A Current Look At Mediocrity
Let’s take a quick look at this roster that has been put together for our quest to be mediocre by one of the best basketball minds in the business.
Andrea Bargnani - Nice to see his turnaround of-late. It will be interesting to see what he does after the break. Does he continue his attack-the-basket ways or does he revert back to hiding at the bottom of a bowl of pasta? He has become more aggressive on defence as well, which is a welcome improvement. Still, 4 boards a game (down a smidge even from last year) is appalling for a 7 foot player. By the way, the whole Dirk started slow thing worked last year. This year? Well, Dirk in his second year averaged 6.5 boards and 17.5 points. Bargs is at 3.7 and 10.3, with one of the better PG tandems in the league. Through no fault of his own, he will go down as one of the worst top picks in history, possibly of any sport.
Maceo Baston - Easily the second worst signing by this club since being taken over by The Liar. However, much like another mistake, it is no fault of Maceo. Is this guy a starter? Not in the least. Should he be looked at as better than Joey Graham? Absolutely. He’s got a good basketball head, he has length, he has hops. How many of those things can be said about Joey? How much would another 5-7min per game of rest help Chris Bosh? He was pursued as an insurance policy, but it has yet to be cashed in. Sub him in to bridge the end of quarters against second line centres. Do it.
Chris Bosh - Of course if Liar was here at the time, I’d probably be talking about Darko, but luckily some basketball brains were around the club at the time. I still think he has yet to play to his potential. I was hoping the cage door would be opened this year with the addition of outside shooters, but that has failed, especially at the start of games. Like Bargs, he has realized his potential of driving to the bucket, but he does so typically against double teams, which he still needs help on passing out of. He is far and away this teams MVP, game in and game out.
Jose Calderon - Another top notch signing. Amazing that Liar hasn’t traded him away as yet. It will be interesting to watch, though. I wondered earlier in the year whether or not Jose would play the market. As incredible as it seems, given his play this year, I’m convinced he wants to stay….but also convinced he isn’t dumb. Does he sign a short deal and bail if we remain in mud or TJ isn’t moved? Does he hold out and ask for the average salary? Who could argue he isn’t worth a Kapono-type deal? I can hear the accountants at MLSE crying already.
Carlos Delfino - A rarity. A good signing by the Liar, preying on a rare moment of weakness from the motor city. Mind you, he is also in for a fairly large increase this summer. Question is, though, have we seen his best? I think we have. It’s good…but mediocre. Close your eyes and tell me five games that he has made a memorable contribution. That being said, look for Liar to sign Delfino to some nice money and a few more years of stop-gap basketball off the bench in Toronto.
Juan Dixon - About as affective as a fan in a windstorm. Another midlevel (at the best of times) player floundering on the bench. Sad to think that he is our biggest piece of meat to dangle in front of other GMs. Worth nothing in return.
TJ Ford - What? He’s injured again? Get outta Texas. No way!! Guess it was good that we kept Lucas around, huh? It happened in practice?? Practice!?!? We talking about practice!!??!! Okay, in all fairness, I still don’t consider him to be much better than an under control Rafer Alston. I think he makes poor decisions off the dribble, I think he plays favourites, and I think he has the mental makeup of a punch drunk fighter. Of course, with this regime, what did we do? Extend him for a silly amount of years and give him a salary that will scare off mid-level teams. This after Jose looked like he was coming out of his shell. He needs to be moved for a half decent replacement guard and some picks.
Jorge Garbajosa - Okay, so I’m watching Liar on the midseason thing on RaptorsTV. He says we aren’t any better because Jorge is missing. Now, is this the Jorge of last year or the Jorge that was sitting down looking at the in-seat service menu this year? He’s referred to as a glue guy, and I agree with that. I think his toughness resonates with others. What else resonates? 8.5pts 5 boards in 28.5 min. Hardly something you should be “missing” statistically. Still, get well soon, come back, and let us forget about some of the other table scraps you’ll be playing with.
