takman_777

well, here are some thoughts about last nights game after a good nights rest and some guitar playing to soothe the pain!

The Raptors seemed to have no answer for Tayshaun Prince who had 27 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. He was a bother to the front court off the double team and was a pest on the perimeter. He plays the game some feel Jamario Moon would be capable of playing should he ever become a consistant scoring threat! Prince was allowed to shoot over screens all night long and if you pressured him off the screen he took it to the whole as the weak side rotation broke down way too much to contain such a superb athlete.

Rasheed Wallace was able to get into Jermaine O'Neal's head and stayed there the whole game! he pestered him off the ball continuously so when he did get the ball, he was pretty much brain mush to play! 11 points and 12 rebounds were enough to be the difference and his Magic pass to i think Walter Herrmann was a pleasure to watch. i am not sure why he is seldom mentioned as a top level all-star contender!

The Pistons guard situation has suddenly become very much a top rotation in the east! last night Rodney Stuckey showed himself as a top 10 guard in this league! when Allen Iverson plays, Stuckey will get less minutes but with Richard Hamilton sharing minutes with both, this back court will outplay most teams most nights.

Amir Johnson is an adequate replacement for Antonio McDyess and with Jason Maxiell giving solid minutes, this Piston team is easily 10 players deep again this year! Chauncey Billups brought it every night! i know AI will also and he will add scoring to a team that is already averaging 100 points every game! I think the Celtics and the Cavaliers and the Magic and the Hawks will find out what we did last night! this is a very solid, balanced team! they won't be outplayed at any one position by any team - even Kobe Bryant and the Lakers!

as for my Raptors, Chris Bosh was playing very much alone last night in the front court! he had little room to move yet still scored 26 and grabbed 13 boards while JO could only score 8. Andrea Bargnani looked good adding 12 points and 4 rebounds but looked out of place on defense as he could not seem to adjust to the correct man in the rotation and gave up too many easy buckets as guys ran past him! Jose Calderon played a solid game scoring 24 and adding 8 assists. it is tough to keep passing to guys who don't want to work at getting open! Jason Kapono was a non-factor and he needed to step in and open the floor with some outside pressure but he was covered all night by a team that knows how to rotate to the perimeter. i can't think of too many times the Raptors had wide open looks off a pass in the offense! Will Solomon played well, but i think they kept him in too long in the second and i think it cost us the game as the Pistons went up by 16 and we could never recover. we came close, but we couldn't get there.

overall, we rebounded the ball okay defensively but gave up 10 offensive boards and were -4 on that stat. losing by 3 baskets, we see how critical those were. we were also -4 in turnovers! against a team like the Pistons, ball control is critical! hopefully we can learn how much 1 turnover and 1 rebound can be and move on. as i stated before the game, a #4 ranking was a bit premature. i still think this team has a lot of work to do before they can compete night in and night out with the top 5 teams in the league, but they are getting closer!

So, after the first 3 games of the 2008-09 season, we find the Raptors at 3-0 tied with the Lakers and the Rockets and the Hornets with the same record. I know it is early and that we beat “weaker” teams in the 76ers and the Warriors and the Bucks, but it is still a good start to a year that was to see them fall down the Eastern Conference standings with the rise of the Hawks and the 76ers and the recovery of the Bulls. This was the season that the Cavaliers were to dominate the East with LeBron James over-powering every team he played. So far, we see in the East that the Raptors are 3 – 0 and the Hawks are 2 – 0 as are the Pistons, who were supposed to be too old to compete!

I think one thing we are seeing this year is a general upgrade in the over-all play of all the teams! I have seen a trend toward tough interior defense and forcing teams to shoot outside. That has been the formula the Raptors have used so far this year. The game against the Warriors showed us that this team can run with teams and wear them down even with an 8 man rotation, this team does not lose a lot with the “second unit” on the floor. Well, the second unit has at times shown us Andrea Bargnani, who is scored 19 against the Warriors, but is averaging 5 rebounds a game and a little better than 2 blocks a game off the bench! It was his play in the 4th quarter of the Warriors game that helped tie the game with a couple key blocks. He did the same in the Bucks game! Should he continue to score and get closer to 10 or 11 points per game off the bench, this team will be very hard to match up with. Sam Mitchell has become fond of sticking either Jermaine 0’Neal or Chris Bosh in with the rest of the second wave with Joey Graham or Jason Kapono and Roko Ukic who has quickly become a solid presence on the floor. These minutes he can play and develop his calm steady play will only help this team in the spring as Jose Calderon can keep his legs fresh! The play of Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker has been welcomed to say the least. It is good to see Jamario not drift when he is not scoring and has been rewarded with 10 points, 2 assists, 2 blocks and about 2 steals a game. Anthony Parker has been playing some of the best ball he has played in a Raptors uniform dropping 14 points per game and averaging 2 rebounds, 2 assists and nearly 4 steals a game. Against the tough inside game of the Bucks on a night when Jermaine could not get moving, Calderon and Parker combined for 36 points and 12 assists. The margin of victory was 4 points and the Jose and Anthony out scored Michael Redd and Ramon Sessions by 5!!!

