Bargnani"s Defence

[carlosey]

Hes a pretty good post defender. Hes figured out how to stop post players from turning around on him. The job he did on Duncan and Howard is as good as it can get.

[gamer1314]

He is a good 1-on-1 defender...but I thought this is the first time he did really well against Howard...he got 2 clean blocks(including the one he was called a foul on)... didn't really allow himself to be pushed over and dunked on

[will]

He's done a pretty good job on thus far, holding Duncan and Howard yesterday. A couple of those fouls were blatant BS calls, but he's improving.

[wlujaysfan55]

Bargs is going to be here for a real long time. People here act like BC made some huge blunder with the guy. Act like investing his his development, which is what you do with young players, was somehow a BC self interest and not a Toronto Raptors interest. I applaud BC for having the resolve not to listen to the chatter. We've got no contract issues with Andrea. We have a good player, locked up. This game, to me, highlighted a lot of the reasons for his struggles and for his resurgence. Bargs missed like 4 shots early, and Howard was scoring. I check the game thread, and posters were though with him. Under Sam, he would have went to the bench and that would have been the story. Guess what the guy, to me, has shown that he can't shoot 100% but he' hits big shots and makes a positive impact on his team winning.

We've got a decent team, with Hedo, Jack, Jose, Bargs, Derozan locked up. And so many posters act like it's a bad thing. Have you seen some of the roster's we've had here? We'll have to wait and see what happens to CB. To all those who say with out CB we'll be doomed, I say you're just making assumptions, that if Bosh goes, we lose all his points and rebounds. I think it's Bosh that needs to worry about losing his points and rebounds, if he ends up somewhere where everything is not going to be run though him and he's not afforded the "franchise" status.

I think points wise, we'd get them from other people, we'd need someone else in the front court for Defense and rebounding. If you've read the Simmons Book, and the quote in it from some of the league's great players like Isiah (hey, he was a great player) Russel and what not, you'll see their idea of the secret to basketball is when your best players do not care about stats. Despite how much of the league's set up provides incentives for players to do the opposite, it's the teams who focus more on winning that individual achievement.

Even Kobe and Lebron know. They may be great scorers, but they do not approach a game to score and rebounds and rack up as many assists as they can. They now, they didn't always, approach a game like how can we win. There's a big difference between a guy trying to score as much as he can, and get as many rebounds and assists that he can, and a guy trying to win. It's not always the same thing. I think Dwight knows the secret. His ppg could be higher than it is now, but that would not make the magic more successful. He may average less points than he's capable of but he does so with a high %.

I think stats are way overblown, I think people should rely on their impressions when watching the game. If you watch a game and feel a guy played well and helped his team, would looking at the boxscore change your mind? Or if you thought a guy did a poor job and did not help his team, would the boxscore change your mind? Did Howard play well? He has 20 and 12 right so he must have had a good game? If you feel after watching the playoffs last year that Hedo hit some big clutch shots, can anyone show you numbers that would change your mind.

Anyway, I'm done ranting. Andrea's not a traditional C, but he's a good player. And i think it's a positive thing that he signed the contract he signed, and even if every other poster here disagreed, I'd still feel that way.

awesome post.

too much over analysis of stats. the team is playing well. we got off to a somewhat rough start but we were once 11-17 and now 18-18. and our confidence is building...our chemistry is building...and our players are performing better. sit back and enjoy. otherwise, you're missing out on all the fun.

Ditto - great post. Hopefully this trend is the start of the Raptors as a team learning how to compete properly night in and night out with a focus on executing on both ends of the floor.

[barrist]

Hollinger still no likey Bargs

George (St. Pete FL)


What on earth is happening to my Magic? Three losses in a row now...

John Hollinger (12:06 PM)


Let me put something out there -- was it me or did Dwight Howard look a half-step slow out there? The turnovers, the inability to dominate Bargnani, a couple slow rotations -- most notably when Belinelli drove in from the 3-pt line for a layup and a relative nearby Howard couldn't react in time to get the block. He's still better than 90% of the league, but I don't think he's playing at least year's level.

[Kakapato]

Hollinger still no likey Bargs

George (St. Pete FL)


What on earth is happening to my Magic? Three losses in a row now...

John Hollinger (12:06 PM)


Let me put something out there -- was it me or did Dwight Howard look a half-step slow out there? The turnovers, the inability to dominate Bargnani, a couple slow rotations -- most notably when Belinelli drove in from the 3-pt line for a layup and a relative nearby Howard couldn't react in time to get the block. He's still better than 90% of the league, but I don't think he's playing at least year's level.

