After putting up a big fat donut after four pretty tough games out West, the Raptors return home to face the Warriors in a game that folks wil be anxious about who’s on the other team: Stephen Curry. I really love this kid, and that sentiment is shared by many of you. We miss him until we realize that he’s a murderer, averaging 32pts 11ast 7rebs against the Raptors.

I checked in with Jim Del Favero from Warriors World the team:

Ekpe Udoh was one of our favourites at RR, we even got in a pre-draft interview with him, I know he’s been injured, but what were your thoughts of him before he went down?
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see anything of Udoh before he was injured. We had heard that he injured it while lifting weights at the practice facility. There were some rumors that he did it before the draft, but nothing confirmed. He has been traveling with the team recently so there is hope that he will be in playing shape soon. Ethan Sherwood Straus did a piece on Udoh before the season to project where he would rank amongst the other picks in that range. Matt Steinmetz was a little more positive about Udoh’s post game and shot blocking abilities.

Warriors fans have a direct comparison that leaves them wary of investing too much hope in Udoh’s prospects. Adonal Foyle, a defensive shot blocker from a second tier program, who left the Warriors as their all time leader in blocked shots, but didn’t make much of an impact on the floor. Udoh certainly has a better NBA body than Brandan Wright, but it remains to be seen what impact he will have in the NBA. Monroe has looked like an awful pick so far, so that takes some pressure off Udoh.

A big coup this summer was landing David Lee, who will be a great pick-n-roll partner with Stephen Curry when he gets back. How has he fit in so far? Was too high a price paid to land him?
Lee’s offense has been worse than advertised but his rebounding is where we thought it would be. Defensively he is still a liability, but playing with Andris Biedrins is benefiting both players. They combined for over 30 rebounds against Utah last week, and are challenging shots, and cleaning the boards on both ends. Against teams with only a dominant center, or dominant power forward the tandem is perfect. When playing teams with 2 quality front line players Lee’s defensive challenges are more apparent. With Curry back in the lineup Lee is going to get more easy looks on offense, and his numbers should improve.

A bigger move was getting new ownership. What does geting out from under Chris Cohan’s hands mean for this team going forward?
New ownership is huge for this team, but only if the team organizes to win. Cohan and his ownership is remembered for extracting maximum value with minimum investment. Lacob and Guber talk a good game, and some decisions like letting Don Nelson and his 6 million this year go in favor of new blood and a focus on defense and coaching is a good sign. New ownership still isn’t approved and that may be due to the additional partners being added to the ownership group. The group may end up with 2 majority partners and as many as 8 minority owners before it’s approved. Certainly fans would rather see Larry Ellison, his billions, and his willingness to spend what it takes to win. Lacob will be a hero if he can build a team that gets into the playoffs and wins a championship.

4-1 to start the year with impressive wins over Houston and Utah, and without Curry. What’s been the secret sauce?
Strange I know, but it’s defense and rebounding. The Warriors are playing some scrappy defense with steals, significantly better offensive rebounding, and playing with discipline. Last season you had Biedrins with his worst season, and an undersized power forward and lineup. There was no help defense at all, so Biedrins would be saddled with fouls, and the warriors would go to an undersized lineup with no rebounding. With Lee in there it takes the pressure off Biedrins, and is providing plenty of second chance points. Ellis had 7 steals Friday night, and the Warriors are more active on defense, hands up, hands in the passing lane, contesting shots, stealing passes. They aren’t going to be a lock down defensive team, but they are playing better more active team defense which will result in fewer blowout losses and more wins in close games.

What happens with Ellis when Curry gets back?
The myth that those two can’t play together is busted. They play well together and there aren’t that many point guards with a strong post up game to take advantage of Curry, Ellis’s speed offsets any size disadvantage he has against larger 2 guards. Ellis has also shown a lot of maturity and leadership this season, improving his defense, and understanding when he isn’t getting his shot off to work on other aspects of his game. When they are both on the floor they each get easier shots. Curry can get the ball to Ellis where he wants it to take advantage of a seam in the defense, Ellis can penetrate and dish to Curry. Curry being out has exposed the Warriors lack of bench depth. We went from CJ Watson coming off the bench doing a reasonable job of managing the team to Charlie Bell who hasn’t shown anything so far. Lack of depth at the point is something Larry Riley needs to address soon.

I would be remiss not mentioning Dorell Wright and what a great pickup he has been for the Warriors. He has been an excellent fit, better than advertised. Corey Magette may fill up a stat sheet but Dorell makes a difference in the W-L column. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some discussion of Dorell Wright as most improved player if he keeps up this pace.

