If you consider Minerva's wide smile as a representation of the entire history of the universe, then this pre-season cannot even take up a single charged electron hovering within a dimple. But it seems like we've experienced enough of it to cover everything that the waxing of her upper lip might have removed. I'm sure she doesn't require such beautifying measures, but unwanted, bristly follicles stuck in wax, torn away from their life source, and tossed away unceremoniously, pretty much sums up how I feel about this last little bit of time reeled-off within the Raptor's universe.

Now is the regular season going to be much different? Will time continue to seem to drag on? I think it might. I reached a certain level of boredom last season already, that I never felt before. Coming back home on the subway and seeing young fans slumped in their seats, on the verge of assuming the fetal position, and not expressing sorrow over a disappointing loss, but rather over what might happen in the TJ-Jose saga in the weeks to come, exemplified how the excitement about the team within this community fell off substantially. Personally, I kept anticipating a decent winning streak, and there were tantalizing hints at those developing - but they just never materialized anymore than shapes of unicorns formed in the clouds.

I expect this season to be quite the reverse in many ways. Jose is not only the singular floor-general, but he looks entirely comfortable as a leader on this team. And pre-season ugliness aside, I have to imagine that a lineup with Calderon, Bosh, O'Neal, and Parker, has to be able to create something more than a collection of individuals, and carry this team somewhere this season. When that winning streak finally materializes I am not going to be euphoric. This team should be able to gain enough of an identity that they will be able to systematically tally up one win after another, even if absolutely everything fails to go just right. It might take a little while to get to the point where they have a much wider margin for error, and a lesser tendency to make errors, but I'm thinking that it will happen, and that it will not be something to trigger enormous amounts of dopamine in my brain.

Gone this season will be the whole nail-biting "salami and cheese" moments, along with an announcer that craves giving players nicknames that matchup with his favorite breakfast cereals (Captain Crunch, Golden Grahams, Special K, Snap Crackle and Pape). All of that stuff was getting old already anyhow. It has been all about the playoffs for some time now. Last season just never developed in any way that could ensure success against Orlando, or pretty much anybody else. This season, with Bosh seeing the game through new eyes post-olympics, and as a part of a viable tandem on both ends of the floor, and most importantly - with his good health allowing for proper role definition from CB4 on down - we should all sense a steady path to the playoffs.

But it will likely be a slow, slow, steady path, making the interminable pre-season suddenly seem like a single gleam of light bouncing off of Minerva's incisors. I might be wrong. The entire regular season might be charged with electricity. Maybe Sarah Palin shows up at the first game in Philly, trying to expand her base beyond hockey moms. And maybe Jose hits a three-pointer to open the scoring, throws up his familiar moose antlers, and the VP-wannabe feels compelled to shoot him in the ass and call out for the materials needed for a proper field-dressing. Maybe it just gets all the more exciting from there on in. Maybe Andrea takes to singing Figaro while driving to the basket and finishing with vicious dunks. Maybe Jamario jumps over Yao. All fun stuff, but not at all necessary to any degree to allow for us to see the season in it's proper perspective. I'm simply planning to soak it in, game by game, and look to May for the real thrills. And that will not be something easy for me, or any of us I would guess, to settle into just yet. We'll look for the bedpan at the end of the rainbow, the big weakness on the wings, the lack of depth on the bench, before finally seeing that this team is what it is, and that it might allow for some cautious optimism and a bright future. But there will be no ref to start the clock prematurely, and allow the history of the universe to unravel towards that future any sooner. It's going to be a long season.

*Courtesy of RaptorsForum member: LX

5 days until the Raptors kick into action, so what better time to take a look at the Atlantic Division and what the season could hold in store? Each day, I will take a quick look at what the Raptors are up against, culminating in a Raptors preview the day before the season opener.

So far in this season that is yet to begin, I am extremely excited to see Bargnani play inside the arc so much. It gives him a chance to rediscover his natural advantages. And those are the very things that he struggled with last season. I have loved to be able to hear the sound of his shots snapping the twine in some of these pre-season affairs, with the crowd noise hushed enough to allow for such audible wonders to stand out like whispers in heaven. Compare that sound with all of the horrible clangers off of rims last season. I'd say that those shots bore a resemblance to a Pinto crashing into the side of a dumpster. No more of that. I have too many fond boyhood memories of slumping down behind dumpsters and setting full rolls of caps on fire, smoking things for the first time, or seeing pictures of Cheryl Tiegs in that fishnet swimsuit. Sorry Andrea, but there's just no place for a fiery Pinto in those memories.

