It’s a slow day here in Dubai so I’ll continue with the Crosshair series by getting to Andrea Bargnani.

He was the key to our season and the linchpin that would determine continued success or regression, as his season would go so would the Raptors’. At the outset of the year we were relying on key production from two players: Bosh and Bargnani. Bosh delivered, Bargnani didn’t. The entire season went by with someone like Ford, Calderon or Moon trying to up their production to compensate for Bargnani’s regression. After every decent game by Bargnani (few and far between), we looked at it as ‘the sign’ of him coming out of his funk but it always turned out to be a mirage in the desert that was his season.

Bargnani declined in almost every major statistical category: minutes, points, rebounds, field goal percentage, three-point shooting percentage, steals and blocks. The two statistics that defined his seasons were his impotent rebounding (3.7/gm) and his horrid 38.6% field goal percentage. After rebounding at a 3.9 clip last season, one would’ve naturally expected him to improve that figure given his 7-foot frame and the years worth of experience he had gained. After shooting 42.7% in his rookie year, one would’ve expected that number to either improve or stay on par, but the significant 5% drop in that critical area proved to be the reason for his worthlessness. The one thing he was marketed to do well was shoot the three and shockingly he ended the season shooting 34.5% from downtown. If there ever was a case where the numbers reflected a player’s season, this was it.

The most disappointing aspect of Bargnani’s game is how he refuses to use the advantage given to him by God. He doesn’t take smaller players into the post and bails them out by shooting a jumper or that low-percentage fake-the-drive-pull-up-for-the-j move which is simply too fast and rushed to be as effective as it can be. Against slower players who have trouble moving laterally, Bargnani settles for the jumper instead of driving to the rim and using his quickness advantage. Once again, he bails the defense out by not taking advantage of his supposed strength and not exploiting their definite weakness. His basketball IQ when the ball is in his hands appears to be as low as Darius Miles and every decision he makes is unnatural and forced. It’s not a surprise that close to 80% of shots are jumpers, this might even be acceptable as long as you’re hitting them but when you’re shooting them at a low clip, why not work inside-out?

Explaining his regression is simple and can be summed up in one sentence: The scouts figured him out and he didn’t improve his game to counter them. This happens in every sport, a player has a good rookie season but struggles in his second year as coaches and scouts adapt to what they were doing. The ’sophomore slump’ is common but avoidable if you work at your game over the off-season. Andrea was busy playing for Italy to focus on these things and team management didn’t do enough to bring him along over the summer. Bargnani thought that he could just camp out at the three-point line again and defenders would play him for the drive while he launched jumpers in their face. Instead, defenders crowded him and forced him to put it on the deck which he couldn’t, the end result was him desperately wanting to shoot the jumper but having no idea how to get open. Rushed shots, forced shots and plain old bad shots earmarked Bargnani’s season because he was never able to keep the defense honest and never proved that he could make them pay for playing him tight.

The decline in his three-point shooting was the result of him rushing his already questionable shots because of the fear of the defense catching up to him and taking this momentary clean look away. It was like a child trying to finish off the chocolate bar in one bite before his parents could find out that he was eating candy. When his shots did go in and he did get hot, you just knew that there was no way he could sustain this ridiculous shooting percentage for more than a game. So it happened that every good Bargnani game was followed by 6 or 7 sub-par performances where he had trouble staying in the game because of missed defensive assignments, failure to box out his man and early foul trouble.

In Europe with Benetton Treviso his rebounding average was 2.0, 5.4 and 7.1, not exactly great rebounding numbers for a center, so its almost unfair to expect him to improve on those in the NBA. He is by every account a finesse player that has shown that he can’t be counted on to bang the defensive boards. His pathetic (and that is the appropriate word) 3.7 rebounds are shocking but not surprising, they may be disappointing but not unexpected. The desire to rebound can’t be taught, it has to come from within, a player has to want to get in to the paint, use elbows, box-out, be physical and snatch one away from the would-be offensive rebounder. In addition to lacking the technique to rebound, Bargnani also lacks the desire which makes him a complete non-factor on the boards. When your starting center is that soft on the boards, the production from everybody else on the frontline and the team has to be outstanding to make up for his deficiency. Although Bosh did his best to pick up the slack, we don’t have nearly enough physical down-and-dirty type players that can compensate for the rebounding hole left by Bargnani.

Consider this, one of the biggest problems the Raptors had this year was giving up too many second chance points through offensive rebounds. We averaged 40.07 rebounds a game which was third worst in the league only better than Sacramento and Miami - both lottery teams. If Bargnani had averaged 3 more rebounds a game taking his tally up to 6.7 (something in-line with Dirk Nowtizki), we’d average 43.07 rebounds a game which would’ve been good for 8th in the league!

A word needs to be said about Bargnani’s man-defense: It’s OK and passable. People often define it as being “great” which it is far from. He has a propensity to pick up two quick fouls early in the game in one-on-one situations relegating him to the bench which automatically means he’s not a great man-defender. Bargnani’s gotten better at keeping his arms straight in the air and using his size to bother offensive players but that does not come close to meaning he’s a lock-down defender. He’s gotten better at using his feet but it only works well when he’s mentally in to the game and playing with a fiery attitude, something which is often not there.

In my humble opinion playing him at center isn’t asking much from him. Yes, technically speaking its not the position he played in Europe but is it really that much different than a power forward? In the NBA the job description for a PF and a C is practically the same, there’s not nearly enough differences to say that Bargnani would’ve been more effective at the PF. I find that excuse for his play to be very lame and a sign of clutching on to straws to justify his performance. If he wants to play in the NBA, it’ll have to be at the 4/5 spots, doesn’t matter which one. The one position he can’t play is the small forward as Sam Mitchell’s ill-timed and failed experiment in the playoffs showed. Bargnani just doesn’t have the lateral quickness to keep up with the athletic NBA SFs who can expoit him at will.

So what do we do with Bargnani? Bryan Colangelo says to judge him after 5 years, Chuck Swirsky once replied to my email and told me to give him 3 years. I’ll go with Chuck. Bargnani has a busy off-season planned where he’ll work on the fundamentals of the game, if we see a meaningful improvement next year in his point production and defensive game, we should hang on to him. If the improvement is negligible and if he has regressed, there isn’t enough time for us to wait on him and we should ship him off as soon as his trade value reaches a point where we can get a warm-blooded body for him. He’s only 22 and might be a late-bloomer but will Colangelo actually wait till the end of the 2010-11 season before deciding Bargnani’s fate? I highly doubt it.

