Given this is our first post in the series, we examine the six games played to date.

[Editor's note: we are developing our own a user friendly guide to these metrics, but in the meantime Basketball-reference.com's glossary will come in handy. As well, some of the links need ESPN Insider access]

Scoring efficiency and offensive production

The most shocking metric? Linas Kleiza’s 7.3 PER (see definition here). Kleiza is supposed to be one of our key “go to” players on offense and this is a major concern (yes, it’s only six games, but…). Klieza is currently ranked 43rd out of 53 small forwards for PER. This cannot continue. Heck, even Jamario Moon is 3.5 ahead of him. His true shooting percentage is near the bottom on this team and his assist percentage tells us he’s not moving the ball enough.

Andrea Bargnani is solid across the board with the small exception that he needs to move the ball more. Amir Johnson is remarkably efficient on offense so far this year. His usage is very low, but he’s getting the job done when he has the ball. His assist ratio is dismal, largely due to the fact much of his offense is either put backs off offensive rebounds or fast break points. Amir is ranked 12th our of 69 power forwards for PER. However, his 7.1 fouls per 36 minutes is an all-time high. Why do I continue to believe he will improve this metric in order to leverage his efficiency on the court?! I’m finally capitulating – it just isn’t going to happen.

Finally, DeMar DeRozan needs to work on his shot – he has the lowest eFG% (well, besides Evans) on the squad.

His true shooting percentage is ranked 44th out of 63 players at the shooting guard position. (ESPN Insider access required for link – if you have it look how woeful James Harden’s shooting has been this year!).

Rebounding, defense and “hands”

However, turnovers continue to be a major concern. Most of Amir’s good work on the glass is largely negated by his very high turnover rate. As someone commented the other day, Jarrett Jack forces it too often. His very high turnover rate confirms this. His TOV% is the top 10 worst among guards.

Confirmed or busted?

Comment: Sonny Weems is a chucker
Analysis: He does force shots for sure, but his numbers are solid. I bet you didn’t know he was the #1 “long 2″ shooting guard in the entire league (games played > 30). He’s started at a solid clip again this year (40%), but somehow struggles with the mid-range shot: shooting 28.6% from 10-15 feet so far this year. Verdict? Busted.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Our old friend Chris Bosh is neck and neck with Kris Humphries in the power forward PER rankings. They are ranked 26th and 27th respectively.
• Reggie Evans leads the entire league in total rebound percentage. Bargnani sadly ranks 135th – right there with rebounding legends Jarrett Jack and Daniel Gibson. Surprisingly, Bosh isn’t doing much better – both are out rebounded by Chris Paul, Jamario Moon, Caron Butler, Marcus Thornton, Keith Bogans etc (you get the idea).
• Our best lineup: The sample size is too small, but watch out for this lineup: Calderon, Barbosa, Wright, Johnson and Andersen or Bargnani. Again, very small samples, but they clicked big time versus the Lakers (+9 in 3 minutes) and the Trailblazers (+7 in < 3 min)
• DeMar DeRozan’s appears to be the most effective partner the simple +/- rank (yeah, we hate basic +/-, but the sample size is WAY too small for the adjusted +/- measure)

Questions? Submissions for “confirmed or busted”? Email me: tomliston@gmail.com or find me on Twitter.

Sources: basketball-reference.com, hoopdata.com, espn.com

Game Thread on the RR Forums

Very little can be gathered about a team based on their pre-season and early season performances. If you remember, the Raptors quite convincingly beat the Cavs on opening night last season, only to finish the month 7-11. That game was impressive until you started to poke at the it a bit with a stick and realize they were on the second night of a back-t0-back where they had already played the Celtics and were integrating Shaq into an already cohesive unit. The Raptors exploited the Bargnani/Shaq matchup, and the rest was history.

The Cavs are fresh off of their opening night game over the Celtics, which raised a few eyebrows, namely mine. They were able to beat the Celtics with JJ Hickson attacking the basket and hitting enough jumpers to keep the defense honest, while Ramon Sessions and Boobie Gibson attacked off the dribble and made some plays (sound like a certain team we just played?). A wins-a-win, and they convincingly took down the Celtics.

