Obviously others chipped in and contributed…just that the headline was perfect and I didn’t want to change it: Calderon moved the ball around aside from a couple retarded passes, but the defense wasn’t there; Barbosa did DeRozan’s job and scored the ball; Kleiza did Amir’s and Davis’ job and grabbed rebounds off the bench; and James Johnson’s double-double was so natural it makes you want to choke him out on nights he puts up crap.

I have nothing positive to say about this game. It took 42 minutes from Bargnani, after missing six games, to win this one. 42 MINUTES! You have to assume he still isn’t 100% since that’s how the pro’s work. Amir and Ed played so terrible that Casey couldn’t spare more than 6 minutes at the power forward. Think about what that means for a minute; guys that were considered core members of the future could only give an injured man, who missed six straight games with injury, 6 minutes of relief against the one of the few teams in the league I wouldn’t trade the Raptors straight up for.

That last notion is a conversation I’ve been having with a lot of folks over the last few days: if you were to compare the Raptors to every other team in the league as currently constructed, you’d be hard-pressed not to like the other squad*. In this instance, the Suns have the best player of the two teams, Steve Nash, but he’s old and dreaming of finishing his career in New York. If he still had a year or two left on his contract, you could make the case that it would be better to rebuild around him…I really want to know what people think of this, put it in the comments.

As for Arse’s predictions:

Margin after first: -8 -> 10
Margin at halftime: -4 -> 4
Margin at end of third: -16 -> 8
Final score margin: -9 -> 3
Best Raptor: James Johnson -> Would have been if Bargnani wasn’t there
Worst Raptor: Ed Davis -> Yup, see Roll Call
Shots of Suns cheerleaders: 6 -> I counted 7 on LPBB
DeMar DeRozan three attempts: 4 -> 0, thank jah
Amir Johnson fouls: 5 -> 3, but didn’t play enough to get there
Barbosa final point tally: 18 -> 19
Rasual Butler moments of retardedness: 3 -> 2
Dwayne Casey yelling “go go go”: 2 -> No idea, I wont lie and say 6+
Jose Calderon assists: 8 -> 11

One thing I did like was the starting lineup, not that they played very long together, but Gray and Bargnani lining up together is more formidable than anything else we can muster. Next step is to insert Barbosa into the starting five, and make DeRozan the first wing off the bench; could be what he needs…in Utah tonight, pre-game up soon.

* Of the ten worst teams in the league, a case could be made that only Charlotte and Detroit are worse off than the Raptors

Photo Credit: Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images

The Raptors’ franchise (and max contract) player
By: Tom Liston

Free agency 2010 talk drives me crazy. I believe Chris Bosh hasn’t made up his mind. How can he? He doesn’t know how this team will finish. Nor does he know what teams will have cap room and what their plans are. However, more frustrating are the comments I’ve read recently about him not being worth a maximum contract. Frankly, I was shocked, but it was worth “refreshing” my own thoughts on the topic so I did a bit more research and concluded that:

Chris Bosh is absolutely a max-contract/franchise player.

There are approximately 30 players in and around that “max” contract type number (http://hoopshype.com/salaries.htm). Some of these players have been quite overpaid in hindsight (e.g. Jermaine O’Neal) and others are due for large raises. And not every team will be able to afford to pay a maximum contact. So, let’s say that there are a solid 20 players that can be considered franchise/max players. In that context, let’s see where Mr. Bosh is currently for the 2009-10 season:

Sources: NBA.com and Basketball-reference.com / For win shares calculation / PER rankings

Mr. Bosh is top 10 in every major “overall” efficiency ranking. While PER, NBA Efficiency, Win Shares and Adjusted +/- all have drawbacks (there simply isn’t a “holy grail” of overall efficiency), the data is telling.

