Let's set off this edition of our lunchbox links with a picture of the ultimate Raptors sweater...and a great recap of yesterday's practice by The Score's Holly MacKenzie. It's a very interesting read, from Bosh noting that he's done just about all he can for this group, to Triano's note that some changes will be made to the starting line-up tomorrow night against the Hawks. Those changes? I'd be Jose in for Jack, and maybe we see DeMar DeRozan finally exit stage left in terms of starting.
Speaking of Bosh, the National Post's Bruce Arthur nails it once again in this recent piece on Bosh's future with the Raptors. In a nutshell, why would he return? Our favourite Mr. Pessimist, the Toronto Star's Dave Feschuk, goes one step further stating that Bosh mentally already has at least one foot out the door.
During his recent post-game tirade, CB4 took a few veiled shots at teammates, and it's not too hard to figure out who they were likely aimed at. We'll start with Andrea Bargnani, who in this great post by original Raptorblogger Scott Carefoot, is ranked near the top of NBA centers who can't seem to grab a rebound if their life depended on it.
Moving onto the Raptors' biggest bust of the season, Hedo Turkoglu. Oregon Live tells Blazers fans to ease up on Hedo, while Slamonline.com reveals the extra motivation behind Nicolas Batum's offensive display versus Hedo and DeMar DeRozan. And in an interesting compare between Hedo and a certain washed-up former Tarantino assassin, Raptors Republic throws more firewood onto the "why are we paying $53 Million for the Ottoman" fire. The Republic paints a grim picture of Hedo in a few seasons, including a player with a physique that may be closer to this, than that of an NBA player.
Was Bosh also taking a shot at Matt Devlin's commentating? No...but that would have made the rant complete. Although perhaps Bosh didn't know who was calling the recent losses - Matt Devlin or Rod Black.
We recently did some work with one of our favourite basketball blogs out there, Golden State of Mind, and here are there responses to a belated segment of Blogging with the Enemy.
And finally, well...it's March Madness time here at RaptorsHQ. We've created our annual tourney competition at Yahoo Sports, so feel free to sign up and battle it out with the HQ team. The league number is 140006, league name is RaptorsHQ Tourney Challenge and password is raptors. Big surprise.
To get you ready for the tourney, besides the usual expert links, here are a few under-the-radar players you may want to get to know.
And RaptorsHQ's own Ray Bala, of the Canball Report, was a recent guest on James Borbath's Dino Nation Blog talking Canadian players in the Big Dance, prospects...and of course taking some shots at me and my Duke favouritism.