Yup, it's pretty bad. Bargnani has made zero progress defensively from the beginning of the season. It's as though he intentionally avoids looking around so that he has an excuse for why he doesn't help defend. I end up focusing on him just about every defensive position, and it seems about half the time he does the right thing, but then you watch even average defenders and they're making the right plays about 80% of the time.
One of the most shocking things is the disappearance of the three-point shooting. They went from one of the best to one of the worst in just a couple years. Can't blame Bargnani for this, it's good that he's attempting less threes. Moreso just the team makeup. Especially during the stretch where Kleiza, Barbosa, and usually one of Calderon or Bayless was out, they were getting only about five attempts per game. While teams that rely heavily on three-point shooting usually fail in the playoffs when their shooters go cold, it at least allows you to keep a defense honest. The Raptors have become a long-two shooting team, which is probably the worst possible offensive strategy.
As far as what the Raptors need to do moving forward, they need to try to pick up another first rounder, hope that they can get Irving with their first pick, then a decent athletic SF (Tobias Harris would be my choice of the mid-first SFs, if he declares for this year), and finally a perimeter defensive stopper who roleplayer who can also be a high-percentage long-shooter (a guy like Justin Holiday fits the bill).
DeRozan's development has been pretty solid, and Amir is learning to play within his abilities. And I'm really impressed with Davis; doesn't have the body to compete with some of the bigger PFs, but his court division on defense is suburb. Weems can be moved ASAP, along with pretty much everyone else except Bayless. Calderon has actually had a solid season and I like him a lot, but if they can move him and get decent value back, it's a move they need to make. I'd also be in favour of trading Bargnani, but honestly it's not going to happen this year with his BYC status.
It hurts to think of it, but probably the best scenario is that the lockout claims a full year and the NBA adopts an approach for the 2012 draft that will allow them to grab another top 5 pick, while maintaining the status of their young contracts, and shaving another year off the life of some of the older teams in the conference.
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