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Toronto at Chicago


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  • 1 month later...

First game that I'll be at home for (I've been working the other games) and of course this one isn't even televised here. Oh well, guess I'll have to try and find a link.

 

From what Doug Smith posted in his blog this morning, sounds like Kleiza might get the night off tonight as he has a sore knee, and play tomorrow night against Philly. Kind of bummed as I was hoping to be able to see him in action.

 

Hopefully Amir Johnson gets the start tonight and gets a decent amount of burn. I'm going to hate it if he is stuck behind Reggie Evans in the rotation as that makes absolutely no sense.

 

It will just be nice to finally watch some Raptors basketball again. Other than watching episodes of Raptors Today on Youtube (because apperantly Raptors TV figures it is more beneficial to show re-runs of the Heat scrimmage/training camp for the 100th time), I haven't been able to watch anything Raptors related for what seems like forever. I'm tired of reading other peoples opinions and thoughts, or sifting through box scores,haha.

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They don't seem to be looking that bad, really...but when I'm watching them (I saw the entire Boston-Toronto game), I just don't know how they are going to score enough points to win regular season games.

 

As mentioned in the other topic, I think Bargnani will need to play a lot of power forward, more than center, for the team to be successful. However, in a game against Chicago, against Joakim Noah, I don't see him at the five as much of a problem.

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This is going to be a very fun season. Watching this team on offense is going to be painful as they clearly don't have anybody capable of creating their own shot or creating for others. I'm expecting a lot of possessions to end up with a forced jumper as the shot clock expires.

 

That last possession was awesome. I don't think they had anybody even close to the paint. :lol:

 

Sadly, they will probably be even worse defensively than they will be offensively.

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Bargnani hasn't been looking too hot on the stat sheet. Does he just not care about playing hard in the preseason or has he just been that bad?

 

Can't really comment on anything other than this game, but it seems like he just isn't fitting in with the way that the Raptors are playing. He has always been more of a system guy that flourishes when shots are created for him and struggles when he is forced to create his own offense. The Raptors are playing 100% individual basketball right now and everybody is basically trying to take their own man off of the dribble, which doesn't suit Bargnani's game. He isn't the kind of player that you can give the ball to 20 feet away from the hoop and tell him to create something for himself. None of the Raptors are really capable of doing that.

 

With Bosh gone, the Raptors don't have any inside presence offensively so teams don't have to worry about that, nor do they have to worry about sending any extra defensive attention to anybody which means Bargnani isn't getting the open looks that he used to get. He also isn't getting as many touches when the defense is scrambling trying to get back into position or are completely out of position, which is when he is able to create off of the bounce.

 

Jack isn't really that good at creating for others, and Calderon isn't a creative enough playmaker either, so that, along with the limitations on guys like DeRozan, Weems and Barbosa as playmakers, are making the Raptors offense really stagnant and lethargic. Bargnani is at his best when the ball and the defense are constantly moving.

 

As much as I'd like to blame the system, Bargnani hasn't looked all that interested or sharp either, both from what I saw tonight and have read after previous games. He simply has to play better whether the system best suits him or not.

 

Triano did say that the last 4 games of the preseason is when he is going to really focus on tightening up the rotation, defining roles and running more offensive sets, so I'm not going to make any real assumptions until I'm able to watch those 4 games.

Edited by Built Ford Tough
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