Late last week, Chris Bosh’s camp released a wish list of teams he would play for, and the Bulls happen to be one of them (shocking all the teams are linked to either LeBron or Wade or Kobe). The Bulls will be frustrating to deal with (if we in fact do a deal with them) since the guys we would want (Noah, Rose) wont be the guys we would probably get (Gibson, Deng, Hinrich). Not to say those guys wouldn’t provide the Raptors any value, but you know, you trade Bosh, you expect a Noah back while not handing the Bulls a championship lineup since you know, we should be the one building a championship team.

I check with Matt McHale from the ESPN TrueHoop blog By The Horns, to get his take on the Bosh rumours, as well as the situation with Vinny Del Negro:

Sam Holako: Vinny Del Negro got the axe, and probably would have got it earlier in the season if the team didn’t pull together and play so well down the stretch. Looking in from the outside, it seems that he was dealt a bum hand by Paxson, who let Ben Gordon walk, traded John Salmons for rags and didn’t give a good enough team to a rookie head-coach to win with. If you ask me, Paxson should be the next change Reinsdorf makes to this team. What are your thoughts on this whole situation?

Matt McHale: Well, I do feel like Vinny was hired to be fired. Chicago’s front office had a plan that was two years in the making: Hire a “placeholder” coach, cut salary, and then try to go all in during the free agent bonanza this summer. All I can do is speculate, but Bulls management never showed strong support for Vinny nor did they ever do anything to indicate that he was part of their plans past this season. And yet all Vinny did — for all his faults as a relatively inexperienced head coach — was get the team to overachieve based on their talent and how they were constructed.

Speaking of which…who put this team together? John Paxson. And his management of the team hasn’t been stellar. His biggest mistakes — among many — include breaking the bank for Ben Wallace (who worked out so poorly he had to be traded for Larry Hughes!), trading LaMarcus Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas (who worked out so poorly he had to be traded for a couple expiring contracts) and vastly overpaying for Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng. The only thing that has prevented his stewardship of the Bulls from being a complete and utter disaster was the team lucking into the number one overall draft pick they used to get Derrick Rose. Just think of where this team would be without that kid. Yikes.

And yet during the 2008-09 season, after calling the team a “disaster” and “embarrassing,” team owner Jerry Reinsdorf said: “When you have a team that’s not performing it’s an organization failure. You win and you lose as an organization. But if there’s one person that is not responsible for what’s going on right now, it’s John Paxson. I have tremendous confidence in John Paxson. He’s really one of the best people that I know. He’s a great general manager and a great judge of talent.”

What can you do about a guy in that tight with the man who’s funding the team?

And although I would like to see Pax given his walking papers, this is a huge summer in terms of looking for a new head coach and trying to lure a big time free agent or two to the Windy City. Firing the team’s executive vice president would make the team seem in even more disarray…which could be costly.

SH: Wow, talk about a ringing endorsement; guess clutch 3-point shooting in the 90s pays off beyond a couple championship runs. So what’s the plan now? There has been very intense rumours about LeBron joining the Bulls this year. If he can handle playing in Jordan’s shadow, it seems to be the best fit for LBJ on any team in the league, and propel the Bulls back into championship contention. It would also redeem some of those poor personell moves Paxson has made over the years (lucking into the #1 pick shouldn’t have saved his job IMHO).

MM: Well, it goes without saying that the Bulls — and every other team — would love to have LeBron James suiting up for them. And I’m sure Chicago’s front office will reach out to him. But the larger plan is to land somebody big: LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Amar’e Stoudemore…a superstar or borderline superstar who can address some of the team’s glaring needs (scoring first and foremost, and an inside game if possible). That’s priority one in terms of player personnel. Then the Bulls will need to bring in a couple crack three-point shooters to help with spacing. But right now, every iota of energy that isn’t expended searching for a coach will be used to land one of the “White Whales.”

SH: Who’s the front runner for the coaching gig? Calipari’s name seems to be coming up left and right.

