SB Nation - Nathan Jawai

Tip-In: Raptors Post-Game Report - Perception vs. Reality

RaptorsHQ - Franchise — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:33:51 -0000

Hedo played some of his best D of the night on this play; a key one where he allowed Caron Butler to go right to the rim unattested late in the game...

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After losing yet another winnable game, Franchise takes a moment before looking ahead to tonight's match against Atlanta, to contemplate the idea of perceived value...

"I don't get a vibe that they're scratching and clawing and that they're close...they gotta get it turned around, and turned around real quick here."

These were the words uttered by the one and only Jack Armstrong, after the Toronto Raptors dropped a 106 to 102 decision to the Washington Wizards last night, their eighth loss in the past 10 games.

On a one-off basis, it wasn't a bad loss.

This was two teams fighting to the finish with the Raps coming up short. Toronto simply couldn't maintain whatever small lead they had during the match, and despite big offensive games from Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon and Chris Bosh, another L was the result.

The problem is, this wasn't two good teams going at it; no, this wasn't the Lakers and Magic in May.

This was two teams that looked like strong lottery contenders, trading bad shot for bad shot, poor defensive set for poor defensive set, and turnover for turnover.

It wasn't pretty.

And while Toronto got pummeled by Charlotte, relented to Boston's bullying tactics, and allowed Phoenix to run wild, this was the first game where I really sat back and said to myself:

"wow - these guys suck!"

And getting back to Jack's statement which I used to set off this recap, I'm not sure how even the most optimistic fan can say they don't. The stats were good warning signs (last in most of the defensive categories and a 7 and 12 record to start with) but the proof was in last night's aptly coloured brown pudding shall we say.

That's not to say that the potential isn't there for the Raptors to be a playoff team, I still believe it is. However the way this club is currently playing is closer to the D League playoffs than anything else. And now with a daunting foe tonight in Atlanta, then back-to-backs against a Wizards team they just lost to and a solid defensive club in the Bulls, both on the road, it's not inconceivable that we're talking a 7 and 15 record by the time next week rolls around.

So what does this team need to do to get back on track?

Some of the media post-game asked about making changes to the starting line-up, to which Jay replied, "did you see any problems with our starters tonight?...we were fine in the first and third quarters this evening..."

Some asked about tactical changes on the second day of back-to-backs.

I say throw it all out the window.

This isn't on Jay.

Perhaps a few tweaks on his end would have won an extra game or two but the reality here is that he can't make Andrea do a better job defensively. And he can't ensure that Hedo takes good shots in the flow of the game. Sure, he can try to harp on those points, but the players playing the game are the ones who have to execute on his demands.

And this is my major problem; the players just aren't doing this right now and I'm not sure if they can.

I've been extremely critical of most of the players on this roster for a while now and last night's game did little to sway my belief that Bryan Colangelo holds most of these guys in too high a regard. Everyone knows my take on Andrea, and even on DeMar DeRozan, but the real Bulls-eye for me is Hedo Turkoglu. BC is paying Turk approximately $55 Million over the next five years to be a clutch player down the stretch for Toronto in close games. The ROI so far on that investment? Not good, and last night was Exhibit A. Sure Hedo filled the box score, but he failed to make a single key play when it counted most; from grabbing a rebound in traffic to scoring with the game clock winding down...

...unless of course you count his buzzer-beater which thankfully secured pizza for a season low 15,766 ACC faithful.

Let's stick with Hedo for a minute, because I believe he's at the root of this team's current problems. It blew my mind from day one that the Raptors were so keen on signing him. Statistically Turk had been in a regression, he's hardly a "spring chicken," and while he can create for others and is a multi-skilled individual, he's a sub-par defender (and that might be generous) and shooter, and not the aggressive "basket attacker" I always felt the Raps really needed to complement Jose.

I would have preferred the Raptors held onto Shawn Marion, and I even went so far as to say that Hedo was barely an upgrade over Carlos Delfino.

"But Franchise, what about his vaunted playoff run last year? Has he really fallen so far from that?"

My answer would be no he hasn't.

I really believed that both fans and management were victims of the Magic's televised playoff run, one that helped shape this "greater than life" image of Turkoglu, and helped to reinforce this perception of him as a clutch player. The reality was that statistically, his playoff numbers were worse than his regular season ones, and in terms of "clutch" ability, according to 82games.com, he was actually a sub-par "clutch player," with both Chris Bosh and Anthony Parker having better numbers last year in this regard.

However seeing Hedo hit some game-winners and clutch shots on prime time seemed to sway the general public's opinon of Mr. Turk, and suddenly he was being hailed as a huge off-season coup.

What about Courtney Lee in New Jersey?

Wasn't his acquisition in the Vince Carter trade with Orlando viewed as a big source of relief for all 10 Nets' fans? I bring this up in comparison to Hedo because after all, wasn't the playoffs his big break-out as well? Didn't he seem destined to be at the very least, a very solid starter in this league?

Perhaps...however ask yourself how Lee's fared this year.

In fact, has anyone even heard anything about Lee? Sure he plays in the netherlands of New Jersey and has been injured, but for a player viewed as a key piece for the Nets to get back in the Carter deal, shouldn't we be hearing more about him?

My answer to this query would be, "no, not if he's not playing well."

And that would be the correct answer Alex.

I looked at Lee's PER to date and granted, it's a small sample size due to injury, but currently Lee is 199th in the league at 12.25. The league average is about 15. And our buddy Hedo is barely above that! His PER sits at 13.81. Contrast that with Shawn Marion who sits at 16.24.

Granted PER isn't the silver bullet in terms of proving that one player is necessarily better, or playing at a higher level than another, but it's not something you can completely discount as a performance measurement tool. The stats don't lie, both Lee and Hedo have underachieved relative to the perception of fans and management regarding what each player was bringing to the table.

(Sidebar - Lee isn't even the go-to wing on the Nets...to my chagrin it's Chris Douglas-Roberts, a player I openly begged Bryan Colangelo to take a flyer on when he inexplicably fell into the second round of the draft the year before last. Nope, apparently the Raps were fine with Nathan Jawai later on.)

And Hedo is certainly not alone in this respect.

Outside of Chris Bosh, Amir Johnson and maybe Marco Belinelli or Sonny Weems, it's hard to argue that every other player on this Raptors' roster hasn't underperformed.

And what scares me is this is at least the second (arguably the third) season under Colangelo's management where this has been the case. BC's perception of player value has simply not become reality most of the time and the results can be seen on the court night in and night out. Post-game Jay looked a tad too much like Sam Mitchell, standing at the podium, realizing that he had no answers for the media because he's stuck with these players; players who've been built up by management as the solution when he knows deep down that they're part of the problem. I'd love to put Triano on a truth serum because I'm sure he'd vote to move half of these guys, even for lessor talented ones willing to do the dirty work.

Last night's match was one decided by "dirty work," a key rebound here, a made 3 there, a stop here...and Toronto was unable to get the job done. In fact I thought it spoke volumes that Earl Boykins and Brendan Haywood were key players for the Wizards in the win; the two perhaps least talented yet grittiest options for Washington. Toronto just didn't have enough of that.

So can we as fans chalk tonight's match up as an automatic L? I've already said this team isn't as good as most people thought and now tonight they have to play an Atlanta team on the road on the second night of a back-to-back that is better than everyone thought! Can we pencil in a 7 and 13 record?

Unfortunately I think so.

Until this Raptors' club starts showing some consistency, even in terms of the amount of fight brought to each game, it's hard to see many W's in the future. However if a miracle were to happen tonight and Toronto were to steal a match, here would be my three keys to getting it done:

1) Get Aggressive in the paint.

The Hawks are one of the best rebounding, shot-blocking and interior teams in the league. Al Horford clogs the lane while Josh Smith roams from just outside, looking to reject any shot that enters his zone. Add in the ruggedness of Zaza Pachulia, and smooth veteran savvy of Joe Smith, and Atlanta has a nice interior mix. However they haven't been consistent in this regard. Earlier this week, Ben Wallace essentially out-rebounded the entire Atlanta team himself en route to a Pistons win. Not only does Toronto need a big game as usual from CB4, but guys like Andrea Bargnani and Amir Johnson need to dig in as well and fight the Hawks tooth and nail in this regard.

2) Force the Hawks to the rim.

Atlanta is a very balanced team. They're not far behind the Raptors in terms of offensive metrics, and are one of the better defensive teams as well. There's simply not one glaring area to look at and ask the Raps to exploit. However this isn't a team that gets to the free-throw line very often. The Hawks rank 22nd in the league in this department, doing most of their scoring damage from afar; either off of 3-pointers or mid-range jump shots. Players like Marvin Williams and Jamal Crawford excel in this capacity so tonight, instead of Toronto's usual defensive MO, I'm hoping Jay Triano instructs his troops to stick close on the perimeter, giving up the drive if necessary but ensuring that Toronto's bigs know this and are ready to help funnel attackers in this fashion. To win this game guys like Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby just can't be allowed to drain open 3 after open 3. I'm not suggesting a parade to the foul line either but to have a shot at a win tonight, Toronto needs to force the Hawks to put the ball on the deck.

3) Get production from the bench.

Last night again was a struggle for Marco Belinelli and Antoine Wright. While Jarrett Jack did a good job offensively, and Amir Johnson was his usual pogo-stick self, it's the former two that need to start stepping up if TO wants to hang around in games despite its porous defence. Against a Hawks team that is ninth in the league in scoring, and a fraction behind Toronto in terms of offensive efficiency rating, this is especially true. The Raps are going to need all hands on deck in this one - from starting five to perhaps even guys like Sonny Weems and Rasho Nesterovic.

