Northern Exposure: Enough With the Speculative Raptors Coverage

This is not me pleading for some respect.  Nor am I asking for Toronto to become a front page news story in the American media.  Only winning—and a million Bosh trade scenarios—will gain the Raptors any pub south of the 49th Parallel.  All I ask is that people get the facts straight before making bold statements regarding this team and its players. 

Listening to BS reporting last week sort of pushed me over the edge.  I am tired of listening to reporters south of the border making bold statements based on what they believe to be true, and not on the facts.  The statement made by Simmons was "Bargnani is listed as the Center and Bosh is listed as the forward, but if you watch them Bosh is the Center.  He's the guy who protects the rim and Bargnani can't rebound and he doesn't block shots, he's a power forward." 

I will agree with Simmons that Bargnani is not a strong rebounder, but claiming he doesn't block shots and that Bosh protects the rim is something I found quite puzzling.  A simple look at the numbers shows that Bargnani blocks more shots (1.4 per game and 57 total) than Bosh does (1.1 per game, 45 total).  Not to mention anyone who has watched the Raptors play on a regular basis throughout the season would see that Bosh's matador style-defense does not fit the profile of a guy who "protects the rim."  

Truth is Bosh does so much for the team from an offensive and leadership role that people tend to overlook that fact that he is a very suspect defender who gives up a lot of blow bys and rarely challenges even smaller players at the rim.

While Andrea gets lost on help defense, his man defense is actually quite good.  Let's not forget it was he, and not Bosh, who was given the job of guarding Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan in recent games.  Anyone who has seen him crouch down into his stance when caught out on a switch against smaller players will notice that his defense is the area of his game that has improved the most this season. 

Truth is neither player is a game changer on the defensive end, but when needing to guard players like Shaq, Howard, and Duncan, the Raptors look to their 7-foot center Bargnani to provide the resistance, not their 6'10" power forward Bosh. 

Perhaps if people would watch a game rather than reading the box score, they would pick up on these small facts.