And it's not even about the shots. The shots are just the obvious difference. It all actually stems from just being comfortable inside the arc. Some of that has to come from the extra body mass. Il Mago no longer looks like he wants to make himself disappear as he approaches the paint. He's got a real glide to his movements now, not that I want to compare him to Clyde Drexler, but he does float through the lane like an oil tanker upon the sea. He's got weight behind his movement. He's got a double-hull to guide him through to the rim with a bit of grace and certitude. And there's a nice payoff at the end.

Now don't forget that this kid was a guard not that long ago. It's understandable that he wanted to make use of his natural talent to drive. It was something he did nicely in Italy. That quick first step and one dribble, and he went from that three-point threat behind the arc, to an easy lay-in. It's what made him such a nice prospect as an all-around talent. But there was one thing that got lost in the translation once he got to the NBA. There was no problem adjusting his long-distance shot to the arc that spreads out a fair distance farther from the basket than it does in Europe. He could launch away and had his initial success doing just that. But that move that he likes to make from there was a different thing altogether.

He surely realised that his quick first step was a little less of an advantage over here where there is a little more athleticism. But the extra distance also meant that single dribble was not going to be enough unless he really lunged forward and then hopefully found the net while somewhat under control without a defender waiting to take the charge. The refs looked for him to start his move before that one dribble and constantly called him for the travel. And defenders looked for the spot in the lane where he was going to be fully committed too early. He became a turnover machine.

Now he tried playing more inside the arc and finding good shots for himself as last season wore on. But it was like he was playing naked. He rushed everything, and appeared at times to just want someone to wrap a blanket around him and give him a hot cocoa. When he did get a shot off, it was while he was avoiding the style of play that he knew and loved. And those shots - well they just sounded so awful. I'm sure his various ailments did not help. But those are now all gone, and his extra muscle has allowed him to play like a big with the awareness of a guard, instead of like a guard with the awkwardness of a big.

Andrea Bargnani appears to be comfortable again. He's playing his all-around game without the need to over-compensate for the different court and the faster and stronger defenders. Inside the arc, he can use that one dribble to do so much more, and all under control. And he is learning to translate that into the ability to assert himself on both ends of the court. It is safe once again for young boys to hang out behind dumpsters, and feel like they own a little piece of the world. By the end of the season, that feeling might grow all the more inside of them, while watching Andrea find his game. Even old guys like myself are going to feel like they're playing with matches all over again.

I'm having a hard time with the few glimpses of players and the constant jawing. I'd be happy to know that the Raptors were all hidden away from all other life-forms. I would like to have them feel completely unwilling to share any basketball court with any other team by the time they come out of their confinement. I would like to see their actions when it is time to see them in action. But instead I get oceans of words about things that are still basically in the abstract.

And of course I can't resist those words. All the talk is delicious. It is all at least saying that the wait is almost over. But if I had my preference, I could enjoy the wait in silence. I just want every one of them directing their thoughts towards what matters. I want them doing that intensely. I want their brains to be toughened up as much as every other muscle. Think of what a Joey Graham could amount to then! Well, maybe not.

It is too hard not to suspect that all of the post-scrimmage vows, and hows, and who's, and poo-poos are just getting in the way of what really matters. Of course, that's being over-reactive, but I still have the sense that whatever might be distilled each day in training, gets a little watered-down when the microphones swarm in at the end, over-exerting a phallic primacy that just reeks of an overlying impotence . Shouldn't every Raptor, right down to the guy that does the laundry, be meditating while listening to recordings of tree-frogs, and sipping green tea infused with Gatorade? I mean for a week anyways - just lose all the face time. Would it kill them? Or us?

