nba.com/raptors reports....

Luke Jackson has been waived... analysis to come.

Raps - Cavs

One of the great things about seeing the Raptors live is that you catch a lot of things you can't normally see. You can look at players' positions and movements without the ball, you can see how many deflections they get, their overall hustle, if they take charges, if they help on D, and numerous other things that is difficult to catch on tv, and impossible to know about just staring at the boxscore on yahoo! waiting for it to refresh. Unfortunately, this is sometimes how we must check on the Raptors. What this means is that I may say someone played a great game, but only because I don't know about their inept defense. Or, I may say someone played awfully, but am unaware of all the great things they did on D that don't show up on the box score, or even if they consistently made the pass that led to the pass that led to the basket [see: hockey assist on Fanhouse blog]. Two Raptors that I think this happens to a lot are Garbo and Parker. Consistently underrated by others, but never by their teammates and coaching staff. So, If I sing someones praises during a post, or lash out about a poor shooting percentage and fouling out, feel free to tell me the things they did that isn't visible through a boxscore.

With all that in mind, the Raptors played another preseason game today, and seem to be starting to put togther solid games against NBA teams. It always helps, of course, when CB4 is back in action. For today's domination game, the 'box score star of the game' goes to Carlos Delfino. After a lacklustre Euro trip, and being talked about unfavourably to the media by his coach, Delfino has been playing solid since the team returned to Toronto. He is playing exactly like the player we need on this roster: someone who can score if needed, but mostly a non-big man who can, and will, rebound. Playing pre-garbage time minutes, Delfino finished with 18 points, 3 assists, and 9 rebounds. He was also 5-5 from the FT line, and finished without a turnover. BSSG runner-up would have to be TJ Ford, who continues to put up incredible assist numbers, while displaying a low assist-to-TO ratio as well. While struggling from the field, Ford did have 13 assists and only 2 turnovers in 23 minutes, while also adding 3 steals. Other box-score highlights include both Kapono and Parker going 2-2 from behind the three point arc, and Bargnani grabbing 5 rebounds. For the team as a whole, not only did the Raptors out-rebound the Cavs 43-41, but they also won the turnover battle 8-20, and had 14 steals to the Cavs' 8. Oh, and they outscored the Cavs 61-33 in the second half. What remained unsettled, however, was who will be victorious in the fight for the 15th man. Graham, Moon, and Jackson all played less than 5 minutes, with no one surprisingly standing out in those minutes. There is only one preseason game left, with the paint balling, car stealing, hibachi grilling Gilbert Arenas coming to down, so unless Mitchell already knows who is leaving, they have just one more chance to show'em what they got.

GM Survey

The Raptors flew under the radar last season. They started off poorly, didn't have a lot of big names, and were, some may say, still underappreciated even when they won the Atlantic division. This year, I thought it would be different. Reigning Atlantic champs, star in Chris Bosh, COY in Sam Mitchell, EOY in Colangelo, and ROY runner-up in Bargnani, what more can you ask for? Well, according to the NBA GM's... the Raps still have some respect to gain. At the beginning of last season, GM's were asked who they thought would win the Atlantic division. 29 replied, with 27 picking New Jersey, 1 picking Boston, and 1 picking Philly. We all know how it turned out, especially for the ones picking Boston and Philly. This year, however, I had to assume the Raps would get SOME love. The results: none. Roughly, 28 GM's replied this year, with 20 picking Boston, 7 picking New Jersey, and 1 picking... THE KNICKS. Now, if you want to pick Boston, fine. Even New Jersey... fine. But the Knicks? 1 GM picked the Knicks to win the Atlantic before Toronto???

Anyway.

Moving On.

- 19 different players got votes on who would have a breakout season, but no Raptors.
- 5 different players got votes on who is the best power forward in the NBA, but not Bosh [he had stiff competition though: Duncan, Garnett, Dirk, Dwight Howard, Amare]
- 5 different teams got votes on which team is the Most Fun to Watch, no Raps love [the Spurs getting a vote?]
- 9 different teams got votes on which team has the best Home Court Advantage, no sea of red love


Now, how about categories the Raptors DID have a representative.

- Most Surprising Offseason Move: 1 vote for the Kapono signing
- International Player Most Likely to Have a Breakout Season: Bargnani 1st, Calderon 2nd, Delfino tied for 8th with one vote
- Best Pure Shooter: Kapono 3rd with a handful of votes [behind only Ray Ray and Redd]
- Fastest with the Ball: AI 1st, Ford second with only a vote difference
- Player that does the Most with the Least: Garbo and Kapono each getting a vote

So, in the end, a little bit of love for the Raptors. Maybe it's better this way. Maybe, it's what they prefer.

