Tip-In: Running on Empty

Oh, give me a break! Granger asked to not draft him--that's a bunch of crap. Whenever the Raptors screw up a draft pick (see every year save Bosh--and even there I guess Wade asked them "not to draft him") someone comes up with this excuse.

Granger should have been picked, Graham sucks and is ruining the team because Mitchell refuses to play Jones for some reason. Can anyone explain this to me?????????

Sorry to be so negative like this, but every time the idiot comes on the floor I groan and hope they keep the ball far away from him. 15th overall!

Tough loss last night, but not a big deal. They were very tired because they didn't dominate the Celts on Friday like they should have, but with TJ back on Wednesday they will be able to stay competitive, although probably another loss--there's that negativity again, darn.

Aaron,

Joey is simply in his second year and still figuring things out. He's a solid guy off the court, works hard, and has lots of talent. Personally I think he'll be better down the road than Granger, who seems to have limited his offence to the three point line.

And trust me, Joey's only getting Fred Jones' playing time cause he stinks this year. Sam didn't make that decision, Fred Jones did.

Personally, I think people are starting to see that Sam Mitchell is a good coach when not saddled with a 'Babcockian' roster. He may not be Phil Jackson or Larry Brown, but every single player plays hard and improves (Bosh, Bargniani, Ford, Caulderon, Graham, etc), and he rewards good play and hard work with playing time. Plus, I personally wouldn't mess with the great situation we have between him and Chris Bosh. Every season, every game, Mitchell has challenged him and he has answered those challenges with hard work and improvement. Until that stops, Mitchell should keep his job.

No one else has mentioned it yet, but I couldn't help but notice how much credit Bryan Colangelo gave Sam Mitchell for helping to assemble this team during his half-time interview on TSN during Fridays game. He must have mentioned Sam three or four times, as well as the rest of his management team. Colangelo clearly has a lot of class, and knows how to build enthusiasm and team spirit within an organization.

Lots of tough games coming up in February. I think we'll have a better idea of where we stand soon. Are the Raps just a .500 team? Or is this one of the Easts better clubs? Personally, I think if we continue to imrpove and play well, we're every bit as good as Washington or Cleveland, with Detroit and Chicago as the cream of the East.

Peace and Go Raps!

another tough game to watch, but that ridiculous shot Daniels made almost made me feel better - not much you can do about it.
more specifically though, the mo/joey/jones situation is really starting to burn me. 3 guys - three - and not a single one of them can put together a string of good games with some consistency. who would have thought in the preseason, when everybody was so excited and talking about the dog fight these guys were going to be in for minutes, that none of them would step up!
as for parker - wow. slowly but surely he's bringing the whole package out and is quickly becoming my favorite raptor.
not only does it look like he's quietly taken over mo's office down in the corner, but now it looks like he's even going to chase freddy and joey out of the building with the sick dunks he's coming out with.

I just can't believe how mismanaged the minutes were for the players. Calderon and Bosh played 40+ minutes, two nights in a row in a back to back. I'd be very surprised if this doesn't lead to some injuries down the road. I have no idea why Rasho wasn't ridden out like when Bosh was injured way back in December, but it's the one glaring flaw I've seen in Mitchell is his tendancy to trust his star players TOO much.

Oh yeah, someone should make everyone on the Raptors team get layup instruction from Calderon, because no one other than him is using glass. I can't believe this. It's not like it's a hidden technique or anything...

To Simon's question: are the Raps a .500 team or one of the best in the East? Uh, neither. I project them to lose on Wed. and go about 4-8 in February. This puts them at 26-32 and way off the pace of the Nets, who have quite an easy sched. next month.

This team is still a ways off from the playoffs and I think that it would be a mistake to assume that they can stay close to the 500 mark. A much improved team, but Vincey/Kidd/10 stiffs is still a much more successful team, let's be honest.

