Built Ford Tough

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20120204_HOU@MIN

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20120204_NO@DET

The difference in play that we see from Portland when they are at home compared to on the road is ridiculous. They lose to a team like Sacramento on the road and follow that up by blowing out a vastly superior Nugget team by 20. If they ever manage to sort out their road struggles, they are going to be a dangerous team.

He is a 4. He has some perimeter skills, but he projects much more as a 4 than a 3. You could probably get away with him at the 3 if you run a lot of zone, but I'd be willing to bet he is a face up 4 when he makes it to the NBA. He is also a pretty poor rebounder at the college level and considering his size, length and athleticism advantage over most of his competition, it doesn't bode well for his future rebounding in the NBA. I like his talent and athleticism, but there are some major red flags around him which makes me hesitant. I wouldn't be furious if he was picked, but I'd rather have somebody like Barnes or MKG before him, possibly Lamb as well. Drummond has the same question marks and concerns, but I'd take a chance on him before PJ3 as well.

You probably read about how he was stuck in China for most of the year. He signed with a Chinese team during the lockout and didn't have an out clause, which means he can't come back to the NBA until the season is over, which is around the end of the month.

Raptors just don't have what it takes to tank with the likes of Washington, Detroit and New Orleans (Charlotte is genuinely this bad imo). They just take it to another level. Even with their superior talent in comparision to Toronto, they just have the innate ability to lose games. I envy it.

What exactly was Young trying to do? Just shoot the open floater, why are you trying to do some Jordan-esque switching hands layup? Kleiza has had more of an impact in his first two minutes than DeRozan did in his 20. It is ridiculous how bad DeRozan is playing. Absolutely useless out there. I'm kind of pissed that Casey took him out, though. Wizards managed to cut the lead down to a single possession and once DeRozan got taken out of the game, it has increased back up to 8. He was doing a great job commanding the tank.

During the 1st quarter of the Wizards game, Colangelo joined the broadcast to talk about some things (mainly his recent trip to watch Valanciunas) but the topic of Wilson Chandler and Andrei Kirilenko came up. It was interesting to hear how he talked about Kirilenko for a good 15-20 seconds but when it came to Chandler, all he said was that they will look into him. Now his silence in regards to Chandler doesn't necessarily mean he isn't interested in him. It may have been because of him being a Restricted Free Agent and wanting to watch what he says or it may have been him trying to hide his true intentions of being interested in him. I really don't know, but it was interesting seeing him basically completely brush it off like he did, as opposed to him going into detail about Kirilenko.

I think that was the first time I've noticed Amir in about a week. Hopefully that dunk gets him going. Bayless exaggerates contact so much. It is no wonder he never gets a call when he is constantly snapping his head back and yelling whenever there is any contact at all. He really needs to cut that out because refs are taking notice and not giving him the call when he is actually fouled.

Raptors have scored 20 of their 28 points in the paint. Wizards are playing some pathetic interior defense.

You mean it doesn't sound right mentioning Gagner in the same breath as Gretzky, Lemieux, Trottier, Richard and Coffey?

Yeah, this thread isn't happening.

Kleiza returns to the lineup after his day off against Boston and Barbosa is a game time decision with "flu-like symptoms". Also, Johnson setting the tone tonight: Epic. Lead the way, good sir. This is a must lose game.

Chad Ford did a piece on who he believes each team would take if they landed the 2nd overall pick (he has Anthony Davis as number 1 regardless of who gets the pick) and here is what he said for the Raptors: Pretty shitty analysis, but I can understand the logic and can't say I would be unhappy at drafting Barnes. Drummond and Perry Jones both scare me with their lack of a motor and disappearing act that both have for long periods of time. Sullinger and Robinson are obviously out of the equation for the Raptors. That likely leaves Harrison Barnes, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeremy Lamb and maybe Quincy Miller, although I think Miller has slipped below into that 3rd tier and is more likely to go in the 8-13 range than the 2-7 range. Barnes and MKG would be my preference but at this point I'm leaning more towards Barnes. With that said, even with my skepticism about Drummond and PJ3, I'd be lying if I said that their potential doesn't intrigue me.

