Sam Mitchell Fired in Toronto

[GuyClinch]

Rondo's better and the gap is widening before our eyes.

I didn't say that Rondo wasn't better - I said that we would have won with Calderon. I think your forgetting that Rondo has a Cadillac of a team to pass the ball too - and Calderon has - the Raptors.

Calderon's not a better scorer; he scores more because he takes more shots.

Come on now - Calderon eFG jump is .504. His efG close is .706. The guy is an excellent shooter - it's not just that he takes more shots. If anything those percentages on Toronto are pretty good cause its not like he gets wide open looks like Rondo does.

Rondo's eFG jump is .246. Now Rondo's advantage is that he can get wherever he wants on the court - and break down D. Calderon's is that he can shoot the crap out of the ball. Which is more useful? Well think of Calderon as a supercharged Eddie House. We could win with an Eddie that had great court vision and ball handling to go with his lights out shooting.

Pete

[Gant]

Their efg%s are just about even: .528 to .523.

[Shammgod_]

raptors fan here. stop generalizing.

rajon rondo is my favourite PG in the ENTIRE league. the kid is a beast. you thought allen iverson was a killer for his size? rondo is that + some. the man is insane on the court, it's like theres 5 rondo's on the court @ all times, the way he plays D.

besides... Rondo was huge in the playoffs, when everyone, including some celtics fans, doubted him. i infact knew he was going to play a major part. LA couldnt do **** w/ Rondo, he's uncontrollable.

but then again, don't know why this became a bash toronto thread. if we were given Ray Allen & KG, or on the flipside, Boston didnt buy their team, T.O. would be perennial division champions, but thats beside the point.

Calderon & Rondo are two completely different players in all aspects, it's asinine to compare them, or have the ability to say one is better then the other, when you can only compare skillsets, and both have clear advantages over the other.

[Gant]

raptors fan here. stop generalizing.

rajon rondo is my favourite PG in the ENTIRE league. the kid is a beast. you thought allen iverson was a killer for his size? rondo is that + some. the man is insane on the court, it's like theres 5 rondo's on the court @ all times, the way he plays D.

besides... Rondo was huge in the playoffs, when everyone, including some celtics fans, doubted him. i infact knew he was going to play a major part. LA couldnt do **** w/ Rondo, he's uncontrollable.

but then again, don't know why this became a bash toronto thread. if we were given Ray Allen & KG, or on the flipside, Boston didnt buy their team, T.O. would be perennial division champions, but thats beside the point.

Calderon & Rondo are two completely different players in all aspects, it's asinine to compare them, or have the ability to say one is better then the other, when you can only compare skillsets, and both have clear advantages over the other.

\

Why? It's no different than comparing TJ Ford and Calderon, which the Raptors management did.

[Shammgod_]

Ford was all offense, just in a smaller body compared to JC. Ford has argueably even less defense then Calderon. Rondo, thats his mainstay.

Ford couldnt really shoot at all, like Rajon, but he had almost zero effectiveness on the Defensive side of the court.

Calderon is all offense, he's one of the only players other then John Stockton to finish a season w/ 50, 40, 90 % wise. He completely owned the rest of the league, including backups w/ his assist/to ratio. He's a deadeye shooter, & a pretty good hustler, just lacks nescessary natural skill to be the defender Rondo is

Rajon on the other hand, still pretty raw, amazing speed, quickness & strength for his size. Rediculous wingspan, still has lapses on offense, but becoming less & less each game. Rajon needs to work on his jumper & FT shooting, other then that, he's a beast. best PG in the east is a 3-way race between Harris/Rondo/Calderon, when jose heals completely from that hammy.

i just think its hard to compare Rondo who is playing w/ talent like KG, PP & Ray to Calderon, who by all boston fans accounts has Nobody to play w/ outside of Bosh.

however thats not to say Rajon will not become better, he's got HUGE upside & potential, because i think he can become one of the most impactful PG's in the entire league, he's much younger & has all the natural talent in the world to succeed. Jose was considered one of the worst backup PG's in the league coming in as a rookie, yet with his work ethic, worked himself up to being talked about as an Eastern All-Star last season, w/ minimal minutes.

in summation, i don't think it was comparing Ford/Calderon, it was just choosing the more steady, team-first type PG to lead our squad. Ford is like Rondo minus the defence + a more 1 on 1 mentality on offense, w/ a slightly, very slightly, better jumpshot.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

raptors fan here. stop generalizing.

