<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">There were times last season when Raptors coach Sam Mitchell wanted to hug Joey Graham, and there were times when he wanted to strangle Joey Graham. Often, Mitchell wanted to do both in the same game. The dominant trait that has marked Graham's time during his two seasons in Toronto has been inconsistency. Late in the 2006-07 campaign, Graham was a force at the small forward position. In his last six games (Graham missed the final two games of the regular season with the flu), the second-year forward averaged 13.3 points and played well defensively. But he struggled in the playoffs. Graham often followed a solid performance during the regular season with an indifferent one and that drove Mitchell around the bend, as there is no more athletic player on the roster. More than that, Graham clearly demonstrated in a handful of games that he has more than ample ability to play regularly in the NBA. But it seems a light has gone on. Graham vowed yesterday that inconsistency no longer will rule his game. Unlike the summer following his rookie season (2005-06), the former Oklahoma State star said that he is not going to take any time off this summer from training and, more importantly, from playing basketball. Graham, 25, acknowledged he is getting sick and tired of hearing about how much potential he has, as he realizes potential will go only so far in the NBA and that this is a key year in terms of whether he establishes himself or if he falls back to another level. "I think this could be the break-out season for me and I'm very optimistic heading towards training camp," said Graham, who was present for the unveiling of a Habitat for Humanity housing project in Scarborough yesterday. "I want to sustain how I finished off this (past) season. I felt at a certain point, halfway through the season, that I started to pick up my intensity and level of play. So I'd like to carry that over and progress to beyond the level I finished up with." </div> <div align="center">Source: Toronto Sun</div>
If Graham can be a key contributor off the bench, that would be HUGE. We would have great depth at the 2 and the 3 positions with Parker/Delfino and Garbajosa/Graham if Graham and Delfino can produce (and if Graham doesn't get traded).
We've all seen glimpses of what he can do but then he just ends up disappointing us again. We really can't afford to just let him run around and make mistakes anymore like this past season. I'm ready for him to be traded. We need someone more consistent.
Joey 95% of the time is a hard player to watch. He looks lost on the court. maybe he shouldve played football.
<div class="quote_poster">Nasty Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">He said pretty much the EXACT same thing last summer!!</div> Very true. The man's dribbling is just so god awful. All of the offensive skills, the body and everything is there, but that's useless if you can't dribble the ball.
We've all seen flashes, I'm just tired of waiting, time for him to go. He was supposed to be that guy, that great SF. To me he is to stiff, a bad dribbler, streaky shooter, not enough confidence and to jump happy. To me is just not good enough to start or play big minutes yet. Send him to the Lakers, they need some young guys and him and Bynum can develop to be what the GM's wanted those players to be but are on a thine line of being a BUST even though Graham wasn't that big, I still think of him as that.
