Big Wins, Dumb Players & Some Perspective

Posted on | January 17, 2010 | 1 Comment

Isn’t it great being a Raptor fan right now? One of the best teams in the NBA, and one of the best road teams, come into the ACC and the Raptors trounce them. After a first quarter where they struggled and it looked like it might be a long night for Toronto, they took charge and outscored the Mavs in every quarter after that, including the often worrisome third. I mean, come on, you had to have been a little worried when the Raptors missed their first five shots in the third quarter.

Bosh was the high scorer, and Bargnani hit some big shots, including a 30 foot fade away with the shot clock down, but Calderon was the man in this game. Without him coming in and changing the game in the second and leading the run in the third and fourth, it might have been a different outcome.

Speaking of Calderon, despite arguing in my last post that he should be starting, he’s looking very good coming off the bench right now. It’s not, however, for the reason some might say. I think he’s a better point guard than Jack and would help the team as a starter, but having him kick start the second quarter with his playmaking has been a HUGE boost for the bench, especially with Belinelli out of action the last couple of games. In the six games he’s been back from injury, the Raptors have outscored their opponent in the second quarter four times. The spark he consistently brings off the bench is something we haven’t really seen from the Raptors in a while. I think it works at the moment because the starting unit is so offensively potent and Hedo makes up for the deficiencies Jack has as a distributor.

That said, I don’t know if Calderon will, or should, come off the bench for the rest of the season. Without him in the lineup, the Raptors only reached 100 points 4 times (in 13 games). With Jose in the lineup, the Raptors have only failed to reach 100 points 5 times, and have not scored under 100 since he’s returned from injury, even against the defensive minded Celtics. For all his deficiencies, his playmaking skills are sorely underrated by many Raptor fans and the team goes through far more scoring slumps when he’s not on the floor. The first quarter against Dallas showed that. If we see more first quarters like that one, expect Calderon to be moved back into the starting lineup.

Now, I mentioned Bargnani had another good game, and regular readers of my blog will know I’ve never been a big fan of his. I’ve questioned his rebounding, his defense and his ability to score consistently. Well, his defensive play against Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard has been well documented, but he’s also boxing out better and playing defense like I hoped he would at the start of the season. The kicker? Bargnani has actually been rebounding like he’s a 7 footer. In fact, in a game like the one against Indiana when he couldn’t hit anything (4 of 14), in the past he would have been useless, but he made himself valuable by grabbing a career high 17 rebounds. Still, the fact that he’s had six games of 6 rebounds or less in the last ten shows he’s not entirely turned the corner.

And while the Raptors are still in the 6th spot behind Miami, in the East, only Cleveland has been playing better basketball than the Raptors since Christmas. Sure, Boston’s been hobbled and beat the Raptors, but the only real disappointing loss the Raptors have incurred (read the only time they lost to a worse team) since Christmas has been against Indiana. It’s actually been great to be a Raptors fan lately.

Of course, some perspective is needed. Although the Raptors currently sit only 1 percentage point below Miami for the 5th seed in the East, if they were in the West, they be below both Memphis and New Orleans, in the 12th spot. Ironically, Memphis and New Orleans are two of the three teams in the league that have a better record than the Raptors over the last 10 games. The other one? Charlotte. This is another worrisome issue. Charlotte is only a half game behind Toronto, and have beaten good teams (Cleveland, San Antonio, Phoenix and Houston) and they’ve beaten hot teams (Memphis and Chicago). In fact, the only team Charlotte played that isn’t either in the top 8 in their Conference or above .500 was New York. Who they lost to. Go figure.

OTHER NBA NOTES

How about Shawne Williams? He gets sent away by the Dallas Mavericks- paid NOT to play- and then when he is traded to the Nets, and waived, he ends up being charged on felony drug charges. Apparently he was intending to sell “a codeine-based syrup.” Excuse me? He’s probably going to jail for selling cough syrup? And exactly why would he need to be selling codeine-based syrup, anyway? Isn’t his $1.5 million salary he gets for not playing basketball enough? Maybe he’s worried about the fact that he’s probably out of the league next year and that cushy NBA salary will be gone. Then again, if he actually took his game seriously and worked on it, fulfilling some of the promise that made him a 17th pick by Indiana a few years ago, he wouldn’t be in this predicament.

