Built Ford Tough

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww190/9660024671/katt_williams_480-5.jpg

With Knight it wasn't so much him being too raw but more of him not being much of a true point guard. In college he basically had a turnover for every assist and so far in the NBA I believe his assist to turnover ratio is still right around that 1-1 range. There concerns about that and his inability to break down the defense. So far, neither one of those concerns seem to be without valid reason. I mentioned the assist to turnovers above and so far 76% of his shot attempts are jumpers. He has only drawn 3 shooting fouls all season long. As for Kemba, his size concerns were a big issue, but people also questioned whether he had the athleticism to compensate. He has a tight handle, but he is unathletic for his size and there were a lot of concerns about his defense against the bigger, more athletic guards in the NBA. Much like Knight, both of those concerns have proven to be valid, although the defense issue is more of a concern than the athleticism as he has been alright at getting past his man and isn't forced to be just a shooter. Even if Bayless doesn't end up being better than either one of them, that really doesn't matter. I highly doubt any of the three ever become more than backup point guards or a 4th/5th option on a good team. Meanwhile, Valanciunas has the potential to be one of the better centers in the league and that kind of potential is something you can't pass up at 5th in a rather weak draft (in terms of star potential).

Gus with another shutout. What is that, his 3rd in his last 8 games or something? Really, it should be 4 if not for a momentary lapse against the Wild. Guy is playing some awesome hockey as of late. I really hope he keeps it up because he has been through a lot in the past 3 years. It also doesn't hurt that it would prove my confidence in him to become a number 1 goalie right, and I have to be honest, I'm usually wrong on things like this. Also, Lombardi with 2 goals tonight for the first time in a Leafs uniform. He is really starting to pick his game up over the past few weeks. He has, I think, 4 or 5 goals in the last two or so weeks. Hopefully he can continue this because it would provide the Leafs with some secondary scoring that they desperately need with Kulemin and MacArthur both playing very poorly this season after great years last year.

Ovechkin suspended 3 games for this hit on Michalek http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45w5rR207GA&feature=player_embedded

Just how bad was 5? I've been a huge fan of the RE games (RE 4 is probably my favourite PS2 game ever) but never played the 5th one after literally everybody I talked to said it was just terrible.

Just stumbled across this on the ESPN rumors page. Does Gordon have a fractured knee cap?

I meant to post this while watching the game on Thursday and seeing him go down. I didn't know the severity of the injury, but I knew immediately that it was bad and could possibly have been a torn ACL or something serious like that. Looks like I was right. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7485503/north-carolina-tar-heels-lose-dexter-strickland-season-due-torn-knee-ligament Really sucks for UNC. They already lost Leslie McDonald to a torn ACL in the summer and now you lose your starting shooting guard and best perimeter defender? This is a serious blow to the Tar Heels. I like Bullock and Hairson't shooting ability, but neither one are going to be able to come even close to replacing Strickland's defensive ability. Harrison Barnes is going to have to really step up and become the Heels go to perimeter defender because I don't think that Bullock or Hairston are up to it and we know that Marshall isn't much of a defender.

http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/120123_spurs_retire_bowen_jersey I honestly can say that I didn't really see this coming. I fully understand and appreciate just how vital Bowen was to those Spurs teams but I didn't see them going as far as to retiring his number.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/218511/Eric_Gordon_Undergoing_More_Tests_On_Injured_Knee#ixzz1kJtcJ5K7 If I remember correctly, originally it was diagnosed as a bone bruise and he would only be out for a few games. Yet now we are nearly a month into the season and he has appeared in just two games, is expected to miss another 2-3 weeks and is needing to undergo more tests to determine what is wrong with him. It definitely makes you think that there is a more serious issue than originally reported.

Smokescreen to increase his value or does he actually want to keep him here long term? I think that this is all an attempt to increase Barbosa's value because I really, really hope he isn't in the Raptors plans. Bayless can do pretty much everything he can do, is younger and will be cheaper and Barbosa has never really seemed to like Toronto all that much.

Stars sign Alex Gologoski to a 4 year, $18.4M extension. That trade (James Neal for Gologoski) really worked out well for both teams. Also, Jordan Eberle has been added to the All-Star game as an injury replacement for Miko Koivu. Kris Letang has also been added as a replacement for Dustin Byfuglien. Johnathan Towes and Jamie Benn are both questionable for the game as well, as both are nursing injuries.

