Welcome DeMar!!

Let’s recap this…

1. I heard about some DeRozan fellow. So I watched him play in the NCAA Tournament
2. Forgot about him, and went crazy with the Raps continuous slide.
3. Raps we’re officially out, started paying attention to the playoffs
4. Draft lottery. Didn’t want the Raps to win it, and  I didn’t want them fall lower
5. We got 9th so I started looking at propects.
6. Remembered the DeRozan fellow, put my blog on DeRozan watch
7. Watch his interviews and highlights, waiting for him to workout for us
8. Workout didn’t come. Apparently some ‘issue’. Sadly took blog off DeRozan watch and looked at other prospects
9. HE WORKED OUT FOR US!!!
10. Secretly put blog back on DeRozan watch
11. He said he liked it here!! YES!!
12. Made Mock Draft to feel good about self
13. Draft day. RIP Michael Jackson…
14. NERVOUS AS HELL
15. Griffin goes first! Check
16. Thabeet goes 2nd! Check
17. Harden goes 3rd! Check
18. Rubio goes 4th… wait what? Evans? the hell!!
19. OK, Rubio goes 5th! Check!
20. SHIT! Minny would soooo Take DD away from us!! NOOOOO
21. The Minnesota Timberwolves with 6th pick select…. JONNY FLYNN… ??? A PG???? Thank God! But seriously… What are they doing?
22. Then Golden State makes me Happy by Stealing Curry!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH! But makes me nervous. What if Jordan Hill is available at 9? What if the Knicks take DD at 8?
23. Knicks make me happy and take Jordan Hill to the dismay of the hecklers
24. With the 9th pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, the Toronto Raptors (He always says it weird) select…. De- YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS . I never thought I would be so happy to see a boy get drafted, wearing that stupid Raps hat.

That’s the end of my recap. I passed out of excitement right after… Ok I didn’t, I stayed up watch 3 more hours of boringness. Highlights after included:

• Brandon Jennings showing up late to shake hands with The Stern
• Minnesota shocking everyone, even the Love kid, by picking Ty Lawson, another PG, with the 18th pick.
• DeJuan (Spelt his name wrong yesterday, my bad) Blair dropping to the second round.
• So did Sam Young
• Darko Milicic got traded to NY for Q-Rich, Hecklers cheered
• More picks were traded, none that included our Raps

I’m very excited about DeRozan. For once BC picked a guy everyone likes. So, Welcome DeMar DeRozan!! These fans will eat you alive!!

Follow him on Twitter

Dooms…. Er, Draft Day

It’s been a long boring month, with an even longer summer to follow. But today has finally arrived! The 2009 NBA Draft, not the NHL or NFL or MLB, but MF NBA Draft!!! All the little boys become ‘men’. All the little groupies find new victims, etc. Normally I’m not this excited about the Draft, but this is the first time we’ve been in the Lottery since Andrea Bargnani. So the thought of getting a good player that can help out the team makes me smile.Unless we screw this up…

Seeing as the draft brings a lot of trades and transactions along with it, it’s kind of hard to be surprised when people like Shaq gets traded again for the 3rd time in almost 2 years. If you haven’t heard, The Cavaliers are closing in on a deal that would send Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, a second round pick for this years draft and cash.This deal should have been done in February, maybe the Cavs would’ve had a better shot at the ring. Shaq vs D12 in ECF? That would have been interesting.

The Draft will air live on The Score. Coverage starts at 7 pm EST. If you’re too cool for Twitter, join the Live Chat at RR.

Ciao!

This is Way Overdue

All I've been doing in the past week is counting down the days to the draft. I just want Raptors news to give me hope for next season. Depending on what Colangelo does on Thursday, my summer will be affected. That's a lot of pressure BC I hope you can handle it.


In a Presser early today, Colangelo singles out DeRozan, Henderson, Flynn, Holiday, and Johnson as possible Draftees. Nothing wrong there. All of them have potential and can help our team in a way. I, however, have a bad feeling about DeRozan. What if he doesn't live up to the hype? What if he is not used properly or not guided into being the player he can be? Of course these questions apply to all players in the draft. These things we wont know for now, and that is what sucks.