Why can't we just cut the media out of the picture? Especially when we can all hear all there is to here while they are preparing for real if we all just put our own ears to the gym door. You just have to know how to use all the features in Google Earth. Go to 45Aº23'08.83" N, 75Aº41'34.73" W. Swoop down towards the horizon so that you can see the side of the building. You'll find a blurry door up close. Hold a drinking glass to your ear, and press it up to the door on your computer screen, and listen in. I've been doing it all week, and it's almost as good as being there. I guess since the camp in Ottawa is all but done, your chance to try this yourself at home will have to wait for another year, and you'll just have to rely on filling in all the blanks left by the traditional media coverage.

It's just as well, since you have to sit through a lot of names yelled out, some hoots and howls, and basic muttering before you get something worthwhile. It's a bit like watching Raptors TV. But just like with that vaunted broadcaster, it is worth it all in the end, when you manage to get your screen-saver deactivated, and you finally get gems like this: "Y'all gotta understand now, gosh darnit, what it's going to take to make this team a real success. We have got to establish a strong identity, and each and every one of us has the perfect opportunity to help make that happen by following the lead of Chris and Jermaine. Now those are the guys that are going to get to be in all the big interviews, and have their pictures in the paper, and there are a few other guys that are going to get their chances to take the big shots. But that don't mean a thing when it comes to the identity of this team, dag nabbit. None of that stuff is any more important to establishing this team's identity than the kinds of things that some of you guys just looking for a few extra minutes can do. Again - you just have to follow what Jermaine and Chris are looking to do, and I'm talking about the defensive end of the court. Now last season we just couldn't afford the luxury of relying on an anchoring of our defense like we can now. Right off the bat we had to look at dealing with Garbo's toughness needing to be replaced. And then with Chris and TJ getting hurt, I mean I'm proud of how hard we fought, but it was really a disservice to some of you as players the way you all had to play outside of your normal, everyday roles. And it was a disservice to those guys who would have loved the chance to play outside of their roles and try to do more, and I just had to put some limits in place somewhere. There was just going to be a ceiling in place regarding our success. All because we could not establish an identity. We ended up being a little something different every night. And I'll tell you that being able to rely on defense like we can this season, would have made all the difference in the world."

"This season we can all really play a part by staying within our roles. And you guys that want to play more minutes need to look no further than helping a guy like Jermaine on the defensive end. You look at guys like Bruce Bowen or Raja Bell, and they were in the same sort of situation, and now they are recognized for being invaluable components. If some of you guys can take it upon yourselves to use our anchors inside, and then make life even more miserable for opposing teams on the perimeter and in transition, then it's going to mean that we can all run more, we can all play more freely and relaxed on offense, we can keep some of our big weapons fresh and healthy throughout a marathon of a season, and I will be the first to give you all the credit in the world motherfugbug. Not only that - but you will be here and winning for as long as you are physically able. That's where you're longterm stability lies, and again I'm sorry that last season so many of our guys ended up working to fill holes instead of using their abilities to really help each other. I hope we can all accept that there were some circumstances that we could only go so far in overcoming, and now we can all come together and actually make our own circumstances. We can start now, looking towards creating a team that can overcome so much more, and not seeing any of those limits we faced before. OK? Let's go.

"OK - so maybe they don't need meditation as long as they have Sam's incantations. We'll be able to judge that, and whether you can believe my technical wizardry, once they finally put their plans into action. Let's go indeed.

This article courtesy of a€¢LXa€¢

The heat is on and it's finally time to start cooking. Actually, as I write this, all the players are taking sexy pictures with vaseline artfully applied to the lenses, producing a season's supply of promotional shots that will end up in the papers and websites, as well as on the new scoreboard screen; all in the attempt to get us as excited as the kind of food-porn cooked-up by Nigella or Rachel or Ingrid. But the head chefs at chez ACC have hopefully put together the right ingredients that will feed us all well beyond media day.

