I would like to beat a dead horse – bare with me. Let me briefly revisit the Jack-Calderon-Turkoglu end-of-game combination, the final straw for me likely occurred a while back, but the “final final” straw occurred Tuesday night against the Lakers.
Here’s a defensive possession from the first half where it’s evident what the Lakers are about to do, but only one Raptor anticipates the action while the one that was supposed to see it coming, didn’t move an inch.
“You play a game like this and you have to give them a little leeway because we need them to be rolling if we’re going to be in the playoffs,” Triano said of his Big Two.
After listening to Tim's interview I feel a refreshing sense of hope regarding the Raptors. Irrespective of how the team plays this season it seems that a foundational change is on the horizon, which will hopefully result in a complete overhaul of the team and its league wide perception. I'm a lifelong Raptors fan and will continue to be one regardless of wins/losses or playoff position. I do feel we have some strong pieces, specifically JV, with whom the franchise can build its future. I've seen the game enough to know that the best NBA players all share some common characteristics which include determination, intelligence and a burning desire to win. JV embodies these characteristics they're plainly written on his face any time he's in the game. We need to pair him with a high quality power forward and a traditional point guard. I know a lot of people don't like Derozan but I actually think he's developing well and seems to have a strong understanding of which areas to improve on. Rudy Gay and Bargnani need to go and we need to develop a deep bench which could potentially be anchored by TRoss but for that we would need to get much much stronger. Toronto needs to stop acting like some kind of second rate team. We're the fourth largest market in North America, the city continues to gain recognition along multiple platforms and we have a fan base second to none. Lets hope Tim can deliver.