A Eulogy for Morris Peterson

Nice write-up, Franchise. Interesting how you wrote that Mo "may never have been the most athletic or talented player in the league" while NBADraft.net's write-up...

http://www.nbadraft.net/profiles/morrispeterson.htm

... considers baby-faced Michigan State Mo as an "excellent athlete" with "great hops". Which kind of justifies the impression that if only Mo had committed himself to top conditioning, he could've been an even better player. I guess the Big Macs and Mars bars were too tempting.

But it's not like his down year(s) prevented him from securing a solid MLE contract both times he was a FA, so I don't feel too bad for the guy. I think he also has relatives in New Orleans. Best of luck, Mo (except 2x a year when he plays the Raps).

Three Cheers for Mo-Pete!

Let him be remembered for the good times

Lets forgive him the bad

And let him live in our hearts forever as a Raptor

No booing him Raptor Fans, he's one of us.

Godspeed you Mo Peterson!

The PROFESIONALISM. Thats what I will miss the most about Mo Pete. I think we have a better clutch shooter now in Kappono but the Profesionalism and passion displayed by Mo throughout his time with the Raps is hard to be mathced by many in the league. Even after he signed with the Hornets he still had positive things to say about the raptors and Toronto. Even while a reporter from fox was trying to get him to dish dirt on T.O. he wouldn't. (I read it earlier can't find the link right now)

When he is in T.O. I will stand and cheer, but I will also stand and cheer if Chris Bosh slaps the ball back on a Mo Pete drive.

What I love about Toronto fans is they stay true to their convictions and are loyal. If we hate a player, he is mud in this town until he hangs ‘em up. If we love a player, we love him until the end. That’s why I know when MoPete subs in, or his name is announced in the starting line-up when the Hornets come to town, he will receive his well earned applause. Sometimes you just have to go your separate ways… All the luck in the world to Mo!

I thought after his great 05/06 season he'd be right there at the front leading us to the promised land with a hugely upgraded team and front office.

I'm not sure what happened with mo last year and I'm not so sure it was poor conditioning. My impression was always that he needed to feel respected and needed and maybe wasn't getting that from BC and Mitchell. Certainly not in terms of money or minutes.

Probably a lot of factors weighed in including injuries and the need for a change of scenery team-wise.

Maybe this is all obvious, but just wanted to comment as a big fan that thought he was going to witness the story book ending for mo in T.O. I personally would have gave him what he wanted and kept him.

MoPete, I love you and I will always be your fan, I think of you scoring with your head band covering your eyes, I think of you scoring against the Wizard at the last minute to win the game, I think of you scoring when you are falling, I personally haven't seen anyone else in the NBA that has master circus shots like you. Thank you for the good times and the bad Mo unlike your friend Carter YOU WILL ALWAYS BE WELCOME IN TORONTO.

I personally will miss Mr.Mo, not because of his circus shots..which by the way were far and few between, but because we now have zero personality in our squad.
Parker-Boring
Bosh-Snore
TJFord-sulk4meonemoretime
Bargnani-close yur mouth

Don't get me wrong, MoPete ain't no Jalen-im wearing black cuz i'ave been demoted-Rose, but at least he slapped Wince....see..entertainment..by the by was Donaghy reffin that game..hmmmm?

Peas&Luv

Unlike most of you, i only followed Mo Pete for the last two seasons, but he made an impression on me as a fan, specially last season with his very positive attitude and never complaining for his limited playing time and diminished role in the team.

By the way, quick Garbo update from recent spanish media reports: his recovery is going very very well, the limited time remaining is the only real obstacle at this point for him to make the Euro Championships. I'd estimate he now has a 75% chance to make the spanish team, but being a starter and playing significant minutes as usual will be more difficult, i'd say 40% on that one.

mo pete was never really amazing he was a good role player and had he been on any other team in the league he would have been coming off the bench which is what hes going to do in new orleans im curious to see whether or not he accepts this role or gets frustrated

ian.. If you don't have anything nice to say about MoPete, then say nothing at all, he was one Raptor who stuck with the team through thick and thin, he truly loves this team.