A word on the Cavs before going any further…I F*****G hate them; always have since the John “Hot Rod” Williams and Brad Dougherty days against the Bulls (made me happy Craig Ehlo amounted to squat). The team just always bugged me. The fact that they wasted LeBrons youth makes me hate them even more. Real random tangent, but if you’re Pat Riley, and New Orleans calls you up offering you Chris Paul and David West for LeBron, do you take it? Not trying to hate on LeBron, but a Paul/Wade/ Miller/West/Bosh starting lineup is works better in my world. Seriously, I want to know if I’m on crack with this one, hit up the comments with what you think.

So I was planning to do a Q&A with a Cavs blogger, but he shafted me; yea. In case you’re interested, here are the questions I wanted answered:

• Byron Scott seems to have maintained this squads defensive philosophy from years past (85.4 points on 39.6% shooting in the pre-season with a 6-2 record). Is defensive intensity going to be the Cavs calling card?
• Antawn Jamison seems to be unhappy with his role coming off the bench. Does it make sense to keep him on the books now that everythings changed? Will he get traded this season?
• Will the Cavs be buyers with their $16mil TPE from the LeBron S&T?
• I’ve always thought that Cavs management wasted LeBron’s youth by not making certain deals (Wally Szcerbiak’s expiring deal for a scorer – Vince Carter maybe; passing on Amare Stoudemire for Antawn Jamison because of the Suns insistance on getting JJ Hickson. I hate asking what could have been…but what could have been?
• How does Dan Gilberts reaction in comic sans affect the organizations ability to attract talent in the future?
• As a fan of the franchise, what will it be like to go from a 60 win contender, to the bottom of the Eastern Conference in less than a month?

Injury Report

Raptors
Leandro Barbosa – Wrist (day-to-day)

Cavaliers
Mo Williams – Not sure what the problem is, but he missed the Celtics game with it
Anderson Varejao – Attending to his sick father

Match-ups

PG – Jack vs Sessions
Sessions is going to give us headaches like Felton did on Wednesday. Just look at his shot chart against the Celtics (who are a far superior perimeter defenders than the Raptors) almost all his shots are in the paint.

Sure, when he got to the paint he missed an obscene number, but that’s because one of Garnett, Big Baby or Jermaine O’Neal was running at him. The Raptors have no such luxury. Jack needs to keep this kid in front of him, and out of the key. On the defensive side, he needs to make him work and run around. The Cavs are thin (status was injured at time of publishing) without Mo Williams in the lineup, Boobie is their only backup, and he’s easy to go at.
Edge: Even

SG – DeRozan vs Parker
To this day, the only Raptor jersey/t-shirt I’ve ever owned was an Anthony Parker one; wearing it right now in fact. The guy is super classy, plays within himself, and is just a good guy. He’s not easy to defend, but when you look at his shot chart against the Celtics, not one shot came in the paint.

With that Knowledge in hand Mr. DeRozan, what are you going to do?

a) Play off him, then challenge his shot
Play him tight and force him into the help defense

I’m going with ‘B’ Bob; it’s quite easy, the guy is 34, doesn’t have the legs he used to have, and if you make him work for his shots, it puts that much more pressure on him to perform defensively. DeRozan is due; if he can get up and down the court a few times quick, he might be able to exploit Parker’s age a bit. However, Parker is crafty, and is playing at a pretty high level at 34, so I don’t put anything past him.
Edge: Even

SF – Kleiza vs Moon
One of the things that made me happy last year was watching Moon shoot a jumper he shouldn’t have when we played the Cavs. For all the other great things he did on the court (rebounding and defense), like clockwork, he would ruin every single one of the games I watched when he jacked up a shot, and grinned like an idiot afterwards. Much like Parker, he doesn’t get into the lane much, but when he does, his athleticism helps him finish.

