It has been a very hair raising 33 games for Dwayne Casey as he has not known if his players put out the effort on the court game-to-game and it has not been because the game plan they were given for a game in Phoenix were they used the game plan well and won and then they were given the same game plan when they went into Washington twice and let the Wizards win two of their 7 wins in their first half. The game plan from game one to game thirty-three has not changed on offence its pound the rock and crush the hoop with layups and mid-range jumpers of 5 to 15 feet and on defence its about tough D where they are not supposed to give up easy baskets and make it tough for teams to put up points.
One of the Raptors biggest problems this that they come out flat at the beginning of the game and go down double-digit defect in the first quarter and it really hurt the Raptors especially in the Utah Jazz game where they went down huge early and if they did not go down huge then the Raps would of not lost Andrea as he got injured in the overtime session and has not returned since.
Another problem has been that they have played up to the level of the better teams in the league where they were a basket away from beating the Lakers, lost by three to the Mavs, keeping it close with the Pacers, went into South Beach and kept it close along with the Magic, went into Utah and Phoenix and beat both for the first time in 7 seasons. While also putting the Celtics on their wallets after being smoked by them twice along with keeping it close with the Bucks. Then when the weaker sisters meet up with the Raptors they get their wins as the Wizs won twice, the Bobcats came in and broke their 16 game losing streak and a hurting Nets team came into town and got healthy thanks to the Raptors.
The Raptors got a huge 13 games from Andrea Bargnani who would of been a likely candidate for the all-star game as he put up 23.5 points and 6.4 boards a game while guys like Jose Calderon has been hot and cold with games with double-digits in assists or have 20 plus points a game and then had games where he could not hit a shot setup a basket to save his life. Then there is DeMar DeRozan who one game can get to the basket and shoot well from the floor and get to the line and the next game takes long jumpers and misses a lot and gets nowhere near the line while a guy like Barbosa is a streaky player and how he goes so do the Raps as he is allergic to passing the ball like if he passes it and gets into a better shooting position he will not get the ball. The Johnsons (Amir and James) just like DeRozan can put a great effort on the court when they want to but both are too inconsistent while Ed Davis has more rebound games less than 5 (8) then double-digit rebound games (7). While when a guy like Jamaal Magloire gets on the floor its more likely than not that he is a game changer and if he plays is likely to play anywhere between like 5 minutes and most likely 15 minutes and the games he does not find the floor I usually asking why not and a guy like Arron Grey can get boards when he works hard and earns his minutes. The rest of the Raptors have become after thoughts especially a guy like Rajui Butler who was brought in on the cheap for his 3s and as they are not falling and he is unlikely to get dirty in the paint then he just not a useful part.
The Raptors has played tougher on the road then at home this season even though they have 5 wins at home and on the road and if this team was to put the effort on the floor on a nightly basis they may have had a chance to sneak into the playoff picture especially with a healthy Bargnani and then some other games I wish that I could trade this team in for a D-league team or an ABL team that would work their tails off to stay in the NBA.
I guess Jonas Valanciunas is coming next season and combine that wish a good player in the draft and maybe this team can respectable because it does not take a lot to be respectable in the NBA
Tom Mehegan
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