This team so far this season has focused on team defense! Sam and Chris Bosh have committed themselves to this style and we saw in the overtime win against the very short benched and very tired Warriors that this style can and will wear opponents down! A 6 – 0 run to start the OT with 3 steals by the Raptors sealed the win!

This week, we face the 2 – 0 Detroit Pistons who are coming off a 117 – 100 win over the Wizards and the not too surprising Atlanta Hawks who are 2 – 0 after beating the Magic in Orlando and the 76ers at home. The Hawks play the Hornets on Wednesday night and that should be a fun game to watch with Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler and David West hosting them. The Hawks offer Joe Johnson averaging 30 points a game, Mike Bibby and Josh Smith averaging 15 each. Al Horford is young and should be a very active presence underneath giving our front court all they can handle!

The Pistons bring their starting 5 of the past 4 or 5 seasons I think of Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Chauncey Billups and Antonio MacDyess or Jason Maxiell. Walter Hermann I think is playing good right now, but I think they will present Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo and Kwame Browne and suddenly, the team that is too old is 10 or 11 deep! I would love to see the Raptors win both of these games and they could, but they will have to play spectacular team defense and NOT turn the ball over 19 times!

So far this year, the Raptors have played steady ball control ball. That has proven very successful. This week we shall see how committed this team is to the team game at both ends of the floor! After the Hawks, we will see the Bobcats, the Celtics and the 76ers again, this time at home. This young season starts with some critical divisional games and so far they are on top with the Hawks. This next week will be very much a litmus test for the conference.

Here are my thoughts on the play of the team so far!

Chris Bosh – averaging 42 minutes, 26 points, 10 rebounds and almost 4 assists per game! I am beginning to agree with the MVP threads I have seen on these boards! He has played unselfish ball leading the team in all aspects of the game. He has made some tough plays on defense, has distributed to the open man after he gets the ball where he wanted it keeping his team mates playing at both ends, he has played well when on the floor with the so-called second line which is a term I am beginning to look to replace! His intensity at both ends has allowed Jermaine O’Neal room to move again. Over all, Bosh’s play should be considered among the elite in the league.

Jermaine O’Neal – averaging 11 points and 7 rebounds as well as 3 assists a game. He has brought a breath of life to this front court by creating 2 double team options low. He is struggling a bit on offense, but he has averaged 2 blocks a game and is a defensive force to be sought when entering the key. He has provided the presence we were looking for to off-set Chris Bosh in the front court and he has given us a very tough interior defense that has allowed the team to tighten up outside which killed them last year!

Jose Calderon – Jose has become a solid point guard in this league! I would consider him a top 10 guard at this point as he does not focus on his own scoring, but as we saw against the Bucks, can step up as he needs to! I believe that we shall see this team rewarded by making him the starting PG! His steady demeanor on the floor has a calming effect on everyone out there. He leads with his heart and his team responds very well to his leadership! With Roko Ukic off the bench giving him some solid minutes of play while he rests, this team looks very good at the #1 spot! Averaging 19 points and 9.7 assists, he is off to a flying start. As he continues to score, teams will not be able to collapse or they will pay the price!

Anthony Parker – Jose’s back-court mate is off to a great start averaging 14 points and 2 assists and 2.3 rebounds and 3.33 steals. A very solid option off the wing as he is often guarding the other teams top scorer, he has acquitted himself well not letting anyone out play him so far this season! Whether he is on the starting rotation or the other rotation, he continues to play consistent intense defense and has been a pest to the 3 back-courts we have faced this season.

Jamario Moon – I feel he still can be a major contribution to this team, but he will have to figure out how to offer at least 15 points a game to stay in this lineup with Jason Kapono on the bench waiting! He is exciting to watch, but seems unable to consistently finish but when he does just let the ball fly, he can score in this league! He is still young mentally though at 28, the experiment has shown flashes of brilliance and some signs of concern. When he is firing from outside, this team can go on deep runs as he has stepped up his defense this year but needs to become way more active on the glass!