Going right back to when Chef Colangelo first arrived, he immediately saw the need to season up the venison that was still a little too rare in the play of Chris Bosh. A big dash of playmaking from TJ Ford really helped bring out the complexity of the main ingredient. Rasho's starchy presence helped the Bosh beef from getting too overcooked and falling apart. And of course there was all the european herbs topping it all off a la Jamie Oliver. Luvverly-Jubberly. Or was he more cutting edge than that? An Iron Chef Morimoto? Of course his willingness to surround himself with friends and make decisions by consensus makes him resemble that french-canadian guy named Ricardo, proving a little overly satisfied with his meagre tweaking with the addition of Kapono. And picking Bargnani at number one made it seem that he was aspiring to be in Lidia's Kitchen, or Giada's bust-line (if only Andrea could prove to be that kind of a bust).

Whatever the case, he has chosen his ingredients fairly wisely over the years, and left the pot to be stirred by Gordon Ramsay as played by Sam Mitchell. Last season, things got a little bitter with Garbajosa feeling as though he was being burnt, and then all the salt provided by TJ just wasn't needed in as many dashes. It got tough to keep all the ingredients in just the right balance, no matter how many f-words got tossed around. The initial introduction of TJ had enhanced Bosh's gaminess, but also brought out the best flavors in the more standard potatoes and carrots supplied by Rasho and Humps. But eventually all the herbs and seasonings weren't coming through enough. It was time to see how Bosh could work best as the main ingredient, with Jose adding his expensive designer salt. Was a wing the answer to make it all complete? A beautiful wing delicately protruding out from a golden side of quail? That might have been a nice side-dish. Certainly it would have improved upon the standard hot-and-cold chicken wings that were already in place. But I think our head chef did well to add the JO gravy, and settle on a stew that allows for strengths to come in every spoonful.

Where TJ was able to raise the profiles of some of the weaker elements in the mix, Jermaine O'Neal is going to help bring out more reliability in some of the other ingredients that were good on their own, but wilted like overcooked greens when stuck in the heat to long. Parker, Kapono, and Moon are all going to benefit from being smothered in O'Neal's rich sauce (I know - the metaphor is really dying now). Even some of the new guys like Adams, Ukic and Solomon, have a good chance of finding themselves as tasty comfort food.

It all starts in making the right statement. Last season's soup could pack a punch, but the flavor didn't always stand up from start to finish. Too often the attempt to finish things up on one end of the court in order to enhance the taste of the offensive palette, just fell a little flat. This dish still needed more body. A frontcourt mix of Rasho, Bosh, Bargnani, and Humphries, just couldn't hold everything together enough in the less-sweet parts of the game. They too often ended up boiling over around the opponent's basket, batting the ball around without being able to own the required amount of space. There was too much over-stirring by everyone in the mix, just to get some control of each night's fare. If the opposing team turned up the gas on the boards, then the Raptor cuisine would likely fall apart. Now with Jermaine taking up more space in the mix than a Rasho ever could, all the other ingredients can let their flavors leak out on offense and leave the opposing teams getting burned. Bosh will not have to work extra hard to try to facilitate the odd break by first securing the rebound, and he'll be able to beat his own guy down the court more often, where he can then really turn it on like a Kitchen-Maid mixer. And all the meat on all our wings can just slide off the bone and compliment the whole dish rather than show up as a strong counterpart on the side.

That's the meal I'm looking for. I think that's the menu drawn-up by Colangelo and Mitchell. They've gone high-end with this stew, but not forgotten the pleasures of down-home. Unlike, last season, we shouldn't be desperate to see the dessert table to quell our hunger. And we shouldn't need constant servings of individual appetizers to keep us aware of the promise of what's cooking. I look forward to just letting it all simmer, and let the masters figure out what to add to make it just so. Luvverly.

This article courtesy of LX

Pretty witty story. It's about a Raptors fan struggle to convince his wife that the new look Toronto Raptors will thrive this season without the likes of Carlos Delfino & Jorge Garbajosa.

Hopefully for his stake his convincing to his wife doesn't backfire in his face. ;)

Anytime now, somewhere in Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider will bang a bunch of lead ions together in the hopes of learning how the universe began. This big atom smasher might also start a chain reaction causing the whole world to melt into a mucky glob of dark matter, or so the worry has been expressed, and predicted, perhaps in more sophisticated terms, but no less scary. Who wants to make such a prediction? You can only be wrong and live to tell about it. Come to think about it, this whole idea changes the way I look at predictions on the upcoming NBA season.