At this point, Kleiza needs to be handling guys like Moon. Nuff said.
Edge: Kleiza

PF – Evans vs Hickson
Part II of Evans vs Stoudemire. Evans grabs 16 rebs and Hickson drops 20 pts sound about right to you? I mean, there’s a reason they stupidly didn’t make the Amare trade by including this kid, right? Right? Still, to not make that trade then go out and get an aging Jamison is bloody ridiculous. Frankly, what can you expect when the organization is owned by a guy who writes fierce open letters in comic sans, but I digress. We need the Reggie of the 1st half from the Knicks game where he frustrated Stoudemire and forced him to take contested shots. It wont be easy since Hickson was able to score 21 pts on 11 possession, against a Celtics defense, with most of his points coming in the paint. Yea, it was an impressive performance. Reggie wins on the boards, JJ scores a ton of points, we call it a night.

Edge: Even

C – Bargnani vs Hollins
Our prayers are out to Varejao who’s attending to his sick father. I literally know nothing about Hollins, but I do know he shouldn’t be someone who gives Bargnani a great deal of trouble. Looking a few games worth of shot charts (Boston only below), seems like he tends to play off the left block (or is right right?), he plays off the top block in the shot chart.

Edge: Bargnani

I can’t see the Raptors losing their first two games in a row, at home, to lower end competition. Vegas has the Raptors as 2.5 point favourites, with an over/under of 194. It’s going to be a slower paced game, and it will probably be ugly, but I’ll take an ugly win anyday. Raps by 4.

Check us for live chat, twitter and facebook updates during the game.

The Raptors are 1-0 during this must win stretch, which goes till the last game of the season against the Knicks. When I said that every game is a must win from here on in, I meant that each game must be approached as if they are. With Toronto and Milwaukee currently tied for 5th, and the Raptors ahead of of Charlotte (9th place) by 2.5 games, there is no “you just have to let this game go and concentrate on the next.”

They did just that against the Knicks on Friday, sans Bosh, who was out with a stomach flu or something (he did practice yesterday and is expected to play today, which is crucial.). Triano went with Amir in the starting lineup, and Sonny Weems had a career game. Bosh did practice yesterday and is expected to play today, which is crucial.

Sonny is our new Jamario Moon, except that he’s good. He is averaging 13.3pts over the last four games. It’s great to see a young/hungry player get an opportunity to contribute, and actually sieze the moment. The best part is that his $850k option for next season will be picked up.

The Raptors are 2-0 against the Sixers this season, and even if Turkoglu doesn’t play (since he is a game-time decision) they should take this with Bosh in the lineup, injured and all. The Sixers are just not very good, and when Eddie Jordan is saying things like “Iguadala is not the kind of player who can carry a team,” how good can things be?

A positive note for the Sixers is that Iverson is done for the season, who has done nothing but shatter my love for him. His absence means more burn for Jrue Holiday, which is also positive news for the Raptors, who can take it to the rookie. Calderon had a solid game Friday against the Knicks, with 16pts 3rebs 6ast; there is no reason to expect otherwise today.

Amir will be playing another big role today, regardless of Bosh’s status. The kid played 31minutes of inspired/controlled ball on Friday, in a starting role. Johnson matches up well with Dalembert, Speights and Young who may be a bit too quick for Evans.

After today, the schedule get’s very difficult for the Raptors. 8 of their next 12 are on the road: the next 4 is a Western swing; 6 are against teams with 35 or more wins…can you say another must win?

Apparently, Bosh’s injury is worse than what Bosh himself suspected, and the team is just being careful with him. There wasn’t a lot of swelling, but he needs more movement. Heading into the stretch run, it is paramount that he is healthy and 100%. If that means sitting out a game against the best team in the league, then I can live with it. The fact of the matter is that even with Bosh, this game would be very challenging, no need to risk further injury.

On Wednesday, Portland forced the Raptors into their style of play: slow pace, keep folks out of the paint, and contest shots. Watching a team execute a plan like that to perfection was very frustrating. To make matters worse, the Raptors played far to loose with the ball, allowing 17 points off of 16 turnovers, not to mention allowing 20 fast break points. What a brutal game to watch, seriously.