MM: Honestly, I have no idea. Cal has been very firm about the fact that he has no plans to leave Kentucky. And anyway, Chicago’s front office has stated that they want a coach with extensive regular season and playoff experience. Calipari compiled a .391 winning percentage over 184 games with the New Jersey Nets, and his only playoff experience was presiding over a three-game sweep of his team in the first round of the 1998 NBA playoffs. That doesn’t exactly fit the bill.

Bulls management is being very careful about this coaching search. Read that: slow.

And in all honestly, they could be waiting for a better idea of who they might be able to land in fre agency. After all, it could have a serious effect on the kind of coach they would want for the team, in terms of offensive/defensive philosophies.

SH: Speaking of free agency, there has been talk of LeBron, Bosh, Wade as possible targets, but each is a very different kind of player. What kind of player do you prefer the Bulls land?

MM: Well, let’s face it: If you can get LeBron James, you get LeBron James. I think the same thing could probably be said about Dwyane Wade. If you can get a bonafide superduperstar, you do it and then rebuild (even if only partially) around them.

But assuming those two are out of reach, the Bulls need — and have needed for years and years — a frontcourt scorer to complement Derrick Rose. Someone who can score from the low post and run the pick and roll successfully. From that standpoint, I think the Bulls should target Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer and/or Amar’e Stoudemire.

SH: What do you make of the phone call between LeBron and Rose?

MM: I think LeBron is, as Mr. Spock said in the latest Star Trek reboot, “cultivating multiple options.” It’s entirely possible he also called Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, too. To me, it seems like LeBron is feeling things out, getting a sense of what’s available out there, whom he might want to play with, and who might want to play with him. It seems to suggest that LeBron is at least considering Chicago as a potential destination…but that’s about it.

Of course, maybe LeBron is just buttering Rose up to get him to join the U.S. national team. Remember, back in December, this was what James said when asked if he’d like to team up with Rose: “Yeah, especially on an Olympic team. He did a great job this past summer holding it down for some of the older guys, giving them some rest. He’s a great point guard. He’s a great player. I love watching Derrick play, man, he’s unbelievable. All he’s going to do is continue to get better — with every game, with every practice. Hopefully in the 2012 Olympics, he can be a part of that team and have some fun.”

SH: Make me an offer for Chris Bosh in a sign-n-trade situation.

MM: Here’s my suggestion: Taj Gibson (and solid, up-and-coming PF) to replace Bosh and Kirk Hinrich. No, wait, here me out. I checked 82games.com and noticed that opposing PGs averaged 21+ PPG with an eFG of 52% and a PER of 20.1 against the Raptors this season. That’s like facing an All-Star PG every night. You don’t necessarily have to start Kirk, but you could bring him in as a defensive stopper off the bench against opposing PGs and SGs (whom I see average 22 points with a PER of 17 against the Raps). Hey, you guys need defense, and Kirk can bring that. So can Taj, actually. He was second on the Bulls in DRating this season as a rookie and will probably improve with experience.

I’m sure we can throw in some other filler to make the salaries work…

Hopefully the decision to keep Bosh out of last nights game was a calculated one to buy him two more days of rest, instead of him being more seriously injured than we have been led to believe. Against the Nets and Wizards, we saw the Raptors come together, share the ball, create good shots for each and knock them down. Against the Blazers, we saw them do that in spurts in the 1st half, and not much in the 2nd.

Last night we got a glimpse into the future of this team if Bosh decides to walk in the summer, and we get no assets back for him in the summer. It’s easy to coach a team that has an elite level player on the floor, who can manufacture shots and seemingly get to the line; what you orchestrate without him is a different matter. While the win against the Nets and Wizards were solid, by no means are those two teams very good.

Heading into this game, the Raptors were 3-point favourites; not much of an edge, but they were the home team. Reading between the lines though, things became worrisome for me. The Blazers were on the second night of a back-to-back; they were missing Oden, Pryzbilla, Camby (and just traded Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw). Ok, so they are tired, and playing a bit short handed, but remember I talked about pace yesterday, and this Blazers team is used to having less possessions a game than everyone other team in the league. This slower tempo actually helps to balance out playing heavy minutes in back-to-back nights.