So did anybody else catch Sam Gagner's 8 point night last night? Absolutely nuts. Everything he touched turned to gold in that game. Tied for the 2nd most points in a game in NHL history.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20120202_UTA@GS

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20120202_NO@SA

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20120202_MEM@ATL

The Rocket commentators make it seem worse with their huge overexageration on basically every play. Dragic got fouled, that was a blown call especially since the sideline official had a clear view without any players obstructing his vision. Parsons got tackled on the play? Yeah, right. Neal dove for the ball and the two of them got tangled up. That call is made sometimes, isn't others. Kendrick Perkins had a worse play than that on Shawn Marion diving for a ball in the Thunder/Mavs game that wasn't called. I agree that a foul should've been called, but it was hardly a brutal call. Martin ran right at Bonner's chest and he was the one who intiated contact with Bonner. When you initiate contact as often as Martin does (he has basically made a career out of it) you aren't going to get every call. I thought it was a good no call as Bonner was there. Lowry got tripped, but the refs probably saw the tucked elbow and thought he pushed Parker off so they ignored the trip. Usually when a player's off arm is in that position they don't get the benefit of the doubt. Somebody should tell the Rockets commentator that just because you are inside the restricted area doesn't mean a charge can't be called, either. If the offensive player clears out the defensive player then him being in the restriced area doesn't matter. It wasn't a charge on Lowry but it also looked like Splitter went right up. Missed call off Parker's knee. Isn't the first time a ref missed a ball hitting the offensive players knee, won't be the last time. Should've been Rockets ball, though. Martin foul on Bonner is tough to tell due to the angle so I won't comment on that one. That was a bang-bang play on the charge. In full speed it looks like a charge. I agree it was a block, but without seeing the replay it looks like a charge. Yeah, the calls did go against the Rockets but the bias commentators made it seem worse than it was. It really wasn't some huge screw job if you ask me as the only terrible call was the missed Dragic foul considering where the ref was positoned. The Parker one was clearly blown and the charge should not have been a charge, but those types of calls are missed quite often. If the Rockets didn't want the Spurs to win, they probably should've scored more than 2 points in the final 3 and a half minutes. That will lose you a game more than a few missed calls.

In the game against the New Orleans Hornets tonight, Steve Nash passed Kevin Johnson as the Suns franchise leader in assists with 6,522 career assists as a Sun. Congratulations to Nash on the record.

Nash missed 2 of his first 3 shots. He hit 12 of his next 13. 30 points and 10 assists for him in the win. Great, great game from him. He completely controlled the tempo and flow all night long.

I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but from my count paying about 70% attention to the matter: Derrick Rose without Jrue Holiday guarding him: 8 points, 4-4 shooting Derrick Rose with Jrue Holiday guarding him: 10 points, 4-13 shooting Beast. Sixers defense as a whole in that 3rd quarter was very impressive. Completely shut down everything the Bulls wanted to do. Rose couldn't get in the paint and the times he did get by Holiday, Jrue did an excellent job of funneling him towards the baseline help. Great team defense all around. Iggy also went kind of nuts in that quarter. That one dunk where he went by Korver really energized him and got him on a nice roll. He really was doing it all from scoring, running the offense, passing, defending, rebounding. You name it, he did it. Thad was awesome as well. Took over in the 2nd to get the Sixers out in front and they didn't look back from that point on. That is what I love about this Sixer team. Brand, Turner and Williams combine for just 6-26 shooting and yet you are still able to come away with a win over the Bulls (without Deng and Rip, but still) because you have Iguodala drop 19 on 8-13 shooting, Thad drop 18 on 7-12 shooting, Holiday drop 17 on 8-15 shooting and Lavoy Allen drop 15 on 7-10 shooting. So much depth on this team, although I don't think you can count on this kind of play from Allen on a consistent basis, haha.

