The good news is that the road trip is over, the bad news is it ended in a way that was reminiscent of our first four games. I thought we had a chance to win this one after a string of ties but instead we got a 2-0 drubbing at the hands of the Crewzers (anybody else notice the ‘We love you Crewzers sign’ - how fantastically gay) where we asked Lombardo to replace Jeff Cunningham (muscle pull) after Dichio was left out of the starting lineup. Don’t really see why Dichio’s out of the lineup, the All-Star week couldn’t have been that grueling on the poor guy. So with our two best offensive players safely on the sidelines it was left to Lombardo and Samuels to make something out of nothing and they truly did get nothing from the midfield in this one. Maurice Edu was suspended so that added to the offensive woes.

My old man keeps telling me, ‘Son, strikers are paid to have nanosecond reactions and that’s what separates the good ones for the bad’, turns out he’s got a point because once Lombardo did find himself in the clear on one occasion, he actually waited for the ball to bounce and settle nicely and snugly next to his feet which is when he had planned to kick it. Unfortunately for him and us the Crew defender managed to poke it away quite easily due to Lombardo’s reliance on father time to help him out. That was our chance of the half. Seeing us play without Dichio and Cunningham made me appreciate even more just how significant those two are to our success, without them we’d score fives goals a season.

Before we talk about the two goals, let me divulge myself into talking about the Crew. I had discounted them for this game and was wrong about it, they were playing like you would expect TFC to play: free-flowing football, holding striker play, timely runs, etc. We didn’t manage to do anything to slow the tempo of the Columbus game or to contain their forward runs, instead we got sucked into defending way too much and it was only a matter of time when one of their many crosses found a deserving finish. The Crew were actually entertaining to watch tonight, kudos.

So to the first goal, it’s one of those goals where you just forget to mark a guy for whatever reason. Can’t really blame one person but if you put a gun to my head I say it’s Marvelle Wynne, he should’ve bodied up on Schelotto, it’s not like he had anything better to do. The goal did come after a barrage of Crew runs were being barely cleared by TFC leading me to almost predict the goal. The defense was leaky today, not leaky as in the bathroom’s flooded, but leaky as in the gum can’t plug the holes no more. Maybe its the weariness of the road or the Holiday Inn food by Boyens, Wynne, Brennan (yes, even Brennan) were just not taking care of simple business such as simple clearances or forcing runs towards the sideline instead of the middle today.

I don’t know what to think of Tyrone Marshall, he loves to create a mess and then proceed to clean it up. I can’t stay mad at him for too long, for example when he gave the ball away so charitably to Schelotto only to run him down just inside the area. He’s like a kid who shits in his pants and then does his own laundry - at the end of the day the positives even out the negatives. But I do know what to think of Chris Pozniak: he has two left feet! He also likes to pass backwards more often than forwards. Mo Johnston shouldn’t rely on him to supply ammunition for our strikers because it just won’t get delivered, I say pull him back and play him as a holding midfielder.

Let’s talk about Mo Johnston before we talk about the second goal. I have never disagreed with a MoJo substitution, it’s the timing that gets me to scratch my head so that trickles of blood start coming out. So you’re down 2-0 with Lombardo doing gymnastics without the ball and you wait till the 70th minute to finally bring in Dichio. What gives man? Seriously, WTF gives? When Dichio finally did come in he had a decent impact and almost setup O’Brien and Robinson for chances. I’m not going to harp on this but it’s almost like MoJo thinks correctly but thinks too late.

Finally we get to the second goal. This one was the result of a freekick where Schelotto was just trying to hit the target, he even would’ve settled for a harmless save but Srdjan Djekanovic wouldn’t have any of it. No sir he wouldn’t. I haven’t seen that big of a mess since the Family Guy puke scene. MoJo needs to get a cannon in practice and just start firing it towards a naked Djekanovic (he must be naked!). Until he saves 15 in a row the cannons must continue to be fired, only way for him to get his footing and positioning right.

I have to say kudos, respect, high fives, tip your cap to the Red Patch Boys for making the trip. They finally got some serious airtime and recognition this broadcast. I am humbled by thee passion. So humbled that I am forced to stop writing.

Just one more thing, be sure to subscribe to this feed, I promise to keep it riveting. Thanks for reading.