We'll be live-blogging the affair as usual however we may be directing folks to SB Nation's Atlanta Hawks blog, Peachtree Hoops, to start this one as it sounds like some of us will be late to the party this evening.

Mavericks Vs T-Wolves: Game 9 Preview

Phillip Baggett — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:52:07 -0000

The Match-ups:

Point Guard

Jason Kidd: Jason like the rest of the Mavs Wednesday night had a subpar shooting night (not that any of us expect him to score a ton of points, but still), he did however have a solid night on the defensive end. It will be up to Jason to get this offense started. The Maverick offense has been very lethargic and downright maddening at times. Mr. Kidd is at his best when those around him are cutting to the basket, and the T-Wolves defense is awful. Look for Kidd and his mates to run and run often.

vs.

Jonny Flynn: Flynn the T-Wolves first round draft choice this year from Syracuse is a nice player, and he has gotten his NBA career off to a good start. Flynn comes into tonight's game averaging 15 pts., 3 assists, and 3 reb. Per contest. Jonny is a shoot first point guard who can create his own shot (this is a requirement to play in Minnesota). He has been a little careless with the ball however. On the flip side his defensive skills are pretty good as he creates almost as many turnovers on defense as he does when he has the ball.

Edge: Mavericks

Shooting Guard

~~Josh Howard~~, Rodrigue Beaubois: Josh continues to struggle with the health of his surgically repaired ankle. I would not be surprised if he does not sit out tonight's game. If Josh plays, look for the Mavs to use him sparingly and in short bursts. While the Mavs could really use his aggressive style and rebounding, the risk versus reward ratio is way off balance. If Howard cannot go look for Roddy B to get his second start (if Carlisle starts Barea instead I am gonna scream!)

vs.

Cory Brewer: Brewer has not been just exactly what the Wolves had hoped for when they selected him in the first round in 2007. While his point totals have risen this year (career 6.4, this year 11.8), it's mainly due to him simply being on the court longer. Brewers minutes have risen from 22minutes per, to 33 minutes per. As his field goal percentage is still hideous (38% career, 36% this year) the worst part about all this is he is worse on the defensive end. Brewer's opponents (based on 48 minutes) average 29.6 points per, against him.

Edge: Mavericks

Forward

Shawn Marion: 8 games 13 free throws, WTF?????????

vs.

Ryan Gomes: The T-Wolves version of Erick Dampier. Never know which Ryan will show up. Some nights Ryan goes for 12 and 12 and then he will go for 2 and 4, it is a crap shoot with him.

Edge: Mavericks

Power Forward

Dirk Nowitzki: Can you please find your jump shot? And can you please tell your teammates to stop standing around watching you work?

vs.

~~Al Jefferson~~, Ryan Hollins: Umm... yeah no chance

Edge: Mavericks

Center

Erick Dampier: One would have to assume that Dampier got an earful from his head coach after his poor performance against the Spurs. I would also assume that Dampier will draw the defensive assignment of Nathan Jawai, so look for a big night from Dampier unless Minnesota goes small.

vs.

Nathan Jawai: Let's just put it this way the Mavericks traded Jawai for "a conditional 2^nd round pick in 2012", now while I like his physical attributes he is still very raw, make no mistake he is not Al Jefferson.

Edge:

Injuries/Suspensions

Minnesota T-Wolves

OUT - Kevin Love (broken hand)

OUT - Al Jefferson (family illness)

Dallas Mavericks

OUT - Tim Thomas (recovering from knee surgery)

OUT - Josh Howard (his ankle of course)

Prediction: This game should be a blowout and the blowout should start at the time of tip off, but something tells me this T-Wolves team will hang around for a bit before they bow out.

Mavericks- 113

Timberwolves - 90

Mavericks vs Timberwolves preview

Mavericks vs Timberwolves coverage

Not in the face!

Stop-n-Pop — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:58:53 -0000

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OK, this is something of a game-wrap record for me. I'm writing this with the score 106-73 in favor of the 1-6 Warriors with roughly 1:50 left to go in the 3rd quarter. Hanny has just said something about the season not being about wins and losses and he's even moved on to the hustle award for the night.

When I fired up the post editor Golden State had an astounding 48% oReb rate: 11 offensive rebounds on 23 misses. Awesome? I know. Flash forwarding to Stephen Curry's buzzer-beating 3 pointer to end the 3rd quarter and this is what the Four Factors look like:

	Pace (Poss)	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	105.4 (79)	97.5	47.8%	19.4	33.3	22.8
Golden State		140.5	61.1%	31.9	33.3	10.1

I suppose you could take something of a moral victory away from the fact that the Wolves have pulled even in the oReb% category but keep in mind that the Warriors have a significantly smaller number of misses to fool around with.

Let's try something different for tonight's post. Let's talk about the positives. First and foremost is Corey Brewer. Here's what True Hoop's Henry Abbott had to say about Brew after the Portland game:

In the last few weeks, I have heard Corey Brewer mentioned three or four times as the butt of jokes. It's getting to be time for that to stop. He and Andre Miller both dared each other to shoot all night, but Brewer did it with purpose -- and was an effective help defender helping to keep Roy (who had one of his worst games as a professional) at bay. He's no All-Star at this point, but there's no doubt he's vastly improved. He's among the team's leaders in steals, assists, blocks and free throws attempted -- and his defensive talents and efforts are constant and not to be overlooked. When he hits a couple of 3s, like last night, he's hard to miss.

In tonight's game, Brewer got out in transition, was disruptive in the open court, and for the first time I can remember he d'd up an opposing wing with superior size (Stephen Jackson) without getting physically abused. I know what I am about to write doesn't seem like a big deal, but for those of us who have watched the Wolves over the past 2+ years, it is: Corey Brewer is an NBA rotation player. For a while there his game was pretty dicey and I wasn't sure I would ever write that. Yet, there it is. Hooray!

Hey, look at that: Oleksiy Pecherov finally got into the game! Can he trigger a 28 point comeback? That would be a gigantic positive.

Another positive is that we got our first extended look at Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions in the same backcourt. We'll have to wait for the PopcornMachine GameFlow to really break it down, but I believe the tally from the first stint was a +2 against the similarly undersized Warrior backcourt.

Did the Warriors really have a 66-33 run? Sorry, I have to get back to the positives. AC Law is making his 3rd appearance of the year. Good for him. See, another positive.

OK...more positives. (crickets)

Let's have some random thoughts to bring this thing on home:

This game will hurt the ol' defensive efficency ranking. It will also hurt the less-mentioned Pride Index.
It seems that the preseason optimism concerning free throws was both short-lived and ill-conceived. Getting Kevin Love back will help a bit but this team is generating zero offense going at the rim. This is problematic when you are not a jump shooting squad. With just over 5 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter the Warriors have taken 4 more threes than the Wolves have FTAs.
The Wolves aren't a very good team but their offense has faaaarrrr outpaced their defense in terms of ineptitude. Here are their Four Factor stats heading into the GSW game:

Team Four Factors
	PACE	OFFENSE					DEFENSE
TYPE	POSS	EFF	eFG	TO	OREB%	FT/FG	EFF	eFG	TO	OREB%	FT/FG
STAT	94.3	96.8	45.1	16.2	27.2	17.0	106.8	49.6	17.6	29.2	24.6
RANK	9	27	27	18	9	29	16	18	8	27	15

This team simply can't put the little orange ball in the bucket. Again, when you can't get to the line when you are not a jump shooting team, this is a tad problematic.

OK, AC Law just got a breakaway dunk. Really?
Nathan Jawai followed up his career performance in garbage time against the Blazers by getting worked on the offensive glass by Anthony Randolph.

OK, that about does it. The score is now 129-89 with Anthony Randolph at the line. Corey Brewer is still the only player out there who looks like this bothers him enough to do something about it. The problem here is that there is far too much to do and Mr. Brewer lacks the tools to do a lot of it. There is no other way to put this one other than it is the most embarrassing and frustrating loss since Dwane Casey's Revenge last year against Dallas. Who doesn't remember that classic tilt in which Minnesota built a 29 point lead shortly after the half only to watch the Casey-led Mavs claw their way back to not just a win, but a win where Minnesota conceded a 5 point game with 45 seconds to go. I think Kevin McHale's post game comments were something along the lines of "our guys had had enough by that point."

It's now 144-99 and I'm going to bed.

Until later.

UPDATE: The FSN studio crew has just told me that the Wolves have equalled the worst loss in franchise history as well as the most points given up. Now that's a positive!! A record setting performance!! Who wants to talk about cap space!!??

Cap space and draft picks oh my!

Stop-n-Pop — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:55:36 -0000

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The caption on this picture says that Jonny Flynn is battling Steve Blake and LaMarcus Aldridge during the first half of their game. In reality, Flynn had lost control of his dribble and simply fallen over in the lane, dropping the ball into the hands of a Portland defense who was willing and able to relieve him of possession. Such was the night for the Wolves. These are the sorts of contests where you really hope that the Wolves' coaching staff knows what they are doing because to the fan's naked eye, there really wasn't anything that went right. Nothing.

BTW: before you head below the jump, you should click here to read our newest feature: Money Talks with shrink.