Joey Graham - Nobody to blame but himself. It’s not like he hasn’t received opportunities, certainly more than his brother has. Athletic, but seems to be as dumb as Darrell Walker, which is saying something. We have seen the best of him and he should be gone. Quickly. I still wonder what the NBDL would do for him. Let him go down and dominate and then see if he can’t come back all pumped up.
Kris Humphries - Hey, he’s my favourite Raptor and even I wouldn’t have signed him to that deal. Sure, Hoffa is gone, but give me some of that money in the next year or so to go after someone my coach likes and can get the job done more consistently. That being said, I still have to rag on Mitchell for not using Humph more. Is he a stud? No. Should he be 7th-8th in the rotation? Given this teams lack of rebounding and interior prescence, yes. I give you that Rasho has a big body, but he isn’t the firecracker that this team needs at times.
Jason Kapono - Ahhhh… my flickering beacon of Liar-ism. Let us spend a gahzillion dollars, get the best 3pt shooter in the game and let him play, say, 20 minutes a game. Make sure he is behind an unproven rookie and a guy who is a good defender but, for the majority of the season, can’t find the hoop. I’ve been as rough as anybody on Kapono and his in-game play, but I’m coming around. Would I trade his defensive liabilities for Parker or Moon’s spot? Yes. Yes, I would. I think Kapono would open the floor for Bosh and (shudder) Moon and keep the opposition honest. Hell, why not set up a game-to-game rotation and keep teams guessing as to your starting lineup? Anyway, you have the reigning world record holder for 3pt shots sitting on your bench not knowing when he is coming in. It’s sad. Mismanagement at it’s best. Go figure.
Darrick Martin - Tell me this guy wouldn’t be great for a suit advertisement or a inspirational seminar. Full stop. He should get more floor time than Juan, but is a great mentor. I give even money that he is brought back as a coach next year. Liar has shown no loyalty in the past and continues to prove it to current Club employees, so no reason to think he won’t continue. Hey, it’s costly to fly in the teams jet to see family & friends, you know.
Jamario Moon - Much like Doug Smith, I’m beginning to grow weary. As I pointed out earlier this week, he is lying just as well as Bryan does, so kudos. Now, how about playing some ball? He can’t remember his plays, he shoots jump shots like he thinks he is Andrea Jr, and his lack of movement on offensive sets is enough to make Mitchell worry about more grey hair. He let his shot an infamy slip through his fingers and, two months from now, he’ll be the latest version of Matt Bonner: big in Toronto and barely a blip anywhere else. You are 27 man…get it going. Was he a diamond in the rough? He was for about 15-20 games, yes. Now just another cog in the mediocrity wheel. And, hey, do you give this guy a nice raise in two years or give the money to Bosh? You decide.
Rasho Nesterovic - The poster boy for this team. Boring, stuck in mud, not going anywhere, but MAN, will we be ready for the playoffs!! What’s that? The Nets kicked our ass? Oh. Forgot. The guy is built like a tree and jumps like one. Nice. An $8mil tree. Couldn’t get 2 or 3 smaller ones…nope, lets go big…and go home.
Anthony Parker - The photographer of said poster. He’s hot. His sister isn’t bad. He is the most well spoken Raptor ever and he deserves to be in the NBA. Is he a starter for a division champion? Ummm….no. Is he as good a defender as, say, Mo-Pete? Ummmm….no. Speaking of, I see Anthony in Mo’s feet. Good, consistent, never an all-star and the kind of guy that will whet your appetite enough that you keep him around. Hmm, sort of like the last 5 years of this franchise?
Shouldn’t a bag full of cap room and a #1 pick have resulted in something better than this? We aren’t really much better than the powerhouses in Atlanta and New Orleans, yet, both of those franchises have a promising future. Here? Maybe two summers ago. Then we got lied to.
