I was going to write this up a few days ago, but it’s more fitting to write it on the day that we are set to have one of our biggest games of the season, against the Chicago Bulls.
Months ago, before the All-Star break, we were HOT and I mean RED RED hot! We had one of the best records of the new year going into the all-star break and were holding down the 5th spot in the Eastern Conference. That was then, and then let’s fast forward to now. Since the all-star break we took a nose-dive in the standings and have seen that secured 5th spot turn into a battle to even make the playoff picture. So what happened between then and now?
There were numerous heart-breakers that we should have won but ended up losing in either overtime or last minute (or shall I say second) plays down the stretch in the fourth quarter. Chris Bosh went down with an injury and was out for a number of games which left the team to fight for itself without their main source of offense, and not to mention rebounding. We did ‘okay’ at first, nothing stellar and nothing to panic at just yet. And then Chris Bosh came back and things didn’t get better at all, they almost got worse as players looked like they had their own personal agendas out there, and the concept of team, plus the things that were working were both being abandoned.
More injuries plagued the Raptors as Calderon went down, forcing Jarred Jack to become the starter and man the team, with Marcus “barely play a game” Banks was now the first guard to come off the bench. That experiment actually fared well, to the point where Jack remained the starter even when Calderon returned from injury, because for that little stretch, things were looking good. And then wham, Turkoglu got hit in the face and was out, forcing us to lose yet another starter from our rotation.
We began losing games that we should have won (Sixers, Golden State, Memphis) just based on pure talent alone, but wasn’t the case. And then you had teams just coming in and blowing us out the water (Blazers, Bobcats, Hawks) on our home court, a place we had great pride in protecting early in the season, seemed no longer sacred.
And loss after loss, the word Toronto began getting lower and lower in the standings, trading places with the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks, the Miami Heat and the Charlotte Bobcats. All three teams hungry for a playoff spot, were playing like it, while Toronto just looked just as lost as they did under Sam Mitchell a season or so ago. And instead of an optimistic situation, I really began to question the future of this team…
The number one issue is Chris Bosh. Will he decide to return to this team and believe that Bryan Collangelo has a rock solid plan to create a winning franchise? Or does he already have his mind set on a different situation south of the border, where he may get more recognition and be able to pick a team with whom he thinks has a solid chance at competing for that crown. I for one would NOT pay him the max money, because I’ve never looked at him as a #1 option, and do not want to watch another 4 or 5 seasons of our franchise player taking 18-foot jumpers when the game is on the line. So he’s amongst the top in the league with double-doubles, who cares.. he shares the same stats as players like David Lee, Al Jefferson, LaMarcus Aldridge and countless other PF’s in the game. So why invest $130 million+ on him?
I understand that players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul and a handful of other players are a rarity.. but they deserve every penny they ask for, because when the game is on the line, you can count on them to get the job done. And if they happen to fail, atleast you know they gave it 100% and took it there. I don’t get that sense of security at all from Chris Bosh, and I never did the whole time he’s been on this team. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great player, just not great enough in my mind to deserve the max. And if we decide to give him that max, I feel that we’ll be in this same situation for years to come, just mediocre. Sick of being a mediocre .500 basketball club.
But not all fingers point to Bosh, I do believe that Bryan Collangelo made a very vital mistake in drafting Andrea Bargnani #1 overall many seasons ago. This ONE move has been the reason for many following moves that occurred, because of Collangelo’s inability to admit that he was wrong. There are games where Bargnani shows flashes of greatness, but nothing worth noting as a #1 pick. His inability to rebound has deeply hurt this team, and forced us to give away assets to bring in Jermaine O’Neil, who didn’t work out as well as we hoped. So then off went O’Neil to Miami, in exchange for the Matrix, Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.. who came in near the end of last season and played well, but for what it was worth, not enough. We somehow flipped him to Dallas for Devon George, who we later flipped for Belinelli, and landed the top free agent Hedu Turkoglu. Coming off a strong post-season with the Orlando Magic, it created a great buzz going into the season and Raptor fans couldn’t wait for that first tipoff.