Marcia, what did ian say that was so offensive? Was Mo Pete amazing? You mean when he averaged 16.8 PPG and 4.6 RPG the year before last? Good numbers, sure, but amazing? Far from it.

As far as whether he should have only ever been an off-the-bench player on any other team or not, I can't say. He did alright as a starter for the Raps, but they were kind of shallow on the talent front at his spot.

Mo Pete is a great role player, and gave the Raptors his best years (I think), although it seemed like they were never back-to-back.

Agree with Ian. Although he will always remain a fan favourite, his talent was limited. Never quite grew from that promising first year, and put up decent numbers on a very weak team for a year or two. Someone had to score.
But during his time here represented both himself and the Raptors well. Wish him all the success.

Rumors of KG to Boston getting very close now.

I think that team starts to look very scary all of a sudden.

A line up with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and KG becomes dangerous in a weak Eastern Conference.

I'm secretly hoping the trade goes down so that Toronto will have a solid division and regioanl rival. KG against Bosh a few times a season now? Andrea vs Allen's shooting? Paul PIerce head to head with Joey Gra...wait...

Anyways, you get the idea.

Someone with time on their hands (franchise??) needs to make a real "Mo Pete Gone Wild" YouTube Video. I am willing to bet no one in the league can even come close to the total amount of crazy-ass shots he took and made, over the same time period.

Mo deserves a prolonged standing "O" when the Hornets come to Tdot.

Great picture to display as well. Did he hit that shot?

At least with Mo Pete leaving town, local girls will be safe from the STDs... watch out New Orleans!

(that's the Mo Pete video you won't see on YouTube)

Calling JYD and Alvin more popular than MoPete imparts too much importance on those newbie Raptor fans that Leo Rautins *still* thinks make up the majority of people he broadcasts to. Mo Pete was the "fan fave" of real Raps fans who recognize what a true "glue guy" really is: a good-but-not-great player who-- through a team-first attitude, unrelenting will-to-score offensive hustle, and defensive commitment on every posession-- overachieves and leaves everyone attached to his team rooting for him to succeed.

Toronto loves that kind of player. That he didn't win a championship here and become the first Raptor to have his jersey retired is a real shame. But we'll always have his "surprise start" 76ers game 6 in 2001:

38 MIN, 7-11 FG, 4 REB, 7 ASS, 2 STL, 17 PTS

Rappy.. I feel you, yes I agree with you, for the Raptors fans who have been following this team since MoPete was drafted, the days of his corn rows, the days of Curry, Oak, JyD, AD, Alvin etc. The days that Carter, wanted to be a Raptor, we are a diferent team now but those were the days when players use to protect the basket, those were the days when players use to play hard, I will always remember the Raptors game against the Knicks and the 76ers. MoPete has closed that chapter of the book in Raptor land, you are not playing with us anymore MoPete but you are not forgotten

Interesting to see fan reaction to the Celtics acquiring KG. Instant contention. Winning the division, the conference even.

Are the Raps sleepers again? They just don't get no respect.

But, on the other hand, I think CB needs to step it up more this year. He needs to take over more games than he did last year if he wants the superstar moniker.

AB, as #1 pick, needs to show he can put up points consistently and play defence. And TJ/Jose need to make better decisions consistently.

I, for one, still think that playing together and getting more experience makes the Raps the best team in the East. And their bench is second to none.

