Ready for Delfino

We got the expected win over Uruguay, and obviously they now face a big challenge against Argentina. Not sure if this was addressed in any of the other postings, but what is going on with Denham Brown? He had 7 against Uruguay and that has been his biggest output. In previous incarnations of the men's senior squad, he always could be counted on to put points on the board. Is Rautins under-utilising him or is there something I don't know about?

Brown has been the most frustrating player to watch on Team Canada. He's been maddingly inconsistent at both ends of the court and in a single series you'll see him go from making a beautiful play at one end, to a bone-head one at the other. Yesterday's game was a perfect example as he played some solid defence and grabbed a rebound in traffic only to make a terrible pass in transition leading to a steal by Uruguay and a basket.
The more I watch him the more I realize that he's just not going to make the NBA unless he improves in a few areas, namely his ballhandling as he seems to turn it over once a game due to sloppy dribbling. His decision making is also quite suspect at times, as mentioned, and he just doesn't stand out in any one area, not even as a scorer or slasher.

Perhaps Brown would be better served to focus on the defensive end as he does have the tools to become a solid NBA defender. In fact of all the players on Team Canada, I'd put Olu Famutimi, Juan Mendez, Carl English and Levon Kendall before Brown in terms of having more "NBA upside."

Nothing and nothing, but news out of Houston on Alston, two brushes with police in the last month. He was a bit of a headcase when he was with the Raps, and I am glad is he not here anymore. I think we were all hoping that going back to Texas might help him get his feet on firmer ground, but it looks like that is not happening. Feel sorry for him, actually, and unfortunately would not be surprised if he burns out and is released mid-year.

On the other hand, it is so nice to NOT hear any off-season "news" on Raps players.

Hey
How come no comments on the passing of Eddie Griffin, huh?
I mean, at least a few sentences on the dude..
The guy had alcohol and drugs issue and on top of that, chronically depressed!
Love to know what you make of this...they're calling it suicide, ya know.

Peas&Luv

What do you want to say about him? He was a really troubled guy, and that is all I know about him. Someone with as much physical potential as this guy, and he threw it all away. Pretty tragic!

And that is all I can say, I guess.

In an interesting development, Roko's signed on with a new team this year, Rome's Lottomatica, a Euroleague team with has a Croatian coach and a commitment to (finally) play Ukic heavy minutes:

http://www.javno.com/en/sports/clanak.php?id=72047

The interesting part is that we'll get to see Roko play against the Raptors in preseason as the second game when the Raps are over in Italy is against Lottomatica. Here's hoping he goes off like Parker did against the Raps a few years back.

I would like to know whats up with this guy Roko, the Raptors don't need any more point guard we have 2 main and quite a few spares also we don't need anymore Euro league players, NBA is North America Basketball Assoc, that is my explanation of NBA, and to me North American consist of Canada and the USA.

Um the NBA is NOT the North American Basketball Association. It's the NATIONAL Basketball Association (which, according to your logic would apparently mean that it shouldn't let any non-Americans play...no Nash, no Nowitski, no Ginobli, etc, etc). And if Euroleague guys can play as well as Calderon and Garbajosa I'd be quite happy to have more of 'em on the Raptors. Ukic could be useful in a year or two if Calderon leaves as a free agent.

I'm sorry Marcia, but why do you even bother posting when it's just going to be inane blather that a 10 year old could point out as being utterly ridiculous? The NBA is the premier basketball league, with the best players in the world. Nobody cares where they're from. How could you possibly argue the NBA is better off with ONLY North American players? It's not even debatable. Please think before posting, or if you do think and that's actually the true conclusions you come up with, then maybe you should pull a Billy Madison and start school again from scratch.

I think it's clear my boy Flipper is our solution to the Joey Graham problem!

The Griffin thing is sad. The guy was once arrested for crashing his car because he was watching porn and yarding off while he was driving. Call. For. Help. Unanswered.

'North America Basketball Association'. Wow. It's just a car wreck. Move along, nothing more to see.

Roko is going somewhere he can get good minutes eh? Another asset at PG is always welcome - especially one with such terrific size.

If I'm not mistaken, Sergi's been unimpressed with him though.

Every game for Canada seems to have a new guy step up. Sammy D, Mendez, Famutimi, every game someone picks it up. If we get lucky maybe English will catch fire the same game Dalembert has his puzzle box together.

As for the US, they are just too much for anyone right now. S'over.

