Quiet On The Home Front

Well written. It puts everything in perspective. I sure hope Bargnani has improved so he is ready to start as almost everyone I know has already penciled him in as the starting center.

Nice read...and excellent points...I think we as fans get caught up in the free agency/trading aspects of the game and lose the appreciation for the subtle points of the game in which you made reference too (chemistry, defense, etc.). It is hard to feel like we are "standing pat" while teams around us "grow". But truth be told, I think a great many of those teams "growing" would trade team for team given what the raps will be able to do this year b.c. they have done a great job bringing in "needs" (i.e. Kapono), not just "wants"(i.e. Lewis). I have been a LONG time Celts fan, and have watched them struggle for years by making trades and signing free agents, only to have them still in potential for the #1 pick this year (and now after stockpiling some talent not to use to address their needs). Once again, great post, especially perhaps to the new Canadian fans just starting to begin their "career" as a bball junkie to realize these points in the midst of the NHL and NBA off-season frenzies...Cheers!!!

My only comment is I love the picture and have set it up as background on computer

Go Raps Go can't wait for fall

Overall nice piece, Howland. But I have to dispute "the Jason Kapono signing has arguably been the most questionable move made by BC during his reign."

Um, how about paying $8+ million dollars for 2006-2007, 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 to a starting SG and SF who had never before played in the NBA? Okay, Parker did play 55 games in the NBA in the late 90s but he stunk. Isn't that just a bit more "questionable"-worthy?

I am not a Colangelo-apologist (I didn't care for the Jones signing) but having a bunch of bona fide 3 PT shooters is quite important for contenders with a similar team make-up as the Raps. MoPete was too inconsistent (especially last year) and is on the downside of his career, being 3.5 years older than Kapono and now getting paid just 1 million dollars less (4 years, $23 million). At the *end* of Kapono's contract, he will only be 6 months older than how old MoPete is NOW.

Regardless if Bargs plays more on the perimeter for a C, with TJ/Jose not being that great outside shooters, and Bosh a great post presence, it's very important for the drive-and-dish. Thinking of similar top teams, as Nash, Billups and Terry are such awesome high-volume 3PT shooters at the 1, let's look at a team like San Antonio. With Parker and Duncan being drive-and-dish/pass-out-of-the-post guys, having a boatload of 3PT shooters at the 2 and 3 -- Ginobili, Barry, Finley, Bowen, Horry, and even the Red Rocket -- was a major factor in their success. Look at all the daggers they stuck in the Cavs. Actually, don't look, that series was horrible.

Now, I'm not comparing TJ/Jose and Bosh to Mr. Longoria and Mr. Fundamental, but in a couple of years....

JJ:

I think by disputing my point you are confirming that it is arguable. I think we can both agree that it is questionable considering some of the other needs on this team and the $$ figures.

Great post! Would just like to add that our Atlantic foes have improved as well. A healthy Jersey and Celtics as well as the potential of the Knicks will not make our task easier. Even if this team does get better matching last years win total is not a gimme- but I don't want to sell this team short- we are in for another exciting year.

You're right H, I guess I'm being a bit too syntactical about the "most questionable" phrasing. I just find the Kap-one signing a lot less "What the @#*$%"-inducing than the Parker and Garbo signings and the Salmons/Jones signing. From my vantage point, where the roster is positioned, a 26.5-year-old 3PT shooting uber-specialist makes tonnes of sense, and a lot better than re-upping MoPete for the same cash, or thinking Jamaal "Slow As Molasses" Magliore or Mikki "I want to thank J-Kidd for my contract" Moore would solve the rebounding issues. I also think Garbo will be a better rebounder this year in the backup PF/C spot.

Thinking about it, Rasho is probably his worst move so far. I'm really not sure how much of a mentorship role he's served for Bargs; Slokar is now off the team; and, worst of all, Red Rocket and Sulk Williams would have been off the cap by now and Rasho's eating 8 million the next 2 years as a maximum 10 MPG player, and BC might have had the cash now freed up to make a play for G-Force (though I'm not sure he would have left Charlotte, and he is injury-prone).

But then again, if this is BC's worst, it puts most of of the moves of BabCOCK or any of the other current crop of NBA or Toronto sport team GMs to shame.