Well this trade makes the eastern conference relevant again. The easter conference playoffs will be very competetive, with Toronto, Boston, Detroit, (maybe Cleavland, maybe New Jersey)

Are you kidding me? This is unmitigated disaster. The trade for Allen didn't make a lot of sense at the time. True they got a scorer who when he is on is the best pure scorer in the league but it wasn't nearly enough to save a Celtics franchise going nowhere (they would have been more competitve so long as both were healthy but they weren't going to win the East). Now they are golden in the East. No other team can claim to have 3 allstars on their roster (not including Detroit who had 4 on one team but probably didnt deserve that many spots based on their individual positioning).
This smells like the "Ewing Theory" all over again. No doubt David stern picked up the phone and told Mchale to get a deal done cause the NBA desperately needed to distract the media and fans from the ongoing Ref scandal. It cannot be a coincidence that all of a sudden Boston and Minnesotta reached an agreement where Minnesotta gets 40 cents on the dollar for KG when they could have held out for half of Boston's roster and gotten maybe 60 cents (by including Rondo). Boston was desperate to get KG while Minnesotta could afford to wait until the trade deadline if necessary. The trade makes no sense unless you count the pressure that must of been applied by the league on Minny.
The good news from the Raps perspective is that this is a short term fix and Doc Rivers is still the coach in Boston. You can count on him losing at least 5 games on his own and that doesn't include poor playoff decision making. Toronto can afford to wait this surge out as most of their assests are young and will only get better while after this year or next Boston will get nothing but a huge cap hit. In the short term though it just made the East respectable again and the Raps trip to a championship longer.

McG, the Ewing theory is the theory that a team magically becomes BETTER when their best player doesn't play for them. You're talking about the allegation that Stern fixed the lottery to put Ewing on the Knicks (which as far as I know doesn't have a catchy moniker).

I am glad there is more competitiveness in the Atlantic because it was a cakewalk last year and that gave many fans unrealistic chances that the Raps could go all the way to the Finals. I was one who wanted the Raps to face the Nets, even though there was a good chance they would lose the series with their Big 3 all healthy (as opposed to the Wiz with 2 of their Big 3 out).

Do you really think Cleveland fans are overjoyed that they made the Finals last year and got crushed, and now, pretty much every team in the East except them, the Heat and Nets improved because of trades (Knicks, Celtics, Bobcats, etc.) and continued growth of their young core (Raptors, Magic, Hawks, etc.)? The Bulls probably feel pretty dumb too because they could've made a play for Garnett with their assortment of young studs and now have the ageing Big Ben's contract weighing down their roster.

With PP turning 30, KG at 31 and Ray Ray at 32, all three are on the downsides of their careers. Same goes for the Pistons and Nets. If the Raps' team make-up were like the Mavericks or Suns, where their best players are on the downsides of their careers and they still haven't won a championship, THEN I'd be worried. And as a season ticket holder, I'm very excited to see improved competition in the East.

One thing's for sure - our division got a whole lot tougher this offseason.

Which division is the joke of the league now?

I'm excited for this trade in the same way I was excited for the Nets Raptors series. Although it makes things WAY more difficult for the Raptors, it also forces them to not try and run from a challenge. Yes winning the atlantic is dramatically more difficult now, but even if this means the Celtics own the Raptors (which I don't think it does), in 2-3 years the Celts will begin their sharp decline, as the Nets already have, and the maturing Raps will reign again.

On the plus side imagine what this does for Bosh's game. Every time he eases up on his workout or training this summer, he'll have to deal with the thought of how hard KG, a workout machine, is training. Hopefully, this makes Bosh a better player and keeps him hungry. The stakes have defenitely been raised, there's no winning a starting PF all-star gig by default this year.

The other plus side is that this creates a natural rival for the Raptors in the suddenly contentious Atlantic as the Nets slowly fade away. The great thing is the teams really complement one another. While I would give the Celts the edge in their three all-star positions (sorry CB), the raptors have the aedge in a few categories as well. TJ/Calderon should own the celts PGs, especially in the high pick and roll, the Raptors create a matchup nightmare for the Celts with AB at the C (who's versatile enough to gaurd him Scalabrine ?!), and the raptors have a MUCH deeper bench, and a better coach (I know!). All in all, I'm looking forward to every Raptors Celtics game next year, hopefully broadcast nationally on TNT or ESPN in HD.

