Thursday DNB Grab Bag

So the NBA Season is fast approaching and I still have yet to make my fearless predictions for the season. I will don't worry. I think it is required by some obscure law that if you right a blog or cover a team in anyway you must make them. Maybe I am holding out to finally see the debut of Antonie Wright. Well seeing might have been the wrong term. For the second time this preseason the Raps will take on the T-Wolves and to the best of my knowledge again it will not be broadcast. This will hopefully be the last time I have to say that this year.

I would say the number of times Patrick O'Bryant has been mentioned in this blog are few and far between. It is not that he is disliked or not appreciated. Just never someone that makes it into the topics of conversation. But there is good reasons to mention him today. He is trying to increase his Twitter followers. I know who isn't right? However if POB hits 2000 he is going to give away tickets to the Raps Home Opener. Not only that both POB and some fellow Blogger's, Scott from AltRaps @altraps and Nat from Heels on Hardwood @nat77 along with @Liston loyal raps fan, are all giving cash the Raptors Foundation as well. There may be others doing this but those were the ones I knew about. I would consider doing it to but I am flat broke from paying my way to Ottawa at the start of the month. The Charity part is if he reaches 2500 by Halloween but avoid the rush and follow the guy today. For about 1 minute or 2 out of your life you can help people out. So here is the link to POB on Twitter. Raptors Foundation for the most part does a lot of work with charities for kids. POB currently sits at about 1300 hundred and change as this is being written about half way to the goal.

No charity in this. But it will be fun and that is our ESPN Keeper Draft. Ironically all of those folks with the exception of Patrick O'Bryant are taking part in this league. We have 8 or 9 spots open for the draft tomorrow at 6:30 pm. So if you want in you need to send me an e-mail marked ESPN DRAFT INVITE to me @ Dinoblogger@gmail.com . It is first come first serve so don't wait to do it. I need to have the draft all full by an hour prior for it to happen. So if you are in are PASPN League or Yahoo League you are welcome to join. If you are not in those leagues this is YOUR LAST CHANCE to get in a DNB Fantasy league.

You may have heard last week the Leafs played dodge ball at practice last week. Well this week the Raptors went bowling. It was done as one of those team bonding things and happy to report it appears no one dropped a ball on their foot. It does seem that everyone had a good time with it though as the Raptors were not aware that they were going to be doing this. They showed up for practice and found out they were going bowling. I don't think any of them will be leaving the NBA for the PBA ( Professional Bowlers Association) any time soon but least the guys had some fun. Let's just hope they get off to a better start than the guys playing dodge ball who have still yet to win a game. I would bet the Raps have a win before they do. The Leafs were talking about being a playoff team which was a joke in my view. The Raptors talk of playoffs is a much more realistic one.

I am going to be doing some additional radio stuff this coming Monday. Going to be on Jacked In with Jessica out in B.C. I have appeared on the show a number of times and I will hit you up Monday with all the info as I am going on to talk NBA and Raptors and preview the season. It should be a blast. I will be making my regular visit to Off The Bench show in Montreal on Friday or early Saturday depending on where you live. We are scheduled to preview the Eastern Conference. They have been having some issues with the website for that station but you can try CJLO.com at 12:15am and give me a listen. I am always happy to come on any show or blog as a guest. I have been told I make a decent one. I do not doing weddings or birthdays though. But if you are getting married...Good Luck or if it is you Birthday...Happy Birthday.

This was a historic DNB as it was the first written on my new wireless Internet connection. After 10 months I finally got the stupid thing to work. I am slowly growing in technical ability...REAL SLOWLY. So that is all for today as the Raps continue to prepare for the final pre-season game tomorrow than it all gets going for REAL on the 28th.

Toughness Is Back In The T-Dot

It is rare that anything the Raptors do is met with a general positive reaction. When news broke yesterday, to a man(or woman) everyone loved this move the Raptors made. Bryan Colangelo in his end of the season address to the media, said that this team was to nice and not tough enough and he was going to do something about it. True to his word, yesterday he pulled the trigger on a deal that sent Jason Kapono to the Sixers for Reggie Evans. Evans is a guy that a lot of Raptor fans had mentioned as a good fit in the past. Now we will find out if he is indeed that. He is a tough guy that will go bang and fight on the glass and he has a bit of an attitude that he does it with. Not since Charles Oakley have the Raptors had a guy like this. Evans is not Oakley in terms of skill. But in terms of approach and attitude he is very similar. Kapono just never could live up to the big number on the contract that he signed to come to Toronto. That is the other nice thing about this deal the Raptors save a nice sum off the cap.