Andrea Bargnani – Is this the same kid who wore #7 last season? Where did he get the tough from? What a joy to watch him score 19 against a quick strong Warriors team, only to see him vanish against the Bucks! If he can continue to play solid defense, then the Raptors can find scoring, but if he can find a way to drop 10 a night, this team would be very hard to match to 8 or 9 players. I would love to see him grab 5 or 6 boards a night and keep his head in the game in the paint. That would allow that step out game he has to flourish.

This week should show us a bit more of the heart of this team! the games will be against 3 teams expected to be at or near the top of the Eastern Conference! Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce will give this team all they can handle! enjoy the games!

Here is a look at last night’s 94-85 victory by the Raptors over the 76ers.

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As I suspected, the Raptors struggled early as Jermaine O’Neal and Chris Bosh struggled to find their range. Jose Calderon hit the first shot around 5 minutes into the game – of course, from long range! The first quarter saw the 76ers destroy the Raptors on the glass grabbing 22 boards, most of them offensive boards, while the Raptors grabbed 4. Being down only 3 points at the end of the first was a huge victory in itself as they looked lost most of the quarter as the 76ers were flying everywhere led by Samuel Dalembert and Elton Brand inside. After the onslaught was done, Jose went to work and brought the calm back to the team. He began to exploit the weak interior defense of the 76ers with some ball movement and hitting open guys for quick hits and bringing the confidence level back on the offensive side of the floor. By half-time the Raptors were up to stay and the solid guard play was instrumental in controlling the flow of the game and taking the quick 76ers out of the game making them shoot from the perimeter.

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Some random thoughts about the game!

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Chris Bosh has decided that this team will be a defensive team first! I was very happy to see the guys ALL rotating to the open man and give very few open looks to this team, even inside there were often 3 Raptors on the ball! Jermaine O’Neal and Jamario Moon both seem to enjoy protecting the paint! The Raptors missed that defensive edge last year and I hope this trend becomes a rallying cry! It is nice to hear Sam talk about how tough this team is defensively and not about how they gave up a lead late watching a team destroy them with open looks from all over the court!

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I knew Roko Ukic was a good player, but I had to look twice a few times to figure out which PG was on the floor! Neither he nor Jose committed a turnover last night which is a very good start! I think the one turnover they charged to him was a time count violation. Allowing Jose to rest as long as he did was and will be a huge determination as to how far this team can go! He had 4 points and 2 assists in his time on the court but his ability to break pressure and find open guys in traffic and on the wing is exciting to watch! I think that we again have to excellent point guards on this team and if they can keep moving the ball, they will be hard to match up against by any team.

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The second line now has Joey Graham, Andrea Bargnani, Jermaine O’Neal at times as well as Roko and Jason Kapono. This group is solid and should not lose much against any team. I would love to see Andrea become a 10/5 type player off the bench which would make them even more dangerous and hard to take lightly. 2 blocks, a steal, 5 rebounds, but no points leave me hoping for more from him.

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I found myself very intrigued at how little this team let up with Chris on the bench. Jermaine was able to attack from either high or low post and played some fantastic man up and team defense while on the floor alone. Together, these two play very well and complement each other very well! I hope he can get 75 or so games in, he looked like he was having fun last night for the first time in years!

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I think the preaching of Sam Mitchell has found a place in the hearts and minds of this group! They play unselfish ball, tough team and man defense, and run the floor when they are able and make smart passes. Of those 10 turnovers, I think JK made 2 traveling violations; they ran out the shot clock at the end of the game. Over-all, this team did not allow the 76ers floor space and turned them into a jump-shooting team which they are not!

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From this point on, I see Sam working the guys into a team that focus’ on the ball at both ends of the floor meaning that rebounding has to be the area of the game they win most nights to be consistently successful. Look for Chris to continue his rise up the NBA star power chart to become a top 5 power forward by the end of the season in ppg and rebounds pg. I believe he has a new outlook on the game now that he is not the double cover guy! Or, as he said last night, “pick your poison” - meaning cover me, or double Jermaine. Not only will that allow both the ability to use the talent they have, but frees up guys like Jason Kapono and Anthony Parker to do what they do on the wing.