Tonight the Raptors host the Cavs, who may have made the biggest splash at the trade deadline by shipping out Ilgauskas (who just got bought out and will be rejoining the Cavs in a couple weeks) for the stretch power foward they have always coveted to play beside LeBron aka Antawn Jamison; all without giving up JJ Hickson. This is a scary team from top to bottom:

PG – Mo Williams; Daniel Gibson; Sebastian Telfair
SG – Anthony Parker, Delonte West
SF – LeBron James, Jamario Moon, Daniel Green
PF – Antawn Jamison, JJ Hickson, Jawad Williams, Darnell Jackson, Leon Powe
C – Shaquille O’Neal, Anderson Varejao, Zadrunaus Ilgauskas (after the 1 month waiting period)

That my friends is a deep team.

This is the third game of the season against the Cavs, and the first with Jamison in the lineup. The season opener saw Bosh and Bargnani have monster games as the Raptors stopped the Cavs dead in their tracks a night after Boston did the same. The second game was a different beast, as Turkoglu registered one of his many no shows. The Cavs didn’t blow the Raptors out of the water, which was positive; but the Raptors were never really a threat to pull out a win.

Tonight has potential to be a rough one, especially if Bosh is out of the lineup again. Rasho has had a pretty solid three game run, but I don’t want to see him start the game. Bargnani is due to break out of his little funk (not really a funk, but with Bosh being out we expected a bit more). The benefit of starting Bargs at center is having Amir start at power forward, which is a better matchup with Jamison.

This front court tandem gives us a mobile, athletic duo that will force Cleveland to think about making adjustments.

You then counter Hickson and Varajeo off the bench with Evans, Rasho and some creative line juggling of Bargnani and Johnson. Whatever happens, Bargnani needs to give us 36 minutes of Dirk-level production or it all falls apart.

Hedo gets LeBron, and this isn’t a Hedo knock, but good luck. I say let him shoot all he wants, but don’t let him penetrate and create for others. At a minimum, if Hedo can be the scoring threat he was against the Blazers, LeBron will have to pay him special attention on defense splitting his focus. Wright has been getting more minutes as of late, and will be called on to provide relief off the bench.

DeRozan’s star has been fading a bit of late. The rook is by all accounts a gym rat who works hard and is hungry to improve, but has been seeing less and less action through the course of the game over the last couple weeks. For some reason, those minutes are going to Belinelli and not Weems, which I have absolutely no answer for. Of the two, Weems has clearly been the better, more consistent performer over the season.

I just want Jack to clothes-line Mo Williams at some point tonight. Mo hasn’t actually done anything for me to not like him, I just don’t. I’m also looking forward to Jamario Moon clanking a couple jumpers that breaks Cleveland’s offensive flow.

With Bosh playing, this would be an interesting game, with the Raptors having enough depth up front to give the Cavs some problems. Without him, I don’t like our chances. As long as we play tough and not fold, the Raptors can give themselves a chance to pull one out. The passing will need to be crisp, the ball needs to be protected, rebounds need to be grabbed and jumpers need to fall. Not so tall an order, huh?

The ACC will probably be dead seeing as the Canadian Mens Olympic hockey team is in the semi’s against Slovakia. Fortunately, we know a bar that is carrying the Raptors game tonight: come join us for Raptor Fan Friday at the Sports Centre Cafe tonight.

RFF UPDATE:

We sincerely appreciate everyone’s understanding given tonight’s circumstances.

With the glitz and glamour surrounding NBA All-Star weekend, we thought we’d use this moment to drop some fresh extra flavour to ‘the game’ by releasing the premiere episode of our new RRTV original weekly series called LOUD CROWD NOISE!!!

