2010/2011 Toronto Raptors thread

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by flames_1987

Where did the Raptors get their other first round pick from?

Derozan had a solid game tonight. I'd love to see them go play hard tomorrow and compete against the Heat.

In the Bosh trade, they got their own first rounder back, plus Miami's (lottery protected) first rounder.

Loved the game tonight. DeRozan, Calderon, Weems, Bargnani, Johnson, Evans, and Wright all played great. Can't be disappointed with anyone on the team. My favorite play was Evans' falling-down assist to DeRozan.
I wish Bargnani had more killer instinct late in games; I remember a stat last year that he had better late-game production than anyone else one the team, including Bosh. Why the switch this year?

[flames_1987]

Bosh makings his rounds on Canadian TV. Interview with TSN pretty much came down too, everything he's said or done this offseason was taken out of context.

[secol]

Originally Posted by octothorp

In the Bosh trade, they got their own first rounder back, plus Miami's (lottery protected) first rounder.

Loved the game tonight. DeRozan, Calderon, Weems, Bargnani, Johnson, Evans, and Wright all played great. Can't be disappointed with anyone on the team. My favorite play was Evans' falling-down assist to DeRozan.
I wish Bargnani had more killer instinct late in games; I remember a stat last year that he had better late-game production than anyone else one the team, including Bosh. Why the switch this year?

yeah last year the same "clutch" stats bargnani shot 49%.....his clutch stats averaged to a full 48 minutes had him only third in points behind bosh and jack. however bargnani was still #55 in the league in terms of points in 48 mins during clutch scenarios

[flames_1987]

Not to make this the "I hate chris bosh" contributor to this thread, but they just had his press conference audio and he complained again to the media about having to call Toronto media every month to say "no he didn't say that, that's not what I meant" and how frustrating that is.

Geeze Chris, I wonder how this could be avoided? Maybe by you shutting up and playing basketball.

[Antithesis]

I still don't see how anything Bosh said (particularly in his interview about Toronto being 'different') was unreasonable. To each their own, but his clarification of his earlier statement did make sense to me, and wasn't much of a stretch at all. I think sometimes we are too sensitive about things.

Toronto (and Canada, by extension) IS different from the USA, just as Mexico is, which he also offered in his explanation. He was a young man when he came here - far from home in distance and in every other sense. The part that was disappointing to me, or, perhaps bewildering is the better word, was his saying a motivation to leave for him was "to be on TV". What does it matter? He got a great contract regardless of his lack of play in nationally televised games. That was a weird statement.

[octothorp]

Pretty good effort tonight, the Raps were within four points late in the game. It pretty clearly exposes Miami's weakness: a guy who can bang inside on offense. It sucks the way any contact on Wade and James gets called while there were numerous blatant uncalled fouls when DeRozan was driving. Hate to say it, but I like the current group of Raptors better than the fully-healthy team. Dorsey, Wright and Weems all made great use of the extra playing time.

[secol]

it's mainly because the rotation has tightened up......it's gonna be tough when those players get healthy (maybe they'll convince leandro to get surgery?)

[killer_carlson]

watching the Washington game.

THis is a bad, bad basketball team. Bargniani throws in another terrible game. In the first quarter you could see the play developing for several seconds and he was still too slow to react and gave up a clean layup. Evans can't shoot to save his life, his offensive rebound stats are artificially high because he's getting rebounds off of his own missed layups, weems is trying, but he isn't that good. DeRozan still can't hit an open jump shot......bad bad team.

[killer_carlson]

Bargniani - who I was a fan of and was hoping for big things from him this season - 28 + minutes, 3 of 13 shooting, 2 rebounds, 7 feet tall.

How the hell can you be 7 feet tall, get the chance to be THE GUY on your team, and throw in terrible effort after terrible effort. Hell, Big Country Reeves would throw better stats up than this, and he was grossly out of shape.

[flamingreen]

Bargniani just isn't interested in rebounding. He is a 7 foot tall shooting guard.

[OzSome]

The game against the Miami Heat was much better to watch. The Raptors lost the game but I was impressed with some of the Raptors' players with their hard work. Sonny Weems did a good job guarding Lebron James and so as DeRozan on Wade. Julian Wright was good defensively but he did forced some shot though on offense. I was also impressed with Joey Dorsey. I thought DeRozan is improving and ready to lead this team.
I didn't see tonight's game against Washington but I heard they came out flat. How in the heck a team played well against one of the best team in the league then the next game against a so-so team, they were brutal. Bargnani is so inconsistent and bringing this team down. I know a lot of Raptors' fans are frustrated with this guy and I am not soure if he will ever play the way a first round pick play ever. Could it be the time to trade him for some good young player? What about Head Coach Jay Triano? He is a nice guy and easily to like BUT I am not sure if he is the answer for the Raptors. Maybe PJ should take over and see how the players respond.

