The IKTS WRR #2

I have a confession to make. I can be a very lazy person, I put things off, I find reasons not to do things and I procrastinate like nobody you know. This is probably why it took me so long to ever start trying something like this, and is definitely why I went a week without writing anything. But if you (and by you I mean that guy from Hunter River who may or may not have been here more than once) can forgive me I will continue onward.

It was a big and imposing week for the Raptors. Four games against four good teams heading into the All-Star break. Win and they can keep the momentum they've had and, hopefully, roll on into the playoffs. But if they struggled doubts could begin to creep in. Are we really this good? Why can't we beat the good teams? Long story short, it was a very big test for the Raptors and they came through with flying colors.

RAPTORS 96 over LAKERS 92
The first part of the test for the Raptors was the suddenly much improved Lakers. Kobe is playing better team basketball, and Andrew Bynum is emerging as a rare true center in the NBA. The Lakers were coming in off a beat down style loss to the Pistons, so the game could go one of two ways. Either they come out strong and determined, or flat and depressed.

The Lakers chose the latter, but so to did the Raptors. I had wondered what would happen when the Raptors finally switched back to T.J. starting, Jose coming off the bench, and this was the game. They came out completely flat, took too many jumpers and scored 16 points in the 1st quarter. The Raptors seemed to find their way after that, and had a 9 point lead when Ford came in for Calderon in the 4th. That lead evaporated quickly, the game got close, but the Raptors pulled it out down the stretch.

PISTONS 98 over RAPTORS 92
This was a rare Saturday night Raptors game, which translated into me not seeing it because I was "busy". It was a tough game for the Raptors, a back to backer, on the road, against probably the best team in the East. If they won this one they could definitely consider themselves among the leagues elite. But in losing as closely they did the Raps shouldn't really get too down. Detroit is a great team, rested, at home, and the Raps took them to the wire.

Looking at the stats, Rasheed Wallace had a great game (28 and 7) while Bosh struggled (5-15 FG's). The Pistons were quoted as saying that they used their veteran sense to help them pull out the win at the end. Hopefully in 2-3 years we'll hear the Raptors saying the same thing after winning a game after pulling out a win in the 4th.

RAPTORS 112 over BULLS 111
This was an interesting game for me to watch. I had taped the game, knowing I was going out, but while out I accidently saw the score. I still watched the game the next day, but knowing that the Raptors would win let me focus less on cheering and more on just watching parts of the game. Not that I learned anything especially interesting, it was just a different way to watch.

The Raptors always struggle against the Bulls, I can't find the number but I think its something like 15 in a row that the Bulls have won coming in to this one. But tonight was a different story, tonight the Raptors played their quality basketball, and tonight when it came down to it the Raptors pulled out the victory. All this in while Luol Deng and Ben Gordon put on an absolute clinic on the way to play midrange basketball (they combined for 56 points with only 2 3's). All this despite T.J., again, struggling down the stretch in the 4th (see the Laker game and probably the Piston game too) blowing a 12 point lead. It was a win against a good team, and it guaranteed a split on the 4 tough games before the All-Star break.

RAPTORS 120 over NETS 109
Now that we got to the game, this Nets game no longer looked nearly as tough as it had earlier in the week. Jason Kidd went down with back problems, and with Richard Jefferson already out it left Vince as the only 1 of the big 3 playing. The Raptors doubled Vince, and made the other Nets try to beat them. For a while it looked like they'd make a game of it with Bostjan Nachbar and Eddie House making seemingly every shot they took, but they would slow down and the Raptors won it with ease.

Offensively the Raptors played the fantastic, beautiful team basketball that they've been showing glimpses of lately. The ball moved where it's supposed to, they made the open shots, and everyone was involved. Seven players finished in double figures, including 6 with 15+. Defensively they could have done a better job on Nachbar/House, but overall they put the game away and left for the break knowing they had just beat down their closest competitor in the Atlantic.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Enough with the MVP chants for Bosh. I love Chris Bosh, but he's not an MVP calibre player yet and there's nothing wrong with that. It just feels stupid to hear fans cheering for an award we don't deserve.
• The Raptors held Kobe to 56 points less than the last time he was in Toronto.
• The Bulls just need a big who can give them something on the offensive end to be really good.
• There is nothing more fun as a Raptors fan, than watching Vince Carter sulk around as he loses a game.
  

