The Message

Mr. Colangelo put together a little message that was sent out to all the major media outlets last week. He said something a little different from “it’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under”, although he did point out that he was close to going there early in the season when the schedule was tough. But pointing at the tough schedule “wasn’t an excuse, it was a reality” Keepin’ it real Bryan. Keepin’ it real fo sho. And what a great way to make excuses without making excuses.

The biggest part of his message had to be this line: “I’m talking about not only a tweak, but in a big deal, we’re going to be a buyer, not a seller.”

My question is - who is this message directed at? Is it a message meant be heard loud and clear by all the pushers and pimps, those being the sad GM’s of teams in financial hardship? Is he meaning to make them very aware that the Raptors are ready to look at offers even if Bosh is off the table? Or is the message meant mainly for Chris Bosh …

Palindrome: the day before the day after

So I wake up and see that it’s 0102 2010. Same backwards and forwards. All those twenties and tens are nice to look at huh? I vaguely recall something about 2010 that had everyone’s interest for so long, but it’s not quite taking shape. Oh it’s there in my memory bank, but it’s not taking shape in reality as so many suggested for so long. 2010 is all about the twenties and the tens and little else, with 10 wins being the nicest of them all to look at.

With this palindrome day being followed up with Groundhog Day, I just have to applaud the backwards and forwards consistency of Chris Bosh. When Tim Duncan retires, I hope that Charles Barkley will be able to continue using the term to describe CB4. And I hope that he can still call him a Toronto Raptor, and that 10 win months keep piling up. This Groundhog Day is one that can be repeated over and over, gladly, from my vantage point. As long as he leads this team to the strong showing that seems all but apparent before the break, and …

Making Waves

Are we actually lucky to be Raptor fans?

Remember how awful and unfortunate it was to get the number one pick a year before the number one pick was going to be Greg Oden? I mean people were happy enough, but hoping Colangelo could trade down all the same, while ultimately envying the number one pick that was still a year away from eligibility. Maybe we all should have just been very happy and left it at that, because as things turn out, our guy has turned out pretty good, while the other guy that was supposed to set the world on fire has turned fewer heads then that crazy old man singing Pants on the Ground on American Idol. Oh - and there he is missing another season with his own pants on the ground, and surely happy now that Apple has come out with a tablet, because the Oden Penis app just wasn’t going to be properly handled by your regular iPhone.

And not only is our pick turning into a unique, consistent performer on both ends of the court, but he’s doing it with a pretty good team around him. Some young players …

Dog Days

These are the dog days of the NBA. Legs getting heavy. Effort needed as much as sheer talent. And leadership comes into play. If the Raptors can summon up the determination they showed here against the Bucks, then they should be able to take advantage of their schedule right up to the break. And they really need to if they want to hit the final stretch well-positioned. Teams like Charlotte and Chicago are playing well, and the Heat might get on a roll with the addition of Rafer. Hopefully the dog days will not be as kind to those guys as they can be for our guys.

The big dog that the team needs to get into the hunt, is obviously Hedo. Is he missing the incessant barking and howling of Stan Van? Now there’s a voice that auto-tune cannot fix! But maybe it’s the voice that keeps on calling Hedo. Ever since sitting to end the game in Cleveland, he looks a little more ready to just fight through a sustained stretch and worry a little less about his role. Jarrett Jack went through such a spell himself, although without quite the threat of …

Winning Big

Remember before Bosh was selected in ‘03, how badly the Toronto Raptors needed some credible, functional, viable size? Things might have even bottomed out completely in Bosh’s first season, when he played C with a banged up knee and a skinny frame, and there was no other real size to be had outside of the “Banger Brothers”. After that we saw the arrival of the Haffanator, who seemed like an evolutionary twist on the Huffman-Huffamazing. Actually the whole collection of bigs throughout the first half of the decade could all be lined up on a chart not unlike the one showing the link from ape to neanderthal to human, with the more human calibre of NBA talent appearing so rarely as to suggest a process as slow as evolution.

Finally we have found the missing link, or links actually. Bosh, Bargnani, Amir “Dirty Baby” Johnson, Rasho, and the pre-season wonder - Reggie Evans. Add to that the size of Hedo, and it is clear that this team can finally play big. But can they win big? Or is it simply a horrible irony that what teams need to win in the NBA today, is speed …

Black Clouds

I’m not sure what the extended forecast is for the next few days, but some of the black clouds that have descended need to show their silver linings.

