Raps Close The ACC For The Season

The Raptors are just to hard to figure out at this point. The lose to the Wizards a team that is worse than them. They will play them again tonight by the way. They play the Sixers on Easter Sunday and the Sixers still have something to play for as they could improve there playoff position. However the Raptors come out and blow the doors off the Sixers down the stretch. It makes little sense. Quincy Douby was on fire. I mentioned he might actually have a shot of sticking with this team. He did nothing but improve his chances of that yesterday. Be in here or somewhere else it seems the NBA with have a Douby next year. Charles Oakley will tell you that 75% of the league has had several for years. So the Raptors close out there home sked with an under .500 record on the ACC floor of 18-23. Maybe the first thing they need to do is stop changing the floor ever season. The never change the floor for the Celtics every year. The only thing they do is paint those logos for the Playoffs, Eastern Conference Finals and Finals. When the Raptors won the lone division title they had in their history they won 30 games on the ACC floor I believe. This team did not play well on their home floor. The fans let them know about it as well at times. Let's make a deal with the Raptors. We will not boo at games if you agree to win more games at home. Sound good. Oh yeah and you need to fix that T.V mess as well. Raps are actually on the main TSN network so EVERYONE can see the classic tilt with the Wizards and Raps.

The Raptors are a half game ahead of the New York Knicks in the draft lottery standings. If they lose out they might be able to pass the Knicks. That being said can anyone figure out what they will do? I mean these games have resembled summer league games that is in part why I have not been doing recaps. I may do the last game of the season with the Bulls if I am not working. But there really is no point to it. The Raptors story for this season has been written a long time ago. An off-season with lots of questions is about to get going. Perhaps the most important one will be what will be the NBA Cap number? There is a general expectation that the number will go down. There was a lot of debate this season on if the folks at MLSE would allow Bryan Colangelo would be allowed to go over the Tax threshold number. They said that it was an option if Bryan wanted to do it. However that was never tested. Heading into this season with a lower cap it may be put to the test. Colangelo no doubt wants to make a lot of changes. So will he be given the green light to go over the tax? I think that if Chris Bosh comes back the answer to that will be yes. After all if Bosh is back Colangelo will be sending a signal that he plans on keeping him and resigning him. To do that this Raptor team needs to improve a lot and fast. We also have the Lottery and this may seem odd for folks but I am cheering for the Raptors to be the runner-up in the Blake Griffin lotto. I think the Raps would be wise and happy to select Haseem Thabeet. No he is not a shooting guard or small forward. At 7 foot 3 there is nothing small about Haseem Thabeet. He is a great defender and is exactly what the Raptors could use. If Colangelo is going to spend cash he can bring in a shooting guard of small forward via a signing or trade. Thabeet will be the best player in this draft class. I may sound crazy now but you will see. I also said that Durant would be the better of him and Oden. So far so good on that one.

I am excited that I will be talking with Jack Armstrong late this week. Likely have that together for you next weekend. I am always interested in what Jack has to say on the Raps. I think he is the most honest and direct about this team and his opinions on it. He does not candy coat what he thinks about things. If the Raps are bad he will tell you that. It is why I love talking with Jack. He has become a pretty busy guy with doing his own Radio show on Monday through Friday as well as all his Raptor responsibilities. He even covers college games in the states as well. Thanks to my job with the Score, I am required to have an extended sports package. So I got to see Jack do a game between Louisville and Cincy earlier this year. So I am sure Jack will have some thoughts on the draft as well.

That is about it for an Easter Monday. If you celebrated Easter this past weekend I hope the Easter Bunny was good to you. Also just a reminder that the Dino Nation Blog goes the whole year around. Just because Wednesday is the end of the season for the Raptors does not mean I go on holidays. I will keep at it and still look to bring in guests to talk Raptors and NBA. So keep that in mind over the spring and summer months. In fact some of the best stuff I have done in the blog has happened in the summer as people have more time and sometime you can pull of some good stuff. Last season we did a great feature on Roy Hibbert as well as Nathan Jawai. So always know someone is here working hard. That someone is me.

So that is a Rap as far as games at the ACC see you in late October or early November. If you are looking for tickets next year remember Raptorman.ca. I got to meet Steve(Raptorman) this year and he is a great guy and a true fan of the Raptors. He will look after you I have no doubt. So remember him next season when you are searching for your Raps Tickets.