Injury

Toronto
Ed Davis – Out (still can’t remember what’s wrong with him)

Golden State
Brandan Wright – Day-to-day (Flu)

Match-ups

PG – Jack vs Curry
This might have been a total rapage until you remember that Curry is just getting back from an injury, so he wont be in full form; although he dropped 20pts 6ast Friday in a win over the Jazz. I’m erring on the side of him having a standard game against the Raptors and lights things up. Neither Jack nor Calderon has the chops to stop this guy, but you can take him out of his comfort and just play up tight on him. I’d make him put it on the floor and hope to Jah the defense rotates and you contest a shot; just don’t double him. He will find his man.

Edge: Curry

SG – DeRozan vs Ellis
Apply what I said about Ellis, but realize Ellis doesn’t like (want, feel the need; the list goes on) to pass the ball, can score in more ways than Curry, and is even more devastating on the offensive end this year than the past. DeRozan is coming off a brutal game against the Blazers, and it wont get much easier. Ellis is quick, strongish, has good hands and is a thief (7 steals against the Jazz who are awesome at protecting the ball). Not going to be easy, but DeMar did a good job on Kobe and Batum (not Roy so much) over the the weekend.

Please note the different areas on the floor that both Ellis and Curry shoot AND score from; bloody scary.
Edge: Ellis

SF – Kleiza vs Wright
All it took was a change of scenery to not speak about Dorell as an afterthought. Since getting here, the kid is shooting 54% from behind the arc, lighting up the boxscore and playing some really good defense. Gotta say, he got some hype in Miami, but is really living up to it now on the left coast. Kleiza will have his hands full, and if he plays like he did against Batum, will be in for a long night. His shooting has been pretty bad (40% FG 27% 3FG) and he doesn’t get to the rack like he can. I’d be happy if we didn’t see Wright get open threes all night.

Edge: Wright

PF – Evans vs Lee
The forward match-up can be interchangeable for the Warriors, but they play Lee at a 4 for the most part, so I’ll base it on this comparison. Lee’s offense hasn’t been at the same levels as years past, and much of that has to do with playing with Ellis and Curry (not as many shots to go around), since he’s getting about 4 less shots than last season. He’s also not shooting the ball as well as he was in New York, but a lot of that has to do with going into a new system. He gets the benefit of the doubt, since he’s playing the best team to come out of a funk against; the Raptors. If history has taught us anything about this team, it’s that players always have career games against us. While Evans has done a bang up job on the glass, his energy and hustle hasn’t made up for his weakish defense (which to his credit is much improved). Reggie is in for a tough night since he can go toe-to-toe with Lee on the glass, but wont put up the same scoring numbers.

Edge: Lee

C – Bargnani vs Biedrins
I’m going to be honest, don’t know a whole lot about Biedrins other than he’s a beast on the boards. He wont give Bargnani much problems on defense, but will really challenge him on the glass. Bargnani should win this duel, no questions asked; there’s really not more to this match-up than that.

Edge: Bargnani

Keys to the Game

Protect the Glass
Lee and Biedrins combined for 35 rebounds against the jazz, and are averaging about 20 for the season between them. It’s a 1-2 combo that could prove a bit too much for Andrea to fight against. While Bargnani’s rebounding has started to come around, it will need a kick start tonight since these two have made careers rebounding the crap out of the ball

Energy and Hustle
The Warriors have got out to a great start to the season with their rebounding (4th 46.5/game) and playmaking (4th 24.2/game). The things that made the Raptors successful against the Lakers should be adopted here: athleticism, crashing the boards, as well as defensive rotations.

Play Big
The Warriors have long athletes, but the Raptors have bigger/stronger cats to throw at them. They didn’t come at the Blazers with their size effectively, and it cost them. The Warriors don’t even have a post presence like Aldridge to throw the ball into. This has to be an area of the game where the Raptors have to dominate; from 1-5 we have a stronger team that has to take advantage of what we have.

Protect Home Court
It was a long week, and there would be no other way to put it behind us than to stop the four game losing streak; gotta play with some hide and a sense of urgency. That’s all their is to it.

The Line

The degenerates have the Raptors as 2 point favourites at home, which is as close to a push as you can get without actually saying so. What we can expect is a close game that will come to the wire. Three of the next seven are against the easts elite (Orlando, Miami and Boston), need to handle business and stop some of the bleeding now. End of story.

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Through the 90s, the Knicks were my favourite team, and if you liked a tough, bruising team oozing with heart, then they were the team for you. When the Raptors and Knicks were battling in the playoffs, I was never more torn; ultimately I cheered the Raptors, but had the Knicks got through….

