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.

Raps Look for 3rd Straight in Dallas

The Raptors roll into Dallas (tipoff at 8:30PM EST) on the back half of two games in two nights, and hope to both extend their win streak to three games and to give Chris Bosh, playing at an MVP level thus far, his first win in Dallas in his career.

W2W4:
- Big man matchups. The four starting PFs/Cs in this game will have a huge impact on how the game turns out. Dirk Nowitzki has always been a Turok (averaging 24 points and 7 boards against the Raps), and the player whose ceiling was always "The Next Dirk," Andrea Bargnani, will hope to continue to take a huge step forward in his fourth season. If Il Mago continues to develop, he could turn out to be even better than the one-time MVP. As well, CB4 should give Erick Dampier fits with his improved play and newfound beastly-ness in the post. Look for Bosh to have a huge game (really going out on a limb there, eh?).
- New Mavs and new Raps. The two teams were involved in a mammoth four-team deal this offseason that brought Hedo Turkoglu, Antoine Wright and Devean George (flipped to Golden State for Marco Belinelli) to Toronto, with Shawn Marion and Kris Humphries donning the Mavs blue. Turk has been a steady influence in the Raps' frontcourt thus far, being incredibly consistent on both offense and defense, while 'Toine and Marco have been instrumental in making the Raps' second unit one of their potent weapons. The Matrix has been his usual stat-filling self, putting up 14 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.4 steals per game, while Hump has given them some energy off the bench with 6 points and 4 boards per game to go along with his trademark questionable shot selection (44% from the field).
- Jose Calderon. After some criticism incited by his slow start to the season, the object of many a man-crush delivered a classic Jose game, with tremendous efficiency against the Hornets: 16 points (on 6-11 from the field, 2-4 from three, and perfect 2-2 from the line), 8 assists to just one turnover and 4 rebounds. If Jose continues to be the floor general we know he can be, the Raps will be very tough to beat.

Raps Take Opener! 101-91 Raps

In a great game for our Dinos, the Raptors start the season 1-0. The Franchise Chris Bosh put up a big game and Andrea Bargnani showed that he's here to prove something this year, leading the Raps in scoring. The Raps' D was tenacious, posting 4 steals and 6 blocks (3 by newcomer Hedo Turkoglu in his debut!). If this is the way Raps games are going to be for the rest of the season, it's going to be a lot of fun.

NBA.com recap

Player of the Game:
Give it up for Il Mago. He led the game in scoring with 28 on 11-15 shooting (2-3 from 3, 4-4 from the line) in under 30 minutes on the court. He picked up some questionable fouls which limited his playing time and ability to rebound (he had a merely-okay 5, though, with CB4 on the glass, there weren't many boards to be had). He was running circles around the Cavs' big men and was scoring from anywhere. It's kind of interesting how both the Italian boys (Andrea and Marco Belinelli) are so similar in their ability and willingness to score from anywhere. Each one also had a thunderous dunk in the game.

Notables:
CB4 - 21 points, 16 rebounds, 2 assists. Not a bad start for the face of the franchise. He answered Shaquille O'Neal's assertion that he is the "RuPaul of big men" strongly, and helped hold the Most Dominant Ever (?) to a decidedly mediocre game (12 points, 7 rebounds, 0 blocks, 0-3 FT, 4 fouls).
Jose Calderon - 5 points, 11 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 turnovers. Had a Jose-esque game. Didn't score a lot (he really doesn't need to with the firepower around him) and, oddly, after receiving the award for setting the NBA single-season free-throw shooting record, missed his first two free throws of the game, finishing 3-5 from the line. He and Jarrett Jack, importantly, stopped Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson from being effective playmakers - 28 points, but a 5:5 assist-turnover ratio and combined 8-24 shooting). Jose acknowledged in the offseason that his defence last year was bad, and hopefully he can continue to hold his own on that side of the ball.
Hidayet - 12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks. Had a very solid debut at home, filling in the stat sheet nicely. He was very good defensively and scored a little bit when he needed to. It also seemed like he was in good control of the offense at the end of the game, helping us keep a sizeable lead until the end.

Full box score

Stat of the Game:
The Raptors simply dominated on the defensive end, giving up very few easy buckets and holding Cleveland to 34.9% (29-83) shooting. If they can concentrate and hold their own in their zone the whole year, this season will definitely be fun to watch.

RealGM's Andrew Perna Previews the Raptors

Yesterday Andrew Perna, one of the editors over at RealGM (and one of the few people on that site who actually know anything about the sport, but that's another story) previewed the Raps. I happen to agree with a lot of what he has to say, but I'd like to analyze what he has to say and add some commentary of my own.
Read the full article.

On Jose Calderon:
"After playing in all 82 games during the 2007-08 season, Jose Calderon missed 14 contests last year. Regardless of the time he missed, Calderon averaged career-highs in points (12.8), assists (8.9) and minutes per game (34.3). As Toronto’s best play-maker, he had a 41.0 assist percentage, which quantifies his chemistry with teammates Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani.

He isn’t an explosive scorer by any means, but is careful with the basketball and is extremely reliable at the foul-line. His defense is decent, although he is often beaten by faster point guards."

I don't think Perna gives Jose enough credit for his scoring abilities. He set a career high in points by about a point and a half, but that included a drop of 20 points in his FG% and 25 in 3PT%. He was definitively the leader of the team last year for the first time, so his shots per game did rise, but I think it's more than likely that his drop in percentages and lack of an explosion in his scoring average (as some analysts predicted) was due to his playing hurt for most of the season. Also, it's a tad generous to say he's a "decent" defender, though his injury may have had an effect here as well.

