3 in the Key – Toronto Raptors Game-Day Preview vs. T-Wolves

Franchise, why would BC be frustrated with the way we played? This has to be expected from this team the way it is constructed. BC envisioned a team with TJ penetrating a la Chris Paul in p&r with the two towers and/or dishing out assists to deadly shooters in the corners. After Kapono signing BC declared that he expects TJ to get at least 11 assists per game and have a shot at nr. 1 assist man in NBA.
Of course he could not have foreseen TJ's injury however as a GM he should have known that any plan on paper stands no chance against reality.
I believe last summer he made some bad moves not necessarily by what he did but by what he did not: filling the obvious needs for this team: athletic SF (Moon is a joke of professional player - good for Globetrotters but awful for NBA), rebounding and interior presence (he signed Kapono? - do we really need nr. 1 and nr.2 in NBA in 3-point shooting?). I also believe that re-signing Mitchell is the second biggest mistake after signing TJ.
BC may be a contrarian however I don't see much variance in the way NBA titles were won throughout NBA history. I like the winning mentality and the change of organizational culture he brought in Toronto. An old cliche says that it is much easier to bring a bad team to be a good team but it is much harder to make a good team a great team. We are still waiting for the signs of the latter.

Minny are not the pushovers they were earlier in the season. Containing Big Al is a must.

that kapono signin is still killin me. i mean, our weaknesses were so obvious last summer(wings, rebounding), and we've done nothing to improve it, instead we got an amazing spot up shooter who is a complete liability on our piss poor defense. and lookin to free agency this summer, i see nobody (besides head case artest) who can help on the wings, nevertheless if next year we come back with parker/delfino/kapono/moon again then this summer was a failure. we're not deep....sure our 10-15 guys are better than the rest of the league, but their impact is minimal.

anywayz im gonna end my rant by sayin that after that gasol trade, ive become a memphis fan in addition to the raps (i hate star players like gasol and redd who get franchise max money and aren't franchise players). Go Grizz!!! (pardon my grammer)

Daniel - I was referring to the fact that the team was making bad decisions basketball IQ wise. Yes, we're a jump shooting team, but Chris Bosh was being guarded by Josh Freaking Powell and yet was the one doing most of the jump-shooting. Incredibly frustrating. I don't expect Kapono to try and draw fouls, neither does BC I'd say...but Bosh, that's another story.

The Kapono signing - this an article onto itself. On one hand there wasn't much else out there in terms of free agents who could have helped the Raptors at the 3, but on the other, could Toronto have just kept the money for this off-season?

In any event, I just hope Toronto comes out blitzes Minny tonight. One player I'm going to be watching closely is Gerald Green. Still wondering if he might not be a cheap option to try at the 3 next year...

moon, who cost us virtually nothing, has been one of the best rookies in the league this year and provides much needed blocks and steals.

I still like the direction of this team and BC has made it possible. Not every move is going to work out, but it's ridiculous to blame every setback on him.

Franchise, I completely agree with you. I personally don't expect a lot more improvement from Bosh. Bottom line he is a tiger in minor games and a mouse in major ones. I love him for his work ethic and character however he is not a superstar or a leader.
I too expect us to blitz Minny tonight however with our current team I don't take anything for granted. When you replace in your starting line-up veterans like Rasho and Garbo with rookies like Andrea and Moon this type of inconsistency is to be expected.
I'm an optimist therefore I believe the best is in front of us.

I agree I was no a big fan of the Kopono signing either. I was hoping the raps would go after Pietrius on Golden State, who is athletic, can shoot and is also a solid to above average defender.

However lets not forget about the big picture....it was only a little while ago that our best player was Jalen Rose....and then after that our second leading scorer was Mike James.

This raps team has made tremendous improvements...and its much better to be complaining about fighting for a 3-5 seed in the playoffs than complaining about having to pick in the lottary again.

Jesus, a must win against the worst team in the NBA? We must really suck. (do you think this is what Pistons, Spurs, Suns, Celtics, Mavs, Lakers, etc. etc. etc. etc. say when they play Minnie?)

The TRUTH is that this game is meaningless. If we win, who cares? If we lose, who cares? We're a #5-7 seed no matter what.

It's all about the off-season, I don't even care about the rest of the year (although I'll watch until baseball season starts).

Artest is not a head-case: he's intense. An intensity that would probably scare the wussy-ass Raps into playing harder for fear of a beating.