To me, the draft is all about LUCK and being SMART. If some guy is projected to go first, and he doesn't fit your team, don't be afraid to trade him or pick another guy. It's about getting young prospects you believe will fit into your system or helps your team. For some GMs, it’s just picking the best player available at the spot. If your lucky a player might just fall lower than his stock and be the guy you need. In the end the draft is a headache if things go wrong.


I just hope BC doesn't disappoint.


Next, my trade ears are tingling. Apparently, Richard Jefferson of the Milwaukee Bucks has had his contract dumped off to San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs were kind enough to give the Bucks Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. This is only interesting to me because a player like RJ is being traded for 3 players...

Here are some things. James Johnson has been in for a second visit and they hope to have another with Jrue Holiday before Thursday evening. The chances of getting another pick are low. They are not trading up and first thing BC wants to do is bring back Shawn Marion. At a reasonable price of course.

Why, DeMar? I thought you said you loved me!

When I get up in the morning, I get my morning read on. (Or Morning Coffee). Today I came across something. A week back, I put my blog on ‘DeRozan Watch’. In other words, I was curious about him and I kept my eyes open for his name in any article. I’ve learned a lot about him, his game and his goals. So you must know how heart broken I was when I read this from Dougie:

Here’s the thing about these workouts that go on before the draft: Sometimes, they’re not workouts at all.

Bryan mentioned earlier this week that they want to get DeMar DeRozan in next week, what’s likely to be the last big session in Toronto, but that the kid might only come in to meet, not to work out.

There’s always a player, usually the ones that are projected to go top ten, whose agent comes out publicly to say his client doesn’t want to work for team A or be drafted by Team B (Read: Rubio). Isn’t getting drafted a privilege? What right as a player, actually no a ‘draft prospect’, do you have to tell teams not to choose you, or you don’t want to work out for them? If I got drafted, I wouldn’t care if it were by the Raptors or Kings or God forbid, the Clippers. So Every time I hear about a player doing this, I shake my head.

I still like DeRozan, but I don’t think him or his agent has the right to be picky, especially if he’s projected to anywhere from 8 to 15. So I hereby OFFICIALLY take my blog off DeRozan watch. Instead I’ll look out for guys who’ve shown interest and could help our team. Like Jonny Flynn, Tyreke Evans, Terrence Williams, Ty Lawson and James Harden (Who probably wouldn’t available at 9).

The Magic are playing tonight, I hope for a win. I want this series to go to 7 games and I’m not ready for no basketball for 5 months!! There’s also 2 weeks until the draft! Oh, I almost forgot! STEVE NASH!

If you notice anything incorrect please feel free comment and let me know. I edit this myself and there might be things I miss. Thank you

The Finals and Workouts, yet again!

Today The Raptors held Pre-Draft Workouts. The players who worked out were:

Ty Lawson - Guard - 6′0 - UNC

Grievis Vasquez - Guard - 6′6 - Maryland

Derrick Brown - Forward - 6′8 - Xavier

Austin Daye - Forward - 6′11 - Gonzaga

James Johnson - Forward - 6′9 - Wake Forest

Earl Clark - Forward - 6′9 - Louisville

The videos can be found at RAPTORS.COM.

Grievis Vasquez didn’t say anything other then the idea of returning to school, If he felt he wouldn’t be drafted to the right team. Other words, he doesn’t want to play to the Raps.

 

 

You’ve got to love Earl Clark:

“I don’t know hot I fit here [Toronto], but I would love to come here and play with those guys. And learn from the Veterans. You know we’ll see what happens”

I laughed when I heard this. I was trying to figure out what veteran he was talking about. If I searched, I’d probably find out that he’s said this to every team. On the plus side, He’s very adorable.

Ty Lawson’s entire Interview (On Raptors.com) is about Mock Drafts. Him and I agree that they are very opinionated and wrong 20% of the time! A plus, Boogie likes him. Speaking of which….

Give the man a jersey!