We have seen glimpses of what he might be able to do if he uses all his tools to full effect, plays with a high level of intensity and decides to be a factor on the glass. You might be able to see signs of greatness in him mainly because of his versatility but similar signs could also be seen in Kwame Brown. It might be too early to group Bargnani with Brown but unless he shows the Raptors that he’s more than an average three-point shooter, he’s going to end up being a bust like Brown. Bryan Colangelo jumping the gun and picking him #1 in the draft didn’t help Bargnani and it was unfair to him. There is a zero chance that he’ll be the best player coming out of the ‘06 draft and we should all accept that and move on. Hating on Bargnani for being the #1 pick never made sense to me, its not like he chose to go #1, it was Colangelo that incorrectly deemed him worthy of being a top selection. Colangelo went out of his way to draft Bargnani and against conventional wisdom so if Bargnani ends up being a disappointment, blame the GM well before you point to the player.

Personally, I’d settle for Bargnani being a Mehmet Okur type player.

—

Back to regular blogging starting on Tuesday, will continue with the Crosshair series as time permits. Here’s another crazy fact about Dubai: 80% of the population consists of foreign workers. Yes, that’s right, foreign nationals outnumber local residents 4:1. The locals are filthy rich and are well protected by the government which has written every single law in their favor.

Later!

There’s not many reasons to interrupt a vacation but Chuck Swirsky quitting the Raptors is one of them. Believe it or not my first reaction to the news was, “Oh, no!”. That was the emotional me talking, the one that likes to hang on to old t-shirts with holes and stains that came from God knows where. After digesting the news a little and soaking in the hot, humid, disgusting Dubai air, I realized that this was great news and something that was probably long overdue. No disrespect to the Swirsk (well, some) but his enthusiasm for a bad team and constant hyperbole were getting on everyone’s nerves. The fans had “outgrown” him and his act was wearing thin; his popularity was mostly limited to either the young ‘uns or the ones who watched the majority of the games on the US feeds. The thoughtful, knowledgeable and passionate Raptor fan had little use for him anymore.

It’s time to show him a little respect. In his early days he provided something fresh, something exciting and one wanted him to bust out the “Mojo” and the “Boom-shaka-laka” almost every time. It was a nice touch when watching a mediocre team. When Vince Carter did his thing in Toronto, Swirsky was the perfect voice for him. Nothing he could say would be considered exaggerated because every Vince dunk was truly “worth the price of admission” (this year a TJ Ford dunk with the Raptors up 17 and 20 seconds left was called that). The radio was the perfect medium for Swirsky because he spent his time describing the play-by-play instead of chiming in on the analysis - something that was always lacking in him. Chuck and Jack were the best radio team the Raptors have had. Ever. Swirsky’s enthusiasm and excitement for the game shone through on the radio without being over-bearing or annoying. It was radio - anything goes.

Two things led to Swirsky’s decline. Vince and TV. Fans did not like the fact that the TV guys never called out Vince Carter. It bugged us to no end, watching Vince smile away at the end of 20 point losses while the announcers completely ignored this sacrilege was too much to bear. Excusing Carter’s behavior when he was on the Raptors and then heavily criticizing him once he was on the Nets was something no Raptor fan can forget or forgive. It’s understandable on the part of Swirsky/Rautins but its also unforgivable on the part of the fans. Here was a superstar that nobody had the balls to say wasn’t pulling his weight but the second he moved to a different team, you suddenly grew nuts to say what you saw? Fans like me couldn’t get a grip on this and lost a large amount of respect for the people we rely on to bring us games.

Swirsky is made for the radio, once he came to television there was simply too much air-time to fill and he did a horrible job of deferring to the analyst when he needed to. Asking condescending questions like, “What are the Bulls running, Leo?” while giving a free pass to Lenny Wilkens’ and Sam Mitchell’s horrid offensive sets never quite made sense and irked us even more. Hyping up Andrea Bargnani and refusing to acknowledge his faults was Swirsky’s most recent crime and the one fans are likely to remember the most. His lone vote for Bargnani in the Rookie of the Year voting lost him a lot of credibility and cemented him as a homer. Begging for the NJ series last year didn’t make any sense either and although Orlando was a desirable matchup this year, Swirsky’s constant unwarranted confidence display in the Raptors was hard to comprehend and even in his final year he continued to ignore and downplay the Raptors’ faults and focused on the few strengths they had. Simply put, there were too many times where he didn’t call it the way he saw it.

The “Salami & Cheese” did him more harm than good, it was a gag that should’ve been used for a couple months and dropped. It never should’ve become a crazy form of self-promotion that it ended up being. It got to the point where other announcers were pulling it out against the Raptors! The call was always a mild insult to the opposition and when the Raptors went on a losing streak, the jokes started to flow. It’s one thing to call it on a game-winning shot, its another to bring it out early in the fourth when you have an audience on NBA League Pass. Not cool or very sportsmanlike. It was only natural that most fans ended up outgrowing the shtick, but Swirsky never got the message. The Kobe incident didn’t help either.

Swirsky was great for us and helped us increase our fan base in the early days with his exciting calls and over-the-top announcing. As the team grew older and fans became more knowledgeable and demanded more from the team on the court and in the booth, Swirsky couldn’t fit the bill. It was partially because he was paired with Leo Rautins and the two were horrible together, often getting into clearly uncomfortable situations for stupid reasons while providing mundane and regurgitated analysis. Chuck and Jack were a much more complimentary team and Jack did a great job of taking over the broadcast and doing the analysis, leaving Swirsky to do his job - calling the play. Maybe if he was always paired up with Jack, the fans would appreciate him more since he’d be drowned out by Jack’s always accurate, honest and up-front analysis - something everybody loves.

Swirsky says he’s gone for personal reasons and has left “money on the table”. Its hard for me to believe that the constant bashing on RealGM and other Raptors blogs didn’t have a bearing in his decision. He seemed pretty damn excited to be a Canadian citizen and did extend his contract in 2007 and had everything going for him in Toronto. I’m not going to sit here and doubt his “personal reasons” but its hard for me to believe that the criticisms from the fans didn’t help him make his decision much easier. The change from loving Canada to leaving Canada is too drastic to simply be attributed to personal reasons.

I think he’ll be fine in Chicago because he’ll be back on the radio. I would’ve loved to see Swirsky stay and do the radio for the Raptors, an area where Paul Jones struggles tremendously. As it is, he’s gone and we’re in need for a play-by-play man. If you’ve been reading this space you know that I never got over John Saunders and although I doubt he’ll take the job given his CBS and ESPN commitments, its worth a call. Ex-Bluejay man Dan Shulman would be great too. Whatever the Raptors do, they better not hire Paul Jones or Rod Black.

I think I’m going to end this post because the battery on this laptop is running out. Sorry if I sounded incoherent in this post but I’m making this at 2AM and am terribly sleepy after a day in the ridiculous humidity.

