They're off and playing

The early dispatches, or A Lot Of What We Expected

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The first glimpse we got of Hedo Turkoglu and Chris Bosh at Raptors camp today was them walking from the gym to get some treatment – much to the glee of the folks gathered in the hallway and at least a little to the dismay of the team.

Neither guy, as expected, did anything during a morning session split about equally between drills and scrimmages.

Bosh, with the hamstring, isn’t going to do anything all week; Turkoglu, with some fatigue and a sore knee, might get on the court later on.

Jay’s not ready to completely count him out:

“He’s going to work with Cuzo and Jonny and Scott to make sure he rehabs his knee as well as gets to a point where he can be at 100 per cent. There’s no point beating him down in October after the summer he’s had.

“I don’t know if I can say the whole week but for the first part, he won’t practice.”

Cuz, Jonny and Scott being strength and conditioning coach Francesco Cuzzolin, assistant strength and conditioning coach Jon Lee and trainer Scott McCullough. They’ll be big this week.

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Okay, so what did they do?

A little bit of video work in a room at the hotel, an hour or so of drills and then a scrimmage.

The scrimmage was a bit of a surprise.

Teams are only allowed “contact” work once a day and some teams like to do drills and the like in the morning and then let the players go at each other at night. Jay figured they were rarin’ to go so he let them go.

“We decided, the energy level coming in here was real high and we knew that’d be the case. Guys have been out for a long time, they’re anxious. We did a lot of teaching but we did a lot of playing.”

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They are treating us like big timers this year at Carleton.

Instead of being curtained off in the hallway outside the gym, they’ve got us in a room upstairs that had coffee and donuts and good wireless access.

I apologize on behalf of all of us to the yoga students at Carleton, who probably didn’t know they’d be giving up their room the assembled media hordes.

Trust me, there will be no yoga done in there, we won’t ruin the karma.

Now, if we could just get the cab company better able to find our door instead of making a couple of us wait 40 minutes or so, we’d be all set.

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Had a nice long chat with Marco Belinelli after practice – you’ll see the fruits of that labour in tomorrow’s paper and here early tomorrow morning – but suffice to say that he’s dang happy to be in Toronto instead of Golden State.

“It was tough for me before. I never played the first year, last year I was playing very good but there was an injury to my ankle so it was a so-so situation.

“But at the same time, I was practicing very hard to improve myself, to not lose my game. And I want to show it here.”

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All right, that should get you through the afternoon, right?

Oh, and thanks a lot for all the suggestions for Ottawa; since I’ve only got a few nights (tonight, Thursday and Friday ‘cause Wednesday’s the annual Dinner With Bryan And The Henchmen) not sure I’ll get to ‘em all, but I’ll try.

Comments

[Tim W.]

It's weird the Raptors are playing in my old gym. I ended up spending more time there than I did in class, at least in my first couple of years. No doubt I would be grumbling that I wouldn't be able to play if I was still there. That was a long time ago, though. No doubt Carleton, and Ottawa, has changed mightily since then. I remember a great restaurant on the corner of George and Cumberland, I think. Can't remember the name, but it was always popular and served just about anything.

Oh, and I've finally added another post, this one about DeMar, some might be interested in...
http://www.wearingfilm.com/picketfence/

[Wallace]

Hedo is fatigued??????

You must be joking! I knew this would happen with the Euro Tournament players but figured they would at least make it to January.

[Kyron]

Better that he's fatigued now in September than in February and March Wallace

[MC B-Rad]

Is this your way of letting us know you are doing your best to keep up with the Raps....doing your own version of the 2adays??? I am guessing the morning one is the more physical of the 2?

[TheRounder]

I hope and pray our first month(s) (oct/nov) is not filled with losses and excuses ie Bosh and Hedo injured/fatigued. No more excuses! Not this season! Raps gotta come out strong! Forget this "oh we'll slowly ease our way in as the months go by". We did that last yr and look what happened. Anyhow, got high hopes for our boys! Go Raps! Start strong! Show Cavs and Magic early on that "WE'RE HERE THIS YEAR!" Hahaha! Just made that up! My new Raptors moto! "WE'RE HERE THIS YEAR!!!" GO RAPS! ~Rounder

[Darko]

Loren Woods: all due respect to your Bucks, but topic here
is playoffs, not who's going to make NIT.