While they don’t have great talent to surround LeBron and Bosh (for sake of argument), the team does provide the lure of being a God in New York if someone can deliver a championship. For the record, regardless of what they offer, I’m against any deal with the Knicks since they are a division rival. The last time we did that, we got BURNED in the playoffs; not looking for a repeat.

I spoke to Dan L. from The Knicks Fan Blog about the state of the Knicks, and got some interesting tidbits from him:

Sam Holako: There isn’t much to talk about the Knicks during the regular season since the last couple years has all been about making a run at two max free-agents this summer. Where do you realistically put the Knicks chances of landing LeBron this summer? A sign and trade with the Cavs will prove difficult (what kind of deal do you put together for the MVP?). Also talk about the LeBrostimistic graph you have on your site, I love that thing.

Dan L.: I think it’s impossible to say what the Knicks’ chances are to get LeBron without being part of the “inner circle”. But I think the Knicks have a couple of things working in their favor. One is obviously that the Cavs got spanked so hard by the Celtics. They clearly aren’t a championship caliber team and they’re also ham-strung by salary commitments with the likes of Jamison, Gibson, Varejao, and Mo Williams. They won’t be signing any meaningful free agents.

It is hard to see the Knicks and Cavs pulling off a sign and trade, but it could happen if LeBron told them he’s going to the Knicks anyway and unless they deal they won’t get anything in return. For example the Knicks can offer the Cavs a massive salary cap exception and future picks for LeBron. With that exception the Cavs could hypothetically trade for Elton Brand and the second pick (Evan Turner). Maybe they could even convince the Knicks to part with Wilson Chandler. Mo Williams, Turner, Chandler, Jamison, Brand. I could think of worse teams.

Ha. The LeBroptimism meter right now is at 0 because honestly, I just don’t have any kind of bearing of what LeBron is going to do. He and his team have done a masterful job of keeping everyone in the dark, and there are a lot of teams that have positioned themselves to get LeBron. I think the only realistic options for LeBron if he leaves are the Knicks and Bulls because I’d be shocked if he went somewhere that didn’t have a major media presence. I’d add the Nets to the mix but I think their young talent is vastly overstated. The Knicks’ young talent was better than 12 wins. Also LeBron won’t want to play in Newark, I don’t think.

If I was being completely honest with my own gut, I’d put that LeBroptimism meter somewhat higher than 0.

SH: That would be Step 1; Step 2 would be find a running mate for him. Chris Bosh recently put the Knicks on his wishlist. Make me an offer for him.

DL: he only offer really is David Lee. Not sure what Raptors fans think about Lee but you could do much worse. He’s a terrific rebounder (though he doesn’t get the tough ones) and due to his terrific work ethic he transformed himself into one of the best shooting bigs in the league. He’s also an elite finisher. He can get his shot off in the paint and make it with such frequency that it never ceases to amaze me. You’ll be losing out by trading Bosh but maybe not by as much as you’d think.

The downside for the Raptors is that their biggest weakness is also Lee’s, in that he couldn’t guard a lamp post. A lot of that has to do with the fact that he’s a PF and the Knicks had him at center all year. Still, I’d think that the Raptors want to address their D this summer, and Lee isn’t going to do that.

Financially, Lee is going to make less than Bosh because under the collective bargaining agreement, his max is about $13.5 million. The Raptors would therefore get a trade exception in the deal of about $4 million.

Another option the Raptors could consider is adding Calderon or Turk to the mix and taking back Eddy Curry. This would get the Raptors out from under the cap predicament they put themselves in by next year.

It’s all dependent on what Lee wants though. If he just wants money and the Raptors offer him his max I think he would agree to go to Toronto because he would get bigger raises in a sign and trade. If other factors are more important to him, like staying in the New York area, and the money is similar, I could see him signing with the Nets.

SH: Not sure how Raptor fans would feel about paying Lee $13.5; even though double-double machines are hard to come by, I was thinking a 5yr/$50mill deal. A front court of Bargnani and Lee would be the worse defensive unit in the league, potentially, but Lee is one of the better players we could hope for in a sign-and-trade.

Interesting you bring up a Calderon/Turkoglu swap for Curry. What is Curry’s status? Can he be looked too to play 20minutes a night? He’s still pretty young, and has great size/athleticism (well he did). I’m assuming with the financial problems he’s said to be having, that he will at least be motivated to play harder for the next contract.

DL: I’d think that Lee is going to get more than $10 million on the market this summer. But I guess that remains to be seen.

You’re right about the raptors defense. They’d have to slide Bargs over to the 3 and find a way to get a defensive 5.

That’s not Eddy Curry, even if healthy. The potential Curry deal would be solely a salary dump for the Raptors. Knicks fans have been waiting for the old Curry to come back for over 2 years. The fact is that he’s played only a handful of games in each of the last two seasons and just doesn’t seem interested in playing basketball.

