ED gets it

[WJF]

Them's fightin' words, bud. To paraphrase a certain Vice-Presidential candidate talking about JFK: I knew Anthony Mason. I was a friend of Anthony Mason. Ed is no Mase. Mase was a fucking animal with a chip on his shoulder the size of Wisconsin. He was mean. He would not be denied. He had a huge heart.

Maybe he is a skinny Popeye Jones....:-/

[LeeZ]

Maybe he is a skinny Popeye Jones....:-/

Now THAT I can get behind. But even here, Ed suffers in this comparison, because try as he might to fill out and bulk up, he'll never have Popeye's ears.

[joey_hesketh]

Them's fightin' words, bud. To paraphrase a certain Vice-Presidential candidate talking about JFK: I knew Anthony Mason. I was a friend of Anthony Mason. Ed is no Mase. Mase was a fucking animal with a chip on his shoulder the size of Wisconsin. He was mean. He would not be denied. He had a huge heart.

And the face of Sloth.

[RaptorDan]

I will always question Ed's decision making after seeing his mutant stink line riddled torso tattoo.

[sleepz]

At least he didn't respond with a gay slur. Ed's rookie year is his audition year. This is his year to prove things... or bust.

Don't big men need 6 or 7 years to develop?

Maybe he's a natural 5?

[Fanchie]

I don't care what Ed is or isn't. We've seen him for a couple of years and we know he's no MVP but no bust at the same time.

But the difference between him willing to live a happy millionnaire life and him wanting to help the Raptors win is what i'm interested in. If he's a dedicated 6th man bringing all he's got on the floor cause he wants to make a point, i want him on the team. Then if he turns out to be a late blooming all-star : bonus !

Right now, i'm just thrilled to see he wants to win. For him, for his team, and for the city of Toronto.

We're talking about a guy who first said that being drafted by the Raps was not the best cause he needed to go and get a passport : he's come a long way, but he seems to want to get this team on the map now.

Enough for me so far. The rest will follow.

[JYFelony]

As a guy who doubted ED's passion to help the team, I'm extremely happy to hear this out of him. It would be a huge bonus to see him come out of the gates firing this year and show that he's more than a deep(ish) bench player in the league.

[ceez]

Always loved Ed. I think he'll do some things this year.

[OzRapFan]

Don't big men need 6 or 7 years to develop?

Maybe he's a natural 5?

No that's only for European big men.

[big boi]

"Yes, yes...it's working"
- Ed Davis' agent

Exactly. I'll let his play do the talking.

[big boi]

While I see your argument, Davis is already at the Pinckney level, the guy only averaged more than 7 rebounds per game twice in his career and was never much of a shot blocker. While I will say that Davis still has major areas for improvement, he does not need to grow that much to be a better player than Pinckney. Remember that Ed missed his rookie year training camp do to injury and then faced a lock out year in an important year 2 development stage. Davis will never be an offensive force, but he will be a contributor for years to come in the NBA at a higher rate than Pinckney. I do still hold out some hope that he could be glue guy starter on the right team, maybe a Horace Grant type player.

Horace Grant was a very much different player and a much better player. Not a good comparable.

[ReubenJRD]

He's been having a nice summer league, obviously because he is the best player on the team, and well... It's summer league, but he has been playing harder than I've seen him in any of the games last season.

Great find on that tweet, I follow Ed, quite frankly I was surprised I didn't see that, because I've only been following sports people.

Ed's offensive game has improved, defensively there are still holes to cover. It's really hard to choose between Ed and Amir...

[Miekenstien]

Horace Grant was a very much different player and a much better player. Not a good comparable.

who would you compare him too? one of those easily interchangeable bulls big men, excepting the worm, seems like a good comparison to me. i can see ed, in the future, starting as a support piece who grabs rebounds and puts up about 6-10 points a night with nothing called for him and then drop 20 on others when having a good night. he definitely has the defensive ability. a good example of someone still playing then to me would be perkins. not as strong or big or crazy but definitely could play that role.

It's really hard to choose between Ed and Amir...

for this it's ed everytime for me, purely finacial.

[ReubenJRD]

for this it's ed everytime for me, purely finacial.

Basketball doesn't fill your head? Cause Amir sure plays harder for those paychecks..

[Miekenstien]

Basketball doesn't fill your head? Cause Amir sure plays harder for those paychecks..

i think you will get the same production from either one of them as first big off the bench. i also don't like how amir has an excuse everytime his games don't go well.

i think that the skill level of either is about the same and one is millions of dollars cheaper.

[koncept]

I wasn't a big fan of ED before. These recent tweets are making me like him as a person more, but this year he'll definitely have to step up. I'm interested to see what happens if we can find him some minutes.

[big boi]

who would you compare him too? one of those easily interchangeable bulls big men, excepting the worm, seems like a good comparison to me. i can see ed, in the future, starting as a support piece who grabs rebounds and puts up about 6-10 points a night with nothing called for him and then drop 20 on others when having a good night. he definitely has the defensive ability. a good example of someone still playing then to me would be perkins. not as strong or big or crazy but definitely could play that role.

for this it's ed everytime for me, purely finacial.

Im not sure who id compare him to. Horace Grant, in his day, was a top PF in the league tho so not a good comparison. From my experience of watching inadequate pf's i wished were better, id say othella harrington. Om some plays he look fine
But way too much he bobbles a rebound instead of securing it, throws up a prayer rather than going up strong. I hope for the best and hope he can put it together this year, but im losing faith and patience. He is so frustrating to watch.

[big boi]

Ed is the kind of player who can easily average a double-double per game with above average help defense and 1.5 blocks with starters minutes. Those types of players are very useful in the nba. Ive seen his game develop from not being able to hit a free throw to facing up and hitting elbow jump shots, if this improvement continues he can develop an interesting offensive game.

I do not see him as a star in this league, but i can see him as a solid contributor for years to come.

fair enough. I could see him being a contributing big man off the bench but I see amir and to some extent acy in that role. I hope for/expected more out of ed. He should be absolutley ruining the competition in summer league, a two year NBA pf. But he isn't, at all.

Only one guy look like he's on another level and that's Ross

[WJF]

Im not sure who id compare him to. Horace Grant, in his day, was a top PF in the league tho so not a good comparison. From my experience of watching inadequate pf's i wished were better, id say othella harrington. Om some plays he look fine
But way too much he bobbles a rebound instead of securing it, throws up a prayer rather than going up strong. I hope for the best and hope he can put it together this year, but im losing faith and patience. He is so frustrating to watch.

Horace Grant was not a top power Forward in his day, he was a product of his environment, he put up very solid numbers playing with Jordan and Pippen, he played solid defence and could run the floor. The biggest difference between the two players is that Grant was more fluid and could hit a jumper, Davis is a better shot blocker who plays a little more near the hoop. I did not mean to say Grant and Davis play the same, rather that, given the right situation, Ed could have a similar impact to Grant.

[Red and White]

ED does not have the jumper to be Horace Grant...or the goggles.