And McG you're right I haven't thought of the NBA ref scandal since this was anounced.

just think about how good the celtics could potentially be, with pierce and allen on the perimeter it will be very diffiuclt to double down on garnett, even more difficult if rondo has improved his shooting, and if they double with the weak side post garnett is smart enough to see this and hit his teamate diving to the hoop. it makes them a playoff caliber team as long as they can gel and it makes life diffucult for the raptors, which sucks because i want to see the raps make a solid run in the playoffs as much as anyone

RE: The Ewing to New York conspiracy theory - it apparently does have a nickname of sorts - the 'cold envelope'.

I'm sure I read Bill Simmons at some point call it that. He wrote about micro-analyzing the video footage and finding it 'suspicious'.

You know guys I wonder how this will turn out, all 3 players have always been starters, we have to think about how they will jell playing together, KG has been the man in the Timberwools Allen also and ofcourse Pearce they will all want the ball, as well as if the 3 of them start then it is going to make their bench very thin, and I am sure none of them will want to come off the bench. I don't know about all them playing together.

Ok, I have calmed down a bit now that the trade has had a chance to digest in my mind. Celts gave up a lot this offseason to get the roster they want. I really like their starting lineup of Perkins, Garnett, Pierce, Allen and Rondo and I have no doubt that they will not take long to gel as everyone will know what their roles are (Garnett to play d, rebound and play the post, Pierce to slash and score, Allen to sit outside the line and shoot) so there should be a relatively smooth transition. The problem for the celts is (at least as I see it) what happens if one or more of them go down for a long stretch? Pierce and Allen both missed significant time last season and even though a lot of this was a result of Tankapalouza 2007, they are both getting older and will need time on the bench over the season (more so allen than pierce) in order to be healthy for the playoffs. After their starting unit the only piece I think can contribute regularly is Tony Allan. So in esscence Celts have 6 reliable players and then some sketchiness (scalbrine?) meaning heavy minutes for the starters (although with Doc you never know he might go with a 12 player rotation one night and only 11 the next). My point here is that the celts will need to find some help in a very thin free agent pool and find it cheap. Webber might be a nice move if he is willing to play centre and come off the bench but I am not sure he would.
On another note. I noticed a trend in our division with this latest move. Is it me or do the moves that NJ, NY and Boston made smell like they are trying to offset Bosh's emergence in their division? You know NJ will use Magloire to pound Bosh as he is basically a better version of Jason Collins and Curry and Randolph can take turns defending (probably unsuccessfully) Bosh. Adding Garnett who is a superior defensive player is definetly a move to counter Bosh and NY's twin towers. I am actually starting to get excited to see CB4 play against Garnett (a player he is compared to often) to see if Bosh has truly emerged as the MVP candidate we all are starting to think he can be down the road.

Good news everybody! The Raps are going to be on CBC for the next three years. Canada's team indeed. More Rod Black for everyone!

My two cents on the Garnett deal:

- Boston now has a playoff caliber team that will peak next year, before it begins its slow decline.

- Barring a miracle, Rajon Rondo will still be an ineffective shooting option, and at best is a mediocre PG for the purposes of getting them to the promised land. If there is an obvious Kryptonite for the team, Rondo (and the PG position in general) is it. Wouldn't the Celtics absolutely kill to have either Calderone or Ford instead of Rondo?

- Are the Celtics really any better with their trio of all-stars than the Nets are with theirs? That is, don't they appear to be destined for the same level of high end mediocrity that Vince Carter epitomizes? The 'we can be good, but not VERY good' level of competence?

- I know I am biased, but would anyone trade Bargnani, Bosh and Ford for Pierce, Garnett and Allen straight up?