New Feature - The IKTS WRR

As I mentioned it the last post its becoming hard to come up with idea's to write about. And then it struck me like sledgehammer to the pinkie toe (only less painfully), why not start a weekly themed column? On what I asked myself? While, why not your favorite teams? You could have 2 running columns, one on the Leafs and one on the Raptors. Genius I said to myself, pure genius. So without further ado I give you the inagural Ike Krizzule Talks Sports Weekly Raptor Report (or the IKTS WRR).

So for the purposes of this week I'll try and contain the main portion of my discussion to the week that was February 1st to the 8th, and contained the Hawks, Clippers and Magic games. In the future, now that I've planned out the idea of this column, I'll have better analysis of the games and whatnot. Right now its just me looking back and trying to remember, the future is in note taking during the games I see.

TORONTO 103 over ATLANTA 91
I managed to catch the 1st half of this game, then it was a Friday night and I went out to do Friday night type things. I wasn't worried about the game, though, the Raptors were up 63-46 and were clearly overpowering the Hawks. The Raptors have come together as a team over the past 1-2 months, while the Hawks continue to be a group of mismatched parts.

It looks like the Raptors eased of the accelerator in the 2nd Half, but that 1st Half was what I was waiting for them to do in the past in games against teams like the Celtics and the Hornets (w/o Chris Paul). They put the hammer down, they let the Hawks know early that they were outmatched, and they coasted to an easy win.

TORONTO 122 over LOS ANGELES (C) 110
Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of this one live (although I did watch the game in an hour), due to it being Sunday morning and me sleeping like a baby (that had to much to drink). From what I remember from the game in an hour, and what the box score tells me, the Raptors continued to run their unselfish offense (6 guys in double figures) and the Clippers didn't play enough defense. Both teams were on fire from 3, but the Raptors shot it much better from the field and the foul line to control the game. Still give these new Raptors credit, the Raptors of last year would have let the Clippers back into it in the 4th, and then struggled to close the game out or lost. These Raptors confidently made shots all game, responded to any Clippers run, and did what they had to do to get the W.

TORONTO 113 over ORLANDO 103
Finally a game I watched, start to finish, in regular time. This was a meeting of 2 very talented young big men, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard (more on this later), but also a meeting of 2 teams who look to be taking steps forward this year. In Orlando's defense they were without 4 regulars (Grant Hill, Tony Battie, Kenyon Dooling and Trevor Ariza. In Toronto's defense the only 1 of those 4 who might have made a difference is Hill, and if Orlando's banking on Hill to be healthy they are in big trouble.

It was one of those game the Raptors have been having lately where the other team hangs around, but the whole time you feel confident the Raptors are going to pull it out. The Raptors lead never got too big, and they rarely trailed, but you just felt that come the 4th quarter they'd put something together and win the game. It's a completely different feel than Raptors fans are used to, and I like it. The Magic hung around all game, Howard was a beast and other guys made shots, but the Raptors won the 4th by 9 and took the game easily.

Now like I said, it was a battle between 2 of the best young big guys in the world ... and they put on a show. Howard had a career high 32 points, on 13-14 shooting, to go with 9 boards. Bosh had a career high 41, to go with 8 boards. In terms of net results it looks like this one easily goes to Bosh, but its tough to say. Bosh had 2 fantastic point guards feeding him the ball (Ford and Calderon each finished with 11 assists) and a team that understood to keep feeding him the ball in the 4th. Howard had a team somehow unanaware that he was making every shot he took, and had to work much harder for many of his points. They are 2 different players, with different skill sets, so its difficult to compare them against each other. For me its much more fun to imagine what they could do on the court together.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• That Josh Smith is one heck of a player for Atlanta, he's better every time I see him play.
• Somethings wrong with the Clippers. I don't know what it is, but they don't look like the same team that almost beat the Suns in the playoffs last year.
• Darko Milicic could be a player if he could get some minutes somewhere. He's a RFA this summer, could be interesting to see if he can finally go somewhere that will use him.
• Garbojosa's jumper looks much improved lately. Its got more arc, and just looks better coming out. I still think he might shoot a bit too much, but at least I'm not yelling at him through the T.V. every time he shoots now.
• The Raptors are getting some exceptional PG play by sharing time with Calderon and Ford. It'll be interesting to see what happens when T.J.'s ankle is feeling 100%
  

