Don't Believe The Hype

Disclaimer: Please note the following prior to reading this. The Suns were on the 2nd half of a back to back, This is the pre-season, The Detroit Lions in the NFL had a 4-0 pre-season prior to a 0-16 season, Suns are far from a defensive juggernaut. This team still has no one that will be in the running to be an All-Star. It is only October 6th.

Ok all of that out of the way, boy was that fun to watch. I guess we can start with Linas Kleiza who continues to impress. I admit to being wait and see about how good he can be for the Raptors. Carlos Delfino came back to the NBA from Europe and had a pretty good year with the Bucks last year. Kleiza by all indications could be on the path to do that as well. It would take something pretty remarkable to see him not a part of the starting 5 at the small forward spot. He has been everything that Hedo was suppose to be and tougher. Speaking of Hedo he was welcomed back to Canada with Boos from the folks in Vancouver. You mess with the Raptors I guess that is proof you mess with Canada. The fact Hedo will be coming to Toronto as well for pre-season has to make him feel a little bit ill. I see a tummy ache in Hedo's future but don't worry he will be out at the clubs by 10pm tops.

This Raptors team if they hit the clubs seem like they will do it together. I think we all can easily be jaded. All of this talk of team effort and it will now be a team that is one for all and all for one can ring a little hallow. I mean, what else is a team that lost it's 5 time All-Star for nothing more than a trade exception and a couple draft picks suppose to say? But it may not be all hype as this Raptor team really has seemed together off the floor and at least 1 game into things on the floor as well. Ironically the 2 guys that you would hear the most in terms of being the Raptors next one were not exactly great tonight. Both Bargnani and DeRozan have looked far better in the past. Bargnani had just 3 points while DeRozan did end up with 2nd most points with 16 and to be fair was not horrible at all. Everyone else in red was looking good. I mean everyone from Marcus Banks to Joey Dorsey and all points in between. Ok that might be a slight exaggeration. But seriously this was a two and half hour informerical for why watching the post Bosh Raptors could be fun.

Fitting of this team concept everyone that played for the Raptors scored led by Kleiza with 20. Only person that didn't score was Ed Davis, who was watching still on the mend from his knee operation, that will see him miss all of the pre-season and likely the first few weeks of the regular season as well. Reggie Evans can relate to that last year getting hurt in the pre-season as he was hurt. Tonight he was hurt again but came back only to be ejected for slapping Grant Hill in the butt who also did the same to Reggie and both were tossed. Reggie had banged heads earlier with Robin Lopez who also did not make it to the end of this one. He racked up two technical fouls and was gone. The NBA has added my tougher fines and is said to have a low tolerance policy for players complaining about calls this year. These refs tonight clearly got that memo and totally screwed it up and ran a muck with it. The incident with Hill and Evans reminded me of the ejection of Morris Peterson, when Vince Carter started play fighting with his former team mate, only to have Mo P be unamused and then was tossed for slapping Carter's hand away. It was bizarre as was the Evans and Hill ejections.

There has been talk all summer and into the pre-season on how the Raptors were going to be better on the defensive end of floor. I think we all kind of felt like this was the little boy crying wolf once again. I mean we all remember Jay Triano talking about protecting the house last year. We all remember how that house would get bombed night after night. The fact is since the Raptors had Kevin O'Neil as head coach the concept of defence has been a foreign concept in Toronto. But I never remember Kevin O'Neil's Raptors scoring 129 points in any game ever. The Raptors looked solid for 4 quarters on defence. How many times could we have said that last season? Once, Twice not many more than that.

I know it is only the pre-season and game number 1. In fact if you are not saying that to yourself while reading this go back to the top and read the disclaimer again.

The Suns shot just 37.8% while the Raptors were a hot as a pistol 50.6 with an economical 6-10 from 3 point range. Joey Dorsey was the only Raptor with a double double as he had 13 and 10. as for the point guard battle advantage Jarret Jack who had 10 points and 7 assists and was going full out not playing like a starting job was a given for him. Calderon did have a steal that is always of note also had 6 points and 3 assists.

In the end as corny as it may sound the Raptors were as advertised a team with everyone chipping into to the overall effort. Which there was a lot of in terms of effort. While some will say this team never played this way with Bosh and use that as ammo to slag him. It is true the Raptors never did. However, maybe that is the point that it is because he is not here and everyone knows that. No longer is Chris Bosh here to bail this team out with his standard 20 and 10. It is now everyone's responsibility to rebound to defend and to score. The example that gets thrown around is the Blue Jays and the loss of Roy Halladay, who threw a prefect game for the Phillies tonight as an aside. But the fact with him gone the Jays stepped up and the pitching staff most of all is not dissimilar. Chris Bosh is still really good and you saw that if you happened to check out his Heat debut. Just like Halladay is still very good. Both may end up winning Championships when all is said and done. I guess the point is no one on the Jays or the Raptors has that big star to point to and say that guy will get it done I can coast. Everyone has to look in the mirror and say what can I do to make us better.
Let's not forget at the end of the day this was one game but it was a much better beginning for the Raptors than anyone could have imagined. A 128-79 thrashing of the Suns pre-season or other wise is highly unexpected. It makes you wonder almost as much about the outlook for the Suns as they also lost a big piece to there puzzle in Amare Stoudamire. After an off-season that was anything but fun if nothing else Raptor fans deserved this night and win to feel good about this team if only for one night.

