Built Ford Tough

It ulimately comes down to having a defined role with the team. Jack Armstrong talked about it in last night's game. If a player knows when he is going to be coming into the game, roughly how many minutes he will be getting, what kind of role he will have when on the floor and things like that, he will be less inclined to press and force the issue because he won't be looking over his shoulder every second. It isn't a coincidence that DeRozan had his best of the season, hell his career, last night without Barbosa or Kleiza in the lineup, just like it isn't a coincidence that Weems has had his best games of the season with Barbosa out of the lineup. If he continues his play as of late, I don't see how you can't give him an increase in himutes. As much as I like what Kleiza is "capable" of doing, the bottom line is that he has been realtively unimpressive so far this season and is a turnover machine when asked to do anything other than shoot the three ball or take a couple of dribbles. Maybe it has been the achillies injury that has supposedly been bothering him since Sacramento, but either way he has clearly been outplayed by Sonny. I just want Barbosa to go and have that surgery already. It would open things up so much for everybody to get the minutes that they should be getting. If he has surgery and the minutes come out to something like: DeRozan - 32 Weems - 28 Wright - 16 Kleiza - 24 (gets some minutes at the 4) I would be really happy with that.

Just curious, but how many of his offensive rebounds were of the Moses Malone variety? Not trying to take anything away from him because obviously a 30/30 game is absolutely amazing, I just noticed his poor shooting percentage and was curious.

By far the best game that the Raptors have played this season. Even if they would've lost that game I still would've been thrilled and it would have nothing to do with the fact that they would be one step closer to the worst record in the league, haha. They executed offensively down the stretch, which is something that they have not done so far this season as they've found every possible way to lose these close games. Say what you want about the talent level of this team being terrible, you can't deny that they play hard every night. It is very refreshing to see considering the teams that Raptor fans have had to endure over the past few seasons. DeRozan had his best game of his career tonight as well. As much as I liked that final game of the season against the Knicks last season or that 24 point performance against Sacramento, this game was on a different level for the simple fact that he was going up against one of the best defenses in the league and didn't back down at all. He was aggressive all night long, wasn't scared to attack the paint even though he knew Howard would be waiting for him. The entire key to his game tonight was hitting a couple of jumpers early that forced Orlando to cover him. It opened up his entire game. What I loved the most from him tonight was his rebounding and the way that he stepped up in the 2nd half. He has the tools to become a solid rebounder from the two guard spot, certainly more than the 3 he was averaging prior to the game, and he showed them tonight. He got some very tough rebounds in traffic. I also liked the way that he took charge in the 2nd. Bargnani carried the team in the 1st half, but it was DeRozan leading the way in the 2nd half. I won't go as far as to say that he put them on his back, but he certainly took charge. Loved his game. It really is amazing what a defined role can do to a players game. I also thought that Sonny played very well too. He has really stepped his game up since the coaching staff called him out on his shot selection and trying to do too much. He has started playing like he did last season and it is paying off big time. He certainly looked better than Kleiza tonight and if he continues to play like he has over the past few games, I definitely think an increase in minutes is due for him. SVG made some very questionable coaching moves in this game, though. I don't understand what he was thinking putting Howard on Weems on that final possession, especially considering the Raptors had Julian Wright in the game who isn't a threat with his jumper. I also don't like him putting Carter on Jack and Nelson on Calderon. I think it should've been the other way around, but that wasn't as bad as the decision to put Howard on Weems. That was baffling. I also don't get why Dwight was the focal point down the stretch considering his complete inability to knock down shots from the line. I know he is the best player, but you can't afford to run your offense through him when he is shooting 30% from the foul line all game long. I don't say this often, but Triano definitely outcoached SVG tonight. I love it too, because I can't stand SVG. Great game. I'm definitely glad that I stayed up to watch it, even if I knew the outcome already.

On my lunch break I checked the sore and noticed that they won by 4, only to realize that I can watch a replay of the game at 11 (so right now). Kind of upset that I didn't think to check if there was a replay on before I checked the box score. Not really. He almost always plays great in the first half of games and then disapearing in the 2nd half of the game. If I had to guess, I'd say about 80% of his scoring average comes in the first half of games. It really is frustrating seeing him hit everything in the first half and then completely disappear in the 2nd half of games.

