Of Pops and Jake and a Villanova love-in

Five down, three to go and it’s almost time to get serious.

Almost.

Until then …

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Three Things I Learned

They could be in better shape

I know a few of ‘em haven’t had a whole lot of practice – actually just Turk and Bosh – but I have to say, the Raps as a whole could use a bit of physical fine-tuning.

There’s a lot of time left, after tonight they’ve only got two games in like 13 days before the season ends, and I’m betting Jay’s going to be huddling with strength and conditioning coach Francesco Cuzzolin to get some of these guys on a fast-track program to optimum fitness.

It’s not that they’re slovenly as a group or anything. It just looks like they could use some oomph or something.

It was really noticeable in the first six or seven minutes of the third quarter when the Celtics seemed to run by them almost at will.

It’s got to be a priority in the next week.

Sign of the times?

No, they didn’t run too many screen and rolls against Boston – it’s such a basic play they all know that it won’t take long for them to work it out -- but what they did run was mildly interesting.

I think about half a dozen times in the first half, and a couple right at the start of the second, the ran post-ups for Bosh, with Turkoglu making the entry pass.

Of the three bigs, it looks like Bosh may be the inside guy, which plays to his newfound strength, actually.

And, no, he didn’t pass out of it very often last night but I wouldn’t worry about that. That game, and the four before it and the three to come, are for working on things and if he’s working on moves – a baseline fade off the left block looks like Job 1 – everyone’s okay with that.

How about KG’s knee?

It’s virtually impossible to get a true read off the Celtics from that game. It was the second of a back-to-back for most of them, Rasheed didn’t play and Garnett, Pierce and Allen only played a bit more than half a game.

To me, Garnett didn’t look hobbled at all but it was interesting that they used him primarily on Bargnani and put Kendrick Perkins on Bosh.

The other two? Allen didn’t make a shot in the first half, Pierce never really got going and it was like an extended workout rather than an intense outing.

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And now for our regularly-scheduled stuff

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Are you guys ready to tear the roof off the joint tonight?

It’s Legend Night at the Air Canada Centre.

As in The Legend Pops is back.

Now, the love for him was hardly commensurate with his production but it was love like there’s been for few others.

My take on Pops, as it’s always been, is that he’s an energetic rebounder who always looks to be having more of an impact on the game than he actually is.

Good guy for the couple of months he was here trying to gain permanent employment – which tells me he knows how to play the game. Rotation player on a playoff team? I’m not entirely sure about that.

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Here’s one to watch tonight. When Houston’s Kyle Lowry’s on the court, make sure Alvin Williams is actually cheering for the Raptors.

I joke, of course, but the bond between the two Villanova guards is strong. Very strong.

Williams spent a huge amount of time last year and in the summer of 2008 working with Lowry, who I think is going to be a very solid player for quite some time.

Speaking of Houston, the notebook from my buddy Jonathan Feigen suggests Rockets coach Rick Adelman isn’t quite in love with the whole idea of this game.

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What’s the first picture a guy sees when he walks into the press room at XL Center in Hartford?

Why a picture of a young Jake Voskuhl setting what looked like a rather nasty screen on someone during Jake’s rather illustrious UConn career.

And then you look around a little more and there’s pictures of entertainers and some pucks and some women Huskies but the only picture representing that storied men’s program is Jake.

No Ray Allen.

No Charlie V.

No Donyell Marshall.

No Khalid El-Amin, even.

Just Jake.

And I imagine he was called for a foul on the screen he was setting.

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Ran into my friend Bob Ryan at the game last night; it was his first foray into the land of Celtics after dealing with the demise of the Red Sox.

Here’s his take from today’s Boston Globe on what unfolded.

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You know the little things that bug the heck out of you for no particular reason except that they do. Stuff that no one else probably even things about but stuff that drives you nuts? I’ve got one for you.

Elevators with floor buttons on only one side of the door.

Just spent two days in the Hilton in Hartford (trust me, it sounds a heckuva lot nicer than it is) and just about every time I walked into the elevator, I turned the wrong way and went to push a button only to get a metal panel.

Irks me no end.

(Now, if that’s not the all-time digression, I don’t know what is).

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In Houston, this is what they’re reading about the Rockets; in Hartford, an old scout friend was telling me he saw them play already this pre-season and while he didn’t say they were terrible, he did say they were small and could be in for a long, long season.

