Missing Mike James??

I think around 6 mil is a fair salary for Mike. If he would have been willing to come back to the Raps for that and be the 6th man it would have been a great fit. Obviously he didn't want to come back to TO and he would not have taken a backup spot so hes in Minny now.

For all of Mike James' "late-game heroics" the Raptors still only won 27 games. What you are failing to understand is that a team is not the sum of its individual skillsets. We must first become a team before we can worry about having all the "specialists" needed to make a championship run. If we can't play defense, rebound, and pass the ball; we will rarely even need someone to hit a clutch shot. First you must build a team, before you can fine tune it. Foundation before the roof, if you will.

In two years we can talk about finding a clutch shooter (for 12 million) to help us get over the hump. Hopefully, someone from within will emerge by then, my money is on Anthony Parker.

No I won't miss Mike James and neither will I miss his "clutchness". He was far from a stellar late-game performer. If he was such a great "clutch" shooter why did we lose so many close games? Why did we go 1-8 in OT games? He may have made a few of his contested jumpers to win a mere 4 games that were incredably hard shots but yet he also had 9 incrediably hard attempts he missed. I just don't label a .308 shooter on GWS to be considered an above aveage clutch shooter. He was meerely just at the leauge avergae.

If you look at that list on 82games.com you notice that nearly all those players who make clutch shots at incredable percentages are franchise players. If we truly belive that Bosh is our franchise player then he has to get used to performing in late-game situations. Much like they groomed Pau Gasol along the way to first becoming a 20-10 player, then an all-star then to their franchise player and go-to guy in the last 2 minutes in the game we must do to Bosh. I just didn't think he had a chance to show off his clutchness last season due to the fact Mike just dominated the ball. His FG% in the fourth quarter was among the tops in the leauge yet he never got the ball in GWS situations simply because of Mike James trying to play hero time and time again. This tema only gose as far as Bosh takes in the long-run and being our most unguardable and dominent player he needs to be the one with the ball in his hands in clutch situations.

trust me - after a few games this year - nobody will miss mike james.

Bosh is the man to get the ball at the end of the game. Doesn't matter if he's "clutch" or not ... give him the ball. He'll start dropping those shots.

Oh finally, some sane responses!

Does this team need a "clutch" player that helped them win 27 games? Think waaaay back to Damon. He had some pretty good numbers...

I saw him cost the raps more than he won for them, but that happens over a period of the entire game, not just the last 5 minutes.

Yay for sane people.

We all enjoyed Alvin and Mike's clutch shooting, but the fact of the matter is that neither of them really broke down a defence and found the open man. They would give up the ball behind the 3-point line and then watch OR they drove and/or shot. If they would have simply established a threat by nailing a couple of shots or layups and mixed it up with a few dimes INSIDE for some easy buckets, defences would be crying in the late minutes. Instead, we admire these clutch SHOOTERS when these POINT men should have been putting us up by a dozen.

That said, I miss both of them already.

GO T.J. GO!
=D

Anyone remember when Vince Carter got traded and Chris Bosh suddenly put up 20 and 10 for 10 straight games?

Do you think that was a coincidence? I say definitely not.

Rather, it was part of the evolution of Bosh as the franchise player. Bosh is now an all-star. If he wants to be a superstar, he is going to have to start dominating 4th quarters, plain and simple.

Mike James was never going to be 'the man'. He's a decent player, but he's really a 2, and can't defend that position. Also, anyone here think Mike James would be happy and productive coming off the bench after putting up 20 ppg's?

T.J. Ford may not be the shooter that James was, but clutch players are not the difference between a 27 win team and a contender, or even a playoff team. The Raptors weren't a good team last year, hopefully they will be this year. We'll can worry about the playoffs once we get there, or at least at the trade deadline.

Mike James missed more last second shots than making them. I think we can look towards Anthony Parker or Andrea Bargnani to be the clutch shooter this year to make the last shot.
Chris Bosh can never be this kind of guy cause hes not fast enough to go in the paint (if they play zone), he doesnt have that catch and shoot ability, and he cant make the 3. The raps can rely on bosh throughout the game, but not for the last shot.

James would have been a solid sixth man, but he wanted to start somewhere and not starting on a team that won 27 games last year would have drove him crazy (though the quotes would have been interesting!).

He was a solid guy off the bench in Houston and Detroit. He's definitely a strong player to have in that role on a good team. On a bad team, he makes an adequate starting guard (hence his role last year).

James's energy was great as well but this year we actually have players in roles they've played their whole career and are suited to be playing. Not too many 'tweeners, with a solid mix of older and younger players. On paper, this team seems far more likely to succeed than last year's group.

Well James would have been a nice addition but, i think he would have taken away from the development of AB, rookies learn from there mistakes but is AB think he should be playing like James in the fourth quarter ill pass. The way i see it this is good to help the others learn. Lastly i do recall anthony parker draining the buzzer beater on none othe then Mo Pete.....

