Built Ford Tough

Umm, how exactly? Raptor fans complained because of his absolute pathetic play last season, particularly his complete lack of effort. Nobody is denying his talent level, but the bottom line is that he put absolutely no effort into his time with the Raptors. Nothing he does in Phoenix will ever change that.

Who do you think the Vancouver crowd will cheer for, the Raptors or the Suns? I actually think that the Suns will have the majority of the fans support in the game tonight considering Vancouver seems to hate all things Toronto and the whole Steve Nash factor. I'll be missing the game, which sucks. This was really the only preseason game that I was really looking forward to watching and of course I have to work.

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/69444/20101006/jerebko_tears_achilles_tendon/#ixzz11byfZbRF Ouch, tough preseason game for the Pistons. I'm not sure how long White will be out as it depends on the severity of the break, but I'd imagine Jerebko misses most of the season with his achillies injuries. Those things are an absolute [expletive] to recover from and they certainly could have a long term impact on his game. Tough break for Jerebko as he had a pretty nice rookie season last year.

I wasn't going to buy this until around Christmas when the price would drop (if I was even going to buy it at all), but Wal-Mart was offering it for $50 bucks instead of $60 today and as an employee there, I get a 10% discount so I picked it up after I got off of work. I haven't played it yet, but I'm definitely hoping I like the game a lot more than the demo, which I found pretty lackluster. The Jordan mode seems interesting and My Player sounds like it should be very good as well (I haven't bought a basketball game since 2K9 or 8). I'm definitely hoping that the Association Mode (is it still called that?) is a lot better than the last one I played, though. I was pretty disapointed with it back then. All in all, my expectations aren't all that high, but I figured for $50 bucks, I might as well buy it.

Here is an interview with Aldo after the fight and he says that he would have no problems moving up to the UFC's 155 pound division (among other things): http://sherdognet.craveonline.com/index.php#http://www.graciemag.com/en/2010/10/jose-aldo-has-no-problem-moving-up-in-weight-for-ufc/ Like I said earlier, I can see him fighting about two more times (probably against Grispi and Hominick) and then making the jump to the UFC. Obviously anything can happen in MMA, but I just don't see Aldo losing to anybody at 145 pounds, at least not in the WEC. I still don't think anybody could take him, but some of the guys fighting in DREAM or things like that could give him a challenge, although I still think he would win pretty convincingly.

Tell me about it. To even add to that, how many coaches in the NBA didn't wear a suit and tie in the first place? I can think of two off of the top of my head, and one of them (Don Nelson) is no longer coaching. Is it really that big of a deal that Stan Van Gundy has to throw on a tie before a game? I'm sure he can live with it.

That is just unfair. I'm definitely pulling for the Phillies in the playoffs though. I would love to see Halladay win a World Series after the career that he has had. It is about time that he will be making an appearance in the postseason.

Sounds like it is down to the Raptors and the Rockets for Dampier and that he will be making a decision shortly. I think everybody already knew that it was pretty much down to the Raptors and Rockets, though, but oh well. http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/69369/20100930/dampier_meets_with_colangelo_watches_practice/#ixzz11897XZtV

