Comments on: 2011 Fantasy Basketball Team Previews, Toronto Raptors

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:56:16 +0000

@Fenris-77: Syphlitic monkey balls are epic no matter what the context.

By: Fenris-77

Fenris-77 — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 05:55:22 +0000

If I could spell syphlitic that would have been epic.

By: Fenris-77

Fenris-77 — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 05:42:42 +0000

Those assists of Calderon’s are more mirage than prodigy. He’s a guy who can pass around the circle to open jump shooters or hit a guy rolling to the rim, but that’s it. He’s incapable of running the fast break, and he’s even more incapable of distorting a defense with the dribble drive to get solid looks for his team mates. He’s also incapable of playing even remotely acceptable defense. He was better last year than in years previous (off the bench anyway), but it’s hard to explain how bad he is on D even then. The guy I blog with collects PDSS stats (Dean Oliver, Basketball On Paper, ect) for every Raps player in every Raps game, which is the best statistical look at defense you can ask for. Looking at that we see that even last year Jose was a worse defender than thin air, which is to say that his defensive numbers were worse than those possessions to which a defender couldn’t be assigned due to proximity, massively bungled rotations, or whatever.

Honestly, both Jose and Bargs have to go in order for the club to make a real go of ‘culture change’ on the defensive end. And yes, that phrase makes me retch too, but it’s what gets bandied about, so I’ll use it.

Anyway, long story short – Jose isn’t really the facilitator his stats make him out to be, and the rest of his peripherals suck shyphlitic monkey balls. Bayless ftw.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:58:53 +0000

@Migs: You mean Rafer Alston's not great!?! So that "Best of Donyell Marshall" video...? Are you trying to tell me HE wasn't great either? @Fenris-77: I agree that Toronto needs better defense and switching out Calderon for Bayless is a step in that direction, but the 6.8 ast per36 for Bayless versus Calderon's 10.4 ast per 36 makes me think it'll be an uphill battle, simply because there aren't many facilitators on this team. I'm inclined to think both of these guys will play equal minutes.

By: Fenris-77

Fenris-77 — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:52:27 +0000

Yeah, a faster and more mobile Beans isn’t a bad comparison physically, but offensively, JV is way better than Biedrins. That 70% FG from last season isn’t a mirage. He played a limited role on his club team last year, focused mostly on pick and roll and putbacks, but at the U-19 chamionships JV took on star-level usage and a much expanded offensive role and still looked like a beast. He was also the top per-minute rebounder in the Euroleague last year, and I’m comfortable calling him a better rebounder than Biedrins. I’m excited about seeing him in a Raps jersey.

As for Bargnani, I really hope he gets traded before the season starts. Raps fans deserve something better. More Amir and Davis would be a nice start.

Bayless might not be in and out of the starter’s role as much as you think either. He’s got way more defensive potential than Jose (which ought to play well with Casey). His play as a starter last year was superb too, so there’s an off chance that he grabs the starting gig from day one and rolls with it.