Re: Mo Pete

I'm not be in the loop on the behind-the-scenes goings on in Raptorland or even the daily cooler talk from people who bumped into so-and-so at the local Timmy's. So can someone who is give us an idea of what went wrong with the Peterson-Mitchell relationship? I've never seen anyone fall so completely out of favour. From 38 minutes one year to 21 the next, with healthy scratches in there last year. From 40 minute playoff Vince stopper to 6 minute bench warmer. The standard arguments

1. Mo came into camp out of shape
2. Parker stole Mo's job
3. Mo's not consistent enough

Don't mesh with the numbers. It just feels like there's something else going on.

In the end, for the mid-level, you trade a guy who's shooting was inconsistent but who had slashing ability and strong defense, for a one dimensional Kyle Korver clone. All because Sam won't play a guy.

My guess is Mo will be the first ex-Raptor to ellicit actual cheers instead of boos from the ACC crowd...

Rappy, I don't understand why people keep blaming Sam for Mo's problems. Mo couldn't play to the level expected of him. He disappeared at times, his defence was solid but inconsistent and his offence disappeared completely at times. Sam's patience ran out. I like Mo a lot, but people have to stop making excuses for him.

And plus, AP was a better option than Mo.

re: MO and Sam

I do agree that Mo didn't play his best at the start of last year but he did get locked in the doghouse pretty fast at the beginning of the year.
Rumour I heard was that an "unnamed player" on the Raptors questioned Mitchell's coaching skills to a reporter before the season started. I can't remember who or which publication, so I could be wrong.
Other sources probably have more reliable info.

sharpy says...when there are someone saying something and they cannot say their name or identifiy themself, then there is no credit in their words, sometime after being in one place so long one get bored and want to move on, maybe that is the situation with MO, I love MO and I would like to see him back in a Raps uniform I was very upset when they did not resign him he has been with use for 7 seasons he has never play for another team but we can continue to love him and when he plays us really cheer him on, but it is not necessary to blame SAM!!

You lost me Marcia.

Anyways the article was by none other than Marty York in the Metro news. The Raps were about 2 weeks into there season. Here was York's write up for what its worth.

At least one of
the Raptors believes
coach
Sam Mitchell should
be fired.
"I’ll be stunned if
he’s with us another
week," the player
said, naturally requesting
anonymity. "We need a coaching
change, man. (General manager Bryan)
Colangelo’s brought in good players, but
the coaching’s terrible. He (Mitchell) has us
running around like
chickens with our heads
cut off. He stresses shooting
and offence, but then
he’s always on our ass
about our defence."
The Raptors have lost
six consecutive games and
the player said Mitchell’s
lectures have gotten old.
"They’re no good for
our confidence," he said.
"We don’t even hear his
bull no more. He’s lost us,
man. We just shut him
out."
The player accused
Mitchell of spending too
much time "on extra-curricular
activities away
from basketball," although
he would not elaborate.
He also said: "Mitchell squabbles too
much, man, whether it’s with players or assistant
coaches, even reporters. He’s always
looking for a fight. He never just chills. It’s
ridiculous."
The player said he would never share his
thoughts about Mitchell with reporters
who cover the team regularly.

The player suspected of this supposed rant was Mo Pete. He was dropped from the starting rotation right around the time .

Take York's article for what is is worth, which isn't much.

Re: BC's most questionable moves.

Looking backwards, the Rasho signing is probably not his finest hour, but it still looks like a decent one to me. Rasho gives the team several things it desperately needed;

- depth at centre
- rebounding
- a solid character in the locker room
- some hard fouls every game as needed
- Championship rings

The downside to Rasho is that we had to pay for all this at pretty much market value. So unlike some of BC's better deals this one wasn't a winner because of the low cost.

- Parker. Controversial? I don't recall it being so much a question at the time. Parker was widely regarded as one of the best players outside the NBA if memory serves.

- Garbajosa. Now HE was controversial. If I recall correctly, someone actually wrote "I can't believe we just signed a guy whose name is garbage-something".

If anyone raised eyebrows, it was the porn player.

RE: Paying Mo-Pete. I dig Mo, and wished he could have stayed, but...

- I definitely think he was the source of the Marty York rant

- He absolutely did show up out of shape

- Parker absolutely did take his job and minutes away.