The D-League/NBA comparision doesn't work here, though. I understand where you are coming from with the analogy, but the WEC features three weight classes. Lightweight (155), Bantamweight (145) and Featherweight (135). The UFC doesn't feature Bantamweight or Featherweight so the talent level isn't as diluted because, for the most part, the best 145 pound fighters in the world are in the WEC, although there are some great fighters in organizations like DREAM and Bellator like Kid Yamamoto, Bibiano Fernandes and Joachim Hansen, but for the most part, the WEC has the best fighters at that weight class. If he fought in a weight class that the UFC featured, the comparision would be more than valid and it would be a legitimate reason for skepticisim about him, but since he is fighting in the 145 pound division, he isn't fight a diluted talent pool as the UFC doesn't have that division. I'd actually say he is more Anderson Silva 2.0 than GSP 2.0. He has a very similar style to Silva. Aldo utilizes leg kicks more than Silva does while Silva has better boxing. Other than that though, they are eerily similar. Both of them even have similar post fight celebrations with climbing the cage and jumping off of it, doing hilarious little dances and things like that. I really can't give you much of an answer about how he would fair in the UFC because he would be fighting at a weight class that he has never fought in before. If Josh Grispi wins his next fight and becomes the next challenger for Aldo, we will see Aldo fight somebody who has a significant size and reach advantage over him as Grispi is 5'11 and has a 74 inch reach compared to Aldo's 5'7, 70 inch reach. Even then, it won't really give us a clear indication of how he would do at 155 pounds. The best answer I can give you is that Aldo is bascially the GSP and Silva of the 145 pound division. He isn't as well known as them and he hasn't dominated the division as long as they have, but he is arguably just as talented as those two and has been just as dominant over his past 4 fights as those two (more than Silva considering the Sonnen fight). Assuming he continues his reign of dominance at 145 pounds, I think we will see him make the jump to the UFC's 155 pound division within the next year or so. He really doesn't have much left to prove in the Bantamweight division if he beats Grispi and Mark Hominick as he will have basically cleaned out the division. He has mentioned in the past that he would make the jump to the UFC if he feels he has nothing left to prove in the WEC and is willing to fight in the Lightweight division even though it isn't the ideal weigt for him.

Well, considering the fact that the UFC's "top fighters" (I'm talking about the Silva's, GSP's and Shogun's) are guys that are about 30 pounds bigger than Aldo, yeah, he probably would get dominated by them, haha. I know you were probably refering to the UFC's Lightweight division, though, or at least I hope so. The thing with Aldo is that he is a natural 145 pound figther. He is only 5'7, doesn't really cut to make the 145 limit and doesn't have the frame of a GSP or a Jon Fitch where you can tell that if they wanted to, they could move up a weight class. He could easily cut down to 135 if he really felt the need and I don't think that he would really miss a beat, once he got accustomed to cutting weight as he has never cut weight in his life as far as I know. I do think that he would be the most talented fighter in the UFC's 155 pound division, or second to BJ Penn (but Aldo actualy takes fighting seriously so I give him the edge as he actually gets full use of his talents), but at the same time, I'm not sure if he would be able to handle the size difference that he would have when facing somebody like Gray Maynard or Kenny Florian. I think that no matter how skilled he is, Aldo would struggle with a huge wrestler like Maynard and that he would be smothered to a decision. Then again, Frankie Edgar could easily fight at 155 as well and he is currently the champ in that weight class, so who knows. Personally, I think Aldo is certainly better than Edgar is in every aspect other than wrestling, but I also think that Maynard will be able to smother Edgar to a win when they fight as well. Despite the size advantage that most guys would have over him, I still think Aldo could do really well in the UFC's 155 pound division, but when fighting the absolute cream of the crop of the division, I think that the size difference will be too much of a factor for him to overcome, despite how amazingly gifted he is. What I hate about comments like your first one (I know they aren't from you) are that they are irrelevant. Aldo is a Featherweight, so why should he have to fight at a weight class that isn't his natural weight class? It is the same thing with everybody crying about GSP and him not moving to 185. The bottom line is that Jose Aldo has absolutely ran through the best 145 pound fighters in the world. Manny Gamburyan absolutely lit up the WEC in his first three fights, beating Leonard Garcia and knocking out Mike Brown, yet he looked like a fish out of water against Aldo. He knocked out Cub Swanson in 8 secondsMike Brown was considered virtually untouchable when he was the champ, and Aldo absolutely embarassed him. Urijah Faber was considered as arguably the greatest Bantamweight fighter ever and, while he lasted all 5 rounds with Aldo, he didn't even muster any offense against him. Who cares if he might not be able to dominate the UFC's 155 pound division considering that isn't his weight class? When did cleaning out your weight class with decisive wins (most of them stoppages) not become enough? As for the second comment, the scary thing is that Aldo's striking might not even be the best part of his game. He is one of the scariest strikers in the division with his devestating Muay Thai, but he is absolutely insane on the ground. He is a high level BJJ black belt, has vicious ground and pound, can pass guard like nobody else (other than GSP) and once he gets you in a dominant position, he finishes you with a T/KO or a submission. His striking is aboslutely elite, but it might not even be the best part of his game and that is why he is so scary. When fighting Aldo, uou are basically forced to choose whether you want to get your [expletive] handed to you on your feet or get your [expletive] handed to you on the ground. He is literally damn good that he can choose how he wants to finish you. Oh yeah, did I mention that he is only 24 years old? I'll stop declaring my love for Aldo though, as I think I've made my point well enough, haha. PS: I highly suggest that if you have some spare time, watch a couple of Aldo fights. They are absolutely amazing and you will see that the praise I am giving him in this post is highly deserved. EDIT: Also, how sick was this KO? http://ezpicshare.com/images/roopzom.gif First time that the Korean Zombie has ever been KO'd and it sure as well was a spectacular one.

