Toronto Raptors - We can't be pathetic forever, can we?

[AlabamAlum]

Doug West had/has an interesting life. Much of it sounded like Internet BS, but -for some reason- I believed him.


Amar was fun to talk religion with.

[Bklyn]

I know West well, have hung out with him in NY, Vegas and Miami. I've been there for a lot of the revelry...and seen enough of real life West (and Tasha) to know it's all real shit, maybe even moreso than he disclosed on WX...and he did a lot there (more than I do, at least). You can believe him, if you believe me.

Amar was a little too self-righteous for my taste, but he was fundamentally a good dude. I will say, he was scared to hang out with me in Philly one time when I was going to be in town and he was in town with his wife. I ain't gonna lie...I judged him a bit for that. LOL.

[AlabamAlum]

Scared? Good god, why?

[aTm]

I'm surprised Sam didn't show up here since he did try and save the WX boards with a site as well.

[Bklyn]

I have no idea why...but, in his defense, "scared" may not be the best word. He mentioned he was going to Philly with his wife and was going to be there for 3 or 4 days. I said that I'd be down that way visiting my family, so if had some time maybe we could catch up for lunch or I could show him around some of the social nightlife spots in Center City. I can't remember his exact response, but it boiled down to "nah, I'm not interested." So, I let it go. So, maybe scared isn't the word, but he was definitely not interested in a face-to-face meeting, in any respect.

Sam

Is strange fruit, though. His "judgement" streak is strong and I think he was only going to keep this going if we all went to the site he had set up (that didn't catch on). I never talked to him about it in any depth, but my guess is that his absence is partially due to his loss of control over things when it didn't go to his site and partially because he was not a fan of the Goatpen brand. The same way he was not interested in joining into the Detroit board because it said "Pistons" in the URL, I think he was of the same feeling with TGP. Sam isn't one to suffer many of the unique individuals who post on this site...even though he could simply choose to not go into TGP or the other boards. I never confirmed that was the deal, but I think that's why he decided to stay out of pocket.

[Jungle Rat]

You know why he was scared. Hanging with a black man at night in Philly makes a white republican remember to update his will before he heads out for the night. New underwear too.

[sotola]

I only respond in kind. You need to look yourself in the mirror.

No, I haven't attempted to childishly insult you at all. If so, find the insult and I will gladly apologize. I felt like it after the 2nd one you hurled but then I asked "why?". couldn't get an answer to that so it was just easier to ignore you.

anyways, have a good life Yoss.

[T Dot O Dot]

what's it going to take for DeRozan to get a whistle?

[yossarian1234]

Colangelo and co. got a job to do. Collect as much video evidences as they can, keep adding to them, and bombard the league office with them after each game. Get them to notice this BS that's going on. It's been particularly weird this season. And I wouldn't be complaining they held both teams to the same standard.

Liking 2PG lineup down the stretch less and less. Hope somebody steps up to force Casey's hand, he's fallen too much in love with Calderone. At least we saw Jonas Valanciunas out there in 4th.

[hedge]

Jonquil snubbed me and D'gaul in DC one time...

[sardis]

The NBA refs always give deference to the home team. Always has been the case so learn to live with it.

[T Dot O Dot]

True, but the DeRozan treatment was completely overboard

he lost his wallet gettin mugged so hard in your paint

each instance on it's own wasn't too egregious, but when you watch them in sequence... all that contact, time after time and no whistle?

straight fuckery

[yossarian1234]

Not pointing to this single game. Now, I've only been able to watch about half the Raptors games but the games I've watched, officiating has been consistently horrible and one-sided. Where our broadcasters have openly questioned officiating numerous times and they don't usually do that.

[sardis]

Wow, homer announcers complaining about calls is unheard of...

[T Dot O Dot]

Wow, homer announcers complaining about calls is unheard of...

actually, in true Canadian fashion, our announcers Jizz & Slobber over our competition, and don't "homer" enough in my opinion, it drives me crazy because I hate to listen to them praise the other team while were getting curb-stomped

for our announcers to openly start barking at the refs is a complete 180 degree turn

jus sayin

[yossarian1234]

Even NBA admits the error.

http://www.nba.com/official/

"On the final possession of Charlotte's 98-97 win over Toronto on Nov. 21, the game officials missed a foul by Charlotte's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist against Toronto's Andrea Bargnani on a jump shot. Bargnani should have been given two free throws and the clock stopped with approximately 2.4 seconds remaining in the game. View video>> "

Wish they could reprimad the officials who missed the calls somehow. At least get the refs to call the game correctly in our games.

