Added a couple of quality links today (down the right side), Raptorblog and Caldeford. Raptorblog being incredibly thorough, with tons of links, of note today this hilarious Smitch playbook thread (I've pasted one of my favs below). Caldeford seems to focus on statistical anomalies... which should be right up Steeles alley.
Today I went to this special sale in the Raptors locker room, which was pretty frickin cool. Picked up a barney t-shirt, a stupid raptor puppet thing, raptor wrapping paper, and a Chuck Swirsky bobble head for 19 bone... score.
On the topic of bobble-heads, Jose Calderon bobble-head night was last Wednesday. I ended up with two Garbo's at last years Garbo and Jose bobble-head night last year. This years Jose was a little disappointing... last years had bobble-hands doing the Spanish onions which is pretty much the coolest bobble-head ever. However, I'm fairly satisfied with my lineup now with today's addition of the Swirsk.
***After some serious technical difficulties, I gave up on my lineup photo. As consolation here's a pic of the creepy lifesize bobble-head at the ACC... moving on...
Big day for Amac, pictured below sitting in Humps locker today...
On the topic of Hump, Grange's got an upcoming guest blogging session from our resident meathead goofball. Be sure to email in your burning questions.
And now to the business. I have to say I think I disagree with pretty much everything Steele said in his last post.
"...Jamario, Parker, Calderon, O'Neal and Kapono are not playing anywhere near their potential."
1) Jamario's problem is simple, he wastes possessions by jacking too many 3's (making 37%), when he could put the ball on the floor. But, more importantly he heaves these shots early in the shot clock when they could easily find a better look, and wastes probably 3-4 possessions a game. Who's to blame for this? Does Sam think this is a good idea? Or is he just letting it continue?
2) Parker, as we all know, spends most of the game defending the leagues top talent, while everybody else stands around waiting to get scored on. Again, team defence? Not Sam?
3) Calderon, admittedly not playing at the top of his game, turning the ball over and not shooting nearly as consistently as he did last year, but hes a step behind with the hamstring... however he's still averaging almost 14&10.
4) O'Neal, I'd argue, aside from the injury, is pretty much where you'd want him to be. He could produce a little more offensively, but this will improve into the season as he gets more comfortable with his body and the team.
5) Kapono, hell ya he not paying to potential, but he also barely plays. If you've got the deadliest 3-point shooter in the league on your team and your not getting him in the game and drawing up plays for him, who's fault is that? Also, he might be the worst defender in the league.
And in terms of body language, I'm with ya, but could that not be symptomatic of the coaching situation as well? Check out what Simmons has to say about Chris Paul and Byron Scott.
And at the end of the day I'm not trying to hate on Smitch, like I said, I think this team is now better than its coach and if they want to be a serious contender by 2010 they need an upgrade in culture.
Anyhow, "big" game tonight. Kind of a fun start time. Realistically, I've looked beyond this one days ago...
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