Reflecting on Babcock

We had another first over the weekend that I managed to miss until recently. Our friend from Italy became the first return visitor to Ike Krizzule Talks Sports. That, combined with the visitors we've had clicking on the link from my signature in my posts over on RaptorBlog (a site with well done articles, and good discussion), has made me think may be its time for another Raptor post. So here it is:

The Toronto Raptors are starting to take huge steps forward this season, and after years of struggling may finally be a playoff team again. Now much of the recognition will go to new GM Bryan Colangelo, and rightly so he's done a fantastic job, but I maintain that the work of Rob Babcock helped set the team up to make these moves.

Shortly after Babcock took the job it became apparent that he didn't really have room to do anything. The Raps, under the Grunwald era, had mispent their way to being up against the cap with little to show for it. When Vince Carter made his trade demands, after dogging it for months, it became clear to me that Babcock would probably be fired before he ever got a chance to prove his worth. Now looking back at his moves, I'll attempt to show that while he might not have been the best GM in the world he wasn't the laughingstock that some would make him out to be.

1. Drafting Rafael Araujo
This is the one that gets Babcock in some trouble. Araujo never did (and probably never will) develop into a good NBA player. But, in Babcocks defense:
a) the 2004 draft was probably one of the weakest in recent memory
b) the Raptors had Carter, Jalen Rose and Morris Peterson at the SG/SF positions, but only Donyell Marshall and a young Chris Bosh in the post. The 2004 draft (outside of the top 2 Dwight Howard and Emeka Okafor) was even weaker when it came to big men. Al Jefferson and Andris Biedrins would have been better picks, but both were 18 at the time and the Raptors needed someone to play minutes immediately.
c) Babcock was hired shortly before the draft and didn't have the kind of time other GM's had to prepare for the draft.
Colangelo moved Araujo for Kris Humphries, another 2004 draftee, who has become a bottom end rotation big man for the Raptors

2. Signing Rafer Alston
The Raptor also needed a point guard, and with the little money they did have Babcock found one in Rafer Alston ($4M/season). Alston had his problems, he seemed to be a bit of a headcase and clashed with coach Sam Mitchell, but did provide decent play at the point. He averaged 14 points and 6 assists, about average for an NBA point guard.
Babcock moved Alston after his first year for Mike James

3. The Carter trade
Early into Babcock's first year it was clear that Vince Carter wanted out of Toronto. After playing poorly enough to destroy his trade value, and convince everyone that his knees might never allow him to play at the level we had been accustomed to seeing him, Vince demanded a trade. Other NBA GM's, like sharks smelling blood, waited out trying to steal Vince from this 1st year GM. Eventually Babcock took the best offer he recieved and trade Vince to the Nets for Eric Williams, Aaron Williams, Alonzo Mourning, and 2 1st Round picks. Not the greatest return, but when a star player demands to be traded and has tanked for the past year or 2 its impossible to get market value (see the Sixers/Nuggets Iverson trade). Most of the Babcock criticism comes from this trade, but to the critics I say you'll never win a title with a player of Vince Carter's character, so good ridance to him.
Eric Williams never played to his ablities with Toronto and was included in the Rasho Nesterovich trade
Aaron Williams gave some big man minutes and was traded for a 2nd Rounder
Alonzo Mourning refused to report to Toronto, but was bought out saving cap space
Joey Graham was the net of 1 of the 1st rounders, the other was traded to the Knicks with Jalen Rose to clear cap space

4. Drafting Charlie Villanueva
Much criticized at the time of the pick, because criticizing Babcock was the thing to do, Charlie-V went on to have a great rookie year (finishing 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting). It was a good draft but Villanueva was definitely a very good selection at #7.
Charlie was since traded to the Bucks for T.J. Ford

5. Drafting Joey Graham
Joey shows flashes of brilliance, but hasn't been able to break out yet. He's currently a good solid rotation player for the Raptors, with the potential to develop into a decent starter if he's ever able to get it all together. Looking back at the draft Joey was a good (not great, but not bad) pick at #16.