It’s halfway through our inaugural MLS campaign and things are for the most part positive. 5-7-4 isn’t exactly a record to be proud of but when you consider four straight gut-wrenching defeats to start the season and us being an expansion franchise, there are more things to cheer about than to bitch and moan about. The All-Star week gave us some more good news: we get to host the 2008 All-Star game at BMO Field. That’s the league’s way of saying thank you to TFC fans for showing the MLS what true football fan culture is all about. Speaking of fan culture, I came across this post which talks about the differences between Toronto FC fans and say fans of the Ottawa Senators. Good read.

After seeing Brennan, Dichio and Cunningham get recognition for their efforts via an All-Star nod, it occurred to me that the true All-Star of the team doesn’t really play on the pitch. We all need to give a collective round of applause to Mo Johnston (everybody stop reading, stand up and deliver that applause), he has been everything this franchise needed to get off on the right foot. He’s been proactive in looking to improve the team and fix what appears to be broken. The acquisition of Dichio and Cunningham were brilliant moves and were entirely unexpected. Eskandarian and Buddle looked to be staples on the TFC squad coming out of pre-season and when they didn’t produce early on, he was quick to replace them both instead of waiting for them to come around. Those two moves turned our season around.

Something needs to be said about our defense but before I say that I’ve used my crazy Microsoft Paint skills to visually represent our defensive progress. You know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words:

After that display of graphical artistry there isn’t much more that needs to be said but here goes anyways: We were brutal in the beginning and have steadily improved mainly because the players have finally figured out each others tendencies and learned to play with each other, something which is paramount in the back four. That 10-man display against Houston gave me more joy than seeing this picture.

We’re playing the Columbus Crew tomorrow which I can guarantee will be a W. We were unlucky not to win the last game against these chumps and this time there isn’t a way we won’t finish off at least two or three of the twenty chances we’ll get.

Thanks for reading, till tomorrow, goodbye. Make sure to chew on the feed, it’s yummy.

Jason Kapono, Maceo Baston, that unheard of guy we got on draft night, that really unheard of guy we signed are all either small or negligible components of the Raptors’ winning puzzle. The man that can take us to the next level is Andrea Bargnani.

Bargnani is the X-Factor for the Raptors, not CB4. Chris Bosh will likely have a season comparable to the last one and his production can be estimated with a fair amount of accuracy. But it’s Bargnani that can change the dynamics of this team, if he excels offensively and improves on the defensive end, the Raptors can go from “let’s hope we can win a series” to “let’s get to the EC finals”.

NBA offenses are based on mismatches and God bless Bargnani because he provides one for us every time he’s on the floor, last year he took fair advantage of centers who choose to lay off him by hitting the three, but then again he also passed up 80% of opportunities where he could’ve posted up a smaller guy and made him regret his height. It’s purely this fact and this fact alone that can elevate us from wannabe contender to a team that isn’t written off automatically come playoff time.

Even though he was a rookie, Bargnani was still our most under-utilized weapon. Nobody’s asking him to become Nowitzki overnight but it’s fair to expect him to do the right thing when he’s on the court: use his height in the post, use his frame to collect defensive rebounds, hit the outside shot and most of all do not let defenses off the hook by going away from your strengths and their weaknesses. It comes down to how well Mitchell can recognize potentially advantageous situations for Bargnani and run plays that will allow him to use his tools effectively for the greater good. I know that’s asking a lot.

The goal for Bargnani should be to attract a double team by December, if you see that happening you know he’s being a pain in the ass for teams. Imagine if Bargs attracts two people, that leaves us playing 4 on 3 with one of the 4 being CB4. Now that’s an attractive situation. Aside from Bargs, I don’t see anyone on the Raptors remotely bothering the defense to double team in the post which is where most opportunities originate.Up until last year it was Bosh that had the highest ceiling of any player on the Raps but that doesn’t hold true anymore. Last year we were able to gauge what Bosh’s true potential might be, and although there’s no doubt that he has a chance to be a truly great player when it’s all said and done, it’s Bargnani that can be even better (it’s true, look it up). Here’s a general prediction of what will happen next year with the rest of the team.

TJ Ford: He’ll have a similar season as last. Maybe he’ll improve his shooting a little but nothing that’ll make him a perimeter threat. Should he manage to get himself under control (which is like asking the Road Runner to slow down), we’ll be in better shape but we all know TJ is TJ and will play like TJ until the day he retires.

Jose Calderon: Defenses will adapt to him and he won’t find it that easy to just come off a screen and lay the ball in. If he has a repeat of last year it’ll be a big bonus for the Raps. You have to be delusional not to see that. The best he could do is improve his shot, just like TJ.