We all knew this was going to be a long season. We all knew the Wolves weren't going to be world beaters. Most fans know that the Wolves have put themselves into a situation with a solid organizational future filled with cap space and draft picks. We know that the new coaching staff is installing a system with a high learning curve. We all know that being a Wolves fan in 2009/10 requires a load of patience.

All of that being written, there are some quarters, some halves, and some nights--even this early in the season--where even the most patient amongst us has to be wondering "what the hell?"

David Kahn started his tenure by priming the pump for an expectation of a two point guard system. He drafted a bunch of points, signed one more, and then hired a coach who won't put two points on the floor together. Al Jefferson, the team's highest scorer and best paid player, is looking completely hampered by injury and by a system that seems 100% not geared to utilize his talents. The team's best all-around player is out for 6-8 weeks with a broken hand and will probably take a few weeks to get back in the swing of things once he finally finds his way back onto the court.

I give this team about a 2% chance of finishing the season with its current roster. Something is going to give. Someone is going to get moved. This is a good thing. This team has a lot of assets and, by all accounts, they have a hard working VPBO who is willing to make the big deal. The problem for us fans is that the current product is...well, what are we supposed to feel about it on nights like the ones against Milwaukee and Portland? This team was blown up in the off season and it looks even more mismatched than last year's group. Yes, Jonny Flynn is intriguing. Yes, it looks like Kurt Rambis and his staff knows what they are doing, but can this franchise weather the storm of unwatchable ball with players who are likely not part of the long term plan? Who on this club can you be sure will be around in 2 months? Really, even Al Jefferson has to be put into question at this point. He looks like a square peg out there...a square peg who can't play defense and is 30 pounds more mismatched at the 5.

It's not that they're not playing hard. It's not that there aren't some things to be excited about, but...well, I don't think I really appreciated just how much Kahn's early dealing put this entire franchise into a state of flux and how that would affect my interest in what is going on out there on the court. I will watch the games because I love pro ball and the Wolves are my favorite team, but watching the squad against the Blazers I couldn't help but think that we're going to see about 10 more changes to this team in the next year and that I have more allegiance to what might happen than to whatever Pecherov, Wilkins, Cardinal based rotation we see run out on the floor. Jonny Flynn can put up 20 points a night but the most exciting thing about this club is still its cap space and draft picks. That's crazy. A lot of people have emailed me to ask me when I think the Wolves will "turn the corner". My answer to this is the moment we stop talking about draft picks and cap space for about 10 games in a row. For now, it's more entertaining to talk about things like whether or not Big Al is a fit or whether Ryan Gomes and Ramon Sessions will get traded before the end of the year. That's a bit more problematic than I thought it would be at the start of the season.

Getting around to the actual game, here's the Four Factors:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	94.0	98.9	48.8%	14.5	21.3	16.0
Portland		123.4	54.3%	32.9	29.3	13.8

(UPDATE) The PopcornMachine GameFlow is available here. (UPDATE)

The most disappointing aspect of this particular game was a complete unwillingness of anyone in blue to attack the paint. Greg Oden is a nice young center and the Blazers have a lot of young athletic wings who can make that sort of thing a bit of a pain, but if you are going to win in the NBA you need to attack the rim and get to the line.

Another disappointing thing of note was the Wolves getting out-assisted 35 to 19 and out-rebounded by 10. Al Jefferson was in full Black Hole mode, drawing the entire offense to a grinding halt whenever he touched the ball while taking a good 5-6 seconds to set up a one-handed push shot that rarely was on mark. Nathan Jawai repaced him and proceeded to find Ramon Sessions twice in the middle of the lane where he could do nothing with the ball because he was surrounded by nothing but trees. On too many possessions, 3 or 4 Wolves just stood around and watched.

As for the rebounding...the less said about that the better.

I don't have any bullet points for this game. It was completely non-descript on the part of the Wolves. Jawai had some nice moves, Gomes played OK, and Corey Brewer found some time to make a few good hustle plays as well as keeping the Wolves from getting ally-ooped on a couple of times.

The last thing I have to say about this game is that I hope whoever gets to stick around for 2-3 years remembers this one. I hope they remember the Blazers taking 3s and going for the Sports Center dunks while being up by 25 (quick side note: how in the world did Ramon Sessions get called for a foul when Martell Webster jumped on his back?). This is one of those tilts that you have to file away in the revenge file. The Blazers came out and kicked the you-know-what out of the Wolves and they kept on kicking when they were down. I'll never hope an injury on anyone but this was one of those games where you were kind of hoping Jawai or Brian Cardinal would have put someone trying a 3 while up by nearly 30 on their back. Perhaps the Wolves aren't even at that level of play. Maybe there's nothing long term for the majority of these guys to protect. Whatever the case, here's hoping someone remembers what kind of crap was put out there last night and does something to change it when they get the chance with a better surrounding cast somewhere way, way, way down the line...well past 70+ more games of wondering who will get to stay or go, and what, if anything, will be done with all that cap space.

Until later.

Bad Ball

Stop-n-Pop — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:21:54 -0000

More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

about 1 month ago: Minnesota Timberwolves' Corey Brewer scores as Cleveland Cavaliers' Mo Williams looks on in the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in Minneapolis. Brewer scored 11 points in the Timberwolves' 104-87 loss to the Cavaliers. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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Near the bottom of last night's comments a few important things were pointed out:

Anthony Parker

has 6 points from 2/7 shooting and was +23

That statistic has very definite limitations.

Judd: "...I've since watched some Steven Seagal movies and I realise that pressure points are no laughing matter.".

by Auswolf on Oct 31, 2009 12:08 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

...

Hey, everyone:

This was a game against one of the top 3 teams in the league, 0-2 start be damned.

I think we would all benefit by making literally no — not a single one ~~- definitive statements about the team after this game. Of course Flynn was going to have a terrible +/~~. Of course we were going to look bad. Do not worry about it. Hold your judgements for when we get blown out by a bad team.

Thank you, and good night.

by LoveTo on Oct 31, 2009 12:53 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

There are going to be a few things that we all need to keep in mind when discussing the Wolves this season:

They are going to put up some crooked stat lines.
+/- is going to be even more flawed than usual as a stand-alone stat used to gauge individual game performances. The Wolves are going to take it in the chin this year on more than a few occasions. That doesn't mean that individual players won't play well within any given blow-out (Brewer played decent during last night's atrocity). It also doesn't account for the roles that certain players inhabit (Ramon Sessions as a backup point; Sasha Pavlovic as a defender off the bench) or the fact that the team's two best players are either inactive or playing at 70%. +/- is a nice part of the equation but it will need to be downgraded this year as the Wolves, as a whole, are going to be going through some bumps and bruises beyond what was expected last year when they had the ability to trot out a relatively respectable and experienced lineup of Sebastian Telfair, Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Kevin Love, and Al Jefferson. Also, we're really, really, really early in the season and until we see how some of these lineups look over the course of 10-15 games, +/- is going to have some pretty hefty limitations and should be used in conjunction with other observations/stats. For instance, Jonny Flynn ended last night's game with a -23 in 25 minutes. This is a bad, bad number but it could mean that he was on the court with the team's most ineffective front court (Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, and Damien Wilkins) and LeBron James for a long period of time. It could also mean that Jonny Flynn is not an NBA point at the moment and while he can score until the cows come home, he has some fairly big issues facilitating the offense. Or, it could be a combo of the two factors. Either way, simply citing +/- isn't going to cut it with this team right now.
Al Jefferson is not anywhere near 100%. Yes, it looks like he has no business being in the new offense and he is the last person on earth you want directing traffic out of the high post, but a serious injury is still a serious injury and the Jefferson Discount should be taken into account when discussing his overall worth to the squad.

I'm sure we can come up with a few more gentle nudges for game discussion but these are the ones that have quickly risen to the top in the first two games of the season.

Enough about the Wolves for a second. The most notable thing about last night's game, for me, was the composition of the Cavs. This team is not as good as it was last year and it is not a championship contender. The most glaring issue that they have is that even with LeBron on the squad, they are the most unathletic non-Wolves starting-5 team I have seen in a long, long time. Shaq and Ilgauskus may be the slowest and most earth-bound frontcourt duo in the league and their non-LeBron wings stand around the three point line and do not crash the boards. This team will be taken apart by any other squad with two players who are both athletic and above 6'10" Witness Toronto, Orlando, and Boston. Witness the change in the game when Ryan Hollins entered the contest. Hell, even Nathan Jawai was able to change the pace of the game for a few moments. This team will always have a decent shot at winning any single game because of LeBron James (who I firmly believe is the best player in the world). However, any team that is thinking about giving 80-90 minutes of court time to a Shaq, Varejao, Ilgauskus front court trio doesn't have the top end to compete with the Bostons, Orlandos, and yes, even the Torontos of the world over a 7 game series. They don't need a Steven Jackson; they needed a Rasheed Wallace or a Marcin Gortat. Mike Brown will eventually take the heat for what happens to this squad but it's the damn Dukie who did the damage.