The starters last night were Bosh, who had 27 points, and 11 rebounds, Jermaine O'Neal who had 17 points and 8 rebounds, Jose Calderon who had 13 points, 7 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 turnover, Jamario Moon had 6 points and 1 rebound, 2 steals and 1 block, Anthony Parker had 9 points and 1 rebound. Jason Kapono had 15 points, 10 in the 4th to seal the game.

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We shall find out against the Warriors how committed this team is to playing team defense! Stopping this team who started the season with a loss to the Hornets scoring 103 points will be a good test of the heart of these men!

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Over all, a solid win, a bit of a slow start, but they stuck to what they do and earned a good season opening win against a team many are picking to end up ahead of them in the division and the conference.

Welcome to the 2008 - 09 NBA season! I trust the summer was too long and the Olympics a good preview to the upcoming season!

The Toronto Raptors head into the new season with hope and a belief that they can challenge in the Atlantic Conference. I will lay out what i believe are some of the good things they are anticipating, and a few apprehensions I feel at this point.

Here is the opening night roster:

7 Andrea Bargnani - PF
4  Chris Bosh - PF
43 Kris Humphries - PF 
21 Nathan Jawai - PF 
6 Jermaine O'Neal - PF
3 Hassan Adams - SF
14 Joey Graham - SF
24 Jason Kapono - SF
8  Jose Calderon - PG
5 Will Solomon - PG
33 Jamario Moon - SG
18 Anthony Parker - SG
1 Roko Ukic - SG

The first thing that strikes me is that they offer no true Center! i think that losing Rasho Nesterovic could be something that will haunt them down the road as they are left with a lot of PF's and no one who can bang underneath night after night! Jermaine O'Neal has the POTENTIAL to be the inside help that Chis Bosh has been waiting for, but we won't know that until we see how much and how intense he plays. He has battled the "great potential" tag his whole life and with the Pacers, he was stagnating! i hope that he can play to that potential we all saw his 2001-02 Most Improved Player year! At 30, life for a big man can become a series of aches and pains which we have seen. As much as i like the deal, i am a bit hesitant to say it was a great improvement over what we had! if he can play to his averages of 14.3 ppg and 7.7 rpg, he could fill the void in this talented Raptors front court!

Chris Bosh will mature even more this season and become a greater force as he edges his scoring and boards up, his team will rise the standings with him!

The tandem of Joey Graham and Jason Kapono have the potential to score from almost any part of the floor. The problem we ran into last year was a lack of commitment to outside defense! I am not sure that letting Carlos Delfino walk and bringing in Hassan Adams will help in either aspect, but we can only move on and see which of the 3 will step up and play some defense! I believe that the issue last season was a lack of intensity on defense from the front court including Chris Bosh, but for sure the perimeter defense let too many games slip by them and in the Atlantic Division this season, that won't be acceptable at all!

I would love to see Andrea Bargnani and Jamario Moon emerge as top level players and become 15 point 7 or 8 rebound a game guys which would see a huge increase in bench scoring or a more balanced starting 5 if Jamario and Anthony Parker platoon as they did last season. If Andrea struggles, i suspect he will become a failed experiment and i am sure there are teams that would love to have him wandering around the perimeter! With the wealth of PF's we have, he could be used to find another SF to shore up the perimeter.

With the offense now in the more than capable hands of Jose Calderon, the addition of Will Solomon could be a huge factor. He looks more than able to step in and run the show and should allow the Raptors an interesting up-tempo option off the bench with Moon, Joey Graham or Jason Kapono with Andrea cutting.

As i see this team at this point, there are many questions i find unanswered! I am not sure that they are a lot better than they were when the season ended in the spring, but the POTENTIAL to be better is left in the hands and hearts of this group of men. I think if Jermaine can play 70+ games, this team will win around 45 which is about what they won last year! The lack of true Center will hurt them in the Atlantic Division as they play teams like the Celtics with Kendrick Perkins and Glenn Davis - though both are undersized, they are very adequate playing and banging it out down low. the 76ers will offer Samuel Dalembert and the Nets will present the rookie Brook Lopez as well as Josh Boone. As the season plays out, I can see this team making a move for either a true post or a larger PF who can help O'Neal contend underneath. I think the SG position is very solid, and i think that the PG position could use another body.

