79 days and counting! Let’s set some goals

79 days may seem long, but compared to the first 117 we went through, this is nothing.

In next couple of months we will be finding out more about our teams. First comes Training Camp and then Preseason. Of course what happens during that time will not relate much to what happens throughout the regular season, but it will help give us an idea with what were working with.

I feel with the talent we have on this team we can only get better then we were last season. If next season is a disappointment we can only blame the players and coaching. You cannot deny Colangelo has made this team better. He has set the pieces for next season and it up to the players and coaching staff how they are going to use it.

Next season each player has a goal to reach, and think if they reach it, we can be a winning team.

Marcus Banks’ goal is to be traded or unloaded before the season, no before preseason. Maybe Dallas wants him. They will soon realize Shawn Marion isn’t the same with Marcus Banks cheering him on from the bench.

 

Andrea Bargnani is going into his 4th year and has shown signs of his improvement through the second half of last season. It had even reached the point where people were begging for him to have the ball in his hands during crunch time. Or Maybe that was just me. But after that Boston game, [Watch from 4 30 mark] who can blame me. I feel like his goal for this season is to show how consistent he is. Dropping around 15 points and grabbing more than 5 boards a night wouldn’t be so bad. I really expect Bargnani to show everyone that he can score for this team and lead this team if Chris Bosh chooses not to resign.

 

Marco Belinelli, like Bargnani previously, has been a disappointed to him team. Which would explain why Golden State would just hand him over to us for Devean George. However, I feel he hasn’t been put in the best position to showcase his skills and now is his chance. Belinelli’s goal for next season is to show GS what they were missing and to also be a reliable scorer off the bench, if he doesn’t start.

 

Chris Bosh’s goal: Show us why you deserve Max money. That’s all really. Well that and improvement. It’s getting tiring watching CB get owned by Garnett, even when he’s on the bench

 

Jose Calderon needs to stay healthy next season and shoot more. It was frustrating watching as one of our best shooters past up a good shot and give the ball to someone who couldn’t shoot consistently (Kapono). Working on his defence wouldn’t be so bad either.

 

DeMar DeRozan has to stay cool and confident. I don’t want him to feel pressure and have to do things he’s not ready to do. It’s his first year and all he has to do is PLAY. His goal is to keep it simple and at least make the All Rookie first team if he doesn’t get ROY.

Quincy Douby’s goal is to get rid of that Uni-brow and then we can talk about what he brings to the court or where he is on our depth charts. (He did show some good signs in … Summer League)

 

Reggie Evans, who I keep forgetting is on our team, just needs to be himself. Don’t do too much and be the toughness we’ve been lacking.

 

Last year, Jarrett Jack, became an important piece to what the pacers where doing. When Danny Granger went down, he stepped in and help lead the team to a couple of “wins”. Unfortunately, Pacers decided (ok they were somewhat forced) to let the 4 year Guard go. This year Jack will most likely be coming off the bench, which I feel is a good idea. His goal for this season is commit less turnovers and become a reliable scorer/passer off the bench. Good thing he takes it too the basket.

Rasho Nesterovic’s goal is to continue where he left off before he was unfairly traded. Our big slow Centre who came through for us in his own way.

 

Patrick O’Bryant needs help! I mean he’s got some game or he wouldn’t be here, but if he’s still here October 28th I say he chills on the bench unless needed. If he does play, he needs to grab more rebounds and stop chilling out 17 ft from basketball. We don’t need anymore soft big men who can shoot jumpers.

Jay Triano’s goal is to utilize his coaching staff! It’s his first year without the Interim tag and the pressure is on. I have faith in him, because he’s been here long and this isn’t his first time coaching. Hopefully he has Sam Mitchell’s first year as head coach erased from his head.

Hedo Turkoglu has beat me too it and said he wants to make the all star team. That’s goal number 1. Number 2, is to not fall into the laziness that is the Raptors. Actually I think that goes for all new acquisitions. Too many times our players become lazy, even though they were pretty good on their previous team. Turk is 30, and I think he’s still got it for a few more years. His real goal is to sustain that ‘game’ he had through out the play offs and help us out. He can become a threat at the SF position, one we haven’t had in a while.

 

Roko Ukic, wow. I know he has potential but he has a bit to go before he reaches it. This year if he doesn’t improve, I say we D-league his derriere or get rid of him. His goal this season is too improve and not to hold the ball till the last 5 seconds in the clock.

 

Antoine Wright …  I don’t know much about him. However, from what I’ve read he’s a great perimeter defender, he’s tough and he’s an ok shooter. The kicker? He doesn’t use his athletic ability as much as he could. Yup, he relies on his jumper. His goal for next season: defend, rebound and take it to the rim. Shouldn’t be too hard.

These are I just what I feel each individual needs to do. Of course they have their personal goals, but I feel these are important. Nobody wants another failure of a season.

I’m very excited for the 28th of October, when open up at home against Lebron and Shaq! Don’t forget AP and Moon are coming home too.