Euro League

There has been much talk over the past few years about expanding the NBA overseas. Kenny Smith at Yahoo! Sports recently wrote an article about it, writing in favour of the expansion for the near future. He suggests adding six teams at once, putting them all in a new Euro division, having NBA teams head to Europe for a few weeks during the season, and shortening the season to 70 games to accomodate the extra travel. I, for one, am far from sold on this topic. I would like to wait until the league displays more parity before expanding the league by 6 teams and, subsequently, 90 more players. In the past nine seasons, only once has a team not with a Shaq or Duncan on their team won the title. In the past 28 seasons, there has only been 8 winners, with just two of those 8 [Philly and Miami] winning only once. Will expansion increase the parity in the league? More teams means more chances for an upset right? In the long run that may be true, but how often do you see expansion teams winning right out of the gate? What may very well happen is that you suddenly have 6 more bad teams in a league that already has a lot of them. The last thing I would do in any of the major sports is add another team, let alone 6. Besides, how do you think players will feel about being traded to a Euro team? Some players don't even want to come to Toronto, let alone Madrid or Rome. Sure, great sights and food, but how easy will it be to get home to see the kids when you get a few days off? Is it worth it even for the all star break? While I am all for a shorter season, I hope it doesn't take a European expansion to make that happen. And I'm also not sold on the whole, 'sending NBA teams to Europe for a few weeks' part. Does that mean that teams in the Euro division never have to come to North America? It probably doesn't, and yes, I'm basing most of this argument on what Smith wrote, but he hardly convinced me that it would be a great idea to expand the NBA to Europe. If anyone can, I'd be glad to hear your case.

Raps - Bulls

A big win for the Raptors. Yes, it was a pre-season match, and I am a firm believer that it means little [see 06-07 Raptors pre-season], but during that first quarter, the Raptors showed the kind of team they have the capability of being. Even without Bosh, the Raptors showed a sweet shooting touch, while displaying brilliant ball movement. Just imagine, Ford and Bosh running a picture perfect pick and roll, with Bargnani on a wing, and Kapono and Parker at the corners. Go under the pick and Ford finds the open shooter; go over it and Ford blows by you... and then finds the open shooter when the defense collapses. And what about the bench? While Delfino hasn't shown a consistent shooting touch, his rebounding and ability to get to the basket is something that the Raptors desperately need. Moon showed the athleticism that the Raptors thought they were getting in Joey Graham, and Rasho continued to be one of the Raptors better players, with Hump being one of the better rebounders. Even Juan Dixon, who many thought may be the odd man out, has been giving the Raptors an effective scoring touch off the bench. So, with 16 men playing but only 15 men allowed on the roster for opening day, who WILL be the odd man out? The short list includes Dixon, Moon, Martin, Jackson, Baston, and yes, even Graham. Some say Martin should go, and have Dixon fill in as the 3rd string point guard. The problem, however, is that Martin as a teacher and mentor is invaluable, regardless of his on-court skill. Baston will be needed if a big man goes down, and Dixon, although he may be undersized, has shown that he can score in the Raptors system. The battle, it seems, boils down to Moon and Jackson. Both have a lot of potential, but neither seems to have wooed Mitchell or Colangelo into believing that they are the one to stay. The battle may not be decided until the day that it needs to be, but for all we know, all the winner gets is a ticket on the end of the bench, stuck behind 14 other Raptors.