By the end of the year Mo had regained most of his form (more or less) and by the playoffs was reliably defending VC for much of the series - but I think part of the turn around was Mo playing for a job elsewhere, and the team being more than happy to let him do so. Gonna miss him and that circus shot though. Smooooooth.

Marcia - agree 100% your words about Mo. Mo will always remain one of the most popular Raptors and also Sam's not to blame. I do believe that BC did the rightmove in not resigning him.
And why is everyone down on Rasho - he delivered exactly as expected. BC didn't give him that contract and don't count out the intangibles he's brought.IMO Sam should of had him on the floor a bit more often.He will be our starting centre(barring unseen trade)this coming season and continue to add to the developement of this team Plus once his money is off the books it'll free up a lot of money when this team is ready for a serious run, not just for the east, were talking championship.

Tinmnan, if Rasho is our starting centre at the begining of the season, something has gone terribly wrong.

Also, I can't believe no one has metioned this yet given all the chatter about this last year, Ford for CV was the most debated move in a long time, how can it not get a metion as the most questionable move? In retrospect, it isn't questionable anymore. But at the time it sure was.

Sharpy I remember the article but what I am saying is if the newscaster cannot say which player told him, then it is not true, we should try to believe news that comes from reliable sources, this news caster has been known for his fictious writing.

Howland, Love the post especially during the news hungry days of summer. I am also quite happy that there has been no disruption to the core of the Raps. BC has said many times that we will improve from within and he seems to be a man of his word. Putting in a few new pieces is fine with me and I am interested in seeing how they work out. I am hoping he is pretty much done, and heaving a sigh of relief that he didn't succumb to the temptation to trade Calderon just because his trade value is high at the moment. I think he is worth more to us as a Raptor than he would bring in as part of a trade.

jjdynomite - I agree most of the Babcock moves were garbage, but you have to give him (or whomever gave him the idea) credit for going out and grabbing Calderon, especially at such a bargain price.

One of BC's moves that I think in retrospect was questionable was jumping too quickly on TJ's contract extension. If he had waited and watched the two PG's grow over the season, we might be in a slightly more flexible position with regard to the PG position contracts over the next few years. You might say who knew that Calderon would improve so much, but if you saw any of his play in Europe, you had to know he would improve, especially once he adjusted to a new country, league and language.

Can't wait for training camp, or even the Eurobasket.

Sharpy,
You are being kind and not confirming the obvious - it was MoPete. That no one called Marty York on it tells you that the interview happened.
Sam does have a pattern of putting people in the dog house. He has one way of motivating a player - yell and sit. It hasn't really worked for Graham or anyone else, really. The only young players to develop have been Ford and Bargnani and they are both BC's pets.

Rasho gets crapped on because he earns 8 million. As Tinmnan points out, he's done what Rasho has always done and in about the same measure. Sam doesn't often give him burn so he's not going to do much. It still seams to me that Bosh is a better player when Rasho is on the floor. That said, I think Molasses Magloire or someone who is bigger and more physical than Rasho would be a better fit.

If we have Bargnani at center, who is going to get the rebounds? We'll need a Kapono with his shooting percentages to keep us close on all those one miss possessions. Bargs is just not a board beast and we may not want him to work that hard near the bucket anyway. We could use a Varejo type, or a really big body that can go against some of the bigs on the other team so that Bosh doesn't have to.
As for Babcock, he did the job he was allowed to do. If he'd been willing to bread the Board's agreed to plan and given up that pick to the Knicks and saved MSLE some dollars, he'd still be here. Don't forget that Ford is indirectly a result of Babcock's gutsy draft call. That said, BC is one of the best.

Iam having a hard time respecting canadain basketball fans.
December 2006..raps-6-6 without bosh..i wonder why?
Hmm maybe Rasho might get some credit for that?
Maggy deserves credit..he's canadain and not, ahem slow!
About Marty York....
where do i begin....umm..this guy is full of it...and to think MoPete is behind that rant then y'all are stupid.
Those were buzz words used by the reporters.." lost to us..fights needlessly..tune him out..blah blah"
Is it in ebonics..is that why y'all believe it is?
Marty York is hated by the beat grunts...who are the beat grunts...Doug Smith micheal Grange..Stumpy...why do they hate him..well go to the Star website and read Doug's Blog...they cover all preseason..regular games..practices and post interviews..and they have never never never never...im qoting by the way...never never never never seen him..over 100 sesions and not once!!!!!
Hmmmmmm.......
I wonder why?
well i know one thing...mr.York didnot report on the raps success..division champs..home court advantage and such...i wonder why?
And i read the Metro everyday!!!!!!