From the Sixers point of view they lacked 3 point shooting. In bringing in Eddie Jordan and his Princeton offense the need for that shooter became glaring. You can make a strong case that if the Sixers do not hire Jordan that this deal may not happen. Kapono may in fact do very well in Philadelphia under the Jordan system on offense. It is not that Jason Kapono was not a good guy in his time in Toronto. It was just a case of having to many of them and the fact he never matched his production to his contract number.

The addition of Evans calls into question if Pops Mensah-Bonsu will be back with the Raptors. The early indications are he is not going to be. He may even end up in Europe and not the NBA. However fans will likely adopt Reggie Evans fairly quickly given the stuff that we expect him to do. Evans is expected to join Bosh, Bargnani, Humphries, Jawai and O'Bryant. If Evans can have some of his toughness rub off, on the younger guys like Jawai, Hump and O'Bryant, that would be a great thing.

Bryan Colangelo in his comments after the trade also made it pretty clear he is not done with the changes. This is just the start of the re-tooling of this roster. He also made it pretty clear that even though he might listen that if people are thinking Chris Bosh being traded is part of that..think again. Colangelo said that Bosh was a big reason to why he came here in the first place. Colangelo seems willing to stand firm and not be pushed into making a trade for the sake of making a trade. He makes a valid point that if Bosh wants to get the most money even if it is not with Toronto it must go through Toronto. Chris Bosh would need to sign with the Raps to get the roughly 127 million he could get in a max contract with an extra year. That in comparison to roughly 97 million if he walked and did not sign with the Raps. Those are Colangelo's numbers but as he said they are subject to change with the Cap always a fluid number from year to year.

He also seems pretty confident that if Shawn Marion is not a Raptor next season that he will be moved in some type of sign and trade move. He said that of the 4 teams that have money to spend he only sees one that has an interest in Shawn and sees that as an unlikely landing place. As for how much the Raptors have to spend? He said after this move The Raptors will have somewhere between 9 and 10 million in cap space. That is of course subject to the new cap numbers yet to be set.

In addition he said that Quincy Douby has been working out 8 hours a day in Las Vegas and he is doing very well in those workouts. He also has some optimism about Patrick O'Bryant. I am not sure why that is beyond the size and potential he may have. But in listening to Bryan yesterday it is clear he has a plan and it is clear that plan might be a lot different from the ones others might have expected.

For the first time in a long time Raptor fans had something to be optimistic and positive about. Reggie Evans is never going to be an all star but he can be part of the changing of a culture of a team that has worn a soft label for a long long time. Go Reggie Go and get out there and kick some a$$!!!

Going to be doing a few interviews on the draft over the next couple days so make sure you look for them over the next few days. Also I have my own section over at Hoops Doctors now where you can read all of the articles I have written for them.

Dino Nation Blog Heads To D-League

Last week the Raptors acquired Patrick O'Bryant as part of a minor move at the Trade Deadline. O'Bryant was a draft choice of Golden State and spent some time with the Bakersfield Jam who are the affiliate of the Warriors as well as the Orlando Magic. Head Coach of the Jam is Scott Roth and I had a chance to talk about O'Bryant and also got into some things about the D-League itself.

Powered by Podbean.com

Some interesting stuff on not only O'Bryant, but the D-League as a whole. Thanks to the folks with the Jam for helping set this interview up. The Raptors, if you didn't know, are now affiliated with the Idaho Stampede. In the future I will attempt to talk with them as well. Nathan Jawai who I mentioned in the blog earlier today may wind up there playing for them. Time will tell on that. O'Bryant seems like a guy that could offer some upside if he can figure things out. Raptors will hope he does and not become a guy stuck on potential like a Jerome Mosio anyone remember him? If you don't it is not a sin. But he was a guy that you would hear a lot about his upside and potential and it never worked out for him. Here is hoping things work out better for Mr. O'Bryant. Thanks to Coach Roth for his insight on Patrick and the league he coaches in. The D-League is something that has opened up doors for a lot of guys, and I would say has been something that has been successful to this point for the NBA. The Raptors have talked about having a team closer to home that they could run in perhaps Hamilton or Buffalo someday. It would be cool for me if it was here in Hamilton. Several teams in the D-League have went that route. Running their own exclusive NBDL franchises. L.A Lakers,San Antonio and Oklahoma City all have their own teams with a single affiliation. It is something the folks at MLSE have looked at doing in the future, at least there has been talk that they have.