On our home announcers, agreed with TDotODot. I've never heard these guys blatantly criticize officiating during games like they have this season. Actually, I'm so used to them that listening to other team announcers annoys the heck out of me because they are such homers. Just listening to some of the stuff they say is ridiculous.

[Bklyn]

Wish they could reprimad the officials who missed the calls somehow. At least get the refs to call the game correctly in our games.

The Association does. They just don't publish it. The highest level is suspension, the lowest level is reprimand and documentation. The mid that normally happens is they don't work many (if any) Playoff games.

[sotola]

I have come to expect the shoddy officiating and I commented that it would be commonplace for this team after the 1st game.... but I expected it to happen against the teams that we were supposed to lose to.

Giving a rookie (Kidd Gilchrist) the benefit of the doubt on that call was poor at best. I can understand not getting a call against the playoff teams but Charlotte (despite their current record) is not a playoff team.

This team has no one to blame but themselves for this record but they should be far better than they currently stand if they had gotten just the odd call down the stretch of games. combine brain cramps with bad officiating and you see 10 point leads in the 2nd half disappear. I think we have had 2nd half leads in all but 3 games (at least by memory).

I just hope it's not one of those seasons where they are out of it by the end of December only to have a great 2nd half and finish with that coveted 8th to 12th pick again. At least this season we would give the garbage up and complete the Lowry transaction if we didn't win the lottery.

[yossarian1234]

WTF is Calderon doing inbounding the ball at such a cruicial moment? Shouldn't someone who can see over the defense be inboudning the ball?

Also 2 PG lineup is failing very badly down the stretch. Calderon and Bargnani especially have no business being out there together. I think we lose more defensively than we gain offensively with that lineup. It's not like we have much of a direction offensively either way. At least don't make it so easy for the other team to score on us. It should be clear it's not working after so many close losses and being 3-11. Casey has made one adjustment by letting Valanciunas play in 4th quarter and now he needs to make another adjustments. Certainly think coaching has to do something with those losses.

And I don't know why Bargnani is still out there when he's struggling so badly shooting-wise. He offers you nothing if he can't shoot and he missed a wide open shot in OT. And we had Davis playing rather well (15/14) and he still only played a little more than 20 minutes. I know Bargnani had a string of decent numbers recently but that's shouldn't mean he gets to be out there no matter what or any indicator that he still has a hope here, rather it should just be a tool to up his value in any way possible in a trade. He should be treated like any other player, if he's playing like dog shit, he sits. I liked Casey last year for holding players accountable. He's sadly fallen off that this season.

Really time to get Bargnani outta here for Colangelo. I don't know if he thinks trading him means he's admitting to his overall failure here but it's time to get him out. Colangelo's past history suggests when he's agressively looking to fix his mistakes, he comes out not too bad. Just get any half decent SF so Casey can get out from playing 2 PGs down the stretch and it'll work out well, heck, it's just addition by subtraction at this point. Save Casey from himself and his manlove for Calderon while you are at it, too.

[sotola]

Calderon and Lowry were playing together because SA had Neal and Parker in the game. It was simply trying to match up better. I don't think there was any other options.

As for Bargnani, yes he played horribly but putting Davis back in could have been a HUGE mistake. He played his best basketball game in a Raptor uniform by far.... you don't give him a chance to mess it up by making a mistake down the stretch. You want him coming out of that game with that confidence... you can't risk it. Did his play deserve it? Absolutely. But not bringing him back is all about the long term.

and dealing Bargnani now is a dumb idea.... he is playing miserably, and worse, he doesn't seem to care about it. They need to get his game back to where it was last year and then deal him. Casey needs to start holding him accountable like he did last season--- take off the kid gloves again. But dealing him now will not get us anything that will be valuable because his game doesn't warrant it. The only major problem I have with drafting Bargnani (...because that draft sucked and options were limited) is that we were told how smart a player Bargnani was and his supposed "basketball IQ". He has to be one of the dumbest player's that has ever donned a Raptor jersey and that's a pretty lofty status. He has skills but his knowledge of the game is what makes him useless at times. and if you don't start getting it by 7 years.... you won't. I agree the experiment is over but now is not the time to deal.