Chris Bosh: Hmm. Can he repeat last season? For sure. Can he do even better? Probably. Will he dominate games ala Duncan or even KG? No, he’s not there yet and there’s even a chance that he might never be. It’s time everybody recognizes that CB4 is a very good player with a chance to be a star, he isn’t there yet and relying on him to improve dramatically and start taking over games and playoff series consistently is really, really unrealistic. He’ll be more productive next year just based on experience and more strength (assuming he’s close to a gym in the summer) but he isn’t going to increase his PPG by 10 points or his RPG by 5. Those transformations are reserved for two types of players: 1) those who finally started to get some serious playing time after being buried on the bench and 2) Superman.

Jason Kapono/Mo Pete: If Jason Kapono is a 10, Mo Pete is at least a 7. I’m aggregating defense, rebounding and shooting into one and saying that if Kapono excels in shooting, Mo Pete beats him in defense/rebounding. So although we added a great shooter, we also lost a pretty decent player who was in the doghouse for the better part of the year. I’m for the Kapono move (less money and 3 yr deal would’ve been nicer) but losing Mo Pete will have an effect unless Joey Graham steps it up a a few notches, which I think is hoping too much given his tendency to lapse into paralysis in the middle of a possession.

Anthony Parker/Jorge Garbajosa: How much do you think a 31+ player can improve after playing one year in the NBA? Parker is Mr. Consistent and he’ll be just that; unless Sam Mitchell had some visions where he was shown how to run a plays which open up AP for jumpers from the elbows, he’ll still be planted at the three point line waiting for a kick-out. Garbajosa’s offensive potential is limited and I don’t see him NOT going through a couple 15 game stretches where he can’t hit a 15 footer. His offense might be sporadic but his defense will always be there.

Given the general disposition of the above cases to hold true, it leaves the Raptors with one man who can realistically improve in such a way that for every degree he improves, the Raptors improve ten.

An easy 3-0 win over Genclerbirligi (who?) where the Turkish side managed to hold Arsenal for the first 30 minutes or so but after that the expected domination began. Can’t read too much into a 3-0 win against an unheard of side but at least the preseason’s off on the right foot.

You could literally see the rust wearing off the players as the game went on, especially RVP who looked sluggish at the start but began to settle down and had some nice cracks at goal. Bacary Sagna and Eduardo Da Silva (I will never call him Dudu) made their debuts, Sagna seemed pretty shot-happy letting it go from quite far out a couple times, he’ll learn thats not how things are done soon.

EDS is an exciting player to watch, he’ll do the unnecessary step-overs thing but it’s also evident the man has the talent to attack the goal - something he did a few times only to find nobody at the end of his crosses. Anyway, enough talk, here are the goals.

Robin van Persie scores on a nice run and pass from Theo Walcott at 45 minutes:

Theo Walcott scores early in the second half:

Robin van Persie scores another after being setup by Adebayor. The combo we’ll rely on all season click:

Update: found this WMV highlight clip here.

According to Sky Sports which is quoting the Spanish press, Arsenal have agreed to terms on a loan deal which would bring Argentine forward Angel Di Maria and Brazilian forward Pedro Silva to Salamanca and into the Gunners’ fold. It’s all very confusing with work permits and all but this looks to be a typical Arsene Wenger move: get them while they’re young.

I’ve seen Angel Di Maria play in the U-20 World Cup and the kid obviously has some talent. Here’s a highlight clip which shows that:

Although Di Maria is the more polished player, the report claims that it’s Silva that has already been on trial with the Gunners and is ready for a move to North London. But it’s a good bet that both will be at Salamanca next season since a) there’s not enough playing time to go around with the big club and b) they seem to have work permit issues and are ready to spend the season in Spain.

As both my loyal readers know I was on vacation last week. One of the stops was Barcelona and since there’s no football to watch I settled for a tour of the Nou Camp. While perusing their “museum” I came across this:

I looked for a nearby trash can to puke my guts out and couldn’t find one, the only other option was to hurl all over the stereo that was blasting out the Champions League theme that originally attracted me to that part of the museum. Instead of the CL theme they should be playing this video over and over again. It’s much more fitting of the real story and would do justice to everybody involved on that most unfortunate of days.

The Nou Camp sure runs a pretty crappy tour, you can’t even sit in the players seats and there’s not even enough space to stand on the sidelines with all the gypsies around. You can’t even take pics in certain areas, WTF? I also did the Santiago Bernabeu tour which was much better, all I kept thinking about was the Henry goal. Here are some pics from both stadiums.

