Can Linas Kleiza Be Our New "Jorge Garbojosa"?

[Frankthetank]

"Even if Kleiza is better than Garbo (he's not, not by any stretch of imagination), but let's say Jesus comes down from heaven and gives him Garbajosa-like skills, intangibles, and credibility -- you're basically replacing Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu with Garbajosa and Amir Johnson and expecting the same results. I was no fan of Hedo's attitude this past year, but let's face it even he garnered some respect from defenders. No one on this team will do the same. Not one. "

This statement is a joke and shows that you have little to no basketball IQ

Garbosa's stats
06-07 TOR 67 60 28.5 3.3-7.9 .420 1.0-2.9 .342 0.9-1.2 .731 1.20 0.20 1.0 1.3 0.7 4.2 4.9 1.9 8.5
07-08 TOR 7 0 10.6 1.1-3.6 .320 0.9-2.3 .375 0.0-0.0 .000 0.40 0.00 0.1 0.3 0.3 1.9 2.2 0.4 3.1
G GS MIN FG FG% 3P 3P% FT FT% STL BLK TO PF OFF DEF TOT AST PTS
Totals 74 60 26.8 3.1-7.5 .415 1.0-2.8 .344 0.8-1.1 .731 1.1 0.2 0.9 1.2 0.7 4.0 4.7 1.7 8.0

Kle06-07 DEN 79 14 18.8 2.5-6.0 .422 1.1-2.8 .376 1.5-1.7 .852 0.40 0.20 1.0 2.5 1.0 2.4 3.4 0.6 7.6
07-08 DEN 79 13 23.9 3.9-8.3 .472 1.2-3.5 .339 2.1-2.7 .770 0.60 0.20 1.1 2.3 1.2 3.1 4.3 1.2 11.1
08-09 DEN 82 7 22.2 3.5-7.9 .447 1.1-3.3 .326 1.8-2.5 .725 0.40 0.20 1.0 1.9 1.1 2.9 4.0 0.8 9.9
iza's stats

Not to mention that Kleiza is 6 years younger and his stats are from age 21-23 and Garbosa's stats are from 27-28 the prime of his life. The raptors will be alot better then you understand.

[Frankthetank]

Bosh and turk were slightly above average players with no heart and no defense. Sometimes a team is better by subtraction.

[Frankthetank]

Bosh is shit. When will people learn that.

[RecklessIndifference]

This statement means little to me. Every team has NBA caliber players. The difference is ours aren't as good.

All I'm trying to say is that the talent spread in the NBA isn't as much as most people would believe. I think the systems, coaching, chemistry and confidence have much more to do with winning games during the regular season than "perceived" talent.

This isn't High School basketball where one team might have 5 very talented players and the team they are facing is a bunch of people with zero basketball background.

If we stick to a system and work together we could surprise alot of people.

And when I say "we" I really mean the Raptors. It's a silly habit I have

[Hassan]

i just hope kleiza comes as advertised

[vinnie_paz]

It seems a lot of people felt that Jorge Garbojosa brought several intangibles to the Raptors that helped them win games. I'm not here to over-state Jorge's accomplishments, but the main difference between our 47 win season and the next one was Garbo.

umm actually it was due to us being in the weakest division in the nba of all time... celtics had no kg or ray ray, 76ers just traded AI, nets had mad injuries with kidd, carter, and Rj... new york was still in "WTF Isiah" mode

[vinnie_paz]

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is. Even if Kleiza brought those intangibles, what difference does it make?

If this is a 20-25 win team, then Kleiza can provide intangibles that causes the team to win.. 27 games? What's the point?

+1

[vinnie_paz]

"Even if Kleiza is better than Garbo (he's not, not by any stretch of imagination), but let's say Jesus comes down from heaven and gives him Garbajosa-like skills, intangibles, and credibility -- you're basically replacing Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu with Garbajosa and Amir Johnson and expecting the same results. I was no fan of Hedo's attitude this past year, but let's face it even he garnered some respect from defenders. No one on this team will do the same. Not one. "

This statement is a joke and shows that you have little to no basketball IQ

Garbosa's stats
06-07 TOR 67 60 28.5 3.3-7.9 .420 1.0-2.9 .342 0.9-1.2 .731 1.20 0.20 1.0 1.3 0.7 4.2 4.9 1.9 8.5
07-08 TOR 7 0 10.6 1.1-3.6 .320 0.9-2.3 .375 0.0-0.0 .000 0.40 0.00 0.1 0.3 0.3 1.9 2.2 0.4 3.1
G GS MIN FG FG% 3P 3P% FT FT% STL BLK TO PF OFF DEF TOT AST PTS
Totals 74 60 26.8 3.1-7.5 .415 1.0-2.8 .344 0.8-1.1 .731 1.1 0.2 0.9 1.2 0.7 4.0 4.7 1.7 8.0