ESPN is not going to retract their 20 win predictions or anything. NBA2K11 is not going to improve Linas Kleiza's pathetic rating in the 50's. But if nothing else the Raptors made you sit up and take notice that the reports of their death this season may be as bogus as those of former Leafs Coach Pat Burns. May God Bless him. While the Raptors may not be in need of blessings they do deserve a well deserved round of applause for putting on quite the show in Vancouver. Reality may come very quickly as soon as Sunday as the Boston Celtics will be the the Raptors next foe. They play defence just slightly better than the Suns do.

So after the Summer we have all endured together.....enjoy this one. But don't go planning a parade just yet. The T-Wolves beat the Lakers too. It is just pre-season. Add that to the disclaimer.

Matt Devlin From Vancouver

I had not missed covering training camp till this Sunday. When the Raptors were having their scrimmage and I was covering the NFL for The Score. However, if I can not be at camp, thankfully we at the Dino Nation Blog know a few people that are at camp. One of those is Matt Devlin and he checks in with us from Vancouver. He will be calling the Raptors pre-season opener tonight on TSN as they take on the Suns. We talk about a bunch of things including that game tonight. We also talk about how the Raptors can build on it's fan base outside of Toronto. Along with talk of all the usual suspects you would suspect, mixed in with a little fun as always with Matt Devlin.

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Thanks to Matt for his time and make sure you tune in to watch him and Jack Armstrong with the call of Suns and Raptors for TSN.

Happy Media Day

It is media day in Raptorland. Rather then write 4 different blogs throughout the day will just update this one throughout the day. I am not in the house for media day but will look to get down to T.O during the pre-season. So I will be monitoring whatever coverage there is. Raptors are going to be having a live chat going. Also, Paul Jones and Eric Smith are expected to be doing there thing on the Fan 590 website as they have done in past years.

I am trying to get excited as the season is almost here. That being said the expectations for this group are so negative it is hard to get excited. I am not good at faking it. So check in throughout the day for updates to this blog. I will post times for all the updates as we go along. Media day in many places around the league today including Denver where they wonder if Carmelo Anthony will even be there? If the Mello Trade to Nets happens that makes the outlook for the Raptors slightly more bleak.

Update 1:30

You know you wait and wait for Media Day but honestly there isn't a lot to it. I mean it is what it is to a point. There has been lots of positive talk from everyone. But do we expect anything less? I think the most interesting to this point has been Jarret Jack. I have made the statement in the blog before...Jarrett Jack has shown more leadership in his time here than Jose Calderon has in his entire career. The point guard position is going to be interesting. Jose Calderon and if he can deal with being 2nd on the depth chart and deal with a fan base that isn't 100% behind him. Probably just do one more update with some final thoughts.

Update 3:00

So Media day is in the books. Lots of talk of team chemistry and other stuff to try to give people hope. But when you get down to the reality of things, this Raptor team is going to be in serious trouble unless they make some moves. Not just minor ones, like the rumours out there. I am not ready to declare them last in the East. I think Pacers, Pistons and Philly all will contend for that. After that thought it is tough to say. Also with a Mello to the Nets possibility that would make the Raps division that much more of a challenge.

What I did like was hearing Demar DeRozan. He seems much more at ease talking to the media and I think ultimately he is the major key to this season. Team work and all of that is one thing. But in the NBA you need a few guys to lead the charge. The Pistons model of play the right way and actually having success with it seldom works. One of the best teams in the NBA in terms of a team concept is the Utah Jazz. How many titles have they won? You needs some stars to make it happen. Demar needs to be that star if the Raptors are to do anything this season. At the end of the day it goes against logic and good sense to imagine this team wins more games without CB4 then they did with him. I grow tired of the constant references of what Chris didn't do for this team. Here is a newsflash for everyone. Chris Bosh left the Raptors because they failed him in his eyes. Not that he failed in their eyes. There is no way I would believe anyone that says this team would not love to have him on the roster. Whatever he lacked or didn't have. They had 7 years to figure out how to add it to this team around him. They had 7 years to choose to be a Tax team and go all out to win. Those things didn't happen. While the Raptors want you to blame Chris for leaving the fact is they should be the ones taking the blame for not building a team good enough around him. You can run and hide from that fact all you like but if the grim reality that many feel is coming happens, there will be few places to hide.

Oh and one last thing. If I hear one more time that this team is going to play exciting basketball but likely lose 50 games, I may have to puke. I coached little kids at the start of the year I had a talk with them that went like this.

Me: So who has ever seen a team say...YEAH WE LOST.

Team: no response.

Me: That doesn't happen right?

Team: nods of agreement.

Me: So we are going to do are best to win and that will mean some people will play more than others but the goal will be to win because winning is fun.

Team: Cheers of agreement.

So if I can make 9-10 year old kids understand that simple concept, how come some people covering the NBA and fans of the NBA don't get it? By the way those kids never did lose as our team went undefeated and won the Championship. Losing no matter how you go about it....IS NEVER FUN...IT IS NEVER ENTERTAINING TO LOSE. It is about WINNING. Like Herm Edwards said coaching the JETS...YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!!!. Can the odd time you except a lose and say that was a hell of a game. Absolutely but to lose consistently is NEVER FUN.

Sadly I am not confident the Raptors can do enough of that this season. Anyone who thinks that will be enjoyable along the way.....call me in January and tell me how much fun your having. I won't expect many calls.

6:30

The Fan 590 has all of the interviews from their 2+ hours of coverage this afternoon. So check it all out if you missed any of it.