khandor’s sports blog

Regular readers of this space already know that the Raptors should not have:

* Traded Rasho Nesterovic [PF/C], TJ Ford [PG], Maceo Baston [PF] and the 2008 No. 17 [overall] Draft Pick to the Pacers in exchange for Jermaine O’Neal [PF/C] and the 2008 No. 41 [overall] Draft Pick;

* Bought out the contract of Jorge Garbajosa [PF/SF/C];

* Failed to re-sign Carlos Delfino [SF/OG/PG];

* Signed Roko Ukic, as their back-up PG;

* Signed Will Solomon, as their insurance 3rd-string PG; and,

* Signed Hassan Adams, as their reserve Wing Player;

as it put their team in a highly vulnerable situation for this season, whereby, they:

* Are Over the Salary Cap;

* Are only $1,100 below the Luxury Tax Threshold; and,

* Only have a 13-man roster, in a league with a 15-player limit.

——————————————

What even these regular readers might not realize, however, is THIS CORNER’S:

* Antipathy towards the countless Woulda, Shoulda,  Coulda’s that are articulated by others, for the most, in hindsight only, after-the-fact;

* Focus on:

• Learning … from What’s Happened Before;
• Awareness & Appreciation for the Here & Now; and,
• Providing a Legitimate Prescription for Future Success, Short and Long Term.

In this regard, here is some of what’s appeared in this space, about the Raptors’ situation, this season, once their present roster was finalized this summer, given the strengths and weaknesses of the 13 players on their team.

* Raptors’ line-up … tough enough [or not] [Sep 08]
* Toronto Raptors’ Best 5-Man Unit [Sep 11]
* First good news out of Raptors’ camp [Oct 01]
* Second good news out of Raptors’ camp [Oct 02]

——————————————-

Now …

* After losing to the Lakers, in Los Angeles
* Getting embarassed by the Nuggets, in Denver
* Firing their head coach, Sam Mitchell
* Losing miserably to the Jazz, in Utah
* Getting nipped at the wire by the Blazers, at home, and
* Getting hammered by the Cavaliers, in Cleveland

Here’s what the Raptors’ rotation was last night:

Raptors	1	2	3	4	5	+/-
1st Q
Starters	Calderon	Kapono	Moon	Bosh	O’Neal	-2
Sub 1				Bargnani	Bosh	0
Sub 2				Graham		+6
Sub 3					O’Neal	0
Sub 4	Ukic					0
Sub 5		Solomon
2nd Q
Sub 6			Graham	Bargnani		-4
Sub 7	Calderon	Kapono	Bargnani	Bosh	O’Neal	+2
Sub 8			Moon			+7
Sub 9				Graham	Bosh	0
Sub 10					Bargnani
3rd Q
Sub 11				Bosh	O’Neal	+4
Sub 12			Graham	Bargnani	Bosh	-4
Sub 13					O’Neal
Sub 14	Ukic
Sub 15		Kapono				+2
4th Q
						-1
Sub 16	Calderon
Sub 17				Bosh
Sub 18				Bargnani	Bosh	+3
Sub 19			Moon	Bosh	O’Neal	-5
Sub 20		Moon	Graham			+3
Sub 21	Ukic	Solomon	Adams	Bargnani

Which, in turn, reveals the following things:

1. Calderon, Kapono & Moon … can, ideed, be a Solid Threesome for this team, with JC as the Facilitator, JK as the Designated Shooter & JM as the Designated Defender/Rebounder.

2. Calderon, Moon & Graham … can, indeed, be a solid Closing Group that makes the Raptors into a ”bigger” Rebounding and Defensive team, especially, in combination with O’Neal/Bargnani [at #4/PF] and Bosh [at #5/C].

3. When the Raptors do NOT make the mistake of playing Anthony Parker + Jason Kapono together with Jose Calderon … and, especially, in conjunction with Andrea Bargani … then, they can, indeed, be an effective team, in terms of Rebounding, Team Defense & Shared Team Offense.

4. When the Raptors do NOT use Bargnani at the #3/SF position … or, at least, use him there as little as possible … then, they can, indeed, be something other than an atrocious defensive team, especially in transition.

——————————————–

Once Kris Humphries and Anthony Parker return to good health, if the Raptors use them in the proper way …

i.e. with Parker as their back-up #1-2/PG-OG and Humphries as their Starting #4/PF …

within the parameters of what’s written here … re: #1, #2, #3 and #4, above, and the suggested rotations … there is every reason to believe that this team should be able to qualify for the Eastern Conference Playoffs this season.

———————–

The answer to the riddle is always to be found in the original source material.

Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Anthony Parker, Chris Bosh, Hassan Adams, Jamario Moon, Jason Kapono, Jermaine O'Neal, Joey Graham, Jose Calderon, Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai, Roko Ukic, Will Solomon

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Basketball, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.