They’re selling Henry shirts in almost every store in Barcelona. It hurts to see that shit. There’s so many kids wearing Barca clothing (and I mean shorts, shirts and socks) that you don’t even think that it’s a football uniform anymore. The Nou Camp is a money making machine really, no wonder they can afford anybody they want.

I’m beginning to see Jose Antonio Reyes’ point about the weather. See I was in London where it was hot, balmy with overcast skies and girls looked like they wore diapers. In Madrid and Barcelona the weather was picture perfect and even the ugly women were somewhat good looking. I say all the power to Reyes for wanting to leave England for Spain, he just wants to get some ass in the sun. Can’t really blame him.

The biggest thing I realized was how inferior Toronto really is to Barcelona or Madrid in terms of public transportation, airports, street system, cleanliness, facilities, restaurants, atmosphere, nightlife and just about anything else you can think of. The only good thing about coming back was the in-flight movies - Children of Men and The Lives of Others. The former is good, the latter is brilliant.

The most chaotic time I ever had was ordering a coffee and a sandwich at Heathrow Airport, that place is overcrowded to the point of a stampede breaking out any second. Also swung by Marrakech where the temperature never dips below 65 Celsius. Great historic town, worth a visit if you’re into history ‘n stuff and aren’t afraid of getting sun tattooed to the point of dehydration.

Here’s something for you Raptors fans, do you recognize anyone in this pic?

I’ll get back to blabbering about the Raps, TFC and the Gunners soon enough.

PS: Thanks to my wife for taking a blurry photograph of me and the Champions League trophy. I mean how often do you get a chance to take a shot like that? Don’t worry honey, I’ll still try to love you.

On vacation till July 15th, gonna miss a couple Toronto FC games….

Later.

It’s time for a basketball media overhaul in Toronto. We’ve been suffering at the hands of inept media professionals in Toronto for well over a decade and although their lack of skill, judgment, knowledge and in some cases, passion, has been overlooked for all these years, it has started to become unbearable. The frenetic pace of the regular season is often a good cover-up for the lacking coverage and insight provided by local newspaper outlets, sports channels and radio stations but it’s in the off-season that we truly notice just how useless Toronto basketball reporters are to their fans.

It’s a shame that most fans in the city get their dose of basketball fix from RealGM or the rare ESPN story or even what Chad Ford said in question 6 of his chat wrap. If it’s not that, we hope Bill Simmons had a take on us in his Page 2 report. Leave to to MacLeans to speak for us and give us the credit and due we deserve. Quoting the great Simmons:

[The Raptors] have the most rabid fans of anyone in the league. There are more of them than you’d ever think, they take every slight personally, and they’ll absolutely keep sending emails to people like me until their team is given the credit they deserve.

For a fan base that is so passionate and begs to be fed basketball, what do we get? We get Doug Smith doing no real reporting and telling us his half thought out opinions which are probably created by him doing 10 minutes of Googling each morning. We get TSN which still relies on Leo Rautins to still explain to us how a blocked shot needs to stay inbound. Here’s TSN.ca’s list of columnists, do you see anyone that you might want to check out for your pre-draft coverage? Didn’t think so. We get hate-spewing, 100%-opinion-0% facts Dave Feschuk who is probably the most respectable of them all since you know exactly where he stands. On the TV side we get Sherman Hamilton and until recently, Norma Wick.

Aside from Michael Grange from the Globe and Mail, there isn’t a single basketball reporter in this town that is objective, honest and does his bit of research before picking up the pen. Unfortunately his bosses make him do other work besides basketball which is a shame.

I believe that the Raptors fan base has outgrown the media that is responsible for covering the team. Maybe it’s the executives that are to blame for not giving enough credit to the sport of basketball and its significance in the city, maybe if they had a sense to actually send a representative each to the NBA Draft, we’d have better coverage and wouldn’t rely on the ticker to tell us whats going on. Browsing on RealGM I found this video of Jorge Garbjosa recovering from his injury. Now it’s not nordique’s job to tell us Garbjosa’s inury status, this story should’ve been on Sportsnet or TSN last night.