On a separate note:

- The Nets signing of Magloire to replace Mikki Moore makes me happy. Why? Because I think he's too slow and ineffective to guard Bargnani, whereas the tweener Moore would have presented a bigger challenge.

Last but not least;

- O' you basketball scribes of the blogosphere, please post a new topic! I'm in withdrawl. I have the shakes and there are spiders everywhere, please hurry!

i'm with marcia - these guys will combine to be about as effective as the latest US 'dream' teams, ie mediocre despite abundant talent. we're better off for having depth and role players.

Bedhead, I would not trade PP (turning 30), KG (31) and Ray Ray (32) for Bargs (turning 22), Bosh (23) and Ford (24), because I want to watch a team grow organically and achieve sustained excellence. Kinda like the Spurs have done.

The nice thing about b-ball is that the soft cap gives an advantage to players on the same team to grow together instead of having to be cut/traded to make the hard cap (NFL and NHL) or simply bought to fill out the no cap (MLB). The Celts will stink in 2-3 years when their Big 3 are on crutches and they have no depth or first round picks because of the KG and Ray Ray trades.

Oh yeah, F&H, the NBA schedule was just released. Time for another post! After a nice season opener tune-up against the Sixers at home (Oct. 31), then the Raps take on Wince in Jersey (Nov. 2), come home to face the Big 3 of Boston (Nov. 4), then off to Milwaukee and Charlie V (Nov. 6), and quickly back home to Orlando and Shard (Nov. 7). I'm loving the revamped East.

No games for the Raptors on ABC, and only one game on ESPN (vs. Detroit in January) according to this schedule:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2958429

Hopefully there will be more games on TNT.

Whatever I have to get NBA league pass anyway.

Bedhead, Boston’s current roster peaked two years ago and has already began it’s rapid decent down.

Finally a little respect?

ESPN:

7. Which East team will have the best-regular season record?

Bucher: Cavs. Getting to the Finals is an intangible boost to a team's ability to execute under pressure during the regular season. That has to be worth four wins even if LeBron the Entertainer has another slow start. Darkhorse: Toronto.

8. Which team will represent the East in the NBA Finals?

Bucher: Seeing as every team still has the same flaws it had last season, the Cavs are the easy answer -- except that last year's red-carpet path can't possibly be duplicated. If recent history has taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected from the East, so I'll go with my darkhorse: Toronto.

I wanted to share that ESPN article as well. All I know is our division has improved greatly over last season. A few teams in the mix will be disappointed next year and at the moment it too soon to call. Celtics, Knicks, Jersey, Raptors, Bucks, Magic, Pistons, Cavs, Heat, Bulls - all these teams expect to make the playoffs

LAs, I know what you are talking about, I just moved back to the T Dot from the states, and I had NBA League Pass I was able to see every game and ever team play, I wish Toronto had the NBA League Pass I never miss a Raptors game, and they don't have TNT here either, well if the cable companies really want to make some big bucks they really should try to get NBA League Pass to be a part of their cable package, bb fans would love that, and I for one miss the league pass.

Wow, lots going on around the East. The raps didn't really need to do too much and standing relatively pat will be as helpful for them as anything. That said I think the quality of competition has risen dramatically.

I disagree with people worrying about the Celts big 3 being able to play together. All 3 players are the types of professional players that you want on your team. The all share the ball well, work hard and unlike the Nets, their skill sets compliment each other. For all of how awful Ainge has seemed over the years it will see how this strategy works. The Bulls have tried to win by accumulating as much young talent as usual and waiting for it to develop. The Celts have traded those assets for established payers, it will be interesting to see which way works better.

I also think that Magloire's downfall has been greatly over rated. Next year he will be the uncontested starter and won't lose minutes to rookies for political reasons. He will really help that team.

The East is really looking good and I for one am really looking forward to it!

Yo BedHead..
..dude....Moore...Tweener....
...i thought he was 28 yrs old?
a journey man the least..
..get yur facts straight

peas&luv