A late start here today, so apologies. I understand that Matt Devlin did well in his debut on Raptors TV last night. The nice thing about training camp was I had the opportunity to visit with Mr. Devlin a little bit and I think Raptors fans will be well served. As with the Swirsk, he really knows hoop. He worked in Memphis when the Grizzlies were coached by Hubie Brown, for example, and in addition to picking up a wicked Hubie impersonation he obviously soaked up a lot of NBA knowledge.
As for the game? Well here we go:
One game, some things, vol. II.2
1. I was hanging around the Raptors dressing room when in walked a familiar face who in turn made a beeline for Anthony Parker. It was Rowan Barrett and he made a point of exchanging greeting with AP, who he played against in Israel, I'm presuming. He also spent time visiting with new Raptors player development coach Gord Herbert, who he played for in France. I got the sense in the summer that Barrett was going to be retiring and it turns out he did after a tremendous career in Europe and internationally on behalf of Canada. It's a tribute to Barrett and a concern for Canada Basketball that he was the best player on the national team this summer at age 36. I'm sure he could have kept playing for a few more years but he said he was eager to get started in his new life so he's back in Mississauga with the kids enrolled in school. He had some good things to say about Will Solomon, who he saw play often in Europe: “He's a competitor. Just a tough guy who plays all out. He's a winner.”
2. The Raptors broke in their new video board with a pre-season version of their opening montage which was pretty good. The scoreboard itself is amazing. It really is like a giant HD television. The trick will be actually watching the court.
3. Not much talk about Chris Bosh these days, which is kind of interesting. The fact is he's got to the point where you can almost take him for granted: As long as he is healthy – and all signs are that he is --- you know he's going to deliver. I would go so far as to say that he's going to have his best season by a margin. He's in great shape and you can tell he's feeling crisp. He was really quick to jump into transitions both offensively and defensively, getting up to speed in a step or two and sprinting when needed. I think he's wisely laying off too much dribble penetration at this stage, but his jump shot is locked in already. I did notice he seemed more conscious of getting low and really focusing on sliding side-to-side when his man faced up. This is critical as with JO on the roster Bosh will have to cover more guys further out of the floor.
4. The whole Stephon Marbury thing. What to say? The man has a tattoo on his head. Here's a link because the game wasn't on TV. But how would you like to be Mike D'Antoni (forgetting for a moment he's got a $24-million contract)? You spend the last four years working hand-in-hand with Steve Nash. And now you have old tattoo head to deal with. Or Chris Duhon. And the problem is tattoo head is still pretty good. He can shoot. He can turn the corner. He can break you down off the dribble. He can see the floor. I mean, he's awesome. It's just, he's …..got a tattoo on his head. And not that I have anything against tattoos, but when you go an get one on your head – even if it is the logo for your own sneaker line (or maybe because of that) – as a 30-something team toxin, it just shows you've got stuff other than basketball on your mind.
5. You can feel the Bargnani love building, can't you? If he really does blow up I'm going to be eating some crow, I realize. Comes with the job. But in two games so far I've only seen maybe one moment of his kind of panicky, make up his mind first, make the play next play that was so common last season. And no threes! Which is good. More on that later. But one play kind of jumped out to me: he made on of those head down, bound for trouble drives in the second half and just when it looked like bad things were going to happen – a charge, an off-balance toss at the rim, something – he flipped a perfect pass to Jamario Moon in the corner for a three. It was the right play. It was spontaneous. It was refreshing.
