for why max free agents re-sign with their old clubs. MONEY!
But the coolest part is that we want to give you the chance to ask some questions. I’ll be your moderator as members of the organization (players, coaches, management, maybe some very special mystery guests…) join in a LIVE CHAT to answer your submitted questions.
Wondering how CB4′s hamstring is doing? What’s DeMar’s next @musicmonday pick? How is Jay Triano feeling about his first camp? Where did Hedo get those dance moves? Here’s your chance to get an answer.
So let that percolate for the weekend and be sure to fire away with your questions on Monday. We’re hoping it’s going to be a great start to an exciting season.
The worst part about last season’s camp was that everybody watching the games, listening to the post-game pressers knew that the team wasn’t gelling. All the signs were there: lazy defense, missed coverages, bad shots, excessive late-clock situations, the whole shebang. Whenever a reporter brought it up he was quickly hushed under the blanket excuse: It’s pre-season, this is what pre-season’s for, to iron these problems out. Those problems never got ironed out. We can’t have that happening this time around, this time we need to build momentum in training camp and take it right through pre-season and straight to opening day. I remember a couple years back we played the C**tics in Italy. Kevin Garnett had them ridiculously pumped for every game and it showed, they started their championship quest early and saw it through. All we did was sell some Italian and Spanish themed alternate jerseys.
Related posts:
So much news!
So few comments?
Hope the Bosh hammy isn't like the Calderon hammy!