Built Ford Tough

Yeah, Ruff is brutal. He has always been like that, though, so I'm just used to it now. In another note, how hilarious is it that the Leafs haven't given up a powerplay goal in a month (became the first team since I believe the '78 Blackhawks to do that) and their PK is still in last place (0.8% worse than Columbus) and have still given up more PPGA than any other team (41, 1 more than Columbus)?

Nothing really noteworthy, but Colangelo's comments from his scouting trip. There is a bit more in the link. http://www.torontosun.com/2012/02/01/raptors-check-out-big-v

It was on Sportsnet One. But really, you didn't miss anything. The Leafs game was 100X more interesting than this was (and that is saying something since the Leafs game has been dull as well). Just picture the Hawks game yesterday and think of a game twice as bad. It was basically the exact same game just worse, which is saying something considering how brutal yesterday's game was.

He scored 1 less goal than Lombardi has despite getting 3rd/4th line minutes his entire tme with the Leafs. Lombardi has played around 10 games with Lupul and Kessel and still only managed to score 6 goals and 11 points in 32 games as opposed to Frattin's 5 and 10 in 37. Frattin also gives you a physical edge that Lombardi doesn't. If Lombardi isn't scoring, which he doesn't do often, he is basically useless. He just floats around and can't win any puck battles. Frattin will throw hits, grind it out in the corner and even when he wasn't scoring, he was using his speed and strength to drive the net. He has created much more scoring chances than Lombardi has this season. I agree about Aulie regressing and I'm fine with him being in the AHL, especially since he would be the 7th d-man with Liles, Phanuef, Gunnarsson, Schenn, Franson and Gardiner. What I'm not fine with is him being forced down to the AHL because of a $4.5M plug like Komisarek. It is more frusturation over this team than anything. They finally have their first round pick back and once again are primed to finish in 9th or 10th place. It seems they only bottom out when they don't have a 1st round pick otherwise they are the prototypical treadmill team.

I realize that, but Bosh did guard him for stretches as well and was the primary help defender in that series since Chandler isn't a real big threat offensively. It was still just more of a point to prove how pathetic it was to use Gasol playing solid defense against Howard (which, Bynum was just as big of a part as) 3 years ago was pointless. And yet again, just proving a point of how Gasol was garbage in his first ever Finals appearance. He was worse than Bosh was in his first ever Finals but he completely overlooked that fact. Bosh has had his fair share of good games against Garnett as well. To say that he gets constantly punked by KG is a flat out lie. He has scored over 20 points in 5 of their head-to-head regular season matchups and was 18 or more in another 4 and also reached 17 two times. If you take out the two games they played when Bosh was 19 or 20 years old (wher he played 19 minutes in one of the games), that is 50% of the time he scored almost 20 on KG. He has put up 11 double doubles on KG, which is 1 less than KG has against him. 6 games over 60% shooting (Garnett has 7, one of which he only took 6 shots in) plus another 5 where he was over 50% (Garnett had 5 as well). The playoffs he got outplayed in pretty much one game. Garnett's 28/18 game grossly inflates his numbers since 5 games is such a small sample size. Take that game away and KG's averages against Bosh in the playoffs last year were 11/8.8 on 32.4% shooting. Take away Bosh's 20/12 game and he averaged 11/9.8 on 35.3% shooting. Not good by any means, but he still outplayed KG. Bosh and Gasol's career numbers against KG are basically identical. The only difference is one playoff series that increased Pau's averages against him. If the Celtics and Heat face each other this year in the playoffs, I guarantee that Bosh's numbers improve just like Pau's did.

Because I'm struggling to think of anybody outside of Valanciunas who isn't even on the roster yet. Bayless is an undersized shooting guard destined to be an offensive spark off the bench. Not bad as there have been successful players in that role, such as Terry, Barbosa, etc... but also nothing to get excited about. Davis has shown no improvement to his game since his rookie season. An average hustle big man seems to be his ceiling, not the 15/10/2 guy like many hoped. DeRozan can't create his own shot, struggles to score outside of transition and is a below average defender and rebounder. His production seems to be heavily dependent on the system he plays in. He is the most intriguing of the Raptors young players but his play this season is making his weaknesses really obvious and, considering his position, those weaknesses could prove to be disasterous. He does have a great work ethic, so I'm certainly not counting him out yet but a work ethic only takes you so far if the talent is limited. I'd be lying if I said his play this season hasn't made me worried about his future, though. Johnson is probably the most intriguing right now as a jack of all trades small forward, but his basketball IQ is highly questionable and could be his undoing. He has games where he looks great, but other nights, such as last night, where he runs around like a chicken with his head cut off. I fully expected this to be a long season, but the lack of progression from any of the Raptors young players, aside from maybe James Johnson, is very concerning. I thought that the Raptors had a pretty solid foundation and just needed that one bonafide star. After seeing the first 22 or so games this year, I'm beginning to question that and starting to come to the opinion that this team has a lot more work to do than I originally thought. PS: This isn't any kneejerk reaction to the game tonight, a game that I'm not even watching (turned it to the Leaf game after the first 5 minutes), and is more of a general opinion throughout the course of the season.