Let's assume we're all going to go poof thanks to a scenario not unlike the igniting of Solarburnite as explained in Plan 9 from Outer Space. That would mean we should take the observations about the upcoming season as the next best thing to experiencing a season that, in reality, or bad b-movies come to life, will never be. So enjoy! I'm going to say the Raptors will have a shot at winning it all. Take that and run with it. Run down Yonge Street naked. Enjoy it while you can. And if we're all still here next week, well then you get the added bonus of watching the games.

Although by discovering the beginnings and all of the workings of the universe, quantum physics will quite likely throw all basketball scenarios off-kilter, even if they don't kill us all. Let's say the Swiss harness just enough dark matter to counteract a force like Dwight Howard. And this bit of anti-Howard makes freethrows. They might become the greatest basketball nation on earth and eclipse our NBA.

David Stern will think that at least the hip-hop influence will have been effectively combatted, and that instead of relying on the lame swing stylings of the Pussycat Dolls to really catch on, he can be sure that yodeling will be the perfect soundtrack to all the action this game supplies. One way or another - quantum physics is going to mess things up.

So why go into the prognostications in-depth? I just won't do it. But since it's hurricane season, and there's nothing but one cone of uncertainty showing up after another, I think I can use that model to predict what probably won't be such a disaster in New Orleans (again - barring the effects of quantum physics). Yeah - I know. All the hurricanes are terrible things, and I shouldn't make light of the death and destruction. But up against a Hadron Collider's mishaps, they seem apt for sports metaphors. And it allows me to skim over a season-to-be in the way a weather-forecaster glances over monstrous storms.

I see a few storms brewing in the Atlantic, another in central Florida, and somehow there's some tropical-force winds blowing off the Great Lakes. (Why is there not a Great Lakes division?) Which ones will make their way into the Gulf of Mexico. Which team from the East will blow into the home of what I'm calling the champs of the west right off (mostly just for the sake of a metaphor, and my love of Chris Paul)?

Well let's look at the cone of uncertainty for Toronto. They could be the team to blow in from the Atlantic. But then look and you'll see that the cone widens out pretty dramatically as it approaches the Gulf, and actually covers the possibility of drifting out to the middle of the Atlantic and dying out. Like with any storm, the direction taken will depend on whether other systems steer it one way or the other. The most resistance will come most likely from pressure in the form of four other teams. Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, and Orlando all have established high-pressure systems in place. It's not hard to say that each of them could find themselves in the 50-60 win range. And still with each of them, there are questions that make me think the Raptors might put a small scare into the good citizens of New Orleans for at least a brief time.

Boston won it all. Do they have the same desire to win this time around? They definitely do not have James Posey, who is already in New Orleans waiting. I'm thinking they still win big, but prove much more vulnerable to Highs and Lows than last season.

Detroit petered-out again last season, with the future of the franchise - Mr. Prince - withering just as badly as the previous year when his team needed him the most. There is a vacuum of leadership that still hangs over that team as much as when Ben Wallace left. And now they have threats of a shakeup that might only be threats or might bring an even greater vacuum. And they have an unproven rookie coach to make things right this time. But then Flip was just a coach in name only apparently. It just feels like too many storm clouds and no thunder and lightning.

Cleveland can come up big in the playoffs, but they are so unbalanced that there is no saying what direction they will take. They even lost something defensively last season, so they count on Lebron as much as ever. It's nice that they found themselves a point guard, but now Mo Williams has to figure out how he can be effective while teams are playing off of Ben Wallace or Anderson Varejao. It will be interesting to see whether Lebron ends up being a point forward again, or not. And whether or not they peak at the right time. They are built like a playoff team on paper, and their regular season record might not matter so much. You know Lebron will show up. But if they're not quite right by the time the post-season arrives, and still can't find the right ways to compliment Lebron then they'll fight the kind of uphill battle that their record would indicate they should.