Does anybody know how the tiebreaker system works for the FIBA championship? I'm trying to figure out if we can grab 3rd spot by beating Puerto Rico tomorrow and having the right combination of other teams losing to give us that spot. I'm guessing if we have the same record as Brazil they'd be ahead of us if head to head is the first tie-breaker. 3rd would at least give Canada a chance at an upset of probably Argentina and a chance to get to the Olympics right now. Finishing 4th is basically the same as finishing 5th since there's no way the USA is losing and 5th at least gets you into the last-chance tournament. Of course, a loss to Puerto Rico tomorrow, and even 5th would be in question.

I haven't been able to find tiebreaker rules yet either, but I think it's a longshot for us to fall out of the top 5... That could only happen if we lose to Puerto Rico, Uruguay beats Brazil, and we lose tiebreakers to both Puerto Rico and Uruguay.

We beat Uruguay head-to-head if it comes down to that, but I have a feeling, based on the way they show the standings on the tournament website, that point differential comes into play... Going into today's games Canada is -42 and Uruguay is -64...

So my best guess (I stress the word GUESS) is that for Canada to finish 6th and out of next year's qualifying tourney, we'd have to lose today, Uruguay would have to beat Brazil, and the combination of Canada's margin of defeat and Uruguay's margin of victory would have to be at least 22.

On the plus side, the Brazil-Uruguay game is before ours, so Brazil should be motivated to win - if they lose we could pass them for 3rd, and there's a big difference between 3rd and 4th in terms of likely semifinal opponent!

In any case, a win against a very good Puerto Rico coming off a poor first round of the tourney would be good for us tonight!

MattK is correct, tie breakers go by game points (2 for win, 1 for loss) and THEN point differential, not head-to-head record. See:

http://www.2007lasvegas.fibaamericas.com/pages/eng/fe/07/fibaAmer/men/scheResu/grouStan/p/eventid//langid//langlc//roundid/5738/fe_scheResu_grouStan.html

Thus, the way Canada can get in 3rd place is by beating PR and Brazil losing to Uruguay.

The only way Canada can fall out of next years play-in (i.e. come in 6th) is getting crushed by PR and Uruguay winning by a lot over Brazil, since Canada is up 22 in point differential to Uruguay.

Regardless, even if Canada beat Brazil in the first game and has an easier ride to the Semis 3rd seed, I HIGHLY doubt they could take down Argentina in the Semis, let alone the US. Ya think Argetina didn't let up in the second half of Tuesday's game because they were up by a gazillion points?

It seems pretty destined that it will be Argentina vs. US in the Final. It's too bad that Manu, Notch and Hermann are not on the team tonight (nor the likely Final on Sunday) 'cuz then the US might be pressed to win. That'll have to wait until Beijing, unfortunately.

That's a good development for Roko to move to Rome, surely the croatian coach Repesa does have a lot of confidence in him and will play him more.

It is good to see Delfino putting up those numbers, i envision him fighting with Kapono for the starting spot at SF, so i think that position is not as badly covered as many people seem to think here.

Oh and the latest rumour in the spanish media is that the Raps have given the OK for Garbajosa to play the Eurobasket, after the spanish basketball association managed to buy him a big-money insurance. Still no official news, though...

hehehehe, I like when Marcia gets people going. I got into it a few times with her too. She loves her Raps though. Her posts have been getting better, she has been citing other sources. You can't will intelligence onto people, I think she is young and not trying to offend anyone.

Griffin is a tragedy, he could've been a pretty decent player and blocked a ton of shots. Too bad he couldn't enjoy his success.

Roko has needed a ton of playing time for a while, hopefully he gets it. You can never have too much depth at PG. Great find on that article Rappy, you beat the Toronto media to the punch.

Who does it make more sense to bring off the bench, instant offence in KapOne or the more well rounded game of Delfino? Maybe the veteran Parker, it would be a surprise, but might make sense. Having an opinion now won't matter, it is all going to come down to camp and production on the floor. Even JG is going to be right there pushing for his minutes, I don't think we can sleep on him yet.

If Canada does make it top 5, anyone think Nash or Magloire will come out to the party in Beijing?

If Canada does make it top 5, anyone think Nash or Magloire will come out to the party in Beijing?

this takes no thinking or reasoning so my guess is nope

BD says:my answer to your comment is, this is a free world and I believe in free speech,if you don't like what I write don,t read it, and the same goes to everyone including me, I can,t tell you or anyone else what to write so why should you. Anyways the NBA transulate as the National Basketball Association, but my trasulation is North American Basketball Association, and for those that ask what about Steve Nash, he is a Canadian and the last time I look Canada is a great part of North America. North America consists of Canada, USA and Mexico. I am outtt!!!