This slower tempo also made Juwan Howard a huge factor in relief of Camby, who continued his streak of being injured in Toronto. Howard played 31 big minutes of attention demanding play in the post; dropping 10pts 3rebs 2ast 1stl in the process. Rasho had absolutely no answer as he hit the wall on the third consecutive game playing extended minutes.

“It was important to run them off the 3-point line and take away their easy baskets,” Roy said. “We just wanted to make them score over top of a hand each possession and we did a good job of that.”

The Raptors got plenty of looks from beyond the arc, but none were clean, and almost every single one was contested. It was genius if you ask me; Portland was weak in the frontcourt so they tempted the Raptors with just enough space from behind the arc to think they could pop a few off. They did, but not nearly enough dropped.

“We didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball early and it helped them establish the lead they had at halftime,” Jack said. “It’s tough to recover when you give the other team extra possession.”

You could almost forgive the Raptors for missing so many 3′s, but the sloppy plays that lead to turnovers that led to fast breaks were maddening. The Raptors committed 16 of the most lazy/sloppy/ridiculous turnovers I have ever witnessed that led to 17 Blazer points and most of their 20 fast break points. The joke is that the Blazers aren’t even a fast-breaking team. Another side-effect of the constant turnovers was the Raptors took 9 less shots (pace) than the Blazers. 14 point loss, 9 less shots…you do the math. It got so bad, that on one possession, Calderon literally threw the ball away on the wing when he thought Turkoglu was going to drop into the corner.

Speaking of Turkoglu, was I the only one who was disappointed in his play? I mean, he dropped a bloody efficient 24 points on 8-9 shooting from the field, but 3 assists? Without Bosh, Bargnani needs to be the focal point on offense, and it seemed like Hedo was just staying away from him. Bargnani wasn’t helping himself with anything, but it would have been nice to see Hedo work with the Italian and get him some good looks, or easy ones at least. At the very least, this was a positive display from him faced with some pretty tough defensive pressure.

As much as I like Reggie Evans, and as much as his toughness is necessary for this team, he is taking valuable minutes away from Amir Johnson. With the Raptors desperate for some offense in the third quarter, Reggie got about 4 minutes of serious burn and jacked up 3 terrible bricks. Given how well and under control Amir was playing last night, it might have made sense to go with the big who knew how to score (and was rebounding and blocking shots) as opposed to the big who wants to score, but can’t.

“I didn’t hear [the cheers] but I knew that Canada was playing Russia and I saw that it was at our game time so I was happy about that,” McMillan said, smiling. “I looked at the stands when we first came in and said they may have a lot of no-shows. I thought they scheduled it for the right time.”

There were actually about 11,000 people at the ACC, and 200 people watching on TV. Tomorrow night against the Cavs will be a ghost town; we will probably hear Triano furiously etching a play on his clipboard.

The Raptors are 2-1 with Bosh on the shelf, with the only loss coming to a better team. You have to like it, and I do. With Turkoglu picking it up, and Bosh probably back on Friday, things are looking fairly positive during this stretch drive.

I’m not mad/upset/disgusted/disappointed/etc at the loss tonight. Sure Vegas had the Raptors as 8 point underdogs, but anyone with any sense wouldn’t bet on the Raptors unless they are playing the bottom of the barrel teams in the league. The fact of the matter is that the Blazers are a top echelon team, and the Raptors can’t beat anyone when only Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal (and VL to a lesser extent) show up.

Am I the only person who hates watching Blazer games? “What could have been” seems to be a recurring theme with the Raptors:

• Pass on Iguodala
• Pass on Bynum
• Pass on Granger, twice
• Pass on Roy
• Pass on Alrdidge
• Pass on Gay

Portland is especially upsetting for me, since they have TWO of the young studs the Raptors passed on when they took VL with the # 1 pick. Sorry to tangent, but that was the only thing I could think about during the game. It wasn’t so much Aldridge being a handful on the glass and on the offensive end, but what Roy was doing in the 3rd and 4th quarter, wow. How many clutch shots did the guy hit inside 18ft? 5? 6? How many of the same looks are you gonna give the guy? Can’t really blame the players on this one, there really isn’t anyone who can give Roy, or any solid 2/3 in the league, any problems on the defensive end.