Their attendance rankings over the past three seasons: Year Ranking 2010 29th 2009 30th 2008 27th Sure, they had arguably the best home court advantage during the early 2000's, but they haven't exactly been the most loyal fan base since the Kings have become irrelevant. It is easy to be loyal when the team is consistently great. It is when the team starts to go through a rough patch and drop to the bottom of the standings that we truly see how loyal a fan base is. I'll be honest though, I would hate to see Sacramento lose the Kings as well. I've always liked the Kings and despite the troubles that they have had over the past few seasons, it would still kind of suck to see them lose the team because they have shown in the past that they can support a franchise. Then again, if it meant Vancouver got a team again, well, [expletive] Sacramento!

Vancouver: No arena problem, more than capable of supporting a team. Sounds good to me, but of course there is no way in hell that Stern will put a team back in Vancouver considering how quickly he pulled the Grizzlies out of Vancouver in the first place.

The thing is that on both of those teams, he would be a backup getting around 10-15 minutes a night in an absolute best case scenario. On the Raptors, he would be getting around 25 minutes a night probably and would be the starting center while making the same amount of money that he would've made on either of those teams. Obviously he won't be contending for a Championship like he would've if he signed with the Heat or even the playoffs if he would've signed with the Bucks. Also, it could be the opposite of what you are saying. Maybe it wasn't the Bucks and the Heat who didn't want to sign Dampier, but Dampier who didn't want to sign with the Bucks and Heat? Maybe the reason why the Bucks signed Skinner after meeting with Damp is because he told Milwaukee that he wasn't going to sign with them as he wouldn't be content with the role he would have on the team or something. The same thing could be said for Miami. Nobody really knows for sure, but this could be entirely plausible as well. Toronto does have more to offer in terms of his role on the team. Maybe he wouldn't be content with just sitting on the bench and only getting around 10-15 minutes a game?

For anybody interested, there is a pretty damn good WEC card starting now (at least for me, the card started earlier) that features one of the best Pound-for-Pound fighters in the world in Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo. He is arguably the most exciting fighter in all of MMA. He trains at Blackhouse (with the Nog brothers, Anderson Silva, Junior Do Santos, Lyoto Machida among others) and has absolutely sick BJJ, is a beast on his feet and is just an amazing fighter all around. Some of you may remember Manny Gamburyan from The Ultimate Fither (I think it was the season with Nate Diaz and Gray Maynard, although I'm not 100% sure) and he has had a very successful career since moving down to 145. It also has a rematch between heated rivals Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone. In their last fight, Cerrone hit Varner with a knee while he was on the ground in the 5th round and the fight was stopped because of it. The two have talked a lot of smack about each other and there seems to be a genuine hate towards each other. They are two of the better Lightweights in the WEC as well, so should be a good fight. Lastly, Miguel Torres, the former 135 pound king, looks to get back on track after two straight losses and is fighting Charlie Valencia. Along with Urijah Faber, he used to be the face of the WEC but has hit a bit of a rough patch as of late. Don't know much about Valencia, though. Oh yeah, former 145 pound champ Mike Thomas Brown is also in action tonight, but his fight isn't on the main card. He is coming off of a loss against Gamburyan and is looking to get back into the title picture in the 145 pound division. I just realized when typing this that it has probably already aired in the US, so, umm... yeah. Haha.