Ok, Enough with the Marty York bashing. Bashing Marty Yorks credibility is like bashing Paris Hilton's. However, even without credibility, Mo took the heat for the comment (outside the org anyways). Whether that was deserved or not is irrelevant. The fact is there was no one else on the team (in fans minds) who could have said it. Bosh is a big Mitchell supporter so we know it wasn't him and everyone else was too new to complain about his style yet but I have a feeling that the Rap who may (assuming the words were actually Spouted) have made the comment is still on the team. I highly doubt that Mo would complain about playing defense as he has always been more than willing to play d.
Moving on. It is really hard to argue which move by BC was most controversial as it really depended on the source. A lot of fans were unhappy that Villanueva was traded for Ford(funny, I bet Milwaukee would like a mulligan on that one). That trade still has potential to bite BC in the butt long term (depending on how vill and ford develope) but even if Vill turns into a 30 10 guy (and that aint happening) he still did the right thing. He traded a surplus at SF/PF/C for a huge need at PG. Even if you though Calderon could handle the job full time, you still needed a plan b. Ford and Calderon made each other better and no one can argue that the trade worked out well for Toronto regardless or what the asset they traded away does.
Some People outside of Toronto thought that Bargnani was a bad pick (I am looking at you Mr. Simmons).
Really the most controversial move BC made was turning over 9 people on the roster. At the beginning of last year only the most die hard fans thought Toronto would make the playoffs and even most of them would peg them at 38-40 wins max with all the turnover. The fact that they gelled so well is why Mitchell deserved coach of the year (although I still think Jerry Sloan should have won the award but that is another arguement).

I'm going to put this out there, what are your thoughts. I like Jason Kapono, but with Pietrius still not signed I think he might have been obtainable for the Raps at the same price as Kap. I think I would have preferred Pietrius. He averages more pts, rbs, stls, blks. He isn't as good a shooter, but I think he is more athletic and a better defender.

If they cost the same who would you rather have, Michael Pietrius or Jason Kapono?

Mo has always only played well when assured of heavy minutes. Maybe it took the pressure off somehow, or added motivation. Who knows? I personally think a large contract would motivate him similarly as he seems to me to be the type who just wants to feel needed and wanted, like after VC left and in the playoffs this year. But really, it's too risky to give big money to a player that's so inconsistent. I was expecting the "05/06 mo" last year and was just totally disapointed. That mo would be perfect for the raps.

Hmm can someone remind me who the centre was before Rasho? And can anyone compare Rasho to the other Cs in the history of the Raps? Heck, the one mediocre season he had last year may already put it in the top 5 true C performance in franchise history (not that that's saying much).

Other ex-raps we've cheered for coming back? JYD, Red Rocket, Donyell Marshall (especially celebrating his record breaking game), Tracey Murray, Roger Mason Jr (kidding!) & one game away from Alvin Williams.

just to pile on the Mo conjectures, he did have a wrist injury coming in to the season, and I remember him losing his starting job early to Fred Jones. Not a Mo apologist, but it seemed Mitchell had way more patience with Jones when he started to underperform. And lets not discount the fact that Marty York could have made the whole thing up..I remember his attributing false quotes to Marc Stein about how the Raptors stunk.

The Pietrus non-signing does surprise me.not sure I would sink $30 mill on a guy I would avoid in the last 2 mins of the game (64% free throw shooting), but a one-year "show me what you can do" contract just like Magloire in NJ would have been perfect.

Rubik, don't forget that Mo has never been consistent. Sam was way more patient with Mo giving him two + seasons before giving up on him. Fred only had a handful of games.