You’re right that Curry SHOULD be motivated in a contract year. But I’d be shocked if he had the desire to. And even if he did, I’d be doubly shocked if he stayed healthy.

SH: I want to examine something you said about Calderon or Turkoglu for Curry. Even if the Knicks somehow manage to get LeBron and Bosh, they would still need to have people around them to you know, play basketball at an NBA level. In the worse case scenario that they don’t land anyone in the summer to line up beside those two, what will this team look like?

DL: Honestly I think that’s an issue that the national media has drummed up in their echo chamber because they are biased against New York (true New York perspective here, huh?).

The team WILL have players on it. Obviously Turkoglu or Calderon could be one of those other players. If not, the Knicks should try to move Curry for another team’s expensive mistake, like Ben Gordon, Rip Hamilton or Corey Maggette.

But let’s look at who is on the team right now. Danilo Gallinari played essentially his rookie year last year since he missed most of his first season with a back injury. He only finished second in the NBA in three pointers made. Folks in the national media have called him a “one-trick pony” but those of us who watch the Knicks every game know that he’s much more than that. Even the most negative tabloid beat writers like the New York Post’s Marc Berman jumped on the Gallinari bandwagon by the end of the year. He’s a terrific passer, and has a great basketball IQ, and most surprisingly, was probably the Knicks best defender last year other than Jarred Jeffries, both on the ball and in help.

Wilson Chandler is another player that most people who don’t follow the Knicks tend to ignore. It’s because he’s very quiet and unassuming. My opinion is that he doesn’t have star potential like Gallinari does, but there are observers who disagree. At the very least though he plays D, has a great mid-range game, and is a superb finisher.

Toney Douglas inexplicably failed to get off of Mike D’Antoni’s bench for most of the year but when D’Antoni finally let him play the Knicks what I like to say resembled a young Gary Payton. Douglas is very disruptive on the defensive end, is a very good shooter from distance, and LOVES the ball at the end of games. He’s very clutch.

These were 3 very young and/or inexperienced players but all of them have a world of potential. Importantly, they’re all very good fits with LeBron. Gallinari will can countless open jumpers off LeBron drives, and Wilson will get plenty of open looks slashing off of those same drives. Douglas will also knock down open shots and defend the perimeter, but more importantly, both he and Gallinari will take the pressure off LeBron at the end of games, which seems to be an issue for the King. It’s a good starting 5.

Aside from those 3 the Knicks have Bill Walker, who, after the trade deadline really came into his own for the Knicks. He has great range and shoots a high percentage. He’s also extremely athletic and can jump out of the gym. Finally, where Chandler doesn’t really read the defense, instead focusing on just making one on one moves to get open, Walker knows where to be on the court to space the floor and get open looks for himself both inside and out.

The Knicks also have 2 second round draft picks.

Finally, if the Knicks are able to land the big stars, look for some veteran players to sign on for cheap for a chance at the title. For example, PJ Brown signed with Boston for the minimum to win a ring. Same with Michael Finley.

I expect the Knicks to be able to round out their roster in a similar way.

SH: I’m actually pretty high on Chandler. I’ve seen quite a few Knicks games, and the kid is nice (Gallinari too). If LeBosh doesn’t pan out for the Knicks, would a Joe Johnson/Boozer/Stoudemire combination satisfy Knicks fans? The team obviously wouldn’t be a championship contender (the best they could hope for is the Hawks), but they would be in the high 40s in terms of wins and MAYBE a second round appearance.

DL: hose guys obviously represent the second tier of free agents. They’d improve the Knicks vastly but I wouldn’t be too thrilled about it. That’s particularly true because I assume those guys would be getting the max (or something close) and I don’t think they’re worth it.

It’s not the first choice and there are some fans who go by the mantra “LeBron or bust”. Not me though. I think Donnie Walsh had to take his best shot at building a dynasty. It might not work out that way but the idea was the right idea. Either way the Knicks will be much improved, even if they don’t get LeBron.

Since I have nothing better to do than think up scenarios, I’ve previously written that there are other options available besides just free agents. The Knicks could look at Tony Parker, for example. A trade of Chandler, Curry and Douglas for Parker, RJ and McDyess would make some sense if the Knicks also landed Amare. Parker, RJ (who plays better in an open system), Gallinari, McDyess, Amare, with enough flexibility to sign Melo in ’11.

Another example is a trade of Curry for Biedrins or Maggette and Anthony Randolph, while re-signing Lee and signing Joe Johnson. You’d have Tony Douglas, Johnson, Gallinari, Lee and Randolph/Biedrins. Not too shabby in my opinion, and a team that can grow better over the next few years. Not a title contender though, and you’d lose your ’11 flexibility, which I’d like to see the Knicks keep if they lose out on the big names.