[secol]

Originally Posted by flamingreen

Bargniani just isn't interested in rebounding. He is a 7 foot tall shooting guard.

i dunno.....seems more like a shoot-first point guard to me . washington isn't that bad of a team though, arenas/hinrich/young/mcgee/blatche and arenas looked pretty good tonight

[Da_Chief]

Originally Posted by flamingreen

Bargniani just isn't interested in rebounding. He is a 7 foot tall shooting guard.

I like the idea, he's not as shifty as the other guys but who cares it's not like he's playing D as PF. He would have huge size advantage playing PG.

7 footers all across the floor? he wil eventually pass once in awhile.

[octothorp]

Bargnani, Calderon, Jack, Anderson, Evans, and DeRozan were all brutal last night. And Triano. Bargnani has really been on a yo-yo lately. Rebounds over the last eight games have been 2-9-2-9-3-8-1-9. If you take every other game, he's averaging about 22 pts and 9 rebs. And then take the other games and he's averaging about 16 and 2. Defense has been brutal throughout, but if he could consistently be a 22 and 9 guy, I wouldn't care too much about the defense. I also hate how often he does a pump fake and then leans into his guy to draw a foul. It works about half the time, but I still hate it because it's a cheap way to play the game. If you get your guy in the air, step around him and get into the paint. (Although most of his shots were in or around the paint last night).
Triano was also brutal. I don't blame him for being furious with this team at times, but really, having a lineup of Anderson, Kleiza, Weems, Jack, and Calderon on the floor makes next to no sense.



edit: And then there are nights like tonight, where Bargnani was pretty much unstoppable offensively, had some rebounds in traffic, and was even competent defensively. Bargs, Weems, and Evans collectively made up for every other key player struggling tonight.

[bluejays]

ESPN Rumor:

"The New Orleans Hornets and Toronto Raptors are in serious discussions on a five-player trade that would send Peja Stojakovic and Jerryd Bayless to the Raptors for Jarrett Jack, David Andersen and Marcus Banks, a source told ESPN.com Saturday."

I think getting rid of Jack and Calderon is key as they'll never be assist-first athletic PG's. Peja isn't the same player he was years back and looks more like an expiring contract. The rest are simply washes IMO. It does a little for NO as now they have a PG with a little athleticism to back up CP3, but overall does not change either teams' style. Perhaps the Raps are clearing up space for next year. Still waiting on what they do with that $14M exception from the Bosh deal.

[secol]

well both of the players the raps might be getting can shoot from anywhere. but doing this deal would free up some playing time for davis once he gets healthy

[octothorp]

All I can think of is that the team is playing too well in the last couple games and ruining the chances of getting a high draft pick, so they needed to break things up before the Raptors got on a run. Okay, really I think it's all about the expiring.

There's still a chance the Raptors are going for Dampier and moving Anderson makes room for him, otherwise some combination of Johnson, Evans, Dorsey and Davis are going to need to form backup C minutes. Although Alibi played his first D-league game last night and had 13 pts, 7 rebounds, and 7 blocks, so maybe he'll be back up before too long (although I would prefer him to stay down all season).

Peja is going to be way down the depth chart. This team already has Weems, Kleiza, DeRozan, Barbosa, and Wright at the wings, all of whom would get their minutes ahead of Peja. Unless he rediscovers his touch in a big way. Bayless I honestly don't know much about, but I can't really see him splitting playing time with Calderon.

[bluejays]

I don't think Alibi will be brought up very soon. Most players put up huge numbers in D-League. I'm guessing he'll be there for a month just to get practice in. I'm sure there is a second deal coming down soon though. I can't imagine the Raps staying as is with this team. I kinda liked Jack's energy, and hope he does well.

[secol]

bayless is kind of like barbosa. a scoring guard in a PG sized body, very quick. bayless can also shoot fairly well and of course was a high draft pick by POR. alabi is way too raw, i can see him staying in the d-league for the entire season. he reminds me alot of hasheem thabeet drafted by MEM.
good point on dampier, now that i think about it perhaps this deal is being discussed in the case that dampier signs with the raptors

[secol]

sounds like it's almost a done deal now