Rahulan, Jason is a better fit for this team. We need someone who can stretch out the defense and that’s what Jason does.

ustation, interesting question. So who were the best Centres for the Raps? I’m ignoring Bosh who did play centre for us but really was our PF. In no particular order, the best would have to include:

Montross – No one ever questioned his heart
Davis - Truly a PF, but played the 5 for us for a long time
Camby – Brought us the UMass scandal, but also some good boards and blocks.
Willis - maybe the first big signing to come to Canada by choice
The Big O – Seriously, he gave us great hustle and lots of heart

Some of the rejects:
Clark – was more of a power forward, wasn’t he?
Tabak – Unbelievable he lasted in the league as long as he did.
Stewart – See above but more so in this case.
Araujo – See above but more so in this case. I’m beginning to detect a pattern.
Woods – A zona boy, so always had a soft spot for him along with mighty mouse. But as a centre, was useless.
Mourning – A shame about the health problems that kept him from playing for us. But as Bobcock said, an honour just to have him on our team for a week.
Hakeem – Grunwald’s crowning moment

Sorry, forgot to include Rasho who I think is good but has not done enough yet to make it into my Fav 5.

me and my roommate had a discussion featuring the question of carlos delfino and jason kapono a year befor they were even raptors! i won't go into the arguments for or against each player. All I wanted to know was the thoughts of other raptors fans about who will have the greater impact. thank you for the coopoeration

Hands down Kapono will -- provided his 3P% stays high.

We know the raps are creating a situation where people will compete for playing time. I don't see anyone we brought into the roster being an overall better player than Parker, and unless Kapono or Delfino show they have some great defensive skills to complement their O, I still say we're going to see a lineup of TJ, Parker, Garbo, Bosh, Bargnani to start. Possibly once the rotation gets down, as who knows whether Garbo will be 100% or not (from everything I've seen/read, he is trying to be 100% as quickly as possible to play internationally).

Then again, conjecturing about our lineups is fruitless, as we learned at the beginning of last season. High hopes for Fred Jones + a year like his previous for Mo Pete never materialized.

Erezona this is a joke I hope.

Mourning – A shame about the health problems that kept him from playing for us. But as Bobcock said, an honour just to have him on our team for a week.
A complete waste of Raptor $$$

Yes Davl, sarcasm.

Everyone is missing the point.. At the time we needed Rasho.. We have never had a C ever!!!! He was a legit C with a couple rings, all it costed was Eric W. and the Red Rocket.. That was a great deal at the time...Plus we needed help on the boards..

Now, well we are a faster team, so Rasho cant get on the floor.. Nobody knew what Bargs would be right away, or the star he is going to be..

This year it sux yes, but next year it will be expiring and it is a market priced contract for a servicable big man... BC will turn it into something..

I think we are picking at things a little too much, Just watch Summer League

Am I the only one who does not want Barghani should not start at centre. Too much - too soon - its not even his natural position.

CoachE, Rasho only has 1 ring from the Spurs in '05. And it's all well-and-good that he's more adequate (I can't bring myself to say "better") than most of the other C's that Erezona enumerated, but he's also getting paid more than all of them except AD and (yuck) Mourning and I expect better results than career averages of 7 PPG and 5.5 RPG for $8 million per year, especially when his cash equivalent(Bonner and Williams) would have been off the cap this off-season.

Which brings me to Tinman's point. If you look at their profiles...

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/radoslav_nesterovic/
and
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/andrea_bargnani/

...Bargs is the same height (and probably still growing) and only 5 pounds less than Rasho at 250. That's already 20 pounds more than CB4. I don't know if Bargs has the mental stamina yet to push back loads like Shaq, Magloire, Curry, Big Ben and Dwight Howard, but he has almost as much bulk as Rasho at age 21/22 and if he can pull them away from the basket he can render them irrelevant on defense.

This is kind of what Utah does, as Okur pulls out opposing Cs so Boozer can dominate down low. Hopefully the same dynamic can work with Bargs and Bosh. Not every successful team needs a thug C to thrive, especially when they have a dominant offensive PF; look at the Jazz, Spurs, Suns and this year's Pistons.

I think Coach E is helping make my point. This franchise has rarely, if ever even had a true "C". And last year was one of the few years we've ever got not not say that our Centre was a problem.

Other than maybe Camby's rookie season, I can't name anoter Raptor Centre's season performance that clearly was superior to Rasho's last season.

We've had PFs doing an admiral C work, but they ain't Cs.

For once in the franchise's history, there was no talk about the C. (back-up or otherwise)

ustation...you obviously don't know the history of the Toronto Raptors,Eric Montross who retired from the Raptor in 2000, who played with Dell Curry and all the good Toronto raptors players of the good ole days was a true center

Marcia.. Why do you bother writing???