On paper we win this, but on paper we should’ve also won against Philadelphia and Sacramento. It’s a matchup of the third and fourth highest scoring teams, and the worst and third-worst defensive teams. The Warriors have 17 wins on the season and have lost six straight by an average of 10.2 points. I wish their recent poor run would fill me with some sort of confidence heading into this one but no such luck. Wait, maybe this will: Our 10-26 record against teams over .500 might make you question whether we can handle good teams, but there’s no doubt about whether we can kick the crap out of the minnows: we’re a whopping 22-5 against teams under .500.

This back-to-back thing, we’re 4-10 in them and the wins have come against New York, New Jersey, Washington and Chicago. The only road win has come against New Jersey so with all due respect to the Raptors, tomorrow night in Portland is a write-off. I hope Triano sees this as the gettable game and goes all out instead of holding back for Portland or Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

The Warriors have been hit by injuries and have lost Andris Biedrins, Kelenna Azubuike, Raja Bell, Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright for the season. Even that doesn’t fill me with confidence because you just know one of their scrubs will be eyeing this game as a chance to get some points on the board. My pick for who that scrub will be is C.J Watson, profiled here by our TrueHoop colleagues or of course, the great rookie Stephen Curry. Even though the Warriors are clearly a rather pathetic injury-riddled squad, the oddsmakers seem to have little faith in the Raptors making them only a 1.5 point favorite. I really am torn which way this game will go. Also of note, this will be Monta Ellis’ second game back after missing the previous six due to a back injury.

I’m sure this will be an up-and-down no-defense game but as with any NBA game, it’ll come down to playing fourth quarter defense (or in our case, third quarter defense). After a fairly solid first half, we gave up 43 in the third quarter, the Warriors did something similar against Portland. They led them 96-83 heading into the fourth but scored just nine points in the final quarter. They shot 3-14 shots and had six turnovers in the fourth, completely blowing their solid play of three quarters (shot 53%). RaptorTalk did some analysis of our third-quarter struggles and concluded that Jay Triano’s talk at halftime does us no good.

This will be Marco Belinelli’s first game back in Golden State so I’m looking forward to seeing him in the first half tonight. If I don’t, Triano doesn’t know what he’s doing. We’ll need to maybe even see if he can use his length to cover Curry as I’m sure PG defense is going to be a high-priority after Beno Udrih’s impersonation of an in-prime Isiaiah Thomas. We cannot expect Calderon and Jack to cover these types of guards, if they would’ve been able to do it they would’ve done it by now. It’s time to start getting creative defending this position and perhaps even throw Marcus Banks out there who I recall as someone wanting to play defense.

Tom Liston was busy flogging dead horses on Friday night and trying to come up with a starting lineup that would fix our issues. He concludes that replacing Wright with DeRozan makes the starting lineup better defensively, yeah, no kidding? Other than Bosh’s offense and Jack’s desire to get to the rim, there’s hardly a consistent element on this team and even though Wright might have a couple good games (after doing nothing for the last 8 – 16/56, 29% + countless blown coverages) by getting the nod as a starter, there is simply no way he’ll maintain that level of play for more than 4 or 5 games and we’ll be having this same discussion two weeks from now.

DeRozan should not have played the entire third quarter against Sacramento, as much as I like him his defense has been disappointing and he should’ve been yanked after failing to fight through the pick set on him in the first minute. However, to state that taking him out of the starting lineup is going to mend some of our problems is a fallacy, the first quarter has been DeRozan’s strongest, he gets about 50% of his points in the first and is very attack-minded, something you need to be early in games. I hardly care though, take him out or leave him in, players like him are red-herrings when it comes to identifying problems.

There’s an article in the Star today which is talking about how the Raptors have been plagued by injury. Really? Losing 96 man-games is now considered being ‘plagued’? Especially when Reggie Evans accounts for 51 of them which the article fails to mention. From what I recall, the only significant injury we’ve had is to Chris Bosh recently and to Jose Calderon a while back. Injury cannot be used as an excuse this season.

Taking a quick reluctant peek at the standings we find that the Raptors are now in 8th spot after wins by Miami and Charlotte. The good news is that we’re three ahead of Chicago in the loss column who, like us, also blew a back-to-back road assignment (Miami and Orlando). They’ve lost 7-straight and have road dates with Memphis and Dallas before returning home to face Cleveland. Chuck Swirsky must be pulling his hair out. If the Raptors current slide continues, we have every chance of making the playoffs only because Chicago is playing awful basketball. Question becomes what does making the playoffs really mean if it’s going to happen like that? BTW, there is no chance for another team to come and steal that 8th spot as Detroit in 10th is a full 10 games back of the Raptors.

