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The big guy can throw it down.
Raps are movin on up!
Box:
http://www.nba.com/games/20070117/SACTOR/boxscore.html
The big guy can throw it down.
and they're probably going to lose the next 20 games to the bulls
jalen rose cursed the team
damnit
eh?
"(Actually), we don't really have a lot of high maintenance guys. I'm probably the highest maintenance guy in that room," Mitc said. "But as far as our players, even Chris (Bosh), I don't have to go out of my way to say much to Chris as far as praising him or stroking him. Bryan's (Colangelo) done a very good job putting together a team where we've got a group of guys that we treat like men. I don't want to yell and scream and berate guys, because you don't have to do that."
LINK
I'm a big fan but
Dunking is not his strong suit.
One thing that I've noticed is that Rasho is getting a lot of offensive boards. I hope to catch a Raptor game one of these days, because his new role must be quite different.
I personally think that a professional player at NBA level should be able to get over something trivial like getting yelled at by the coach - specially when deserved. I don't think that's the worst that you have to endure on your way to the NBA.
But if Mitc can get the results he wants without yelling more power to him and congratulations to his players for being the pros that they are expected to be.
I'm a big fan but
Dunking is not his strong suit.
One thing that I've noticed is that Rasho is getting a lot of offensive boards. I hope to catch a Raptor game one of these days, because his new role must be quite different.
All the more reason for you to come visit. Raptors play here in February.
You temptressAll the more reason for you to come visit. Raptors play here in February.
You temptress
Is it working?
All those people who hate small ball should catch a glimpse of big ball-- 3 seven footers on the court at the same time-- Rasho, Bargnani, and Bosh. It has been quite effective this year when Mitc goes to it. It, of course, helps that Andrea can knock down 3's and Bosh can hit jump shots, too. I think Rasho just has more room inside, and he's getting alot of easy baskets off of screen and rolls to the basket- like this dunk.I'm a big fan but
Dunking is not his strong suit.
One thing that I've noticed is that Rasho is getting a lot of offensive boards. I hope to catch a Raptor game one of these days, because his new role must be quite different.
But mostly, he is having fun playing basketball. It is exciting to get to be a part of an upcoming team with lots of young, enthusiastic players who play each game like it's important. And to be someone who is looked at as a mentor by the younger players is a role that Rasho was perfectly made for.
Yeah you know how difficult it is to get me to a Spurs gameIs it working?
That's something I would like to see, as you know I'm not a fan of the latest NBA fad of small gun 'n run teams. I hope the Raptors turn this lineup into something good. It's so easy to mess up talent in the NBA.
Well, they always start Bosh, Rasho, and Garbajosa. Depending on the opponent, match-ups, fouls, ... when Bargnani comes in, sometimes it is for Rasho and sometimes for Garbo. If the opponent has a big man that they really want to leave Rasho on, they might leave him in there and go with the triple towers. If instead, they really need Garbo to guard a high-scoring SF, then Rasho comes out. Either way, it's a pretty big line-up and has led to offensive boards.
The curse of Jalen Rose is that the team that Rose is on in the Bulls/Raptors series can't beat the other. The Raptors had won 16 games in a row against the Bulls until the Bulls traded him to Toronto. Since then the Bulls have won 16 in a row against the Raptors. It's really quite remarkable.
Over the past 5 games, the Raptors are #1 in the NBA in points allowed. Now, they haven't played all that many good teams over this stretch, but these 5 opponents do average 98.8 ppg and have instead averaged against the Raptors 86.2 ppg. Alex English was asked today about the improvement in the Raptors defense and whom did he single out-- Rasho.
Alex English said, "Rasho Nesterovic in the middle does a good job of directing our defense. That's the biggest thing, having him in there directing it." That is quite a compliment from a well-respected man like him.
Rasho is a good defender when he hustles and gets aggressive. It looks like he's doing just that.
Raptors solving winning equation
Young squad is way ahead of last year's rebuilding project
You'd think Rasho Nesterovic might be a little ticked off. In the three seasons previous to his current tenure with the Toronto Raptors, after all, he played a key role on one of the league's finest teams, starting all 70 games he played for the San Antonio Spurs when they won the championship in 2004-05.
