Today given the location of the Raps last pre-season game I thought it would be fun to get to know a bit about Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So are you ready to know all you wanted to about Sioux Falls than you every thought you would in life?
For starters the population of Sioux Falls is approximately 154, 997. It was founded way back in 1856 long before the game of basketball was invented. It is about 15 miles from the Minnesota border. The crime rate in Sioux Falls is about half the national average in the U.S. The Cities Motto is "The Heart of America". It is in the Central Time Zone. It is also the home to the D-League Sioux Falls Skyforce. Amir Johnson has you may have heard spend some time there. Here is what Amir had to say about Sioux Falls from his media scrum yesterday. If this is not enough info on Sioux Falls for you here is a link to the Wikipedia on Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
No matter if this game is played in Sioux Falls or Kalamazoo Michigan the goals for the Raptors are pretty much the same in their final pre season contest
1. STAY HEALTHY...Above all else that is the most important thing. The Raps have already seen Reggie Evans go down and do not need to see anyone else get hurt as the Regular Season is now under a week away. So for goodness sake be careful out there.
2. Improvement On Defensive End. It has to happen in this final tune up because the Raptors will be playing several teams that are no joke early on. So they need to show they are at least heading in the right direction on that side of the floor.
3. Extend those minutes and set some rotations for the season. Bosh and Turkoglu especially have yet to get to a point where they can handle the normal work load they will have in terms of minutes thus far. Bosh and Turkoglu I would expect will be called on to log heavy minutes during the season despite the depth that most feel this team has.
If you still believe the shoot guard starting spot is up for grabs than that is something that needs to be decided. However I think that this was always Demar DeRozan's spot to lose and he has not done anything that would make you think he can not play in the role of starter. The hope is that DeRozan can be similar to Lee in Orlando last season. I think it is the right call and should give Demar the confidence and allow him the thrill to here his name called.
The Raptors at least record wise have not had a pre-season to remember. As much as it really doesn't matter it would be nice to see them finish strong with a win. The talk out of practices this week has been how hard and intense they have been. So let's hope that is illustrated on the defensive end of the floor in Sioux Falls.
Also my my radio appearance out in B.C has changed from Monday to Wednesday. I am going to be pre-taping it as that of course is the debut for the Raptors that night. The ESPN Keeper League is set to draft today and is still not full so if you can get an e-mail to me by no later than 3pm TODAY. I will try to get an invite to you. All invites must be excepted by no later than 5pm. As I need to finalize things for the draft.
One last not one the power of Twitter. It seems Eric Smith who covers the Raps on radio for the Fan 590 will not be elected mayor of Memphis anytime soon. Eric tweeted a blog he wrote on Vancouver for Memphis being the worst trade in NBA history. Well a re-tweet from J.E Skeets of Yahoo and the Basketball Jones and another from someone working for a New York Newspaper and word got to Memphis. I have offered my services to Eric as a personal bodyguard as I want all my guests for the DNB to be safe. The Raps first road game is of course in Memphis if you did not know.
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