Because we’re all passionate Raptors fans here in the Republic, so much so that that the blood in our veins is Raptor-red, it just isn’t enough for us to simply stand proud knowing that everyone in the basketball media community knows full well that Raptors fans are a savvy and crazy bunch when it comes to covering the team online. So we felt it was necessary to exercise our creative and innovative spirit to literally show everyone in the league that the Raptors have the strongest, loudest, craziest and most passionate fan base in the NBA! It’s our love for the Raptors that brings us together and LOUD CROWD NOISE!!! is a testament to our passion and dedication for the Toronto Raptors.

In this premiere episode, we captured the excitement and energy of the Raps season opener against the Cavs as our host Colin Alschotz interacted with fellow Raps fan-addicts and got their thoughts about all things Raptors.

Finally, we want to express our huge thanks to everyone that contributed to the making of this series, especially: Colin Alschotz for the on-screen presence; Birdman for the directing and editing; D&L Productions for the original music; LyNx for the graphics; BigMac (Rexdale) and TheScore for the game footage, and MLSE for putting the product on the court.

On a night where Kobe broke his finger; he manned up, chipped in 20/5/5 and paced the Lakers for their 11th win in a row, the Raptors showed little of anything while being thumped by the Hawks, again. I thought it was Groundhogs day. Except this time, no, it was groundhogs day.

I accept that the Hawks are a better team then us. I accept that the Raptors needed to play a perfect game to beat them. I accept the loss, but I don’t accept the manner in which they lost. As they are currently constructed, this isn’t a team, it is a collection of dudes who can play basketball (they can shoot and pass and such). It’s time for an intervention, we should sit the franchise down and read them the riot act. I’ll start…

Dear Raptors,

You have continually hurt me. From 1995, you have been an important part of my life. Those formative years after you were just born, you were so cute. You had a little mouse who wasn’t welcome at first, but earned a spot in our hearts. Scrappy those teams were. We were just happy to be in the NBA, but you didn’t disappoint, you kept getting better. Trades, drafts, signings. You became a team we were proud to cheer.

You eventually made the playoffs, even got to within one shot of beating the Sixers in game 7 to reach the Eastern Conference finals, but it went down hill. You let your franchise player go bad. You watched as this organization sank to new depths. There was a death rattle where you were Atlantic champions, but that didn’t last long at all.

Your addiction to money has made it hard to support you. Sure you put together enough talent to fool the casual fan. But many of us know better. I’m sick of you taking all my money, time, energy, and giving nothing in return. The style of play you should be worried about is winning, but you are clinging to a system that only worked in Phoenix.

Are you so stubborn that you can’t admit your mistakes, ask for help and forgiveness and go about making things right? Have we not earned that right after holding your head up over the bowl after so many nights of excess and shame? You need to do something, or risk losing me to the Blazers (who need a team blog).

- Sam (aka Raps Fan)

The Raptors started the 1st quarter strong, Turkoglu showed why he got that deal: he was all over the court, passing, shooting, pulling down boards 3pts 5rebs 4ast in 4 minutes of play. Bargnani was on, he was hitting his shots and getting to the line. Bosh was the Hawks focus again, but he contributed 6pts 3rebs. The Raptors built an 18-10 lead, and looked like they were really competing, and could pull this one out. Then the Hawks went on 19-9 run to end the 1st (3 of those 9 were a running hail mary by Antoine Wright as the quarter was running out). The Hawks started the 2nd on a 13-6 run before Triano thought it prudent to call a timeout (at the 8:44 mark), but it was little too late, it was all academic from there – the game had already been conceded. I spent the rest of the night answering questions about Bosh on ESPN.

Some thoughts:

Jay: Hey buddy Jose: Don’t talk to me puto!

Calderon
This is the second year in a row where the guy has been injured, and was rushed back prematurely, only to get further injured. We can all agree the Raptors are better with him in the lineup, but why risk him being out for more games then necessary if we only rested him to begin with? What’s worse is that the Raptors were going to lose with or without him against the Hawks, wtf was Triano thinking?