And now that he's playing in the NBA's second division – a scraggly gaggle of have-nots known as the Eastern Conference – the 30-year-old 7-footer finds himself charting below his career average in points, rebounds and blocked shots. No matter that he is playing four fewer minutes a game than he did during his San Antonio run. Nesterovic – even if he's not particularly pleased with the situation – isn't betraying a hint of self-interested angst.
"There's a bunch of young guys, good guys, guys who can make history, and it's very nice to play among them," Nesterovic said. "We have a really good foundation for something big to happen in the future."
For the long-suffering loyalists of Canada's only NBA team, that's the heartening difference in the equation this time around. The Raptors have been here before, toying with .500 as another NBA season reaches its halfway mark – as it will with the conclusion of tonight's Raptors-Jazz game at the Air Canada Centre. But this edition of the club, with its 19-21 win-loss record, isn't simply five games better than its counterpart a season ago. It is also many bricks ahead in a rebuilding effort that, for too long, looked laughably hopeless.
A year ago, Rob Bab was the in-over-his-head (and soon-to-be-fired) general manager. The project centre was a human bicep named Rafael Araujo. The point guard was a centre-of-his-universe chucker, Mike James. And you had to wonder why, in the name of good sense, Chris Bosh, the soon-to-be all-star forward, would even consider signing a contract extension.
Today, with Bosh locked up through the 2009-10 season after his summertime re-signing, the point guard is the capable and improving T.J. Ford, 23, whose off-season acquisition (for Charlie Villanueva) was widely panned by U.S. pundits who didn't understand how desperately this club needed a capable quarterback. And the backup point guard, in a rare remnant of Bab ian foresight, is the occasionally marvellous Jose Calderon. The project centre, Andrea Bargnani, is a 10.2-points-per-game backup who – for all his obvious weaknesses at age 21 – already causes problems for defences.
With Bryan Colangelo atop a basketball brain trust that includes Maurizio Gherardini, formerly one of Europe's foremost executives, the reasons for optimism are many.
Not to say it's gone exactly as Colangelo planned. There was talk of playing a breakneck pace at season's outset. And while the Raptors offence is among the league's top-10 fastest-paced, they're hardly the once-advertised blur. Bosh's 12-game shelving with a knee injury was weathered with unforeseen aplomb. Fred Jones, touted as an impact free-agent acquisition, has slumped and sat. And Bargnani's swift emergence wasn't predicted by even his staunchest supporters.
That's not to say leading the Atlantic Division, as the Raptors currently are, is Herculean work. (The entire division is sub-.500, of course. And the first-place team in the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers, possesses a 23-15 win-loss record that would currently be good for seventh place in the West, which speaks to the league's most stunning geographical talent discrepancy in recent memory.)
Still, the ongoing Hogtown makeover is heartening to anyone who cares about the game. And it has been alarmingly quiet when you compare it to recent seasons in which zanier plotlines – a soap-opera drama starring Rafer Alston and a season-long monologue by James – dominated the headlines. This year, Jones, for all his troubles, hasn't groused. Morris Peterson's camp has been a trade-rumour generation station, but Peterson appears to have mostly grasped a concept that many former colleagues who wanted out of town failed to grasp: the better he plays, the easier he'll be to deal. And Nesterovic, displaying one of the character traits that made him attractive to the club when it was looking for a centre in the off-season, hasn't moped.
On the contrary, yesterday, the usually deadpan Nesterovic sounded something approaching animated. Speaking about his new club's new outlook, his eyes and his smile grew wide.
"These guys are 21, 22, 23 years old," he said. "And ... all the best players, they start giving their best performances when they're 26 or 27, (that's) when they mature and start to understand.
"You can just imagine Bargnani and T.J. and Chris staying together for 10 years."
LINK
Well, the Raptors put up another good fight against a top NBA team but came out on the short end again. With about 3 minutes to go they were only behind by 3 points if I remember correctly, but 2 costly turnovers in the last minute and a half put the game out of reach. The worst part was all the lay-ups missed by the Raptors in the first three quarters. All kinds of Raptors were missing easy lay-ups and it did not even include Rasho!By the way, Boozer was impressive.
Still, a good January so far for the Raptors who unfortunately had to play Phoenix, Dallas and Utah all in the past 2 weeks or so. Still, they are 6- 4 in January (better than the Spurs record the past 10 games
Last edited by ploto; 01-19-2007 at 11:58 PM.
Another nice Sho article- thanks Ploto.