And Orlando comes off a season where they played a lot of close games, learning how to play in the crunch, but also raising some questions as to how some of those games got close to start with. They also lacked a certain amount of leadership. Back in January I watched them blow a 20 point lead to the Nets. Actually it wasn't the Nets, because there wasn't anyone on that team putting in any kind of effort until Darryl Armstrong hit the floor. Yep - that's right - Orlando allowed themselves to be beaten by an old geezer all on his own, with a 20-point cushion to fall back on. A lack of leadership do you think? They have a nice front-court, but a backcourt that has questionably only gotten weaker over last season, and a defensive intensity that is entirely hit-and-miss. All of the above makes them very susceptible to losing ground over the marathon of a season.

So even though the East is stronger, and almost entirely competitive with the West, there is no one or two teams that seem like sure bets. I'm guessing that three of the four teams at the top of the conference slip a little and let Toronto, and maybe Philly or Washington to surge upwards. From there who knows? Toronto began the last two seasons with very few weaknesses to worry about going in. At least none that couldn't be fluffed over by looking at the overall depth, and the growing signs of leadership and chemistry that so many teams lack. And yet nobody saw them with any great strengths that they could rely on through a whole season and into the playoffs. They lacked Boston's desire and dominance at a number of positions, Detroit's experience as a team, Cleveland's King, and Orlando's front-court. Now they have Jermaine O'Neal and Bosh together forming a pretty formidable eye-wall that will not die out so soon. And so if they find themselves over warm waters, with the more established teams weakening here and there, and get a good playoff seeding, they have a chance to, as they say, wreak havoc. I look forward to watching the games and I hope to see that cone of uncertainty narrow as the schedule plays out. Quantum Physics be damned!

At RF we're discussing who we think we'll be the Raptors biggest disappointment for the up-coming season. Will it be Bosh who is coming off his gold medal high? Will it be Jermaine who'll continue to find himself on the IR more than the court again or Jose who starts his first official season as the Raptors starting "floor general" with incredibly high expectations?

What do you guys think?

RaptorsForum Contributor - LX

Brace yourself. The cranky old man is about to go down memory lane. The many calendar pages rapidly flapping backwards could cause injury to those who have no knowledge of calendars outside of their iPhone.

"Pages?"

Yes - just stand back, relax and allow them to fan you on a hot summer day. I'm going back to when I was just a small boy. I'm going back to when the game of basketball first grabbed my attention. FlapFlapFlap - the summer of '72. FlapFlap - the olympics in Munich. And one big flap over the gold medal game between the USA and the USSR.

The Americans had never lost the gold in basketball. It was their game. They destroyed the field once again. And then they came across a group of Russians and what would now be guys from other eastern european countries. There were no awkward pretenders among them. They played with each other and against each other in what was becoming a well-organized, competitive league. Yes the people back home had to stand in line just to watch this game in black and white, while on this continent we landed on the moon and had evolved to the point of being able to see Sonny and Cher, Laugh-in, and the olympic games in full technicolor. And yet this gold medal game was not beyond the grasp of such a backwards bunch. They held a ten point lead in the second half! Unbelievable. Surely they must be employing some kind of dirty tricks. Well those accusations would come at the end. And a dramatic finish it was.

The US had come from behind, with Doug Collins getting fouled after an exciting steal. With just three seconds left in the game, Collins hit the first freethrow to tie the score. Then just as he was about to toss-up the second shot from the stripe, the horn that signals the end of the game went off inexplicably. Collins hit the shot without missing a beat. The Soviets threw the ball into play and made their way up the court, and then play was stopped with a second left. The Americans had started celebrating already. This was an emotional victory. One for the ages. Winning one in spite of taking the game for granted. But the game wasn't over. There was one second left. And that would become three seconds as the Russian team argued that they had called for a timeout between freethrows. Everything settled down again and the ball was inbounded and the seconds ticked off the clock. Or did they? No the timekeeper had not properly set the clock back to the full three seconds. Someone go tell the american team jumping up and down and hugging each other, that they need to hold off one more time.

And then it happened. With everything finally in working order, the ball was inbounded across the entire court, and caught by the big russian bear under the net, right in front of two american players. He comes down with the ball, pump fakes and lays the ball in. And now it was the other teams chance to celebrate, and this time the game was over for good.