Let's wrap this up with a few bullet points:

There is no reason on God's green earth to front or double Shaq at this point in his career. This didn't stop Al Jefferson from trying the former and Damien Wilkins from attempting the latter (off of LeBron James, no less). Make them go over the top and if they beat you with Boobie Gibson, so be it.
The FSN game was apparently brought to us by Bret Michael's November appearances at Grand Casino.
The Wolves' starting front court (Jefferson, Gomes, and Wilkins) went 0-for-their-starting-stint. The first front court bucket was made by Ryan Hollins. Sasha Pavlovic was the next front court player to score followed by the White Hole himself, Oleksiy Pecherov. The starting FC ended the game on 9-28 shooting. This comes on the heels of their 9-30 effort against the Nets.
My first Wolves prediction of the year: Ryan Gomes plays himself out of his team option at the end of the year. David Kahn isn't going to pick up a $4.2 million tab on a guy who can't really play the 3 or the 4 in a year where guys like Josh Childress, Hakim Warrick, and Travis Outlaw could be on the open market.
Speaking of options, today is the day for the White Hole and Corey Brewer. Will their options be picked up by the team? I think Brewer gets his but my money is against Pech. Putting the last two points together, ESPN currently has the Wolves with between $8.9 and $12.5 million in 2010 cap space. This is with a cap projected between $50 and $53.6 million. According to the definitive Hoopus cap page, the Wolves are on the books for roughly $37.5 in pre draft pick 2010 salaries. If they decline the options on Pech and Gomes, they can reduce that number by roughly $6.5 million. In other words, by not picking up Pech and Gomes, the Wolves can be sitting at $31 mil at the start of the 2010 free agent without taking into consideration slotted 1st round draft picks. Could the Wolves be in the Mark Stein ballpark after it's all said and done with? Yes, but they also could be at the top of the heap with about $15-18 mil to spend even after all the draft picks are signed. We think Stein and ESPN underestimate the amount that the Wolves could have to spend at the end of the year, especially if Pech and Gomes are voted off the island.
How sad is it that we're already talking offseason cap space and draft picks? Yes, it will be a long year. An entertaining one at times, but a long one nonetheless.
There was a play in the 2nd half that really illustrated just how not-there Big Al is at times. The Wolves were about to enter the bonus when the Cavs got a fast break opportunity. Instead of making his way down the court to contest the shot, Al fouled the Cavs player at half court, conceding the foul and the trip to the line. If you are willing to give the foul and the trip to the line because of the bonus, why not contest the shot?
To say one good thing about Al, he did blow by Shaq on one play like Shaq was a 37 year old 360 lbs oaf....oh wait.
Corey Brewer played solid defense on LeBron when he wasn't spending time on the dangerous Anthony Parker. I know that LeBron can get his against anyone in the league but it would have been nice to see Brewer get a bigger crack against the guy.

Well, that about does it for the game wrap. What did you notice about the game? What guidelines will you have for critiquing the team's performances? Do you think Pecherov's option gets picked up? What about Gomes at the end of the year?

Until later.

Ridiculous Transactions 10/19-10/25

Jon L — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:15:41 -0000

Nate Jawai is on the move once again. Maybe he'll enjoy Sioux Falls more than he did Boise.

View full size photo »

So last week was a bloodbath. Today is the deadline for NBA teams to submit their regular season rosters, and most of them knew who they were keeping awhile ago. So did pretty much everyone, really. But you'll notice I'm not talking about guys who have been waived, and that's because, well, today is the deadline, and some teams still have some decisions to making. Whether to keep Derrick Byars or Paul Davis, for instance, or Malik Hairston vs. Marcus Williams. So don't worry, I'll be breaking all of that down through the rest of the week. Today, though, I thought I'd devote the regular transactions space to looking at moves that didn't involve waiving a really solid third point guard because you love Brian Cook for some reason. Ridiculous.

October 21: Dallas Mavericks - traded Nathan Jawai and cash to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a second round pick.

With Kevin Love out 6-8 weeks the Timberwolves found themselves in need ot some frontcourt depth, and as much as Oleksiy Pecherov gets buckets, son (and is actually a pretty terrific rebounder), he's not really capable of contributing on a consistent casis. I mean basis. Not that Jawai necessarily is, either, but he cost what, a protected second-rounder? And Minnesota picked up some cash on top of it? It's a decent low-cost move for the Timberwoves, and while they could've waited a few extra days and picked up a different big man who would potentially give them more than four points and four rebounds per 36 minutes (in fact I would hope so), or even Jawai's D-League numbers of 16 and 10 (again, per-36), Jawai definitely has talent. He just needs to cuts down on the fouls and maybe improve his attitude. Jawai didn't really fit on the Mavericks' roster anymore since their backup big men are more of the Drew Gooden/Tim Thomas variety. They didn't really get anything back, and had to give the T-Wolves some money, but I assume this helped relieve their cap space a little, so...good?

October 24: Utah Flash - hired Mark Madsen as assistant coach

I already discussed this on Saturday (however briefly), but to flesh this out a little more, it's always hard to judge first-time coaching hires, but I could see this working out fairly well. Madsen graduated (right?) from Stanford, so he's clearly a bright guy. He's also Mormon, so he'll likely be embraced by the Flash fanbase. And, whether it was because of team chemistry or other reasons, a nine-year NBA career is something that pretty much every D-League player aspires to, so he'll likely have their attention as an assistant. He only played for two teams over his career, though, so he's not a typical journeyman who has experience learning new offensive systems quickly, but he can probably pick up enough of the Flash/Jazz system quickly enough to be able to say things other than "hey, Goran, rebound...better, I guess?" I do wonder, though how long Madsen has been looking at coaching and how much of this desire arose when his internet domain name

October 25: Jack McClinton - signed with Aliağa Petkim (Turkey)

It's a bit disappointing to see that McClinton won't be playing in the NBA this year, since he certainly has the ability. It's also somewhat of a shame that he won't be in the D-League, since he'd be at the top of the call-up candidate list pretty much from the start. But this year I have a hard time holding it against guys for going to make money overseas. Plus, the Turkish league has a decent enough reputation (as far as I know; Ball in Europe never answered my question about the various European leagues, although admittedly that was a different question than "how well-regarded are the various leagues," although it still would've helped to know and they still didn't answer it, but it's still a good blog and I'm sure they're good people; no, I'm not just trying to fill space) that he might get some honest looks from NBA teams next year. McClinton joins Quinton Hosley, who signed with Petkim a few days earlier, on a team in its second year of existence. I don't really know if that makes a difference, but it means there likely isn't the institutional structure and stability of, say, an Efes Pilsen (feel free to tell me I'm wrong, someone). Izmir, where the team is located, is beautiful though, which I bring up mainly to brag that I've been to Turkey.

Raptorblogger Off-Season Round Table - Part I

RaptorsHQ - Franchise — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:49:34 -0000

More photos » by Chris Young - AP

Many of our panel members originally expected to see Shawn Marion's high-flying act back in Toronto this coming year, prior to Colangelo's unexpected complete overhaul.

Browse more photos »

As has become an annual off-season event, RaptorsHQ touches base with some of its favourite reporters from around the world-wide web on all things Raptors-related...

Each off-season, here at the HQ we like to get a good disussion going with some of our favourite Raptorbloggers and writers on the state of the team going into the new season.

This off-season promised to beget an even more interesting chat considering all the moves that have gone on these past few months.

To that end, we've put together a dynamite squad to touch on a few key questions concerning the Dynos; Chris O'Leary, contributor to Slam Magazine, TSN.ca's Tim Chisholm, Real GM's' Gagan Gandhi, and the Arsenalist from RaptorsRepublic.com.

Let's jump into it...

1) Going into this summer, what were your expectations in terms of personnel moves and how did you imagine Toronto's roster looking come September?

Chris O'Leary - Slam Magazine: My biggest concern going into the off-season was that BC would put too much stock in the finish that the Raps had. Winning a string of games when the damage is done and you're well on your way out of the playoff picture, in my mind, does very little to brighten such a bleak season.

Did I think the roster would look the way it does now? Definitely not. Change had to come, but it's impressive just how much of it Colangelo was able to muster up in a few months' time. There are lots of terrible teams in the NBA that could use an overhaul come April, but how often do you see this much turnover so quickly?

I expected the standard handful of new faces on the roster come the start of training camp. I didn't think Shawn Marion would be back and I thought that a sign and trade would result in a comparable talent coming in and filling that spot in the lineup. To be honest, when things wrapped up at the end of the season, I didn't see a lot of signs for improvement with the Raptors. I don't know if bringing in nine new faces will fix everything for the team, but at the very least it's a solid effort from Colangelo to take the team in a new direction.

Gagan Gandhi - Real GM: Although many consider Colangelo to be one who takes risks, I thought he would re-sign Shawn Marion and bring back pretty much the same team that won only 33 games last season. It looked like that was the case in the early part of the summer up until Hedo Turkoglu chose Toronto over Portland. I did expect the returns of Bargnani, Bosh and Calderon, although I did say that trade offers involving Bosh should be strongly considered. But, any trade involving Bosh went out the window after the acquisition of Hedo.

The signing of Jarrett Jack came as a shock, as did the trade involving Marco Belinelli. Like Chris said, no one is really sure if this will fix everything on the team, but it's a risk that had to be taken with such a prominent player being a free agent in a year's time. Did I expect minor changes to this team? Yes. Did I expect the Raptors to be one of the busiest teams of the summer and have one of the busiest summer's in franchise history? No.

Tim Chisholm - TSN.ca: I thought for sure that Marion was going to be back. He, Bargnani and Bosh had a skill set that really jived in terms of his ability to play defense at multiple positions and his instinct for rebounding. What I assumed was going to happen, though, was that those three, along with Calderon, would be retained while the support crew would be re-worked. Guys like Kapono, Humphries and Ukic were simply poor fits and moving them was going to be the mission of the summer (since Anthony Parker and Joey Graham were already free agents).

