Nobody can really say they are surprised, can they? Good offense, bad defence, some good individual stats, bad +/-'s, okay home record, bad away record, strength of schedule = more losses than wins, bad on the back-end of B2B's, general frustration, blame getting misplaced, etc.. .500 by the end of December was optimistic, certainly a goal worth shooting for, but the team should still finish above .500 by the end of the year regardless. The panic button -- don't hit it until we see something unexpected.
soooo.....when do we hit the panic button? It's obvious this team wont win a championship. Maybe past the 1st round if we're lucky, but I dont see that happening tbh. The problem with this team is they never fully commit to their plan. They lose a bunch of game the first half, and then pick it up the 2nd half to miss the playoffs AND receive very few lottery balls. It's one or the other at this point, and right now, Chris Bosh's future in Toronto is dimming.
The thing with Bosh is--if he stays, fine; if he goes, it will probably be in a sign-and-trade and we'll get a little bit back. So, whatever. It's not like he's out there winning games for us. He's been as much a part of the problem as the others.
Bosh IMO is not an elite player, he's a very good player who needs talent around him to flourish. Not a bad thing, he just can't carry a team to success by himself, not many players can (KG, Pierce, Ray Allen come to mind in fact). If Bosh leaves, he'll most likely sign somewhere with another high level All-Star (Miami?) and he'll flourish and look good. This is a middle of the road team and I think they'll regret giving Turkey-glue the contract that they did.
I dunno, Turk is a role player. Not really a stats guy. He is better than most NBA starters and does a lot for the team. I don't think you can really blame him for our problems. It's clearly team defence that is letting us down.
I agree with this a little bit but the problem is, if Bosh leaves we won't have a star or 'go to player' left. If we can get something worthwhile in a sign and trade then fine but the more likely scenario is that we'll be left depending on the likes of Bargnani and Calderon to be our main guys and as much as like him Bargnani is not star material. Very few teams succeed without a star player. One that comes to mind is Detroit however they had great chemistry and were a great defensive team, something the Raptors clearly are not.
i actually think its worse than expected. why? we're losing to the beatable teams, i.e. memphis, the wizards and we arent even keeping it close against the good teams
They are in the range that I thought they would be. However less than .400 is on the lower end of my range of expectations. http://sportstwo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148001 We have so much invested in Bargs, Turkoglu, Calderon, Jack and we need defensive strength, shotblocking and rebounding so badly in the paint and neither Bosh or Bargnani give that. The sad part is, things will only get worse with our increasing contracts, and I thought this year we'd at least make the playoffs but future seasons would be more pathetic. But at this point I'm just repeating what I've already said.
I think this whole, we're gonna be the best offensive team ever philosophy really fucked with the raptors. Defense has become an after thought, they need an entire new regime if they want to turn this around.
I know I sound like a broken record, but defense and rebounding win basketball games. With all his big moves over the summer, Bryan Colangelo took a 33-win team that was already pretty bad on defense (22nd of 30), and made them into the worst defensive team, by far, in the entire 62-year history of the NBA. As I mentioned in the Atlanta game thread, the Raptors current DRtg (points allowed per 100 possessions) is now at 118.3. The all-time NBA record is 114.7. In spite of improved marginally individual rebounding by Bosh and Bargnani, your team rebounding is virtually unchanged from last season. Last year the Rap had a TRB% (total rebound percent) of 0.491. This year, they are at 0.493. So, Colangelo's off season moves didn't address the team's mediocre rebounding and made an already bad defense, far worse. BNM
The Kansas Jayhawks could beat this team. Why? Because they play defense and their coach can ummm, coach. I'm kinda kidding, but part of me is not. Kansas does everything Toronto doesn't, they rebound, the defend and they don't stand around.
