Tip-In: Respect the Architect

I love the fact that Bosh lead the team in assists last night.

The york column links don't seem to work on my machine, although sounds like I'm better for it.

I couldn't believe it last night when raps were up by 20 and houston still had shot 54%. Man, what offense.

The most sunsish night for the raps yet? gotta be up there.

Who cares what Marty what's his face thinks. I am having too much fun watching the Raptors play this year for someone like him to get me down.

I only started watching the Raptors last year with a buddy of mine. It was frustrating being a fan but I really liked CB4 and Mo Pete and what they brought every night.

I'm glad that I didn't give up watching them. They have been such a pleasant surprise this year. Way ahead of where I though they would be with 8 new players.

Props to BC and props to Sam even though I wasn't sure he was the right coach for the team. I kept saying "Let's see where the team is at the All Star break before we start thinking contract extension".

Last year he was voted one of the worst/ the worst coach in the NBA. But remember the players he had to work with? This year when the Raps make the playoffs he's gonna get some COY consideration AND a contract extension.

Love the game last night. As a long time mitchell distractor, I'm finally warming up to him. Maybe, just maybe he's alright after all.

Marty York's an idiot and I hope your blog outs him for his journalistic incompetence and gets him fired. But I do agree in principle with the statement that the Raptors recent success is overhyped.

Many Raptor fans, including the ones that read your blog, are too quick to tout our wins and just as quickly apologize for our losses. For instance, the San Antonio game, we hear comments like this team is a championship team and they are just that much better than us. The point that most people miss is that is no reason for us getting BLOWN OUT. When we faced Dallas and Phoenix this year, they were the hottest teams in the league and I would argue they were better than San Antonio at the time as well. Yes we managed to at least keep it close and we actually could have won both those games.

You guys talk about the Raptors success in February (with no significant West Coast Trip) and I'm equally not impressed. Wins against Atlanta, Clippers, Orlando, and the Nets were games we SHOULD have won as these teams were either struggling or missing huge pieces to our healthy squad. The Lakers were coming off a back-to-back but huge wins in Chicago (almost blew it), Indiana, and Houston.

I will keep on this because I think you guys at RaptorsHQ are guilty of making this same mistake. Last night's game in Houston was a great win - but T-Mac was suffering from the flu and was a game-time decision. Furthermore, they don't have some guy named Yao Ming playing either.

Hey Hen, quit whining. Raps just cleaned the clock of the "best defensive team" in the NBA. McGrady is not the best defender on Houston's roster. It wouldnt have matter if TMac had the Flu or the clap, they still shot 50%+ and got the crap kicked out of them.

Bosh needs to stop taking that step back, fade-away jumper, I don't think I've seen him hit one of those. He's much better when his feet are planted and he jumps either straight up, or towards the basket.

Dear Hen,

Get over it. The Raptorphobia I mean. Yes the Raps have beaten bad teams this year and yes they got blown out by San An. Name a team in the NBA who hasnt lost at least one game by 15 points this year? Both Dallas and Detroit have lost games to Charlotte for crying out loud. The Raps got blown out because they probably overinflated their ability to score against the Spurs and they found out the hard way you cant score against everyone all the time at will. That is actually a great thing. As for injuries on other teams that the raps have beaten I would say its bullcrap. Houston is sitting very nicely in the West with Yao (he has been out since Dec 23rd, it's not like they just lost him). Remember, the Raps went 6-6 with Bosh out of the lineup back in December? Injuries are part of the game and you can argue that the Raps wins are inflated but not over a 2 month period. Are you saying every team the Raps have played since the New Year has had injuries/back to back situations, etc? Stop looking for reasons for other teams to lose to the Raps. That is just as bad as making up excuses for the Raps losing games (this player did this or they played the tail end of a back to back or whatever).
As for Houston, McGrady missed a game on Monday with the Flu but said he was good to go last night. The fact is the Raps may have McGrady's number. Remember last year in similar circumstances when Houston rolled into Toronto and they blew them out? Players play sick all the time just like they play injured or tired or whatever. I think you just don't want to believe they are as good as they appear. The signs were there even in 2006 at the beginning of the season. Yes they started out 2-8 but it was a tough way to start the season and a lot of good teams started poorly (Suns I believe were 2-5 and Dallas was like 1-4 or something at one point).

Hen,

I think the 'hype' everyone is feeling about this team is very relative...to previous raptors teams we've seen. I am very encouraged at the consistency this team shows virtually every game.

Every team has a night like Monday's San Antonio game.

What is really encouraging to me is that it has now been over 2 months since this team has lost 2 in a row. I think the excitement is well warranted!!

Hen,

The problem is that the Raps used to never beat the teams they're supposed to beat. They would perhaps play well against a good team only to have a total let down the next game against a mediocre team.

Nobody is saying that Raptors are going to win the championship, but the fact that we've done relatively well is a good thing. There's also room for improvement but I think the excitement is warranted and justified.