Besides the obvious positives from the scoring and overall rebounding numbers Bosh puts up, there are a two metrics that jump out to me: free throws attempted and offensive rebounds. These are two metrics which have an understated impact on winning games. Bosh being number 1 in free throw attempts is huge. It largely means he’s getting a key opposing big in foul trouble (and scoring points at the same time). This usually leads to easier attempts by his teammates as it often “opens” up the lane due to the lack of presence of the opponent’s key big. Offensive rebounds is another statistic that may not be fully appreciated. Not only did you “save” a possession, but you likely were able to put up a highly efficient shot. Ranking 5^th (per game) in the league is impressive.

So you ask, who shows up on the top of Win Shares, PER, and Adjusted +/- rankings?

Well, maybe you didn’t, but it’s: LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash… oh and some guy named Christopher Wesson Bosh. And only four of them (yes, Mr. Bosh included) were on top of all three categories) It’s difficult to say if Mr. Bosh continues on this pace (see Blake Murphy’s great post for the data from last year), but there is little doubt in my mind he’s one of the premier players in the game today and certainly a maximum contract or “franchise” player.

“But he hasn’t taken his team to the promised land” one may argue. I’ll counter that view by saying you need another star (or “near-star”) and key role players to do this. Shaq had Kobe, Kobe had Shaq, Bird had McHale/Parrish/DJ, Magic had Kareem, Jordan had Pippen, Duncan had Ginobilli/Parker, etc. Bosh has yet to receive this quality support.

“But his defense isn’t up to par”. Two things: i) his Adjusted +/- partly accounts for this and his number is great ii) you tend to have play help D much more often when your 4 teammates are generally very poor defenders. This can exaggerate (negatively) your own performance.

Statistics sometimes “lie”. But watching many of the games this year, you see Bosh dig deep to pull games out. He is not a “create-my-own-shot-with-5-seconds” left type of player. No centre or power forward is. But he helps his team win games – throughout the game – and does it extremely well.

Chris Bosh is a special player. A franchise player. A maximum contract player. And a player that I want in a Raptors uniform for a long time.

After two humiliating losses in a row to Charlotte and Boston, the Raptors host Phoenix in a game that is sure to be an exciting one. The Suns are an upgraded version of the Raptors: a high volume scoring team that wins games by out-scoring their opponent. Something of interest, the Suns have the fourth highest scoring differential in the league at +6.8, this is a testament to their offense as they concede 105.2 points a game.

I think we can all agree that the Raptors are a talented team. We have a bunch of finesse guys who when on, give folks fits on defense. When they are off, however, we get results like the Charlotte game. At this point, it comes down to what’s inside. Who you are. How you respond when the chips are down, and don’t fool yourselves, the chips are down.

There’s a lot of frustration in this locker room, and we have to say ‘enough is enough.’

- Antoine Wright

I’d like to see the team more passionate.

- Chris Bosh

As tough as the schedule has been so far, the Raptors are 7-10 and half a game out of the playoffs. Obviously we have issues that need to be resolved stat, but we can’t judge these guys, and say they don’t want to win. Any one of us who has ever played organized sports will tell you that everyone wants to win, some more than others. It becomes a matter of how much do you want it.

What Bosh and Wright have been saying since the Boston loss, and the tone being used, encourages me. Everything has been said. All the tape has been watched. All the drills in practice have been run. All the talk has been talked. It is time for these guys to step up and deliver. That’s it. Get pumped, get in there and do it:

The Point: You can’t say Calderon isn’t a competitor. If he is injured, he needs to rest and recover. If he’s healthy, he needs to be aggressive. Nash can’t stop our boy off the bounce, and will give him plenty of good looks from the perimeter. Calderon needs to stick that shot, and make Nash work very hard on both ends of the floor. Jack needs to never shoot the ball, and take it to the rack. Good things happen when he does that. Something out of their control is that they should not be played together much. The spectre of them guarding Nash and Richardson isn’t a pleasant one. Barbosa makes me nervous too with that lightning speed, but he’s gives that back on defense. Just make their guys work hard on the defensive end, and when they have to shoot, they will be tired.