Nobody seems to know anything about the Jason Kapono signing because nobody hass bothered to look into it. You know, do some reporting. What were his other offers? How long was BC targeting him? Sean Deveney from sportingnews.com has to inform us that the Raptors spent their entire MLE on Kapono, shouldn’t this news be coming from Toronto? It’s ESPN that breaks the stories for us, not TheStar.com. New York has an established group of reporters that comprehensively cover the good and bad of their teams, whatever you think of Vescey and the bunch, you can’t say that they don’t put in the time when writing their pieces. It’s that type of effort that we’ve come to deserve and expect but never get.

At this point I could go into details of how stale Leo Rautins is and how bad Paul Jones/Eric Smith are on the radio. I could discuss how Eric Smith spends 2 minutes asking a one line question, Chuck Swirsky’s homerism and all those would be valid points to harp about. But the general point I’m trying to make is that the newspapers, TV, radio all need to pick up their slack in covering the NBA and the Raptors to a degree where fans’ first impulse upon reading an article isn’t to mutter, What a moron!

Lucky finally favored Cunningham

How do you tell when a commentator is truly a fan? When he yells out Oh No! after the goalie comes way out of his line and is barely able to clear the ball. That’s Craig Forrest for you. After another great Sam Reynolds performance it was left to Srdjan Djekanovic to close out the game in goal after Reynolds had to be carried off the field with a leg injury. By the the skin of our teeth and by a hairs breadth did he hang on to the lead and give Toronto FC their first road win in Salt Lake City. On his first play Djekanovic came way out of his line and was lucky that Jamie Watson hit the crossbar on a beautiful lob. Soon after came the shaky clearance which almost gave Forrest a heart attack.

Let’s talk about the game, have you ever played FIFA or Pro Evolution against a lazy player who doesn’t really bother setting up any organized attacks but instead hopes the through ball goes through putting the striker in the clear? That’s how Real Salt Lake play, its almost fun to watch because the pitch is twice the size of BMO field and the play is as open as Annabel Chong. RSL is not a good team (1 win all season) and TFC had to know they could get all three points from this one. They were up to the task and why not, this is the type of game that they can thrive in and thrive they did early on, especially Jeff Cunningham who finally convinced lady luck not to screw him over. His run after what appeared to be a harmless Dichio header saw him in the clear and the strike hit both crossbars and went in to the surprise of everyone. He’s been in those positions all season long and finally he got to finish one off, his celebration spoke of relief rather than joy which was punctuated with a medium-sized FU at his former team.

Before we talk about Alecko’s momentary revenge, lets switch over to Collin Samuels, aka The Fat Man. That’s not meant as a slight towards the ample forward but as a compliment because it is this fat/strength that allows him to put defenders on his back, make a great turn and do something positive with the ball. Him, Cunningham and Dichio are very good at controlling the ball with their backs against the defender and then trying to pick out a run. Cunningham probably has the best first touch of the three and it shows on the pitch. Samuels played aggressive defense, correctly predicted the flow of plays and got to the ball first seemingly every time. He must’ve made at least four tackles which were purely based on timing. Great addition so far.

Chris Pozniak got really lazy after Eskandarian managed to latch on to the ball in the area, Pozniak was caught giving Esk a nice backrub along with some knee on knee action making the penalty call too easy for the ref. The yellow card added additional insult but what surprised me was Pozniak’s willingness to debate the call. Alecko shot to the left of Reynolds who had guessed right and once the camera focused on the goalie, his lips were yelling F**K. Eskandarian’s visage during his celebration spoke of his long awaited first goal for RSL. This happened right before halftime so it sort of put a damper on my halftime entertainment which included watching my wife pack while complaining about my lack of involvement in the process.

On to the second half and Cunningham is hurt in the stomach area, he’s out. The injuries are piling up and Mo Johnston is hoping and praying Copa America and the U-20’s get canceled so he can get some players back. They were talking earlier about the altitude of Salt Lake and how it can negatively affect visiting teams because they aren’t used to playing there and get tired. Well, there was no sign of that, au contraire, Toronto FC was controlling play for long stretches and at one point strung together what appeared to be 20+ passes. Despite the open play no team got any real opportunities with most of the attacks getting cut off short of the danger area, as I said before, hoping to get through balls across was the name of the game today.

But all that talk about the altitude started to make sense after the 70th minute when Toronto FC really started making some plays which made one question if someone hadn’t spiked their punch. Wayward passes, ill-advised throws and just silly old mistakes that a better team than RSL might have punished. Fortunately nothing of harm came and it wasn’t until Samuel was brought down by a trip a foot inside the area that the excitement began. He slotted one home in the exact same area as Eskandarian giving us a 2-1 lead. The goalie fiasco followed and the rest is history.

