I still can’t get over the Shaq trade, more specifically I can’t seem to look past Steve Kerr. When I see his scrawny little self standing next to Shaq on the podium welcoming the oft-injured, under-performing, overweight and declining center to Phoenix, I can’t help but get a flashback to him on those Bulls teams where he stood all alone on the perimeter waiting for Jordan to create for him. Then I start thinking of Jordan punching him in practice and I think, man, this guy has some balls. And mind you it does take balls to pull a trade like this when you’ve got the best record in the NBA, but know deep down in your gut that it’s just not good enough. Give credit to Kerr for seeing right through the shallowness of Phoenix’s record and addressing an area that he knows that his team will be challenged in come the second season. He thought Phoenix was one step away from a championship and he’s made his move. Go Suns.
No such brave moves to report on the Raptors side of things, we’re still a middle of the pack team with a big hole to fill and nothing imminent on the horizon. Bryan Colangelo’s been silent for some time and the recent resurgence of Bargnani and the return of Ford has definitely changed the short-term outlook of this team. Assuming Bargnani’s performance doesn’t drop off again and TJ Ford can go back to his old ways, suddenly the need for a second scorer or a point guard doesn’t exist anymore, even the Ukic buyout can be second-guessed (unless it’s for trade purposes). But what all of the above doesn’t change is the need to tighten up the rebounding which ranges between poor and unacceptable. Nobody’s expecting Shaq-like trades but here’s hoping Juan Dixon has impressed enough people over the last few weeks that they’re willing to give up more than a second-rounder for him. Our most tradeable commodity after Calderon might be Jason Kapono who we don’t seem to have a need for anymore, I would think teams would come calling for him. I’m all for a trade but I pray we’re not one of the teams “lining up” for Mike Miller or Maggette.
The Clippers are in town and frankly writing a preview for a mid-season game isn’t my cup of tea, however RaptorsTalk goes deep and analyzes key matchups and other such stuff. Suffice to say that we need to contain Maggette and limit Kaman (which can be done by making him play D) and we’ll have a more than great shot at winning this one. And of course, we have to be wary of Sam. If we lose, expect a 2000 word post-game article. The line for the game stands at -10, let’s see how it moves until right before the game and if those “wise guys” make it fluctuate, bet your entire life savings on it.
If you’ve been on RealGM over the last week or so you might’ve seen this classless little bitch interview Sam I Am who stays ultra-cool the entire time. I like the Clippers, they’ve got some really hardcore fans that know the game. I’ll even go ahead and generalize by saying it’s a sharp contrast to Laker fans. Now I know you can’t judge a fanbase by celebrities but listening to some friends on the west coast I get the same feel. Next time the Raps are playing the Lakers or Clippers in LA, check out how many Clipper fans the mic picks up saying all kinds of shit to the bench. They’ve sucked for so long that even the slightest of successes gets them riled up, the Laker crowd on the other hand only starts cheering when they’re up by 8.
I was checking out Chris Bosh’s blog (which I love) and he’s soooooo a geek (which I also love):
For all of my fellow business people/geeks, I was reading that Microsoft has recently offered to purchased Yahoo for around 45 billion dollars…. WOW! With that type of purchase being talked about, it seems like Microsoft has some kind of plan to compete with the guys at Google. Microsoft is mostly known for software and spreadsheets, but now they have a major search engine to potentially work with. Microsoft, Apple and Google are the big names when it comes to computer and the internet. Each of the 3 corporations seem to be slowly tapping into each others market and/or competing against each other (microsoft’s purchase of yahoo [google], zune vs. IPOD, HTC touch vs. Iphone, leopard vs. vista, etc). Very interesting!
I wonder what Bosh thinks of Telus’ CDMA network compared to Rogers’ GSM one.
I don’t now what Hakeem is doing on this list and why the author thinks he “checked out” early and didn’t play hard. Hakeem never got over his injuries with the Raptors and just wasn’t the same player he used to be. Insinuating that he didn’t play hard or was only after the cheque is completely unfair, remember we begged him to come here, he wasn’t hunting for money. Also from TSN, we learn that TJ Ford is going to take it easy to which I say put him on the floor and make him go at Sam for 25 minutes so that he can start flushing the mental fear out of his head.
Till after the game.