Last season we saw the same sort of clouds forming over Jermaine O’Neal. Jay Triano has said that he knew the season was going be very difficult when he saw JO lobbying to change schemes to better suit him, three games into a three win season. I remember O’Neal talking at length about how he studied the tapes all night to see where he can get his game off more. When you witness hints of self-interest in veteran players that have their hearts in past glories, you can sense the storms brewing. This season we’re seeing something similar happening with Hedo Turkoglu. He wants to be in Orlando. He won in Orlando. He was close to being an All Star in Orlando, and when things mattered the most, he was the first option. Who wouldn’t want that? But he is not in Orlando, and he seems to have consoled himself by looking to increase his his personal status in this league, when he should be happy to …

Slapping and Chopping, Chopping and Slapping

.500. I called it. Ho hum. Now do we minimize the feat and point to it as the greatest sign of mediocrity? Or do we see a clean slate for real now? I see a team that is better than their record yet, and feel confident that it will continue to rise and emerge above even stevens.

I loved to see the team beating Orlando with Bosh putting in an average game. And I enjoyed seeing Bosh not try to force his game too much. I particularly liked seeing the whole team trust in their halfcourt abilities when so much defensive effort was going into stopping Bosh again. Bosh’s numbers might go down if opposing teams play the same way, but to me he looks like more of a leader, and part of a legitimate team under these circumstances. He looks like a better player when the team plays well as a whole, and scraps the need for early offense as a gimmicky means of getting the ball in everyone’s hands enough. Again - unlike with Boston - there were plenty of good shots, and this time - unlike with San Antonio - a good …

What Was Working on the Weekend?

Quite a weekend. It looked like the Raptors had made no real progress over the course of the season when they failed to take advantage of Boston’s injury problems. Had the five game winning streak just been illusory good fortune? Was there just no improvement to be had from this team?

Here’s the thing - the grounds for building upon improved defense have been there from the start of the season. Nothing has hurt this team quite as badly as transition points going the other way. They account for many a night where the opposing points in the paint advantage was obscenely large, since fast breaks almost always finish at the rim. Giving up too many points off turnovers and bad shots that lead to breaks going the other way has left this team with no chance to show where or how they can improve on defense on too many nights, leaving them unable to chart any real progress at all. And that was supposed to change in Boston. But it was a similar story yet again. Boston doesn’t need talent to lead you into the paint and then knock the ball loose and go …

A Clean Slate for the New Year

If the Raptors can beat a banged-up team in Boston, they will be at .500. OK good. In my head, as a fan, I’ll think of it as a whole new beginning. What I see from them right now is what I expected to see coming out of the gates. Unfortunately, they were that horse that put up a big fuss getting into their designated stall, and coming out of the gates was less than clean, with too much bucking and stuttering that might have come close to throwing the jockey altogether.

But the NBA is not a horse race. Of course the preferred metaphor is a marathon. And in a marathon there is a sense of getting a do-over if the energy can be mustered. They’ve already passed a few pretenders that got off to a much easier start, such as Milwaukee and Chicago, and put some distance between those seeds on the bubble. Now the Raptors have as many wins as the Heat, with Wade looking a little lost and a little chubby as Miami heads into a two-month uphill climb of their own. It should just be a matter of time, on …

How Many Licks?

I grew up with the Tootsy Pop and the classic Tootsy Pop commercials.

Boy: Mr. Turtle, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
Mr. Turtle: I’ve never even made it without biting. Ask Mr. Owl.
Boy: Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
Mr. Owl: Let’s find out. A One… A.two-HOO…A three..
(crunch sound effect)
Mr. Owl: A Three!
Narrator: How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
(crunch sound effect)
Narrator: The world may never know.

Now I don’t know if getting to a tootsie roll center is really worth much, but I do know that the Toronto Raptors need to stop counting the lickings and take a big bite out of a schedule that has finally given them a chance to perform as close to their best as can be possible for a team that still needs to figure out some things. They can have enough breathing space to figure some things out now, with a little more room for error, and time to recuperate and practice between games.

If they can …