Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

Enough of the “hide your ‘real’ strategy in preseason” BS

It really irks me when players and coaches make quotes like these, in this case it’s Jamario Moon talking about the Philly game: “I don’t think we’re going to show them everything we have in this game and neither will they.” Piss off. Seriously. What can you possibly do on the court that will compromise…

It really irks me when players and coaches make quotes like these, in this case it’s Jamario Moon talking about the Philly game:

“I don’t think we’re going to show them everything we have in this game and neither will they.”

Piss off. Seriously. What can you possibly do on the court that will compromise you in the regular season? What mind-blowing scheme does Sam Mitchell have up his sleeve that if he tests in a preseason game that will cost him a W in the regular season. Let’s rewind back to last year and consider what Boston ran against us in the preseason versus what they ran in Game 3 of the regular season. Nothing, they killed us in both. This quote especially doesn’t make sense after what Mitchell said about NBA play-calling a few days ago, something to the effect of “everybody in the league runs the same thing really, they just call it different things”. We said the same types of things before the Magic series and look how that ended. We should play the game seriously and try our best at all times and rack up a win every chance we get. It’s that simple and should be the basic operating principle of this team. None of this Macgyver shit.

From the same article Mitchell tells us that he’s going to “save a couple of surprises for opening night”. Last time Mitchell surprised us we saw Andrea Bargnani being beaten like a pinnata by Hedo Turkoglu as a starter at SF in Game 1. Arsenalist.com has exclusive insider-info on this and can now report that Mitchell will be starting Jamal Sampson instead of O’Neal and the Raptors mascot will take Chris Bosh’s starting spot. Again, the mystery here is as annoying as it is confusing.

Chris Bosh and the Raptors are complaining that the preseason is too long and they’re “ready to go now”. No, you’re not. We allowed the Knicks to score 111 points at home and the chemistry between Bosh and O’Neal wasn’t exactly top-notch. Our defense was scrambling and our offense was about as consistent as Hump’s FT shooting. I’d hardly call that “ready to go”. I do question the seriousness of our training camp and preseason, I’m not an insider nor do I have a press-pass so I get my information from what I read, hear and watch and based on that I’m not seeing any urgency or great focus coming out from the Raptors camp. All I’m seeing is meaningless quotes, unfounded optimism and a little bit of unwarranted overconfidence. I hope we get our shit together and enter a serious, no-nonsense F**k-you mode by Game 1.

Matt Devlin tells us that we’ll only be dressing 10 players this afternoon as Graham, Sampson and Jawai have all tweaked something. You have to feel sorry for Joey Graham, this was the last preseason where he had a chance to make an impression on the coaching staff and maybe, just maybe contend for some minutes if not a starting spot. Instead he gets injured and defaults Jamario Moon into the starting role. I always rooted for Graham but its apparent that God hates him and when the All-Mighty hates you there’s simply nothing you can do about it.

In order to make the transition easier, Jawai’s coach of five years Aaraon Fearne will be moving to Toronto with his entire family. This is a bit odd, no? Is he going to be working out with him, is he part of the Raptors coaching staff? Consultant? Will he just be having dinner with him and tucking him to bed at night? A little more details from Devlin would be nice.

Alright, I’m starting like to like Bill Walker (YouTube). He’s a combative type that can keep the locker room on edge and might just be crazy enough to pull out an AK47 if a foul call doesn’t go his way. Here he’s picking a fight with T-Mac after going at KG in practice. The Celtics who were already a tough team just got a little tougher if not meaner with his addition; I just wish that somebody on the Raptors had a personality similar to his so that things like the TJ Ford incident didn’t go unpunished.

The Warriors suspended Monta Ellis for 30 days for being stupid. Dime Mag says that Chris Mullin and Don Nelson didn’t really want to but were forced by the owner of the team, Robert Powell. Nate Robinson’s emulating Steve Nash to make Mike D’Antoni happy. The Knicks camp is booming with optimism these days, its almost sickening. Here are some pics from the Suns-Nuggets outdoor practice and some players complaining about the wind. Finally, Cuzoogle’s rolled a classic blog joint. I have to warn you. If you start clinking on his links you will end up wasting half your day. Beware.

I usually make a post-game post right after the game ends but seeing how its preseason and all it’s best that we talk about it in tomorrow’s post. I highly recommend that you subscribe to the feed in order to make the transition smoother to the ‘new site’. Have a lazy Sunday.