Bargnani
The guy is a great scorer, but he does nothing else. He grabbed ONE rebound in the first half, and grabbed 2 more during garbage time in the 4th. 9pts in the first quarter, but disappeared the rest of the game. He scored 3 more points then Bosh on 5 more shots.I mean, I like the guy, but even when he’s engaged and scoring, he does little else. What happened to the defense we’ve been hearing about all week? Bosh wasn’t much better, but at least he contributed in other ways (grabbed rebounds and

Triano
The Hawks did exactly the same thing to us as the last game, and you had no answers. You knew what was coming, and did nothing about it. What is it you exactly do when you watch the game video? What is it you exactly write down on that clipboard of yours? What do those assistant coaches do other then call, run and faciliate meetings you should have been on top of? Why the hell do you only play DeMar 3 minutes in the 4th quarter of a blowout game? What exactly is your plan for the rest of the season if Colangelo doesn’t shake stuff up? Also, can you do something about Antoine Wright. The guy is out of control. He is Jamario Moon incarnate. Takes horrible shots at horrible times with the same horrible results. FFS!

We have lost by a combined 57 points to the Hawks over the last two games. The best part: there are two more games against them this season to push that discrepancy to 100. We’re going to need another team meeting before tomorrow, with Houston, Miamia and Orlando all coming up in a row. This team has fully reverted to pre-team meeting effort levels, there may be no relief until Friday when we host the Nets (which has the potential to be a disaster of its own).

My life just got 30% better with the season starting today. The Raptors host the Cavs, who just came off a 95-89 loss at the hands of the C**tics last night. Seeing Anthony Parker in a Cavs uniform was unsettling for me. For those of you who didn’t want the guy back, just remember, he is starting for a team that has their designs on a championship, dude can play.

A few things happened in that game that has me feeling good about the Raptors chances of winning tonight:

• First of all, the Cavs look lost offensively with LeBron on the bench. They have no one to carry the load, no one! LeBron only sat 3 minutes, dude played 45 minutes on opening night, this shouldn’t bode too well for them.
• Shaq out gunning on all cylinders, but that didn’t last too long. By the 3rd quarter, he looked old and slow(er then usual).
• No Delonte West

Matchups

Calderon vs Williams
We finally have an injury free Calderon, who looked better as the pre-season went on. With some of creating burden being passed on to Hedo, Calderon should be good to spot up for some open 3s. Williams isn’t much of a defender, and considering he played 35 minutes last night, he wont be playing as aggressively as Mike Brown would want him too. He will be attacking Calderon on offense, but the two should cancel each other out.
The Edge: Even

Parker vs DeRozan
Parker is one of my favourite Raptors of all time. It was good to see him play well along side LeBron last night, but he played 40 minutes. He didn’t shoot great from the field (3-9), but he hit some timely 3s and some solid defense on Ray Allen. He now has to chase DeRozan up and down the court on the second night of a back-to-back. DeRozan needs to attack him from the tip, and keep going at him. This could be a long night for Parker in his return to the ACC.
The Edge: Even*

Turkoglu vs LeBron
Doesn’t matter how good Turkoglu plays, LeBron is LeBron. In 45min last night, LeBron dropped 38pts 4rebs 8ast. You can’t beat that. You only hope that Turkoglu gives up more jumpers then drives. If he can keep him out of the lane, and force LeBron to shoot deep jumpers, I can live with whatever happens.
The Edge: LeBron

Bosh vs Varejao
We know how this will turn out, Bosh will win the overall match-up, but Varejao will win every single hustle play. The guy leads the league in ran down rebounds (errr, yea, he runs down rebounds more then anyone else). He isn’t a threat to score, but that doesn’t mean Bosh should ignore him. The guy is the consummate garbage man. It will be a long night for him though, Bosh looks good to start his max-year campaign tonight.
The Edge: Bosh

Bargnani vs Shaq
Shaq can’t cover Bargnani on defense, and Bargnani can’t cover Shaq either. This match-up comes down to who is going to grab more rebounds, and play better defense. Bargnani should have the advantage, as he will force Shaq out from the key on defense, opening up some space to maneuver. Should Shaq cover Bosh on defense, the same situation will happen as Bosh likes to play from 18ft in. Factor in Shaq played 30min last night, and looked worse as the game dragged on.
The Edge: Bargnani

Bench
With Delonte West not even wearing Sean John on the sidelines, the Cavs have a pretty bad bench. Amir Johnson will neutralize Ilgauskas, Jack will neutralize Boobie, Wright will own Moon. In fact, looking at the Cavs bench, I am hard-pressed to think how this is a championship calibre team, they need to get healthy quick!
The Edge: Raptors

Injury Report

Raptors
Reggie Evans

Cavaliers
Daniel Green
Leon Powe
Delonte West

The Line

The line is set at Cavs -5.5 with an over/under of 191.

