Exactly a week to go till tipoff, Raptors vs. Philly to be more precise. Nothing in the news except people bitching and moaning about who should start at the small forward spot. Nobody appears to really want the job, if they did they’d perhaps put back-to-back solid games and make the decision a little easier for Sam. You’d think after blowing the MLE on Kapono he’d be a lock to start the season but no such luck for the one-trick pony. If he’d just knock 50% of his open shots down he’d be a shoe-in but he’s managed to clang his share of jumpers leaving the door open for Joey Graham who in his third year is in the now-or-never time of his career. Also in the mix is Carlos Delfino who apparently can’t pass the aptitude test required for starting in the league. Sam’s almost talking about him in the past tense when it comes to starting, narrowing it down to Graham and Kapono. Am I the only one who heaves a sigh of relief every time Joey makes a jumper? He’s a perennial 7th man on an average NBA team.
But does it really matter who starts, I mean does it really? They’ll probably all around 15 minutes a game and it doesn’t interest me which order they come in. It’s more to do with pride than anything at this point for all three (less for CD, he’s already checked out of the competition). Most Raps fan would even settle for Graham starting and Kapono being the spark off the bench. Or vice-versa. My only comment and concern is that for Kapono to get his shots he needs to be playing with a double-team threat aka Chris Bosh. If that’s not happening, it’s all upto TJ and Calderon to drive ‘n kick for Kapono. I’d prefer Bosh getting the assist. As for Graham, his problem is that he can’t channel his ferocity towards helping his team. He lacks the skill to be a slasher and is a tad slow to blow by his man. Throw in a very, very average jumper and you have your classic NBA nomad. Even then, if he can just become a defensive stopper of some sort and grab some rebounds he’ll always find a place on this team. This just in: Juan Dixon missed a wide-open baseline jumper.
Now if you’ve been living under a rock (aka not reading RealGM) you’ve probably heard of Fan Boy Gear. Spend some money and buy a shirt man, it’s dirt cheap and you’ll be helping out a bunch of Raptors fans who happen to be web entrepreneurs which God knows isn’t an easy task in the world of ebay, saturated social networking sites and softcore porn. Plus you might even look cool enough for Mop Girl to fall for you. Please, no more debates about her attractiveness, I think we all agree she’s somewhere around a 6.5.
How about Adam Morrison being done for the season? That got me thinking what would happen if (God forbid) something happened to CB4 and he’d have to miss the season. **Shudder** In other completely irrelevant news Kanye West will have the honor of opening up each Raptors home game. This closely beat out a personal favorite of mine. RIP John “The Denver” Pimp. Next up I’d like to point out to a couple blogs which are usually on my seasonal reading list, one of them is The Hype Guy who’s a funny dude without a clue of how to design a website, the other is Netsophobia, a hardcore New Jersey Nets fan who still hasn’t figured out that Vince Carter has a Mangina. Then there’s of course Raptors Talk who you can actually hear cry after gut-wrenching losses. Last but not least is the Coach who’s always on the ball and never on the money. If you’re interests span more than just basketball, there’s Gramsci’s Kingdom which puts most writers to shame.
But look at me prancing around like a little school girl, let’s get back to the Raptors and talk about Jamario Moon who’s shown enough athletic ability to warrant a spot on the roster while also showing traces of Rafer Alstonitis. At this point however I’d keep him over Maceo Baston, look at it this way: We can sign Baston anytime we want, nobody’s exactly licking their chops waiting for us to cut Baston so they could sign him. I keep asking myself, is Kris Humphries as good as JYD and somehow the answer always comes back in the negative. You tell me if I’m crazy. This just in: Juan Dixon dribbled the ball off his foot.