Post Pre-Game and Post-Game

I missed the pre-game post for last nights Raptors game, so here is the 'post' pre-game post and the post-game post all in one. Before the game, questions swirled around the starting 5, specifically at the 3 spot. While this is still the preseason, and the entire starting 5 gets shuffled because Bosh is out, the fight for the right to start at the 3 [and the 5 too?] will be played until someone proves Smitch that he's the man. The battle gets increasingly complicated with even Parker struggling at the 2, but his defensive smarts and 'high basketball IQ' makes it doubtful he will lose his starting spot. Rasho has come to camp in great shape, which comes after a terrific off-season with the Slovenian national team. Colangelo certainly doesn't want to stunt Bargnani's growth, however, and having him come off the bench, even as the 6th man, might be something they can do for the first month, but likely seldomly after that. So, going into last night's game, the final score wouldn't matter as much as who among Delfino, Kapono, and Graham stands out the most, and if Bargnani can play well enough to prove that he can start at the centre position from the outset. Rebounding plays a big part in games against international opponents, as they love to shoot'em'up from downtown, so if Bargnani can't get a half-dozen rebounds against a three point shooting team, there may be cause for concern [and Smitch might have to run another big-man-only practice].
With the game now over, and the Raptors victorious, has anything been settled? The bigger question, it seems, is CAN anything be settled in a preseason tilt? Kapono, the starter, shot 50% from 3 for the game and 5-9 overall; Joey had 4 points and 2 boards in only 13 minutes; and Delfino had 7 points and 6 rebounds in 17 minutes. Based on this performance, if the Raptors need a scorer, Kapono is their man [1 assist, 1 rebound, 1 steal to round out the stat-sheet], but if they need rebounds, defense, and just a bit of scoring, they may look to Delfino [no assists or steals, but three of his rebounds came on the offensive end]. If Delfino can show Mitchell in practice that he can put together a strong performance consistently, than he might have a better shot at playing more minutes.
Bargnani and Rasho both put together solid performances, although with Bosh out, both are likely to play at the same time more often than when Bosh returns. Bargnani struggled a bit with his shot [as he did at the beginning of last season], but did end up with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 1 blocked shot, and only 1 turnover. Rasho shot 6-9 from the field for 12 points, and also added 8 rebounds. This is, however, just the preseason. The Hump got 8 rebounds as well, to go along with 12 points, but lets hope that Doug Smith's column doesn't get flooded with people saying that Hump should start, etc etc. And what about the player most fans seem to have beef with? Well, TJ Ford was the player of the game last night, pouring in 13 points, adding 11 assists, and committing only 2 turnovers in 24 minutes of play.
As for the overall performance of the Raptors, it was poor at best. Nothing against Zalgiris, but the Raptors have to show more spirit against international opponents. Of course, it couldnt have helped with the pro-Lithuanian crowd being almost as large as the pro-Raptors crowd.

Preseason Basketball

Summer is officially over [aside from the weather aspect], and the new basketball season is just around the corner. A lot happened over the offseason, and it's difficult to tell who will emerge as the league elite. The West is loaded as usual, with the Spurs, Rockets, Jazz, Suns, and Mavs all capable of making the finals, and the Lakers and Nuggets are as dangerous as anyone in the league. The East doesn't quite have that depth, but do have very good teams that will battle it out for a spot in the losers circle of the finals. Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and even Toronto have a chance, with Washington, New Jersey, and Orlando rounding out the playoff picture. None of these teams can really be considered favourites, and as we saw last year with Lebron Cleveland making the finals, ANY team in the East can keep playing into June.

So, have the Reptors done anything to improve on their 47 win season last year? Absolutely. No, they did not land an all-star [though Kapono did participate in the weekend festivities], and they didn't have a pick in the draft. But as Mike Ulmer pointed out on his nba.com/raptors blog, their biggest change and best weapon for the new season might be the development of Andrea Bargnani. The last few games of last years playoff series and the first few games of the preseason seem to suggest that he is on his way to improving on last years numbers. I would put money on him improving in nearly every category this year. Bosh and Barg will form a formidable duo for years to come, and they will still be reaching their prime when teams like Boston, New Jersey, and Detroit begin their rebuilding years. The Raptors are a young team, and with each year their core will get better. Ford, Bosh, Bargnani all still have many years until they reach their peak, and many of their foreign players like Calderon and Garbo should improve with having another year of NBA ball under their belts.

The most intriguing battle that will be taking place from now until Halloween, and probably for weeks after that, is who will emerge as the starter at the 3 spot. Right now, it seems like it is Kapono's to lose, but I can easily see some tweaking during the season depending on who the Raptors opponent happens to be. In some situations, it may make more sense for Kapono and his long-range threat to come off the bench [considering they will already have sharpshooters like Parker and Bargnani on the floor], and have a slasher like Delfino or Graham start. The great thing about this Raptors team is that they possess unparalleled depth. Their second team could beat almost any other second unit, and their 10-15 could probably be competitive with many teams' 6-10. Therefore, depending on the matchups on any given night, Sam Mitchell could tweak the starting lineup without much of a dropoff in production.

Most 'experts' are picking the Raptors to finish in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, anywhere from 5th to 7th. Most don't expect them to win the division again, but many think they will put up a fight for it. A team like Boston might be great in the regular season, but they may also be the perfect team to play in the playoffs. They lack depth, and their 3 stars all have many years on our 3 stars... so the grind of a long season may catch up to them at the wrong time. The Raptors may be underdogs going into the playoffs, but after another year of Ford/Calderon at the helm, another year of Bargnani's Italian trash talking, and another year of Bosh's revenge [see: Bosh's 06-07 playoff performance], and the Raptors will be ready and prepared for anything.