Built Ford Tough

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if that is correct based on the other information mentioned. They might as well just ask for no salary cap at all if they want all of these changes. Two MLE's mean that you can pay roughly $10-12M on free agency even if you are over the cap. What is the point in having a cap if you are able to spend so much money even when you are over it? If the NBPA are insisting on these changes, I'm 100% sure that there will be a lockout. These are just ridiculous.

Got two games to post here, as I forgot to update this after the game on Saturday night. On Saturday, he had a brutal game of only 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks on 2/8 shooting in 20 minutes. However, he bounced back tonight and had arguably his best game in the D-League with 12 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 blocks on 4/5 shooting and 4/4 from the line in 28 minutes. I was a bit worried after see how poorly he played during the weekend games, but it is nice to see him bounce back tonight and have a solid game. He hasn't put up numbers like this since his first game in the D-League when he put up 13/7/7. Hopefully he can keep this kind of play up, although I don't expect much considering the D-League is so guard oriented.

So I sprained my ankle and the Wizards managed to go an awesome 0-11 without me in the lineup. After the joke of a season last year where we won around 25 games, I finally decided to ask for a trade and got dealt to the Raptors, who surprisingly enough wasn't even one of the teams I listed. The Wizards got absolutely raped in the trade, too. They got DeRozan in exchange for me (80 overall point guard) and a 12 first round pick, which is bound to be lottery considering how bad they are. Talk about a lopsided trade. To top it all off, John Wall wants out of Washington as well after being benched in favor of me. I really [expletive]ed that franchise over.

I definitely agree that he has been all sorts of awful, but really, who else is going to get those minutes? Weems has been equally as awful, Barbosa is an inconsistent chucker, Wright isn't very good and Peja has been hurt. DeRozan has been averaging around 32 a night for the last little while, which isn't ideal but also isn't worth complaining about. That is the problem. The Raptors perimeter rotation is so weak that you can't really bench him because who else are you going to play?

These are the Raptors I expected to start the season. The Pacers are making them look like a D-League team out there. They are getting whatever they want offensively and getting wide open looks every time down the floor. They are also completely shutting down the Raptors on defense too. You know you suck when you have Julian Wright running pick and rolls and trying to create off of the bounce. But hey, I'm not complaining.

Ahh, Sonny is turning back into Chucky Weems. He was terrible yesterday and has been even worse so far to start this game. Why can't he just play like he did during that 2 or so week stretch earlier in the season? He was so solid for Toronto.

Yes it was. He was absolutely awful yesterday. Useless offensively, didn't fight for rebounds as most of them sort of just fell into his lap and was completely abused on defense. His numbers are alright, I guess, but make no mistake about it, Bargnani was brutal yesterday. The Raptors played better when he wasn't on the floor.

December 5th, 2010 vs. New York Stats 12 points, 2 steals, 2 assists on 4/8 shooting in 36:06 Thouhgts DeRozan had an alright game. He was probably the best wing player for the Raptors yesterday, but considering the overall play from the Raptors wings, that isn't saying much. He did a good job of getting to the rim, including one very nice spin move that resulted in a foul on Mozgov, I believe. I thought that he could've got more calls go his way considering the contact that he drew when driving to the hoop, but he hasn't earned the respect of the officials enough to get those borderline calls consistently. I thought it was absurd that Triano benched him in the 4th and gave the shooting guard minutes to Leandro Barbosa instead, considering DeRozan outplayed him by a substantial margin. Defensively, I thought he was better than usual, which again, isn't saying much because he has been pretty bad defensively this year. I liked when they had him on Danilo Gallinari because his quickness didn't allow Gallo many good looks. However, when he was forced to guard Wilson Chandler or Landry Fields he was abused. All in all, it wasn't a terrible game from him, but after his last two performances against the Wizards and the Thunder where he reall stood out, this one was kind of disappointing because he sort of just blended in.

I was joking, hence the laughing emoticon and the "Seriously though" to start the next paragraph. It doesn't matter who you are playing, dropping a 30/15 game on any NBA team is noteworthy.

Not that I disagree with the fact that he is still an All-Star caliber player without Nash, but dropping 31/16 against the Raptors is the equivalent of dropping 25/10 on a normal team. Same thing with Amir Johnson's 22/16 or whatever he had today. They deserve an asterisk because of the teams that they were playing against. Seriously though, Amare played a heck of a game today in the 4th. I wasn't overly impressed with him during the first three quarters as I thought he wasn't nearly aggressive enough, but he really put the team on his back in the 4th, much like he did during the first meeting between these two. He has definitely been on a hell of a role over his last 4 or so games.