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A face in the Hartford crowd stood out.

Pete Babcock, who’s doing some scouting for Cleveland apparently.

Good guy, Pete. Had a long run as GM in Atlanta but hasn’t been too prominent of late.

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If you’re sitting around breathlessly waiting for some update on Reggie Evans and the sprained foot he suffered Wednesday night, stand down.

With no media after their little Read To Achieve dog and pony show this morning, we’re not going to here any update until dinner time.

If I get a whiff, I’ll let you know but it’s probably going to be close to game time before there’s news.

Comments

[DB]

It's so weird that you wrote that about the elevator buttons. I was out of town for the long weekend and was thinking the EXACT same thing for my entire stay in the hotel.

[Alex]

"Rockets coach Rick Adelman said he would like to use a regular-season style rotation tonight, but he did not know who would play up front because of matchups with the Raptors and their use of 3-point shooters Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani, and the uncertain availability of Hedo Turkoglu"

Ummmm Doug does your buddy Jonathan Feigen actually, you know, follow the NBA? I know he likes to jack one up once in a while but I can't remember ever hearing CB4 described as a 3 point shooting threat.

[ANM]

Hey Doug. Thanks for the play-by-play last night. I know it wasn't a Q&A yesterday so I'll ask again. Have you ever tried to use a computer camera as a live feed from none televised games? Is there legal issues with that Would that beat the whole purpose of your game blog?
Thanks

Blogger's note: That's dead against NBA media rules, given rights fees and broadcast rights and the like

[Jim Rootham]

They should play some 3 a side full court. Require all shots to be taken from the paint with everybody inside the 3 point line. 6 seconds to get it over half court. 12 second shot clock. Foul and you run baseline to baseline.

A few hours of that and conditioning will stop being a problem.

[Darko]

Doug, did you see all that love Joey G. got from George Karl this
morning in Denver Post? They even put Joey and Defence in the
same sentence??? Always amazed me to watch a guy get absolutely
lost on basic defensive rotations time and again, yet knowing that
he was able to learn how to fly an airplane.

[binson]

Hahaha, I'm the exact same with the elevator buttons. Another thing that irks me and probably irks you is when people use "here" instead of "hear".
For example:
"we're not going to here any update..."

:-)

Blogger's note: Yeah, I hate that to

[Lu Galasso]

You are right about their conditioning fading in the second half of the game. They got just under 15 days to rectify that hiccup. Other than that their chemistry seemingly improves every time they step on the court. Hopefully you're right and Triano puts them through some drills to better their cardio.

[marc in Burlington]

Hola Doug,

There is an link on Hoops Hype linking to a Denver Post article in which George Karl comes off mightily impressed with Joey Graham. Two things struck me while reading the article.

1) Karl mentions that last year mentions he tried to trade for Graham and offered up Linas Kleiza for Joey but the deal didn't go through. Knowing Bryan tried to get Kleiza this summer as a free agent, I wondered if you knew and could share the reason the trade didn't happen.

2) It must be completely foreign to Joey to be in a situation where he is receiving positive re-inforcement from his head coach. Now with the talk that Joey has played his way onto the team, and is looked at as guy who has worked his way from being a non guaranteed invitee to camp to being mentioned as a guy who could be a rotation player on a team that went to the western conference finals makes me think that Joey's lack of making a meaningful impact here in Toronto was Sam Mitchell.

The worst thing that happened to this team was Smitch getting the COY award which pretty much forced Bryan to resign him. I give Mitchell his due for his role in developing Bosh as a player, (a role that Mitchell as an assistant to a head coach that could actually, you know coach a TEAM could have accomplished). But to do so at the price of not developing or letting languish Graham and Bargnani, both players who appear to be thriving under new head coaches I think makes that point. That and of course the fact that Sam COY resumed butt is still unemployed.

Blogger's note: Hang on a sec. You're suggesting that after five pre-season games, Joey Graham -- the same infuriating Joey Graham who was as up and down under Jay as he was under Sam -- has somehow turned a corner? Wow. Didn't the last four years give any indication of his consistent inconsistency?
Oh, and Avery Johnson, has his COY-resumed butt unemployed still, too. As do others. No point to be made there

[dc]

any first-degree ankle sprain should require several weeks of rest. not saying that's what will happen for reggie evans. If there is no extensive tearing, and only bruising of the tissue, the ankle typically becomes swollen requiring rest and minor treatment to heal quickly.
can't wait to see bosh and turk on the floor tonight!
is this game going to be in HD?