Here’s something crazy about Dubai. License plates are considered prestigious, almost everyone has a 5 digit license plate which costs nothing. If you get a 4 digit one, its more prestigious and can run you around $10,000. A 3 digit one runs you approximately $50,000 and mostly the very, very rich and the Sheikh’s relatives/friends have those. The 2 digit ones belong to the Sheikh’s family and if you want one, be prepared to spend 1 to 2 million dollars. As for the 1-digit license plates, the Sheikh’s son has one of those. They’re a sign of social status which is totally fucked.

The extravagance, the materialism and the abuse of poor South Indian and Philippine labor is too much. This city is literally built on their sweat while the natives (Emirati’s) see no problem exploiting them and treating them as second class citizens. That’s what I’ve understood so far.

I’m back on Tuesday and will continue with the “Crosshair” series then. Andrea Bargani is next. See you then!

Next up is Jose Calderon.

There’s plenty of good things to say about Jose Calderon, his play has been a breath of fresh air for every Raptors fan regardless of which side of the TJ/Jose fence you’re on. Calderon has developed an ability to lead a team through his smart decision making skills, greatly improved and highly accurate outside shooting, uncanny ability to turn the corner on high screens and most of all his passing which always finds the man most eligible for the shot.

This year he upped his scoring by 2.5 points while increasing his assists by 3.3 and still shot better than 50% from the floor, one of only three point guards to do so, the other two? Steve Nash and Deron Williams. He also happens to be ranked #3 in PER for PGs. His play when TJ Ford went down with injury was one of the main reasons along with Chris Bosh that the Raptors were able to make the playoffs. What makes Calderon a highly effective point guard for the Raptors is that he understands who his teammates are, you’ll never see him throw a pass which he knows the recipient can’t handle, he rarely takes a risk on the break and always looks to get his teammates setup early in the shot-clock. As he’s coming up the floor his first option is to find any trailers that might be open in the form of Andrea Bargnani, Jason Kapono, Anthony Parker and even Carlos Delfino. He’s a selfless point guard that wants to win and help make his teammates better and is willing to sacrifice numbers and playing time as long as it means team success.

There’s been plenty written about his league-leading 5.38 assist to turnover ratio which gives the correct impression that Calderon is careful with the ball and handles each possession with care. In the mid-season stretch when TJ Ford went down, Calderon was the driving force behind the Raptors. He increased his offensive output and became a legitimate scoring threat which the defense had to respect and that opened up options for everyone else. His clutch fourth-quarter 3-pt play in Boston was the apex of his season and during that stretch he proved that he should be the starting point guard for an NBA team.

If you’re a Calderon critic you might point out his conservative offensive play as being a reason why the Raptors struggle to get easy points on the break. This is a true criticism of Calderon who tends to pull back the offense on 3/2 or 4/3 breaks and doesn’t “force the issue” if it isn’t there. That is partially the reason why his AST/TO numbers are so high but it happens to be a double-edged sword. The Raptors don’t have great athletes or finishers who run the break and TJ Ford’s play is evidence that running the break with this Raptor crew isn’t exactly a great idea. Calderon recognizes this and values the possession more than the chance at easy points, maybe this will change if Ford is gone and Calderon feels he’ll need to make-up for Ford’s “pushing” style of basketball to some extent. I don’t believe by any means that Calderon is protecting his league-leading AST/TO ratio by any means.

The main reason Calderon is so much more dangerous this year is because he’s improved his 15-19ft game. Last year he was primarily a threat to drive off the high screen but this year he’s shown that he can step a few feet inside the arc, rise, and drain the jumper. This has made him a dual threat which NBA defenses have to respect and given Calderon’s intelligence in these matters, he’s been able to translate that into high assist numbers while keeping the decisions intelligent. Given the Euro stylings of the Raptors, Calderon’s patience, leadership and high basketball IQ appear to be the perfect fit for the team Bryan Colangelo’s trying to build. Whether you agree with his team-building method is an entirely different issue.

Calderon plays hard and with his heart on his sleeve, he can shoot, finish, can setup teammates and this season he showed he can do it while playing extended minutes. Something we didn’t know before this season and something that will weigh heavy on Colangelo’s mind as he decides whether to bring TJ Ford back.

Just like every other Raptors perimeter player, Calderon’s defense is below-par. He is extremely guilty of allowing dribble-penetration and has trouble fighting through screens and contesting shots. He’s a victim of Sam Mitchell’s half-ass defensive strategy and you can often find him double-teaming players for odd reasons allowing his man to knock down the open jumper. At 6′ 3″ and long arms he should be a good defender especially given how hard he plays, but so far in his NBA career we haven’t seen anything from Calderon that might indicate he can hold his own on the defensive end.

The Orlando series exposed his defense to some degree as he couldn’t contain Jameer Nelson or Keyoon Dooling from getting in the paint which allowed the Magic guards to pick out shooters. His lateral quickness isn’t great and one would think he should play the offensive player for the shot instead of the drive, a far safer option. If there is a knock against Calderon it is his defense, this also happens to be one of the core problems with the Raptors. Allowing penetration at the point-of-attack is something no NBA team can live with, either the Raptors need to adopt a better defensive strategy or Calderon needs to tighten up his defense or there needs to be the sufficient interior defense that can tolerate Calderon’s man getting into the paint. He played 30 minute a game this year which was up 9 minutes from the previous year, we expect this number to only get higher and its paramount that we don’t suffer defensively as his minutes increase.

Calderon’s a restricted free agent and Bryan Colangelo has already said that he’ll match any offer for Calderon. By all indications, he’s here to stay and we have to work with what we have - an intelligent, hard-working point guard with a very reliable outside touch and a tendency to take it to the rim when the opportunity presents itself. Not bad at all. You know his offensive game has nowhere to go but up and as long as he can improve his defensive game he’s going to be a mainstay in Toronto.

The new season is over 5 long months away but I’m already looking forward to how Calderon will improve next year. He’s a player that you want on this team and are willing to live with his flaws as long as the coach can do an average job of hiding them.

I’m off to Dubai for a week long vacation, I’ll do my best to keep the crosshairs coming. Maybe give you guys a snapshot of the man-made city while I’m at it.

As for the present today, its one of my favorite scenes from Reservoir Dogs where Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink) is trying to get out of tipping.

First off an announcement, I will not be covering the final match of the season away to Sunderland. Sorry. Thanks for visiting the blog all season long, I’ll try to do the same next year if any legalities don’t come in the way (in other words, if they don’t shut my ass down).