It would've been the exact same deal, except the TPE that the Raptors got would be around $8M or so instead of $13.5M after you factor in Beasley's deal. Unless the Heat insisted that if the Raptors wanted Beasley they had to take Anthony and Chalmers as well, but I doubt that considering they were desperately trying to dump him in order to be able to afford three max deals. But yeah, Beasley's play so far this season is making Colangelo (and, I guess, myself) look like an idiot for not taking the chance on him. Yeah he is taking a lot of shots, but he shooting nearly 50% from the floor and over 40% from three while scoring 20 points a night. Even if he bombed out in Toronto, he only has two more years left on his deal and it would be easy to get out of. Definitely a poor decision in retrospect.

No Kleiza. No Barbosa. No Andersen. Possibly no Evans. 80% Jack. There is a much more realistic chance that this game is decided by 40 than 4.

I definitely agree about the logos. They are too dark for my liking. Other than that, no real complaints. Good job.

I know now may not be the most opportune time to make this thread considering his 42 point game the other night and what not, but I've actually been thinking about this for a while after seeing just how untalented the Raptors. As everybody knows, the Raptors could've easily had Beasley in the sign and trade for Bosh, but Colangelo wanted no part of him because of concerns around his work ethic, attitude and all that crap so he said no and took the $13.5M or whatever TPE instead. So the question is, should Toronto have rolled the dice and taken a chance on Beasley? I know that I said in the summer that I wasn't interested, but after actually watching this team and just how untalented they actually are, I definitely think I would've acquired Beasley in the summer. Anybody else feel the same?

Exactly. Just look at the teams who were rumoured to be interested in him or brought him in for a workout and decided to pass on him: Houston: Yao is a walking injury, Brad Miller is a shell of his former self, Jordan Hill has proven nothing in his NBA career thus far and Chuck Hayes is 6'6. The Rockets still thought better of signing Dampier even with the obvious need for size and depth at the center position. Phoenix: Robin Lopez and Channing Frye get the majority of the teams minutes at center. They are playing Hed Turkoglu at the power forward spot, yet they still felt it wouldn't be beneficial to bring Dampier in. Toronto: Bargnani is a starting center averaging 4 rebounds a game, David Andersen is his backup and hasn't even sniffed the paint all season long. They are putting 6'8, 205 pound Amir Johnson in at center and still haven't signed Dampier despite the fact that he has been to Toronto visiting the team and with management on two seperate occasions. If any team needs a true center, it is the Raptors. Hell, even Miami passed on him late in the summer because he was out of shape so bad and played so terribly when they brought him in for a workout. A motivated Dampier would help Miami, but with him purposefully avoiding training camp, talking about how he wants money and minutes and all of the teams passing on him who could clearly use him, he really doesn't seem to be all that motivated for anything other than a paycheck.

Alabi, along with Davis, sound like they will be going to the Erie Bayhawks, at least according to Doug Smith (which means they probably won't be going anywhere). http://thestar.blogs.com/raptors/2010/11/theres-nowhere-like-erie-in-the-fall-and-other-fun-items.html

I know that he missed training camp and needs to learn the system, which is why I don't think he should be sent down there for long. Just a week or two so that he can get his legs under him considering he hasn't played in a meaningful game since he broke his wrist in Feburary. Then he can come back to the NBA team and not worry so much about his conditioning, which still won't be at an ideal level but at least he won't be sucking air all of the time, and focus on learning the system.

Two problems with this. 1) The Heat have no 1st round picks to trade. They gave up all of their picks in the sign and trades for Bosh and LeBron. Since you can't trade consecutive picks, they won't be able to trade a 1st until around 2016 or something like that. No team is going to trade somebody like the players you mentioned for a pick that far into the future. 2) All of those players are making more than $5M (Jack might be a shade under actually). The Heat don't have any contracts to make any sort of deal work for any of these kinds of players. The bottom line is that the Heat have nothing to trade. They don't have any picks to trade, they don't have any young talent to trade and they don't have any contracts to make any trades work. They also don't even need a true point guard. They need a guy who can stand in the corner, hit a three and play defense. Bron and Wade make a ball dominant point guard redundant, and this team is already redundant as it is. What they need more than a point guard is a defensive anchor. They are over helping constantly and don't have any real lock down defenders, either on the perimeter or in the paint. Teams aren't worried about driving into the paint because Miami's bigs aren't intimidating. They need a guy who can anchor their defese and make teams think twice about attacking the paint. And no, Erick Dampier is not that guy.