Only 3 games to .500
Dajmo Raptors!
I bet Spurs fans wish they would hear Pop say this:
"I think as a coaching staff what we've basically done is lived and learned," Mitc said. "We have a way that we play things and we stick to it regardless of who we play. In the past we have changed things up to fit the teams that we were playing. Now it's 'if you're going to beat us, you're going to beat us.' They're are going to be nights when it doesn't work but you can't keep changing it up."
LINK
Early rapid-fire moves hitting targets
Whether it's picking cufflinks or picking talent, Bryan Colangelo seems to know what he's doing.
But that doesn't prevent the Toronto Raptors president and general manager from asking, on occasion, what others think. Even reporters.
Next month will mark his first full year on the job. Last Friday's loss to the Utah Jazz was the Toronto Raptors' 41st outing in an 82-game National Basketball Association regular season, the official halfway point.
How does Colangelo think he's doing?
Colangelo is too clever to offer himself a grade on his renovation project, in which nine new players were added to make over a roster that was 27-55 last season, and missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.
But in broad strokes, he's pleased...
Trading for Rasho Nesterovic: He's the best-paid player on the team, and more expensive than the likes of Joel Przybilla and Nazr Mohammed, two other centres that were available on the market, but Nesterovic is a quiet leader, a consummate professional and delivers the best post defence the Raptors have had since Antonio Davis's hey-day. And his contract is up after the 2008-09 season.
LINK
It's Brezec vs. Sho today. I wish I was getting to watch.
On a side note, does anyone else see the resemblance?
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/00937...th_key=0093779
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/photo;_y..._pm&prov=getty
Picture of Sho from last game.
Brezec did not make the trip to Toronto- now it's his back.
Raptors were strong in the first quarter- weak in the second- and dominated the third. Big men for Raptors (Bosh, Rasho, Garbajosa, and Bargnani) combined for 52 points. Raptors played the big guys- even though Charlotte is kind of small- used great zone defense in the third quarter to hold the Bobcats to 8 third quarter points.
Rasho with 5-8/ 10 points/ 4 rebounds/ 4 assists/ 2 blocks. Got to rest the whole fourth quarter. Okafor- the guy averaging 11.3 rebounds per game- 5 tonight, and only 3 with Rasho in the game.
Sorry Matt.
TORONTO (AP) -- Chris Bosh scored 20 points and Jose Calderon had a season-high 19 points and 11 assists to lead the Toronto Raptors to a 105-84 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Monday night.
Andrea Bargnani added 14 points for the Raptors, who played without starting point guard T.J. Ford (sore right ankle). Calderon, Toronto's backup point guard, has played well with Ford hobbled in recent games.
Toronto allowed Charlotte to shoot 58 percent in the first half, but the Raptors stifled Charlotte's offense with a zone defense in the third quarter.
The Raptors outscored the Bobcats 21-8 in the third, when Charlotte shot just 4-for-18.
Gerald Wallace had 19 points and nine rebounds for the Bobcats, who had won five of their previous seven. Raymond Felton had 19 points and eight assists after missing two games with an ankle injury.
Bargnani, the No. 1 pick in the draft, finished 5-for-10 from the field. Adam Morrison, the third pick, went 1-for-6 for just three points.
Toronto's Pape Sow received a loud ovation when he entered the game in the fourth quarter. Sow played his first game since having neck surgery to repair a fractured vertebrae after falling and hitting another player during practice in the Las Vegas summer league.
Toronto is 2-1 on a five-game homestand that finish with Boston and New Orleans.
Calderon's 3-pointer and Bosh's jumper made it 90-68 with 5:27 left in the fourth. Calderon added another 3-pointer, giving Toronto a 97-71 lead with 3:30 remaining.
Bargnani had nine points in Toronto's 37-point first quarter -- its highest-scoring opening period this season. Wallace had 11 of his 15 first-half points in the second quarter, cutting the lead to three by halftime.
Game notes
Ford's ankle was stepped on Dec. 29 against the Chicago Bulls. He missed three games before returning for Toronto's last eight games. "He's just having a lot of pain," coach Sam Mitc said. "It could be one game, two games or the rest of the week." ... Toronto outscored Charlotte 49-31 in the second half.
LINK
Oh you beat me, Ploto!
For some reason I couldn't access the forum at work.
Sho was amazing- I am so proud of him.
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