Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

RR Ratings – Oct 30 @ MEM

They started it… Bosh: 7.5 Showed up, played hard. Did some damage. Actually, did a lot of damage 37/12 to be exact. Didn’t waste possessions, didn’t hesitate. BUT, Randolph had 30/7 too so I got to look at somebody for that and it’s Bosh. Still, the offensive game gets him a high grade, he shouldn’t…

They started it…

Bosh: 7.5 Showed up, played hard. Did some damage. Actually, did a lot of damage 37/12 to be exact. Didn’t waste possessions, didn’t hesitate. BUT, Randolph had 30/7 too so I got to look at somebody for that and it’s Bosh. Still, the offensive game gets him a high grade, he shouldn’t have to do everything.

Bargnani: 4 The higher you are, the farther you fall. Scoreless first half, he gets points for not losing confidence and starting the second half on fire but how about netting some rebounds? He had 6 but tonight was about the rebounds he didn’t get. Couldn’t handle Gasol in the post and didn’t make him pay like he did Shaq, probably because Gasol can move laterally without breaking a hip bone. 36 minutes was way too many given his defensive performance.

Calderon: 5 Couldn’t create anything for anybody. 3 assists and got lit up by Conley and Mayo in the first half which gave Memphis belief. Jack Armstrong said it best, we need some offense from him and so far he’s firing blanks. Got a couple hoops late to make the line respectable but overall, a poor game.

DeRozan: 4 More anonymous than a Raptors fan in Memphis. Did he even play the first half? He did, he just didn’t do anything. The second was a bit better, got a tip-in, a block and showed some athleticism, tends to get lost in Triano’s excuse for an offense. See, you got to practice that in pre-season, can’t play everything by the ear.

Turkoglu: 5 Started off looking for his offense but then decided to take a break for something I can’t quite figure out. On a night where the offense struggled (44% shooting), we needed him to create something out of nothing and Triano’s offense right now is nothing. I expected him to have a big game after the start he had but drifted off to sleep like he had six pounds of Turkish delight at halftime.

Da Bench

Jack: 5 We can see what he can bring, it’s clear and obvious. So why doesn’t he do more of what we know he can do? It’s a mystery, I’m thinking he’s not talented enough to make reads on his own and needs some structure around him to succeed. Still, played some good defense in stretches and gave the choky offense some air in that third quarter but couldn’t stop Mayo’s penetration and impact which is what he was brought in for – defense.

Belinelli: 7 I’m giving him a high rating because he played with active hands, didn’t take bad shots and played sound defense. That’s all I ask.

Johnson: 1 This guy’s a poser. It took Triano all of two minutes to realize he’s worthless. In a game where we needed rebounding and defense (45-36 reb loss and MEM shooting 51%), we needed him to slow down Zach Randolph, a similar make and model. Couldn’t do jack sh*t. And you thought Reggie was worse…

Nesterovic: 7 The only guy who could slow down Gasol. Somewhat. 4-8 and for 8 points, no mistakes. He showed that he’s got something left in him for situational matchups, he probably deserved 20 of Bargnani’s minutes.

Wright: 6 Explain me again why our defensive specialist wasn’t on the floor at the end of the game? He tightened on Rudy, played hard, even had a nice drive for a bucket. So why misuse him when you need him the most? I’m looking at you Jay.

Collecting da cheque

Evans, Douby, O’Bryant, Weems, Banks

The Payout

Pimp: Chris Bosh.

Ho: Amir Johnson.

What we learned: We haven’t practiced a single offensive set.

The Verdict: We fell to a team that played hard and wanted to atone for its miserable effort on opening night.