The Wing: I like DeRozan, I really do, but he isn’t a starter just yet. His minutes will be limited, so he wont have much impact on this game. Wright needs to walk that walk now. He will see some time, and his time better be spent playing defense and grabbing rebounds. I hate Wright as a shooter and I hate when he puts the ball on the floor and attacks the paint. He needs to check Richardson, and not let him get off. Period. Belinelli needs to create for Amir, and hit his jumpers. He’s our offensive plug off the bench, and needs to act as such. Leo needs to stop verbally fellating him as we know why Golden State traded him: the guy disappears far too often. Turkoglu needs to NOT justify that contract, and just play. High pick and roll, drive, dish, create, shoot, rebound…grunt.

The Bigs: Bosh has been the lone consistent force on this team all season. Not sure what people expect of him, but when he isn’t scoring, he is grabbing rebounds, rotating on defense, and swatting guys. Can he do more? Yes. How much more? Not sure. What’s also unclear is where that line is of how much more he can do on his own. I personally think that we are at that line. His offense hasn’t come at anyones expense, not even Bargnani’s. He gets good post position, and attacks. That is what you want your big to do. He doesn’t kick it out as much as he could, sure, but I’d rather have Bosh take a 7ft hook in the block, then one of our guys shooting from behind the arc. Amare is going to score, there is nothing that can be done about that, but I’d rather see Amare shoot from 17ft then dunk in the lane. Make the guy work for it. Bargnani needs to score to be effective, we all should agree on this right now. When he isn’t scoring, the rest of his game suffers. For the most part, he has had a pretty good season so far (I’m much happier with his rebounding). He just needs to DEMAND the ball more. 12 shots a game is pretty low for a guy who can score as efficiently as he has been this year. Frye hurt us bad last time because he was left open time-after-time. There is no reason that Bargnani should leave Frye open on the perimeter, none. I can’t think of any circumstance where Bargnani would leave Frye to do anything other then rebound a missed shot, which wont be often, so yea, don’t leave him open….please.

The Line

The Suns are -2.5 on the road, with an over/under of 230, which means that this will be as shootout aka anyones game.

Simulation

Visser’s sims are 13-4 this year and this time the crystal ball is predicting a 120-113 Raptor win:

Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu each had big games the Raptors got back on track with a 120-113 win over Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns at the ACC.

Bosh had game-highs of 37 points and 13 rebounds and Turkoglu had a season-high 28, adding eight boards in the process. Jose Calderon had 16 assists and Jarrett Jack had 12 points off the bench.

Nash was surprisingly quiet in his homeland, finishing with just 10 points on 3-of-13, though he added 11 assists. Amare Stoudemire was the most productive Sun, chalking up 29 points and 10 boards.

Prediction

I’m with Jeremy, the numbers are out of whack (especially for Bargnani), but I’m expecting big nights from Bosh, Bargnani and Turkoglu. Raptors win by 7.

But I have done well in tempering my expectations. I find 50 wins to be lofty, but am supremely confident that we are watching the molding of a top-5 team in the East. It certainly hasn’t been the presence (or lack thereof) of Turkoglu, the (lack of) health up and down the roster, inspired team-first offense from Marco Belinelli (uhh…), or the apparently pointless-in-game-situations added bulk to Bosh’s frame.

Instead, my expectations have remained buoyed on the life raft of Jay Triano. Long considered one of the top assistants in the league, Triano was largely respected by players and the basketball community alike for his work with Team Canada and then with the Team USA Selects. Handed a rag-tag roster at the end of a lost season, we saw little of what Triano was capable of last year.

Already this preseason, though, we’ve heard and witnessed things from a coach the good fans of the Raptors aren’t used to. Defensive focus that is more than lip service, the understanding of how to utilize role players, and the understanding that coaching is equal parts strategy and psychology.

Kevin O’Neill couldn’t handle the psychological part, and Sam Mitchell deferred the strategic to his staff of assistants. Triano seems to grasp the balance well, while bringing his unique vision of both to the forefront of Training Camp 2009. With zero results that could be described as positive in his career, Triano’s demeanor, approach, and basketball intelligence are all I need to convince me that this roster, which is the best top-to-bottom we have enjoyed in many years, is every bit as good as we are collectively expecting them to be.