Technorati Tags: www.altraps.com,toronto raptors,nba,toronto,raptors,basketball,andrea bargnani,maceo baston,chris bosh,jose calderon,carlos delfino,juan dixon,tj ford,jorge garbajosa,joey graham,kris humphries,jason kapono,darrick martin,jamario moon,rasho nesterovic,anthony parker,sam mitchell,bryan colangelo
Feb 19th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Scott, your Alvin’s showing
Feb 19th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
well said for the most part. i really think you over-estimate chris bosh. i think this is his max. the team that is around him, and the lack of mentoring to develop a low post game will keep him where he is, a good all-star, but not the best raptor of all time (for now, i could be proven wrong, but i doubt it). he shoots more than he should, and he doesn’t have the ability to put this team on his back and win games (like we have seen lebron too, he did it to us a couple times in fact).
moon has been bugging me from day one. i appreciate that he worked himself into the starting lineup, but from day one, i have been pulling my hair out when he shot that jumper.
i hope to god we get rid of one of the point guards and bring in help. cant be dedicating 15+ mill to the pg position when there are huge holes to fill with talent.
what do u think of atlanta getting bibby? they might have more talent then us now. they were always missing a pg, and all they had to give up was one of their many athletic 3’s, a couple players they wont miss, and a couple picks they hopefully wont need.
bc is really pissing me off, i am with you…liar wasn’t a moniker i would have given now, but now…f*cking liar!
Feb 20th, 2008 at 12:29 am
bit of background, Raps Fan: I’ve been calling him liar since he traded Charlie V away after telling him, face to face and in the media, he was a cornerstone for the Raptors. You say something like that, then you better get God in return in a trade. Instead, we got TJ Used Ford.
I think the Hawks move is solid on both sides, assuming Bibby will be “happy” and willing to be a mentor. He does that and the Hawks win the trade.
Kenz, it will continue to have to. He was part of the only proud time we had to be a Raptor fan and hit that magical shot. Who would do that now? Jose choked last year, so we rely on….Darrick Martin?
Feb 20th, 2008 at 9:39 am
[...] take a quick look at this roster that has been put together for our quest to be mediocre by one of the best basketball minds in the [...]
Feb 20th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I thought I would bookmark this site when Raps Fan of RaptorsTalk.com linked to it. But you lost me at “Kris Humphries is my favourite player.” Your review seems to imply that BabCOCK could have done a better job with the cap space, just because he got frickin’ lucky with Jose, WHO, by the way, did NOT “look like he was coming out of his shell” when TJ was signed to his big contract. Wishful thinking on your part; no way was he seen as more than a decent $2-3 million per year back-up PG prior to 2006-2007.
So if you were a Bulls or Nets fan right now would you you be burning your jersey? (I won’t count the Heat because at least they won something before falling apart). Whatever, if I wanted such negativity I could watch the evening news.
The Suns could well have won it all last year with a Colangelo-constructured team if not for the Amare/Diaw off-the-bench fiasco. So I am happy that you are not watching the Raptors. Good thing there are other blogs out there, Rap Fans’ included, that speak constructively about improving the team.
Feb 20th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
LOL, I think jj is mad that you would have the gall to diss on TJ, after the poor guy has been thru so much …
Btw, I’m not too down on BC. I thought, like a lot of fans did, that we would improve dramatically–and we have. We hit a snag, big deal, but can anyone honestly say that we would have 2 potential playoff teams in a row–post VC?
Do I think the CV 4 TJ trade was any good? Not then, definately not now, but it’s still a chance you take, and I have to agree with jj on this, no one thought Jose was going to be as good as he is now. No one (unless you are from Espana)
Bargs. No one thought he was #1 material. Watching the draft, I really thought we could have traded down to as low as 5th spot, and gotten either a player or extra pick in return. In all fairness, Michael Olowokandi and Kwame Brown would be worse picks though.