6. Signing Jose Calderon
Babcock saw something he liked in Spainard Jose Calderon and signed him relatively cheap (I can't find the information, but I seem to remember something like $1.5M/year). Jose struggled a bit adjusting to the NBA game, and the English language, his 1st season. Now, in his 2nd year, he looks much more confident on the court and gives the Raptors one of the best back up PG's in the league. He may even challenge T.J. Ford for starter minutes as the season progresses.

7. Trading Alston for James
Alston and Mitchell didn't seem like they could co-exist any longer. Babcock was able to move Alston for Mike James, who provided the Raptors with a season of career numbers before bolting for greener pastures. A good trade by Babcock, getting something of value for something he needed to get rid of.

There were more in there (Matt Bonner, Loren Woods, etc.), but I think I've typed more than long enough for now. In my analysis of Babcock I would say that he made 2 bad, although defensible, moves that led to all criticism (Araujo and Carter), 2 really good moves (Villanueva and Calderon), and 3 O.K moves (Graham and Alston --> James). He also helped clear the cap space that Colangelo was able to come in and use (Jorge Garbojosa, Anthony Parker and Fred Jones) to improve the team's overall depth. I won't argue that we aren't better off with Colangelo now, I think he's the best GM in the league. I just wanted to try to show that Babcock didn't deserved to be considered terrible either. His performance was about average, and there's plenty of teams out there who have a whole lot worse than average at that position right now.

Will the Raps Heart Go On in the Titanic Division or Is This Just A Stupid Long Title

No real current news that I feel like talking about so it must be time to write a random article about my favorite basketball team and their chances of playing into the playoffs for the first time since 2002. The Raptors currently sit tied with the New Jersey Nets (although ahead on winning percentage) in the Atlantic Division. So they could make the playoffs if they manage to hold on to the Atlantic lead or if they play well enough (.500 should do it) that they pick up one of the 8 spots in the East.

The Atlantic is wide open this year, with 2 teams basically out of the race already. The Sixers have traded away Iverson, bought out Webber, and are basically doing everything but take out full page ads in the paper explaining to their fans that they're tanking in hopes of winning the Greg Oden lottery. The Celtics are struggling, and will be without Paul Pierce for the next few weeks. Expect them to fall back in the standings, and the fact that they aren't very good should keep them from coming within 10 games of .500 for the rest of the season.

Somehow, someway, Isiah Thomas has the Knicks playing better basketball this season. They currently sit 17-22, and only 1 game back of the Raptors in the Atlantic. Eddie Curry is playing the best basketball of his life, David Lee is a great rebounding roleplayer, and Isiah seems to have worked out roles for everyone. But, this is still (mostly) the same team that went 23-59 last season. Eventually Curry will get lazy, Marbury and Crawford will start chucking, and guys will start complaining about minutes. The Raptors can take them.

Lastly there's the Nets, everyones pre-season pick to take the Atlantic. And rightly so, they've won the Atlantic for the last 5 seasons and returned the same cast as last season. But the Nets hit a major setback when Nenad Krstic, their best post player, tore his ACL. Vince Carter continues to score (his knees got miraculously better when tradeed from Toronto), but Richard Jefferson's stats have taken a huge dive at a time when his team needs him the most. Right now Jason Kidd is holding the team together, but will a potentially messy divorce hurt his play or lead to a trade?

So why not the Raptors? Their play has gotten better as the season goes on. Chris Bosh is devoloping into a fantastic rebounder, to go along with his other exceptional talents. The newcomers from the Euro-League (Bargnani, Garbojosa and Parker) are learning the NBA game and what they can do over here. And, after struggling with a tough early schedule (they had played the most road games out of anyone), they're finally coming home and playing easier opponents. If the Raptors can continue to play the way they have since Bosh's return from injury (5-3, with 2 close loses to Phoenix and Dallas) there's no reason they can't finish around 45 wins. The Atlantic division and/or a playoff spot are there for the taking Toronto, so go out and catch that beautiful butterfly.