The first half was where most of the chances came but it was the second half where Bendtner scored after latching on to a pinpoint cross from Traore. Adebayor probably should’ve scored in the first half but he’s got a habit of missing easy chances - by my count his goal to sitter-missed ratio is about 1:3. He’s had a great season but I can’t help think he should’ve scored more.

Everton played for a scoreless draw because they only needed a point to qualify for the UEFA Cup and it almost looked like they were going to get it. In the second half they just sat on the 0-0 scoreline and didn’t bother doing anything but put 10 men back. The result serves them right, bloody thieves trying to kill the game.

This was crazy Jens’ last game for Arsenal and he got a nice little send-off as Wenger brought him in to replace Fabianski midway through the second half. Say what you will about his off-the-field issues, he’s been a great goalie for us. It’s a pity he can’t accept the backup role, but he does have a point, he’s still better than Almunia.

I think the turning point of the season was the Birmingham game where Eduardo suffered his injury and where they were awarded a late penalty which prevented us from going 8 clear in the standings. With a little more maturity and experience we could’ve won the title. Bacary Sagna’s injury really hurt us more than anything, it forced Senderos to play against Liverpool in the Champions League which simply killed us.

All in all it was a great Arsenal season where they played excellent football and if it weren’t for some very bad luck and some very bad officiating, we could’ve come out with a trophy or two.

Thanks for reading, see you next season!

Arsenal.com Match Report

BBC Match Report - Ends up having Wenger’s post-game interview

MOTD Highlights: Watch

First Half Highlights: Download :: Watch

Nicklas Bendtner 1-0 ‘76: Download :: Watch

Nicklas Bendtner Post-Match interview: Download :: Watch

Jens Lehmann send-off and analysis by two old white men: Download :: Watch

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Next up on the crosshair is Anthony Parker. These are going in no particular order.

He reminds you a lot of Voshon Lenard - a capable scorer that can be effective as long as he’s not being stretched past his physical ability and talent. Parker’s got a textbook jumpshot that rivals Allan Houston and a fadeaway that can be considered deadly as long as the legs are fresh. His low-post game consists almost entirely of the fadeaway which can be used with success on shorter players. Once you put a bigger defender on Parker, his offense quickly degenerates as the fadeaway isn’t nearly as effective and the fake-the-drive-pull-up-for-the-j becomes too contested to be consistent.

Parker is the best mid-range shooter on the Raptors and can come off screens and into the 15-18ft area and drain the shot. On occasion he can drive to the rim and finish with authority which keeps the defense somewhat honest but even then they always play him for the shot - 82% of his shots are jumpers. Parker’s ability to score deteriorates as the game goes on and his legs get tired. This often results in him missing big free throws and jumpers late in the game. There have been over a half-dozen games where he’s missed a shot that would’ve iced the game or brought the Raptors completely back in it which has negatively affected his clutch rating. Maybe in his younger days he could’ve sustained his field goal accuracy for longer durations but as he approaches 33 it’s only going to get tougher.

Parker’s tendency to become anonymous for large parts of the game is very troublesome, as a starting shooting guard playing 39+ minutes a game you have to be a constant factor in the play. There are times where you almost forget that he’s in the game until you look at the box score after the game (see Orlando) which makes you wonder just exactly what the hell he was doing while he was in there. This phenomenon is partially because he’s not a good enough scorer to demand the ball and score consistently like better 2-guards such as Crawford, Johnson, Hamilton, Allen or Richardson. It’s also because in a Bosh-central offense his primary role becomes that of a three-point shooter. If the defense has him covered on the three-point line, he basically becomes a non-factor. Although there have been a few times where he’s carried the team offense over a 4-5 minute stretch, it doesn’t happen nearly enough for him to be considered a go-to guy when your offense is in a funk.

Overall, Parker’s offense only flourishes when teammates are setting great screens, Bosh is being doubled off his man and he’s being guarded by smaller players. If that’s not happening, Parker finds getting his points much harder and becomes that much less of a factor. He doesn’t have any go-to moves in his arsenal, something which is almost mandatory for a shooting guard on a team that hopes to be contending. The 7% dip in his playoff shooting percentage (48% - 41%) is a great example of how a limited offensive player like Parker can be neutralized in a controlled and planned playoff setting.

Just like his offense, Parker’s defense also suffers as the game wears on. This is completely natural for any NBA player but since the Raptors’ perimeter defense is leaky at best, a drop-off in Parker’s ability to keep his man in front of him is highlighted even more when we lose. Nobody can question his effort when it comes to man-defense, but if he’s guarded by a quicker player his lateral quickness can be put to the test quite easily. In many cases this year the offensive player has tried to create space by shaking Parker and shooting over him, he’s done an excellent job of contesting those shots. It’s because of these types of possessions and his on-court demeanor that he’s built a reputation of being a decent defender, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty he has some serious issues.

The biggest complaint about Parker’s defense is that he drifts from his man for no reason, especially when he’s guarding him on the weak side. This has resulted in countless open threes for the opposition and has effectively negated anything else he does on defense or as some might argue, what he’s provided on offense. Sam Mitchell’s tenure has seen the team refuse to double team legit scorers (Kobe) while sending help when its not needed (Howard 12 feet out). Such inconsistent defensive philosophies have resulted in players like Parker, Delfino and Calderon not understanding their defensive duties as they should and they are always found cheating and getting burned. How many times this year have you seen Parker wildly flail his arm as the shot is being released? Those aren’t shot-contests at all because they don’t actually bother the shot, they just underline how late Parker is on his close-outs.

Jack Armstrong’s been saying it all season: down and dirty defense, quick close-outs, shot-contests and a determination to keep your man in front of you is what the Raptors need to do. Anthony Parker can give you the grittiness but if it isn’t accompanied by the lateral quickness and a defensive system that puts a premium on close-outs, it doesn’t mean much. Leo Rautins’ metaphysical love for Anthony Parker is largely because they’ve both bounced out of the NBA and played in Europe. Parker’s return to the NBA is something of a vindication for Rautins’ career, you know, European ball matters. Leo constantly referring to Parker as a clutch performer couldn’t be farther from the truth but his claim that Parker is a leader carries a lot of weight.

Just like Moon’s getting too much playing time because of lack of other options, Parker being a starter who plays close to 40 minutes a game tells you how thin we are on both offense and defense at the SG position. The closest thing to a backup shooting guard we have is Jason Kapono and he was missing practically the entire season, thus forcing Parker into playing heavy minutes which his body isn’t made for.

