Built Ford Tough

Not sure if Boozer really deserves it more. His numbers really aren't that much better (20/10 on 15 shots with a 28 USG% compared to Bosh's 19/8 on 14 shots with a 23 USG%) despite being more involved in his teams offense and he will have missed at least 15 games of the season. Bosh will be on a team with a better record as well, although you can make the argument that Boozer has a larger impact on his team than Bosh does. I wouldn't say that it would be a robbery or anything like that if Boozer made the team over Bosh, but as of right now I think that Bosh is more deserving of a spot in the All-Star game than Boozer. It is close, though.

The Russian team got kicked off their flight this morning for being too drunk. Those guys sure know how to party and have a good time. Really though, who was the moron that scheduled the flight at 6AM the morning after the Gold Medal game?

The problem with this is the Raptors seem to manage to pull a miracle out of their [expletive] against the playoff teams and end up beating them. Of their 12 wins this season, 4 have come against surefire playoff teams (Orlando, Boston, OKC and Dallas) while another 3 have come against those bubble teams (Philly twice and Houston once). They just can't do anything right. Everything is backwards with this team.

http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/20110106/8837/alabi-re-assigned-erie-bayhawks Don't understand why he was recalled in the first place (at least for developmental purposes) as it was pretty clear he wouldn't crack the Raptors rotation or even when he did see floor time, he would hardly be able to contribute much. He is a fringe NBA player as is, and sitting on the bench never seeing any game action isn't going to help his development, so I'm glad he is back in the D-League. It really is where he should be right now.

They were invisible in the game against Canada. EPIC choke job from Canada. Wow, that was brutal.

This team just doesn't know how to tank. These are the games you are supposed to lose god dammit! Julian Wright looks to have had a solid game, though, at least judging by the box score. 18 points, 8 boards and 5 assists on 7/8 shooting. The Raptors are +30 with him on the floor. I honestly think that he may deserve to start over Kleiza and Weems at this point.

DX updated their mock draft today and the lottery is now: 1. Kyrie Irving 2. Jonas Valanciunas 3. Jared Sullinger 4. Perry Jones 5. Derrick Williams 6. Enes Kanter 7. Kemba Walker 8. Terrence Jones 9. Jan Vesely 10. John Henson 11. Donatas Motiejunas 12. Harrison Barnes 13. Kawhi Leonard 14. Alec Burks http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2011/ Other notables: Brandon Knight at 16 Jimmer Fredette at 17 Jordan Hamilton at 20 Tristian Thompson at 21 Josh Selby at 29 The biggest riser was Nikola Mirotic, a 20 year old power forward who plays for Real Madrid. I don't remember wher he was in their last mock, but he is now at 15 for them. Just figured I'd update this with the pre tournament mock. Should be interesting to see how all of the tournament play affects their rankings as it usually does.

I don't think that he has done anything note worthy during his time in the NBA, but he had some nice dunks in high school. I don't expect much from him, though, especially considering he will probably just be returning from injury around the time of the dunk contest. As for this contest, it seems kind of "meh" to me. Big men rarely bring anything great to the table aside from a few, and 3 of them is a bit overkill if you ask me. I also think that Griffin won't be as good as a lot of people think as he seems to be more of an in game, "in your face" type of power dunker. I don't know if he really has the creativity to really excel in the dunk contest. He was hardly anything to rave about in high school, if I recall correctly. I just can't wait to see McGee try and dunk from the three point line or something. Guy is dumb enough to try something absurd like that. Even if he fails big time, it is going to be entertaining.

USA beats Sweden 4-2 to win Bronze, making it the first time in their history that they have won back-to-back medals in this tournament, as well as winning a medal on home ice. I only saw the third period of this game, but you have to wonder why they didn't play with that kind of effort against Canada. Not that I think they would've won because Canada was absolutely flying in that Monday night game, but they definitely wouldn't have been embarassed and throughouly dominated like they were.

My favourite seasons would be, in order: 1 4 2 3 5 I can't really distinguish between 1 and 4 because, while Lithgow is far and away the best villian on the show and the ending of season 4 was such a shock, I just can't shake the feeling I had when watching the first season for the first time. It is the first time in my life that I've ever been so drawn into a show to the point where I couldn't stop watching . The storyline and plot of the show was just so original to me. That is probably why I have 1 ahead of 4 even though the 4th season was so intense and epic. One thing about the 4th that I didn't like was how the villian was revealed so early in the series. I understand why it was done because you needed to establish Lithgow because you can't have an actor as talented as him not play a promminent role in the season, but the mystery aspect is one of the best parts of this show.

A mod at RealGM posted this on the Raptors board. I wouldn't believe this if the guy was a normal poster, but I can't really see a mod making something like this up, so I thought it was worth at least mentioning on here. The bigs involved would be, I imagine, somebody like Joey Dorsey from Toronto and Zaza Pachulia from Atlanta.

And Ronald Dupree is waived again. Weems returning soon? Trade coming? So how soon before Dupree is signed to another non-guaranteed deal by Toronto? Over/under 1 month? Oh yeah... http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/70967/20110105/raptors_waive_ronald_dupree/

David Kahn was at the Raptors/Bulls game last night and with the news about Toronto being interested in Flynn, there was some speculation that he was doing some scouting to see what he likes on the Raptors roster. Nothing has been said or anything, but there is some speculation going around Twitter of a three team trade between Toronto, New York and Minny that consists of: To Toronto Jonny Flynn To New York 2011 Miami 1st 2011 Utah 1st To Minnesota Jerryd Bayless Anthony Randolph Just so you all know, this are more trade ideas than anything. There is nothing to suggest that a deal of this nature has been discussed, no credible journalist has even mentioned anything of the sort and I believe this "rumor" was started by a guy with around 14 followers on Twitter. Just thought I would post this anyways, more so due to the fact that Kahn was at the Raptors/Bulls game last night.

