There are high hopes (and expectations) for the 2009-2010 Toronto Raptors. Big changes in the off-season featuring major signings and trades, as well a big contract extension for Andrea Bargnani.

New players include: Hedo Turkoglu, Reggie Evans, Jarrett Jack, Marco Belinelli, Amir Johnson, Rasho Nesterovic (returning), Antoine Wright, Sonny Weems, and first round draft pick DeMar DeRozan. Little-used last season pick ups Quincy Douby, Marcus Banks, Patrick O'Bryant round out the roster.

Only Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani remain of the regulars from last season. Those three are projected to start with veteran Turkoglu and rookie DeRozan. The second unit and bench will be pretty much all new players (although Rasho had been a Raptor previously, and O'Bryant, Douby and Banks got a handful of minutes last season).

How well all these new players will gel remains to be seen. I'm going to the first home pre-season game this Wednesday (vs. Sixers) to check it out.

Some training camp intra-squad action.

Let's go Raptors!

Two pre-season games, two losses to the Sixers. In early action I've been impressed with Sonny Weems (who I had never heard of). Very athletic. Amir Johnson has also looked good. And Reggie Evans has stunned the Raptor crowd: a man who knows how to grab a rebound--shock! A skill unseen in Raptor-land in years.

The expanded west side of the ACC has a video screen on the exterior, some new concessions (Burkie's Dog House for deluxe hot dogs), a new bar area, and a new studio area for Raptors TV.

Some pics I took tonight (exterior, shoot around, opening tip):


Oh, and those new refs. Yikes, do they like blowing the whistle or what? These first two Raptor-Sixer games, I've never seen so many fouls called.

Just found this video of 3 Sonny Weems dunks from tonight. Last night he had a wicked ally oop dunk. Man can play above the rim.

The Toronto Raptors start their season tomorrow night at home vs. the Cavs (who will hopefully be tired from tonight's game vs. Celtics). I will be at the game in my Jose Calderon jersey. Ole, ole!

The Raptors start the 09-10 season with a big 101-91 win over the listless Cavs. LeBron's triple double and some questionable calls by the refs could not overcome the Raptor attack, led by Andrea Bargnani's game-high 28 points (in 30 minutes and 11-15 shooting), Chris Bosh's 16 rebounds and Jose Calderon's 11 assists.

The Raptor wants noise

Hey Mark:
I watched the game last night - and yes I know it is only one game - but WOW - that was impressive! Bargnani looked like a #1 draft pick with his awesome 28 point performance. Bosh looked more agressive and clearly the 15lbs of muscle he added makes a difference - as he pulled down 16 rebounds to go along with his 21 points. And EVERYBODY else contributed significantly throughout to help with the win.

I have to admit after jumping out to a lead as large as 21 points in the second quarter and watching as that lead totally disappeared during the third quarter I was thinking - Oh no - just like last year. But then late in the third quarter this team did something last year's team never seemed capable of doing - they showed they have some pride - have a backbone and they fought back! They cranked it back up again and stopped the Cavs in their tracks. If not for some RIDICULOUS calls by the refs that kept the Cavs close in the 4th - the Raps would have run away and blown the Cavs out. Good to see the crowd SO AMPED and it was quite the scene with about a minute to go when Calderon scored and got fouled by Lebron to seal the game. That is certainly as loud as the ACC has been in quite some time.

And one of the most promising stats of last night is that the Raps held Cleveland to under 35% from the field with some really tough 'd'. Everybody said - sure the Raps will score - but they would have a hard time stopping others from scoring. Maybe - just maybe - the defence this team plays might surprise some people.

Now I'm REALLY looking forward to going to the game this Sunday with Vince returning to the ACC for the first time with the Magic.

(Gee can you tell I'm desparate for at least one Toronto team to be good - getting so excited after just one game. But can you blame me - Leafs only 1 win in 10 games to start the season. The Argos only 4 wins all year, the Jays were amongst the worst teams in baseball from about the middle of May on, and our soccer team managed to lose their last regualar season game - getting slaughtered 5-0 to New York - the worst team in the MLS - causing them to miss the playoffs yet again.)

So PLEASE - Let's Go Raptors!

Well, it's nice to see that the Raptors are back to their old defensive tricks. Friday night they surrendered 115 points to Memphis, a team that had scored just 74 points in their previous game (vs. Detroit). This afternoon they allow Orlando (minus Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus) to score 125 points.