I hear Chris' concern that the team would have erred to put too much stock into a strong end to the season, but at the same time I think it would have been foolhardy to put no stock in it as well. The trick, in my eyes, was to find the balance of building on what worked while being honest about what didn't and actively removing it. The issues last season were bountiful, but I thought none were as responsible for the 33-win total as the depth that was sacrificed to get Jermaine O'Neal to Toronto. One injury was going to do severe damage to this team, and two was going to destroy the season, which is what happened. This summer, regardless of the decision made with Marion, this team was going to have cap space, a lottery pick and two salary-cap exceptions to play with - there were going to be different assets around the core guys (one couldn't say 'better' after the Kapono summer) to try and better balance the skills of the roster.

The only real shock, then, should be convoluted four-team trade that brought Hedo Turkoglu and Antoine Wright to Toronto without sacrificing an inordinate amount of assets. Beyond that, the use of the draft pick on DeRozen, the mid-level on Jack and the bi-annual on Rasho were just matters of sticking names into those slots, while trades jettisoning Kapono, Ukic, Humphries and Jawai (who became Devean George who became Marco Belinelli) brought back reasonable returns. The volume of changes takes a second to get used to, but broken down, only the Turkoglu trade and the details surrounding that really stand out as surprises for the summer.

The Arsenalist - RaptorsRepublic: Expectations? Not much. I was fearing Colangelo to build on the "success" we had playing pressure-free against the crappier teams down the stretch. I was expecting him to overpay Marion, which he actually tried doing, and then hope that with a healthy Calderon the results would be different. The off-season was defined by the trade conjured up by Steve Fruitman which nobody saw coming, how we managed
to turn practically nothing into Hedo Turkoglu, Rasho Nesterovic and Jarrett Jack will always be genius. Hedo turning his back on Portland was also a nice stroke of luck which can't be forgotten.

Dealing with the off-guard/point-forward was something we had to do if we expected to be taken seriously, last year's wing production was downright terrible and Parker's exit was inevitable. DeRozan was a no-brainer at #9 as he addresses our most dire physical need - athleticism. Throw in his mild scoring punch and we got something to
look forward to in the coming years. I felt that bringing in a rookie at a scoring position wasn't going to be enough and further moves needed to be made. Cue Belinelli who we got for free, I still don't think it's a potent punch at SG but hopefully Turkoglu can offset their lack of point production.

The dead-weight on the roster needed to be shed and I was hoping that we could shed three of Jason Kapono, Marcus Banks, Nathan Jawai and Patrick O'Bryant. We got Evans for Kapono who can actually contribute
and in the process make Pops redundant. The return of Rasho was somewhat expected but I felt he'd take a shot at bringing in Brian Skinner, someone I know he likes. In the end, it's 9 new players and 2 new assistant coaches.

Good luck Jay!

2) RaptorsHQ: So it sounds like many of you had low expectations regarding off-season changes initially. Now that the dust has settled, how do you feel about the moves? And do you think the changes are enough to first of all propel the Raptors back into the playoffs?

Tim Chisholm - TSN.ca: It's hard not to be at least cautiously optimistic about the moves. While the projected started five certainly has familiar issues (defense, rebounding), they have much more diversity offensively and the reserve crew can probably mitigate at least some of the issues at the other end and on the glass. The overall depth on this team is a huge gain since the one successful year this club had with Bosh was the one where the team had significant depth to play with. Having legit backups at point guard (Jarrett Jack) and centre (Rasho Nesterovic) especially impress given the alternatives the team had at those positions a year ago. While one has to see how long it takes all the new vets to mesh to truly gauge the success of the summer, one couldn't have asked much more of Bryan Colangelo coming off of last season's embarrassment.

The really encouraging element for me, though, is that the team has finally rededicated itself to developing some new, young players. Guys like Kris Humphries and Joey Graham hit their respective ceilings years ago, leaving Andrea Bargnani as the sole 'potential' player on the team. With Marco Belinelli, Amir Johnson and DeMar DeRozan now in the fold it looks like the team finally has some unfinished pieces to play with, the potential of whom could wind up playing a significant part of Bosh's decision to stay or go next summer. If the team succeeds this year AND has some promising pieces in the pipeline, it will be a hard combination to walk away from.

As for the Playoffs, this team should qualify, no doubt, but after last season it's a call I'm hesitant to make. One still needs to see Bargnani repeat his Jan-Apr performance for a whole season, and on a team with more weapons needing shots. One needs to see if Calderon can let go enough to allow the offense to run with a bit more flow and freedom. One needs to see if Bosh/Bargnani/Turkoglu can develop some meaningful chemistry to make them a fearsome threesome on the court, rather than just on paper. If things break for this team, they could compete for the four spot, but in all likelihood they're a 5-8 team that will see their seeding determined as much by those around them as they will by their own play. This has never been a club that was good at forcing their way in the door - they typically like someone to hold it open for them. So long as that is their personality, the Playoffs will never be a lock for the Raptors.

Chris O'Leary - Slam: The feeling going into this season reminds me a lot of the start of 2006-07. Colangelo had dealt for Ford, drafted Bargnani, had a glut of Euro-vets back in the lineup and there were a lot of questions over where the team would go. Like then, team chemistry is an issue again this year. With my Captain Obvious cape fully adjusted and flowing in the wind, I'll drop this gem: How long it takes this group to jell will be central to their success.

The ingredients seem to be there. The bench is stronger (and like Tim said, younger and more talented) than it has been in the last few seasons, Bargnani was producing by the end of last year, Calderon should be healthy and Bosh will be his monstrous self. DeMar DeRozan drips of promise like the stuff comes out of his showerhead and Hedo Turkoglu fits in on paper with the team, for better (strong outside game, team player) and worse (4.2 rebounds per game in your career when you're 6-10?). How long it takes for those ingredients to come together will determine where they finish in the East.

The Raptors should be able to make the playoffs this year. I still feel burned predicting them to do well last year, so I'm playing the role of Doubting Thomas until I see this team on the court. This time last year, I thought that the on-paper version of the Raptors could play with anyone in the league on any night. By April, I felt like I had my face rubbed in the remnants of Jermaine O'Neal's kneebrace with the Raps' 33–49 record.

Gagan Gandhi - Real GM: Their offense should be in the top half of the league as they’ve added good multi-position players in Turkoglu and Jack, both guys who can control the game with their play and really solidify the starting and bench units, respectively. Raptors fans should feel more comfortable in the final seconds of the shot clock knowing that the ball will potentially be in the hands of Turkoglu rather than Bosh. Calderon and Jack give the Raptors one of the best one-two punches at point guard in the league. Marco Belinelli will battle it out with DeMar DeRozan for minutes in the starting unit, and Belinelli better give it his all because DeRozan reminds more people of Andre Iguodala than Joey Graham.

Once again their defense going into the season is one of the bigger question marks. They will rely heavily on Bargnani’s continued progress and an injury-free season from Calderon. Defense is what Antoine Wright will most likely be utilized for; he’ll be this season’s Anthony Parker. The additions of Nesterovic and Evans can also not be understated, one of last season's achilles heel was the depth of the rotation and it's good to know that Jay Triano will have at least 5 viable options off the bench every night.

You never know how a team that has had as many changes as the Raptors have had will gel off the court, but the few players who are returning from last season all seem to be character guys. So, at least, the locker room should be a non-issue. With the additions of a bench and a "clutch" scorer, the moves made my Colangelo & Co this summer should get them a solid playoff spot in the weak East.

The Arsenalist - RaptorsRepublic: Insert generic sentence about how Bargnani can`t afford to be MIA for half the season, how Bosh needs to step-up his presence in the fourth quarter, show some leadership skills and be a force for the time he`s on the floor. Another sentence about how Jose needs to make a stand at the defensive end and evolve as a point guard who can do more than just pass the ball to the team`s best player 80% of the time.

Barring major injury and natural disaster we'll make the playoffs. I'm confident that we can take care of the bad teams next season, something we struggled with last year. We're still likely to lose 0-4 to the Celtics and 1-3 to the Cavs but as long as we beat the Charlottes of the league, we'll get in there. The goal should be getting home-court behind Boston, Cleveland and Orlando, but the Hawks will have something to say about that. Finishing 6th or below would be considered a failed season because if things pan out the way most are expecting, it'll result in a quick and painful playoff exit.

The starting lineup is respectable but it has a rebounding deficiency which Colangelo is hoping the bench of Rasho and Evans can address. Jack is a nice touch of the bench and Wright is a good defender but his role is situational and I don`t think he can play 28 minutes a night. Comparing the end of the bench with last season`s we`ve
replaced the dead weight of Ukic, Graham and Humphries with Belinelli, Johnson and Douby. If you consider their respective resumes I`m not sure there`s really that much difference there, although we`re finally investing in some youth with potential.

I think Delfino would`ve been a better addition than Belinelli because of his ball-handling and defensive abilities. Belinelli is an unknown and expecting too much out of him is setting yourself up for disappointment, much like what happened with Moon, Adams and Solomon last year. The off-guard spot has talent but no proven track record
or insurance, we`re hoping Turkoglu, Bosh and Calderon can click in a way so we can afford DeRozan to hit the rookie wall. There are issues everywhere but we're better off than last year and good enough to make the playoffs.

