"The Big 10" - where optimists come to discuss the 2nd half of the Raps season

[planetmars]

Basketball is not hockey. You don't usually see two different line ups. DeMar plays a tonne of minutes (usually 40+) and so he would take away time from one of those 'bench' players. The key issue with Bargnani coming off the bench is can he get hot right away? He is a jump shooter, and jump shooters need to stay warm and if he isn't starting is he going to shoot a lot of bricks when he comes in? Plus he'll be taking at least 10-15 minutes away from Ed's playing time which will hurt his game.

The only thing I like about Bargnani is that he's an upgrade over Gray. Gray should be nailed to the bench, and Bargnani should learn to cover any big man that Gray would normally cover until JV is back on the team.

[mcHAPPY]

Take other teams shit for prospects and picks.

[Axel]

Not to rain on your parade, but at some point in the season, that was likely our prefered starting line-up, lol.

I believe that the team can be competitive with it's current roster, but I also believe that we need a plan (shameless plug for my other thread). Bargnani should come back better that he was when he got hurt. Not last year's #13 Bargnani, but somewhere in the middle.

[Papa Burgundy]

After posting in a Bargnani-related thread I was lead to a vision of the healthy Raptors squad ... and I did something dangerous ... I believed. We've had our hearts stomped many times, but sometimes you gotta believe.

WHY?

If Jose Calderon and Ed Davis can remain as high performing, valuable starters on our club - our bench unit looks like this:

Kyle Lowry
Terrence Ross
Allan Anderson
Andrea Bargnani
Amir Johnson

Toughness, leadership, offense, hustle, distance shooting, penetration, size, speed ... pretty nasty group to throw at opposing 2nd units.

If the starting crew (all of this assuming Bargs and Val return within the month) of Jose, Demar, Landry, Ed and Jonas can keep the game close - we will have the chance to win a lot of games.

-If no one above us falters, we may not sneak into the playoffs - but there is a chance to make some noise.