In their 1-2 start, Chris Bosh has averaged 31 points and 14.7 rebounds, Andrea Bargnani has averaged 22 points and 5 rebounds.

Last season Jose Calderon set an NBA record from the free throw line, going 151-154 (98.1%). Only 3 missed free throws the entire season! In 3 games this season, he's already missed 4 free throws (9-13).

Jose receiving free throw award from Bryan Colangelo before the start of the season opener on Wednesday:

Yup - the first half in particular was brutal - just like so many games last year. They did pull to within 6 a few times in the 4th - and with about 4 minutes left got to within 4 - but it always seemed the Raps would miss the next 3-4 times down the court and Orlando would nail one of their many 3's. They ended up with 17 of those - that's 51 points!

The Raptors seemed to have ignored their supposed push for better defense, but no matter, as the offense is getting the job done. With tonight's 107-90 victory in New Orleans, in which they made 14 treys, they go to 3-2. The Raps have scored over 100 points in all 5 games this season.

Raps have re-acquired Pops Mensah-Bonsu off waivers from Houston. Yay! Pops is a high energy player who can come off the bench and grab some rebounds.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Sorry - I haven't woken up since leaving the Raps/T-Wolves game at halftime last night. Talk about a snoozefest. I wasn't planning on going to the game but got a last minute invite from a frend who had someone cancel on him at the last minute. It was Hedo Turkoglu Bobblehead giveaway night with the doll and the team wearing Toronto Huskies uniforms. The Huskies played the first NBA game ever at Maple Leaf Gardens against the New York Knickerbockers back in 1946.

As an aside there are many people in Toronto who think the Raptors - should change their names to the Huskies - and I sort of like that idea. I've always thought the Raptors were a stupid name that we ended up with simply because dinosaurs were big at the time in 1993 because of the movie Jurassic Park out at that time.
http://torontohuskies.org/

Anyways back to last night. They were supposedly giving away 10,000 of the dolls - but I suspect they may have some leftover today since many did not take a doll when entering and there were probably fewer than 11,000 people actually at the ACC - even though they announced attendance as 15,167. Who knows maybe there is a toy drive in the city getting a big donation this morning. lol

So with up to 8,000 empty seats in the place there was zero atmosphere and then both teams went on to lay an egg playing a brutal first half. Uncontested jumper - clank, layup - clank, three pointers - clank clank clank clank clank clank clank clank clank clank. Yup - that's right 0 for 10 from 3 point range for the Raps in the first half. Both teams combined for 32% from the field in the first half. It was ugly. And anytime a team scored on two or three consecutive trips down the court and seemed to be getting into any kind of flow - the other team would call a time out - and our collective snoring could start again.

So - since neither of us were really into the game I did not disagree when my friend suggested we leave at halftime - along with a couple of hundred others it looked like judging by how many people I noticed carrying Bobblehead doll boxes on the subway. It truly was brutal to watch. I actually chuckled when I got home and thought thank goodness we left - when I turned on the TV and it was late in the third quarter and the first words I heard from the play by play announcer Matt Devlin was 'and that is the Raptors tenth straight miss and they've gone almost 5 minutes without a field goal now'.

In the end the Raps did win - their third in a row 94-88 - but my what a snoozefest. Raps 26 of 81 from the field and 2 of 21 from 3 point range and T-Wolves 33 of 89 and 3 of 16 from 3 point land.

OK - after losses by 20 and 19 the last two nights in Florida it is clear this experiment just ain't working out Colangelo.

Sure we have more talented players than we had last year - but as a team - they suck! I'm not sure even the worst Raptor teams had so many pathetic efforts. Some of the margins this team have lost by this season are just pathetic. They've lost games by 28, 18, 35, 19, 31, 22, 22, 20 and 19 and there have been 3-4 other losses where they were down in the high teens or 20 or more points in the 4th quarter and only made the losing margin more respectable in the dying minutes - never really in the game. I don't think they've had more than 3 or 4 half interesting games to watch all season long so far. Simply pathetic!

After some humiliating losses, the Raptors have shown some pride and have now won 4 in a row (admittedly, against sub-.500 teams). They are now 15-17, with only 1 game left before the new year-- a home game vs. Charlotte. 2010, though, will start tough with Boston, San Antonio and Orlando.

Chris Bosh, meanwhile, is distracting himself with promoting his new DVD documentary about... himself: First Ink.