First off, sorry the links weren't working when I first posted this morning, they should all be good to go now though.

Secondly, Hen, great post. You're right, Raptor fans, us included can get a bit carried away at times. But considering how bad this club was last year, how can you not to a certain extent? Toronto had 27 wins last year!

I like when people say "yeah, well Toronto is SUPPOSED to beat them!" when referencing teams like New Jersey, New Orleans, even Indiana or the Blazers. But three months ago fans were happy to just get wins out of these sort of matches!

My point is that everything is relative and yesterday's "nice wins" are now turning into "they should have CRUSHED THEM!" Yeah the East sucks compared to the West and the Raptors are in a weak division. But since January having one of the league's top three records speaks for itself. Sure this team isn't the Lakers or Celtics of days-gone-by, but doesn't having the tenth most wins in the league qualify you as being a "good" team?

I'm sure you could sit down and rationalize why Toronto should have won some of the games they lost and vice versa, but when the final horn sounds, the real thing that matters is the final score. Even though the Rockets didn't have Yao last night, they've been dominant without him. And don't get me going on T-Mac, he didn't look like he had the flu, he just looked like he didn't care.

You guys make fair points and to be completely honest, I may not want to believe that the Raptors are as good as they are showing lately.

I look at their remaining schedule and I see no reason why we couldn't vie for the second spot in the East.

Maybe this is just feeling too cautious after having to defend my love of the Raps to others for the past few years. And I want to stop doing a disservice to the guys at RaptorsHQ by always putting the negative comments up - this is the best blog for Raptor fans by far. So I'll stop raining on the parade.

Hen,

You're concerns are valid and welcomed. I enjoy reading everyone's different point of views. This is what makes this blog a greatd hotspot for raptors fans because of the insightful comments. We can't always agree on every topic - don't you think it would be quite mundane.

As for Marty York, take his comments as a grain of salt.

Franchise and the rest of Raptors HQ - Keep up the great work!

I was involved a looong string of emails with marty York when he called out Swirsky...If i could have I would have attached it. He kinda always seems to miss the mark, doesn't he?

re the quote It says
"Stein said on the weekend"
not wrote. Could have been on air somewhere

I just asked Marty where the quote came from. This was his response.

"He made the comment on ESPN radio. I heard the interview late Saturday night/Sunday morning. It's not a matter of "if" he said it. He did."

Hey thought i would share this with fans on here. Fanpage.com is giving away 2 pairs of free raptor tickets to the Knicks game. all you have to do is go to the forums and write why you want them soo bad or sumthin. Good Luck if any of you sign up and win them

once again the raps were tested coming out of that loss to the spurs, and once again they proved they have what it takes to make a strong push down the stretch to the playoffs. not only that, but I'll go farther and say the way they respond to bad games is the stuff of deep playoff runs.

the next big test will be to see what they do to the lebrons on saturday.

and please don't pay any attention to the york idiot. he just writes the stuff to piss people off. he has fun doing it. don't give him the time of day.

Ok I'm going to continue the Hen pile-on (nothing personal). But I don't think anyone here thinks the Raps are a championship team right now. However, I personally predicted 41 wins, and at the time even I thought that might be high, and was ridiculed at work for that prediction. Well guess what? They're waaaay exceeding my expectations, and that's what I think all Rap fans (including Franchise) are expressing. Fans are going to whine when they lose, and whine because they're not winning enough. I mean we saw this with the Jays between 85-91. Fans were outraged with Cito Gaston, Jays weren't good enough, it was a consipracy by MLB to keep a Canadian team from winning. But at least fans were talking about them I guess.

What I don't understand is the expectations for any losing team to become a championship team overnight. The last thing I remember is that Dallas nor Phoenix haven't won jack yet.

I was happy with the expecations I set for this team, and the fact that they're exceeding it!

I was very happy with Kris Humphries play last night. Honestly, he could go the rest of the season without scoring another point or grabbing another rebound, and I will still be glad that we had him instead of "Hawful".

Im looking at the Rap's upcoming schedule and see that they're playing 3 back to backs over the next 2 weeks. It should be interesting to watch, if the raps come out of their next 8 games with 3 wins or less I will be pleasantly surprised.

Oops, I meant to say 3 losses or less in my previous post:-S

Oh, also I'm not sure if anyone watched the Colbert Report, but I had a good laugh when he was talking about how the mascot created in his image, "Stephan Colbeagle the Eagle", ranked second in mascot rankings after the Toronto Raptor. He then decided that he was putting the Toronto Raptors "On notice", then he realized that the Toronto Raptors were already On Notice for being a Canadian team in America's Basketball league, so he moved the Raptors to the "Dead to me" board.