Speaking of stupid, it’s almost a little disconcerting how Gilbert Arenas is being erased from the NBA. The Wizards took down all pictures of him, including a massive one outside of the arena, the NBA has excised his image on all commercials, and now Adidas has ended their `relationship’ with him. I guess he and Tiger Woods can hang out together and talk about what it feels like to shoot your own career in the head with your own stupidity.

Even with these very public examples, professional athletes will continue to behave inexplicably believing that they will never get caught. Why? Because professional sports doesn’t exactly attract the brightest people on earth. And yet, people complain Tim Duncan is boring.

Category: Bobcats, Mavericks, NBA, Raptors

Slow News Day #2

Posted on | January 8, 2010 | No Comments

From around the web…

Rambis Doesn’t Regret Taking Job In Minnesota

I love these types of headlines from RealGM.com. This is news, apparently. What would really be news is if Rambis said he regretted taking the job, thinks he made a bad choice, hates his players and wishes he was back on the bench with the Lakers.

Houston Willing to Deal for Bosh

Well, that’s nice of them. I guess if they’re backed in a corner, they’ll agree to take on one of the best power forwards in the game. I wonder if they’re also willing to deal for LeBron and Kobe?

Speaking of dealing for Bosh, why is there suddenly renewed interest in the press in trading Bosh? Wouldn’t the Raptors recent play kind of nip this kind of talk in the bud? You’d think the fact that the Raptors are 7-3 in the last 10 games and 10-5 in the last 15 might make the American press think that maybe there might be a reason for Bosh to re-sign.

Don’t be ridiculous.

More Comedy from the World of Gilbert

It’s not actually from Arenas, this time, but I was reading an article from the Washington Post, and stumbled upon two quotes I had to pass on. The first is an on the street interview with a fan about the Gilbert Arenas scandal¹ with a `regular fan’.

“Gil needs to be serious,” said Tommie Williams, who was on his way to a pretrial drug test at D.C. Superior Court. (”Coke charge,” he shrugged.) “Guns — that’s a serious offense in D.C. He’s gonna find out. Honestly, he know better.”

Oh, this is good, and I find it disturbing that the Post writer didn’t have a field day with this quote. Then again, why leave it in unless for comedy. I don’t know even how to add to it. Its perfect all by itself.

Then they interviewed a councilman who seemed have his priorities a bit off…

Councilman Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) was far more pointed. “It was bad enough what he did with the gun, but it was absolutely beyond any good judgment to point his fingers at his teammates and use them as a gun,” Evans said. “The bad judgment exercised by him at that point in time is just unbelievable. I think he should have been suspended, and frankly he could find himself out of the NBA for life. It harms our city, and it’s a terrible role model for our youth. So Gilbert’s got to get his act together.”

So, bringing a gun into your workplace and taking it out during an argument is one thing, but pretending your hand is a gun is crossing the line. This guy obviously doesn’t have any kids.

1. Can we call it a scandal? Or does there have to be sex or money involved for that? Well, there was money involved, so if it comes out that Arenas and Crittenton were lovers would that then bring this into a scandalous level?
Category: NBA, Raptors, Rockets, T-Wolves

The Calderon Question

Posted on | January 8, 2010 | 4 Comments

It’s amazing what a difference a month or so makes. Wasn’t it near the end of November when Raptor fans were clamouring to either trade Jarrett Jack or staple him to the bench beside Patrick O’Bryant? Of course, these were the same fans who wanted to break up the team at the beginning of December, start Antoine Wright in place of Demar DeRozan and thought Colangelo should have hired Flip Saunders instead of Jay Triano.

Now, of course, Raptor fans think Jack is the greatest thing since sliced bread (or Alvin Williams, whichever is better with jam). Well, that is until Jack has a couple of bad shooting games, and then….COME ON, LET’S FOCUS ON THE PRESENT, which is where all Raptor fans live their life!!!!