Blogger's note: Considering it's a foot and not an ankle, I'm glad you're not saying that's what will happen to Evans

[Kelsie]

Hey Doug,

Caught the game last night, and although it was a pre-season game there were a few interesting things I took from it.

Good:

If Barg's takes the next step in his development defensively and rebounding-wise he will have a very good year. He seems very confident on offence and opposing teams respect his jump shot so he can now get to the rim more.

Bosh is and will always be Chris Bosh. Criticize him all you want but he's a great player and always trying to get better. If I hear another 'G.S. for Biedrins and Randolph' rumour, I'm going to lose it.

Rondo is an all-star. The knock on him even when he was at Kentucky was his jump shot. It looks like those critics might be silenced this year.

The Celts are a good measuring stick for us. They remind me of how we used to look up at the Knicks.

Bad:

Perkins annoys me and his comments about us not being able to handle physical play should be a constant reminder to the squad. When are we going to take this personally and respond to physicality with physicality even if we're outmatched?

Where was Amir last night?

Is it just me or do the Celts seem to intimidate the refs? It seems like they get more than their fair share of calls.

Of the 8-9 man rotation Triano was referring to I hope Weems, and Johnson are two of those players. I'm not so sure right now.

Doug do you think Weems is above Belinelli on the depth chart right now or the other way around? What about Evans and Johnson? Who plays before who?

Blogger's note: Right now, it's Belinelli; and if Evans is healthy it's him over Johnson

[Tony]

Hi Doug, thanks for the links to out of market newspaper you gave, i find them very interesting reads of different perspective.

On the conditioning thing, i like Triano's knowledge and emphasis on the conditioning front. But i think our main problem is that players like Bosh, Turk and Calderon are trying to get re-climatized after lengthy periods of downtime. Wright will go through it soon as well. Even Weems was back and probably could of used a couple more days to get ready but needs to play regardless, while he can. A nice break before the first season game will hopefully leave us healthy and better able to work on conditioning.

[Joe]

hey doug, a question about the arenas fining and player obligations to the media. is it in the players contract to talk to media during specific times? i'm pretty sure it's in some sort of contract,but a few of my friends seem to disagree.

Blogger's note: No actual contract, just part of league media requirements and obligations.

[kazbid]

come on doug..maybe marc from burlington didn't make a good point about sam being a bad coach
and i agree the Joey G love is definitely pre-mature

but i completely agree that smtich winning COY really set the raps player development back in that BC had to sign sam and subsequently our team didn't improve much over the last 2.5 years

[jesse]

Any word on who is getting the night off tonight?

Blogger's note: No, no one was the plan after the game last night

[MC B-Rad]

hey about the keliza for graham trade talk...any inkling why the raps didnt do it, or why it didnt happen plain and simple

Blogger's note: I don't believe it was entirely real, actually.

[marc in Burlington]

Hola Doug,

In rebuttal to your comments:

I have no idea if Joey has "turned the corner" or not, and I agree with you that 5 pre-season games do not a "comeback of the year" award make. What I find interesting is that Karl as a coach expresses confidence in Joey and his abilities, whereas Mitchell seemed to lose interest in developing a first round pick into a productive rotation player or an asset that could be moved to improve the team with another piece.

The NBA is littered with all kinds of players who after changing teams, or systems have thrived. The guy I think of as the poster child for this is Caron Butler of the Wizards. I am not saying that Graham is going to become an all star, but I have always thought that Joey could be a solid rotation guy on a team if he was properly coached. By the time Jay got to him, (and with having to make changes on the fly like Jay did there wouldn't have been much coaching time last year anyway), I could see where management might decide that since Joey's time was done there wasn't any reason to invest time in re-inventing a guy they weren't going to resign anyway.

Previous posts of yours have described how Graham was a beast in practice but could not translate effectiveness onto the game floor. Perhaps Karl will see that is the case. Or maybe he's a coach that can develop players, something I maintain outside of Bosh, Sam was unable to accomplish here as a head coach.

