| Believing In Marion Authored by Gagan Gandhi - February 27, 2009 - 4:49 pm
| Current Featured Columns | | Merry Christmas, Raptors Fans The Raptors might not be playing good basketball right now, but there are plenty of things for Toronto fans to be thankful for this holiday season.
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Now, the remainder of this article can go two ways. It can be about a season that has been dreadful thus far, full of inconsistency and injuries or it can be about the remainder of the season and how optimism reigns supreme in Toronto.
Getting hate mail is no fun for anyone, although the hate does wake me up in the morning, but it’s nice to hear such passion from a fan base that really doesn’t get enough attention around the league.
So, with that being said, let’s talk about the recent successes of a team who has had too few of such things in a year where lack of success was not supposed to be an option.
After what hopefully is considered the low point of the campaign, a laugher at Madison Square Garden, the Raptors rebounded with back-to-back wins at home against New York and Minnesota thanks to some team chemistry and a new offense where the main words used are “go” and “push.” One wonders if they could have saved some time and just hired comedian Russell Peters to cheer-lead on the sidelines and use his now popular phrase “take it and go.”
Now, that would be priceless.
While many fans out there felt that the Miami/Toronto deal would be beneficiary for the Raptors, I was not of that belief. But, much to my surprise it has surely worked out for the Raptors thus far. Not so much in terms of wins and losses, but it’s given the team a psychological edge that it can run with any team in the league. Just look at Andrea Bargnani, after some great numbers since the start of 2009 his shot stopped falling consistently, so now he’s been attacking the basket with more much regularity because of the fastbreak opportunities the Raptors have been getting.
He’s not the slasher they still lack, but he’s never attacked the rim with such authority since stepping into the league less than three seasons ago. Rare is it that your best option to break down the other team’s defense is a 7 foot center, but he’s going to have to do until at least the off-season when Colangelo can hopefully pick up a true slashing wing man, and no, Toronto doesn’t want Jamario Moon back.
Shawn Marion can potentially be that slasher, although it’s hard to judge his play only a few games into his Raptors career. I’m going to reserve judgment on his play for another week or so because it wouldn’t be fair of me to criticize him for looking out of place at times on the offensive side of things as he, like the rest of the team, is getting adjusted.
But, it should be pointed out, that he has brought it on the defensive end and it’s not so much about the points with him because that should eventually show up, but more so the amount of rebounds he gets. More specifically, the amount of traffic rebounds, mainly thanks to his athleticism and work ethic.
So, now that we got the good part out of the way let’s look to the future.
The Raptors have a schedule the next couple of weeks that makes Jason of the Friday the 13th series appear more of a dream than nightmare. It’s this next stretch of games that will make or break the Raptors playoff hopes.
The key here and although a cliché, is to take it one game at a time because when’s the last time the Raptors came back from a western road trip optimistic? I can’t remember and that’s because it’s been a sight far too rare to Raptors fans.
There are 20+ games left; this is what they call the “stretch drive.”
It’s quite simple, win and they’re in.
If they don’t, for as quick as Colangelo has been on the trigger this season you’ll think he’s become “Flash” in the off-season.
- Join the group RAPTORS FANS on Facebook. Gagan Gandhi can be reached at gaganhoops@gmail.com with any comments, concerns or requests. |
