Notes and links from DeRozan’s Workout

First, the man reminds me of cat! With nice eyes. I just had to get that off my chest. Meow! Mr. ‘I’m so Special’ finally graced us with his presence earlier today. He even worked out too. You can watch his video here. The reason, he says, he chose to workout alone, was so coaches could see what he’s improved on, and not have to focus on other players… hmmm. He also talks about his sick mother, Diane, who he wants to help take care of, so she can live her life. What a wonderful son. I hope my kids will take care of me like that. DeRozan also spoke to Akil Augustine from Raptors.Com. Masai Ujiri, The assistant GM, also spoke to the media about DeRozan

It always good to have some views from those who witness  the workout. Holly MacKenzie from SLAM Online and The Score’s Court Surfing, shares some things she saw at the workout.

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

Workouts With Some Evans and Delfino on The Side

I’m sorry for not blogging for a while. I’ve very busy and because of that, I have to catch up on Two days worth of news.

There is one more Workout today (I’ll get to yesterdays later). And guess whose working out for us. Yup, that DeRozan fellow, who I used to like. He finally decides to workout for us, and he doing it by himself. Please explain to me how that’s going to work, because I don’t think we’ll learn much from this workout. Well, except his shooting abilities when no one is guarding him. Oh! We can find out if he’s a great Free Throw shooter!

Now, lets go back to yesterday. The Raptors worked out Gerald Henderson and some other guys who don’t matter right now. He spoke to the Media yesterday. Some things I found interesting:

• This was his hardest workout.
• He believes ‘Stock’ is a mythical thing
• He feels confident he can go as high as the 3rd pick
• A reporter asks: “Some guys who shy away from the competition, Some players who rather workout on their own….” All I’m thinking is Derozan
• He likes to compete against guys that are projected to go higher them him in the draft
• He going to bring a “certain amount of effort” each day and play hard.
• He says he can put the ball on the floor or pull up for the jumper

The Next person the media spoke to was Reggie Evans. His said the usual things. Bringing toughness, being a spark off the bench and helping the team the best way he can. But, unlike the other guys who say this, I actually believe him. He also says that he will let guys know when they’re doing something wrong and he feels we have a ‘good’ team.

The Raptors announced Yesterday evening, they have extended a qualifying offer to Carlos Delfino. This isn’t news, Colangelo has expressed his interest to bring Delfino back.

When Carlos was with us in 07-08, he was very streaky. He’d have five bad-shooting games before breaking out a 20 point game and hitting all his threes (Like the Boston game). He was also one of the few players who took the ball to the basket, when his shot wasn’t falling. If Delfino comes back, will he be more consistent? I think that’s what’s important, we don’t want another Kapono.

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

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