Deeper question is this: Four years into Colangelo's regime our standard of acceptance is sneaking into the post-season. Quite pathetic if you ask me.

Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow...

My Team Is Better Than Yours: Toronto Raptors Edition

BlaseE — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:22:22 -0000

No funny caption. I just really love the look on Manu's face in this pic. It makes me happy.

via assets.espn.go.com

Finally, we are out of the bottom of the West and on to the mediocrity of last year's Eastern conference. Ten teams in the league finished with winning percentages between 39.0 and 52.4. All ten were Eastern conference teams. That is pretty crazy to me. The West had 6 teams lower than 36% and 5 lower than 30%. The Eastern conference only had 1, the Wizards, and I think they will be much improved next year. The East is a place where every team thinks they can make the playoffs. The West is a just a shakedown of how good the good teams are and how bad the "developing" teams are. The Knicks were the team at 39%, but I'm skipping them for now. That means we've broken into teams with greater than 40% win records. That is the Raptors.

I didn't have any music about raptors, dinosaurs, Canada, or Toronto. I could have gone with some classic Our Lady Peace, but JRW emailed me some music picks for this one. Enjoy.

US3 - Cantaloop (via DreamVidz)

Paul Gilbert - Technical Difficulties (Racer X) (via Imitationnigger)

FSN Season Stats Head to Head

They were almost as bad at offensive rebounding as us (28th to our 30th). That felt great to write that. As bad as we are at offensive rebounding, we are tops in limiting opposing teams from getting offensive rebounds. I bring this up because we finished the season giving up only 34 more shots than we took. Toronto gave up a little over 150. That is just under a 2 shots a game.

I just scrolled through all the stats looking for some gem of a comparison. There is a general trend that the Raptors follow a lot of the patterns the Spurs follow. The major exception is defense though. The Raptors give up a better shooting percentage than they make themselves. They have more assists than us but are still in a negative margin to their opponents. One thing I really like about the stats is that the Raptors got to the line fairly well and were the top free throw shooting team in the league. That is very un-Spurs-like.

Last Season's Games

Sat, December 20 Toronto We win 107-97. "Parker posts 24 as Spurs spank Raptors to snap 2-game skid"

100 of our 107 points are still on the roster. KT had 4 points on 2 of 6 shooting (he was a monster on the boards though and got 12 compared to Timmy's 7, Manu's 7, and Parker's 8), and Bruce had 3 points on 1-2 shooting in 4 minutes. George Hill played 9 minutes and finished with 1 turnover and 2 fouls. That's it. Anthony Tolliver and Ime Udoka combined for 0-8 shooting in 12 minutes of play. This game is all you have to see to completely understand just how awesome our roster will be next year. Let me put it another way. Every player on our roster that wasn't a rookie and is still on our roster next season scored double digits in this game on a minimum of 50% shooting. Sorry for the rant of a bullet.
Stat Comparison: Spurs were +10 boards (4 offensive), +13 assists, +7 blocks, -4 steals, and +6 turnovers.
We took 35 threes in this game and made 16 (tied franchise record). Six misses were by Udoka and Tolliver. Our starters and Manu made 15 of 27. The Raptors shot 4 of 12 for 3. We finished +36 points on 3 pointers for us.
They killed us on turnovers though finishing with +9 points off.
Parker finished with 24 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, and only 1 turnover.
Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, and Jason Kapono all played well enough. Chris Bosh went 1 of 7 and then made 5 of his last 7.

Terrible Defense....
via www.nba.com

Wed, February 11 @ Toronto We lose 89-91. "Ginobili scores 32 but Spurs enter break on down note"

87 of the 89 points are still on the team. Kurt Thomas had 2 points.
Our bench shot 14 of 30, and Manu shot 12 of 23 from the bench.
Finley and Bonner were a combined 1 of 7. Mason was marginally better at 4 of 11.
Our big 3 scored 74 of the 89 points.
Bargnani (23), Kapono (21), and Ukic (22) scored 66 of Toronto's 91. Roko Ukic just destroyed us off the bench going 9 of 13 and 2 of 3 from 3. He also had 3 assists. Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon didn't play either. I feel sick....
Stat Comparison: +7 rebounds (5 offensive), +8 assists, +4 steals, -4 blocks, and -1 turnover.
Our bench (-Manu) and Finley and Bonner let us down this game. Someone needed to step up and no one did while Roko Ukic just killed us.

Informal Study in Facial Expressions

Parker: Where did this guy come from? I thought I'd have a night off after having to play Devin Harris last night.

Ukic: It's great not to be on the scouting report.

Pop: ERROR....(Well the I can't crack that code but maybe something like "I remember that time I killed like 50 communist Nazis in Croatia. Shit, I hope I'm not this kid's dad."

via images.dailyradar.com

"We shouldn't have lost this one," Ginobili said. "It's important to go into the break feeling good about yourself and on a good stretch. We were playing a team that isn't doing so well and has two injured players, so we should have done much better."
This was the 5th game of the rodeo road trip and last game before the All-Star break. It was also a SEGABABA. We beat the Nets by 15 the night before.

Raptors Roster Changes

They drafted Demar DeRozan. I have no clue who that is but he has twice the "De" DeJuan Blair has. He went to USC so he is probably a really great athlete and a good player. He is 20 years old, 6'7" and 207 lbs. That sounds pretty solid for a number 9 pick. He is a 2-3. Draft Express confirms all of my USC stereotypes listing things like "lateral quickness, athleticism, size for position, and solid frame" as strengths and "lacks offensive polish, defensive fundamentals, not ready to contribute immediately, and average basketball IQ" as weaknesses. ATS microscoped him. I recommend it if you are interested in him.

So conveniently, a trade went down last week to get rid of the thorn in our side, Roko Ukic. The Bucks traded for him so I think this was a secret part of the RJ trade. We'll know for sure if he gets sent to Europe. They also traded Carlos Delfino and got Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems in return. Both are pretty much unproven players. Amir Johnson has been somewhat functional in a backup role in Detroit.

ARGENTINE SHOWDOWN!
via farm3.static.flickr.com

They've lost Jason Kapono, Shawn Marion, Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai, Roko Ukic, Anthony Parker, Pops Mensah Bonsu, and Carlos Delfino. They are better off without Marion. Kapono was a great shooter, but his stock is pretty high right now so it was probably a smart move to let him go.

They've added Hedo Turkoglu. This is the huge move. Not just because they got him, but because they snaked him (or he snaked himself) out of Portland which is great for the Spurs. The Raptors also added Marco Belinelli, Antoine Wright, Reggie Evans, and Jarret Jack in addition to Weems and Johnson.

It is worth mentioning that we played them twice last year when they had Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon and never played them after he was traded for Marion.

Jake Voskuhl and Joey Graham are unsigned free agents from last year's roster.

I couldn't find it listed anywhere, but they got Rasho, too.

The Match-Up

Starters

PG: Tony Parker versus Jose Calderon: Advantage Spurs: One of them is a a better distributor and the other is a better player. Both players are great point guards.

SG: Roger Mason versus Marco Belinelli: Advantage None: Mason is marginally better in just about every stat, but if Belinelli really starts I think he will see a jump in minutes. Mason played almost 10 more per game last year.

SF: Richard Jefferson versus Hedo Turkoglu: Advantage Raptors: Hedo is better and is coming off a career year. I think he will continue playing good basketball and really improve this team.

PF: Antonio McDyess versus Chris Bosh: Advantage Raptors: Chris Bosh is better.

C: Tim Duncan versus Andrea Bargnani: Advantage Spurs: Bargnani is a terrible rebounder for his size. He can shoot the 3 though. I think he is compared to Dirk and that seems fair looking at the stats. Poor man's Dirk. It seems like he would be awesome as a backup to Bosh at PF and then get a true center. Maybe they should start Rasho even though he is a downgrade overall.

Bench:

Point Guard: Hill vs Jarrett Jack and Marcus Banks: Raptors win this one. Jack is proven while Hill isn't.

Wings: Manu, Finley, Hairston, and Williams vs DeMar DeRozan, Sonny Weems, Quincy Douby, and Antoine Wright: Antoine Wright started for Dallas last year and is decent. Weems and Douby have not done much in the limited minutes they have been allotted so far in their careers. DeRozan is an unproven rookie. Manu and Finley are much better.

Front Court: Blair, Mahinmi, Bonner, Haislip, and Ratliff vs Amir Johnson, Rasho Nesterovic, Reggie Evans, and Patrick O'Bryant: We dominate them here. They are pretty shallow in the front court. Hedo is going to need to get like 6 rebounds a game at least. Rasho is the only one I see getting any sort of major rotation. Reggie Evans can get maybe 10-15 a game.

Coaching: Advantage Spurs.

Result: I really like the moves they've made. Their starting unit will really compete and probably dominate some teams. If some young guys step up then they can have a pretty solid team, but I just don't see it. I like the Raptors and a lot of their players so I'll be rooting for them to make the playoffs, but I'm not sure they have really separated themselves from the pack despite improving. Rebounding could be the death of their team.

The Schedule

Mon, Nov 9 vs Toronto: We have a back to back then 2 days rest before this game. It is the the third home game of the season and the first home game of a 12 home - 3 road game stretch. We really need to prove our mettle in this stretch of the schedule in order to earn Manu and Duncan rest in the later months

Sun, Jan 3 @ Toronto: SEGABABA with an at Wizards the night before. After this game we get 2 days of rest and then a 4 game home stretch. I think this will allow us to go all out in these games if needed.

