khandor’s sports blog

In the off season … and, despite what you were told by a variety of other observers, to the contrary … this corner indicated that there had NOT really been that much improvement from a player personnel and coaching standpoint with the 2009-2010 version of the Toronto Raptors, in spite of the radical roster make-over, compared with the other 29 teams in the NBA and, specifically, their competitors in the Eastern Conference.

Raptors improvement relative to other teams in division & conference [Sep 14 2009]

How the Eastern Conference looks for ‘09-10, based on individual player ratings, by position [Sep 08 2009]

Raptors Bench Strength: In eye of beholder [Aug 28 2009]

Strength of the Eastern Conference compared to 2006-2007 [Aug 25]

When you examine the early season results …

RAPTORS 2009-2010 SCHEDULE [GAMES 1-16]
GAME	W-L	WINS		LOSSES
		Home	Away	Home	Away
1	1-0	Cle/11-4 *
2	1-1				MEM/5-10
3	1-2			Orl/11-4
4	2-2	Det/5-10
5	3-2		NOH/7-9 ^
6	3-3				DAL/11-4
7	3-4				SAS/7-6
8	4-4	Chi/6-7
9	5-4		LAC/6-10
10	5-5				PHO/12-3
11	5-6				DEN/11-4
12	5-7				UTA/7-7
13	6-7	Mia/9-5
14	6-8			Orl/11-4
15	7-8	Ind/6-8
16	7-9				CHA/5-9
Sub-total		37-34/.521	13-19/.406	22-8/.733	58-43/.574
Total		50-53/.485		80-51/.611
Legend: * - Erred by using S-O’Neal and Z-Ilgauskas together; ^ - In the process of firing their head coach; Lighter Shade – High Quality; Darker Shade – Low Quality.

what you should be able to see is that:

1. The Raptors are STILL losing games to the better [>.500] teams in the NBA;

2. The Raptors are STILL winning games against the poorer [<.500] teams in the NBA; 

3. The Raptors are STILL a fairly good Home team;

4. The Raptors are STILL a fairly poor Away team;

5. The Raptors are STILL losing Away games against opponents that are good defensive and rebounding teams;

6. The Raptors are STILL winning an occasional Home game against a quality opponent [>.500];

7. The Raptors are STILL losing a high percentage of their Away games against a quality opponent [>.500].

Until the focus of the Raptors’ Management Team shifts away from:

“Playing an entertaining, high-scoring brand of fast-paced basketball which is capable of being ‘competitive’ on a game-to-game basis, winning a fair share of regular season games but without being able to advance very far in the playoffs due to a lack of defense and rebounding,” 

to

“Playing a brand of basketball which is well-balanced … i.e. evenly distributed between Offense, Defense and Rebounding … and thoroughly committed to competing for and eventually winning a League Championship, through the acquisition of the required number of High End players, and coaches, and scouts, and support staff, etc., it takes to accomplish THIS SPECIFIC GOAL, as a bottom line objective,”

there is little REAL reason to believe that the Raptors are anything more than a perennial Treadmill Team with the primary intention of making a bottom-line profit for its ownership group.

“Window dressing” does not take you to the upper echelon of the NBA.

Only an emphasis on Team Defense, Rebounding, Shared Team Offense AND a COMMITMENT TO WINNING IT ALL can accomplish THAT specific objective.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Analytics, Basketball, Life Lessons, 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.