Horrible move though, he’s looked very sluggish throughout the season and has played just as bad as his body moves. Mr. 4th Quarter has coffed up the ball in dire situations and cost us games here and there, and his poor efforts were often questionable. And to think we signed this guy for 5 years at $53 million+? Aww man.
Through all the bad, there has been some good. Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems coming over from the Bucks in a trade that I feel we won hands down! Amir has played every game with 200% effort and coming off of the bench, he has been that spark that Toronto has needed for a long time. Sonny Weems didn’t see much floor time early in the season, but due to numerous injuries was given the opportunity to strut his stuff and boy did he impress… and continues to mind you. Jarred Jack has been worth every dollar he had been signed for as he has been hard-nosed and determined to put the team on his back when it looked weak. Sometimes doing a bit too much though, he just needs to know when to put those breaks on and he’ll be fine.
Our beloved rookie, DeMar DeRozan has played like a rookie. He shows flashes of great things to come, but often times settles for jumpers and fails to do what works best for him. I tend not to judge his game yet, knowing that A) he’s only 20 years old and B) I give him 3 seasons and he’ll be a very good player, maybe even a go-to player on this team (if he’s still here).
Now with Bosh out for the remainder of the season, and Turkoglu hurt but still playing, it’s hard to be optimistic about this season anymore. Do we put up the fight to make it to the playoffs only to get HAMMERED by Cleveland in the first round? Or do we just mail it in and get in that draft lottery and hope for something good? Personally, I would mail it in, and it’s hard for me to say this, but the way we’ve been playing it doesn’t leave much hope for anything good to come out of this year anymore. I would also do a sign-and-trade with Chris Bosh and try to land a good player like J. Noah and some high draft picks (lottery protected) and build for the future. Lastly, I would do my best to get rid of Calderon, Bargnani and Turkoglu if that’s even possible and get whatever I can for all three of these players.
I look at teams like the Portland Trailblazers, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Atlanta Hawks, who had it rough for years and years, and now have amazing young teams with promising futures ahead of them. It’d be hard to sit here and still root for Toronto if they had numerous back-to-back losing seasons, but if I knew there was a big picture and time will come, then I would try my best to stomach it. But where we’re at now, it just seems like we’re making band-aid move after band-aid move, and you can only patch the problems up for so long until all those patches get broken through and shit hits the fan. Literally!
Cause as a die-hard fan, this shit has hit me for too long now and this emotional rollercoaster ride that the Raptors have been putting me through has been hard to handle, but I’ve never left and I’ve always rooted for them the same.
Go Raptors Go!
A couple things bother me, and that’s the fact that he strongly stands behind this ‘core’ that he has assembled during his time here. When TJ Ford was our beloved starter and Calderon was coming off the bench, I was pro-Calderon all the way and for that moment I felt he deserved to be the Raptor’s starting point guard no questions asked. But since he was handed the keys to drive and inserted into the starting line-up, #8 has digressed quite significantly. His 09/10 season was probably his worst as a Raptor, and he just did not look that good out there. Turkoglu was a huge let-down, but maybe we were expected way too much from someone we knew very little about. I mean, we really only saw Turk play when he was in Sacramento and they had their nice little run back in the early 2000’s, and his play in last year’s playoffs with Orlando. Then we have the golden child, Andrea Bargnani.. who I’ve stated many times over, has been a mistake taking him #1 overall. Good player, but not great enough to bring this team to where it needs to be, a 3rd tier player at best so far.. but is getting better.
really assess where his game is at. But for Chris Bosh, Mr. Franchise.. he’s definitely looking for nothing short of the max money no matter where he goes, but is he worth it? Personally I don’t think he is, a 20/10 guy that prefers taking that 18″ footer instead of putting his head down and driving to the basket is not a player I’d want to hang my team on. Does he really make his teammates better? Or just himself really? I do admit that he seems to be a class-A type of guy, media friendly and just appears to be an overall nice guy. But I’m a little sick of all this nice guy crap, and I want some hard nosed-don’t f* around-menacing personalities on this team. Who was our last monster? Oakley? Wow.