I have never said anything in the past, but your posts are ridiculous...and the grammar is horrible..

Eric Montross?? When he played with Dell Curry and all those good raptors??? Eric Montross was never any good for the Raps..PLease just watch what you say in the future, and give thoughts to your responses..thanks

CoachE...When were you hired to watch our grammer on this site if you feel that you need to teach people about their grammer go get a job in a school or go talk on a teacher student blog and just don't practise on this site, we are basketball lovers not grammer student so get lost and go find something else to do. On this website we are free to express our opinion if you do not want to hear what we have to say or if you just cannot bear to see our bad grammer go find another site, they do have a site call nerd express yourself. Now all the other basketball lovers who wants to talk ball and not grammer let's have some fun and talk BB. I'm goneee...

The Raps have always been snake bitten at the Centre position. Oliver Miller ate his way out of the league. Tabak was a joke. It also seems everyone forgot about the early years savior at the position Sharon Wright. Remember him. Raps trade (i believe) Ed Pickney for him and then watched as he crashed his car in the offseason ending his career.
Montross was a horrible trade. He spent most of his time in Raptor land on the injured list.
The only people better than Rasho were AD, Camby and Willis. Everyone else was a complete waste of space and money. I still can't believe we signed Yogi to all that money only to get a weaker version of Arrujo. Arrujo may have sucked but at least you could tell he was trying. Yogi looked like someone who just wanted a pay check. Wow, what a blunder.
As for Rasho's future with the team, his obvious position is to play D against big Centres. I imagine that Smitch will only start him against Shaq, Curry and maybe Magloire but that is about it in the East. Everyone else will get Bargs and the Raps should win most of those matchups.

PS.. CoachE..Please is typed Please not PLease check your typing and remember people who lives in glass houses should not thru stones, figure that out Mr. grammer QUEEN

Almost forgot about Nate Huffman! I can't remember, did he even make it out of training camp?

Marcia, it's one thing to accidentally capitalize a letter, and something entirely different to write an utterly unintelligible sentence. You want people to stop harassing you about your grammar? Beef it up, they won't have any complaints about your low grade level writing when they can at least understand the absurd things you're writing. As for the content, that's another matter entirely.

On the topic of centres, there's really only one hope I have: Bargnani's development includes enough fundamentals of the game (boxing out, rebounding, etc) that when Rasho does leave we can be comfortable with Bargnani defending the likes of Duncan, Howard, Curry, Wallace, Shaq etc...

I'm convinced Bargnani will dominate offensively, even in a pick and pop/roll offense, it's more his D I'm concerned with. Otherwise he's just a tall offensive-oriented SG/SF.

Then again, the Raps could wind up being one of the best Team D teams in the league down the road, just from their comfortability with one another.

Pretty much I wanna see Bargnani guarding Duncan properly in the '09-'10 finals. :D

I'm not even sure why anyone bothers giving Marcia the time of day, I've been reading this site for over a year now and her posts are always completely illegible. If she wants to post, fine, that's her call but jeesh, let's get on with the real basketball talk. In fact, I'm convinced that she's probably the alter ego for Kevin O'Neill hence the ramblings...

Ok, back to the topic at hand, Rasho. I think Rasho will be coming off the bench next year but I DO think he's one of these players who does little things that the casual fan doesn't notice. I bet if you asked Chris Bosh about it he'd tell us in a flash how much better it was to have Rasho beside him than say Hoffa...but then again that's like saying it's better for Bosh to play with Rasho than some Timmy at the YMCA...

Thank you Fromlongrange...
Thats all I was trying to say..the posts have gotten humorous..

Thank you

Easy - Marcia's comments are as welcome as anyone else's and are usually spot on. Not sure if I agree with Montross but always welcome her opinion.

well at least BC addressed items of need for the Raptors by getting Delfino 9for nothing and the best shooting option available, Kapono.

Unlike the Bucks who drafted a guy who doesn't want to play, especially not behind Villeneuva who they traded for...or Houston who just signed Francis -- who will share time with James and Alston (and their two other PG) and shots with those same guys and McGrady -- what a mess.

p.s. think of Joey Graham as a younger MoPete -- Mo was just as tantalizing and inconsistent when he started, got good and then last year ran out of gas...

