Once again, filling in for Scott.
It’s the “Who do we start now?” edition.
Banks – Was hiding under a chair praying Triano would spare him the humiliation but nothing doing.
Bargnani – Midway through the second he had 13 points and 1 rebound. Funnily enough, the Thunder had 13 second chance points at that exact same moment. I’m not big on +/- but -30 surely must say something. Overpaid stiff.
Belinelli – Looked about as reluctant to come on as a man being walked to the gallows. Triano’s failed to harness his skill and ability, and left him to find his game entirely on his own. I don’t make excuses for players but you have to wonder why a good spot-up shooter, a half-decent defender and a good ball-handler with great vision isn’t giving us more.
Bosh – Drank the Colangelo Koolaid over the summer just like everyone else but is smartening up to the fact that the players are soft, the GM clueless, the coach a yes-man and his foot out the door. At this point I reckon it’s all about what we can get in a S&T. Got his double-double with 22/10 so Devlin must be ecstatic. Hollow points, hollow rebounds, hollow career.
Calderon – Worst defensive starting PG in the league. Russell Westbrook is really good, but he’s not a Hall of Famer and Jose made him look like one. How about picking your man up in transition for once? Calderon’s lateral quicks are shot and he doesn’t have any agility, speed or strength to handle anyone in this guard-dominated league. His three early turnovers help rev up the Thunder freight train as it plowed over our sorry asses. Talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk.
DeRozan – Sefolosha was on him like white on rice. He hasn’t seen that kind of defense since….well, never. The rationale behind him being a fifth starter was that he’s be the worst of them and would be left open by defenses who would be busy breaking a sweat dealing with Bosh, Bargnani, Turkoglu and Calderon. Fact is nobody breaks a sweat facing any of the Raptors and DeRozan hasn’t been left open since the opening few games of the season. So much for him being our Courtney Lee.
Evans – Didn’t enter the game till the third as Triano was “saving him” to inspire the troops in the third. In reality, he was late because he couldn’t find parking for his white horse. Asking him to make an impact on this team is like asking a baby with a water-gun to put out the fire in a blazing 50-story building. I don’t care what his effort and intensity levels are, it’s just not rubbing off on anyone and all we’re left to see is what a bad player he is.
Jack – Was he pissed or was he pissed about starting the fourth? Did a decent job of ball-distribution with 7 assists but the problem on this night was at the defensive end and he got rocked by the Thunder guards just like Jose, but as is always the case, just to a slightly lower degree. I can’t help but think he had found his groove as a starter just like Calderon had found his groove as a sub, and Triano ruined it all (perhaps at Colangelo’s calling).
Johnson – Good hustle as always which I can appreciate but boy, does he struggle in zonal box-outs. Gave up a few offensive rebounds on his watch, but I feel bad for criticizing garbage-men because nothing much is to be expected of them anyway and anything they give you should be seen as a bonus. Problem is that half the fan-base is seeing him as a saviour on defense which he’s not.
Nesterovic – Aah, remember when we burned the bi-annual exception on him and everybody thought it was such a shrewd move?
O’Bryant – You know that guy at the grocery store who lines up in the “8 items or less” line with a shopping cart which has clearly more than 8 items? That’s Patrick.
Turkoglu- 5pts, 1reb, 2asts and the honor of being Durant’s little bitch. He’s fat, he’s slow, he’s overpaid, he doesn’t care, and he makes $10M/yr. What’s not to like?
Weems – I like Sonny, but I find it hard to agree that a 21-footer from him with 16 seconds on the shot-clock should be option #1 on offense. Again, he’s a good 8th or 9th man on a decent team, but you can’t be mad at him because he was basically the 15th guy on the roster in training camp.
Wright – There was an article in one of our fine Toronto newspapers about how he’s mentoring Sonny Weems and DeMar DeRozan. I hope they’re not listening.
Driving The Bus:
Under The Bus: Jay Triano for not getting these guys to play hard. Bryan Colangelo for assembling a flawed team and killing our cap. The entire team for not having any pride. The fans for continuing to support this nonsense.