I’m not going to make any predictions team wise. I don’t want to be disappointed again, so I’ll just play it safe and say, we can’t predict how this team will click, we can just hope that it all works out. =]

ONE Year Makes a Difference

We are hitting the halfway point of offseason, and so far, I’ve lived and haven’t done anything crazy to make it go by faster.

Remember this time last season? How many of us were looking forward to the 08-09 season? How many of us were excited? DO you even remember that far back?

Let’s REFRESH:

June 18th

- Finally released Jorge Garbojosa.

June 25th

- Draft Day. We were Drafting for Indiana when we selected Roy Hibbert 17th overall. It is OFFICIAL. TJ Ford and Jermaine O’Neal will be switching cities in July.

July 1st

– We resigned Jose Calderon to a long-term contract. By doing this we uninvited ourselves from the free agency party that would happen after July 9th.

July 3rd

- UNOFFICIALLY Matt Devlin becomes the new Play-by-play guy

July 8th

- We signed Hassan ‘What?’ Adams. This lead to people spending the next few days Youtubing and Google searching him. Most interesting thing we found out, he’s ambidextrous

July 9th

- OFFICIALLY Jermaine O’Neal and Nathan Jawai are finally Raptors. O’Neal and Jose have their Pressers. Everyone is excited. So long TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic (for now), Maceo Baston and Roy Hibbert

July 16th

- Roko Ukic to be signed for 3 years starting at 1.25 million/yr.

July 21st

- Carlos Delfino is going to Russia.

July 28th

- UNOFFICIALLY The Raptors dug deep and pulled out Will Solomon from the box of the Unknown. He was to be the next Anthony Parker.

Our Roster as of July 28th 2008:

C: Jermaine O’Neal, Andrea Bargnani, Nathan Jawai

PF: Chris Bosh, Kris Humphries

SF: Jamario Moon, Joey Graham, Hassan Adams

SG: Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono

PG: Jose Calderon, Roko Ukic and Will Solomon

Looked good on paper, didn’t it? Out of those 13 guys, only 4 of them are coming back next season. Every time I look back on last years roster, my head spins, thinking of the better teams we went up against. O’Neal, Solomon, and Adams were all gone before Trade deadline. Shawn Marion and his expansive Shadow, Marcus Banks, came in. We picked up Quincy Douby, Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Patrick O’Bryant. We actually made a little run to end the season, winning 9 out of  13 games. That doesn’t erase the 20-45 we had to watch prior to the winning streak

It was great how we ended the season but we had to remember that we still finished 33-49 and our Roster had gapping holes in it. Bryan Colangelo must have also seen this because he has given this team a face lift so far this offseason. From trading for Reggie Evans to bringing back Rasho Nesterovic, BC has shown interest in bringing his team to the next level. (Let’s not bring up Chris W Bosh, it’s all about nest season)

Our Current Roster(July 28 2009):

C: Andrea Bargnani, Rasho Nesterovic, Patrick O’Bryant

PF: Chris Bosh, Reggie Evans

SF: Hedo Turkoglu, Antoine Wright, Devean George

SG: DeMar DeRozan, Jarrett Jack, Quincy Douby

PG: Jose Calderon, Roko Ukic, Marcus Banks

Do you feel better about this Roster then you did last season? I know I do.

Last Season some of the issues we faced were:

• Lack of depth
• No toughness
• No identity, No idea what kind of team we were
• Lack of athleticism
• Unable to close games

So far this offseason, BC has tackled these issues. We have quality depth at each position (How well everyone will perform, is something we’ll have to wait and see). He Brought in Reggie Evans for toughness. He drafted DeRozan because of his Athleticism. He brought in Hedo Turkoglu for his closing and ball-handling abilities. Jack was brought in for depth and durability. Rasho was brought in for his leadership presence and the minor, yet major, things he brings to the court. Colangelo hopes this year we can be identified as an up tempo team and be consistent all season.

This isn’t the team to beat in the East. We still got some ways to go. It IS, however, a step in the right direction, that we have a right to be OPTIMISTIC about.

For now we play the waiting game.

The Story of The Man. A Smart, Smart Man

Once upon a time, there was a man. He was very lonely so he created 16 Butterflies to follow him where ever he went.

After 2 years of travelling some of the Butterflies became weary and wouldn’t follow him anymore. The man, being a stubborn human, decided to ignore the warnings of the seas.

He continued another year with the weak and soft Butterflies before 13 of them died suddenly. One of the surviving Butterflies threatened the Man to 13 years of solitude if he didn’t replace his fallen comrades with ones even better.

The Man, being a secret a genius and completely afraid of being alone, thought of a good plan. He took the bodies of the 13 dead butterflies and glamoured them in looking radiant and alive.

The Man took the 13 bodies to different places to offer trades and bargains. He sold 2 bodies and received 13 gold plates. He used that to buy a Turkey from Jordan. He traded one for a Canadian Beaver. He traded another for a bald eagle with hard wings. Every time he brought back another creature the Angry Butterfly would slowly start to smile and chant ‘more, more!’. The Man said, One more time then but that is it.