There are a few key examples of what I mean that stick out, not the least of which is Triano’s insistence that rookie DeMar DeRozan will have to earn his playing time. It sounds simple, but most times franchises will force rookies into a role or minutes that they haven’t earned, or do the complete opposite and give them no chance to succeed. With the addition of Antoine Wright, Triano has a tool at his disposal to push and teach DeRozan. As he has indicated many times, the luxury of having Wright is that Triano can pull DeRozan at any point to coach him, without losing anything on the floor with the Wright substitution. I have seen far too many cases of coaching done by yelling from the sidelines or being left for the post-game, neither of which is an immediate nor effective teaching tool, it seems.

In addition, Triano seems to have a pretty sound grasp of how to run a training camp already. Whether it be bringing players along slowly, building from defensive basics upward, or bringing in notorious shooting guru Dave Hopla over a span of three non-game days, Triano appears to have found a balance between defense, offense, down time, and mental preparation. It sounds as if the amount of video time and “basketball study” is more than we’ve ever expected in Toronto, and it has me hopeful that this will be the most basketball-intelligent installment of the Raptors yet.

Of course, I shouldn’t have to convince you of Triano’s credentials. Coach of Team Canada, Coach of Team USA Selects, author of “Basketball Basics,” confidant of Steve Nash…the list of qualifiers goes on. Triano is without a doubt a great basketball mind. So far, it appears as though he’s doing a great job transferring that knowledge to his players, fostering a team vision that rewards defensive intensity, basketball intelligence, and a willingness to sacrifice for the good of the team (see Amir Johnson’s attitude on limited minutes, for a good example).

Whether this translates to Wins when the NBA season gets underway next week is yet to be seen. We’re all obviously on guard for a slow start given the training camp and conditioning troubles of the team, but a complete culture overhaul cannot be evaluated in just a few weeks anyway. At the very least, we’ll soon know if handling adversity and making adjustments is another skill to add to the lengthy list of Triano coaching qualities.

Globe and Mail

Raptors centre Andrea Bargnani wasn’t sorry to see Sam Mitchell fired.

And he says he is worried Maurizio Gherardini, the Raptors’ highly respected senior vice-president of basketball operations, might be leaving.

In an interview with La Gazetta dello Sport from Treviso, Italy, where he’s been doing some off-season training, Bargnani said he is encouraged the Raptors decided to make Jay Triano the head coach, and not too disappointed that Sam Mitchell was shown the door.

"As a coach, everyone in the team likes him, unlike Mitchell, and he earned the respect of all the players right from Day 1," Bargnani said. "That’s why we asked [Raptors president Bryan Colangelo] to confirm him. And he agreed, because he’s the right man to start over with."

National Post

Watching the Orlando Magic should be particularly sour for fans of the Toronto Raptors. Do you know how the Raptors have been plagued by a lack of productivity from their swingmen? Well, the Magic have two players who could have helped Toronto in that regard.

First, there is the Magic’s starting shooting guard, Courtney Lee. Orlando selected Lee with the 22nd pick in last year’s draft. The Raptors had the 17th pick in the same draft, but shipped it off to Indiana in a package for Jermaine O’Neal, a trade that was ultimately a bust.

Lee scored 24 points in a game earlier in the post-season, and has shown a certain fearlessness in big moments.

Orlando also has reserve Mickael Pietrus, who has outscored the Cavaliers’ bench 69-57 by his lonesome this series. In the summer of 2007, he was a restricted free agent. Instead of taking a run at Pietrus, the Raptors opted to use their entire mid-level exception on unrestricted free agent Jason Kapono, who has been an unmitigated disaster for Toronto.

Meanwhile, Pietrus has emerged as a very useful piece on a championship contender.