Finally, March Madness is around the corner and we’re having a pool. Get the info here, create the bracket and prepare to have your ass kicked.

GSW tonight, let’s do this now. Love the late-night games.

We’ve come this far without any significant production from our main off-season signing and banking on him to find his game and carry his weight could be too much to risk for Colangelo, especially if it threatens another first-round exit. The options at SF remain extremely thin with Antoine Wright second in the depth chart. Making a move for a high-caliber player such as Caron Butler or Josh Howard (although he has regressed) would involve parting with a strength, likely Jose Calderon. A move like that would be lateral at best because you’re giving up someone who has proven to work well within the offense for another X-Factor that’ll require time to gel. Do we really want to go that route again?

Unless a team is willing to take on Turkoglu in return, there’s no reason to add another expensive scorer at the position by giving up a great locker-room guy like Jose Calderon. There is one exception: Andre Iguodala. I consider him to be in a different tier than Howard or Butler who is a good scorer but a suspect defender. Iguodala is locked into a $13.5M deal till 2012-13 with a player option the following year. Giving up on Jose Calderon here is a no-brainer as we would’ve acquired the perfect complement to Bosh. Iguodala would take over starting SG duties with DeRozan backing him up and Belinelli sharing ball-handling duties. In fact, this trade works with or without Johnson and we could throw in a pick to sweeten the pot. With Evans coming back from injury, there is a contingency plan to fill the void left by Johnson and we get a ball-handler in Ivey.

Targeting Iguodala, 26, is more viable than going after Howard or Butler who are both 29. If we’re thinking of finally partnering Bosh up with an All-Star caliber player, having similar career-windows is a big bonus. However, making a play for Iguodala will be tough as the Suns have reportedly offered Stoudemire in exchange for him and Dalembert. There’s also Houston which is offering Tracy McGrady’s expiring contract for the same package. As a Raptor fan you have to wonder how great it would be right now to have Jermaine O’Neal and his $23M expiring contract around. Oh, to think about it.

Josh Howard is the type of player that’ll take this team nowhere. He’s a good scorer but he’s far from the impact player that we would need and I’d be reluctant to break up our PG-combo just for him. There’s also little reason for Dallas to be interested in Jose Calderon since they already have Jason Kidd locked in till the 2011-12 season. Kidd’s playing 36mpg which doesn’t leave much ball-handling for Jose to do. The Mavericks boast Jason Terry as their SG which makes me doubt they’ll play Calderon over him; with Jose Barea doing a good job of backing up Kidd, the Mavericks (5th best in the league in protecting the ball) have no incentive of altering their PG setup. Make no mistake, the Mavericks want Bosh and nothing else, that’s not going to happen. Howard does have a team-option for next year so trading for him could mean cap relief to sign a free-agent as early as this summer.

Caron Butler has had an off year. His scoring average has dipped by 4 points, his assists have been halved at 2.2 and his FG% and 3P% have taken a dive. This could be a case where Washington wants to clean the house up a little and would be willing to sell players at lower values. Butler’s play certainly hasn’t helped the sale and whoever acquires him will know that this year is an anomaly and not the norm. Butler’s on the hook for $10M till 2010-11 and is in desperate need for a change of scenery. How he might fit in with the Raptors is anybody’s guess, but I just don’t see it happening at the SG as that’s a position he just hasn’t played in Washington. As I already said, Hedo would need to go.

Kevin Martin’s name was being bounced around last month and that’s because Tyreke Evans and him can’t seem to play together and the Kings are 2-13 in games the two have started. Sacramento is doing a proper rebuild and is looking for financial relief (on the hook for $12M per till 2012/13) more than talent, and that’s something we can’t provide, nor would we want to because Kevin Martin is an overpaid one-dimensional player that will always start for a losing team.

Other than the big names, there are options like Mike Miller and Troy Murphy, both playing with teams well out of the playoff race. There’s an element of redundancy with acquiring Troy Murphy as we’ve already got Andrea Bargnani, but the rebounding and three-point shooting he would provide as part of the second unit is attractive. Miller’s a legitimate 40% shooter but we’ve already got an equally good but less consistent model in Belinelli. To bolster the second unit we could also look at Marcin Gortat in Orlando who isn’t happy with his playing time, not sure if we would offer more than 13 minutes but he would provide some good screens and consistent rebounding. The contract is a mess, though, approximately $7M till 2013-14. Here are a couple of creative ways of getting Biedrins without giving up part of our core.