He went to the secret island of Memporllas. Where he, and 3 other men agreed on sharing goods. He gave one man, Otisman, a bag of silver plates. He gave another, Marcini,  3 butterflies in return for 2 creatures: Antionius and Devandid. The rarest to be found. Not to feel to greedy he gave the other man, Christophius, one gold plate. The man had 5 Butterflies left, he let go 3 for goodluck and kept 2 just incase

The Man went back to the pleased butterflies, feeling very good about himself. The butterfly thanked him. But he had one last request.

“Get rid of the Butterfly named Marcius Bankakus” The Man hurriedly agreed and was blessed with a key to Palyfofs.

The End

To better understand this story. Substitute the following characters:

• The Man = Bryan Colangelo
• Angry Butterfly = Chris Bosh
• Other 2 surviving Butterflies = Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon
• Turkey from Jordan = Hedo Turkoglu
• Canadian Beaver = Jay Triano
• Bald Eagle with Hard Wings = Reggie Evans
• Otisman = Otis Smith
• Marcini = Mark Cuban
• Christophius = Chris Wallace
• Antionius and Devandid = Antoine Wright and Devean George
• And Marius Bankakus = Marcus Banks

If you didn’t already know Andrea got a 5 year extension worth 50 mil. AP has a verbal commitment to the Cavs. We got our MLE back with over 5 mil to spend. This means we can still get guys like Delfino and Kleiza. Good Job Bryan Colangelo.

IF this is too Dumbed-down for you, can find more complicated and detailed version here!

Free agency p4 – Why the negativity?

Before I recap what has happened over the weekend, I would like to discuss the Hedo Turkoglu deal that will be finalized July 8th. I’ve seen many posts over the weekend about this deal and how it will impact the team.

A lot of people do not like it. So I ask why? Most people begin with how expensive he is,

Well, not only will they not be contending for a very long time unless one of DeRozan or Bargnani accelerate their learning curve dramatically and become All-Stars, but they’ll be paying $53 million  over the next five years to one of the most over-rated players in recent memory. (T.O. Sports)

then they bring up the depth issue,

The option of adding Delfino and Marion gave the Raptors both depth and defence. Adding Turkoglu robs them of flexibility, depth, defence and rebounding, and does so for a player who doesn’t necessarily fit in with the team’s top-three players. (T.O. Sports)

then move on to him being 30 before they bring out his non-defensive skills.

Forget that Turkoglu will be a year older, because his game isn’t overly dependent on his physical abilities, but you’d have to assume this will be one of the worst defensive teams in the league next season if it remains as is. (T.O. Sports)

To this I say: “So what?” Unfortunately in this league you can hardly get good players for cheap, and a lot of GMs are willing to spend money to make their team better. At least his contract isn’t as big as Rashard Lewis’.

So we lost our MLE and we wont be able to get a deep bench, yes it is a problem, but what are you going to do about it? nothing, of course. So let’s move along. Let’s see there’s Shawn Marion or Hedo Turkoglu, and if you want we could throw in Delfino. Who would you want on your team at the starting 3 game in and out? Think about how Marion wants 10mil/yr and he’s old. Think about how Delfino was inconsistent, but cheaper. And then think about Turkoglu who is a good shooter, hard to guard at his position and old and defenceless. The point I’m trying to make is every player has their flaw and if Colangelo brought back Marion and/or Delfino, people still wouldn’t be happy.

To this I say: “Be %$#@$%&!*$ happy!!” A player, a great European player to be exact, wants to play here. He turned down another team because Toronto was the better city for him and his family. The whole point of this off season is bring in players that will make Chris Bosh stay. Chris likes Hedo (via Twitter) and so does Rookie DeMar DeRozan.And Guess what? I do too. I’ve been a Hedo fan for a long time, and to finally have him on our team, makes me so excited.

Please keep in mind, BC isn’t done yet. There is still a little hope. So people get rid of all your negativity. It isn’t healthy!

In other news (Remember these bits of info have not been inked yet):

• Rasheed Wallace will be joining the Celtics next year
• Jason Kidd has hit the Jackpot with Dallas
• Shannon Brown is staying with the Lakers. Good for him
• The Mavs stole the Polish Hammer
• And something about the Mavs and a Sign-and-Trade with Marion.With us getting Jerry Stackhouse

Free Agency p3 – Hedo: “9-6-7 Eleven Eleven!!” (UPDATE)

The deal has now been confirmed by Michael Grange of the Globe and Mail.

More to come!

Highlight of my day? Reading this:

Hedo Turkoglu rejects Blazers, ends negotiations

Posted by Jason Quick, The Oregonian July 03, 2009 17:57PM

Categories: Breaking News

The Oregonian has learned that free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu has rejected an offer to sign with the Trail Blazers and has ended negotiations with the team.

He will leave town tomorrow morning.

More to come.

Now I know a lot of people do not want Hedo on the Raptors because the money he is owed is hefty and we would not be able to add depth to our team. We would also have to let go Delfino, Marion and… Anthony Parker. This would leave us with only a little bit of spending cash, which would mean more Solomons and Adams to fill out our bench.

Now the Blazers will secretly go after Shawn Marion, like I mentioned yesterday.