Guard Play is bringing us down

[Shaazzam]

You used the stats from one game to generalize, get back when you use averages

LOL you got me to reread my OP and correct a major part. Correction in bold.

Unless we get a top tier 2 for Jose. he will lead us to nothing more then mediocrity. He isn't dynamic enough offensively and cannot guard his own position. Now I love the guy and I feel bad typing this about him, but the amount of flack our bigs are getting is unwarranted and small minded. These guys don't control the ball, they aren't supposed to initiate the offence, they aren't at the point of attack defensively.

So even though you didn't offer much yourself, thanks for getting me to proof my post a teeny bit.

[PharoaheMonch]

I've felt this from the beginning but everyone's been gushing over Calderon's stats including the American media who doesn't actually watch our team play. If you watch how we play this year, and how we played last year offensively, it's a night and day difference. Our offense was so explosive last year. You had fans out of their seats constantly. The ACC was rocking. This season has been a huge disappointment. We've become almost as boring as the Spurs to watch. A big part of that is that we're missing TJ. We don't have the players to play like the Spurs.

Of course Bosh is putting up better stats, but that's because that's really the only play we can go to with Calderon on the floor. He has no creativity. He'll dribble the ball on the perimeter, passes it around a few times, then goes to Bosh with under 10 seconds left on the clock. That's our offense. Every single game seems to be like a grind it out type of game. This is not how we played last year.

If you add this team's defense to the offense we had last year, we should be a much better team, but losing TJ was a huge blow for us. We have yet to see a healthy Bosh and TJ play together, and I have no doubt when the two are together again, we'll become a much more dangerous team.

I really thought these past couple of months would have made people realize just how pathetic our offense is without TJ in there, but I've seen no posts about it. This just goes to show, there really never were any Jose haters to begin with. It was all a myth. For whatever reason, we have some fanboys who love to come on and absolutely abuse TJ after every game for no apparent reason. Guess what, Jose puts up great stats, but really doesn't make this team better. Right now we're just floating around 0.500 and he's dong what a backup is supposed to do until the real engine of our team returns. For that Jose's been doing a great job. Anyone who has watched Jose consistently knows he doesn't deserve anywhere near the money that people are throwing out there now.

[Maximillion]

We need TJ.

fin.

[The_Hater]

I must say I struggled with a title, but my thrust was that with Jose and AP as our starters, we can't really hang with the big boys.

Agree about Parker but I think you're dead wrong about Jose.

You're basing this on a one game, right? And we're still talking about a 3rd year PG,. Billups wasn't even close to this level during his 3rd season.

Jose is clearly part of the solution, not part of the problem.

[Shaazzam]

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Agree about Parker but I think you're dead wrong about Jose.

You're basing this on a one game, right? And we're still talking about a 3rd year PG,. Billups wasn't even close to this level during his 3rd season.

Jose is clearly part of the solution, not part of the problem.

I simply don't think he is a lead guard for heavy minutes. If he gets stronger and improves his defence, than yes, we could run with him.

He already has improved his shooting, so hopefully I am selling him short.

[PharoaheMonch]

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I simply don't think he is a lead guard for heavy minutes. If he gets stronger and improves his defence, than yes, we could run with him.

He already has improved his shooting, so hopefully I am selling him short.

So has TJ . I too find it puzzling that Chuck always seems to overlook that. I don't think he has mentioned that TJ's FG% is at 49 percent all year. I didn't see him mention TJ was second in the league in assists per 48 once last season..neither did Leo, or any other piece of media. No one mentions his outstanding numbers dispite the minutes or his dynamic ability to create for his teammates. It's always "well TJ is playing a lot more in control"

Always downplaying his strengths with a negative tinge. He is truly the most under appreciated Raptor, even while he was starting. Where were the all star accolades for TJ at the start of the season Chuck?

I'm going to call Chuck out in an e-mail.

[Death Knight]

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So has TJ . I too find it puzzling that Chuck always seems to overlook that. I don't think he has mentioned that TJ's FG% is at 49 percent all year. I didn't see him mention TJ was second in the league in assists per 48 once last season..neither did Leo, or any other piece of media. No one mentions his outstanding numbers dispite the minutes or his dynamic ability to create for his teammates. It's always "well TJ is playing a lot more in control"

Always downplaying his strengths with a negative tinge. He is truly the most under appreciated Raptor, even while he was starting. Where were the all star accolades for TJ at the start of the season Chuck?