Leaving talent and salary alone for a bit, the issue with this team continues to be lack of leadership, discipline and consistent effort. I don’t know how much of that Reggie Evans will solve, but a shrewd pickup would be someone who could keep this team in check. A verbal veteran that’s a bit of a psychopath, can’t really think of anyone. The need for defense is there but it would have to be an almost perfect move for one player to make a noticeable difference in that area (mind you that we are top 12 in defense for the last 25 games). Defensively, we are what we are. Other than effort there is no tweak that we can make which will fix our defensive woes, we have to overcome that problem by playing solid team defense instead of solely relying on man-coverage, something we’ve done a good job of late.

We’re 0-3 against the C**tics, 1-3 against the Magic and 0-2 against the Hawks. The team as it is would have trouble in a matchup against any of those teams and Colangelo will take that into account. If the goal is to rack up regular season wins, the current team can do that to the satisfaction of the fan base, if the goal is to excel in the playoffs, we will obviously fall short. That’s the reason I feel that a move is coming.

Arse made a good point tonight, that the Raptors are too concerned about protecting the paint, and their perimeter rotation is late weak sucks. Triano needs to think about this, since it is great to protect your paint, but until the ball is back in your hands, you need to keep rotating and defending. That means switching, closing out, and generally communicating with the rest of the team. Things the Raptors are weak suck at.

The Raptors were gunning offensively, but playing the Warriors means you have to make defensive stops, and the Raptors didn’t. The Raptors got good looks down the stretch to tie the score or take the lead, they got really good looks, but both Calderon, Kapono and Parker missed their opportunities. Dribble penetration reared its ugly head again with the Warriors hitting their key shots. Golden State

Sadly, defense wasn’t the reason the Raptors lost…it was offense. The Raptors  out-rebounded the Warriors 49 (20 offensive boards) to 37, got 27 assists, and protected the ball reasonably well(13 turnovers), which led to 17 more possessions, but they couldn’t knock down a shot to save their life. Down the stretch, and down 2, the Raptors had 5 possessions to tie or take the lead; they got good looks (Calderon, Kapono and Parker) but just couldn’t hit THAT shot. Again, not because of anything the Warriors did, the Raptors just chocked, game over…

Calderon came out very aggressive offensively, hitting 3s, jumpers off the screen, driving, and finding open shooters. Logging 44mins, he put up 21pts 16asts 6rebs, but his poor defense on Watson late in the game really put a damper on a fine performance. Bosh had another monster game, doing whatever he wanted (30pts 14rebs), not much else to say about him…

Triano employed some very questionable lineups, and substitutions that left me scratching my head:

1. To start the 2nd, both Bosh and Calderon were sitting, which really killed the rhythm and momentum the Raptors were building in the first quarter.
2. Still in the 2nd, Voshkul got the call, and in a span of 4 minutes, he amassed 4 fouls that put the Warriors in the bonus with 9.5 minutes left in the quarter. With a lineup of Solomon, Voshkul, Bargnani, Moon and Graham, the Warriors go on an 8-2 run. No energy…why Humphries wasn’t in is beyond me. Just a thought, how did Hump fall to 4th/5th in the depth chart at forward? I’m not his biggest fan, but the guy is athletic, gets out there, makes things happen, is aggressive on offense and grabs boards…Voshkul isn’t.
3. In the dyeing moments of the game, the Raptors employed a lineup of Calderon/Bosh/Parker/Kapono/Graham…didn’t work out as we know. Parker/Kapono couldn’t hit a shot for their life, Graham penetrates the lane and throws it away, while the Warriors stayed at home with Bosh and Calderon. never thought I would say this, but Moon should have been in for Parker s he is playing better defense, and was shooting reasonably well from the perimeter (3-4 form beyond the arc).

I appreciated O’Neal giving it a go with the flu, and had he not banged his knee when getting all tangled up, he would have finished the game. But I thought it a blessing in disguise that he couldn’t go tonight. To start the game, he really forced things in the paint, going 1-4 in the paint. I thought it a blessing because Nellie plays small-ball, and O’Neal would have slowed things down for the Raptors, and taken shots at the expense of the perimeter players. Triano couldn’t take this blessing in disguise and turn it into an advantage by giving Hump more burn. 10 minutes in a game like this? I just can’t get over it. Kris didn’t see the floor till the 3rd, and what did he do? Get 10pts and grab 4rebs…again, I’m at a loss here.

On the Bargnani front, this was exactly the type of game where he could have exerted himself, and really made an impact with the lack of defense and up-tempo style of play. He showed a couple flashes; grabbing an offensive board and aggressively putting back a dunk; stepping inside the arc and hitting jumpers; grabbing some boards; some decent defense on Jackson…but just couldn’t put it together. With all of Italy watching, Belinelli came out the prodigal son.