Via Eric Smith's Twitter I thought it was a guarantee that Dampier would be headed to Miami, but the opportunity to start in Toronto may be more of a factor than I thought. He would certainly get more minutes in Toronto than he would in Miami and with the larger role, he may play himself into a larger contract for the 2011-2012 season (assuming there isn't a lockout and he signs a one year deal). I'd like the signing simply because he is a legit center and we would finally get to see what Bargnani can do next to a bonafide center (although it would've been nice to see Bosh in that role, but oh well). Best of all? He wouldn't hurt the Raptors draft position as they will still suck.

Only deal I'd even remotely consider if I was in Colangelo's position would be a straight Diaw for Calderon swap, and only because Diaw's contract is one year shorter than Calderon's. Even then, I'd almost just rather have Calderon for an extra year. If the Raptors have to give up Jarrett Jack and a $5M expiring deal so that they can acquire Diaw, I'll absolutely hate it. He brings nothing worthwhile to the team and is is even worse shape than Turkoglu was last season.

From Doug Smith's blog: http://thestar.blogs.com/raptors/2010/09/not-a-whole-lot-of-news-but-some-tidbits.html I guess there is no harm in letting Barron and Dorsey battle it out for the final roster spot during Training Camp, but I think I'd rather have Dorsey on the roster. I know nothing about Barron so I can't really comment on him. I just like Dorsey's rebounding and toughness ability, as well as the fact that he has great chemistry with the rest of the Young Gunz.

Cool. It still doesn't change the fact that it makes the Raptors seem like they are obsessed with him.

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_basketball_heat/2010/09/will-chris-bosh-be-a-silent-partner.html To be honest, I basically agree with Triano's comments as I don't think Bosh was exactly the leader you would want from your franchise guy (then again, Bosh isn't the kind of player you would want from your franchise guy) so I don't disagree with the thought process. I think it was pretty obvious that Jack was the leader of the team last season, both on and off the court. It is just in Jack's personality to take control and lead, while Bosh isn't like that. There is no problem with that. Kevin Garnett isn't any less of a sure fire HOF'er because he wasn't an amazing leader, just like Bosh isn't any less of a great player. But is there really a need for this to come out now? I don't think that Triano was taking a shot at Bosh like Colangelo did earlier in the summer, but it is to the point where the Raptors need to just let things go and focus on the upcoming season. Just let it go already. Even though I don't think there is exactly anything wrong with the statement itself, it just makes the Raptors look like they are still obsessing over Bosh's departure and makes them look bad.

So people are still under the assumption that Amir Johnson is being paid $34M over the next 5 years? First off, his contract is 5 years, $30M, not $34M. Secondly, the final year of his deal isn't even fully guaranteed as only $5M of the $7M of is guaranteed. The other $2M are tied into performance bonuses that are considered "nearly impossible" for him to reach. So in reality, his contract is more like 5 years, $28M. Overpaid a bit, sure, but not nearly as bad as so many people like to make it out to be. As for Noah, I think a contract along the lines of what Emeka Okafor got after his rookie deal would be fair (maybe even a bit overpaid, but he would get that on the market). As much as I like his game and the energy that he brings to the table, he isn't worth a $14-15M deal unless he is able to improve his offensive game. Paying that much for a guy who can only give you 10-12 points a night is a pretty hard pill to swallow. The Bulls made the mistake of overpaying Ben Wallace and he was a better version of Noah at the time (although he lost all interest in basketball after he left Detroit it seems). I think by the time he gets his extension he will be a bit overpaid, but the Bulls are going to have to overpay him because he knows that if he hits the open market he could command a pretty lucrative deal.