Hollinger is still an idiot like all the guys in ESPN (you should read what they told about Gallo pathetic american a$$holes)

[LLJ]

Well, Howard has HOF talent as proven the past 2 years. He SHOULD be dominating Bargnani, who, while improving, is nowhere near HOF level. He's not even an all-star level yet.

[TerryTate]

I've always thought he did a decent job man to man vs big centers. He's fairly bulky. He has long arms. Despite his poor rebounding he's not really afraid of contact.

Problem is the NBA doesn't have a lot of back to the basket guys for him to defend at the C positon. He is not a bad man to man low post dfender. He is a bad team defnder. He just doesn't get rotations. Maybe it comes from playing overseas. Maybe he played a lot of zone or was taught to stay in the middle (no defensive 3 seconds) but he just has no anticipation of where to be to rotate. With the NBA hand check rules even good PGs get beaten. You have to rotate a lot and he's always a step slow.

People try to complain about refs giving him ticky tack fouls but becuase he's always out of positon they can't give him calls. If you are late and its 50/50 you are not getting the benifit of the doubt.

Most of the foul calls against him have been man to man (either when he posts up, or when he gets posted up). He had an extremely clean block yesterday and got called for it, then you saw him mouth "bull" right after. You rarely see him get called on the weak side, which may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective; nonetheless, he's definitely improved on weakside help from where he was a few weeks ago. I can't tell you how many times I've felt the calls going against him have been extremely poor, most NBA players don't get called for any of those (Dwight gets away with murder in comparison).

Disagree. I imagine people were complaining about him fouling out last night but I watched that play several times and he clearly had his knee in JJ's body.

If you are in the right position you get more calls. its not rocket science.

That call I agree with actually, but the block on Howard, was just BS 2 the maxxxxx

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

Well, Howard has HOF talent as proven the past 2 years. He SHOULD be dominating Bargnani, who, while improving, is nowhere near HOF level. He's not even an all-star level yet.

I find people assign values to things that they can not really assign a value too. How do you quantify HOF talent.Is a guy who never gets in, like Pete Rose a hall of fame talent. If Robert Horry got in an virtue of his rings, is he a hall of fame talent. Is Deron Williams an all star level talent even if the west is so stacked he doesn't get in? Is Caron Butler "all star" level. I don't know how you can make an argument with such artificial metrics. If shaq and horford were injured on Bargs got chosen as back up C for the East in the allstar game, does he then become "all star level".

Either you get selected to the hall of fame, in that case you're a hall of famer, or you get selected to the All Star team, in that case you're an all star. but I don't know what "hof level" or "all star level" means and I doubt anyone does, really.

[Flamin Ochi Bad]

Bargnani struggles in help D around the post. This is also especially bad considering I'm not sure he will ever be good at that because it would mean getting in foul trouble and taking him out of the game when he is hot offensively. Man to man though, and perimeter D, he is pretty good and only getting better. His rebounding numbers are improving too, if he keeps this up, we got ourselves a real front-court and the killer B's can co-exist after-all!!!

[redjediknight]

About the expressions of this guy---

just because the camera doesn't show it, doesn't mean he doesn't show any expression.

[ferpiel]

Mi risulta che sia l'unico che difenda decentemente in questa squadra di ladroni insieme a Belinelli ( e fatevelo tradurre dall'italiano, se ci riuscite).

[MEDIC]

Question is,

Bargs' contract after close to mid season.

Bargain? Just right? Overpaid?

This season: Bargain (Just right if he was working under his new contract)

Forecast:

Next season: Just right
2 seasons from now: Bargain

[RapsBulls4evr]

Bargs FTW.

[dillio]

Well, Howard has HOF talent as proven the past 2 years. He SHOULD be dominating Bargnani, who, while improving, is nowhere near HOF level. He's not even an all-star level yet.

There's no such thing as "HOF talent". There's a "HOF career", which Dwight hasn't had yet. I understand that you're trying to say he's more than an all-star where as Bargs isn't even an all-star, but HOF is not the next logical jump from all-star. Superstar maybe. Getting into the HOF in any sport has to do with how your entire career has gone, not how much talent you have.

[Undefeated]

Bargnani struggles in help D around the post.

Bargnani did struggle in help defense around the post, but he's picking it up so I wouldn't say he's still struggling. This past month, he's doing a better job of contesting shots at the rim and blocking them from wing penetration. Not only that, but when the wing goes baseline, he cuts off penetration forcing a TO from what I've seen.