Sorry, but if one of your guys is going to come in here and generalize us, then yeah, expect the same back. And really, it's quite difficult to forget the post from last year on the Raps forum regarding Mike Breen's Atlantic Division predictions, where everyone other than the Hater and Jaymeister said that the Raps would oust the Cs for the Division title because of incredible Toronto bench.

but then again, don't know why this became a bash toronto thread. if we were given Ray Allen & KG, or on the flipside, Boston didnt buy their team, T.O. would be perennial division champions, but thats beside the point.

How does one buy an NBA team exactly? This isn't baseball. Please elaborate. I'd love to hear your opinion on this.

[quote=southeasy"]Calderon & Rondo are two completely different players in all aspects, it's asinine to compare them, or have the ability to say one is better then the other, when you can only compare skillsets, and both have clear advantages over the other.[/quote]

Ah, finally, something we can both agree on. This was the point I was trying to make in my first reply to Shoon. Good stuff dude.

[Shammgod_]

the "buy your team" comment was more off base, then i'd like it to be. thats just my negativety bleeding through. it's in reference to trading 3/4 of your team & draft picks in 1 offseason for two future hall-of-famers & going on to win the champsion almost instantly, instead of building your team from ground up through draft picks, FA signings & development of current players.

on the flipside, i won't be bias, Ainge had the balls to make those moves, big risk, big moves, but its sad to see everyone quit on the team the year before, even Pierce, just to win the championship over night & get bold, possibly even arrogant again.

[GuyClinch]

^^^ They did build the team through draft picks - they just traded those picks for all-stars. I'd also point out that Perkins, Rondo and Pierce all home grown guys and pretty good ones (especially Pierce and Rondo).

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

the "buy your team" comment was more off base, then i'd like it to be. thats just my negativety bleeding through. it's in reference to trading 3/4 of your team & draft picks in 1 offseason for two future hall-of-famers & going on to win the champsion almost instantly, instead of building your team from ground up through draft picks, FA signings & development of current players.

Alright, so let's see who Boston traded last year for the 2 HOFers:

Ray Allen and Glen Davis for Jeff Green, Delonte West, and Wally Szczerbiak

- Delonte West was acquired in the 2004 NBA Draft (24th pick)
- Wally was acquired via the Ricky Davis trade (whom Ainge had traded Eric Williams, Tony Battie and Kedrick Brown for)
- The Cs got the 5th pick after a miserable season. Did they tank? Sure they did. But was it their plan to tank their season from the start? Definitely not. Paul Pierce went down with a stress fracture in his foot, followed by Tony Allen going down with an ACL. Before Pierce went down, the Cs were at around .500, very much in playoff contention. But by the time he came back, the Cs were out of the playoffs. When you have a chance at Oden/Durant, would you really want your star player to come back and play meaningless games, and risk a chance at re-injuring himself.

KG for Theo Ratliff, Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, and 2 1st round picks:
- Al Jefferson was drafted by the Cs with the 15th pick in 2004. (You guys drafted Araujo that year with an earlier pick, while the Cavs drafted Dejaun Wagner).
- Ryan Gomes was drafted with the 50th (!!!) pick in 2005.
- Gerald Green was drafted with the 18th pick in 2005.
- Telfair was acquired through a trade in 2006, that sent him and Theo's huge expiring contract, for what would turn out to be Brandon Roy and Raef Lafrentz.

You can't just trade away young players for talent. The players that you trade away have to show potential for them to at least become tradeable commodities. If trading young players was all it required to become a contender, how come no one else has done it? Wouldn't the Clippers have won a title by now? They've been in the lottery for years. Same thing with the Hawks, Grizzlies, Bucks, etc.