As a kid this all left me feeling dizzy. To start with, I was thrilled to see what could happen in three seconds. I mean now three seconds feels like a week. Three seconds takes up a bigger and bigger chunk of the few seconds I have left. The future is coming at me like a rocket. Hundredths and thousandths of seconds blur by in the grinding out of each stupid second. But as an eight-year-old it's just one-steamboat-two-steamboat-three...and it's over. I couldn't unwrap a stick of gum in three steamboats. It seemed cruel to give the Russians so many chances when the game was just plainly out of reach. And yet it wasn't. And that was the other big thing my mind had to grapple with - the sense that the US team had been cheated. I mean they sure looked like they had been cheated. It was a look, and a feeling that I knew well as an eight-year -old. My dad almost always let me win in any kind of game or race. This gave me a poor sense of reality when it came to competitions. It left me not knowing how to lose. Losing automatically meant that I had been cheated. What an unbearable brat! But here I could see that losing was a little more complex. Nothing brings more drama to a conclusion than feeling a victory was stolen. Victory snatched from defeat is tough to beat no matter how it happens, and here there was more than one side to the story. The Americans just never looked like they deserved to win this game outright. I could see the cold slap of reality hitting each one of them, and it taught me a little bit about losing. There were more questions than answers, but the stark realization was that one team waited too long to take their opponents seriously, and then they celebrated too soon.

And that was a flaw replayed by american teams of the more recent past. They celebrated before they even began in Dream Team collapses that might still be viewable on iPhones everywhere. But not this time. This time every single second appeared to hold a purpose. Certainly that looked to be the case with our man Bosh. It was fantastic to see how his understanding of the game has developed; how his ability to lead among greats has been demonstrated; how he was able to be there in the most critical moments of a closer-than-expected gold medal game instead of Dwight-the-beast who had started ahead of him.

There was a sense of reassurance gained whenever CB12 was on the floor. A reassurance gained without losing touch with reality. This from a kid who for so long couldn't do much of anything once he put on a knee brace, or a new pair of sneaks for that matter. Mentally he was thrown off his game a little too easily in the past. But he has played a full season with a bad heel, and another with a brace, and his mind has grown into something that can can find its focus when it's needed. Now bring it all home Chris, with a healthy heel, and two happy knees, and gold around your neck. It's going to take everything you've got to grab hold of that really big hunk of gold in Hi-Def. Go get it!

Uh oh ..... Pierce suspected of a DUI in Vegas.

Ugh ... could you imagine if the biggest name in the NBA today made such a bold move and decided to head for Europe too? A move like this could start World War III. ;)

This is pretty witty. I also didn't realize that Nash has some smooth dance skills. ;)

Looks like the Raptors finally found their 13th man to complete their roster for next season. Ex-NBAer and Vancouver Grizzly Will Solomon will sign with the Raptors in the next couple days.

RaptorsForum Contributor - LX

The Raptors of the past two seasons were similar to the Grizzlies under Hubie Brown. They surprised people, over-achieved and raised expectations, all while making use of a deep bench that was often indistinguishable from the starting lineup in terms of abilities. And that depth went from being a notable strength that the coach did a good job of taking advantage of, to a cause of division that in the Grizzlie's case lead to a full-scale rebellion, while in Toronto it brought recognition that within all that depth there was no way to find a solid second option to Bosh or the kind of toughness that was lost when Jorge Garbajosa suffered his terrible injury. In Memphis, Hubie Brown lost his locker-room, and his job. In Toronto, Sam Mitchell succeeded in at least keeping the ship upright while storms brewed all season long, beginning with the turmoil of Garbajosa's status, moving through the various difficulties represented in the form of Andrea Bargnani, on through any number of players unable to fill roles with key pieces missing due to injury, and ending with two point guards outgrowing their ability to benefit from sharing the same duties. The season was a disappointment, and many fans called for "blowing it all up" as the Grizzlies had, but there was enough left intact here that they could still find something to build upon.