“Obviously, a player like Brandon Roy, when he gets going, he’s pretty hard to stop”

Yea, you are right Kapono, but it is hard to stop the dude when you keep doing the same thing over and over and over; when he takes the same shot, off the same looks over and over and over.

“We tried different guys, we tried double-teaming him, and he threw it out,” Triano said. “We ran and we blitzed him. We had two different guys on him any time there was a screen.”

I personally didn’t see any of that. Maybe they talked about doing it, but it never materialized. Sure Roy has the ball in his hands a lot, but how about trying to DENY him the ball, just one time, force him baseline, make him pass the ball, clothesline him, trash talk him, a mama joke;  see how it works out. We know we can’t stop the guy when he has the ball, try not letting have the ball. The result can’t be any worse.

True to form, the Raptors come out of the corner swining, taking an 8 point lead into the half. Would have been 11, but Outlaw willed a 70 footer at the buzzer. It sucked the life out of the Raptors. Whatever fatigue they were feeling from being on the second game of a back-to-back, it was amplified with that hail-mary. A play like that shouldn’t determine the outcome of a game, but it did, and the writing was on the wall at the point.

“Nope, no, no, I don’t think so…maybe it did something to them, but it didn’t hurt us.”

Was Triano’s response when asked about  Outlaw’s miracle heave. I totally disagree, that hail-mary WAS the game changer. The Raptors should have finished the 2nd quarter on an run to push the lead to 11, but divine intervention cut it to a single digit lead. The Raptors shot 20% from the field and managed only 10 points int he 3rd quarter in what was possibly the worse quarter in the franchise history.The frail Raptors psyche can’t take hits like that.

On a positive note, Bosh (29pts 9rebs) and O’Neal (17pts 4rebs) had good showings on the same night. I’m still concerned that good offensive nights from O’Neal come at Bosh’s expense, but on nights when they are the only two to bother showing up, there are lots of shots for both. O’Neal carried the load in the 1st quarter, and Bosh for the second half. But how innefective is the Raptors interior/dribble penetration game? Let’s just say against a team that isn’t known as a defensive force, the Raptors managed 12 foul shots the entire game, 11 were taken by Bosh. Jumper after jumper after jumper…you get the picture. Macmillan said:

“Great shooting team, you know, they can put the ball in the basket, they have an inside presence and they can shoot the ball on the perimeter”

I’m convinced the league just ignores the Raptors on a daily basis. Why is this all they say about the Raptors? ‘Great shooting team’, to me, means that every game, you see high-quality shots being taken and made. Every game. What we see every game, is a high-number of shots being taken, some get made, the others just clanked off the back of the rim.

Shots by Quarter:

1st Quarter – 10-19
2nd Quarter – 9-18
3rd Quarter – 2-13
4th Quarter – 4-7

6 made field goals in the second half? 11 shots in the 4th quarter when you are trying to compete and steal one on the road? Are you seriously kidding me? Roy made more field goals on his own in the last 6 minutes of the game then the Raptors mustered in entire second half. It wasn’t like the Blazers were playing suffocating defense either, Raptors just couldn’t step up and do anything. I sound like a broken record, but aren’t moments like this when Bosh should  take over? Isn’t he the franchise? Can’t he make a couple shots in the 2nd half, do something? Anything? Is he tired? Checked-out? Misses Smitch? What? What is wrong with him? Sure he had a statistically solid game, but how is that everytime when push comes-to-shove, the ‘other’ teams franchise almost always steps up and makes things happen that puts his team in a position to win, and Bosh does that far too regularly for a guy to be mentioned in the same breath as Lebron, Wade and Kobe (even Carmelo, dude is clutch).

Again, I’m not mad/upset/disgusted/disappointed/etc at the loss tonight. Sure Vegas had the Raptors as 8 point underdogs, but anyone with any sense wouldn’t bet on the Raptors unless they are playing the bottom of the barrel teams in the league.

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