On Raptors swingmen:
"DeRozan is an interesting piece, especially since his role isn’t exactly clear-cut. Turkoglu could take a majority of the minutes at small forward, or even shooting guard, but Belinelli should have to show something significant in order to lock down a majority of the perimeter minutes over the rookie. The former Trojan is raw, but his potential may be higher than any other member of his class.

If Belinelli blossoms in Toronto, the three-man rotation of the Italian, the Turk and the American could help the Raptors climb near the top of the Eastern Conference."

I would assume that Jay Triano is spending most of this training camp giving every player a defined role (at least I hope he is). The comparisons between this team and last year's Magic have been beaten to death, but it's not at all out of the question for DMDR to have a similar season to Courtney Lee's last year - defend hard, get easy buckets in transition, and contribute offensively when he's hot. With regards to his potential, I agree, and he's already gotten much stronger to add to his prototypical swingman build. The final point is the one I think resonates strongest, though: should Belinelli have a big season (think 12-15 PPG or so) he could very well be this team's Manu Ginobili-type sparkplug off the bench, something we missed dearly last year with all the injuries and poor play.


On the season:
"Forecast: Colangelo believes that the Raptors can be a 50-win team with home-court advantage in the postseason. That’s not out of the realm of possibility, but the club will have to gel quickly and their studs (Calderon, Turkoglu, Bosh and Bargnani) will have to remain healthy in order to have a shot. They’ll finish with around 45 wins, which should put them in the four-six range in terms of playoff seeding. They aren’t anywhere near the beasts of the East (Boston, Orlando and Cleveland), but there isn’t any reason why they can’t complete with or surpass the rest (Atlanta, Miami, Chicago and Philadelphia)."

I agree here 100%. The Raps will likely steal a couple victories from the big dogs in the East but they'll have to defend their turf against the second tier if they plan to win those 50 games. It's certainly possible, especially if the young guys take a step forward and Chris Bosh's added weight brings him to the next level.

Soon PH will bring you our season preview. Remember, tonight the Raps take on the T-Wolves in Minnesota at 8 PM EST.

Raps Stumble in Preseason Back-to-Back

The Raps played their first two preseason games over the past couple of days and dropped them both, 107-98 in London, Ontario, and 84-79 in Toronto. It's very tough to raise any solid concerns or point out anything of value for two reasons: a) it's preseason (there is a saying that goes, "you can't find out who can play, you can only find out who can't play") as well as the Raps' two leaders (and likely two best players) in Chris Bosh and Hidayet Turkoglu are sitting out for now with minor injuries. That said, here are some points that can be gleaned from the back-to-back:
Reggie Evans does not arrive anywhere quietly. He put up 8 steals in the two games and was a beast inside and on the glass. He's not afraid to let people know how sharp his elbows are at any point and he picked up 9 hard-nosed fouls. He was, as usual, poor from the free-throw line (7-14) which means he likely won't be able to play at the end of games, and will probably be replaced with Rasho Nesterovic, Amir Johnson or with Andrea Bargnani sliding over to the 4-spot.
Speaking of Il Mago, he led us in scoring in the first game with 22 points, showcasing all his tremendous scoring prowess. In the second game he played under 20 minutes in order to give AJ some time (who put up 8 points, 8 boards and 6 fouls), but if Bargnani can be that dominant on the offensive end it will make things easy for Jose Calderon.
Touted rookie DeMar DeRozan did a solid job filling the stat sheet with a two-game line of 18 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 three-pointers (2-5 shooting). It's important for DMDR to establish his presence in all facets of the game and realize that he doesn't have to carry the load offensively with gifted scorers around him in Bosh, Turkoglu, Bargs and Jose. He'll likely get some time with the second unit as well, and it could be fun to watch him and Marco Belinelli, two very different wing players, light it up in their own ways.

The Raptors' next preseason game is tomorrow (Friday), 8 P.M at the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Raps Officially Add Rasho and Marco

Today the Raptors announced via raptors.com that they have added 23-year-old 6-5 guard Marco Belinelli and 11-year veteran 7-footer Rasho Nesterovic.

Belinelli was acquired from Golden State in exchange for cash considerations as well as forward Devean George who arrived in the Hedo Turkoglu trade that also brought in Antoine Wright. Marco will likely battle Wright and apparent starter DeMar DeRozan for minutes at the swingmen positions. He's also the second Italian to play in the NBA, and now joins fellow countryman Andrea Bargnani.

It is rumoured that Rasho was signed to a one-year deal for the bi-annual exception (about $1.9 million which doesn't count against the salary cap), and he will likely serve as Bargnani's backup at the centre position, while becoming the fifth member of the Raps big-man rotation, along with Chris Bosh, Turkoglu, and Reggie Evans.

Both of these deals give the Raptors additional depth and different offensive and defensive schemes to toss at opponents. As well, they give very important backups who can step in if the Raps' starters are hit with injuries.

Raps Acquire Belinelli

According to Yahoo! Sports, the Raptors have traded Devean George for 6-5 Italian guard Marco Belinelli of the Golden State Warriors. He averaged 9 points, 1.7 rebounds and 2 assists in his second NBA season. If this is true, it seems likely that Bryan Colangelo would go after a big man - maybe Possum's Phone Ban as opposed to bringing back Carlos Delfino, since his talents are even more redundant with a scoring combo guard in Belinelli.

This deal is a very good one for the Raptors. Belinelli is a young, dynamic scorer who will really add some scoring punch to the second unit and should thrive with a tough PG like Jarrett Jack leading the way. As well, since he's still on his rookie contract, he's very affordable and really gives the Raps more depth, as George didn't figure to get any significant minutes.

Grade for Raptors: B+