This article is also posted at hoops4life.com, an NBA fan site.
The NBA's sole Canadian team is facing a big challenge this season: advance through the NBA Playoffs. The Raptors has shown huge improvement over the previous two seasons, but they have struggled in the postseason.
In the 2006-07 postseason, after clinching the Atlantic division title and getting the home court advantage for the first round, the Nets held them off in six games.
Last year, Orlando Magic defeated them in the first round after five games as well, despite different results throughout the regular season.
In 2007, they won 47 games in the regular season, but their lack of Playoff experience and key injuries such as Jorge Garbajosa’s, prevented them advancing in the postseason.
In 2008, things didn't go so well. They had an irregular performance during the regular season, and they won seven fewer games than the year before.
After this step back, the front office has made many key decisions. They placed trust in Sam Mitchell again, solved their point guard dilemma, selecting Spaniard Jose Calderon as full-time starter, and sent T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic to Indiana in exchange for All-Star forward, Jermaine O’Neal.
It is a risky move, but sometimes, you have to take risks in order to step forward. O’Neal has had health problems during the previous seasons, and he has missed 122 games in the last four years.
However, if he stays healthy, he is one of the best inside players in the league. He is a five-time All-Star, and he has had back to back 20+ppg and 10+rpg seasons. He is also a big intimidator—considered one of the best blockers in the league.
At Toronto, he will play the center position, letting Chris Bosh, the team's best player , play the power forward spot. In my opinion, if O’Neal stays healthy, he will be a difference maker, and this tandem will be the best in the Eastern Conference.
We shouldn’t expect a tremendous season from O’Neal. He won’t be the same as his early years in the League; nevertheless, he will be a key part of this team success. His presence will take pressure off Bosh’s shoulders. He will have more freedom, and he could focus on his offensive talents. O’Neal will grab many rebounds, be a defensive power and put about fourteen points on the board.
It’s obvious that O’Neal’s presence will be great for Bosh; but not only for him. Jason Kapono and Jose Calderon will have open jumpers from the perimeter because of the double teams in the low post. Kapono and Calderon are smart shooters.
While O’Neal’s move is a risky one, Calderon’s is quite safe. As I wrote in a previous column, the Spanish point guard is the real deal, and with more talent around him he will be an All-Star. He has an outstanding basketball IQ and will bring smart choices with the ball on ever possession.
Jamarrio Moon will play at small forward, and Anthony Parker will share the backcourt with Calderon. These two players will provide aggressiveness and rebounding support as well as scoring.
Coming off the bench will be Andrea Bargnani, former first overall pick of 2006 NBA draft. He has to have a breakout year, and support his team as a role player. People should forget the background and expect a new role for this player.
Some other unproven players complete the rosters. Backing up Calderon will be European rookie Roko Ukic. He played with TAU Vitoria, along with players like Andres Nocioni, Luis Scola, Francisco Oberto, and Calderon. He has outstanding athletic abilities and plays the game at a break-neck pace, tools that will help as the second point guard, and at times, shooting guard.
These are their weapons—are they good enough?
They can be at least.
They are a solid and more experienced team than in 2007.
In my opinion, Chris Bosh is the leader of this team, and he has to build the momentum which will guide them to the second round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.
14 comments Last one added 8 months ago — Leave a Comment
Caelan B 10 months ago
how good are they? how good are they?!! HOW GOOD ARE THEY?!!!! HOW FUCKING GOOD ARE THEY?.................quite good
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Steve Wagner 10 months ago
First off, to fix a mistake, the Magic beat the Raptors in 5 games, not 6 games. Next, how good are they? Well, they improved with O'Neal, but lost a lot of depth on their bench. Plus everyone knows that O'Neal has a big problem with being healthy.
I say that they make the playoffs again as a 5 or below seed and again lose in the first round.