Having him back on the team brings back so much memories. I’m young so I grew up watching him, JYD and Vince. Plus, he’s still young and that will help him connect with the players. Maybe he could teach Roko something…

Ryan McNeill from Hoops Addict, had Exclusive interviews with the other prospects that were not interviewed by RaptorsTV and other media members. Derrick Brown. James Johnson who intrigues me. He talks about the ‘mental toughness’ he has. Austin Daye looks younger than me. Best part, When Ryan asks him about Mock Drafts and Chad Ford. The boys is fully rolling his eyes! In case you didn’t know, he’s only testing the waters…

The Finals

I’m sure, if you follow me on Twitter, you know I’m an Orlando Magic bandwagon jumper. (I jumped on when Philly didn’t beat them) So even though they were down 2-0 to Kobe and his minions, I still had faith in them. SO it did not surprise me when they won last night. What did surprise me, is how well they shot throughout the entire game but only won by 4!

You have to thank Kobe for missing the free throws and leaving his clutch in his car (I was going to say ‘in bed with his wife’) because if he hit those shots I would be writing about my secret love for the Lakers. Which I’m not ready to admit it yet…

Another thing you might know from Twitter. I love Courtney Lee!! So here’s a something sweet:

If you notice anything incorrect please feel free comment and let me know. I edit this myself and there might be things I miss. Thank you

Assistant Coaches, Workouts, Finals, etc

"Toronto being right over the border of where I'm from, Niagara Falls, I'm basically Canadian so it would be nice to come here." Jonny Flynn

The Toronto Raptors (finally) announced they have hired Marc Iavaroni and Alex English as assistant coaches. The pair has a combined 42 years of experience coaching and playing in the NBA. They will support Jay Triano, who signed a three-year contract as head coach May 11. Per team policy, financial terms were not announced. (RAPTORS.COM)

Our wonderful (cough) Doug Smith has been saying this for awhile and now it has finally happened. So this isn’t surprising, if you are surprised, shoot yourself! I’m kidding… Now were waiting to hear the same thing for Alvin Williams.

Now normally at this point, I’m supposed to tell you if this is a good choice or not… um, no that’s my forte… But that is! LOL. Sorry, but I can’t judge that and I’m not going to speculate, you can find that here! When they comment on it…

Next. Workouts. Michael Grange told us to keep an eye on who was working out today. Only ones interesting were Jonny Flynn, Jrue (not Jrew) Holiday and Chase Budinger. Flynn and Holiday spoke to the media, about going up against each other. Jonny Flynn actually knows our starting line-up. Don’t worry I’m still on a DeMar DeRozan watch. Even though he hasn’t worked out for us….

I guess I should mention that Chris Bosh has decided not to sign an extension. It’s ok that just means he’ll like its his contract year next year, right? This isn’t news play  people. He will be here next year unless the Lakers and Cavs make a three team deal with us. You get my point. We’ll worry about 2010 next year, for now its about this season coming up.

Now for yesterday. Lebron James has finally gotten fined for ignoring his media obligations. And the Magic lost game 1 of the Finals. I still believe they have a chance in the series. I stopped watching the game in 3rd quarter when it was evident the Magic were not going to make a run. There is no way Dwight only hits ONE shot or they shoot badly like that again. Same with Andrew Bynum, he had too good of a start. Though this might be his series to get going…

The whole JVG thing is stupid. I think he would act the same way for any team. People were just listening to him more because his brother is coaching one of the teams. Otherwise I didn’t think he was bias or a homer like Doug Collins. YES I said it! Anyways, Sorry for the late post been very busy.

If you notice anything incorrect please feel free comment and let me know. I edit this myself and there might be things I miss. Thank you

Pre-Draft Workouts cancelled… And more DeRozan

The Pre-Darft workout scheduled for today has been cancelled. Apparently it has something to do with Agensts and their dislike for our team travelling issues… Yah right. Grange is Reporting:

“…3. The Raptors have already narrowed down their focus to four players, one of whom they are confident will be there at the ninth spot. They haven't had any of these four in for a workout yet, so all that remains is to find a fifth name -- a fall-back choice in case the unexpected happens -- to round out their list of possible picks.