So that is my Spurs-Raptors preview for next season. Next up are the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that always defies their roster and plays us incredibly well. Plus, they now have Roko Ukic.....

For more information on the Toronto Raptors, check out Raptors HQ.

Past entries in this series: Golden State Warriors, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Thunder, Clippers, Wizards and Kings.

Poll

What is the top Spurs-Raptors match-up story line for '09-'10?

PG Match-up: Parker vs Calderon

64 votes

SG Match-up: Manu vs Bellinelli

14 votes

SF Match-up: RJ vs Hedo

119 votes

Frontcourt Matchups: Duncan, Bosh, Rasho, Dice, Bargnani, Blair......

115 votes

Rookie Impact Match-up: DeJuan vs DeMar

40 votes

Cheering for Ex Spurs in defeat: Rasho and Hedo

12 votes

I'd vote redemption for the loss, but they don't have Roko Ukic anymore.

11 votes

All the international players!!!

93 votes

2 more wins for SA.

73 votes

Raptors trying to make the playoffs and prove they can beat the "haves".

109 votes

650 votes | Poll has closed

NBA Summer League Day Four Recap - The D-League Shines

Wayne Vore (ATS) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:45:53 -0000

Spending 4 days in a gym can start to affect you in weird ways. The lighting starts to make everything appear washed out. The same uncomfortable chair starts to kill your back. The same conversations with the same people become boring and tedious. I mean, how many times can you say, "Hey, how's it going?" to somebody and expect them to have a witty response. And vice versa. At this point, everybody just shrugs an "eh" at you.

On the other hand, I did step out today and get some different things done. I will break it out into two or three different posts -- I haven't decided yet -- because I have a lot for you.

Btw, the games don't start today until 5:00 Spurs time so the preview will be coming later. Because, you know, all y'all are sitting around waiting for the preview.

First things first. I introduced myself to RC Buford and Dennis Lindsey. GM and Assistant GM. I handed out business cards that started a conversation about whether Pop knew I had a web site called Pounding The Rock. The discussion was about whether or not there were trademark issues involving it. I said I had kind of wondered about that myself. They said, with a bit of a chuckle, Pop would let me know when I met him. Or something like that. Good way to start the day.

As you would expect, they were very pleasant guys and Dennis thanked me for coming up and introducing myself. A rambling aside. Here's the thing with me. My memory is very good because I remember things visually and by association. I can remember where on a page a line from a book is. Left page, right page, top, bottom, middle. I can remember faces from situations then pull that face and situation out of my memory to say, "Hey, I saw you at the airport in Atlanta in 2005". Goofball stuff like that. Where I fail, and I fail massively, is when I get the data into my head incorrectly the first time. And that's what I've done with Dennis Lindsey. I got David in my head. I will guarantee you that I screw this one up in the worst possible way at some point in the future. Say it with me now, "Dennis. Dennis. Dennis." One more time, "Dennis".

Onto the games.

The opener was the Minnesota Timberwolves vs the D-League Select team.

The TWolves led 48-38 at the half and, I thought, the D-League guys were playing pretty scrappy to stay that close. They just didn't have the talent to compete with these guys. OR. SO. I. THOUGHT. In the second half, the D-League guys put on the best exhibition of team basketball I have seen in 16 games. They thoroughly dismantled the TWolves. They forced turnovers and ran them out of the gym. They displayed the best cutting and interior passing I have seen since Fabricio Oberto was running wild in the Spurs front court.

The D-Leaguers opened the second half with five straight layups and over the quarter outscored Minnesota 30-10. It was a schooling. And the D-League guys were as excited as any bunch that I have seen play here in Vegas. I really think they played with a bit of a chip on their shoulder and wanted to prove they belonged.

D-League Select players of note:

Othyus Jeffers - He poured in 20 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in 25 minutes.
Gary Forbes - Also scored 20 points
Coleman Collins - 15 points and 7 rebounds.
Walker Russell - 9 points and 5 assists in 17 minutes

Minnesote TimberWolves:

Wayne Ellington - 22 points on 8-14 from the field and 4-7 from long range. Don't let this fool you. The only thing he did well in this game is shoot. He got absolutely destroyed on the defensive end. Add in 2 rebounds and 0 assists in 28 minutes.
Jonny Flynn - He really toned down his shooting in this one and did a LOT of passing. He ended with 14 assists. He had 7 of them in the 4th quarter when the TWolves started working him with the high screen and roll. Think the Tony Parker play. He basically Chris Paul'd them. He drove in the paint, maintained his dribble, and found shooter after shooter. It was a very impressive performance for him.
Oleksiy Pecherov - Who? That's right, the guy the TWolves picked up in the Foye-Miller for the #5 pick. He's a 7-footer who hasn't seen a long open jumper he didn't like. He had 15 points and 10 rebounds including 3-4 from 3-point. If he had space, he let it fly.
Garrett Siler - Who two? The big man from Augustana is listed at 6' 11" and 305 pounds. He is a BIG, BIG man. I would have put his height at 7' 1". He may stick. He moves pretty decent for as big as he is and has some athleticism.
Corey Brewer - I'm still unimpressed with his play.

Game Two - Suns vs Mavs

This was another foul-plagued disjointed game. The teams combined for 67 fouls and 77 free throws (it should be noted that the 77 free throws are much less than in a regular season game because they don't go to the bonus until they are under the 2:00 mark). The Suns got out to an early lead, 25-15 after one and the Mavs wouldn't go away and slowly fought back to tie the game going into the fourth. Robin Lopez aka Fropez aka Sideshow Bob dominated this game. I didn't realize how big he is. He is a very large man and the Mavs couldn't handle him. His 24 points and 16 rebounds were fairly quiet. I didn't know those were his stats until much later in the day when PhoenixStan of Bright Side of the Sun told me.

Phoenix Suns

Lopez - He's just too big and good with the ball for this level.
Taylor Griffin - Blake's older brother has some upside. He's physical and aggressive and could carve himself out a role on the Suns an energy guy at the 4.
Goran Dragic - The guy the Spurs traded to get Malik Hairston AND the pick that we used to draft DeJuan Blair. He looked pretty poor. Our best guess is that he didn't feel to good. Maybe a stomach flu or something. He bares some watching because he is slated to be the Suns backup PG this year.
Alando Tucker - The third year pro looked OK. At this stage of his career, he should be a better player against the competition. Again, another guy to watch over the next few days.
Josh Carter - Another Aggie. I was unaware he even played. No comment.
Earl Clark - the Suns first round pick took a DNP with back spasms. Apparently, he has a high degree of empathy and was feeling LatinD's pain.

Dallas Mavericks

Ahmad Nivins - He struggled today, but he does work hard. He had 12 points and only 4 rebounds in 27 minutes. He went 3-9 from the field. He's struggled with his offense since the first day.
Luke Jackson - Couldn't get his shot to fall. 1-4 from the field and 0-3 from distance. More on him in a bit.
Rodrigue Beaubois - He really fell from his electrifying performance on Saturday. He scored some points late to pad his stats. He ended with 16 points and 3 assists before hurting his knee very late in the game. Again, more on that in a bit. Overall, though, I thought he looked pretty average. He is an end of game nightmare for the other team though. He can hit the three of the dribble and when given a license to chuck is very dangerous.
Nathan Jawai - Another Aussie suiting up in Vegas. Nathan is an enormous man. He's listed at 6' 10" 280, but he looks bigger in every direction. He hurt his ankle also. More in a bit. I steeled myself, prepared my questions, and then interviewed him. Nathan Jawai Interview This was an epic low in journalism. Listen if you are a sadist. On top of all this, I stepped on his flip-flop he was wearing on his bad ankle and he was shuffling on his ankle the whole time. (I just listened to it for the first time. It's not that horrible, but I really felt uncomfortable.)
Curtis Jerrells - He got very little run this game with only 5 minutes. He scored 8 points in that 5 minutes though. I like him. He's a Acie Law IV kind of player. An in between guard who can be very physical. For him, I think it is about carving out a role with the right team.

Game Three - Raptors vs Blazers

I did something a little different for this game. Since I had seen the Raptors twice already, and the Blazers don't have a really compelling roster, I decided to put one guy under the microscope. DeMar DeRozan. There will be a separate post coming shortly about him. For the rest, here is my two cents from this 92-87 victory by the Raptors.

Portland Trailblazers

Jerryd Bayless - He is an animal at the point in this environment. He got whatever shot he wanted. He only went 7-17 from the floor though and finished with 22 points He also had 7 assists and 6 turnovers.
Dante Cunningham - He's the reason this roster is now MORE compelling to me. He had 21 points -- all in the first 3 quarters -- and 9 rebounds.
Jeff Pendergraph - 12 points and 7 rebounds.

Toronto Raptors

Quincy Douby - He continues to score points with 20 in this contest. They are playing him quite a few minutes at the point guard and he is using that time to get off shots. He did, much to my surprise, have 5 assists.
Smush Parker - DNP-CD. Interesting.

Game Four - Pistons vs Warriors

This is the game I wanted to watch from the beginning of the day. The Warriors have Anthony Randolph, Stephen Curry, Cartier Martin, and Anthony Morrow who suited up for the first time tonight. The Pistons young squad has been very impressive in their first two games. Plus, Connor Atchley is starting to get some burn for the Warriors. It was a disappointment. Well, the Pistons were a disappointment. I guess they hit their rookie wall because they got run out of the gym 97-69. In this game, I again did something different, and put the ATS microscope on DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko. A separate post will be coming on that later.