I, for one, would have liked to see CB, CV, and Bargs on the floor together.
… just my 1/2 cent
Feb 20th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
That’s cool, JJ. There is a lot of property still left in Toronto that you can use to put your head into the ground like the rest.
Colangelo had said time and again, until recently, that he felt that shooters were more important than rebounders. Even said it to season ticket holders. That has us 5 games above .500. We overachieved last year, something that mainstream media has started to say.
Even if we make no moves, we are financially tied to Delfino for one more year. So, we lose Martin and Dixon. Their expiring contracts and their financial value will barely be enough to cover off any increase given to Jose, leaving us with little wiggle room..unless a move is made, which it should be, with an above average player on this roster.
If you don’t think Jose was improving toward the end of 05/06, then I don’t know where you were. He increased his average by 2pts/2ast from January onward, which is pretty impressive for a backup guard. If he wasn’t improving, why were some eyebrows raised that we traded a big for a small in a position that we already had someone bubbling under? Dig into the archives.
RE: The Bulls. I’ll leave the burning to Granville. The Nets? I’d be as frustrated as Kidd was since they apparently had the talent, just no motivation. Although they seemed more motivated than we did last year in the playoffs, no?
I’m all for people speaking constructively about improving this team. I dare one of them to take this current squad and show me how it is built for the future past 2010. Anyone. I’ve said for over a year that the contracts and extensions offered were insane and would lead us down a murky path. Well, welcome to it. If Colangelo has the acumen to improve this team, within the salary cap (which wasn’t an issue in Phoenix, but is in Toronto), he has failed twice. He should be happy he isn’t playing baseball.
Feb 20th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
SiC,
I don’t know. All things equal, you get a #1 pick and a nice amount of capspace provided to you by one of the greatest minds in the game (Embry) and you are in a weak east…I’d hope you’d at least sneak in the first year and certainly be close to a shoo-in the second year. I’d be right there with you if we played in the west, but where we are…
Of course nobody saw Jose as turning out the way he has. Or did they? This year you have heard about more than a couple execs that knew about him, he had the much-lauded Maurizio stamp of approval, etc. Surely BC, who also said he had his eyes on him pre-Toronto, knew what he had on his roster and its potential, right? I can only think that he was banking on TJ remaining healthy and Jose got a bit better and possibly move him in a sign and trade (since Jose’s salary currently would give us back someone not near his ability, unless it was an expiring contract which would make no sense for us). That still doesn’t explain why you would extend TJ after one fairly healthy season, knowing you had to re-up Jose. Crazy.
I’ll give you Kandi, assuming Bargs doesn’t regress, but currently I’d have Bargs and Kwame neck & neck. Different games & positions, but still the same lack of fire and determination.
Feb 20th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
well, you can argue that bc…errr..liar didn’t know jose would have been this good. if he did, then he is an idiot for trading cv for tj. i was totally torn with that trade on the one hand, cv had a great rookie season, tj was crippled and missed a whole season, and you never trade big for small.
as far as bc lieing to cv about that trade, i don’t remember that at all. i will google that shit…i’m starting to get annoyed in all honesty…
Feb 20th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
jj: “So if you were a Bulls or Nets fan right now would you you be burning your jersey?”
No, just ordering a lot of pizzas to John Paxson’s house every night.
Feb 20th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I shouldn’t be shocked that the original media scrum is no longer on raptors.com, but a few bon mots:
On rumours about moving the No. 1 pick…
Apparently not a lot of people liked what they had at the top. We were kind of zeroing in on a couple of players the last minute, in terms of coming down to two that we really liked. We obviously like one a lot more and we ended up selecting him. We felt like we still wanted to get something but ultimately, the price that was being asked, and I’ll be perfectly open, the price that was being asked was Charlie Villanueva and there wasn’t a situation where we felt we could make that move – A lot of rumours and speculation about that, but there wasn’t the right deal on the table and we decided to move forward without acquiring another pick.
http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/colangelo_quotes_062806.html
Colangelo wants to add some toughness and some interior presence but feels that none of the top prospects are likely to step in and contribute right away.