[Aditya]

cant believe joe johnson turned down 60mil over 4 years contract extension

[Eric]

Bosh apologists out in full force already! I luv it!

"Look," (says Obama) I'm not saying you should predict the worst because Bosh is already ailing and setting such a glorious exmple for teamates. Note the last bit of sarcasm. But you can't honestly ignore this man's history and laugh about it and automatically assume this is the exception, not the rule, this is the small injury that means nothing and will go away conveniently before opening night, not one of the big injuries that excuse him from complet seasons of totally soft play.

Even if it's not bad news, it's definitely not good news. Doug Smith will tell you everything is perfect but he also told you BC wasn't going to do much but sign Delfino, Rasho, re-sign Marion and Parker this summer...... and maybe add a cheap FA (as if that would solve Raptor problms). Bosh hurting is not good. It may not be bad. But it's definitely not good. You can't write it off.

Blogger's note: Still haven't taken those remedial reading comprehension classes, I see. Please, don't misrepresent me anymore, would you?
Tiring. Yawn.

[ac]

Hey Doug!

Any idea as to what the intro song for 2009/2010 will be?
Didn't they reveal it last year on media day?

Thanks!
Keep up the great work!

Blogger's note: No idea. I think they're keeping it secret from me.

[Scott]

Big Daddy's Crabshack! - its money! You have to check it out if you haven't been yet.

[Gryphon Fan]

Wallace he did also play until mid June in the finals, so even if he didn't play euros his summer was 2 months shorter than the Raps

[Clay]

You should ignore every other Ottawa suggestion, and go eat a steak at Domus (in the Byward market). Local brewery beers, and delicious meat.

[Tabber]

Well, looks like another boring season of comments from Eric/Erc, with digressions into misrepresentations and falsehoods splitting up the "expert" opinions and incorrect knowledge. Is the off-season from the clowns coming soon? Or am I going to have to ignore the comments on the blog and articles and thus miss some actual gems? Doug, please just ban the clowns, we know you have the power, we remember the insult clown. From now on, I will take all "facts" from Erc/Eric as being false, opposite to reality, and hope some family members can get them into treatment.

[Erc]

Eric, You have been entertaining and sometimes, you have been right.
We know your thoughts on Bosh (and Jose and AB). Can't say I agree. CB fell asleep in the middle of the season, but the first part was magnificent and the finish was much better than the middle.
He's not Lebron or Kobe or Dwayne. He can't carry a bad team by himself BUT, remember Kobe a couple seasons ago -- couldn't carry THAT Laker team and wanted out.
Bosh is a big man with quicks, a decent jump shot and the ability to make foul shots under pressure. Not a bad package. Hope he thrives and flourishes here in TO, but I believe with BC's moves the onus is a lot more on Bosh now. Let's give him a chance and see how this plays out, like Doug Smith and been suggesting.
Speaking of DS, I've had my problems with him. He's had his problems with me. That's life. He has a very good blog. Digs up a lot of information and is a good writer.
He did miss the mark, I felt, when he was saying pretty much 'yawn, what's your beef?' with people utterly disgusted by last year's Raps.
Reached its zenith when he asked the immortal question " just what would 'blowing it up' look like?" Now, we ALL know.
Let's move on from the past. You can pick soft spots on Bosh and Smith all you want. All of us have em. We're just not important enough to have them exposed, unless we reveal them ourselves (take note).
Let go, Eric. New season. New agreements. New disagreements. Like a lot of your comments BUT ... move on!

[Matt]

To Erc,

"Speaking of DS, I've had my problems with him. He's had his problems with me. That's life."

How out of whack is your ego to think that Doug actually has problems with YOU. You're just some mouthpiece who writes comments on HIS blog.

Shake head, rinse, repeat.

[Erc]

Matt, Yes it is his blog. Not mine and not yours, not even Tabbers.
It's a new season. Why can't we all just get along?
Oh, and since it's a new season -- find a new phrase. Don't rinse. Don't repeat. Thanks.