Lol.

Kadri and Aulie to the minors to make room for Liles and Armstrong. Glad to see Liles back since he was sorely missed on the backend, especially on the powerplay. Armstrong is a scrub and Kadri has done more than him in this recent stint than Armstrong has done since signing with the team. I really love how all of these horrible signings from Burke is keeping better, younger and more deserving players out of the lineup. Komisarek is keeping Aulie down. Armstrong is keeping Kadri down. Lombardi (although he was a salary dump to get Franson) is keeping Frattin down. Connolly is keeping Colborne down. It really is pathetic how much money the Leafs are paying these 4 guys to contribute next to nothing to the team. Komisarek hasn't been as bad this season as the first two, but he is still a brutal contract.

You know what would be the "K-Irv" one even better? If there was actually a Kyrie Irving sig out of the four. I went with Rubio. The sharpening on the Brooks one is a bit too much for me.

At this point, I'd take anybody who can score. I don't care if it is a back-to-the-basket scorer, a mid range scorer, a three point scorer or a guy who scores with the ladies.

Try this link. http://www.fan590.com/more.jsp?content=20120131_174705_5340 As for the whole "mocking" thing, it looked to me like he was just having fun and joking around. May not be the best time to do it during a national anthem, and I couldn't imagine the backlash had somebody like Magloire did this during the American national anthem, but I don't believe there was any sort of ill intent on his behalf. McGrady, despite how things ended in Toronto, has had nothing but good things to say about the town and organization. He has even said that he wouldn't mind finishing his career off in Toronto if the right circumstances come to fruition. He was just having some light hearted fun and, unfortunately, he picked a wrong time to do it.

Didn't even manage to make it to the 8 minute mark of the 4th quarter of this one. Once I saw DeRozan playing like complete ass, Bayless chucking and Johnson sucking, there really wasn't any point in continuing to watch this shitfest. Tomorrow against Boston is probably going to be even worse. I do have to say that it was pretty funny seeing Marvin Williams not being able to score over Jose Calderon in the post. Man, that guy is terrible. Also, Jeff Teague is an idiot. Rasual Butler turns his ankle and can barely move (yet the Raptors decide not to foul for some reason) and rather than pass the ball to Joe Johnson so that he can exploit the injured Butler, Teague decides to go one-on-one against Calderon or Bayless (can't remember who it was), not once, but twice. He really doesn't have any sort of point guard skills at all. I guess lack of basketball IQ runs in the family since Marquis Teague is a complete moron for Kentucky as well. Johnson was lights out in the first half and McGrady was great off the bench. They were easily the two best Hawks tonight. Johnson did a nice job of setting the tone early and once McGrady came off the bench, he continued that level of play Johnson established. Nice game for the two of them.

And Gasol couldn't stop Dirk in the Western Semi-Finals, so what exactly does that prove? Why take something that happened 3 seasons ago and make it seem more relevent than something that happened within the last 7 months? Against Gasol in the playoffs last year Dirk averaged: 25 ppg, 9 rpg and 2.5 apg on 58% shooting and 73% from three Against Bosh he averaged: 26 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 2 apg on 42% shooting and 38% from three Looks like he played much better against Gasol than he did against Bosh in the playoffs last year. His numbers against Gasol would likely be even better if not for that game 4 thrashing where he only played 30 minutes as opposed to the usual 38-40 he was playing throughout the playoffs. Gasol also got completely punked by Garnett in his first ever Finals appearance as well. As for who I would take, it would be Bosh most of the time. If I need a guy to fill in at the 5 for around 10-15 minutes every night I'd probably lean towards Gasol. If I needed a third wheel I'd probably go with Gasol since he is a much better passer. Other than that, I'm going with Bosh in basically evey other situation. He is younger and a better player. He may not be as skilled as Pau is (although Bosh is plenty skilled) but he is more productive and at the end of the day, give me production over skill.

