The Sound of Silence

I'm a huge Raptors fan from Saskatchewan (I feel like the only one too sometimes. lol) I have heard every comment made pre draft, post draft and post season about Charlie V. Everyone critisized the Raptors for taking him #7 and loved them getting Joey so far into the draft. Then during and after the season everyone says, Joey stinks and Charlie is the man.

I'm just curious if anyone honestly believed that would happend. Who really though Charlie would be second in rookie of the year balloting and Joey would have struggled so much?

Also, if you need something to write about, how about predicting who will win awards this year. MVP, MIP, ROY, 6MOY etc...

Anyone from Saskatchewan or anywhere else please visit my blog (http://saskraptorsfanclub.blogspot.com/) and write me. It's not easy to find ball fans in Saskatoon.

As I understand, the Raps recruited players this year to fit into a "running"
system which is intended to be a clone of the Pheonex system. To me the reason they have a "running" system is due to Steve Nash who only has one gear and that's high. Enter Mr. Ford. The running system is quite basic and simply depends on quickness, good passing and fitness but what happens in the "half court offence"? Last year Sam ran a "first to Bosh" offence and then some high pick and rolls if that didn't work. I know James took the heat for dribbling too much but high pick and rolls require waiting for the screener to first set the screen and then move off it.Would the triangle offence be easier and faster to get into from a fast break?

Granted I dont know very much about b-ball sets, especially about the triangle, but I think the basic flex offense would be easy to innitiate from a fast break. The wing men running the floor could just cross and get into position on near the sidelines, while Bosh and Rasho can set up in th epost. THen again, i could be completly horribly wrong in this assesment as I said earlier idont know much about the sets. So dont jump all over me if I am wrong.

Just a comment here on the Raps's new Jerseys.

Why the hell do marketers here in Canada feel that the team needs to rock Canada's colours. I mean we all know the Raps are the only team in Canada. And the red, white and black is already being used by the Bulls. Can we just get over this and get original?

Secondly. We hate to admit this but the Raptors are really just the Mighty Ducks of the NBA. Can we just collectivley forget that the team was named after a dinosuar, made popular by an action movie? Yes we can. A raptor is also a bird of prey. Let's just have a bout of collective amnesia here. We are the Raptors...birds of of prey. Not Raptors, the extinct animal. No wonder TO fans are insecure about losing the franchise, we're just waiting to become extinct.

One last thing. Can we lose the "Chevrons" on the sides of the uni's. Damn those are ugly...plus they remind everyone of being stuck in traffic in Oshawa.

Out.

Colin, in no way did I think CV would have as good a season as he did but I for one thought it was a big mistake to take Graham at number 16. Not that I didn;t think he was worthy of the number 16 pick, but with Granger and Green both on the board it was a bad pick. And this is not hindsight being 20/20 nor was I the only one - I was at Harbourfront that night and there seemed to be collective displeasure with the pick. And Babcock stating afterwards that he was the best athlete in the draft killed me - draft a guy with b-ball smarts over a pure athlete any day of the week. But with all that being said, I still want to see Joey become a legit rotation guy - he is a Raptor after all.

So any word on the best place to download Raps games during the season? Massive withdrawal across the ocean. With no Raps games on U.S. national TV, I"m afraid we won't be getting anything over here. The only thing I have to look forward to is the "international players spollight" which they show every evening.

I hope that Graham does come around, but yeah I think a lot of us thought from the beginning that we missed out on Granger. It was said we would take Granger with the CV pick, so when he was still available with our second pick I thought we would be all over it.

Being more optimistic, I have heard comparisons between Graham's game and development to Richard Jefferson. Thier rookie stats are comparable, they have a similar game and we do know Graham is physically able. BC decided to keep him around, so hopefully his assessment is that we have a player here. He was only a rookie last year and he played like one. At least near the end of the season, he did seem to be coming on, hopefully a sign of things to come.

With Mo Pete being a free agent after this season, a lot of people will be watching to see if Joey can fill his role in the '07-08 season.

Graham will never be even close to RJ... even as a rookie, RJ had all of the skills that he does now (he can actually handle the ball, rebound, etc.).

Also - RJ (and Mo Pete for that matter) has 2-3 inches on Joey. I find that one of Graham's weaknesses is simply being able to extend his arms to shoot/rebound. If Graham was actually 6'7" (and not 6'4" with short arms), he would be a lot more versatile.

On a side note -- anyone remember Ram-Man from He-Man?
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram-Man)

That is Joey Graham!!!

Maybe that will be a good blog topic as we wait for the season to start: who do the current Raptors look like?

Joey Graham: Ram-Man (from He-Man)
Mo Pete: Marion Jones (US sprinter)
TJ Ford: Don Cheadle (actor)
Rasho: McCauley Caulkin (if he was 7' tall)
Garbage Man: Seymour Butts (guy from 'family business' reality show)

any others?

The total this year opened at 31 wins...which was QUICKLY bet up to 32 and now sits at 32.5 (-119)...that means that there are quite a few people, the HQ gambling consortium included, who believe in the Raps ability to win at least 5-6 more games than last year.

RAM-MAN!

That killed me...a girl I work with collects old toys and was quizzing me on their names...and Ram-man was one of them. I couldn't remember his name though so I made something up. 32.5 games...I think they win 34...should the HQ readers put in a collective bet? What's the payout? As for Joey vs. RJ...stats are close arter year1 but like BC says, Joey can't rebound or dribble...

How many dayz left now ha ha?

does the RSS feed for this site work for anyone else, cause it won’t work in my reader