Too bad Bayless was the only other Raptor that decided to show up. Bargnani was awful, Calderon was playing like the Calderon from last year, Kleiza and Weems were complete liabilites, Barbosa was putting up brick after brick and DeRozan, the only wing player who was actually aggressive, got benched in the 4th quarter and only came into the game when it was already over. Oh well, good for the tank. These Sunday morning games are brutal, though. You would think that the Raptors would be used to them considering they have at least 2 of them a month, sometimes even 3 or 4, but they always play like crap in them. EDIT: So Calderon put up 13/6 on 5-8 shooting. Really? This is a classic example of the numbers not telling the whole story because I thought he was awful today but if you look at the numbers, he looks like he had a solid game.

Weems has been awful today. He isn't hitting anything on offense, killing the ball movement and committing way too many turnovers. Once again, though, gotta give credit to the Knicks for coming out in the 4th and killing all of the momentum that the Raptors built at the end of the 3rd. Every time the Raptors go on a run and look like they are knocking on the door, the Knicks go on a run of their own. That has been the story of the game.

Holy [expletive]! What a putback by Johnson. That was absolutely ridiculous.

Terrible decision by Sonny Weems there. Just come down with the ball because there was clearly no chance that he would be able to finish that lob from Calderon. It was a bad decision from Calderon to throw the lob in the first place, but Weems just made it worse. The Knicks have really taken advantage of the Raptors mistakes in this game. Every time it seems to get close, the Raptors make a boneheaded play and the Knicks get out and score immediately, thus killing the momentum. They have done a great job of putting a halt to all of the rns that the Raptors have gone on so far. Lol at Stoudemire there. Throws down a wide open dunk, hangs on the rim for a couple of seconds and then stands under the hoop flexing and mean mugging for about 5 seconds. That was awesome.

Did I just see Davis airball a free throw a couple minutes ago? Nice! Also, Bayless has been far away the best Raptor so far tonight. He has been active on defense which has resulted in some turonvers, hitting jumpers on offense and doing a good job of getting in the open floor. Raptors are struggling mightily from the line, though. 6/16 is just terrible, especially considering this is a good team from the stripe.

December 3rd, 2010 vs. Oklahoma City http://i2.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/multimedia/photo_gallery/1012/gameaction1203/images/120310_550_derozan.jpg Stats 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists on 6/13 shooting. I've been busy with school projects so I didn't pay enough attention to this game to give a breakdown of the positives and negatives from his game on Friday.

I'm actually pretty excited to see Davis when heis at 100%. He is really quick off of the floor despite not being in game shape. He has definitely played a lot better than I thought he would coming back from injury. I guess I was wrong about thinking he needed another 2 games in the D-League. Bayless has played well tonight as well. Two threes so far and he has made some nice passes like that lob to Bargnani. He has also impressed me a lot more than I thought he would.

Raptors putting up brick after brick to start the game. When Sonny Weems is missing dunks and airballing shots from right under the rim, you know it is going to be a long day. Just a terrible start to this game both offensively and defensively for Toronto. Give credit to the Knicks, though. They have played really well offensively, particularly their ball movement.

If the Raptors play as well a they did on Friday against the Thunder, this should be one hell of a game considering how well the Knicks have been playing lately. It is going to be interesting to see if Amir can stay out of foul trouble going up against Amare. He has done a decent job of staying on the floor as of late, but this will definitely be a test for him. Hopefully he is able to stay on the floor because he has been playing really well as of late. Should be a fun game regardless, though. I always enjoy watching Raptors/Knicks games and the game threads are always some of the better ones. Hopefully this one is half as good as the thread for the first game of the season between these two.

I was going to say May 16 for some reason, but figured I'd just say May to be sure.

I think mine was around May of 08, but I'm definitely not positive of that. Anyways, I only had like 200 posts before the hack and hardly came on here so I probably fall into the "just ignore it" catagory.

You are making it sound like Riley had a choice in the matter. Whoever he drafted was dictated by Toronto considering everybody knew that Bosh and Wade would be going 4th and 5th in the draft, the only question was who Toronto would take. They went with Bosh because they already had Carter and wanted to pair him with a big. Riley was taking whoever Toronto didn't draft.

He had a pretty poor game tonight. Only 5 points, 4 boards and a block in roughly 25 minutes in a loss. Didn't seem to have much of an impact at all on the game and from what I read, he was pretty much invisible on the floor. Hopefully he has a better showing tomorrow.

Don't celebrate too early. The Raptors lead dwindled from 14 to 9 in about 45 seconds. Also, you realize the Raptors are only about 2 or 3 games out of last place in the East, right? They are currently in 8th, but the bottom half of the East is completely bunched together. Nevermind about my first point. Barbosa hit two dagger jumpers to seal the game.

Thunder's small ball lineup is getting abused down low by Johnson and Bargnani. The mobility on the perimeter is nice and all, but they are giving up way too much size. Bargnani with 22/12. Raptors have lookd absolutely amazing in the 2nd half of this game, though. This is some of the best ball I've seen them play this year, right up there with the Boston game that they won.