The Raps feasted on the bad teams this month (sort of, they had to go down to the wire with most of them) but will fall back to Earth soon . .. and that's okay, people shouldn't expect so much right away. (except from Graham who is a bust, especially at his position where almost all 3's can score at will at the NBA level--I bet he would be just an inconsistent in the NBDL)

Howland, regarding the fly out time, I believe it is NBA policy that when a club is on the road, they have to be in the city of the team they are about to play the night before the game. This may explain why when the Raps have back to back games, they rush to leave town after the first game.

we need tj back so bad

axl you're right, we do need TJ back. Calderon's game is based on energy. He can't keep that up every night (or even on a back to back). You could see last night that as he was slowed, the offense came to a halt. Calderon will help this team the most at 20-24 minutes a game. TJ should be 24-28 mins and starting. Hopefully, this long layoff should be enough to get TJ back.Two PGs are beter than one and D-Mart dribbling the shot clock down and hoisiting up a brick.

had to know the bottom would fall out on d-mart I guess. Maybe this is one of those games where they should have conserved energy, even if they're down a bit late, and then made a push at the end

Rasho was gobbling up the Pacers with 10 1st qtr points. Why the hell did he not show up again in the game?

Its time to get a 3rd string PG in the next draft like a Farmar and groom him. I have had enough of Martin.

Joey G has great athleticism but is so inconsistent. Soemtime the shots just don't fall and you offense has a bad night. Defense however is more about hustling and B-Ball IQ. If you drag a$$ on that you should be riding the bench.

PS Although I think Sam M has done a much better job at coaching this year he still comes up with some rotations that mystify me. Why no Rasho in the 2nd half? What about Humphries? He's green as the grass but he hustles his ass off.

Well the boys came out in good form at the start and Rasho was on FIRE! However, I think this was a little bit of the starters being "spent" and as the second half started to slip away, Sam should have inserted some freshness a little earlier. However, don't take that commetn as a slight on Sammy. His post game interview was a "chalk it up to back to back" and getting in at 3;30 in the AM in Indy, and then trying to "get up" for that game. Could we have won...yup. Just one of those things, when a team is shooting 77% and you are settling for outside jumpers and shooting 41%, the numbers don't add up. My only major beef was that we did a good job of making Danny Granger look really good. Any homework from the coaching staff (Alex, Jay..you listening) would have shown that Granger has been on a decent tear as of late getting more and more confident with his jumper. Screw the double down on JO he wasn't eating us up, but the 3's Granger knocked down in the 3rd and 4th quarter were mostly a result of bad switching and doubling down when it wasn't necessary.
Jose, you looked tired, and rightly so as you have had to handle to monster share of point. Derek, stop shooting with guys on you, distribute the ball, run the O, and we all know that you're first step isn't what it used to be so STOP trying to beat guys off the dribble.
Has anyone else noticed that Little Italy (A.B.) is really becoming a great passer? He nearly took Boshes head off in the game with a pass that was going about mach 1. Sam's got to recognize this and work a little more high post flash with him being the distributor. Good option with CB4 working the block.

Anyway, Agent 0 coming to town, gotta watch the press and Carron Butler as the "sidekick" and we should be good to go.

I'm out!

Fresh

PS. Franchise, any luck finding that "Off the Record" episode from last week?

Fresh1 - no luck on OTR yet but I'm sure it'll turn up. Hate talking about Granger...those who used to read our old site know about my love affair with the former New Mexico kid...

Not sure what happened to Rasho either. He just didn't come out with the same aggression in the second half and really, his scoring really would have helped Toronto's offence as a whole I think.

And let's not even discuss the 3's by Indiana...guess Mitchell and co. never read my preview that day...

Not sure if Humphries would have helped...maybe a bit on the boards but what Toronto really needed was scoring help and that ain't Humpty's game.

However, I do think that the Raps caught Indiana on a night when they could do no wrong. Watcehd them play Detroit last night and they were pretty bad offensively.

Hey Franchise, found the episode, didn't listen to the whole thing but they start by talking about the NHL All star game....
http://www.tsn.ca/shows/otr/
That is the link. It is from Thursday's show. Boy like us informed fans, if the coaches would only check the BEST Raptor blog to see what's bein discussed they might learn something....hehehe! Ya, like me teachin Alex English how to shoo t a jumper!!!!

I'm Out!

Fresh1