A Game On T.V That Everyone Can See...What A Concept.

Wow a game on T.V that is a real break through in this modern world we live in. The Raptors will have a home and home showdown with the New York Knicks. You will be able to watch both games on T.V as well that is truly thrilling is it not? Seriously it is pathetic how basketball fans have been treated this year. I have talked about it for a long time. The product on the floor this season has been bad but this cable war has made it even worse. I do not want to hear one person complain about ratings for basketball for the next 2 years at least. That is how long it is going to take to repair the damage that has been done by this mess. If you can fix it at this point. That is just a guess but T.V people complain about ratings but you have no base to do that for the next little while after you have insulted fans of the sport. I have said it all when it comes to this topic. It is not about who is to blame anymore. Wake up at MLSE and see what this is doing to your fan base. You need to do something to erase this ugly chapter in the broadcast history of this team. It is the insult to the injury of what has been a hard season.

Knicks Are On Right Path

No more Thomas and a clear direction, and play in New York, has lead to a thing that had been long lost for Knick fans.... HOPE and it has nothing to do with Obama. I questioned if Mike D'Antoni could bring his system to New York and make it work. Well so far so good and the Knicks are doing a solid job leaving the Thomas Era in the rear view mirror. Donnie Walsh was able to unload more of the bad of Thomas yesterday and brings back a solid guy in Chris Wilcox. He was going to be a Hornet but winds up a Knick. Even if they do not get that Lebron James guy in 2010 the Knicks are heading in right direction regardless of that. The days of Knicks getting attention because of Spike Lee and short guy stealing dunk contests are coming to an end. Nate can take his little green ball and dribble it on the bench or elsewhere cause change is coming to the Knicks and his little side show is no longer required. Spike Lee can stay because for a fan to have stayed loyal through all of this he deserves too.

In fact Knick fans are almost like Leaf fans in thinking the team has done to well this season. In that race for 8th of teams that are clearly flawed why not the New York Knicks? It sure seems a lot more realistic to me than the Raptors. If the Raptors want to change my mind, if that is possible at this point, it would take a convincing sweep of the Knicks to even make me consider. Chris Bosh is coming back for this series and even he understands that the slim hope the Raptors still hold for playoffs requires him to be out there. That is why I stick behind Chris Bosh while everyone is trying to run the guy out of town. I have had many conversations about Bosh with folks. Some think he can't be a player that can be a franchise guy. They are convinced he is leaving in 2010. I have been of the opinion that he has been loyal to this franchise he has busted his butt and given a lot to this team through tough times. I respect that. So if that means I have to be the last one on this train so be it. I was last one off the T.J Ford train and many out there said Jose would replace T.J it would be easy for him and he was going to be an all star. How is that working out for you? Not so hot right? I find it funny that so many folks have shifted over to my side of things. I was the guy saying all this last year. So forgive me if I don't welcome you all with open arms. But the addition of Shawn Marion will force Jose to become more aggressive on offense. If it doesn't really what is the point of all this talk of running. He even said he needed to improve his defense. The newsflash will be if he actually can.

Bosh meet the NYC Media

It will be interesting to see how Bosh handles the 2010 question that you know will come from the New York media win or lose. I would be shocked if Bosh did anything but what he has done all along which is take the high road on the issue. I know this Raptors media relations Guy Jim LaBumbard won't have him sitting behind a Knick back drop like Lebron did earlier in the year. Leave that for someone to photo shop it. The reality of an image like that is not a good thing. This will be the first meeting between the Knicks and Raptors as crazy as that seems at this point in the season.