SO, over all, i see the Raptors as a team that is unknown in a lot of areas with the loss of T.J. Ford and Carlos Delfino leaving holes that will be tough to fill. I also see potential as this team can now present a very solid front line of Chris Bosh, Jermaine O'Neal and Joey Graham or Jason Kapono. With Jose Calderon in the PG and either Moon or Parker, this team will be fun to watch! I see them ending up 2nd in this division with 47 wins. I see them 5th or 6th in the conference behind the Celtics, the Pistons, the Magic, and the Cavaliers. Tonight we shall see if Sam Mitchell is up to the task of guiding this team to play with their hearts.

Bring on the games!

here is a collection of posts discussing Kobe Bryant winning the MVP this season. I will say that he should have had at least one by now, but this was the wrong year to give it to him unless you are making it a compilation of the past 3 seasons with the slugs he had around him calling themselves Lakers. this might seem a bit random, but i am responding to other posts which i will try to separate when i can.

Please enjoy. Comments and hate always welcome and i will read it all.

here are some posts i have made in the past few days..

here is the first post and the original article

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/
8111712/How-Kobe-fina
lly-earned-his-first-MVP

i agree that Chris Paul probably was the more deserving winner this year over Kobe Bryant... but here is how i see the final weeks in the voters heads... humour me abit :-)

"ok, Kobe finally has a team and looks like he wants to play with Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Jordan Farmar.. but this Chris Paul kid with the Hornets.. wow, he has taken a team that struggled for years to the top of the Western conference... young guys like David West, Tyson Chandler, vets like Peja Stojakovic and Morris Peterson sure have helped make him a worthy candidate... let's see.... o dear, it seems Kobe has NEVER won an MVP, we can't give one to this kid until Kobe gets one... maybe then he and his army of loving adoring homer fans will shut up and stop emailing us about how good he is..."

vote Kobe Bryant for MVP.... not saying he didn't deserve one this year or by now... but i am pretty sure he got more than a few votes that way... next year, it will be LeBron James who will win as he has to get one before anyone else new gets one... maybe the Cavaliers fans will stop whining about how great he is by then.. yes he is good... Bill Russell is was and always will be great. When LBJ can show us 11 rings, he can tell us how great he is.

then the guy responded

Well we have come to the end of a very disappointing 2007-08 Raptors basketball season with the loss and elimination to the Orlando Magic. Congratulations to the Magic and their starting five who dominated what should have been a closer series. Dwight Howard has quickly taken over the title Dominant Big in the NBA and I would love to see him and Amare Stoudemire go mano a mano for a 7 game series!! Hedu Turkoglu deserved his Most Improved Player award and Jameer Nelson seems to have recovered his form that made him so hard to handle a couple years ago in March. Rashard Lewis was unstoppable and this group will be hard for whomever they face next to stop.

Thus begins the dissection of a team that should have won 50 games this year but seem to lack the drive and intensity needed to put teams away. Here is my evaluation of the key parts of this team and how I assess the overall structure of this team for next year.

Chris Bosh – ALL discussions about this team must start with CB4. The franchise player had a year good enough to be an all-star, but with guys like Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace ahead of him he will have to wait to be consistently there. His stats for the year look like this:

GP  MIN/G  PPG  REB/G  AST/G  FG %
67   36.2      22.3    8.7        2.6      49.4

When compared to the league, he is the 8th ranked power forward, with 6 of the 7 ahead of him being from the west and the other being Antawn Jamison of the Wizards, pretty good company hanging with guys like Dirk Nowitzki of the Mavericks, Al Jefferson of the Timberwolves, Carlos Boozer of the Jazz, David West of the Hornets and Tim Duncan of the Spurs and the Lakers Lamar Odom. I think we have seen Chris SEE the next level, and now he is desperately waiting for his team to supply the support he needs down low to allow him to create the space he needs and raise his post play from the 4 spot not the 5. I see a lot of Amare in him, but not quite as strong physically. Bosh is very athletic and has the heart of a lion that is often ignored by his coach. More on him later!!

Brian Colangelo needs to go out and find a STUD center that can control the front end. Chris should not be expected to grab 15 boards a night as he plays 10 – 15 feet from the basket most of the game.

T.J. Ford – This team played it’s best team games with him in the hospital and in rehab. I am not sure why that fact was so hard to notice by Sam and Brian. I think T.J. would be a great guard on a team that needs a selfish ball hog who thinks he is Kobe Bryant or Tracey McGrady – wait, he WAS on this team at one point… wasn’t that Isaiah who traded him? Hmmmmm… wonder if the Knicks read any of the deals he made LOL… sorry, I digress! There are few players in this league who can suffer a severe neck injury and sit for 3 or 4 months and then come back and be as sharp as when he went out… Ford is not one of them. The Raptors held on to T.J. leading this team way too long. I think that fact alone is why they are out golfing or what ever it is tall guys do over the off-season. T.J. needs to listen more carefully to John Lucas who could teach him game sense and how to play with his team and rely on them. A lesson I think Kobe has finally caught!!