RealGM

Of course, Calderon still has four years left on his 5-year/$40 million deal that he just signed last summer. So, the question then arises on what to do with him? It’s quite simple really: move him to the two-spot. He’s proven he can shoot and although you’d be undersized and maybe severely challenged defensively in the backcourt, you can make up for it more than enough by having some frontcourt prowess and an oversized SF.
I do like Calderon as a PG, despite his mediocre season this year, but rarely do you have a chance to pick up a talent like Steve Nash. If Colangelo figures Calderon isn’t suited to play SG and is enticed enough at the possibility of getting Kid Canada, you deal Calderon. It’s that simple. But, there is no chance you deal him unless you know for sure you’re getting Nash.
At this point next summer Calderon will have only three years left on a contract that is very respectable and should be quite easy to move, especially if he has a nice season in 2009-10.

Da Bullz

9. Toronto Raptors - DeJuan Blair (Pittsburgh, Sophomore)

Even if the Raptors decide to keep Chris Bosh, they still will need more toughness up front.

The Dream Shake

9. Toronto Raptors: Jrue Holiday

Great potential.  Has yet to amount to anything, but really, he’s got potential.  Believe me.

NBC Sports

9. Toronto Raptors: Jordan Hill, PF, Arizona
Hill took the biggest fall from Version 1 — second overall was simply too high. He may easily go higher than No. 9 and probably should, but if teams are drafting by need, he may fall to Toronto. And you have to think that would be a steal.

Draft Express

Videos – NBA Combine Media Availability Interviews

Draft Express

-Jrue Holiday is the third biggest point guard measured, at 6-3 ¼ without shoes. He also has the fifth biggest wingspan and third biggest standing reach.

Draft Express

A point guard by nature, Holiday spent the majority of his time playing off the ball due to the presence of Collison. This fact, coupled with Ben Howland’s slow-paced offensive system, prevented Holiday from getting very many touches or allowing him the freedom to create. Scouts who have seen tape of the freshman from his days as a prep star in California know that Holiday is a blossoming talent with an intriguing skill set to go along with good size for his position.
Holiday has been preparing for the draft since UCLA’s season came to an end back in March, but has yet to officially make a decision on whether or not he will keep his name in the draft. DraftExpress sat down with Holiday to talk about his training, his year in the Pac-10 and what the future holds for this talented youngster.

Steve Nash is already looking for his next pay cheque and a logical choice are the Raptors. As he grows older (34 right now) the list of suitors will start to decline along with his play and that’s where the Raptors come into the picture. Nostalgic heart-warming feeling aside I can’t see the Raptors using their $25M in cap space on a 36 year old (although they did sign Olajuwon). That’s a logical line of thinking until you consider the “box-office impact” Nash could have on the franchise and the number of black jerseys he’d sell. Since the first goal of this organization is to run a profitable business I wouldn’t be shocked if they do it, although the signing will come about 5 years too late.

Back to the current roster and the most suspect position happens to be the swingman spot which has been a problem since the last three seasons. Starting Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker on a roster speaks volumes about the depth of the team but it looks like we’re going to have to make-do with what we’ve got. Neither Moon or Parker are NBA starters and look stretched playing their roles last year. We’re going to be out-talented at those positions on a nightly basis and are looking to scrape by based on what we feel is an advantage at our other two positions – PF and C. I’m not sure things work that way, having a balanced starting five where everyone can hold their own seems to work more often than having two above-average and two below-average players in the lineup.

The traditional off-guard is supposed to be your go-to guy in clutch situations and is relied on to provide key scoring but Parker’s 12.4 PPG (good for 19th amongst SG’s) is hardly what you call a scoring punch. Combine this with Jamario Moon’s meager offensive game and you realize they’re not exactly a potent threat. Below average actually and susceptible to offensive droughts which we know can kill teams in the post-season and if that’s the season that this team is supposedly built for, these two will have to have phenomenal years for us to be successful (whatever that measure is). Of course we could always acquire help at the trade deadline but Colangelo hasn’t shown an urgency to boost his team the last two seasons so there’s no reason to think he’ll do it now, unless of course there’s pressure from the top.

I could talk about the lack of bench-depth again but frankly speaking I’ll just wait for the regular season before we analyze Will Solomon and Hassan Adams any further.

