lobosloboslobos wrote:So Boris if I read your argument correctly it is:
- the raps suck because they sucked in the past and so they deserve to lose this year, which means BC succeeded because - in your words - this is a team 'designed to lose'
That's not even debatable at this point. This team was not designed to be competitive at a high level. Losing might not be the intention, but it's going to be the outcome regardless.
- the refs are universally without bias
Depends upon what you mean by "bias". Do the referees care whether Toronto wins or loses? No.
- the discrepancy game in and game out between fouls given to raps and our opponents indicate only that we are really bad at fouling
This explains far more than Raptors fans and Matt Devlin and company are comfortable with admitting. The Raptors have been putting people on the line at epic rates for years.
2009-10: 23rd in opp FT/FGA
2010-11: 27th in opp FT/FGA
2011-12: 30th in opp FT/FGA
That's not all bias; that's because the Raptors are a slow team defensively who don't get to where they need to be in time, enough of the time.
- all of the posters and players and raps representatives and journalists who have noticed what appears to be highly inconsistent refereeing that favors the Raps' opponents are wrong. there has been no inconsistent refereeing favoring other teams.
When Jack Armstrong spends 2 minutes screaming about how no free throws were awarded because "the ball was in the air" when a foul occured on a lob
pass (on the passer), he immediately flushes all credibility down the drain. And I like Jack. But he whiffed so embarrassingly badly there he lost the right to speak to this issue.
As for fans? I don't think many of them understand the rules of the game particularly well - and certainly not the interpretations to the rules.