Here are some thoughts to munch on:

• Mo Johnston did not make substitution despite the team being clearly tired in the late stages of the game. Lucky for him it worked out.
• Collin Samuels appears to be very effective when playing down the middle as a lone striker.
• Tyrone Marshall was impressive in his debut, smart clearances and a short glimpse of a turn and shoot that makes me think he might score some goals for us.
• Very physical game, lot of animosity between Cunningham and his ex-buddies but what was surprising was how pissed off Ronnie O’Brien gets in the game. I like the “I’m on the edge baby, don’t f**k with me attitude” of the Irishman.
• Maurice Edu has been invisible of late, the only time I saw him do something productive today was when he cleared the ball in the area once, no joke.
• Jim Brennan is holding the fort down defensively and needs to get some ink for doing that, he was solid as usual and always seems to be there whenever things are on the verge of breaking down.
• I rarely noticed Todd Dunivant’s name being mentioned, which if you’re a defender, is a great thing.
• The pitch in Salt Lake City is brutal, they’re playing in a university’s stadium and it looks awful. Can’t tell the touchlines from the football lines and you can’t even see the near touchline. The ball gets lost (seriously) between the boards on the near side because there’s no room down there. Thank God they’re getting a new stadium, their fans seem like they deserve it.

We get our first road win, Man of the Match for me is Sam Reynolds, honors go to Collin Samuels. It looks like we’ll be without Reynolds for a few games although nothing is quite official. So this means Djekanovic will get another chance to prove that he can get his footing and positioning right for a change. Hopefully he can come through for us over the next week or so.

I’m off to sunny Spain and Morocco for 10 days which means I’ll miss the next couple games which sucks. Both my readers will be terribly distraught but fear not, check out Mistake By The Lake and The Offside for more fan commentary. And of course there’s always Red Patch Boys and Go Toronto FC. If you use an RSS reader, be sure to get the feed.

Thanks for reading. Later.

If your expectations are in check you’ll never be disappointed. Jason Kapono is a fine, fine shooter. Coming off screens, pulling up in transition, spotting up in the corner, FT shooting, he’s good, really good. What he’s not is what many had expected Bryan Colangelo to import into Toronto: an athletic scoring forward that could create his own shot. The Raptors are a jump shooting team who rely heavily on their outside shooters knocking down shots off of Bosh double teams, TJ Ford kick-outs and the good ‘ol high pick ‘n roll so it does make sense to sure up the outside shooting but does it help alleviate the scoring pressure of Bosh, no. Jason Kapono is something the Raptors wanted, he wasn’t what is needed. And lets face it with a hand in his face you’ll take Mike Miller or Matt Carroll over him.

There’s something to be said about giving a player the ball, sitting out the play and watching him score while the defense for once worries about somebody other than you. It was that player that I was hoping we could bring in which would allow CB4 to not be the main man on the frontline 100% of the time. Players like those are hard to find let alone sign, so you take what you can get and BC found a decent player at a decent rate. Nothing more. Is he an upgrade over Mo Pete? Offensively, yes. Defensively, no. Ignoring the rebounding deficiencies of this team and focusing on the positives, we can safely say that he’ll keep the defense honest but expecting anything great out of him is obviously expecting too much. Here’s hoping Bargnani picks up some slack on the defensive boards.

I don’t have any inside sources or even sources, but I can say with confidence that we’re not done acquiring players yet, BC can’t possibly expect a better result next season based on Delfino and Kapono. Our needs have still not been met, rebounding hasn’t improved (deteriorated?), defense is still suspect and scoring from the forward spot has not increased. If we go with this team into a series with New Jersey again, we’ll lose. Maybe there’s some sense in trading away one of our PGs for some help in other areas. If it makes the team better, why not?

We could acquire Darko but does that really make us better? He’ll take minutes away from Rasho and I’m inclined to call those two even. Grant Hill, Rashard Lewis, Gerald Wallace, Anderson Varejao are all great options but getting them to sign is not easy, and in fact it’s really, really hard. So you look to players already under contract that might be good fits (Gadzuric, Chandler, Evans, just throwing names) and to acquire them you’ll have to give up talent which brings us to tradeable commodities. Or do you sign Jamal Magloire? My point is that we’ll be hard-pressed to address our needs via free agency, it will have to be a trade and it will probably be a trade that as usual, 50% of the fans will hate.