There’s a look back at training camp in Carleton and some of the things that went behind organizing the event and a few thoughts from someone who was at the intra-squad game.

Minor trade last night – Pacers sending Shawne Williams to Dallas for what is left of Eddie Jones.

Have a nice Saturday.

“He improved a lot this past year, became a more reliable player”

Now I don’t know whether the author is confusing him with his brother Stephen who might’ve improved “a lot” this past year or might’ve become a “more reliable player”, I don’t know. What I know is that I can testify with certainty that Joey Graham failed to make a single valuable mark on this team in 2007-08. Joey was the 10th guy coming off the bench for most of the season and unless Sam Mitchell has a massive change of heart or Joey develops a mid-range game rivaling Rip Hamilton, he’s about as much a factor in Colangelo’s plans as Joe Wolf. Its not out of this world to believe that Graham can be an impact player in this league with his strength and slashing ability. He needs to get consistent playing time on a team where he can play through his mistakes and develop into a slasher somewhat like Corey Maggette. It might happen, I wouldn’t bet on it but the potential is there.

The Raptors start their pre-draft camp in Florida today and we find that Colangelo is also considering trading the #17 pick because of good practical reason:

“Selecting someone at 17 and think they’ll be actually contributing next year might be a bit far-fetched”

But at the same time we’re holding workouts for 40 different players so Colangelo isn’t close to deciding what he’s going to do with the pick. Either way a draft and/or trade should address the swing position and kick one of our two PGs out of here. The draft will have ripple effect and depending on what position we draft, it will end up deciding the role of Parker/Moon/Nesterovic amongst others for next season.

Moving along we find out that Richard Peddie and MLSE are very interested in taking over a European football club. The report states that Leeds United, Southampton and Reading peaked their interest:

MLSE president Richard Peddie and chief financial officer Ian Clarke reportedly visited England and spoke to officials from Southampton, Reading, as well as a possible meeting with representatives of Leeds United and Ken Bates.

Reading play in the top flight of English football and would bring in considerable revenue to MLSE which would become yet another foreign owner of a British club. Manchester United and Liverpool are also currently owned by American billionaires.

Back to some on-court stuff. We all remember our rebounding problems from last season and how we salivated at the likes of Anderson Varejao, Marcus Camby and even Reggie Evans. Well, according to I Hate Raptors, Varejao might be on the outs in Cleveland and it would be logical for us to at least look at what it would take to get him here. I couldn’t find a credible link to a story except this article which alludes to the fact that he’s only signed for one more year and this one accusing him of costing the team a higher seed because of the hold-out. Take it for what its worth. I’d like to see him here.

I want to see Jeff Hornacek coach bad. Real bad. He’s either going to be complete flop or one of the best coaches in the league. He’s played under great coaches and has been part of great teams and has had great teammates. In my mind he won’t be a rookie head coach at all but someone who’s got Jerry Sloan, Johnny Orr, Cotton Fitzsimmons and John Stockton in his huddle at all times. He’s already interviewed with the Bulls and Suns and in my humble opinion he’d be great hire as an assistant who you groom to be a head coach.

Daniel Nestor answered nicely to a question about whether Steve Nash should play for Canada in Beijing:

He has done so much for the country that you can’t knock the guy for not playing. And he hasn’t won an NBA championship and, realistically, in his mind, he probably sees himself having a better chance of winning an NBA championship than winning a gold medal. You have to respect him. He’s a top-five player in the world. Roger Federer, he doesn’t always represent Switzerland in the Davis Cup — and athletes like Federer and Nash have to have their own agenda to get where they are.

The Cavs fans really want Michael Redd. I never liked Redd’s game as much as everyone else, he’s a 2nd tier player who happens to play in a very loose offensive system where bad shots are tolerated and mediocrity rewarded. He might space out the floor better than Delonte West for you but if you want to keep Lebron in Cleveland you’ll have to get him another superstar to play with, just like the Celtics did with Pierce.

Not much happening in Raptor-land, not even rumor-wise. Just a reminder you can read this blog in your favorite RSS reader by latching on the feed.

Till tomorrow.