We can agree to disagree, no harm no foul.

Cheers

[Clay]

I think the elephant in the room is that Jose looks TERRIBLE. Jose as a point guard, is boring. Safe but boring. But this preseason, poor shooting, more turnovers than a McDonalds at 8 a.m, leads me to think that many other important factors such as the team jelling, will suffer from the fact that the guy driving is not in game shape.

[Ashm]

Hey Doug
You have any news as how long will Raggie be sideline for his injury or how serious it is?

Blogger's note: Nope, not yet

[marc in Burlington]

Hola Doug,

You think you have a peeve with elevators? Here in Panama lots of elevators stop only on every other floor. Getting into an elevator you never know if it's going to let you off on the floor you want, or weather you'll have to walk up or down a floor. Where you have a double bank of elevators, one will cover the even floors, one will cover the odds. There is no rhyme or reason which elevator is for which set of floors. Lots of confusion going into a building you haven't been in before and then having to do the elevator shuffle, through a crowd when you realize you are on the wrong one. Best still is when that happens and you're loaded down with he groceries.

Cheers

marc in Burlington via Panama City, Panama

[sean]

hey doug - is turk going to get any action tonight - I heard that coach dosent want to play him back to back

Blogger's note: Have no idea where you heard that, but you need to listen to other people

[AJR]

Hey, Doug

Some of us resourceful types managed to watch the Comcast broadcast of the game online.

1) I was disappointed that Raptors TV didn't pick up the feed. I understand why they didn't broadcast it themselves. But the feed was available, so this was a miss in my books.
2) The period in the first quarter when the came back from around a 10 point deficit to take the lead, featured some excellent passing and playmaking by Bargnani and Hedo, resulting in a couple easy Bosh dunks. It was nice to see that level of skill.
3) The Comcast broadcasters were quite impressed with Bargnani's "activeness" on both ends of the floor. It was nice to hear considering how they're usually down on Toronto players and also the chance for the Raps to keep Bosh, etc.

Do you suppose their usual negative attitude towards Toronto may have played in Raps TV's decision not to pick up the feed?

Blogger's note: No

[Eric]

WOW! lol. Raps Apologist #1 is back again! In the HOWWWWSE! LOL!

I call Joey Graham's "consistent inconsistency" the same sort of meaningless label as Amy Poehler's "consistency" and "excellent defense" or Mo Pete's "inconsistency." They're labels and they stick! They're seen as correct because we use them so often...... not necessrily because they're true!

I feel bad for Joey because he put up with it for so long. "How am I more inconsistent or less consistent than anyone else?" Your not Joey. We just use that for an excuse to save the rest of the team every day. It's stupid and all....... but that's what we do! We need excuses, so we use the most laughable and subjective critcism we know! And then we treat it as fact!

I say Good Joey, Bad Joey were one of Smitch and Smith's top creations! lol. You are sooooo inconsistent, Joey. :) We lost 49 games because of you. "But we also won 47 games when I was here-" Be quiet Joe. Your inconsistency in garbage time was our peril. Lol.

Blogger's note: Now, you wouldn't use "laughable and subjective" (not to mention childish and immature) criticisms like call a man a woman's name to show how smart you are, would you?

[Peter]

DeMar DeRozan writes on his twitter page that, "The Read to Achieve today with the team was fun." Then his next two posts: "What good?" and "Why everybody try to do the Successful remix? It just dont work for some people."

Maybe beat grunts could put on a "Write to Achieve" program to help fix the rest of the problems! What do you think Doug?

Blogger's note: The problems are deep and ingrained; not sure what anyone can do, sadly

[dave]

Comment From insider]
doug you are a hater im trying to help ur fans watch the game and you wont post how selfish are you
7:57 See, this is exactly what I mean
Because of time zones I read often read you late but that cracks me up. Could you consider a weekly top five crappy posts? Give Eric something to shot for ;)

[Roxanne G]

Just got back from the "Read To Achieve dog and pony show" myself, and having not heard anything Raptors related this morning before my early commute, I wondered, when there was no sign or mention of Reggie at the shindig, if perhaps a last minute, backroom trade had been arranged - Reggie for Pops - seeing as the Rockets are in town !! (I keed, I keed) I hope Reggie makes a quick recovery; I'm looking forward to seeing him bang around on the court this year.