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Caelan B 10 months ago
k steve can u tell me who would make it above the raptors? please tell me ur top 5 seeds of 08/09 and if colangealo knew oneal wasent healthy he would of not aqquirred him colangealo is probley the best gm in the league considering hes 3 time exuctive of the year
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Lucas Leung 9 months ago
lol...HE did say 5 games for orlando magic..check again buddy!
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Inaki Angulo 10 months ago
Good point Steve.
Thanks for reporting the mistake. I've already edit it.
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John Nicholson 10 months ago
Everyone questions Raptors lack of deph as a large problem.
Gone from last year Ford, missed 30 games and was a negative impact on returning.
Garbajosa played 7 innefective games last year.
Martin, useless as a back-up PG and Dixon ditto, and too small as a SG, defender.
Delfino will be missed, but only effective half the time.
Baston, bench warmer, not missed.
Rasho, O'neal is a large upgrade on offense, defense & rebounding.
This is the all famous depth that is missing, are you kidding ???
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Cheeky Monkey 10 months ago
Did we forget to mention the real Raptors shooting guard, Anthony Parker? Averaging 12.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.0 steals, 32.1 minutes, 0.439 from three point territory and starting 82 games he qualifies as the second best player on the team. The team can jockey for second best in the east if O'Neal performs. Celtics hold the number one spot. They are potentially playoff bound.
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Steve Wagner 10 months ago
I'm sorry, didn't know there was replies until now. My top 5 seeds as of right now:
1. Celtics
2. Magic
3. Sixers
4. Cavs
5. Raptors
Don't forget about the Bulls and Wizards who could be up there also.
Colangealo is a good GM. But he still has a lot of work to get this team to compete. O'Neal is a nice piece, if you want an oft-injured, soft center. Parker is not bad, but he's definitely not going to save the day. I think Bosh is a great player, but I think we all watched what Howard did to him. O'Neal can help on defense, except that he's broken now and Howard will blow right by him also.
Regarding John's post, the Raptors did get rid of a bunch of useless players, but who did they replace them with? Rasho and O'Neal are both big men, which is good, except that the Raptors have no depth at the 1 to 3 spots. Last year everyone was saying that the Celtics have no depth, but they were in much better shape than the Raptors are this year.
That said, with the East so weak and with Bosh, if they don't get the 5th seed, then I will be shocked. Bosh is still the best big man after Garnett, Howard and Brand in the East and I think he might be as good as Brand. After those 4, the quality of big men really drop off in the East.
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Caelan B 10 months ago
im getting pretty pissed off of people predicting the sixers of being too high i mean do you really think they will make it past the stacked cavs i know cavs havent had the greastest records but still they put there team together half way through a season i think theres too much hype for the sixers even tho they got brand. the cavs have big z and ben who will create out side shots for people like wally z and gibson and james at times which is the same with the raptors jermaine and bosh will create outside shots for alot of guys on the raps parker,kapono,jose and solomon isent a bad outside shooter either if the sixers can add some shooters to come off the bench or even a starting sf who can shoot
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Aaron Neely 10 months ago
I think its hilarious how everyone says that J Oneal is not healthy enough but then they jump to say that Philly with Elton Brand (he was healthy for like 8 games wasn't he?) and a team that arguably cannot say that any other starter would start on any other team. And the Cavs are going to be just as good as any other year! Ben Wallace is hardly an upgrade...
Safe to say that the Toronto Raptors have the best bench in the Eastern Conference and have the best power forward. We couldn't guard Dwight Howard and Bosh couldn't beat him, but now J Oneal will be that guy and Bosh will be going after Turkoglu... Last time I checked thats what we call a mis match.
Raptors have what it takes to challenge for the division crown.
Lets also look at the fact that the Eastern Conference is much better and Boston will not be able to blow out games and rely on a rested trio, its going to be much more similar to the west where everyone is going to need a bench.
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Steve Wagner 10 months ago
Aaron, you forgot about Rashard Lewis. Who's going to guard him?