Game Simulation

This is a new feature we are running with this season, our boy Jeremy Visser from That’s What I’m Saying, Guy… will drop a simulation every game-day with complete boxscores and highlights. You can hit him up on twitter @jeremy_visser. We’ll be keeping track of them here.

LeBron James led the way for Cleveland in the NBA 2k10 opener, recording a triple-double (28 points, 13 boards and 16 assists) to lead the Cavs past the Raptors 117-98. Toronto hung tough, trailing by just six points entering the fourth quarter, before King James & co. put them away with a late run.

Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 20 points and nine rebounds. Chris Bosh, limited all night by foul trouble, finished with 19 in just 19 minutes. Hedo Turkoglu struggled in his debut with Toronto, finishing with 10 points of 4-of-14 shooting.

Aside from James, the Cavs got a strong performance from all-star Mo Williams, who scored 29 and added six assists. Shaquille O’Neal scored 19 in his second game as a Cav.

Boxscore

Keys to Winning

• Hit the glass – the Cavs have an active front court, and need to be containted
• Limit LeBron – easier said then done, but if we can limit his options, and make him beat us one-on-one on every possession, will get hard to carry the load
• Pick-n-Roll – I know I don’t have to say it, cause that’s all the Raptors do, but between Shaq and Ilgauskas, the PNR defense is wanting.

Prediction

The Cavs will be tired, but pissed off. The Raptors don’t play defense like the C**tics, but if they can run the Cavs around, and not let up, it will be a long night for the LeBron et al. I called a Raptor win earlier in the summer, and unless LeBron drops 50, I like the Raptors to represent.

Catch us tonight on live chat.

Manning the 2-3 spots for the Raptors last year were Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker and Joey Graham. This year we have DeMar DeRozan, Antoine Wright and Hedo Turkoglu. Forget defense, the first thing that jumps at you is that we have superior offensive firepower at the wings. We all know about Turkoglu (10th in scoring for his position) and have seen DeRozan’s potential; Wright’s a write-off but he still can’t be too much worse than Joey Graham on the offensive side of the ball. The 6′ 10″ Turkoglu adds size that can be utilized on both ends by a coach who recognizes the opportunity. I remember Phil Jackson using Toni Kukoc as a great defensive asset even though he was hardly a good defensive player. Kukoc (along with Pippen) was the Bulls’ trap-guy because of his length and got a lot of deflections just because he happened to be at the right spot on the court when those skip and point-to-wing passes were being made. He was a player whose good size was being used correctly by a good coaching staff.

I feel Turkoglu is a player that’s not given enough credit for his defense. He’s not an ultra-quick lock-down type defender, but he’s long and big, and more importantly, uses his head on defense which last year’s small forward (Moon) never did. In his life. Ever. I think Triano will appreciate the luxury of having a 6′ 10″ hedge-man who can make the return pass that much more difficult. If you put him on the floor with DeRozan and Jack you’ll get a 1/2/3 combination that’s athletic, strong and big. That to me is a huge improvement over last year where two of those three spots were leaking for 48 minutes a game.

I don’t know how DeMar DeRozan will fare defensively at the SG. It’s one of the toughest positions to defend simply because the skill level and athleticism of the players at the off-guard is tremendous. It is good to know that we have Wright waiting in the wings to help out the rookie. The natural comparison to last year would be with Parker who I feel (and as he acknowledged in the off-season) is only a good team-defender, what that means is that he can listen to the coach. Parker can tighten up on a player up but if that player is any good, he can drive by him on any given day. He doesn’t have the athleticism to be in two places at once and his recovery defense is non-existent. DeRozan is an upgrade athletically, the question is whether he’ll be disciplined enough to listen to the coaches, read the scouting reports and play to the weakness of the defender.

