Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

Some PG #2 stuff and the Raptors mascot

It would be sadly ironic if Jose Calderon misses tomorrow’s Heat game and we would start Will Solomon at the point. It would mark a complete 180 degree turn from the situation of only a year ago when the Raptors main advantage over any opponent in the league was the starting point guard situation. The…

It would be sadly ironic if Jose Calderon misses tomorrow’s Heat game and we would start Will Solomon at the point. It would mark a complete 180 degree turn from the situation of only a year ago when the Raptors main advantage over any opponent in the league was the starting point guard situation. The good news is that the injury is described as a “mild strain of the hamstring” with Calderon listed as day-to-day and his status for tomorrow’s game being ‘questionable’. Sam Mitchell’s being as unecessarily vague and mysterious as ever when asked whether Solomon would start at the point if Jose is unavailable. The smartest coach in the NBA says:

“I’ll let you know in a timely fashion at my discretion”

Thank you your majesty. So kind of you. The practice on Friday went for two hours (without Calderon) leading some to believe that the team is preparing Solomon to handle the PG duties against the Heat. Cool, cool. In those two hours I hope they communicate to him that he shouldn’t be picking up his dribble 28 feet from the rim, nor should he stare in the direction he’s going to pass for five seconds before making the pass. See, that allows the defense to read your eyes and has probably a lot to do with all those turnovers he’s committing. If Solomon does start I’ll settle for successfully executed entry passes into the post. Rest is gravy. Here’s an article which has Sam Mitchell being all philosophical about the PG spot and saying Roko and Will have “improved a whole lot” since they got here. On a related note Jamaal Tinsley’s agent is seeking a buyout. There’s tons of video on the official dot com.

Chris Bosh is looking for Jose to play extended minutes:

Jose’s ready for it. You have to make adjustments, he’s got to be used to staying in the game for an extended amount of time. Sometimes not being able to come out of the game, if you’re on the road and the team is doing well…you just want to leave him out there and instead of subbing him out you call a timeout….but you can’t burn yourself out or you won’t be good in the fourth quarter.

It’s Game 8 and Jose’s injured. There were questions before the season whether the extended minutes would take a toll on him and whether he was ready for it. I think the hamstring injury is a fluke more than a result of playing too many minutes. According to Bosh, Mitchell and just about everyone else , Jose’s in top shape and should be able to bounce back from this minor setback quickly. Whether it’ll be against Miami might be asking too much but as long as he’s ready to exact some measure of revenge against Orlando I’m happy.

Lance Horby of the Sun is suggesting that Sam Mitchell is flirting with the idea of replacing Jamario Moon in the starting lineup with Jason Kapono, Joey Graham or even Andrea Bargnani. Now we’ve been speculating about this all summer and for all we know it might be true, but Hornby’s not offering any quotes from Mitchell or anyone else in the organization to suggest it’ll happen. Even if it does it would be a move designed to increase our offense, defensively it’s a lateral move since Moon’s not playing well anyway. The best we can hope from this SF bunch is that they play hard and motivated defense, none of them will ever be lock-down defenders that will anchor your defense or be named to the All-NBA first, second or third defensive team. On defense you’re often only as strong as your weakest link and with someone like Jose Calderon out there the other four Raptors will always need to be alert of any help that will need to be provided, that’s why alertness and effort are so important and both have been lacking thus far.

Jose Calderon’s wasn’t the only injury the Raptors suffered against Philly, our mascot was also injured while trying to jump off a trampoline. I was at the game and saw the poor guy limp off, it was quite funny and you could tell he was swearing a storm underneath that costume. This story was good enough to make SI who interviewed him and asked him about the injuries he’s suffered over the years, the man then poured his heart out:

“It’s a long list. A fractured tailbone. Cuts, scrapes and bruises, twisted ankles. I have one vertebrae that got twisted so I was getting pinched nerves in my back and neck. A few times I’ve dislocated a finger and popped it back in. I tore a hamstring trying to dunk over three ball racks stacked on top of each other. I had a concussion doing a backflip off something and hit a stanchion, or something, and ended up falling on my face, so when I got up I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know where I am,’ and they ended up escorting me out. I was in the old Skydome doing a dunk and I landed on top of the ball, I rolled my ankle on top of it. That’s no fun. I came back the next game in a wheelchair with a sign that said, ‘Say No To Trampoline Dunks.’…When I’m running around in that thing, it’s like a sauna, you’re breathing the same air inside of your head. Each night I’ll sweat anywhere from six to nine pounds in water. I’ll take my shirt off during timeouts and literally wring out the sweat.””

It sounds like a pretty crappy job but I’d do it in a heartbeat as long as I got to be close to the game and get to travel to the NBA All-Star game each year. He probably makes more than me anyway. There’s more of him in the link provided.

Denver beat Boston in Boston last night. Much like the Raptors, Denver got off to a big early lead and the Celtics chipped away towards the end of the second quarter and took the lead in the third before entering the fourth quarter down 1. Unlike the Raptors, Denver didn’t get rattled but relied on their defense and athleticism to get crucial stops in the fourth quarter. On the other end, JR Smith, Kleiza and KMart came up with big scores to pull the Nuggets through. The Nuggets were looking like they were going to fold just like the Raps but instead of starting the fourth quarter by giving up the lead they responded with hard-fought stops and clutch scores. Just thought I’d let you know how a real team handles big games on the road.

The Heat game is on TSN2 and if you can’t catch it, come on over to RaptorsRepublic.com where we’ll try to embed a stream on the front page of the site.

Another post later in the day….as always check the links on the front page..