I wish Mike James well except when he plays the Raptors. His clutch shooting is way overblown as it was 4 game winners which is respectable. Most nights though it was dribble, dribble, dribble and he could not break the defence down for a shot. I loved his effort though. He was a decent player for the Raptors that gave his heart and soul on the court and I appreciate what he did.

I don't think he would have been a good fit for Toronto as they are rebuilding and he is at a stage where he wants to win. CB4 is our guy and now has the chance to win games for the team. Looking forward to the new squad and more wins. Just give us an even or winning record and this will be a successful year.

@Darryl: Umm how is CB not fast enough to go into the paint. When guarded by someone his size or bigger, he easily blows past them. With someone shorter, he can shoot over them. Dude has a >9' standing reach. That's freakin' long. We don't know if Bosh can take the three or not. He doesn't try them. He doesn't need to. But if he consistently makes 18 footers, he can probably extend that to the three point line in the near future.

First of all, Pau Gasol is not and will never be a clutch player. If anything, he like many of the young big mens seem to disappear in the four quarters of game. And yes, in this list of big men, I would also include Mr. Bosh. In defense of Bosh, one might argue that Mike James may have been the cause of this, but still, if you are a franchise player, then you better demand the ball period. Going back to your argument with Gasol, one cannot even make the comparison of Gasol with Bosh. Although he has much less offensive ability, he is much better rebounder, passer and not to mention blocking shot. Yes, Bosh does have a much more developed game offensively, but in my eyes, Gasol will never be a franchise type of player. I see him in the mould of a Vladi Divac or even Sabanos and if you are mistakingly comparing Bosh to any of these guys, then I think you couldn't be more wrong. I could even go as far as saying that Bosh to Garnett comparison would be more sensible than Bosh to Gasol. Bottom line, the two are not the same players. As with Bosh being a clutch player down the stretch, I would argue that it is not difficult for a big men to be that. Look at O'Neill for Indiana, Garnett for Minnesota and Stoudamire for Phoneix. All of these are big guys who are franchise players and are capable of making big plays down the stretch. Remember, clutch play does not necessarily mean putting the bucket in the basket. Drawing a foul down the strech is just as valuable and with Bosh's ability to knock down free throw at an 80% rate, I think he is more than capable of being the man in crunch time.

i'm happy mike james is gone.

and i'm not really worried about being able to create off the dribble and scoring clutch baskets. i believe we addressed that need when we picked up Anthony Parker. he shredded the raptors the last time they met AND hit the "clutch" basket to win the game for maccabi.

New clutch player ... Anthony Parker. The Euro MVP has been clutch for years. Did you see the Tel Aviv game?

it was embarrassing watching bosh in the clutch last year. he has all of the weapons (good range, footwork and post moves) but he doesn't have "the onions" ...yet. i remember him turning the ball over 3 times in the last 4 minutes of a game last year. he's still growing up.

james defo lost more games than he won last year - he would take 30-foot threes with 2 minutes left. no discretion - and he was our point guard. point guard!! good team play down the stretch can replace him easily. the spurs get late game heroics from all of their players. granted, they are the spurs, but there's no reason to think we can't get similar results from good spacing and movement. this, of course, would require sam mitchell to draw up a play. another concern.

I like Mike. I really do. I wish they cold have kept them, though whether it was his comments off the court or BC, it seemed like it was a forgone conclusion that he was gone at the end of the season.

I do think we'll miss Mike as we have too many first year players to make up for veteran scoring. As for clutch, yest we forget MoPete a couple seasons back, an even last year, where he was the go-to guy at the end of the game. With TJ able to break down defenses, I see a lot more dishes out to Mo Pete when the game's on the line.

As for Parker, can't really say. Hitting one shot again the Raps in exibition means sh.t all.

I'm a James supporter. So let's look at the standard critizisms that are leveled at him. First, the most common is the "shoot first" problem. I will conceed that he was a 2 guard playing the point but whose fault was that? If his shot to pass ratio was that out of whac, it shows a glaring weakness in the coaching position who apparently was unable to extract any change in his method of play. On top of all of that, all the experts agree it was not the Raptors offence that was the problem
The second common critizism, was "too much dribbling". Now, I have played guard at many levels below pro but at any level nothing makes a point guard look worse than team mates who won't move to get open, in this case it was often team mates who were completely smothered by the opposition defence. So much of the Raptors offence was high screen and roll executed poorly leaving James holding the ball waiting for someone else to come up and miss another screen. Once again, if "too much dribbling" was a problem why would that be such a hard problem for the coach to solve?
And finally the "clutch shooting" issue, It seems to me that James has become the whipping boy for a team with poor rebounding and defence. I liked James because I saw a determination in his face and in his play at crunch time that no one else had including Bosh. Take a look around the league at the crunch time players- Kobe, Iverson, Carter, Wade etc. They all pocess muti weapons, the drive , the 3 and the mid range. James had that. Bosh doesn't.
I'd love to know what coach Mitchell really felt about James.