Linkage - March 16
From the most promising Raptors news in days department, comes this update from Chris Bosh.
"Oh yeah, way better," Bosh said when asked how he was feeling.
"I’m not having pain where I had pain before. I couldn’t walk up stairs. I couldn’t back-pedal. I’m (doing all that) without pain now so it’s going pretty well."
Bosh has been out since Feb. 29 because of a sore right knee. He has been making baby steps the past five or six days, but this latest progress it the most optimistic by far.
"I worked out," Bosh said of his day yesterday.
"I torched the nets out here. I got back to shooting, doing some dribbling and making some moves in game-like situations.
"I’m just trying to get the strength back in my legs. It’s going to take a couple of more days because I’m still weak in my leg area so I’ve got to get a lot stronger before I try to run in a game. I’m probably still a little unstable right now."
Bosh said he has circled Wednesday’s game against Miami as his return date. "You have to have a goal in mind and that’s my goal," he said. "That’s what I’m shooting for."
So instead of forcing his players to watch every single blown defensive assignment from the night before — if that’s not torture, what is? — as he had planned to do, Mitchell watched the game in its entirety again by himself.
"I changed my mind because we were all bad," Mitchell explained. "The thing about it is at this point we don’t need to overreact. This is really the first rough stretch we have been through. But when you keep it in perspective and think about it –okay, we played the Lakers, and we hung in there pretty tough. We played Golden State, who for most teams is a difficult team to match up, and then we played this team (Denver). When you put it into perspective and look at everything, it’s not as bad as it is."
"We had a great practice today," Mitchell said inside the Sacramento Kings’ state-of-the-art practice facility.
"Guys got after it. We had a chance to work on our things. We got a chance to go back to the basics and work on our things. We got a chance to play live for a change and that’s what we need," Mitchell said. "You can’t panic. I think (tonight) we will play a lot better."
The practice also did wonders for the coach himself, who on Friday sounded as if he was losing some of the faith he had in his guys.
"I found out at practice today that we are exactly who I thought we were," Mitchell said. "We are a good team when we execute defensively the way we are supposed to. We have a good group of guys that want to win and play hard. No one came out here feeling sorry for themselves today. I don’t feel sorrow for our team. We still have a winning record. We’re still in a playoff race so there is no reason to feel sorry. Sure, there’s concern, but like I tell the players, one good game, one good performance and all that is wiped out of everyone’s mind."
Guard Anthony Parker said the character in the Raptors locker room is strongest when things get a little rocky, like they are right now.
"Everyone knows the type of team we have and the kind of guys we have on the team and the chemistry we do have," Parker said. "That really helps out in times like this. It’s easy, when things aren’t going well, to turn on each other and start dividing each other but that hasn’t happened."
The Raps actually have fallen from 11th overall on Feb. 29, when Chris Bosh went out with a knee injury, to 20th through Friday’s game in opponents’ field goal percentage. Raps opponents now are shooting just under 46% from the field for the season. In the past 10 games, 81/2 of them without Bosh, the Raps’ opponents are hitting just under 51% from the field. Only the Memphis Grizzlies have a worse mark over the past 10 days
"It’s disappointing because we lost two games before and now we’ve lost three game sin a row. But … we knew this was going to be a tough road trip, especially the first three games," said Mitchell.
"We had a great practice, guys went after it, we got a chance to work on our things, we got a chance to go back to the basics and get some work done."
And the biggest thing was no fights started, no one was yelling and screaming at anyone else and they seem to be remaining together.
"We’ve never (broken apart) before and, you’ve got to understand something, we’ve been through some tough times in the last two years," said Mitchell.
Since Feb. 1, Jason Kapono, the world’s greatest three-point shooter, has made three three-pointers. Since Feb. 1, 6-11 centre Marcus Camby of the Denver Nuggets has made four three-pointers.
Bryant’s 1999-2000 Lakers squad won 19 straight games on its way to the NBA championship. He dismisses skeptics who say the Rockets’ streak is counterfeit.
"People who say that are the same people who said me scoring 81 was nothing because we played against the Toronto Raptors," Bryant said. "It has to have meaning. Every team in the NBA is a tough team. Any time you beat an NBA team or you go on a 21-game winning streak, that’s absolutely amazing."
Something has been made of the Raptors suing the Spanish Federation over non-payment of benjamins concerning Jorge Garbajosa. I’m with the Raptors on this one, it’s nothing personal, just business. If you agreed to a contract, you have to honor your end and if the Raptors feel they’re getting jipped, they got all the right in the world to sue. Of course all this wouldn’t have been an issue if Garbajosa wasn’t stupid enough to suit up in a meaningless tournament knowing the precarious situation his leg is in. I’d understand if Olympic qualification was dependent on the FIBA tournament but there was nothing of the sort on the line. Nothing. Zero. He’s created a lot of problems for all parties involved.