Yesterday he had 9 points, 10 rebounds, 1 steal and 2 blocks on 3-5 shooting and 3-4 from the line in 20 minutes. He landed awkwardly on his ankle and had to leave for the game for a bit. The coach wasn't planning on bringing him back into the game but Valanciunas demanded and pleaded with him to put him back in. There was also an incident a week or so ago where he got fouled, got a cut on his head and was livid that he had to leave the game to stop the bleeding. The guy really does hate being taken out of the game.

Rudy Gay is much more athletic than DeRozan is. DeRozan can jump high, but his athleticism really isn't that special. He isn't anything more than average in terms of quickness, speed, explosivenesss, fluidity and pretty much every other aspect of athleticism that you can think of besides jumping ability. I also don't think he will ever be as good of a player as Gay either. Gay is much more skilled. I would love it if he could reach that level, though. As for Green, DeRozan is already a better player than Green ever was. Green was just an athlete who was literally too stupid to understand even the most basic of offensive plays or defensive schemes. His understanding of the game was far too weak for him to ever have actually made an impact on a team. Even with DeRozan's struggles this season, he is still a much better player than Green ever was. If I had to choose a player, I'd say he is more like Jason Richardson. A good dunker and leaper, but not a real high level athlete. An above average shooter, but lack of handles and a first step made it difficult to really create for himself consistently. At his best in transition and when having a teammate create for him and all he has to do is stick an open jumper or finish at the rim. Hopefully DeRozan can add more to his game, but that is what he is looking more and more like with each passing day. That isn't a bad player by any means, but not nearly as good as I, or many other Raptor fans, were hoping for. If he isn't able to become better than that, the Raptors rebuild is a lot further away than a lot of people had originally hoped.

Looks like the old Celtics are starting to breakdown with the shortened season, like many people expected. Rondo is hurt (although he is young). Pierce is still getting into shape after getting hurt. Garnett is having to conserve energy throughout the game. And now Allen goes down with an ankle injury. Not sure how serious it is, but it was enough to keep him out of the rest of the game. Pierce finally broke out yesterday, though. Scored a season high 34 points and almost had a triple double as he grabbed 8 boards and dished out 11 (or was it 10?) assists. Wall continues his strong play as well. It looks like he is starting to get out of that slump he was in to start the season and it is no coincidence that the Wizards have been playing much better basketball since he got his game on track.

I don't even know why I subject myself to the torture that is watching Raptors games. Without Bargnani in the lineup there is absolutely no reason to watch this team. DeRozan sucks, Davis is useless, Johnson picks up 2 fouls right away so that he can sit out the rest of the first half and Bayless is proving with every passing game that he is not a point guard. I think I really, really overestimated the young core of this team. Or maybe I am just overreacting to a poor start to a condensed season. I don't really know at this point but what I have seen from this team so far is far from encouraging when I think think of the Raptors future. They are looking like they have basically nothing heading forward other than Valanciunas, a good backup big man in Amir and possibly a high scoring power forward in Bargnani. If DeRozan and Davis continue to play like this, they are both 8th or 9th men at best.

Deron and Brooks really went at the Bobcats smaller backcourt of Augustin and Walker in the first quarter. The Cats had a more traditional lineup after the first as Augustin left the game with an injury and didn't return, but that still didn't stop Deron or Brooks from going right at Walker whenever they were matched up with the smaller guard. You could tell that a big part of the Nets gameplan was to exploit whoever Walker was guarding. For the Cats, they really had no chance when Augustin left after about 8 minutes and never returned, which really is saying something about the talent level of this team as it was the Nets that they were playing, a team hardly stocked with talent. Walker got off to a great start hitting his first 3 or 4 shots but after that went cold and Henderson, even though he had 15 points, never really seemed to make much of an impact. This was my first glimpse of Biyombo and, I have to say, he didn't look as bad as I thought. He is still very raw, but I didn't even think he would be able to play muchhis rookie season without fouling out but he did better than I thought. He had a couple of blocks and was active on defense, even if he was out of position a lot of the time. On offense, it was pretty funny seeing him get pissed off at his teammates when they wouldn't throw him the ball in the post. Maybe some needs to tell him that he has no offensive game outside of offensive rebounds and getting putbacks/dump off passes 2 feet from the hoop, which he did a nice job of converting last night.