Last night, Chris Bosh passed Vince Carter to become the Raptors' all time scoring leader.

Now they can re-release the DVD documentary with that updated information.

Just noticed some more Raptors are getting their own website or getting on Twitter. In addition to Bosh and Calderon, there's:

Marco Belinelli website
Marco Belinelli twitter
Andrea Bargnani website
Andrea Bargnani twitter
Hedo Turkoglu website
DeMar DeRozan twitter
Sonny Weems twitter
Reggie Evans twitter

Hey Canmark - I know I'll regret this because anytime I post anything good about the Raptors here invariably they go down the tubes - lol - but guess which team has the second best record in the NBA since December 18?

That's right - the Raps at 18-6. Only Lebron and the Cavs have been better.

I keep seeing these Raptors ads, "Purchase your seasons seats and guarantee access to the playoffs," yet the team is quickly putting themselves out of playoff contention. They've fallen from the 5th spot to the 8th spot, and now sport a .500 record. They have only 1 more win than 9th place Chicago. They have a miserable 10-22 road record. While they're the 4th highest scoring team in the league at 104.1 ppg, they are giving up 105.8 ppg with their porous defense. Remaining schedule includes 9 home and 9 away games.

You mean it's actually going to take a .500 record to make the playoffs in the East this year? That's downright cutthroat.

Also, you have bear in mind that the Bulls, already milking an 8 game losing streak, are going to lose every single one of their remaining games this season (lottery here we come!). You guys can't miss.

Desperately needed win tonight for the Raptors to get back to .500 and end a 5 game losing streak. While it looked bleak at times, the Raps managed a 106-105 win at home over the Hawks. Next game: Friday at home vs. OK City.

So I hear that Turkoglu is "out with a stomach virus" and has been seen partying around town. Is that sound I hear Chris Bosh buckling his suit case as he heads to another city?

Well, Turkoglu and DeRozan have been demoted to the second unit and Antoine Wright and Sonny Weems have moved up to starters. As well, Jose Calderon has moved back to the starting point guard position, with Jarrett Jack coming off the bench.

The Raps returned to .500 tonight with a home win over the Clips. They are now 2 games behind #7 Charlotte and 2 games ahead of #9 Chicago.

We're choking! Bosh missing a lay-up at the buzzer in our latest debacle. 9th place - here we come!

And now no Bosh - broken bone in his face after an elbow to the face in last night's Cavs game. Has Bosh played his last game as a Raptor?

Raps are now in 9th place. With the Bulls needing overtime to beat the Nets and the Raptors' fourth straight loss, the playoffs are looking dim. Their next game, though, will be against Chicago. Win, and they're even again (with the Raps owning the tie-breaker), lose and they're down 2 with 2 games remaining (ie. toast).

Correction: I had checked the scores on the Internet and thought that Chicago beat New Jersey in OT, but, in fact, the Nets actually beat the Bulls in double OT. Bulls and Raps still tied.

Now the Raptors have officially fallen out of a playoff spot, losing by 16 points on their home court to the Bulls. With 2 games remaining, they have to win and hope Chicago loses. The team was booed off the court by their home fans. Who do they think they are, the Leafs? Boooooo!

It comes down to the last game of the season. Raptors must beat Knicks and Bulls must lose to Bobcats for the Raptors to make the playoffs. Else, they finished 9th, the worst place to be: no playoffs, and not a good lottery pick. I'm going to the Raptors-Knicks game--likely a huge disappointing mistake.

Do you really want to see your Raptors get crushed 4 games in a row by Cleveland? If it were me, I'd be rooting for the lottery pick. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky.

Wow - the collapse is complete. Second best record in basketball for a 7 week stretch through December and January. Comfortably in at number 5 with talk of a decent shot at # 4 in the conference until the All Star Break. Since then though - nada!

I remember at one point on the ESPN 'Odds of Making the Playoffs' rankings they were up at 92%. It really took some doing to miss the playoffs. Very disappointing.

Well at least the Raptors are in the lottery. Their hockey cousins the Leafs with the second worst record in all of hockey this year had traded their draft pick away to the Bruins to get Kessel - and now are going to watch the Bruins pick a future star with their # 2 pick.

Who knows what will happen with the Raptors. They had 9 new players this year and at times showed great potential - but such a collapse down the end has me wondering - will Triano be back as coach. Is Bosh gone for sure and if so will it be with some mega trade and sign deal - or will we get nada for him as happened when Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady left.