Sadly, I have to work tonight so I'll miss this game. Hopefully I can catch a replay later on as the first game of the season was a very enjoyable game to watch. I really couldn't care less who wins this game. I hate Boston, I've never really liked Miami. I'll probably root for Boston because of the simple fact that any Miami loss is better for Toronto. Even though the draft is a complete crap shoot after the top 10 picks or so, any loss from Miami increases the chances that their pick will be around 25th instead of 29th. I'll take whatever I can get at this point. One thing that I'd like to see is Miami come to their senses and stop playing Arroyo so many minutes, especially against teams with great point guards. There is no reason to have Arroyo guarding Rajon Rondo in a game like this when you have Dwyane Wade or LeBron James on the roster. Stick Wade on Rondo for crying out loud. It makes no sense not to. I'm sure that James Jones or somebody can do a competent enough job of keeping up with Allen on all of those screens and LeBron is capable of slowing down Pierce. You are an idiot not to put Wade on Rondo. (Not sure if the Heat have changed their stance on their defensive matchups or not as the only great point guard I've seen them play is Rondo during the first game)

Sorry, let me clarify. I meant a show of the same genre as Heroes/Lost was. I already watch Dexter (my favourite show on TV) but was just wondering if there was any other good shows that follow a similar style as Lost and the 1st season of Heroes.

I just finished watching the entire series online and I must say that I am shocked at how quickly this show went from being completely amazing to complete garbage. The entire 4th season was just retarded and nothing interested me about it at all. It was such a huge disapointment. Turning Sylar into Nathan? Who the hell thought that was a good idea? The whole carnival thing was just stupid. Robert Knepper is a great actor, but even he couldn't get me interested in that storyline. Claire's lesbian romance? How original. The last episode was quite possibly the biggest let down ever. Samuel goes from being a god when he has about 20-30 "special" people around him to being literally powerless when they leave, even though he still has Sylar, Peter, Emma, Doyle and I think Claire, Hiro and Ando around him? He didn't seem to have any troubles killing Mohinder without anybody around him earlier in the season. I think I'd take a full season of nothing but Maya and Alejandro over the 4th season. The show was just a complete mess after season 2, which wasn't even that great in the 1st place although I think the writers strike had a lot to do with that as it had potential. It was nothing but plot holes and horrible storylines from then on out. I didn't read anything about it before I started watching it, but if I'd known that the show would go into a complete tailspin like it did, I probably would've just stopped watching it after season 1. Season 1 was one of my favourite seasons of any show and then it just went to complete [expletive]. Just curious, does anybody know of any similar shows that are worth watching? Doesn't have to be a current show as I'll most likely be watching it on the computer. Ever since Lost ended I've been trying to find a suitable replacement for it, and I thought I found it after the first season of Heroes, but so far I've had no luck.

Don't get me wrong, scoring 42 points in an NBA game is nothing to scoff at, regardless of the shots that you take, but I'd like to believe that if you give any NBA player that is feeling it on a specific night, who is considered above average offensively 31 shots and 10 free throw attempts against a soft defense that they would score at least 30-35 points. It is impressive, but not that impressive. I'm sure that some people are going to hype it up way more than it should be.

On 31 shots... If you are taking 31 shots and attempting 10 free throws against the outstanding defensive duo of Carl Landry and Omri Casspi, I should hope you score at least 40 points.

The thing is that Barbosa has no future with this team. There is no way that he signs a new contract with the Raptors once his current deal expires after the end of next season. You might as well tighten up the rotation and give Weems, Wright and especially DeRozan more minutes because these three may have a future with the team. You might as well see what they can do to make a decision on whether or not they are worth keeping around, especially since Weems and Wright are both expiring at the end of the year and a decision will need to be made about that. After watching tonight's game, I'm now 100% on board with him having his surgery. Wright has earned minutes based off his solid play so far this season. With Barbosa in the lineup, I don't think that there is enough time to go around to give Wright, Weems, Kleiza, DeRozan and Barbosa the minutes that they deserve. Sonny Weems had his best game of the season and I don't think it was a coincidence that he stopped forcing the issue, took good shots and played within the offense in the game that Barbosa was out. I think when Barbosa is in the lineup, Weems is constantly looking over his shoulder and forces the issue to try and prove a point. Obviously, DeRozan needs 30 minutes a night at least to show what he can do as well. It just makes too much sense for this to happen now. I like Barbosa, but I'd rather see these three guys getting minutes over him, especially an unhealthy Barbosa.