Kle06-07 DEN 79 14 18.8 2.5-6.0 .422 1.1-2.8 .376 1.5-1.7 .852 0.40 0.20 1.0 2.5 1.0 2.4 3.4 0.6 7.6
07-08 DEN 79 13 23.9 3.9-8.3 .472 1.2-3.5 .339 2.1-2.7 .770 0.60 0.20 1.1 2.3 1.2 3.1 4.3 1.2 11.1
08-09 DEN 82 7 22.2 3.5-7.9 .447 1.1-3.3 .326 1.8-2.5 .725 0.40 0.20 1.0 1.9 1.1 2.9 4.0 0.8 9.9
iza's stats

Not to mention that Kleiza is 6 years younger and his stats are from age 21-23 and Garbosa's stats are from 27-28 the prime of his life. The raptors will be alot better then you understand.

only a douche would copy and paste stats like this and expect people to know what all those numbers mean...

lets just keep it real and admit the raps were a joke with bosh and bargnani, and are now a lot worse...

[RAPT0RS]

Honestly? You guys have no faith in your team. Sure we're not the best team in the NBA but I'm leaning towards 30-40 games.
And I really think Kleiza in overated. He is really not that significant of a player. Sure he's a guy who can play but I don't think he will have a huge impact. I look more towards Weems having a larger role. Heck, he was balling at the end of last season and Summer League.

Young Gunz Baby!

[ebrian]

This statement is a joke and shows that you have little to no basketball IQ

Not to mention that Kleiza is 6 years younger and his stats are from age 21-23 and Garbosa's stats are from 27-28 the prime of his life. The raptors will be alot better then you understand.

Simply spewing out a comparison by stats is not the point of this thread. The question was made about whether or not Kleiza is the next Garbajosa. The very fact that you spewed stats already shows you've misunderstood the entire argument.

I have nothing against Kleiza. I think he'll make a nice addition to the team, a team that will win around 25 games this year, if we're lucky. But to compare a young kid who has accomplished nothing of significance with a player like Garbo's caliber is sheer madness. I don't think I need to sit here and list out all of Garbajosa's accomplishments prior to joining the Raptors. Check Wikipedia and get back to me. Those credentials are what made Garbajosa the glue guy for our team. Not numbers -- credibility and respect.

Speaking of credibility, when you say things like "Bosh is shit", you lose a lot of it.

[ebrian]

All I'm trying to say is that the talent spread in the NBA isn't as much as most people would believe. I think the systems, coaching, chemistry and confidence have much more to do with winning games during the regular season than "perceived" talent.

If we stick to a system and work together we could surprise alot of people.

I agree with you on the system -- but do we have a good system in the first place? And will Jay Triano be assertive enough to get our team to stick to it? But in terms of talent drop-off, we're talking about going from Chris Bosh to Amir Johnson. It's a significant drop.

Anyway to everyone else I think we just have to agree to disagree and see how the season goes. To me 25 wins is an achievable number and if we get near or a bit above, we can feel pretty good about it. For those of you with higher expectations (35-40 wins), I'm afraid you're going to be pretty disappointed. For the record, I predicted 40 wins on the dot last year. Maybe I just got lucky but I feel like I did my best to evaluate the talent, as well as improvements made to other teams to arrive at 40 last year.

[RecklessIndifference]

I agree with you on the system -- but do we have a good system in the first place? And will Jay Triano be assertive enough to get our team to stick to it? But in terms of talent drop-off, we're talking about going from Chris Bosh to Amir Johnson. It's a significant drop.

Anyway to everyone else I think we just have to agree to disagree and see how the season goes. To me 25 wins is an achievable number and if we get near or a bit above, we can feel pretty good about it. For those of you with higher expectations (35-40 wins), I'm afraid you're going to be pretty disappointed. For the record, I predicted 40 wins on the dot last year. Maybe I just got lucky but I feel like I did my best to evaluate the talent, as well as improvements made to other teams to arrive at 40 last year.

I completely agree with you. There are alot of question marks.

I think my "predictions" are more hopeful and from a fan point of view , rather than from an analyst point of view. So you may have me on that one