Parker probably should have been playing in the NBA a couple years before he started his Raptors stint. It would’ve been interesting to see what he could do with younger legs. At this point in his career Parker cannot be a starting shooting guard for a team that hopes to win a round or two in the playoffs. Maybe earlier in his career, but definitely not now. His contract is reasonable at 4.5M and he’s coming off the cap after next year. He should be playing approximately 20 minutes a game coming off the bench and become our Vinny “The Microwave” Johnson. Bryan Colangelo has to sure up the starting SF and SG position at some point and whether he can address both this summer is the question that will determine Parker’s fate. Colangelo has to decide whether Parker’s best value is in a trade to a contending team which puts a high value on his outside touch and veteran leadership or letting him come off the cap next year.

Personally, I like Anthony Parker’s attitude, on-court demeanor and what he can give on offense. He’s simply too old to be a factor the way a starting shooting guard should be. I think he has a place on this team as long as his role his reduced and better defined, right now we’re asking too much of him and when he doesn’t deliver (12.5 PPG - 32nd among guards) we tend to get upset without realizing that he’s just another player on the Raptors thats being asked to produce beyond his means.

As for the present today, George Washington anyone?

Since the off-season is slow as molasses and there isn’t a damn thing Raptor-related going on, I thought it good to pick a player and just break him down until we finally decide what we have in him and whether he’s worth keeping on the team.

The reason Jamario Moon played 28 minutes a game and started 78 of them was because we didn’t have anyone better on the roster. The extended playing time he received goes to show our lack of depth at the small forward position. After a seemingly inconsequential summer signing who would’ve thunk that this man would become our best defender and a staple of our starting lineup? Not many. After trading away Morris Peterson, realizing Kapono can’t play the 3 and finding Joey Graham useless, Moon bubbled his way up past Delfino on account of being a better defender.

Jamario Moon’s defense can be very affective. He’s shown that he can use his athleticism to defend his man well, sometimes his defense is too eager to get the block and it gets him in trouble because he’s very liable to fall for a good pump-fake. After starting the season by shutting out a few swings, he ran into trouble when facing the better ones such as Paul Pierce, Lebron James, Caron Butler and such. It should have occurred to him at that point that athleticism alone does not make a good defender, but Jamario Moon is a bit slow when it comes to learning lessons, after all he’s a rookie.

Continuing on with his defense, the best part of his defensive game has to be the help he provides from both the strong and weak side. His jumping ability and reach surprise a lot of offensive players and he ends up getting a block here and an alter there (1.4 BPG). He does a good job of not fouling (except vs. Portland) and averages only 1.9 fouls a game, a great number considering his defense. When Moon plays the passing lanes and is active off-the-ball, the Raptors actually become an average defensive team, he can get deflections and steals (1.2) for you at the expense of late close-outs, something which is a systematic problem with the Raptors and not confined to Moon.

Overall, Jamario Moon’s defense has been great, he’s fallen prey to some bad games where his judgment in playing a player to shoot or drive hasn’t been there and he’s been taken to school in the clutch on a few occasions, but we should cut him slack given he’s a rookie. The fact that he claimed to not read the scouting reports is a sign that he’s still maturing as a player and needs to study the game more if he hopes to replicate his success this year. The scouts will have caught up with him by next year and the ball’s in Moon’s court to improve.

Finally we get to his offense which can best be described by terms such as unreliable, sporadic and inconsistent. Although Moon does possess the quickness and athleticism to drive by a defender who’s playing him relatively tight, he rarely uses it. The times he does use it and gets to the rim it ends up being a low-percentage shot or a pass that should have been a shot. His jumper is very inconsistent and can’t be counted on but that doesn’t stop him from using it. It is because of his offense that him playing 28 minutes a game for a team that hopes to be competitive beyond the first round is unacceptable and worthy of an upgrade.

It’s no secret that Moon’s jumper is whacky and that’s why teams give him ample space which he’s a sucker for. Fans want him to drive but he wants to shoot, it’s probably because 1) he wants to prove that he can shoot the ball so he can get the defense closer and then drive or 2) he doesn’t want to drive. It’s probably a bit of both because when a man is tempting you to shoot, you have to have great patience to pass the ball off and realize that its not what the team wants, so Jamario tries to prove himself but comes up short. On the other hand he’s been guilty of launching the jumper even when the defense is in his grill, so go figure.

His finishing ability is lacking. Unless he has an open dunk, any drive attempt by Moon is rarely a source of a field goal. He can’t absorb contact and finish nor can he alter his shot once he goes up, something which is critically missing for a guy of his physical ability. His refusal to take it to the rim is very unbecoming of a NBA starting small forward and his weak jumper is stuff made for energy guys coming off the bench.

Any time Moon launches any sort of a jumper you can’t help but cringe. He does make a few but it gives him false confidence because in crunch time he’s left wide open by the defense and instead of either passing it up or making the defense pay with a drive, he always falls for the bait. Some of this can be blamed on Sam Mitchell who’s offense/defense substitutions have often gotten Moon into trouble in crunch time offense, a time when Kapono is a far better option to have on the floor. Moon can never be considered a good option to take the jumper because he’s simply not a good enough shooter at 38%.

Half his offseason should consist of practicing the 15-18 footer to the tune of 600 shots a day. The other half should see him develop a low-post move and some finishing ability around the rim. I believe the drive is in him, its a matter of building the confidence in him that he can finish the play or initiate contact and get to the FT line. The most alarming statistic for Jamario Moon is that he only went to the FT line 85 times in 78 games. That’s 1.08 FTAs per game! Unacceptable.

So what do we do with him? He needs to be reevaluated over the summer and unless he’s significantly improved his jumpshot and shown an obvious tendency to attack the rim, he should be demoted to the bench in favor of a trade/FA acquisition who can do what Moon can’t - score. Moon can’t be blamed for our stagnant and choke-in-the-clutch offense but having him on the floor has never been great for the Raptors offense.

If he comes to training camp with the same skill-set as this year, he deserves a 15 minute role off the bench where he can provide energy, spark the defense and run hard on the break. His defense is good, but not nearly good enough to compensate for what he lacks on offense.

If you got to the end of this post, you deserve a prize or two.

How about them Hawks? The chance of a Game 7 victory is unlikely but the point is made - the Hawks are a legit team and the Celtics are vulnerable. The fourth quarter offense was brutal for both teams but the Hawks continued to drive to the rim and got the calls - 47-25 FT in favor of the Hawks. Boston was all perimeter in the final quarter and Ray Allen missed some big shots down the stretch. Go Hawks!

It looks like the folks at FireSamMitchell.com did all that work for nothing. Bryan Colangelo revealed yesterday that Sam Mitchell isn’t going anywhere. This time he didn’t add any suffix phrases such as “at this point” or “for now”, it was pure and simple English:

“Let me say this: We have no intention of making a coaching change, period.”

