Ping Pong Program

Not to nitpick, but Celtics kinda bought their way to the championship. Garnett from the Wolves and Allen from the Sonics. Their draft picks were bench players. Not saying it is a bad thing, but there are other ways to do it. Knicks are currently buying their way to a championship by acquiring Melo, Amare, Lin and other players. While their draft picks are good, they aren’t game changing.

Since Raptors aren’t a high market team (like Celtics and Knicks), the best way to acquire players of talent is through the draft. So, yes, I believe in the lottery in the case of the Raptors.

knows that Billups played at a superstar level that season.

Just because the wingnuts in the sports media have never considered him a superstar does not mean that he wasn’t.

He has been the stating PG on more Conference Finalists than any PG in NBA history with the possible exception of Magic. Not one of those teams with the exception of Denver had another superstar on it. By the way Denver even with Melo never got to the Conference Finals without Billups.

Right now the Clippers are definitely feeling the loss of Billups as they continue to lose close games without him. He isn’t called “Mr. Big Shot” for nothing

Marcus Camby had a similar kind of buzz around him when he came into the league. Player that was a guard who’s height shot up in high school, potential hybrid of guard coordination with bigman size, quickness, shotblocker, etc. Things didn’t turn out quite as well for him in the first few years of his career.

I would guess that when one shots up in size that much, some aspects of their prior guard development are lost forever. The players that “play like guards” on the court have usually grown at a slower pace, and thus aren’t trying to suddenly transfer all their old skills to this new, ungainly body.

Were I a GM, I would be asking my consultants and doctors exactly how much growing does A.Davis have left, and how likely is he to fill out his frame. Marcus Camby is funny in that he was able to use the nickname “Mr.Glass” with two different meanings, depending on which part of his career you were referring to.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/cambyma01.html

That moniker has always been with him since he won a Finals MVP with the Pistons. And he forces too many game winning shots that are not quality looks. It is one of his only flaws and it is interesting that you point it out in your post.

Steve Fisher takes game winning shots that are wide open because Kobe. Billups used to take game winning shots and make them, when he was younger and on a well rounded team, but lately he is forcing them. He needs to adjust to his new role on this team and wait patiently for CP to get him the ball if he’s open. He can no longer think he is the primary scorer in late game situations.

sleeper pick or he goes undrafted and the Raptors show interest to bring him to camp. The kid can play and his bball IQ is fantastic. He plays on a horrible team in the same division as Jeremy Lin did and his stats are better than Lin’s. Better this year in his senior year and better for a four year average as well. Just a bit better btw.

The Raps scouts should give him a serious look for a late second round pick.

in order to get more ping-pong balls?

If they do it correctly, the NBA will never be able to penalize the Raptors for it. What if the Raptors team doctor is a member of the ping-pong people? Then he can tell BC and Casey that Bargnani isn’t ready to play. Bargnani doesn’t mind, he is still collecting his check after playing hard for 13 games.

Of course if BC asks for second opinion this other doctor would also have to be a ping-pong person and then the Raptors are clear of any NBA penalty. I doubt the NBA would have their own doctor bother to exam Bagnani.

The Ping-Pong People conspiracy?

You betcha’