Jose to Miss Worlds

A leg injury will force Jose Calderon to miss this month's World Championships in Turkey. Jose tore a muscle in his leg during an exhibition game versus the United States of America. His recovery time is listed now at four weeks, which will give him sufficient time to heal before Raptor Training Camp.

New Assistant Coach

The Raps announced that they have brought in a new assistant coach, Scott Roth, to help under Jay Triano. He has an interesting connection to Jay, dating as far back as playing in the Turkish Basketball league at the same time in the 80's.

Last year, Roth was an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors. He has spent seven other seasons as an assistant in the NBA, with Dallas and Vancouver/Memphis, and also has served as a scout and advisor for Milwaukee.

Roth played in 160 games in his three-year NBA career.

Dinos Waive Dwayne Jones

The Raps yesterday waived forward/centre Dwayne Jones, brought over along with Leandro Barbosa in the Hedo Turkoglu deal. Jones did not figure to dress for many contests - he'd be competing with Patrick O'Bryant for garbage time minutes at the centre spot.

By waiving Jones, the Raps have cut their roster down to 15 players, the most an NBA team can have during the season.

Raps Swap Belinelli for Wright

Yesterday the Raptors announced that they have acquired forward Julian Wright from the Hornets in exchange for Marco Belinelli. Nelly averaged just over 7 points per game last year, but his inconsistency and lack of ability to contribute beyond scoring severely limited his minutes off the bench.

In Wright, the Raps get a still-young player with great "tools." He's athletic, big for his position (6-8) and is a serviceable defender. He's a pretty efficient wing scorer, shooting 50% from the floor, but because of his non-existent playing time (only 12 MPG) his per-game numbers tell us practically nothing (4 points, 2 rebounds per game). One thing we do know is that he has no range on his jumper: he only attempted 6 threes all season (making two). That said, in a fast-paced offense, Wright could be a solid contributor on both ends of the court. From a contract standpoint, Wright is entering the last year of his rookie contract, so the Raptors don't lose any financial flexibility from this deal.

Italian Raps Light Up Eurobasket Qualifying

Marco Belinelli and Dr. Drea both had big games yesterday in the Eurobasket qualifiers, as Italy beat Finland (stop laughing) 82-73. Bargs and Nelly both started, and each contributed in a big way to their team's success.
Bargnani is clearly comfortable as the focal point of Italy's offense, playing 30 minutes and contributing a team-high 24 points in very efficient manner (9/17 FG, 2/4 3PT, 4/5 FT). He contributed a team-high 5 rebounds as well (not even 60 total rebounds in the game) and a game-high 3 blocks. Hopefully Eurobasket will give Andrea some solid experience as an offense's number-1 scoring option.
Belinelli is also a key component of Italy's offense, and he did not disappoint, playing 35 minutes and showing a very nice all-around game: 15 points (5/9 FG, 3/6 3PT, 2/2 FT), game-high 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals. Hopefully he can continue to be a factor beyond just scoring, and if he can he'll be a great weapon off the Raptor bench.

Turkoglu Scolds Toronto After BC's Bosh Criticism

Just days after Bryan Colangelo criticized Chris Bosh by saying that he didn't give 100 percent towards the end of the season, everyone's new favourite ex-Raptor, Hedo Turkoglu, decided to get involved. Turk pointed fingers at the entire franchise, saying "People have to realize something is wrong with that organization and nobody wants to go there anymore, it's not just the players who see this”. Has Toronto gained a negative perception in the basketball world from poor management and inability to progress as a team?

Raptor management is great at running the team as a business. Each year they bring in more revenue than the last despite years and years of unsuccessful on-court play. Last season the Raptors finished 11-worst in the association, but despite their poor record they were valued as the 11th most valuable franchise in the NBA at $386 million USD. However, and unfortunately, where Raptor management fails is in the team's performance. Like it or not, Toronto has always had a negative aura cast upon us in the basketball world. Every superstar we've had, from Damon to T-Mac to Vince to Chris, has asked out of Toronto. Its not because its too cold north of the border or that the fans are non-existent. Its the management. Hedo said what none of us wanted to.

BC left the Suns in 2006 to join the Raptors. He brought the confidence and winning background that Toronto needed ever so badly. But since then we've seen a GM that throws around money as if his supply were endless and reward players with large contracts who seemed undeserving of them. Colangelo didn't change his theory from Phoenix to Toronto, it just didn't work well here. Today BC's practice has caught up to him, trying to deal Jose Calderon with a bloated 3 year, 30 million dollar price tag and Marcus Banks, who has not seen significant floor time since landing in Toronto in February 2009.

Looking at the history of the Raptors, we see a team that has barely accomplished mediocrity. Every GM to walk through Toronto's doors has failed to put the pieces together around the superstar. Even the two time Executive of the Year hasn't led us any closer to a championship than the criticized Glen Grunwald and Rob Babcock.

So, Raptor fans, is there anything positive to take away from this? Well firstly, Canada's team is getting younger and younger each day, and that generally breeds more exciting basketball. DeMar DeRozan raised some eyebrows in Vegas by showing off his aggressiveness and his new three point shot. Toronto has also now become Andrea nation, will he become Dirk 2.0? And hey, even if there isn't much to look forward to, a lockout in 2011 is looking inevitable. That could be valuable time for the Raptors to sort out and give the Raptors a new image.