Lombardi hasn't played one game on the 4th line this season. Maybe he has played one or two, but that is it. The 4th line has basically always featured some combination of: Steckel Brown Crabb Frattin Boyce Rosehill Armstrong Lombardi has either played on the 3rd line with Connolly as his center, or at center with two of Kadri, MacArthur, Crabb and Armstrong on his wings or on the 1st line between Kessel and Lupul. He also played a couple of games with Bozak when Connolly was on the first line between Kessel and Lupul. Maybe 10 was an exageration, but he has played more than 1 or 2 games on the first line. Earlier in the season he played on the 1st line against the Habs and Flyers. He was there in the game against Calgary. He had a game against Ottawa and there are one or two more for sure that I am probably forgetting where Bozak was hurt and Connolly wasn't with Kes and Lup. The point is, he was given the opportunity to play with the two best wingers on the team and still could barely produce. The best chance Frattin got was playing alongside a struggling Grabovski and Kulemin earlier in the season. Yet he still basically equalled Lombardi's production. What are these 10 games of limited ice time you are talking about? His first 10 games after returning from the seperated shoulder he had TOI of: 10:57 10:45 13:46 15:04 12:27 10:16 15:00 15:43 13:34 15:34 Those kinds of minutes are basically what he has gotten all season long. Not really being eased in. He had 5 15+ minute games in that 10 game stretch. Frattin had 3 in 37 games, so that kind of disproves the whole Lombardi playing on the 4th line argument. 4th liners don't average around 12 minutes a game. Lombardi does have a lot of speed, I don't deny that. However, how often does he actually use it? Not very. As far as the giveaways go, Frattin had 11 in 37 games. Lombardi has 8 in 33. They basically give the puck over the same amount of time. Frattin also had 14 takeaways compared to Lombardi's 8. Frattin also had 46 hits and since they both play in a bottom 6 role, I'd rather have the physical winger who is better at winning puck battles and that is clearly Frattin. Pretty much everything about Lombardi has been non-existent. His major asset is his speed, yet how many times have we seen him use it to create a scoring chance? We can probably count the number on one hand. Frattin had numerous net drives that created scoring chances. He also did a much better job of finding open ice. He didn't convert on a lot of his chances because he certainly missed a lot of open nets, but at least he was getting those chances. Lombardi is basically just floating around out there and once every 5 games he does a nice job of blowing by a defender. I liked Lombardi when he was with the Flames and Coyotes. I was actually looking forward to seeing him with the Leafs this season as I thought he would be good for 40 points or so. It is quite clear that he is not the player he was prior to those concussion issues he had last season. He is hesitatnt out there and not contributing at all. Frattin is the better player and is more deserving of being in the NHL. Lombardi is only up because he is a veteran on a one way contract making $3.5M a season.

The thing about DeRozan is exactly what skills are being underutilized? His handles and first step are too weak to iso him with. He is bricking pretty much every jumper he takes, open or not. He doesn't use screens all that well as he goes too wide which allows the defender to jump between the screener and DeRozan, eliminating any seperation. When he does get the seperation, he just misses the shot, turns it over or immediately passes it back out anyways. He has poor decision making, often dribbling himself into a corner and panicking by picking up his dribble, which usually results in a turnover. His main skills are running the floor, pulling up in transition and finishing with 1 or two dribbles when he has a fairly clear lane. He really is limited skillwise, which is what worries me. I thought he was more skilled than this but his strong play after the All-Star break last season is looking more and more like defenses being caught of guard than him being that good. I hope I'm wrong, but it is worrisome seeing him struggling so much when defenses are actually aware of him and gameplanning against him, which wasn't the case in his first two seasons. Despite that, I'm not completely writing him off yet. He was a project coming out of USC and many people said it would be 3-4 years before he really got it, so there is hope, especially with his work ethic. He is not doing anything to really make me confident in his future, though. As for Bayless, his scoring ability was never a question. It has always been known that he can score the ball, but his potential relied on him being able to play the ponit which so far, he has not shown the ability to do. These last few games he has been playing primarily at the 2 and he has shown some good things, but he is never going to be a core piece or anything like that if he is playing the 2. His worth is directly related to his ability to play the point and he hasn't shown much of an improvement, if any at all, in this regard since last season. Right now we are looking at a future Leandro Barbosa and is that really something to get excited about? A good player for sure, but not anything noteworthy and certainly not a building block for the future. Except the chances of getting Anthony Davis are slim. The Raptors aren't going to be the worst team in the league and are going to have to rely upon sheer luck in the lottery to even have a shot at him. As for Drummond, he scares me. I don't deny his potential and physical tools, but he really lacks fundamentals, has a poor motor and I question his desire. He looks completely disinterested 90% of the time out there. If he wasn't so highly regarded in high school, people wouldn't even be taking about him and that is a bit troublesome. Even if his skills are raw, he should still be much more productive simply because of his physical gifts. Despite that, he has the kind of potential that woudl be hard to pass up. Of course, potential is a dangerous word.

Fair enough. I do fully admit that when Bosh plays bad against Garnett, he looks really bad and things like that are an example of it. His overall play against Garnett throughout his career has been vastly overblown because of incidents like that, though. He really hasn't played as poorly against KG as many people make it seem.