Oh well the Jays had their home opener the other night and TFC has theirs tonight - so bye-bye basketball and hockey - hello baseball and soccer.

Well, the Raptors are out of the playoffs and the Leafs are out of the playoffs, and the Blue Jays had their lowest attendance in the history of the Rogers Centre/SkyDome last night. Good times!

I was at the final Raptors game. Alas, I caught the Chicago-Charlotte score at halftime and knew the Raptors win would be pointless.

A few months ago I would have bet on Chris Bosh re-signing with the team, but now it's not so sure. I think it depends on who makes what offer. If a playoff team makes him a solid offer, he would be a fool not to take it. But if some team like, say, the Knicks make him an offer... well, that's an even worse situation. That team has nothing. He might as well stay in Toronto. That said, if Bosh leaves, I wouldn't mind picking up David Lee from the Knicks (although our problem is defense, not offence--but at least Lee can rebound).

I think the Raptors problem is the coaching. They've had several different coaches in their 15 season history, a few GMs who have brought in a wide selection of players of varying quality, but mostly good conduct (the Raptors have never had a "jail Blazers"-like reputation. In fact, their reputation is that they are soft.

I don't see them getting a high draft pick, and I don't see them being able to make moves with the talent they have--unless they can orchestrate some kind of sign-and-trade with Chris Bosh involved. So, if they're unable to improve much on the quality of the players they have, what they need to do is get more out of their players--particularly on the defensive end. They need coaches who can teach defense.

I think we've been out-coached for too many seasons, with head coaches who are just not seasoned enough (or too seasoned, in the case of Lenny Wilkins). I mean, who of Brendan Malone, Darrell Walker, Butch Carter, Kevin O'Neil and Sam Mitchell are head coaches of NBA teams now? None. Were they head coaches before? No.

Presently we have Jay Triano. Nice guy. But he had never been a head coach of an NBA team before. The Raptors have eshewed name coaches and their big salaries, but when you give a guy a 3 year deal and fire him after one, it's like you gave him big money for one year's work. This is what happened with Sam Mitchell, and I can see it happening with Jay Triano. He may have a 3 year deal, but we need to upgrade in that position. We need to upgrade our assistant coaches, too.

Brian Colangelo made a lot of player moves--and I anticipate there will be more this off season--but unless he does something more drastic (ie. firing and hiring a new head coach) I think his own job will be on the line. He came in like a hero, but we Raptor fans are tiring of his shell game. Switching up the roster every season does not make the team any better. We're tired of losing--produce, or we'll find somebody else to do your job.

Chris Bosh's wish list: Bulls, Lakers, Heat, Knicks... or Raptors.

Note: Bosh's agent denies there is a wish list of Bosh's "top 5" teams

They're saying that Turkoglu wants out of Toronto. That's too bad, since I was one of the people who wanted him here in the first place. But it won't be surprising if Bryan Colangelo shuffles the decks yet again. Next season we might not see Bosh or Turkoglu or several other players. Of course, we all know that the successful teams have a strong nucleus (such as Boston's Pierce-Garnett-Allen-Rondo, San Antonio's Duncan-Parker-Ginobili, the former Detroit's Billups-Hamilton-Prince-Wallace, etc.) and a series of key role players. But the Raptors keep shuffling the decks each season (incl. coaching) and wonder why they don't gel, why they can't play well together.

After Turk's lazy-ass performance this year, Toronto isn't going to be able to get anywhere near equal value for him (assuming his value was more accurately represented by what he did with Orlando last year). I feel bad for you guys, between that and Bosh's almost certain departure.

I was reading the Raptors worked out Butler's Gordon Hayward. A Turkoglu replacement, perhaps?

And the Raps are set to announce that P.J. Carlisimo will join the coaching staff as an assistant.

With Chris Bosh's departure virtually certain, the Raptors have (a) drafted PF Ed Davis (UNC) and ( reportedly given Amir Johnson a 5-year $34 million deal. Johnson (6.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg in 17.7 minutes last season) has shown himself to be an athletic, hard-worker, although doesn't have consistent scoring moves. Bosh sign-and-trade deals are another opportunity to pick up live bodies to replace Bosh's 24 ppg and 10.8 rpg.

It looks like the Raptors will get something for Chris Bosh leaving to Miami: 2 first round draft picks (one of which was their own, which went to Miami in the Jermaine O'Neal deal), and a trade exemption worth $16 million.