Not really. The Leafs playing stupid hockey blew that game. Gardiner's pinch directly led to Sullivan's goal, Gustavsson whiffing on the cover led to the 3rd goal and Grabovski (who was brilliant) not getting the puck deep likely led to Malkin's tying goal. The Leafs just fell apart. Yeah, having the Bozak goal disallowed sucks, but can you really say that would've been the difference in the game? Its not like it happened with a minute left in the game, it happened a minute into the game. The entire game is probably played differently if that goal stood up. This loss never should've happened. The Leafs just stopped doing what made them successful and it cost them. He is actually one of the better backup goalies in the league. I didn't see the game you are refering to, but he is one of the more reliable backups in the league and many teams would love to have him. (I'm not counting guys like Cory Schneider, Tukka Rask and Johnathan Bernier in that grouping because they are starting caliber goalies who happen to be stuck behind elite starters). Speaking of Schneider, he has been absolutely brilliant in the 'Nucks/Hawks game. He has already made around 5 huge saves including a potential save of the year candidate (after a potential giveaway of the year candidate by him, haha) on Brendan Morrisson

Is there a worse ref in the NHL than Chris Lee? Guy is absolutely terrible.

12 points, 9 rebounds (would've been 11 by NBA scoring standards), 2 assists and 3 blocks in 26 minutes today.

This team has been much better than anybody had expected. Coming into the season the consensous worst teams in the league were the Bobcats, Pistons, Wizards and Raptors with the Kings and Cavs being slightly above those teams. The Raptors have managed to put together a 7-14 record, which isn't great by any means, but it does have them just 2.5 games out of a playoff spot and when you consider that they have played nearly half of their games without their best player, it makes it even more impressive. You could make the argument that this team, if not for a Bargs injury, would be a playoff team right now. They have already overachieved in regards to expectations coming into the season. I'm not saying that he should be the coach of the year because he shouldn't, at least not unless he finds a way to get the team into the playoffs. With guys like Collins, Vogel and Adelman doing such great jobs with their teams, you can't give Casey the award for coaching the Raptors to a .400 record or something.

For anybody that is interested, there is a great double header on The Score tonight. Kentucky vs. Tennessee at 7 EST followed by UNC vs. Wake Forrest at 9 EST Great chance to get a glimpse of guys like Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Harrison Barnes. As well as some lesser regarded prospects like Terrence Jones, John Henson and Kendall Marshall. Of course, there is a Raptors game tonight and also a Leafs game, so I likely will be watching the Leafs game instead. Just thought I'd make this post in case any of you wanted to check out the games and didn't know they were on tv.

I really liked the decision from Casey to go small against the Nets by starting Bayless at the two, moving DeRozan to the 3 and Johnson to the 4. It gave them a much needed offensive boost as Bayless' scoring and breakdown ability was a new element to the starting lineup without Bargs. However, I can't see the Raptors going with that small lineup today. It would work in terms of matching up James with Smith and DeRozan would be fine on Williams since he is primarily a spot up shooter, but having Bayless on Johnson would be brutal. Bayless played great defense on Deron the other night, but Johnson would dominate him. I can see him starting Butler to guard Johnson, but other than that I think he will keep James at the 4 to guard Smith. Not sure if Teague is playing for the Hawks tonight. Last I heard he was still "day-to-day" with a sprained ankle.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20120130_POR@UTA

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20120130_DET@MIL

Carter has played some very impressive ball over the past couple of games. If he can continue this kind of strong play, the Mavs are going to be scary once Dirk gets his game together and if Odom ever comes out of his depression of being traded, which is unlikely to ever happen. I know it was against the Suns, but he still looked good and has in most games that I have watched thus far. He has been one of the better offseason additions so far.

Well, even if Dwight hasn't told them that he is leaving, they can't be stupid enough to think that he is actually going to stay considering how much crap he has said to the media already. They know for a fact that he is gone. He isn't trying to hide it at all. It kind of sucks for guys like Redick and Anderson who worked so hard this offseason to come into the season in great shape and make one last run at things. They both got off to fantastic starts, but you can tell that even they don't give a damn anymore.

The Magic had three seperate occasions where they went 5+ minutes without a field goal. The sad thing is, the Sixers dominated this game (don't care what the score says) despite not playing all that well. It was the worst offense I've seen from them so far and they gave up a lot more open looks than they usuall do. The Magic just played that poorly.

I could be wrong and am overrating what he would be worth in free agency. I just look at what guys like Thaddeus Young, Arron Afflalo and players like that got and figure it would likely cost at least $1-2M more to make Denver not match. If you want an RFA, you are inevitably going to have to overpay to pry him away from his current team. So his woth is likely somewhere in the $7-8M range but in order to get him away from Denver and ensure that no other team makes a better offer, you are probably looking at something more in the $10-11M range. I guess another option would be to front load the contract to make it more difficult for the Nuggets. They did do that with Linas Kleiza so Colangelo has shown in the past that it is something he will do. Now if you are able to work some sort of sign and trade out along the lines of Barbosa for Chandler, who is signed to an $8-$8.5M deal, I'd be fine with that. I'm not against adding a player like Chandler to the Raptors, I'm against overpaying to add a player like Chandler to the Raptors.