More than the clashing of egos that Hubie had to deal with, the Raptors suffered mostly from the lack of Garbajosa. I believe there is a Garbajosa-effect that can be identified from the results of the season he played, and the one where he wore a suit. When he played, he brought the cohesion among the starting line-up and the bench that proved so effective. He could play alongside any part of the rotation, and usually it resulted in steady play no matter who was on the floor or not. The guy knew what needed to be done, and when, and he put those things ahead of stats. As a result, we saw good, effective play from Bargnani, Graham, and Humphreys, and less pressure on the point guards and Bosh. Graham alone picked up Garbo's knack for the ball fake and used it to raise his own basketball IQ by about 35 points. Without Garbajosa there were just too many players trying to do too much, and not all that smartly, particularly from the wings. While the pressure on the defense, the reserves, the franchise player, the number one pick, and the two point guards kept mounting. The Raps became more compartmentalized, and less of a well-constructed team.

You can merely look at the difference at home and on the road during Jorge's first season here. He played poorly on the road in general, not being well-equipped to handle the NBA schedule. And what the team missed in far too many road losses the year before, is just what they missed for all of last season. Or look at the play at home last year, when opposing teams too often appeared completely comfortable, unlike the previous year when Jorge was at his best. The numbers often looked nice, the defense was better statistically, Moon added some athleticism and scoring, but the problem lied exactly where the only numbers that mattered were those in the win column - the area that Garbo proved to be so adept at understanding.

In addressing the weaknesses at the end of the season, Bryan Colangelo noted two particular problem areas - the need for a 20 point scorer (which was assumed to take the form of an aggressive wing player), and the need to improve defensively with an injection of toughness that he felt had been missing since they lost Garbajosa. So the blueprint moving forward looked fairly clear: add a couple of players through transactions and the draft. But for myself, as a fan, I was not hearing many names that made me feel like the puzzle would be closer to being solved. It was more like the feeling of satisfaction, shallow and fleeting, of getting one side of a Rubik's cube a solid color. I really wanted the loss of the Garbajosa-effect to be addressed, and failing that, then I figured they might as well blow the Rubik's pieces up and start gluing them back together as they were meant to be. I wanted a veteran presence who knew what it takes to win, could play physical, remain mentally tough and allow for real gains to be made with an improved defense. And Jermaine O'Neal represents just about the perfect player to fill that resume. In acquiring O'Neal, Colangelo veered away from what looked to be his primary concern - the 20 point scorer - and instead pulled the trigger on the guy who would provide the Garbajosa-effect, while bringing increased leadership and furthering the potential of the offensive threats that already exist here. Had the focus of JO's addition been all about offense, then I would have continued to feel like the team was a little bit lost. But everything that has been said so far points to that Garbajosa-effect. It's all about the defense first. It's all about sacrificing numbers. It's all about the little things, sustaining the attack as a team no matter who's on the floor, keeping everyone accountable, and making opposing teams pay for any letdowns. Actually, it sounds like the Garbo-effect on crack.

Here's a question that doesn't get asked. Would this have happened if we had a D'Antoni at Colangelo's side? Or would we instead be looking at a smart-though-soft player like Diaw? Or a strong-but-hard-headed guy like Maggette? Or who knows what - Quentin Richardson? I think it's safe to say the team would have looked very different. The next step would be to ponder what Bosh might bring in a blockbuster deal to fully complete the makeover. This team would have been like a Junebug in late July; its days numbered; the stink always imminent. And maybe quickly enough a different approach could have worked just fine, although it's not like the formula in Phoenix proved to be timeless and golden. I personally loved the team from two seasons ago, and I'm happy to think that the knowledge of that team, which Sam Mitchell aptly proved that he possessed, allowed for the current team to move forward this season upon what was built then. And now you have Mitchell, along with three solid players like Bosh, O'Neal, and Ocho Loco, all staring down the defining moments of their careers, and looking to bring the rest of the team along with them. Bosh has a chance to prove his abilities defensively, Calderon gets to show his mettle as a starter for a full season, and O'Neal will savor the opportunity to demonstrate that his career is far from over. Everyone else just gets to feed off of that and work to get better. I couldn't ask for anymore. It's no guarantee for success, but it's a hell of a start and a good adrenaline rush for anyone feeling like a Junebug in late July. David Stern - make this summer end already!

Well its finally official. Croatia's own Roko Ukic who was drafted 41st in the 2nd round back in 2005 will be making his Raptor debut this fall. As expected he'll be taking over the role as back-up to Jose as well some playing time at SG.

So, how long before the Jose vs. Roko debate's start? lol