Andrea Bargnani – I love this kid’s talent, but his heart fails him. He does not have the grit to play an 82 game season with people who want to eat him for lunch… I am not sure you can teach toughness to that level. I think that he has to be a second line guy at best as the pressure of facing top centers on the opposing teams has completely demoralized this kid. He looks beaten up like after a school yard brawl, which is not a bad analogy for action in the post during an NBA game, let alone a playoff game. I know we paid him a lot and I would hate to see him become the next Sam Bowie as he does have NBA talent, just not sure he has the heart of a lion needed to survive there…

Rasho Nesterovic – how can a guy who STARTED for the Spurs when they won a title, sit on the bench behind Andrea Bargnani? Come on Sam; give your head a shake. When he started, he brought energy and a very complete inside game to the mix and he plays well as the second option low with CB4 free to play 10 – 15 feet and in, not the other way around. Am I the only one who saw this? When Rasho played well, they won, when he played ok, they at least had a shot, when he played very little, the got blitzed. MAKE THIS GUY THE STARTING 5 or trade him and the waste of space Primoz Brezec for someone they feel is BETTER… though I am not sure they will find a more consistant center than Rasho at those prices.

Anthony Parker – this man has blossomed into a top level shooting guard over the course of the season with the following numbers:

<o:p>GP  MIN/G  PPG  REB/G  AST/G  FG %
82    32.1      12.5    4.1       2.2       47.6</o:p>

Those numbers have him in the top 20 ranked shooting guards which is a vast improvement from last year. He is quick, has great vision and is usually able to provide decent outside defense. Tony needs to step up his perimeter defense and not be reluctant to take clutch shots.

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Jose Calderon – What this team needs is to decide what to do with perhaps one of the top 4 or 5 young guards in the game.

<o:p>GP  MIN/G  PPG  REB/G  AST/G  FG %
82    30.3     11.2     2.9        8.3       51.9</o:p>

He comes in at number 8 in point guards, well ahead of T.J. Ford who comes in at 46^th. I am not sure why the discussion over which guard to start is even thrown about as Jose has clearly demonstrated his ability to lead this team and make this team a winning team. After he gave his “T.J. will lead this team” speech, the whole team started to look lost and aimless as they had no floor leader that was committed to working all the players into the game. That is vital in a point guard and why Chris Paul and Deron Williams can play at such a high level even in this playoff season. They don’t expect to win games alone. That is the secret Jose brings. He had a couple great games but focused on making the game easy for the rest of the team and he was rewarded by a spot on the bench… nice move guys… I hope he stays, but I am pretty sure he won’t put up with that level of disrespect much longer. Jason Kapono, Carlos Delfino, Kris Humphries, Jamario Moon, all of these guys seem to drift the last part of the season as they were ignored by Ford and the “me first” or “ I just want to win so bad” attitude he brought. Which brings me to…

Sam Mitchell – Former Coach of the year in the NBA, 2007.

I could go on and on about how many lousy decisions he made that cost the team W’s so I won’t but I do know that this team should have won more than 41 games and it’s not the talent that was lacking. Sam’s “I love T.J.” attitude took a 4th seeded team to a 6th seeded team only because the teams behind them – 76ers and the Hawks were under .500 % teams. Sam has no sense of what to do with a bench as loaded as his and he showed that nightly as his subs were usually poorly timed and poorly chosen. His overall inability to manage his bench which had pretty good depth this year was frustrating to say the least.

I could go on and on and about Sam, but that won’t do much good. The bottom line is this: 2007-08 was at best very disappointing over all for the team. We saw bright lights in Jamario Moon and Jose Calderon, and very inconsistent play from T.J. Ford which ultimately cost them a higher seeding and an early exit from the playoffs.

What this team needs is leadership from above to make some very tough decisions about the direction of this team. I am sure some team would love to have Ford, toss in Primoz, though I don’t think anyone wants him… maybe add Joey Graham who can’t possibly be happy sitting on a team starved of forward play and acquire a solid 15 and 10 Center who can give Chris some real help down low. The Bench is very solid, and Jose SHOULD be the starter or he will walk.

Just a few thoughts…. I will add more as the playoffs roll on…