Any Raptors fans out there? We just won our first game against Houston 95-88. Quality play from all the starters, including Loren Woods Maybe this year won't be that long after all Anyways if any of you are out there it would be cool to get a thread going.
Toronto may have the dumbest nickname and logo in the NBA, but they make up for it by having the ugliest uniforms.
I am guessing this thread will go about 20 messages deep the entire year unless someone just wants to post to himself the whole season! The dinosaurs are extinct my friend!
Do people really like Carter that much? To most basketball fans, Vince is willfull mediocrity personified.
He is still an interesting character because people still think he is a showstopper and a gamechanger. He actually still could be both of those adjectives if he was consistently healthy. As I have said before, Vince Carter is the Ken Griffey Jr of the NBA.
From a finacial standpoint, MLSE can't lose Carter. They don't have a player they could fall back to when needed. They'll lose tons of fans when they trade Carter.
Unlikely. Carter is not nearly as popular here as he was 2-3 years ago, and the Raptors are still drawing decent crowds to the Air Canada Centre (yesterday's crowd notwithstanding. I think the Argos playoff game played across the railyard at SkyDome may have had an effect on the Raps' crowd, which in itself is an amazing statement). Chris Bosh will end up being the real franchise player for the Raptors in the next 2 years anyways. Plus, MLSE will not willfully let a 41 game per year tenant just disappear from their building.
raptors have the best third unis and yep! their 2-0 goes to show that the right formula is working. i agree v c should move on he sucks but toronto my friends is one of the few cities that really support b-ball sellouts are a record high. mlse is doing something right. so let the bashing begin all you haters raps rule and the rest of you haters are foolz.
The season couldnt have started better! The Raps beating two solid teams without Carter carrying any special burden. Eventually they will fall back to earth, probably next week on the west coast swing - but I already cant wait for Portland tomorrow. Starting 3-0 would be amazing... I thought they'd be lucky to start 2-10 with the schedule they have early on. I've been super impressed by Bosh, and more surprisingly Rafer. I didnt think he'd play this well. Woods has also been impressive, but I'll wait 10 more games to make a judgement. Jalen is also playing well, as is Carter, although he hasn't been dominant. About the only guy playing sub-par is Donyell Marshall, but I dont expect that to continue. Whatever Sam Mitchell has been doing, keep it up For some reason, people still think that the franchise in on thin ice. This pisses me off, especially when its Americans that know nothing about Canada or Toronto just assuming that basketball hasn't taken hold and Canada can't support the NBA. Basically the same people that think international players can't keep up with the NBA and the same people that worship the stupid anchors on ESPN. Well basketball has taken hold, and I've been to games in eight different buildings around the NBA and the ACC ranks as one of the best for crowd support and noise. Any city that has Kevin O'Neill's boring style of basketball for a year and still sells out games has a devoted fan base. Really excited so far, just hoping the damn season won't fall apart like the past few years.
Raptors start the season at 3-0, defeating the Portland Jail Blazers 101-97 this afternoon. Vince finally led the way with 25 points, although this was yet another case of total team basketball. Even when they fell behind late in the fourth quarter, no one panicked, and then Vince plunged a dagger into the hearts of the Blazers with a killer three pointer with 4 seconds left. Great start, but as the cliché goes, there's still a lot of the season to be played.
i really do think this teams for real. rob babcock is a smart man and he knows the frontier of b-ball sam mitchell is a young coach but hes been around so long as an assistant that finally he probably has the potential to be a great coach. its mind over matter if you know the sport chances are you gonna succeed. grunwald had his foot up his ass by peddie so they werent seeing eye to eye. prediction raps will make the play-offs while vince is going to struggle at times and this is bosh breakout year. loren woods will be the comeback player.
Plus, Carter's drawing power will continue to go down if he keeps up the trade demand/pouting, so they'll have less to lose by trading him.
The Raps pulled it out again! What's going on? An injury or something has to be coming soon (knock on wood), because everything's going our way. I was about to throw the remote at the TV when Carter launched that three at the end, but luckly refrained. What's impressed me most is the total team effort, and the fact that the second unit of Bonner, Murray, Peterson, Palacio, and Marshall seems to be turning every game to the Raptors. It just seems the guys are having fun playing, and the total effort is there all around. Who cares if Vince is simply trying to raise his trade stock... its working. What's also impressive is the fact that every game so far one of the big players has been off and others have picked up the slack. Jalen was mediocre against Houston, Carter was against Detroit, and Bosh struggled today. Others step up though. Now this damn west coast swing. If the Raps can beat Seattle, LA Clippers, and lets say for the sake of argument Portland again, we'll be in great shape
4-1! Yes, the Raptors won again last night, this time dispatching the previously undefeated Utah Jazz in SLC. They did it without Vince Carter on the floor for the final 9 minutes.
I have a really good feeling about this season (knock on wood...). Hopefully Marshall's injury isnt too serious. Bosh looks like he's avoiding the sophmore slump. What a player.
Just know this. If the Raptors are leading in the Conference Finals and are in a position to advance to the NBA Finals, the league will assign Dick Bevetta to officiate the game and that'll be all she wrote.
It's an old joke that Dick Bevetta is a big market referee and when a big market club has been in a tough spot against a small market club, he's called in to do a hatchet job on the small market club. I think Bill Simmons wrote about this on ESPN.com, and even if he didn't, it's a view held by many basketball fans and media. I think the league would be very annoyed if the Raptors got to the Finals. I think their broadcast partners on this side of the 49th would be moreso.
Well the Raptors went on a pretty bad road trip, and are now sitting at 4-5 on the season. The big news is the possible blockbuster tradebetween the Raptors and Trail Blazers, which would send Vince Carter and Jalen Rose to Portland for Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Derek Anderson or Nick Van Exel. The thinking here is that the Raptors will be able to sign a big name free agent next summer once Shareef's contract is finished, and they may be able to sign two if they get Van Exel. Either way, (I hope) Shareef will be as good as gone by next season. The Blazers will get Carter and Rose, which may help them in the dogfight that is the Western Conference. I think wherever Vince goes, he will be rejuvenated, and Jalen Rose is playing some decent ball these days, as well as being a good leader (which Portland so desperately needs).