Irregardless of all that, the Warriors won this game in the second quarter during two key stretches:

1. Start of the 2nd Quarter – Voshkul’s meltdown and weak perimeter defense that allowed a three by Jackson, 4 free throws by CJ Watson, Azabuike dunk on the break off of Bosh’s turnover, and a Jackson jumper created by bad perimeter defense by Moon.
2. 3:15 left in the 2nd Quarter – Turiaf blocks Bosh in the paint, which leads to a Watson trey in transition; next possession-Turiaf blocks Calderon which leads to an Azabuike trey in transition; Turiaf gets the ball at the top of the key, swings it to an open Belinelli who sticks an open trey; Jackson nails an open jumper inside the arc.

It all comes down to a personnel issue, the Raptors don’t have the players to really make a stand on the perimeter. Man defense…nothing. Zone defense…zilch. Divine intervention….zero. This team, as currently constructed, and contrary to any suggested lineups, can’t win big games against talented teams. A shake-up is needed and the clock is ticking.

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So much for the 10AM PST start time and so much for the Warriors blowing big leads and so much for Baron Davis having a bad game and so much for the Raptors getting any shot they want against the much maligned Warriors defense. It all amounts to nothing if you allow their best player to go one-on-one on the most crucial possession of the game – much like how we allowed Garnett to eat Bosh alive in OT earlier this year. Three weeks later and we haven’t learned a thing. Make no mistake, this game was there to be had if only one of a few things had happened and they are 1) Bosh has an average offensive game 2) Kapono hits half of his wide-open shots 3) Biedrins is somewhat contained and doesn’t lay an ownage on the entire Raptors defense 4) Our coaching staff recognize that the Warriors are a 3-pt shooting team and take them without any conscience. The only coaching the Sam Mitchell did this afternoon was to make sure that the fans got the free pizza but it doesn’t make up for an offense so predictable, stagnant and inconsistent that all the Golden State Warriors had to do was put Stephen Jackson on Bosh and let TJ Ford get his in order to shut us down when it mattered – the fourth quarter.

Don’t you just love it when Chris Bosh is reduced strictly to a defensive presence and anything you get out of him on the offensive end is considered a bonus. It’s come down to that as another poor offensive showing from Bosh sends the Raptors to a home L an onto the road to Dallas where a Raptors win is about as unexpected as a good out-of-timeout play from Mitchell (the one late in the fourth was just laughable). The way Stephen Jackson shut down Bosh was unbelievable, not unbelievable as in he played some unbelievable defense on him but unbelievable as in “How f***in unbelievable is it that Bosh is incapable of getting good post position against a smaller player and just back him into the rim, it’s not like they’re even doubling him!!” 4-12 FG, 11 points and two big FT misses for Bosh who’s starting to make it a habit of getting shut down by slower and smaller players. Contrast this with the play of Andris Biedrins who made it a point to exploit whatever the defense gave him and outplayed Bosh and our entire frontline singlehandedly. Is he a more skilled player than Bosh or Bargnani? I don’t know but I don’t think so. What he does have what both Bosh and Bargs lack is a clear idea of what he wants to do on the floor and how he’s going to go about doing it.

Sam is acting like a stubborn mule who thinks he knows whats best for the team. What is the reason that Garbajosa who played 24 effective minutes against Indiana didn’t even get a chance to play some defense on Croshere, Harrington or even Azubuike. Is he not even worth of a minute, maybe just to see how he can handle the players that nobody in our lineup had success against in the post? Is he that unworthy of even being given a chance in a matchup where he had 18 points and 11 rebounds a year ago? Please explain this incestual logic Sam?? Wait, you can’t because you believe that this is a team where the lineup is dictated by the “current matchups” and while that is true nobody takes it to the extreme of benching players for games at a time without ANY reasoning.

We lost this game because of poor production from Bosh/Bargs and subpar games from Kapono and Parker. If it weren’t for TJ Ford carrying us yet again while everybody else was laying an egg, this would’ve been a blowout early. Chuck and Leo (almost unbearable to listen to) can make all the excuses they want for Bargs but you can’t help but think you’d get more out of Humphries if given the same PT. Yeah, our future center is coming off the bench but wait, it’s not a demotion, Maceo Baston is just a better fit. How f***in ridiculous does that sound? We barely deserved to win the Indiana game and definitely didn’t this one. Don Nelson called enough pick ‘n roll with the right people to put his players in advantageous matchups and there was nothing we could do but watch as Monta Ellis, Kellena Azubuike and crew did enough cutting to the right places where they found themselves so wide open and got so many shots that they were bound to start hitting them sooner or later.

I’m out for now, probably will spew more shit later. Grab the feed.