The 6’7″ DeRozan has the physical tools to defend but it all depends on how quickly his NBA initiation happens. He’ll be going up against Pierce, LeBron and Vince in the first month of the season so you’d think he’ll have learned the major defensive lessons early. Defense is about effort and commitment and since rookies usually find the offensive part tough, there’s no better channel to make up for your shortcomings on offense than defense. Just like Mo Pete did it. I think the major measuring stick for DeRozan will be how attentive he is to the coaching staff and whether he’s able to correct his early mistakes (which are bound to happen) quickly and thus earn the right to be on the court. If you can’t defend you’re a liability and Triano’s not going to fool around, especially if the effort and dedication isn’t there.

Turkoglu’s a defensive and offensive improvement over Moon. I’d consider Parker to be a better defender than DeRozan but that could change if DeRozan wants it to. The Parker of two years ago was an efficient scorer but last year’s version labored more than a cow giving birth to triplets. DeRozan is an unproven commodity but it’ll be awfully hard to be as inconsistent as Parker was last year. It’s a wash to start the season with DeRozan having the potential to be a much more productive scorer. This leaves us with Antoine Wright vs Joey Graham.

I haven’t seen Wright enough to comment on his offensive game but judging by his playoff performance and what’s coming out of coaches’ mouths, I’d say he’s a superior defender than Graham. Joey’s lateral movement reminded me of a closet; even though he went some ways in winning my approval through his hard-nosed offensive play to finish the season, he was still significantly below average in both departments. The worst you can say about Wright is that he sucks on offense but is an above average defender. So yeah, Wright gets the edge.

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about Belinelli, I just think he’s too much of a wildcard to be counted upon. I do love the “Don Nelson hated him and how that he’s on the loose he’ll show us how great he is” argument but that just isn’t true, the guy did get 21mpg last year so it’s not as if Nelson had him in solitary confinement and fed him through a keyhole for the whole year. Belinelli could be as good as Tracy Murray or Walt Williams or as bad as Tracy Murray or Walt Williams. I just cannot bring myself to expect anything particular of him.

I have my reservations with Jarrett Jack defending the off-guard, mostly because I don’t think he’ll be called upon to do that and also because he’s 6’3″. I think there will be enough work at the point to keep him occupied, but let’s play along for a minute. He’s a bullish player who can be posted-up but has the strength to push out the poster further out. However, a height disadvantage is a height disadvantage and at this level an off-guard with a reasonable jumper will be able to score on him whenever he feels like it. If you’ve seen him in Indiana you might’ve noticed his ability to draw contact on offense with a quick move followed by a hard-stop which bumps the defender slightly backwards, leaving him enough room for the mid-range jumper. I’m not sure about his blow-by ability but if his jumper is falling (and defenses will test that first) he’ll have the opportunity to create with dribble penetration against SGs. Sounds cozy enough but again, I just don’t think the off-guard is where he’s most valuable to us.

Overall, the wing defense has improved. I think we’ll be better at defending dribble penetration and have improved our athleticism and size to the point where we’re at least average. Turkoglu will improve production and DeRozan/Wright will at the very least wash out Parker/Graham. Will we have negative +/- at the 2/3? Can DeRozan learn to defend the off-guard? Is Turkoglu’s ability to play defense overblown? Is Wright as good as people say he is? Can Belinelli provide the scoring punch? Can Jack actually play significant minutes at the 2? These are just a few of the many questions that remain to be answered about our wings. Your thoughts are always appreciated.

The “what if Jamario Moon was re-signed” Edition:

1) What would be the MAX contract you would give him?

2) Do you think he would be capable of being the starting SG while DeRozan get’s accustomed to the NBA grind?

3) Can we really deal with his gun-slinging for another 2+ years?