Picked up two quick fouls in the first that had him glued to the bench, came in for a couple minutes late in the 2nd and picked up a third so he was right back to the bench and then picked up a quick foul in the 3rd that forced him to sit again. He also had Gerald Wallace on him whenever he was on the floor so he struggled a bit because of that matchup. That definitely wasn't helping his cause out there. I'm not worried about that. Even if they fluke out and beat Miami, they will be brought right back down to earth the next night when Howard drops a 20/20/10 game against them, especially if Evans misses the game with the hip injury he suffered tonight. Tyrus Thomas and Gerald Wallace looked like Wilt and Russell defensively tonight, could you imagine what Howard will do to all of their weak attempts at the rim? Raptors also historically struggle defending the three ball, so that adds even more to it. As for the college season, the games are pre-season right now. I'm not 100% sure when the regular season starts, but I think it might be this Friday. I know for sure that next week the season will be underway, but I think it may start this weekend. Circle Feburary 9th, though. Duke vs. UNC. Barnes vs. Irving. I think that is the basketball game that I'm looking forward to the most this year. How sad is that?

Yeah, I edited that into my post as you were typing up the response. It makes sense, but I don't understand why he would get Calderon to handle the ball in that situation. Give the ball to Jack because he is clearly better suited to breaking down the defense off of the bounce. Hell, give the ball to DeRozan or Weems before putting Calderon into that situation. He can't get to the hoop without a screen. That is common knowledge.

He just doesn't have any confidence in his game anymore. Two/three seasons ago he would've put that shot up without hesitation and 9 times out of 10 he would drain it. Now he is just so damn hesitant with everything that he does. When he isn't hesitant and actually plays without second guessing himself, he is still a solid backup point guard. Yeah, I understand where you are coming from about never knowing what he is going to do. I don't think his teammates know what the hell to expect from him at this point either. At least with Jack they know he will put his head down and bully his way to the hoop. I don't think they know what Calderon is going to do with the ball. That is why him and Johnson play so well together because Amir thrives in chaotic and unpredictable situations. I'd be happy with beating Miami. The Raptors look like a lock to finish in the basement of the East, so might as well try and make Miami's pick more valuable in the process. One last thing about that final play, was that seriously the play that Triano designed during the timeout? The one thing that he does at a high level is drawing up plays out of timeouts, but that was just doomed from the start. If I had to guess, Calderon was probably supposed to drive to the hoop for a quick two or a kick out, but he screwed it up by just standing there with his thumb up his [expletive].

I think it might be a good idea to send him to the D-League for a week or two when he is ready to return. Let him ease his way back into game shape (clearly a week won't do it but it will help) because it has been a long time (Feburary) since he played in any meaningful game action. I think it might help him out a bit if the Raptors did something like that.

Especially since he should be aware of the fact that Calderon pounded the ball for about 5 seconds and because of that there was no time to go for a two and the only thing you could do was put up a three. One of the problems with Bargnani is a lack of awareness and Basketball IQ, and this play was a perfect example of that. Oh well, Raptors have sole possession of last place in the East now. With a back to back against Miami and Orlando coming up, they are going to be 1-9 after Saturday. I do have to admit, this was kind of a painful loss, though. I don't care if they lose, but I hate to see them loss a game because of their own stupidity.

"What the [expletive] you gonna do"? Well, clearly you aren't going to run any kind of play.

I'm shocked that Weems passed up that three. You could tell that he was just dying to put up the potential game tying three. Poor clock management by the Raptors as well. They allowed nearly 9 seconds to go off of the clock before fouling Thomas. On top of that, they almost gave up a possible And One opportunity. 3 point game with 12.7 seconds left. I say go for two for one here. Unlike the game against Sacramento, the Raptors have a timeout so they can afford to go for a quick two here.