To all the men who thinks this site is for men only, I am here to tell you all that women are just as good at discussing sports, I notice by some of you guys conversations that you think BB is only for men well me and my bad grammer and my female bb discussions are on this site for a long time, and remember this is not a site where you have to comment on what the next person writes, so wellcome to the free speech website.

Nobody said anything about girls vs. guys..

I know a lot of smart women, when it comes to bball...This is not a woman issuie, but a you issue... You make no sense and you ramble about incoherrant things..

Please keep posting, I never said dont..just please think about your points

Guys, and Ladies, lighten the heck up! It's a blog of BB fans writing about a team that is months from taking the court. We are here because we enjoy this stuff enough to keep closer tabs on it in the off season than most of the players probably do. So, who cares about the perceived intelligence of the comments and quality of the grammar. It's cyber gossip. BC ain't listn'!
Have fun with it and don't assume that any ideas are stupid. Anyone who suggested at the start of the season that the Raps would win the division was ignored or mocked. If someone was telling us two years ago to look to Europe for better players, we would have told him to get a new dealer. If someone is really worried about the grammar, they can copy the message into Word and correct all the coloured squiggly lines themselves. Let's (yes, the use of an apostrophe here indicates informal language usually reserved for speech) collectively pull our shorts out of our cracks and enjoy talking ball.

Grammar police...again?!!
Lord have mercy..i thought we smacked bedhead and jjdyn when they tried to pull that stunt?
Now we got this GoofBall..who is CoachE?
Consider Marcia a Jose Calderon, i mean, you wouldn't be making fun of his limited vocabulary and accent..now would you?
You would cut him some slack because...well because he's a Spaniard...give Marcia the same courtesy.
I mean she might be a Slovakian...
The word of the day y'all
....is...
Tolerance
Try it on for size
One size fits all

Peas&Luv

On the actual subject of BBall, with Maceo Baston becoming a Raptor, how are we going to cope with the what, 16 players we have? I smell a trade coming. Jackson, Graham, and Dixon are all possibly headed somewhere else, just because they're the more expendable players.

I mean, if you look at our roster, we just picked up Baston, and added Delfino, Kapono, and possibly Moon. If Moon shows he has the stuff, I'd think Mitchell is going to get him onto the team in that 15th spot.

Isn't our roster currently:

Bargnani, Baston, Bosh, Calderon, Delfino, Dixon, Ford, Garbajosa, Graham, Humphries, Jackson, Kapono, Martin*, Moon, Nesterovic, Parker.

* = We've said he's coming back? Has that actually been said?

Maybe a 2 for 1 for that third string PG, and some wallet opening for D-Mart as an assistant?

"If someone is really worried about the grammar, they can copy the message into Word and correct all the coloured squiggly lines themselves."

^^ That only works if we know what is SUPPOSED to be there in the first place. Half the time or more, this is not the case.

I'm all for coming up with crazy things and conversation but I do like to be able to understand. I mean, if it is as you say, what's so hard about the person trying to get their message out doing the same thing with Word? At least they know what the hell they're trying to write.

That's all I'm saying Marcia -- I'd like to know what the hell you're writing, and I read, write, and speak decent English and can't understand.

As for this being a free speech website, don't kid yourself. Franchise and Howland can (and have in the past I believe) censored/banned people who say things in comments. This is their site to run as they please.

Keon Clark...I agree with you Keon, a very large population of Canadian even the ones that were born here have a problem with grammer, are you telling me that French Canadians who has a big problem with grammer should not be a part of this blog, to be a member of this site one of the questions was not a grammer test, and we should be talking about Basketball not grammer if you think about it, a large percentage of the Raptors team has bad grammer. CoachE what are you going to tell them that they can't play because they don't have good grammer, I repeate this is not a grammer site this is a basketball site!!

To the person who responded to free speech, please remember bad grammer is not obscene, Howland will not suspend anyone from this site because of bad grammer I don't think he cares about good or bad grammer ok

grammar ... grammar folks :)

get on with it please ... more basketball, less, um, not basketball.

When Baston signs,that will be 15 current contracts for the Raptors.
I believe Martin will be invited to camp along with some competition for PG, and possibly some others. Delfino has played at the point for his National team & Dixon can also.
Decisions will be made during training camp who the final 15 will be.
I have also read rumours that Rap's are interested in the rights to J C Navarro.