Man, that was one of the worst fights I've ever seen. Cro Cop throws two kicks the entire fight, none of which were to the head, doesn't throw one left straight or hook, basically doesn't throw anything at all. Mir does nothing but move around and perform a Wall-n-Stall that would put Randy Couture to shame for 2 and a half rounds. Then he throws a knee and knocks Cro Cop out cold. Literally the only strike thrown with the intent to do damage is the one that ends the fight. I've never got up and stopped watching a fight before, but I was literally just about to close my stream and leave when Mir threw that knee. Cro Cop needs to retire. He just hasn't looked like he even cares about fighting since Gabriel Gonzaga kicked his head off back in 06 or whenever it was. The guy is an absolute shell of himself. It is sickening watching him now when thinking about how much of a beast he was in his prime.

I didn't decide to buy this card either. Usually I will buy them, but with this card having no title fights or any fights that have any sort of title implications, other than Bader/Lil Nog, I'm just watching a stream online. The Bader/Nog fight is what I really wanted to watch, though, and the first round was a very good round. Ryan Bader (won Season 8 of TUF with Mir/Big Nog as coaches) and Jon Jones are the future of the 205 division. Both of them are still relatively green, but you can just see the superstar potential in both of them, although I think Jones will clearly be a better fighter and if them fight, Jones will win fairly easily. He looks like he will give Lil Nog his first loss in his last 7 fights as well. I think he is up 2-0 right now, but who knows with the judging that has happened so far (the first two fights were terrible decisions). I'm also a huge Cro Cop fan and even then I think he will easily lose to Mir, I can't help but watch any card with him on it. All I want to see is one more Left Head Kick KO and I'll be happy. But yeah, I didn't expect much from this thread as I know that there are very few MMA fans on here and with this card having no real big names on it, I almost didn't even bother making the thread. EDIT: After thinking about it, I would probably give the fight to Nogueria. Outside of two punches in the first round, Bader never really did any damage to Lil Nog. Lil Nog outstruck him on the feet, dealt more damage and was the one pushing the pace. He also stuffed about 5 of Bader's shots in the third round as well. Outside of some heavy GnP in the first (about 4 punches) all Bader really did was take Nog down and hold him there. He never really did much after the takedowns. I still stand by what I said about his potential, though. Oh yeah, Bader won a UD 30-27, which was pretty BS if you ask me. I can understand why he won, but there was no way in hell that he won the 3rd round.

Anybody else watching? Not a huge card name wise, but there are some interesting matchups. A nice rematch from the TUF 4 Finale, a returning Sean Sherk vs. an undefeated Evan Dunham and a contenders match at 205 between Lil Nog and Ryan Bader For those of you who don't know the card it is: Frank Mir vs. Mirko Cro Cop Antonio Rogerio Nogueria vs. Ryan Bader Chris Lytle vs. Matt Serra Sean Sherk vs. Evan Dunham Melvin Guillard vs. Jeremy Stephens The first fight just finished as Guillard won a split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27).

How much of a set back do you think it will be for his development to miss his rookie season Training Camp? I'm more worried about his missing camp and this being a lingering thing than I am about him actually missing the 6 weeks of action.

Another blog from RaptorsHQ. I'll post the questions they asked, but not give their responses to it as hopefully you all can add your own answers to the questions they ask. If you want to read what the guys at RHQ had to say, here is the link: http://www.raptorshq.com/2010/9/21/1701485/5-pre-season-questions-for-the