OK, so another year of Smitch isn’t all that bad, is it? Maybe he’ll get better at his preparatory skills and X’s and O’s knowledge enough so that we won’t be calling for his head after every stagnant offensive set. Just because Mitchell’s staying for another year doesn’t mean his assistants have to. The Raptors are a poor defensive team (a lot has to do with the roster) and have an offense that struggles with less than 4 minutes to go. Perhaps Colangelo can supplement the coaching staff with a knowledgeable basketball professor that can be the piston that drives Mitchell’s engine. It’s the best we can hope for.

Mitchell assesses that the reason they lost to the Magic was talent rather than tactics. It’s hard to apply that analysis to the whole series but in games 4 and 5 our offense down the stretch did choke and the players get the majority of the blame there. Games 1 and 2 were lost because of Mitchell’s insane changes to the starting lineup.

Bill Simmons is reviewing the end of the Phoenix Suns era that ended up producing nothing except for false hope for a championship for their fans. He tries to sum up all the mistakes the Suns management made in their quest for a championship and Bryan Colangelo is mentioned in Mistake #1:

As astounding as this sounds, Bryan Colangelo’s decision to sign Richardson instead of drafting Deng or Iguodala — which was dumb at the time, by the way — ended up costing them a whopping FOUR FIRST-ROUND PICKS! Would you rather have Richardson, or would you rather have the No. 7 pick in 2004, the No. 21 pick in 2005, and your first-rounders in 2008 and 2010? Hold on, this gets better. Your 2005 NBA Executive of the Year? That’s right, Mr. Bryan Colangelo! I love the NBA.)

Hindsight is 20/20 but it’s worth a mention.

Kevin Durant won the Rookie of the Year award with the first-place votes going 90-30 in the favor of Durant. Al Horford can make a good case for getting shafted, Horford averaged a double-double with 13/11/4 in 31 minutes while Durant averaged 21/4/2 in 34 minutes. Horford was a huge part of Atlanta’s playoff push and has shown that he’ll be a legitimate force in the low-block for years to come. I’d have given it to Horford. Jamario Moon finished fourth.

Watching Detroit’s smackdown on Philly you realize that Pistons have woken up. They were dicking around for the first few games of the series and expected Philly to be content on making it this far but once push came to shove they rose to the occasion. They really do have a switch.

Big triple header tonight, enjoy it. Here’s your unrelated link for the day.

Basketball is so much more enjoyable when there’s not a losing home team to worry about, take for example Game 5 of the Cleveland-Washington series last night. The Cavs were up 5 and with the ball with about 1:30 left and Lebron jacked up an ill-advised three. The rest is history as Washington forces Game 6 at home (probably because Arenas didn’t play). With 11 seconds to run a play Caron Butler drove the ball straight at Lebron to get the go-ahead points. Notice that he didn’t take a perimeter jump shot about 3 feet out of his range after just catching the ball from his point guard, even though he was being guarded by the other team’s best defender. Ahhhh. That felt good.

The Phoenix Suns are being mentioned a lot, trade ideas involving the acquisition of Barbosa and Diaw seem to be popular with TJ Ford + chump change going the other way. Steven Nash is on the decline and since TJ Ford is the closest thing to him it make a little sense that TJ could be linked with a move to the desert. He might have the run ‘n gun in him but he sure doesn’t have the outside shot, left-handed finishing ability, ability to keep the dribble alive under pressure, poise, and most of all discipline. Phoenix is one of those teams that’s always trying to hunt for the title, I don’t see them giving the reigns to Ford and feeling confident of even making the playoffs. At best if he goes there, he’s going to play backup until Nash retires or dies.

The Atlanta Hawks might be a better fit for TJ Ford, he could get away with a lot more there than if he was playing under the high-scrutiny of the Suns. The Hawks need a point guard and we got a spare one - it’s a match made in heaven. Bibby isn’t going to stick around and Ford comes relatively cheap, there’s always the injury risk but the ROI for the Hawks could be good. I’ll take Marvin Williams or Josh Childress, thank you.

Jack McCallum is reporting that Mike D’Antoni is on the outs in Phoenix which is going to make Bryan Colangelo regret saying that Mitchell is safe. If the story is true and D’Antoni is fired, there is no way Sam Mitchell will be the coach of the Raptors next year. Colangelo will convince MLSE to swallow Mitchell’s salary at the chance of hiring D’Antoni again. In Colangelo’s world where defense and rebounding always come second to racking up points, D’Antoni could conceivably be the guy that turns the Raptors into Phoenix East, something that was always the intent. Will that translate to playoff success? Probably not, but will it give the fans some false hope that this team might even wind a round or two? Oh yes. His poor defensive record will hardly matter for teams who’ll be looking to replicate the regular season success of the Suns and are too distant from the playoffs to even worry about the results there. The Knicks are already licking their chops. BTW, I tend to believe McCallum, he’s the chap who wrote the 7 seconds or less book after stalking the Suns for a year.

Funny story from a couple days back at Bryan Colangelo being furious at Sam Mitchell for playing a round of golf on Sunday, a day after going down 3-1 to Orlando. I had trouble getting out of bed and Mitchell’s playing golf. Nice.

The most annoying blog on the planet has to be Jose Calderon’s, he insists on publishing it in PDF format where copying the text is impossible. To the Nazi fuckers running that site: its called HTML. In his post after Game 5 he’s contemplating his future and professing his love for Canada. Say what you will about those Euros, they’ll never complain about Toronto as a city. They might leave for cash-money reasons but it’ll never be because they feel that playing in Toronto is holding back their careers. To some that might be reason enough for signing them. Not to me.

WTF is up with Sam Dalembert? The TNT crew picked Boston to finish of Atlanta in Game 6. No way Jose. This one’s coming back to Boston.

Later.

Let’s get the good/bad news out of the way depending on which side of the Mitchell war you’re on. Bryan Colangelo has given Sam Mitchell the vote of confidence and says he has no plans of dismissing a “playoff coach” and that even the idea is “ludicrous”. To those of you who think Mitchell was a problem, Colangelo clearly disagrees, so there:

“All things should be put to rest right now when I say that I have absolutely no intention of making a coaching change at this time”

So much for FireSamMitchell.com, I’d say FireAvery.com has a better chance of coming through. If you wanted to see Sam Mitchell get fired, your only hope is in the “at this time” portion of the above quote. As AltRaps pointed out to me, he did say something very similar about Charlie V before shipping him out last summer so there is some hope. Mitchell’s grade is a C- in my book, to summarize it one sentence, he doesn’t have the X’s and O’s knowledge to lead a Euro-style team and is thus the wrong coach for the squad.