I'm going to call Chuck out in an e-mail.

TJ haven't been playing......You don't have a valid complaint. Chuck will just tell you to go eat salami and cheese.

[The_Hater]

I simply don't think he is a lead guard for heavy minutes. If he gets stronger and improves his defence, than yes, we could run with him.

He already has improved his shooting, so hopefully I am selling him short.

Jason Williams was a lead guard for the NBA champs just 2 years ago.

The biggest weaknesses on the team right now are Center and the lack of a do-it-all star type wing player. We don't need to start pointing at strengths and calling them weaknesses.

[Shaazzam]

Jason Williams was a lead guard for the NBA champs just 2 years ago.

The biggest weaknesses on the team right now are Center and the lack of a do-it-all star type wing player. We don't need to start pointing at strengths and calling them weaknesses.

I would not call a rotation of Jose, AP, Dixon, CD necessarily a position of strength.

[5DOM]

our perimeter defence is pretty bad. and that affects our interior.

[Raptors90102]

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I don't consider NO an elite team, and that's what I am referring to. Teams.

SA is elite obviously, and if I think we won because some key guards were hurt for them as well, but if I am going to complain about TJ being hurt, I'll concede that one.

Bingo. The keyword here is Teams. Then why single out only our guards when you yourself emphasize on the word Teams?

If you're referring to teams than please note that these supposedly big boys you're referring to when trying to knock Jose and AP down have elite post presences to shield their guards against stronger and quicker guards.. do you think that Parker always stays in front of his man and never gets beat off the dribble? you think that 2-time MVP nash doesn't get beat EVERY posession?? do you think Chauncy always keeps his man from penetration? All these guys get beat off the dribble and can't keep their man infront of them no matter how fast they are simply cuz when the opposing guard is penetrating, you can't be as quick as him since you're usually going backwards or backwards-sideways... these elite guards have strong/elite post presences on their teams to stop the penetration.. Besides Bosh who do Jose and AP have to provide lane intimidation? Bargz?the guy has even worst rotation on defence than any lottery big man I can think of in recent time? Rasho? Too slow to be effective against quicker guards.. Hump? wildly inconsistent and hardly a post presence..

Simply put, every guard get beats off the dribble time and time again, its just their TEAMS have bigs who hide these flaws by providing effective help defence and weakside shot blocking. Raps don't have that. TJ won't do any better

[The_Hater]

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I would not call a rotation of Jose, AP, Dixon, CD necessarily a position of strength.

Jose is a strength as a starting PG and Delfino is a strength as a back-up wing who can defend, rebound and shoot 3's. Parker can obviously be upgraded (but would be nice off the bench) and our current back-up PG situation is of course, deplorable.

You do realize that we're currently 20-18 even with horrible Center play and an undrafted rookie holding down the fort at SF? So exactly how bad do you think our backcourt play has been? Some people are calling Jose an all-star.

[the_real_deception]

I wouldn't say that of just him, and I wouldn't expect things to be any better than Ford.

I re-watched last night's game on Game in an Hour, and the first four fouls our bigs took - both of Bargnani's and Bosh's first two - were the result of missed assignments on the perimetre by our guards and small forward. Moon, in particular, was jacked out of his jock on one play - he has to learn not to bite on the teensiest of fakes. The fault lies with all of our 1-2-3's. This problem was no different when TJ was the starter. And it's not because we're collapsing on our bigs. We just flat-out suck too often defending guards one on one, with the opponent right in front of our guy. We don't get up close to defend three point shooters, and laying off them doesn't stop the opponent from driving around them.

tj did an appreciably better job keeping guards in front of him. remember that 30+ effort he had against the celtics when he completely emasculated
rondo? well in the last matchup, when tj missed the game, rondo did the same thing to caledron.

[RockTHECasbah]

Autobots FTW

[RockTHECasbah]

I"M HIGH RITE NOW< ECUSE ME,