Bosh and Marion Combo

It will be interesting to see if Bosh and Marion can have a better on court relationship than that of Bosh and O'Neal. The bar is pretty low in that regard. It just never seemed to gel with O'Neal and Bosh. It felt like an arranged marriage that both parties tried to make work but just could not. Marion may offer a better option for Bosh. However it is likely all for not. The chances this is anything but a spring fling are great indeed. I am not convinced that Marion will remain in Toronto beyond April 15th. However if some kind of amazing duo were to emerge from all of this it would be something that Raptors would have to consider. The question really is ultimately is would Marion? Seems highly doubtful and I don't think the Raptors can afford to over pay for Shawn Marion.

But let's not put the cart before the horse and see what we have with this combination. I did like that Marion was talking about the lack of communication on defense. That is something that the Raptors need to improve on. Talking on defense and making that talk result in action. Marcus Banks wants to be useful on this team and get minutes all he needs to do is play defense. That would be something this Raptor team could use badly. It is no secret that Jose Calderon is not getting it done. Roko Ukic could turn into a decent to good defender. In between that time there is a role that Will Solomon was suppose to fill that is open for Banks. Solomon was suppose to be a guy that could play some defense and score the basketball. He did little of that here. Good luck to the Kings with him doing it for them. Patrick O'Bryant comes to the Raptors and he is another 7 footer. He feel out of favour in Golden State and spent time in Bakersfield with the Jam of the D-League. He signed with Boston and has had little time on the floor with them. He will be another option the Raptors can try to use in the front court. Play defense, rebound and know your role and it might work out for O'Bryant. But let's be clear I am not holding my breath.

Jay Triano Is Doing A Good Job?

I have heard this said by a number of folks that I respect and I am confused. What has Jay done that has been so great? I mean no offense by that truly. I wanted Jay to be successful just as much as anyone. Bryan Colangelo has been full of praise for his choice to take over for Sam Mitchell. So what has he done other than shown us that Joey Graham is a capable player when nothing is on the line. He is given credit for Bargnani and his improvement. However is that not more a product of the work he put in during the off-season? He has been better but has shown slippage of late. Maybe I am just not as advanced as these people to see it. However to me it just seem that it is more of the same and refs not making calls is not the problem with all due respect. The problem is that Jay Triano is not a new voice. There is nothing he can do about that. However I think this team needs a new voice in the room. I think they need it in a coach and on the roster as well. The Raptors need someone to shake this whole thing up. Mitchell pushed this team and demanded more. Not saying that firing Sam was wrong. I think that he was still pushing but no one was listening anymore and that is a death sentence for a coach. However it was the right message. This Raptor team needs some tough love. It is clear they have been to willing to accept defeat and make excuses as a group. I am not pointing the finger at any individual for that but it seems clear to me. Give me an Eddie Jordan that did the impossible with a team that suffered injuries and battled through and until this season Jordan was able to make it work some how.

Sam Mitchell never let this team use injuries as an excuse and I think Eddie Jordan is of that same school. He may not be the favourite pick for many for this job. In fact he may not be on many lists out there. However he is at the top of mine. I would have Jeff Van Gundy in the mix as well but for now I think he enjoys his role on T.V. Jay Triano may in fact have the skill and ability to be an NBA head coach. I just have a hard time thinking it can be here with the Raptors unless you do a total house cleaning. I guess that is possible. But if the core remains Jay has to go in my opinion.

Raps Lose The Thrill and Add Size.

Turns out the Raptors have made a small move. It is a 3 way deal that sees Will Solomon head to the Kings. While Raptors bring in Patrick O'Bryant from the Celtics. With the addition of Marcus Banks in the Marion deal it was clear Will was not getting any minutes. A conditional 2nd round pick head to Boston. The Celtics also unloaded Sam Cassell earlier in the week. O'Bryant is a big that has spent time in D-League with Bakersfield in between time with Golden State who drafted him in 2006 and Boston signed him in 2008. He has played little for the Celtics averaging just 4.2 minutes in just 26 games.He is another 7 foot guy and has something in common with a Raptor on the roster. What is that? He is a Bradley Braves Alumni just like Anthony Parker. This deal was reported on Raptors T.V so it is highly likely it will be confirmed and it is being reported by all the media outlets you would expect.