Boston Beatdown With False Hope On The Side

Could we talk today about yet another dismantling of the Raptors in Boston?  Sure we could but in five years of doing this how many times have we had to talk about games like that?  The answer is far too many times. What was more to disturbing to me was the broadcast itself which played out like an infomercial on why the Raptors are actually good. Why they will be a playoff team next season and would have been if not for that pesky 4-19 start.

Like SERIOUSLY? I am sorry but I have put up with this non-sense for 5 years. I am not under the delusion that my 1500 twitter followers or the Dino Nation Blog gives me a massive audience. I don’t have the reach of Rogers Sportnet or TSN. That said, what I can say honestly is in five years plus of doing this I have never once tried to pull a snow job on you that tries to paint the Raptors in any light other than what they are...realistically

I am getting fed up with this, not just because it is bogus and stretches the truth to the limit. I am also fed up with the utter stupidity of it. Let’s be honest here, does anyone who makes the choices running this broadcast have a clue? If people are loyal enough fans to still are watching the Raptors at this point you don’t need to sell them on the future of this team.

Here is why:

1. They are blindly loyal and going to be here regardless of what is said or not said. Or…..
2. They are smart enough fans to be insulted by obvious attempts to try and brainwash them.

In many cases both could apply. I can’t figure out if they honestly believe the fan base is this stupid or they just have become so use to pumping out this propaganda they don’t even notice.

This show that is the Toronto Raptors has been going on for 18 years and will keep on running for much longer. What I have seen this year is a lot of people reaching the ends of their rope. People tired of being sold a bill of goods that doesn’t logically make any sense or lead to anything of any real substance at the end of the day. 

I am not sure exactly when or where this happened but at some point this franchise has become happy and content with the idea of just getting back into the post-season and finish in seventh or eighth in the East. That has become the dream to be the team that gets steam rolled by the Miami Heat or whoever happens to be second best in the East.

Here is the thing that isn’t good enough anymore. This fan base has seen this team make the playoffs and a return to them would be nice, but only if it was leading somewhere. Case and point a few years back the Charlotte Bobcats made it to the playoffs and since they have sunk back into the abyss at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

The playoffs from the fans point of view are only fun if they honestly believe their team has a snowball’s chance in hell of advancing. The way the Raptors are currently constructed is basically what you get for the next couple years. Deny it all they like, the Raptors, the same Raptors that had two days rest facing a team on second night of a back to back minus their All-Star point guard and lost 112-88.

These same guys are heading to the post season next year are 3-9 in their division and 9-24 on the road. This team will draft no one in the upcoming draft as it stands now. They will not be able to afford anything in free agency other than left over mid-level contract fodder. Which they will likely pass on because they despite sabre rattling MLSE don’t seem all that keen on going into the luxury tax. They have that awesome trade chip in Andrea Bargnani that whatever they care to say, is going to take a miracle to move in a trade and an even more miraculous event to get anything of value for him.

Those are the harsh realities and I am not saying this is what they can or should be putting into the broadcast of games. I get at the end of the day they are trying to sell people on a future. I would love to have a future to sell you all as well. After all if the Raptors do better this blog would benefit just like everything connected to the Raptors.

The reality is that is not happening. I see the exact opposite happening as many fans are reaching the breaking point with this franchise and it’s never ending spin job with the sole purpose of selling hope that is based in a fantasy world.

I can’t do that….I never have been able too. Allow me to indulge with a cute and maybe slightly embarrassing story from my youth.  My parents decided to give me a shot at doing commercials.  Believe it or not I was a cute kid once. So, I was shooting a commercial for some food (No not primo pasta) and as a 6 year old I was not excited about the product. I was supposed to say something along the lines of how great it was. But even as a child I was too logical for my own good. I said to my mom…But mommy if I said that I would be lying and that is wrong. Damn there went the career in commercials and who knows what else. 

Even to this day I have these problems. I feel odd asking you folks to do anything. I had a link up to sell DNB T-Shirts like many other sites have but never could bring myself to promote you should buy them. I added a donate link for Paypal last week but this is the first time you have seen or heard it mentioned.

I mean it is not like I don’t work hard and have for years paying my way to cover everything that I do and going into my far from deep pockets to pay for the minor expenses to keep this thing rolling. All of this in fighting an uphill battle that ultimately I have no control of in which is the future of this franchise.

I really get annoyed when I see obvious attempts to paint this team out to be things that they simply are not. The idea that this team is heading in some great positive direction since Chris Bosh left because he was sick and tired of things this after Carter did same years ago….it is a joke. This franchise is in the hole they find themselves currently by their own mismanagement in those situations.

I find it hard to believe they have sudden realized their only escape is to spend money and risk profits to improve this team to level it truly needs to be improved. The Raptors and maybe some people reading will say they spend money. Look at the contracts of Gay, Fields, DeRozan and Bargnani. You may not like the contracts but that is proof they are willing to spend.

Not really it proof they don’t exactly know how to spend, but regardless of that, it is what they spend on the roster as a whole that matters. Which has always been below the luxury tax. Now with the penalties increasing we are suppose to think the Raptors will dive in and spend to levels they didn’t when it was cheaper? Seems highly unlikely and if that is true the Raptors have built a team that is somewhere between 6-10 in the East every year. That is the absolute worse place to be in the middle.

When you’re stuck in the mucky middle Andrew Wiggins is not walking through your door or any talent like him.  Might you get a few extra home playoff dates and add to the bottom line profits. Sure but that is the short term bump. The long term bump is building a team that could legitimately contend. On that front the Raptors are far from that and really lacking any tools beyond internal improvement to get closer to that.