{"id":1719,"date":"2007-10-28T14:09:39","date_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/toronto-raptors\/"},"modified":"2007-10-28T14:15:30","modified_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:15:30","slug":"toronto-raptors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/toronto-raptors","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record<\/strong>
\n40-42 (Tom), 44-38 (GR)<\/p>\n

Last Year’s Record<\/strong>
\n47-35<\/p>\n

Sam Ricchezza’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nWell, well, well. The Raps went from dirt to first last year (okay, it’s only the Atlantic) aided primarily by the magic, force and will of Bryan Colangelo. So they lost to the Nets in the 1st round, who cares? I STILL hate Vince Carter and he can burn in hell, but life is now good. As Sports Guy puts it, it doesn’t matter how far your team goes in the playoffs, it’s the fact that it’s enjoyable to watch them play an entire season and they are RELEVANT! (The Celts have that to look forward to this year if Doc Rivers doesn’t screw it up.)<\/p>\n

You can’t help but like the team that Colangelo is constructing (the key word here is TEAM). I wasn’t sold on Sam Mitchell as a coach but he sure as heck got them to perform as a team — or was that also Colangelo? They moved the ball real well last year and overcame their deficiencies with this play. It was great to watch. This year, with the added depth, so they’ll continue to be a force. So, while most are predicting greatness for the Celts with the holy trinity of Allen, Garnett and Pierce (guess what? they still don’t have a point guard) and while the Nets still have JKidd (I love this guy!) the Raps are still one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. They have kept up with the Jonses (er, the Ainges?). No doubt, Colangelo was handed lemons when he inherited the team, but he’s turned it into lemonade.<\/p>\n

The key will be how the FNG’s are assimilated into the Borg Collective, er team, how well Bargnani continues to develop, and how well Bosh avoids injury.<\/p>\n

I still think they can win 50 games this year and make a run at the playoffs, but really, who cares? People are talking about them already, so that means they’re RELEVANT! Like last year, I can look forward to actually watching and enjoying their games, instead of the years past, keeping that gas can nearby and wondering during each game when I should light myself on fire.<\/p>\n

Rejoinder From Tom<\/strong>
\nTJ Ford and Chris Bosh are limited players who get too much time given the glaring weaknesses in their game; Bosh has been so overmatched in International competition that “Tyson Chandler, Olympian” is now a serious possibility. They’ll be all right in the long run, the program’s effective and they’ll find a coach. This year should be a tough one.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Comics Connection<\/strong>
\nWhen in Toronto, visit one of the world’s finest comics shops, The Beguiling.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Pharma Connection<\/strong>
\nThere are a bunch of pharmaceutical contract manufacturers and analytical labs right outside Toronto. Sam works at one of them.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong>
\nIt’s Garbajosa time, baby! They’re not going to sneak up on anyone this time around, and I think they’ll be duking it out with NJ for one of the bottom playoff spots. –GR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record 40-42 (Tom), 44-38 (GR) Last Year’s Record 47-35 Sam Ricchezza’s Commentary Well, well, well. The Raps went from dirt to first last year (okay, it’s only the Atlantic) aided primarily by the magic, force and will of Bryan Colangelo. So they lost to the Nets in the 1st round, who cares? I STILL … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Toronto Raptors”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1713,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"nba0708index.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1719","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4C7K-rJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1746,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/dallas-mavericks","url_meta":{"origin":1719,"position":0},"title":"Dallas Mavericks","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 58-24 (Tom), 62-20 (Gil), 59-23 (Justin Ozuna) Last Year's Record 67-15 Tom's Commentary Devin Harris enters 2007-2008 with a lot of money in the bank and just having had his ass kicked by a fat cripple (Baron Davis in last year\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcs playoffs). Trust someone who knows: this is\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1181,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1719,"position":1},"title":"NBA Preview 2006-2007","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the Juggernaut, bitch! ATLANTIC Boston Celtics by Tom Spurgeon New Jersey Nets by Gil Roth New York Knicks by Gil Roth Philadelphia 76ers by Adam Taxin Toronto Raptors by Sam Richezza CENTRAL Chicago Bulls by Tom Spurgeon Cleveland Cavaliers by Tom Spurgeon Detroit Pistons by Tom Spurgeon Indiana Pacers\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1718,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/philadelphia-76ers","url_meta":{"origin":1719,"position":2},"title":"Philadelphia 76ers","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 28-54 (Tom), 24-58 (GR) Last Year's Record 35-47 Morris Levin's Commentary There must be a way to write about these 2007-2008 76ers without mentioning Allen Iverson. After all, it has been more than 10 months since the team traded him to Denver and fans stopped coming to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1721,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/charlotte-bobcats","url_meta":{"origin":1719,"position":3},"title":"Charlotte Bobcats","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 28-54 (Tom), 38-44 (Gil) Last Year's Record 33-49 Gil's Commentary Michael Jordan took over as GM last year and drafted \"the safe pick\" in Adam Morrison. Of course, he was terrible. Jordan's an awful talent-evaluator, as he showed in his tenure at Washington. I think the draft-day trade\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1727,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/portland-trailblazers","url_meta":{"origin":1719,"position":4},"title":"Portland Trailblazers","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 42-40 (Tom), 30-52 (Gil) Last Year's Record 32-50 Tom's Commentary I like predicting sports outcomes on the basis of how I envision future storylines rather than, well, logic, and I see two major storylines looming for this Portland squad: 1) the team banding together in the face of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1748,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/memphis-grizzlies","url_meta":{"origin":1719,"position":5},"title":"Memphis Grizzlies","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 25-57 (Tom), 32-50 (GR) Last Year's Record 22-60 Tom's Commentary Jerry West's era of building a team of support players for some fantasy 7'2'' 30\/15 mega-star that seemingly only played for the team in Jerry West's mind has ended with the Grizzlies giving Marc Iavaroni a chance to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1719\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}