Colangelo also acknowledged the need for a second consistent 20-point scorer and defensive and rebounding help:

“We need to address our defence and rebounding areas, we need to address the development of a young player like Andrea Bargnani, we need to look for another 20-point scorer to facilitate that scoring load. We certainly need to get some more help for Chris Bosh, whether it’s protecting himself in the paint, getting a little more of a presence in there, to just getting him another scorer to shoulder some of that burden.”

Funny part about that quote is that we had the exact same needs at the end of the 06-07 season. Go figure.

Chris Bosh’s review of Bargnani’s season was as pinpoint an analysis you’ll find anywhere on the web. It has to bug Bosh that Bargnani hasn’t been able to carry his weight on the frontline and continually leaves him exposed by either not providing help or not boxing out. Bosh with some very wise yet obvious words for The Godfather Fredo:

“He has to develop the mentality to get down low, get some easy baskets, block some shots, get some rebounds. Be a force in the game if you’re not making shots. That’s how you have to be. You have to play defence, you have to rebound, you have to always be a factor. If your shot’s not falling, that doesn’t take away your success in the game.”

Bargnani’s got a long summer ahead of him, all our hopes are on the big man camp teaching him a thing or two while John Lucas toughens him up by sharing the same bed, eating out of the same bowl and pissing while holding hands. Colangelo’s ideal summer involves Bargnani transforming into the year two Dirk Nowitzki who averaged 17.5/6.5. That might be a stretch, I’ll settle for 14/6. If he’s not showing a serious improvement on both ends of the floor next year, we can’t waste time waiting for him.

From the same Globe piece we learn that TJ Ford does not see himself coming off the bench:

“ I think where I’m at right now in my NBA career, I consider myself a starter and I don’t see myself coming off the bench for 82 games”

Contrast this with Calderon’s quote:

“I want to win. I don’t want to be a starter or not a starter, I want a ring. I’m Jose, I want to be a winner.”

Fuckin eh. The smart money’s on TJ being shipped for that second scorer Colangelo admits the team needs. I love TJ as a talent but it has become clear that Sam Mitchell can’t harness him and channel his skill properly. There’s too many erratic stretches in the game for my liking and the argument that his teammates can’t “keep up with him” can only go so far. TJ Ford will end up having a fine NBA career, it’s just going to happen somewhere else, somewhere where he’s got the run ‘n gun offense around him - maybe Phoenix? Anyway, I highly doubt Colangelo even makes the Villanueva/Ford trade if he had properly evaluated what he had in Calderon.

If you’re a fan of the Spanish basketball team, there’s some terrible, terrible news. Jorge Garbajosa will not be playing for you as long as he’s with the Raptors. That could be one year or one minute. Frankly, I’m a bit tired of hearing Garbajosa’s absence being used as a reason for the lack of grittiness and defense on this year’s team. He’s a good player, not a game changer, he’ll never dominate the glass or help out consistently with 8-9 rebounds and a shot block or two. His jumpshot is mediocre and although he’s a great team defender, his man-defense is at Joey Graham levels. Yes, I said that. If we start next season with Garbajosa as the anchor of our defense, we’re in trouble.

There is some good news, with the Hawks, Sixers, Wizards and Cleveland all on the rise its always great to see a conference team bury themselves a little deep. This time its the Charlotte Bobcats that will get a first-hand look at Larry Brown’s vagina. I wonder what Michael Jordan’s interview process is, he goes from hiring a headcase with no experience to hiring the biggest drama queen the NBA coaching scene has ever witnessed.

If you want some final grades to get some closure, check out the Posted Sports blog again. Why is Rasho only getting a B? He only did everything that was asked of him.

Here’s my report card with a one line explanation:

• Andrea Bargnani, F: Sucked.
• Maceo Baston, N/A: I hear he’s great in practice.
• Chris Bosh, B: Carried team in the season but fell short in the playoffs.
• Primoz Brezec, N/A: Nice to meet you.
• Jose Calderon, A-: If it weren’t for him, we miss the playoffs.
• T.J. Ford, C: Great before he got injured, tried too hard when he came back.
• Jorge Garbajosa, N/A: Where pointless injuries in meaningless games happen.
• Joey Graham, C: Didn’t get a consistent run to do anything worth grading. A C still sounds fair.
• Kris Humphries, B: When duty called he delivered, some of the time.
• Jason Kapono, C-: Not enough 3s to spread the defense.
• Jamario Moon, B: Our best defender and that says a lot. Needs to drive more.
• Rasho Nesterovic, A: No complaints whatsoever.
• Anthony Parker, C: Too inconsistent on offense, way too inconsistent on defense.
• Sam Mitchell, C-: Two plays does not make a coach.

Till tomorrow.

As I watched the final two minutes tick away on mute I realized that this was my least favorite Raptors team ever. Yes, even worse than that third year crew that went 16-66. It’s probably because with that team there were no expectations or hype, just a hope to improve and to maybe build something worthwhile. Even as they trudged their way across double digit losing streaks, it was still more enjoyable to watch because they desperately wanted to break out of their losing, they wanted to get to the next level. They knew they had issues and fought hard to overcome them, our pseudo star Damon Stoudamire took every shot in the clutch, he made some and missed many but never shied away from the challenge. He was feisty, fiery and never backed down. Despite the losing, you knew we’d come out and compete, we’d probably lose but you knew we’d be upset about it. You felt an attachment to those guys, with this team, I felt nothing.

The Magic basically won this series by running the same play 250 times - the drive ‘n kick. The actors in the play changed but that was the gist of it. It was with ease that they got into the paint and passed to waiting shooters as we helpless watched them launch uncontested jumpers hoping they’d miss. There was never a defensive adjustment made to remedy this problem, we talked about it in the pre-game and post-game press conferences but the coaches and players were never able to deliver where it mattered the most - on the floor. The success Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglo, Rashard Lewis and even Keyon Dooling had against our perimeter defense was the primary reason we lost. Our late close-outs on corner-snipers Keith Bogans and Maurice Evans were always a result of either late recovery or unnecessary and half-thought double teams.

To make matters worse, it seemed like every time the Magic missed, Dwight Howard got the rebound and slammed one so hard that it made the Raptors shrink. Tonight was a great example - 16 offensive rebounds for the Magic on their way to a resounding 55-37 drubbing. Wow! I never quite understood why we played ’small ball’, to me that was one of the reasons why we struggled. Rasho Nesterovic is the Raptor most capable of troubling Dwight Howard and was never put to use. Instead we went with the pathetic Bargnani who couldn’t give us anything on either end of the floor, or with Bosh who spent so much energy on defense that his offense was shot. We watched Howard get deep post positioning against Bosh and Bargnani as Rasho simply withered away on the bench, victim of a scheme that only on the surface appears to work.