I had a good laugh

here's my 2 cents regarding expectations for this team. the team that won 27 games last year doesn't exist anymore. the team we're currently watching succeed is a good, solid basketball team. they have shooters, they have some experienced vets, they have chemistry, they have chris bosh, they have the #1 draft pick of 2006.

forget about the raps from the last few seasons. (4, to be exact.) just forget them. why? because we can!

this team, this year, is good, they're playing well, and we as fans should be allowed to enjoy it.

besides, at this point, having seen the rest of the eastern conference, is it really that outrageous to think that the raps could find themselves in the second round of the playoffs, or maybe even potentially the conference finals against detroit??

I really don't think it's that crazy at all.
the wizards, cavaliers, pacers, heat, magic, and nets are all teams toronto can be competitive with in 7 game series.

I can't believe nobody's mentioned when McGrady held onto Bosh's ankle, and then Mo Pete's wrist. You could argue whether he was still feeling the ill effects of the flu, or if he just didn't care, but those holds he had made it seem like he was just bottomed out, and didn't care. I had a little chuckle at seeing Mo Pete drag McGrady for a little bit.

Raptors are 6th in power rankings on NBA.com. 6th!!! That's unbelievable. I just wanted to share that with everyone, including Hen. ;)

Oh, and the NBA.com Power Rankings has Toronto listed at 6th!! I'd love to see the Raps go 5-1 in these three upcoming back-to-backs so they make it to 10 games over .500, but I'll be happy with 4-2 too.

Marty York will soon be lucky to get a column in a High School yearbook,don't even acknowledge his crap.The Raps are on a steep upward climb,I think that may explain the degree of overhype,we're not sure where they'll level off yet.

Bargs is out for the next 2 games due to family illness. I'm sure that we can overcome his absence though.

Marty Yorks article sounds like a Leaf fan that feels threatened and bitter that the Raps are actually proving to have more upside than the 40 year old stale Leafs currently have.
Hey Marty: Way to support a local team that actually has potentional and is fun to watch.
Go Raps!

tfan, where did you see that? Can you please post link?

Thanks.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...............................

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070301.wsptbarg1/GSStory/GlobeSportsBasketball/home

hmmm, well, more minutes for Rasho and Humphries I guess...maybe see a repeat of Joey Graham at the 4, Bosh at the 5 if other teams go small

Great comments as usual folks...the Colbert part was killer Parts, that show cracks me up. We'll have to find a You Tube clip of it.

As for York, one of our HQ associates sent him the following email:

Marty,

I read your article in the Metro yesterday with great interest.

You quoted Marc Stein from ESPN.com as saying that "The Raptors are not a
good team," and that "They’re a fun team, but they’re too young to be good.
If they win their division, it’ll only be because they happen to play in
what may well be the worst division in NBA history."

Funny then, how the same individual would say on Monday:

"You dare to dispute Raps' top-10 status? At 18-7, Toronto took the league's
third-best record in 2007 into this week, behind only Mavs (22-2) and Suns
(22-5)."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking

From Feb. 19...Marc Stein wrote:

"6. Our Titanic Division jokes are in danger, too.

Remember all the hand-wringing about the new seeding format that guarantees
the Atlantic Division champion a top-four seed even if it has the
eighth-best record in the league?

The surging Raptors, now five games over .500 after their 2-8 start, held
the No. 4 seed in the East entering the All-Star break because they actually
had the fourth-best record in the East at 29-24."

Just curious, then, where you got your information from. Seems a little
contradictory to me...

Regards

But the best part is York's response:

ask him

Great job Marty...

Tough break with Bargs, we'll be discussing more tomorrow morning. But like some of you said, this might be another good opportunity to see if other players can keep stepping up.

Let's hear it for the Architect, and how about the coaching staff.
When a team is blown up and 2/3 of their minutes are played by men who were not in uniform last year (rookies or other pickups), statistically, they win an average of 29 games that year. (based on the last 25 years of NBA history.)

Blown up teams that did better usually acquired a big name or 2 or 3. Take the 90 Spurs with Robinson/Elliott or the 04 Wolves with Cassell/Hassell/Sprewell/Hoiberg.

And the new big name Raps are who? In my opinion, for a blown up team to hit possible mid 40's in W's for the season, is a stroke of genius on the part of BC, great coaching on the part of Sam and staff, and a team of players displaying maturity and basketball IQ beyond any reasonable expectations.

Snap! Too bad about Bargs as I'm headed to the game tomorrow.

However, I don't mind seeing this team challenged. We'll see if Mr. Hump-a-lot continues his ways with some more minutes tomorrow.

Luckily the Bucks got snowed in, and will now have to take the next day flight.. maybe that'll wear Mr. Redd down a little.

ps not sure if the article tittle is in any way referencing the movie 'Magnolia', and a certain little tom cruise line, but if it is, awesome. if not, don't mind me.

Well I am so proud of my RAPTORS!!!. I live in the states and the Toronto Raptors are big news here, NBA TV call them Canada's team, we are finally getting the respect we deserve, one of the sports broadcasters, cearly states "I pick the toronto raptors to win the Atlantic division and go into the playoffs, and will get to the second rounds and he bets on that, and this guy is ususally right, he is one of the brocaster on BNA tv.