He likes the club’s young core, which includes all-star Chris Bosh, Charlie Villanueva and Joey Graham, and is playing things close to the vest with regards to free agent point guard Mike James.
http://www.tsn.ca/tools/print_story.asp?id=166817
The Raptors had until Oct. 31 to exercise the options on Villanueva and Graham. Colangelo has said he wants to build the team around his young core of Villanueva, Graham and Chris Bosh.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2006/06/27/raptors-moves.html
One last read. Dave Feschuk’s column from this morning’s Star was pretty good end-of-season stuff, especially this part:
If you want defence, Mitchell has said more than once, you must acquire some defenders. And to the coach’s way of thinking, that’s the end of the story.
(snip)
Said Colangelo, questioned on the club’s biggest weakness: “You could argue that defence is a mindset.”
Now there’s a faultline that Raptor seismologists will be keeping an eye on.
http://thestar.blogs.com/jabs/2006/04/index.html
Feb 20th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Interesting article from April 2006…look how much has changed!
Addressing the rebound problem would go a long way toward solving the Raptors’ No.1 dilemma — team defence. Toronto gave up a woeful 103.76 points per game this year, dead last in the NBA.
Mitchell has preached defence, but something has to give. Though Bosh, Morris Peterson and Charlie Villanueva, all had breakout seasons, only MoPete brought defence to the table every night.
Colangelo has been hailed as the second coming of Red Auerbach, although he hasn’t really done anything yet. To get this team back on track, he’ll have to be smart, as a negotiator, on the free-agent front, possibly on the trade front, and in the draft.
Raptors fans have waited four years for some light at the end of the tunnel. It’s time to deliver.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Basketball/NBA/Toronto/2006/04/20/1542185-sun.html
Feb 20th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
way to dig up those links guys, you’re on the ball with being relevant on supporting facts!
Feb 21st, 2008 at 3:16 am
yeah, it’s a shame that some fans continue to swallow the garbage that Jerksky says and/or continue to look at blogs or sites that wave the Raptor flag blindly. You’d think they would learn from seeing the Leafs flounder every year.
I, for one, am not happy with simply spending money on merchandise, Raptors TV, tickets, etc year after year after year and having our weaknesses not addressed. If this franchise has the best basketball minds behind it, then show it.
Personally, I was always disappointed that Wayne Embry didn’t want to take on the full running of the ship. I think he would have turned us around and made us more of a contender quicker than Liar has just due to the respect given to him around the league. Hell, if he could dump Jalen with his contract, he could do anything. Instead, we bring someone aboard that is used to having access to open purses and we might find ourselves back to where we started.
Sad.
Feb 21st, 2008 at 11:40 am
“yeah, it’s a shame that some fans continue to swallow the garbage that Jerksky says and/or continue to look at blogs or sites that wave the Raptor flag blindly.” — you should go to a game and hear what “fans” scream out … LOL, we are a good few years from really basktball knowledgable fans … lol
Hmm, maybe that’s why I never warmed up to TJ. I was/is a big CV fan on and off the floor, and he doesn’t have that Wince way of looking moppy when he doesn’t play or doesn’t have a good game.
Feb 21st, 2008 at 1:07 pm
SiC, I’m at every game. Have been since Day One. What you say is very true, which, again, I put down to listening to people like Chuck. Give Leo as much heat as you want, but he does break the game down pretty well for newbies and has started to talk back to Chuck, which is great.
We still have grown by leaps and bounds as a fan base, but you are right….once the teens of today grow into adults and have kids and raise them on basketball, we will be in a much better place.
Mar 25th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
[...] took some heat when I called this team mediocre back in February, but more and more I see that label popping up and being applied to this team. [...]