What do guys think his chances are? I'm a big fan of his, but I'm skeptical at this point. Mitchell always plays favourites and the flipside to that is that he can really get on a player once he's made up his mind about them (eg: Morris Peterson last season). Its early, but I think he's doubting his recovery from the injury and is unwilling to take a chance on him. Also, we have even more depth this season than I expected. Jamario Moon's come out of nowhere and, facotring in Joey Graham's eventual return, I think we can effectively rule him out of the small forward position (Kapono, Delfino, Moon, Graham). I originally envisioned him as our backup 4, providing some scoring when Bosh went to the bench but it looks like Humphries has really stepped up and earned Smitch's confidence. I think he deserves his minutes, but as always, you have to question how much he can contribute on offense. The second part to the question is how much of an impact do you think Garbajosa can make. I'll admit that he's looked unimpressive in the minutes that he's played. He's been a step slow on D and one-dimensional on offense but honestly its hard to read to much into garbage minutes.</p>
I think he might, but it will be tough. When we were losing to Utah, I though a tough defender like Garbo could hold down Boozer for a few plays. I really do want him worked in to the rotation more because a guy like him, can be so valuable and can sway an opinion of a guy like Jose Calderon. So we really need Garbo happy and we need to to help us win.</p>
It depends, can he regain his lost step? Garbo is not the same player he was last season, he just looked hungrier before. I hope we can have him back in the rotation because I think he can bring a lot of things the Raps need. I still think Smitch plays the guy that he feels executes the team's strategy the best, we might not agree but we're not inside the practices either.</p>
Yes... Garbajosa is a good player, but not the same as last year. I am a strong believer that he can be better than last year if we give him a chance, but he won't even get close to how he was last year if we don't play him!!</p> I get the feeling Garbo has really been working out hard in an attempt to get back on this starting line up, because although he was injured and not able to work hard during that time, he has really slimmed down!! Give him some reps and you'll see that he will be alot quicker than last year!</p> But... Now with the rise of the Moon, I can't see how he'll get his chance!</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>There were long faces in the Raptors locker room Wednesday night and the chief brooders weren't the guys who clanked the shots and coughed up the turnovers in a loss to the Utah Jazz.</p> The saddest eyes belonged to a guy who didn't play a tick, Jorge Garbajosa. A season after being mythologized as a team-first glue guy, the Spaniard appeared well on his way to becoming a woe-is-me, locker-room bring-down.</p> Garbajosa, still struggling to find his game in the wake of the horrific March injury that fractured his left fibula and shredded his ankle, hasn't played in the Raptors' past two games.</p> Though he started 60 games last year and contributed gamely to a club that won 47 games, he hasn't shown an ounce of evidence that he remains the indispensable force of a season ago.</p> Not surprisingly, he hasn't played more than 13 minutes in a single outing this season.</p> And he hasn't exactly embraced his role as an end-of-the-bench fixture with towel-waving enthusiasm. Instead, he has sulked. It's hard to imagine the story ending well if the pattern continues. Having Garbajosa hang his head isn't helping anyone.</p> Alas, the solution isn't obvious.</p> The surgery once recommended by the club's medical staff – the surgery that Garbajosa, acting on advice from the Spanish side of Atlantic, opted against so he could play in September's European championships in his hometown of Madrid – isn't an imminent option.</p> Doctors, after all, are often loath to cut open patients who claim to be bereft of pain and symptom free, as Garbajosa insists he is.</p> Still, if his game seems more tentative than it did last year, perhaps it's because his left ankle, when he removed his sneakers the other day, looked to be the size of a small cantaloupe, bloated like the rest of his lower left leg.</p> And perhaps it's because he is well aware that his fibula, when last x-rayed around the beginning of training camp, still hadn't fully healed.</p> On a practice court in Italy, Bryan Colangelo, the general manager, told reporters that there was, according to doctors, a "99 per cent chance" that the bone would not mend without further surgery.</p> So his leg's likely still broken. The infamous $1 million insurance policy that allowed him to play in the European championship is up on Nov. 30.</p> And after that, since insuring him looks to club insiders like a prohibitively expensive proposition, the team will be on the hook for the approximately $8 million remaining on his contract. And that can't thrill management.</p> It's a mess that begs revisiting his summertime decision. Why was it so important for him to take the court when his country had already won an automatic berth into the 2008 Beijing Games?</p> You can make an argument that Garbajosa put his NBA career at risk, and went against his team's vehement wishes, in the name of his ego. He wanted to be a part of a home-soil victory. He wanted to be one of the kings of Madrid for a month. He got at least part of his wish (and a silver medal). Now his career is at a standstill, perhaps as a direct result, and the Raptors are the lesser for it.</p> If you're a Raptors fan, it's hard to embrace him for putting his team's concerns so far behind his own and his country's. It's not that athletic patriotism isn't fun and stirring and often admirable. But given the circumstances, given his injury, given that the tournament didn't come with Olympic implications, it was, then and now, difficult to see the wisdom in Garbajosa's insistence. If you'd like to glimpse the slump-shouldered consequence, keep an eye on the end of the bench tonight.</div></p> <p align="center">Source: Toronto Star</p> <p align="justify">Wow, I didn't know it was that fragile. And the expiring insurance policy didn't even cross my mind.</p>
It seems like the Raps want to encourage him to get surgery. He is stubborn as hell, as you would expect an old vet to be, so we are playing with fire. Especially considering our relationship with Calderon.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Mitchell's late alterations – Garbo in, Andrea Bargnani out, the point guards in a fourth-quarter reversal of fortunes – and the team's best shooting at home since the opening night of the still-young season, powered the Raptors to a 110-101 victory over the Indiana Pacers that halted a three-game home losing streak and delighted a sellout crowd.</p> "That's what we've been saying all season, that's the best thing about our team, we can play many people," said Calderon, who finished with 15 points and 10 assists, splitting time with Ford almost 50-50. "Everybody is ready to play, everybody knows our role in the team and we have to keep playing this way. Every game is important for everybody because we know how the coach is. Everybody has to be ready to play."</p> That included Garbajosa, who some had written off as done for eternity, and Maceo Baston, whose first minute of action this season came on the opening tip.</p> Both responded as professionals will, with solid efforts that while not spectacular were efficient enough to be critical. Garbajosa, who got in the game mainly because Bargnani got three fouls in five minutes and never played again, finished with eight points and six rebounds in 24 minutes while Baston gave Toronto 18 minutes of more than adequate play as a replacement for the injured Rasho Nesterovic.</p> "It was really important, just to show people he's still Jorge Garbajosa," said Chris Bosh, whose 22-point night included 12 from the foul line. "He works hard in every practice, he hasn't lost a step."</p> Garbajosa, who goes through life with a substantial level of bemusement about everything, wasn't buying into the whole retribution for benching; watch me, I can still play storyline that would have been so easy to develop.</p> "I don't feel myself that important that I have to open the eyes of anybody," he said. "I just do my job. It is easy. When I come into the court, I try to do the best I can.</p> "Sometimes I play more, sometimes I don't play, but it's not my job to choose when I play. My job is to go and be ready for when I hear my name and try to do a good job on my court."</div></p> <div align="center">Source: Toronto Star</div> </p> You got to love that attitude. Jorge just seems to embody professionalism. And Doug Smith's subtle shot at yesterday's Dave Feschuck article was kind of funny too.</p>