Caelin, The Cav's did not get any better this offseason and pretty much every other team in the east did. I would not be surprised if they get the 5th seed and Toronto was the 4th seed.
The sixers gave teams fits before without Brand. They're now going to be really good.
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Jeff Axel 10 months ago
As long as Jermaine o'neal can stay healthy they can be a pretty good team
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Robert Seagal 9 months ago
Wow- okay lets start by fixing a few things. I disagree with your point about O'Neal being able to focus more than before on his offense. I think this season will be a big defensive one for him where he could actually take some hardware home if he does a good job. I doubt that the coaching staff is as good as it could be for him to maximize on his defensive abilities but with his reconstructed body and the time he's put in this offseason, I could really see him being this team's best and most important player overall. Allow me to elaborate on that point. Between Bosh, and Calderon you have two of the worst 1-4 man-to-man defensive combos. They require a ton of help and sadly are beaten off the dribble by just about everyone and anyone. With Bosh, it's even worse given that he's a slight-built big man who also suffers in the area of post-defense. Given his team mate's defensive woes, Jermaine might have a few 8 block nights this season. Parker and Kapono (should he be a starter) are also pretty poor defenders. O'Neal averaged (when healthy) a decent number of blocks with Artest on his team. With this group of pansies, you might be looking at 2.6+ blocks per night if he is truly healthy and mobile.
Secondly, Ukic never played with Nocioni, or Calderon... where are you getting this from? Ukic played with Tau for one season.. :S and neither of those players were in Europe when he was there.. he was playing for KK Split when those two players played in Spain.
Finally- I applaud your overall article although I may seem critical. I hope we have a great season. I seriously have my doubts about Bosh. However, his usual October/November woes will be avoided as for once he'll already be in game shape going into opening night- which has it's pluses and minus's. Bosh has shown that he peaks somewhere around the Winter break (usually before the All-star break) and for some reason has routinely missed about a month or so every season with nagging injuries. Sam better keep those minutes down if he hopes for a healthy Bosh and this could be an excuse to give Andrea a few minutes at his natural position.
I think this season's overall success will be based on 3 things.
1. The health of O'Neal- he becomes a big big big expiring piece after this season. If that expiring contract is made even more attractive by his being healthy and productive and possibly back to all-star form, the Raptors could charge a HUGE fee in exchange for his services. Just a season ago there was talk of Lamar Odom, Jordan Farmar + Sasha Vujacic for O'Neal... this is when he had 3 years and 70 Million left on the contract and was unhealthy. He's still young enough that the Raptors could swing a deal to get an allstar wing with a longer contract +fillers for his services next off-season...
2. Progress and maturation of Andrea Bargnani- the only way you can really move O'Neal after this season is if Andrea is ready to step in as a 36 minutes a night guy and be a bigman. If he has another off year, it might be a different situation where he's the one being shopped for a wing.
3. Getting out of round 1- this is probably not going to happen considering the competition in the East this season- but there could be some luck. Against Cleveland, Detroit, and Boston this seems unlikely. Against Philli or Orlando, this seems difficult.. so the only way to avoid a repeat of the last 2 years is to get a high seeding and face a lesser team.
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Justin Andrews 8 months ago
Raptors > Philly
Saying that Orlando is better than Toronto because "we saw what Howard did to Bosh". Bosh isn't a centre and even in these preseason games you have Bosh taking the jumpballs. I agree we need Andrea to have a good season or else this team won't be going anywhere. I hoped they would have picked up Magette then i think the team would be better because the guy who said we need an all star caliber 2 is right almost every team in the league has one. Getting rid of TJ Ford was definitely a plus yeah he has skills but his personality does not fit the needs of this team. Too many times I was watching a Raps game and TJ was making dumb careless plays trying to be the hero,good luck to him on his new team. I think this team is all hype right now and if everything works out as planned they could be easily 45+ wins,which would probably be top 4 seed in the East.
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