The thing with Rose is that, while the Bulls may have more talent than the Knicks, their three best players (Rose, Boozer and Noah) have only played around 8 or 9 games together and they have a gaping hole at the 2 guard spot, but despite that, they are on pace to win around 56 games this season. He is averaging career highs in every single major statistical catagory other than FG% (but his TS% is equal to his current career high) while playing the best defense of his career as well, although he isn't great on that end yet. I can definitely understand the argument for putting Amare over Rose, but if I had to vote for one or the other right now, Rose would get my vote because of how he has managed to round out his game on both ends of the floor and put his team on a 56 win pace despite missing Boozer for 15 or so games and losing Noah for what will probably be around 15-20 games as well.

I started watching this game with about 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and I think I saw DeRozan get about 5 touches on offense, 2 of which were late clock scenarios where he was forced to take an ill-advised shot or pass. Absolutely pathetic. He finished with 18/4/3 on 7-14 shooting, but from what I saw he was completely ignored on offense. Part of that is his fault for not being aggressive enough, but it is a joke how ignored he is on offense considering he is the 2nd best scorer on this team and is the most important player on their roster for the future. There is no excuse for him not to get ample touches in the 2nd half of a 20 point game, especially when he seemed to be playing well offensively (outside of his 5 turnovers).

I'd put Dirk and Dwight ahead of him, possibly Rose as well. I agree that he is a candidate, but I don't think he is top 3 at worst. Top 5, sure, I think you can definitely make the argument that those three are more deserving candidates.

Roloson shuts out the Capitals in his Tampa debut. I don't know if anybody else feels this way, but I think that they could be a dark horse in the East this year if Roloson plays like he is capable of. With guys like Stamkos, St. Louis, Lecavailer, Gagne and Malone up front, they have the offensive talent to compete with basically anybody and if Roloson is able to steal a few games like he is capable of, I think they could go fairly deep if everything goes right. With that said, I still think it will be a Pens/Flyers ECF.

First time I've been able to catch any Raptors action since their game against Dallas and I come home from class to find them down by 14. Bayless has hit two nice 3's to cut the lead to 14. Good to see him getting his touch from deep back as last I saw he was shooting horribly from distance. I think they mentioned DeRozan has 12 points, which is nice to see. All I've seen from him thus far is an 18 footer which he buried. Good to see that he is still scoring well even with the return of Bargnani and Bayless. It is a small sample size, though.

I actually don't think that this Canadian team is really all that talented (at least compared to other teams over the past few years). They don't have the game breakers like they had in previous years like Hall, Tavares, Eberle, Hodgson etc... but they have outstanding chemistry and are just relentless on the forecheck. They do probably have the most talent out of any team in the tournament (like always), though. The States were really disappointing. I expected a much better game than what we saw yesterday as it could've easily been 8-1 or worse if it wasn't for Campbell. They really missed guys like Stepan and Schroeder as guys who had great tournaments last year and were expecting more from this year, like D'Amigo and Morin, were invisible out there.

How exactly is the Raptors future "amazing"? They really don't have anybody on their roster that is a surefire star or even anybody who is guaranteed to be starting caliber player on a championship level team. Davis and DeRozan have the potential to be the latter, but they are definitely not locks to be key cogs in a championship machine. Their future isn't awful as they do have some young pieces and will have some solid picks in the next few drafts, but I would hardly classify it as amazing. As for DeRozan's play of late, I can't really comment on anything specific as I don't even remember the last full game I watched, but it is definitenly encouraging to see his play lately. The only thing I really care about this season is seeing DeRozan and Davis progress throughout the year, so it is definitely nice to see him improving month by month and putting together this career best stretch. I just hope that when Bargnani, Bayless and Weems return to the lineup he continues to be aggressive and isn't ignored in the offense.

DeRozan with 27 points and a Raptors loss. Perfect game.

Dwayne Roloson to Tampa for Ty Wishart. Does this mean another trade is on the horizon? Tampa now has Roloson, Ellis and Smith between the pipes and I can't see either Ellis or Smith being too thrilled with the idea of playing in the AHL or something like that.

I just got off work and finished watching the Leafs game before turning this one. I caught the last little bit of the 2nd and am just about to sit down and watch the 3rd. I'm somewhat surprised to see Crosby back out there. I thought for sure he might've had a concussion on that collision with Steckel (sp?) at the end of the 2nd. Fleury really needs to stop trying to play the puck, though. He is absolutely awful whenever he tries to channel his inner Brodeur. Just stay in your net, MAF.

DeRozan scored 37 points (29 in the second half) The Raptors could've lost by 100 and I would be happy with this game.

Yeah, he is clearly a level above most players in this tournament and it is almost unfair that he is even playing in it (especially against a team like Norway) considering he should probably be in the NHL, or at the very least, the AHL. Not that I'm complaining or anything like that because he has been far and away the best player on the Canadian roster. Canada will definitely need him to keep up this high level of play when they face teams like Sweden or the USA. Hopefully he can get another goal and tie the Canadian record for most goals in a game (Mario Lemieux and Simon Gagne both had 4). That is about the only reason to continue watching this game at this point. Oh yeah, Ryan Ellis' two assists in this game made him the highest scoring defenseman in the history of the tournament.