I’m a little sad to see our small forward situation, an area where we had a weakness at the end of last season and something that still hasn’t been addressed along with the rebounding. Jamario Moon, Joey Graham and Carlos Delfino are the 3 by committee and let’s face it, none of them is good enough to be a starter. Moon’s defense is so inconsistent that you don’t know what to expect from him on any given possession, Graham is plain bad and Delfino is about as consistent as Morris Peterson. Pickstar brought up a point in yesterday’s comments about benching Moon but the question to ask is, in favor of who? There is no clear cut winner in the battle for the three spot and Sam’s simply picked the guy who plays the best D among the three.
This brings us to one TJ Ford. Over the past few games he has brought ballhoggery to a new level. I’ve watched Kobe and Jordan play on bad teams. I’ve seen Steph and Franchise play in their primes. Never before have I seen this level of “shooting first”. One game Ford managed to go thirteen straight possessions without passing. The other night against the Warriors he seemed to go the whole fourth quarter passing only to get his dribble back. Normally, this would be wiped away if the Raptors were winning, but they are not. Ford is nowhere near the level of the players mentioned above. If Steph had a “shoot first” game, he’d be putting up 50 on the opposing team.
Combined with this, is the lack of minutes given to the improved Calderon. At least when Jose plays, the other players get to touch the ball. I’m not sure this can be scientifically proven, but TJ Ford is the worst point guard I’ve ever seen in my life. Ever. Maybe he needs to continue a few more games before the hate starts. Or maybe Toronto fans are too stupid to understand basketball. Or maybe NBA writers are too smart to care about the Raptors.
He’s fallen off some lately, but just as Calderon benefitted from T.J. Ford’s extended absence earlier in the season, he’s being negatively impacted by Ford’s return. Still, you could make a solid case for the 26-year-old Spainard as the Toronto Raptors’ team MVP this season. Without him, they might be in the middle of the East’s Sub-Mediocre Pack (Chicago, New Jersey, Atlanta, etc) and fighting for a playoff berth instead of just trying to hold onto the 6th seed.
As the NBA’s league leader in assist-to-turnover ratio at 4.94, Calderon has been a model of efficiency especially if you combine that lofty number with his high field-goal (53.2%) and free-throw (92.2%) percentages. He’s also registered an impressive 22 double-doubles; coming into 2007, he’d had only 9 total over his first two seasons. You can bet Calderon is going to fetch a nice chunk of change this summer as an unrestricted free agent.
Where things get cloudy is what about the Olympics in China. Could the Raptors effectively hold Calderon hostage by not allowing him to play to make Spain pay up. Well if he was under contract and did not have his right to play for Spain in that contract than he would. However Jose will not have a contract until he resigns. I do not claim to be an expert in the way the collective bargaining agreement works. I do not know if Calderon signs a offer sheet with another team if things like playing for Spain would be part of that. I would think not that it is just about money and term that the Raptors would have to match.
What all could happen is very confusing to be honest. But in the simple terms things just got a little more complicated in re-signing Jose Calderon. It is not that Calderon is unhappy in Toronto but the fact his entire country may not be would not sit well with him. If Raptors attempted to stop him from playing in China that also would not go to well. They even might have to buy out his friend Jorge Garbajosa which is another thing that would not make Jose happy.
I decided to look at my own ticket cost history and discovered that since the Air Canada Centre has opened, my seat costs have far surpassed the inflation rate.
Beginning with the first games played at the ACC in 1999, my ticket costs have risen an average of 6.4% annually. I factored in a 2% reduction in GST over that time. In a statement to the Toronto Sun, MLSE almost seemed to take credit for the drop in GST, which is proposterous - but I digress.
According to the Bank of Canada, the annual inflation rate has averaged in the range of 2% to 3% per annum over that same period. That means that ticket prices have risen by a factor of two to three times the rate of inflation.
Assuming these ticket prices increase at the same rate as they have over past years, my seat which cost $89 when the Air Canada Centre opened is projected to cost $268 a decade from now. Ouch!
I recall questioning a hefty price increase during the Vince Carter era and was told by my Raptors ticket rep that the weak Canadian dollar played a role in the price hike. In the period between 1998 and 2002, that was an undeniable fact.
Over that period, MLSE was required to spend $1.60 in Canadian dollars to buy $1 US dollar. With players’ salaries and road travel costs being paid in US currency, that was a fair concern.
However, during the past year both the US and Canadian dollar remain virtually at par. Some financial analysts are predicting the Canadian dollar will rise to 1.10 within five years as compared to the American greenback - which is good news for MLSE.
Mar 16th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
i would have liked to see smitch make the team watch denver game again. i watched it on game in an hour, and it was worse the second time around because i knew how bad they were going to play, and still watched….stupidity on my part, lol.
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