So, Calderon goes down on December 5th, right around when the Raptors started turning things around. Is it any coincidence that as soon as Jack takes over the Raptors go 10-5?

Well, yes, kind of.

Anti-Calderon fans (is there such thing as an `anti-fan’?) will point to the improved defense, which is one of the reasons the Raptors are playing better. With Calderon out and Jack in, the defense is obviously going to improve, right?

Well, not really. Not as much as some people seem to think.

Yes, the Raptors defense has improved since the beginning of December, but that can’t really be attributed to Calderon not being on the floor. There are two problems with this argument. The first being that the defense did not improve right away. The first six games Jack started, the Raptors gave up 106 ppg (including giving up more than 115 points in three games) and in four of the six games let their opponent shoot over (well over) 50%. If Jack was the difference maker, you would have seen an immediate improvement. There wasn’t. One of the Raptors worst defensive games of the season came six games into Jack’s reign as starting point guard, where they let Orlando shoot an astounding 67% from the field.

The other problem with argument is that Triano tweaked the defense after the Orlando game, which is actually the main reason the Raptors defense has improved. Most fans would not even realize this unless someone pointed it out to them (and few even then), but the changes made an immediate impact.

Of course, the Raptors defense really hasn’t been as good as fans might like to think. What?!?! Have I lost my mind? In 6 of their last 8 games, the Raptors have held to their opponent under 50% from the field and 5 out of 6 times held their opponent to under 100 points. Obviously they’ve played great defense. Right?!

Well, no.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled with the defense they’ve been playing, and it’s about where I’d hoped it would be by this time. But it’s certainly not great. See, the thing is that 5 of the last 8 opponents were horrible offensively. Detroit (without several of their best offensive players), Charlotte, New Jersey and New Orleans are all in the bottom ten in the league for field goal percentage (and none have a winning record).

Yes, I know they also held two good shooting teams (and good teams, period), to under 50%, and that’s because they have the ability to play good defense. In spurts.

Oh, and Calderon actually played more than 25 minutes against Orlando when the Raptors held them to under 50%. And if you want to get into fairly meaningless +/- stats, Calderon actually had +4 compared to Jack’s 0. And it was Calderon that drove the ball against the Orlando defense when no other Raptor was, setting Bargnani up for two important threes.

No one is disputing that Jack is a better defender, but the one thing that has been apparent is that the Raptors offense runs much better when Calderon is at the helm. Of the thirteen games Jack started without Calderon playing, the Raptors scored over 100 points just four times. Of the 23 games Calderon played at least 25 minutes, the Raptors scored less than 100 points just five times.

And while the Raptors do have a better record with Jack starting, that’s also coincidental. Everyone in their right mind knew the Raptors would struggle out of the gate. They had a brutal schedule and a brand new, young and inexperienced team. I myself, figured they’d end up winning only 7 games before December, and I still predicted a +.500 season. Everyone knew it would take time for the team to gell and I even stated that the team would start to turn things around by Christmas (just for the record, it was December 18th when they started winning). Calderon just happen to go down at the wrong time. The team started winning DESPITE him being out, not because of it.

Okay, so have him come off the bench.

My question is, why?

The Raptors have rarely had a problem defensively in the first quarter, and I’ve already shown that Calderon’s hurting the team defensively has been overstated. The team runs better with Calderon at the helm than Jack. It’s as simple as that. Even with Turkoglu on the floor. If Triano wants to continue bringing Calderon off the bench, then I don’t have a problem with that, but it doesn’t really matter. For the team to be successful, Calderon needs to not only play, but play heavy minutes. The Raptors recent winning ways is due, in part, to playing sub-par competition, and the Raptors need Calderon in the lineup if they hope to catch Miami for the 5th spot in the East.

This nonsense about trading Calderon is simply nonsense, especially the trade some fans seem to want that would net Jordan Farmar and Adam Morrison (and his expiring contract) in return. Geez, talk about not knowing what you got! Farmar’s a career backup, and a mediocre one at that, and I’m not sure what the point of Morrison’s expiring contract is expect to simply save money. And are these the same Raptor fans that complain about MLSE being cheap? I mean really, it’s mind boggling.

Category: NBA, Raptors
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