It took us five games before Dwight Howard picked up five defensive fouls in a game. Before the series began a common fan’s perception was that the Raptors could get Dwight Howard out of the game early by forcing him to defend Bosh or Bargnani who possess better lateral quicks than the Magic beast. That never happened, Bargnani never bothered to take anything other than a 21+ footer and Chris Bosh settled for jumpers too early and too often to bother Howard. The result was that the foul-prone Howard stayed in the game far too long and had a huge impact by crashing the offensive glass, blocking shots, pinning Bosh for low-post scores and drawing doubles that were easy to break. In other words, the underlying theme of the series was the complete domination of Chris Bosh at the hands of Dwight Howard.

The use of the bench was questionable. I’ve already touched on what Rasho could’ve brought us but the two other pieces that were never used were Kris Humphries and Joey Graham. Anthony Parker who had a miserable series couldn’t ever close-out Bogans, Turkoglo or Evans and had trouble staying with Hedo in one-on-one situations. Rashard Lewis broke down Chris Bosh at will and posted up Delfino without breaking a sweat. Yet we never saw Sam Mitchell give the stronger and more athletic Joey Graham a chance against Lewis or Hedo. I’m not saying he would’ve shut them down but there’s no way he could’ve been as bad as Parker or Delfino on the perimeter. At least give him a shot and see what you can get, no?

You can make a case that if Kris Humphries had gotten Andrea Bargnani’s minutes this series would’ve been longer. At least Humphries plays hard, grabs rebounds and can hit a mid-range jumper. Bargnani did nothing, he was about as useless as tits on a nun. With the rebounding differential as bad as it’s been you’d think we’d do what we can to rectify that problem but Sam Mitchell chose to play ’small ball’ and opted to get out-rebounded in exchange for I don’t even know what. Asking Chris Bosh to defend Dwight Howard over a series might be one of the most ridiculous things Mitchell will ever do. It would’ve been better to waste Primoz Brezec’s 6 fouls before we asked our primary offensive weapon to also guard their best player.

Finally we get to Sam Mitchell who practically handed the Magic a 2-0 series lead by putting out a starting lineup that had NEVER played together and asked the struggling Bargnani to play a position he had NEVER played in his life. A stupider move has never been made and will never be made in the NBA playoffs. Mitchell was unable to tweak the Raptors offense to account for Lewis’ defense on Bosh and wasn’t able to counter the pressure the Magic applied on our point guards. On defense he wasn’t able to devise a plan for Dwight Howard who ate us alive and couldn’t get a lineup out that could neutralize the weakness we were having at the point of attack which resulted in those deadly Magic threes. The Raptors played Game 1 the same way they played Game 5. There wasn’t a thing we did differently. Contrast this to the Magic who made various adjustments, from pressuring Raptor PGs to hard-doubles on Bosh, from fixing their Game 3 pick ‘n roll issues to switching in Game 4, establishing Howard in the post, focusing on Lewis/Hedo driving, PG penetration etc. Whenever they had a problem, they fixed it. The Raptors never bothered, they just hoped the Magic would miss.

There was one play tonight which showed just how unprepared and thoughtless the Raptors defense is. In the third quarter Carlos Delfino doubled Dwight Howard 12ft from the rim only to leave his man Keith Bogans wide open. Howard made an easy pass to Bogans for a three. That play told me that the Raptors have zero idea on how to double team and when to double team - a problem that was obvious in Game 1. What is the need to double team Howard that far out? Absolutely none. It’s sad to see that the Raptors still hadn’t grasped this simple concept this late in the series.

When you suffer a series loss such as this you have to question and evaluate a few things and on the top of the list is Chris Bosh. His late fourth quarter disappearing acts became the norm in the series. A lot of the problems with our clutch offense has to do with dumping the ball to Bosh and 4 guys watching him operate against Howard who forces him to take a low-percentage shot which has zero chance of being rebounded. Even so, its ultimately Bosh’s responsibility to be aggressive and not settle for mid-range jumpers, fadeaways and other such nonsense. The incentive to draw fouls on Howard should be more than enough for Bosh to immediately take Howard to the rim instead of dancing around and stepping back for 16 footers. I’m tired of Chuck and Leo continuing to praise Bosh’s mid-range game which is mediocre at best and far from being reliable. What I’m trying to get at is Bosh was passive in the late fourth quarter and failed to deliver in the clutch. I appreciate his defensive effort but it needed to be said.

Carlos Delfino’s late fourth quarter chuck tonight was equally as bad as his two late chucks in Game 4. When you have no discipline in your offense players feel like its up to them to “make a play” and it just so happened that Carlos felt a calling from God to make it happen. Unfortunately, he failed. TJ Ford tried to take the game over singlehandedly yet again and got suckered into one-on-one play against Jameer Nelson. Nelson wisely took advantage of the roaming Ford and hit his fair share of wide open jumpers - still haven’t figured out what Nelson needs to do for us to finally figure out that he can convert open looks. Calderon was no better in the series, he failed to turn the corner off of screens and never had the opportunity to take it to the rim because of Van Gundy’s middle-heavy defense - aka Howard. His best contribution in the series had to be his outside shooting which is welcome but he’s far more dangerous when he’s a threat to drive - the Magic did a great job of taking that away from him.

Andrea Bargnani is sick. He is allergic to rebounding, if you see him get a few rebounds in the box score its always because they fell right in his lap. He didn’t get a contested rebound all series and was never even a minute factor in any of the games. There were too many occasions where he was caught watching the play instead of being a part of it. I’m not sure what his summer school entails but I’m guessing a lot of it will have to do with technical matters such as footwork and shooting. What he really needs is somebody to inject him with some passion and intensity, I doubt that’s going to happen, if he’s as bad as this next year, we need to ship his ass out by the trading deadline or next summer. None of this 5-year plan bullshit.

So the Raptors keep the game close and choke in the fourth quarter as the Magic continue to drain threes and Dwight Howard continues to eat us alive on the boards and the paint. Nothing new to speak of here. The season is over and its one of the most disappointing ones ever. This was a failed season, we regressed from last year because the scouting reports caught up with us and we never addressed our needs from the end of last season - defense and rebounding. Bryan Colangelo has another chance to address those exact same needs this summer, maybe last year’s playoff blinded him a little but this year there is no doubt - he needs to fix this team. Status quo is not good.

Sam Mitchell needs to be relieved of his duties and a smarter and more disciplined coach needs to be brought in. Mitchell needs a lot of talent around him to be successful, we don’t have that. We need a coach who can help the players because we don’t have the players that can help the coach.

Thanks for reading the blog this year. I’ve enjoyed writing every post and appreciate every comment from all the posters. I’ll let you guys know what the off-season plans, I got some ideas and it should be fun. Either way, the posts will be flowing.