ARTEST!ARTEST!ARTEST!ARTEST!ARTEST!ARTEST!ARTEST!ARTEST!ARTEST!ARTEST!

@Aaron

Yeah, so intense that he asked for time off during the season to promote his album.
So intense he thinks his own team is better off without him. Yep, that's the guy we want.

He lasts about 1/1.5 seasons wherever he goes until he wears out his welcome with his antics.

Luckily for Raptors fans, BC is not an idiot, so we'll never see the "TruWarier" in a raps uniform.

This game is not a "must-win" but its a "damn-well-better win".

I love this team, but honestly after watching that Clippers game and then heading into this game without a guaranteed win makes me sad. Have we progressed from last year at all? We should beat these garbage teams in our sleep, losing to bench players is frustrating me. I hope we can come out with a win. If the raptors ever played as good as they are, they would win this game by 20 points no doubt about it.

Frankly, I'm a little worried about the upcoming schedule. RAPS really need to focus on these next few games and pull out wins. The Loss against the CLIPS was bad... and Minni is no pushover. They have beaten some solid teams… BIG AL will definitely give us fits… esp. Bargs. Excited to see fellow dunk competitor Gerald Green vs. Apollo 33… hopefully they will deliver some appetizers for what’s on the menu at the 08’ Dunk Contest. Hopefully Mark Madsen will not be on the floor at the same time as Little Engine. Raps will win this game only if they jump out early… cannot make this a close game. Hopefully we can see a bit of the BIG ROOK, Chris Richard… dude knows how to rebound armed with a 7’4 wingspan.

Does anybody else here get the feeling that when we win a game everything is perfect and the raps are progressing towards a championship and then as soon as we lose the next one every offseason move was bad, every draft choice was wrong and we need to start the whole thing over?

This team is what it is.....they're a B- in the East and a C in the league overall which isn't bad considering we were an F in both groups two years ago.

We've been able to knock off powerhouse teams and we've lost to crappy teams. We've beat crappy teams and we've lost to good teams.

They're a mediocore team right now thats developing into something bigger.....

And on the topic of "must win games" I think every game the raps play is a must win....if you are a true competitor you want to win just as badly in every game....when you look at the elite players like Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, Lebron they seem to have a level of consisancy. And its a very high level of consistancy because they are competitors and want to win every game.....I think having the attitude of oh this game isn't that important or it doesn't matter we win this or not is not something that should be occuring on the professional level....and I don't think it does with most teams.

I think when we're making comments evaluating games, we need to keep it at game per game basis such as players/coaches performances etc..with a consistent expectation that we are capable of losing as much as we are capable of winning.

Cuz it's ridiculous like WTF said, one game we're the golden team..and one bad performance we hypera-analyze what we perceived as the mistakes the raptors made as an org.

WTF - I agree on your grading assessment. On my end, losing to the Clippers doesn't mean this is a lottery team, but it's just a strong indication that this is indeed a B level team in a C league. And that performance by the Raptors against the Clips rated an F.

On another note - no KG in the All-Star game...does this open up a spot for Jose or does this move Bosh into the starting lineup and force the selection of another forward?

Rasheed has replaced KG. At least with last year, the raps had an identity, they shot the three really well, and with garbo and rasho we rebounded a lil' better. This season has been the most frustrating by far because of the expectations. I didn't like the kapono signing but i wasn't for pietrus either, i thought we should jus stick with parker delfino and moon. With the kapono signing there's some pressure on mitchell to play him, since this is his first year with the team. I felt they should've kept the money for this summer. either way, with parker/garbo/rasho all comin off the books next summer (16m) i can see the raps being a major player for a disgruntled superstar (maybe joe johnson? - if the hawks take a step back next year and with a messed ownership situation, they may decide to build around josh smith and horford? im just speculating). the real test is after the all star break, when all the teams rev it up. i am curious as to bosh's development in the clutch, cuz i get the feelin a.b. will be 'the guy.'

Didn't see the game but I just saw the boxscore: Ford had 13 assists as the backup, and Jefferson was held to 18 points, and he's the kind of guy who's been killing the Raptors this season. No single Raptor had more than 16 points, but eleven Raptors scored. I think that's what we envisioned for this team at the start of the season.

I've read a lot of the recent comments, and I understand people's frustrations with this team. However, I would suggest patience. This is a team that really depends on its point guards, and as good as Calderon has been, it's great to have Ford back. Let's see what this team can do when he rounds back into shape.