The defense that the Sixers played in the 3rd quarter was just a thing of beauty. The Hawks, to put it simply, looked like a JV team out there going up against the Sixers defense. They scored 7 points in the 3rd quarter until a desperation buzzer beater heave from Willie Green. They went from scoring 47 points on 50% shooting in the 1st half to scoring 29 points on 30% shooting in the 2nd half. Iguodala and Holiday were picking pockets left and right which always ended up turning into an immediate score on the other end for the Sixers. Once the Sixers get a steal it is remarkable how quickly the ball ends up in the opposing team's basket. Iguodala locked up Johnson so bad tonight. He was completely invisible out there and could get nothing going as Iggy was all over him all game long. It really is impressive how he manages to shut down star wing players night in and night out. A very impressive game from the Sixers against a Hawks team who was playing some very good basketball coming into this.

He was fantastic in the 1st half, especially the 1st quarter, but he hasn't really played that well since in my opinion. His rebounding has been solid in the 2nd half but his offensive game has been off. Credit to him for battling, though. I also think that maybe his back is bothering him. He came up lame on one play in the 1st quarter and went back to the locker room for a bit before coming back. He hasn't looked the same since that happened. He looked like he was going to put up a 40/45-25 game tonight before that happened. Also, lets be honest, this game should have an asterisk beside it. After all, it is the Raptors. (Just kidding, sort of )

Barbosa is completely chucking out there right now. I think he has taken a shot the last 6 times he has touched the ball. He hasn't passed in a good 5 minutes out there. It is kind of annoying when you consider how well JJ has played in the 4th and that DeMar was doing a solid job of attacking the rim and getting to the line, aside from that brick he threw up a fwe minutes ago.

DeRozan with two straight solid passes for assists. By no means were they anything special but he did a nice job of putting the ball on the floor, drawing the defense and kicking it out to the shooter (one was JJ the other was Barbosa). Earlier in the season he would pick up his dribble or turn it over once the second defender came, so nice to see him make the smart play there. EDIT: And just as I praise him, DeRozan launches an absolute brick from three. That was UGLY!

I've been slacking with the updates as of late, but in the 3 games since I last posted his numbers, he has put up: 10 points and 11 rebounds (5 offensive) on 4-10 shooting and 2-2 from the line in 27 minutes 21 points, 9 rebounds (4 offensive) and 2 steals on 10-13 shooting in 26 minutes 8 points, 13 rebounds (5 offensive) and 1 block on 4-8 shooting in 23 minutes For a quick recap, his season highs so far: Points - 25 Rebonds - 14 Offensive Rebounds - 6 Blocks - 6 FGM - 10 FTM - 9 (went 9-9) Minutes - 35 His best game of the year thus far came on November 12th when he put up 25 points, 12 rebounds and 6 blocks on 8-10 shooting and 9-9 from the line in 35 minutes.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but the Raptors scored 32 points in the first half. They pushed the ball, looked to run and got out in the open floor during the third and they scored 28 in the quarter. Again, what else needs to happen before this team sheds this misconceived notion that they are a halfcourt team? They still aren't going to win many games because they simply lack the talent to do so, but at least they will be more competitive, will be watchable and, most importantly, won't completely destroy the confidence of the players.

That and cut down on the stupid mistakes he is prone to making. Too often he gets out of control on his drives, forces a bad pass, takes a bad shot, picks up his dribble at poor times and plays too aggressively on defense. I do agree with you, though. I like him quite a bit. We also have to remember that even though he is in his 3rd NBA season, he is basically a rookie when it comes to actually playing meaningful minutes at the NBA level. Lmao, Gray absolutely leveled Felton on that screen. That was brilliant.

Maybe this will be the wakeup call that Casey needs to realize that you have to let these guys run, especially without Bargnani in the lineup. Raptors come out looking to get into transition and they manage to cut the Blazers lead from 15 to 5 within 3 and a half minutes of play. I realize that you want to try and develop guys in a half court offense because ultimately you need to be able to execute in that setting if you want to win in the playoffs, but you also have to play to your teams strengths and this team is at their best in transition. You get them feeling confident by seeing the ball go in through the hoop and hope that carries over to your halfcourt offense. DeRozan with 12 points (all from attacking the hoop) in the 3rd already and James Johnson has sparked 3 fast breaks with his defense (2 blocks and a rebound).

Aldirdge has tied his season high in rebounds and the first half still has 2 and a half minutes left. Oh yeah, he is also only 7 points away from tying his season high in points.