4. Organizing draft workouts is expensive and time consuming and perhaps not all that vital if you already have a pretty clear plan for draft night.

All of which perhaps helps explain why:

5. The Raptors announced that they are cancelling their draft workout for Thursday.

So....

6. Watch with interest who ends up being worked out on Friday.”

Oh, I will be watching! Unless there is more travelling issues.

In case you missed it, here is Jay Triano throwing out the first pitch. As well as learning some things from Cito Gaston, the Jays Head Coach. Click here.

More Mock Drafts! Here we got Tyreke Evans. We would have ‘picked’ Earl Clark but his stock seems to be dropping in these workouts. Here we got Jonny Flynn. And here says DeRozan is the most athletic player in draft and because of that the Raptors will pick him.

I OFFICIALLY PUT  MY BLOG ON DEROZAN WATCH!! =]

Oh one important thing. Apparently DeRozan wont be immediate help to us. You can read about that here. Raps Fan from Raptors Republic speaks to Chris Denker of NetScouts Basketball. He recommends players like Sam Young, Gerald Henderson and Terrence Williams. However, he says after development DeRozan would be the Best Player. Hmmm….

If you notice anything incorrect please feel free comment and let me know. I edit this myself and there might be things I miss. Thank you

Mock Drafts? DeMar DeRozan, Who?

It’s June 3rd. If I do quick math, It is 22 days away from the NBA draft. While most people will be tuning in for the finals, the draft has taken the attention of others. Every blogger who writes for a Lottery team has already posted their ‘mandatory’ Mock Draft. For the serious cases out there, there’s Mock Draft 1.0, 2.0 or even 3.0. I have nothing against Mock Drafts, but after awhile they become boring and useless. It’s still early in the offseason, (two teams are STILL playing) so other player news is highly unlikely.

Now I’m not going to lie, I am very excited for the draft. Why? I’m curious to see what Bryan Colangelo will do with the 9th pick and if he gets any second round picks. I heard rumours that he wants to draft big…. I guess the keyword is rumours.We currently have 6 bigs, not counting who we know is not coming back. Bosh, Bargnani, Pops, Patrick O’Bryant, Kris Humphries and Nathan Jawai. Bosh is main contributing to our rebounds, other than him no else averages more 6 (minus Marion, he’s a forward). Unless were trading our bigs for a better big, drafting a big, IMO, is unnecessary.

Next, in some of these Mock Drafts, DeMar DeRozan is our guy. DeRozan is a 6’7” 211 lb SG/SF. He’s 19 and a freshman out of USC. His Draft Express profile here. Some believe he wont be available at 9, while others say we wont even pick him and he’ll be available later. Now if you’re like me, your saying what does he have to offer? What makes him a ‘9th’ pick? Well I watched him play in the NCAA tournament, and I was impressed…

Then again I’m easily impressed by college kids. So here’s some videos instead:

phdsteve from Raptors Republic has us choosing DeMar DeRozan with the ninth pick. The Knicks Blog has us with DeRozan at nine. Touthouse has him at 6, while we pick PG Brandon Jennings.The Bleacher Report also has DeRozan at 6, but has us choosing Jrue Holliday. Da Bullz.com has him dropping to 12th!! while we choose DeJuan Blair ahead of him. But that’s because they believe we are going to trade Chris Bosh. NBC Sports also had DeRozan dropping, while we pick Jordan Hill, a big. The Dream Shake, just like Da Bullz, believe He will dropped to 12 for Charlotte. They say he’s like ‘Gerald Wallace at best’. They have us picking Jrue Holliday as well. SLAM online has picking Tyreke Evans.

Of course These are just some of the MANY Mock Drafts out there.

The important thing is how Colangelo feels. Last year at 17, I was looking forward to someone interesting like Courtney Lee or CDR. But noooo, we traded our pick for a lower one, and got a ‘Aussie Shaq’! I have faith that BC will do better with the ninth this time around. SO cross our fingers.

If you notice anything incorrect please feel free comment and let me know. I edit this myself and there might be things I miss. Thank you