Golden State Warriors

Anthony Randolph - 21 and 10. Again. He's just good offensively and he was more effective defensively today. He also got clipped by Jonas across the cheek and had to be treated. More on that in a bit.
Cartier Martin - I'm not sure if his game will move to the NBA well since he is making his living at the line and they are calling tons of fouls here in Vegas. However, he has opened some eyes with his huge body and aggressiveness to the rim. He had 18 points and 5 rebounds with 12 free throw attempts.
Anthony Morrow - He showed what we expected from him. He can shoot. Just a beautiful shot. 17 points, 6 rebounds, on 8-13 from the field.
Stephen Curry - He stuffed the stat sheet today. 23 points, only 7-19 from the field though, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals, 4 turnovers. While I still question how good he can be defensively in the league -- he was eating up Jeremy Pargo on the defensive end -- against good competition, he did show today that he can do things without having his shot going.
Connor Atchley - 7 points and 7 fouls. He's purely a shooter and he went 3-4 from the field with no 3-point attempts and 1-1 from the line. Defensively, he is a liability, but I don't think that we keep Don Nelson from looking at him seriously.

Detroit Pistons

Austin Daye - Whew, he flirted with the quadruple-double today. 11 points, 11 rebounds, 8 fouls, 8 turnovers. 0 assists. He looked gassed. In the 4th quarter, he just didn't have anything.
Deron Washington - The athletic wing husltes -- 7 rebounds and a bruised sternum, more in a bit -- but continues to struggle shooting. He misses chippies and has now gone 5-18 from the line in the last two games.
DaJuan Summers - 9 points on 3-11 shooting, 2 rebounds, and 10 fouls -- yes, you can foul out in Summer League and he did, in 28 minutes.
Jonas Jerebko - 16 points and 4 rebounds and 1 non-call that drew blood.
Jeremy Pargo - I think this was his first action of the week, I'm too lazy to look it up. He had 13 points and 4 assists in 24 minutes. However, he couldn't handle defensive pressure from Stephen Curry and got his pocket picked a couple times. He has a ways to go to be an NBA point guard. Hopefully, he will get some more time here.

The toll of the physical play

Yeah, I know that Jonas Jerebko mocked me for suggesting that the play here was physical, but people are showing up with injuries. Minor ones mostly, but lots of guys are sporting ice on places after games.

Deron Washington - ice bag on his chest. Nice guy. I talked to him a bit about it. He got an elbow and called it quits.

Nathan Jawai - Rolled his ankle in the first quarter. Ice bag on the ankle.

Rodrigue Beaubois - Knee contusion. Ice bag.

Anonymous - ice bag on the shoulder

Anthony Randolph - bloody cheek. Jonas Jerebko clipped him reaching for a loose ball. JJ then sought him out on the way down court and apologized. Unless you were looking for it, you would miss it. I'm always impressed when I see guys quietly showing sportsmanship like that.

DeMar DeRozan - ice bag on the ankle

Luke Jackson - two black eyes. I chatted with Luke for a minute or so today. I was right the Friday. Brandon Jennings did break his nose with an elbow. It was crooked. They tried to fit him with a mask but didn't have one that fit. In the second game on Saturday, he got hit on the OTHER side of his nose and it straightened it out. He said he is just trying to tough through it and that in a couple days they will have a doctor check it out to see what is up. Luke is a very nice guy, and very approachable but shy.

You guys get the picture. There is lots of ice being used.

Summer Suns get 1st win behind BIG play from Lopez

Phoenix Stan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:13:53 -0000

More photos » by Ann Heisenfelt - AP

Robin Lopez sporting a little less hair then seen in this picture was the star of the Suns Summer League debut.

Browse more photos »

In the Suns first game of the Summer League play, the team looked ... odd.

Those expecting a look at rookie Earl Clark in his first game in a Suns uniform (of sorts) and hoping to see what kind of progress Dragic made were disappointed. Just moments before the game, Clark was scratched due to tightness in his lower back. He told me after the game in his quiet and subdued tone that he was unable to get loose prior to the game. Coach Gentry said they held him out as a precautionary measure and they expect him to be ready for Wednesday's game.

Clark said he was disappointed about not being able to play, but he's a guy that you are going to have to just listen to because his non-emotive disposition didn't show any displeasure at the situation. I am just getting to know the newest Suns lottery pick, so I can't say if this is the norm for him but I will tell you if he brings that same poker face to the tables he's going to do rather well.

Goran Dragic started the game and looked like he was just getting into the flow of things when he was pulled after about 4 minutes. He left the court area with a Suns assistant trainer and was gone for a good ten minutes. After he came back I asked where he'd been and was told, "restroom."

He never really looked right to me from that point forward. After the halftime break, Dragic didn't warm up with the team and, while he played 6 minutes in the 3rd quarter and didn't look visibly hobbled, he clearly wasn't right. He didn't play at all in the fourth.

After the game, Coach Thunder Dan (Majerle) said he pulled something in his groin right before the half. He was not his normal pleasant self walking off the court and ignored my question about how he felt. He went straight back into the curtained off area to get treatment. At this point, I have no updates on his condition. We'll see what they say tomorrow.

Alando Tucker had a so-so game. He definitely displayed some his shooting and paint play but at no point did he look to take over the game. I kind of wish he would have been more aggressive at some point, but that's just not who this guy is. He asked his way onto the team and said that he may not play again in Vegas. Tucker said he was here to test his knee which he declared to be 100%. He said that he's been here twice before and he wanted to give some other guys their run. I asked if he had considered trying to have his jersey retired from the Summer League like Nate Robinson did last year, but he didn't seem interested in that honor. Tucker finished with 15 points and 5 rebounds and showed some nice passing. I really hope we get to see a little more from him.

He did break a little news, telling me that Leandro Barbosa had a daughter! Tucker's not yet gone down to Brazil for a visit, but he still has the ticket. Congrats to LB! BTW -- I am fairly confident that Barbosa didn't have the baby himself, so we have no need to worry about a Candace-Parker-like come back.

Saving the best for last is our friend, Robin Lopez.

Robin was pretty pleased with himself after the game, which was obvious because he talked in complete sentences as opposed to his usual mumbled responses. Lopez had a fantastic game, putting up a game-leading 24 points (including 7 for 10 from the line). He was a beast on the glass with 16 boards (5 offensive) and he recorded 2 blocks, but altered many other shots.

Lopez played a team-high 31 minutes and was clearly getting tired towards the end but despite that was able to get to the line, where he scored five of his nine points in the final period. Early in the game, he was aggressive with his shot scoring in the post as well as from about 10 feet out on a jumper, whereas later he scored more on garbage hustle points and put backs. He looked good.

Before anyone goes too crazy about Robin's performance and anoints him the next Brook Lopez, let's remember that he was matched up against Nathan Jawai, who didn't even play in the first two Mavericks Summer League games.

He did what he had to do and looked great doing it. Let's see how he does against some bigger and better competition.

Taylor Griffin is an interesting player. Think Jared Dudley's energy combined with Lou Amundson's hops. The guy can get up off the floor and he uses his athleticism to help and recover to contest shots. He's a nice player, which we kind of knew. What surprised me was his ball handling and passing.

At one point, he drove the lane and dished a no-look pass to a teammate for an easy bucket. Later, he had a steal on the sideline and dribbled the ball in from the wing and delivered a behind-the-back pass on the break. The box score only gives him 1 assist, but I am telling you that's wrong.

I like what I saw from Griffin but I still think the team needs to be looking for another center to back up Lopez and Frye (who is really a power forward). The two guys I was interested seeing on the Suns squad that potentially fit that bill were Kaspars Brezin and Jiri Hubalek.

Kaspar did not impress me much. He was just kind of there. He wasn't horrible, but he certainly didn't do anything that caught my eye. Hubalek is a skilled player with both range and decent handle for a 6'11" guy. He did OK in the paint but not enough to take a roster spot.

The other guy that stepped up was Zabian Dowdell. With Dragic going down, he ran the point in the fourth and finished with 13 points. He's got some game, but I didn't see anything that made me think he will be playing in the NBA next season.

All of that, of course, was after only one game so, you know ... patience and all that.

As for me, I had a pretty fail-filled day. The fancy recorder that KTAR lent me to get radio quality audio cuts didn't work and I had left my little digital back in the hotel room. I spent a lot of time before the game trying to get it to work and ended up losing a couple of interviews I did for a podcast I was planning. I ended up borrowing a recorder from Clipper Steve for post game and I spent about an hour trying to get the files on to my computer, but that was a fail, too. So, no audio for you. Sucks. Oh, and I forgot my belt, too, so a trip to the mall to keep my pants up and a replacement media card for the fancy recorder and we should be all set for tomorrow.

In other Suns news, which you've probably already heard:

Box score

KTAR.com - Suns, Ben Wallace reach buyout agreement
$10m buyout saves the Suns $8m, bringing the savings from the Shaq deal to $9.5 once Sasha is bought out. Suns are still over the tax line by about $4m so don't go getting ideas about signing any more players beyond the 1 open roster spot that will go a min. salary player
The Associated Press: Suns reach agreement on signing Frye. Gentry and Kerr will be back in Phoenix tomorrow for a press conference for Frye's signing
Lopez impresses, Suns dump Mavs
From Coro