Raptors Rising: A Toronto Raptors Alternate History

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by captfalc

Nash, Vince, and Grant?! I'm pulling for a Grant Hill MVP season

I wish. Really love that trio (that Suns team lasted all of one season, 2010-11 before Vince left for Dallas after being waived by PHX. Can't blame PHX because Vince was making 18M a year and producing 15PPG or something like that, but I REALLY liked that team -- my favorite squad to play with back in NBA 2K11).

Grant Hill is sadly only an 80 rating at this point (amazing considering all the injuries he suffered prior to landing on PHX, but that training staff is killer), so MVP is unlikely. I think LeBron will probably get it (he's a Knick here) but Kobe is Kobe.

[trekfan]

From: Boomer Gibson
To: Ray Rudolph
Subject: Division Outlook
Date: August 21, 2010

The Thunder
PG: Westbrook, Maynor, Farmar, Ivey
SG: Harden, Sefolosha, Cook
SF: Durant, Damion James
PF: Ibaka, Collison
C: Perkins, Mohammed, Aldrich, Mullens


OKC has got quite the young set of players here, but Westbrook and Durant are BEASTZ at this point. Ibaka and Harden are capable guys who have only gotten better and Perkins brings championship pedigree and toughness to a team that desperately wants to ascend to the heavens ASAP. The Thunder want to win and win now, wiping the memory of their wrongful relocation (how the hell does Stern even allow this unless he wanted it?) out of the collective minds of basketball fans WHILE giving them a better chance at retaining their young stars (who can’t consider OKC to be a great nightlife locale). The Northwest is really wide open and the Thunder have the best shot at taking it.




The Nuggets
PG: Deron Williams, S. Blake
SG: JR Smith, A. Afflalo
SF: Kirikenko, Barnes, Forbes
PF: Bargnani, Harrington, Jeffries
C: Nene, Ely, Koufos


The Nuggets blew up their team for the most part, shipping off Melo to the Nets for a 2011 1st and a 2013 1st, then sending Ty Lawson, Harris, and the Nuggets own 1st to the Jazz for Williams. Williams wanted out and was clashing with legend Jerry Sloan, so the Jazz sent him packing to a coach who deals with grumpy PGs in George Karl. Bargnani to the Nuggets was an easy trade to make as the Nuggets wanted to offload salary and get back someone with actual skills. Bargnani is still highly regarded in league circles and Karl will have a field day letting Williams and him do the pick and pop — both should benefit from a system that allows them to up the pace and jack up more shots.




The Jazz
PG: Lawson, Watson, Price
SG: D. Harris, R. Bell
SF: CJ Miles, G. Hayward
PF: P. Millsap, Elson, J. Evans
C: A. Jefferson, M. Okur, J. Petro


The Jazz got a nice return for Williams (Lawson will be just as good in two years and a lot cheaper even after his extension) and the team is ready to go with their all new lineup. Jefferson, Lawson and Harris will all function well together (Jefferson, in particular will get a chance to set up on the block) and Lawson will pick and roll people to death with Millsap and Jefferson. Harris will shift between backcourt spots and the Jazz will try to hide their SF as best they can. Are they a playoff team? Maybe. The franchise picked Sloan over Williams, a wise choice considering Sloan’s long record of success, but they’ll have to play their way into being more than their individual talents. Might take most of the season, but they can afford to wait a year.




The Trail Blazers
PG: Miller, Mills, A. Johnson
SG: Roy, Matthews, Fernadez, E. Williams
SF: G. Wallace, Batum, Babbitt
PF: Aldridge
C: Camby, Oden, Barron


This team is the one that has to pray before they go into any game that someone doesn’t get hurt. Roy and Oden are one more injury from being NBA tragedies and how in the *uck is Andre Miller and Marcus Camby STILL starting in this day and age? The Blazers are a bunch of broken and old bodies composed into a team that, on paper, is a playoff contender for sure — but paper, much like the Blazers, tends to tear easy. If the team starts off poorly or suffers early injuries (especially to Roy or Oden) this team will tailspin. The most emotionally fragile group out there, I’d say, and the Blazers continue to watch KD work his magic night after night, all while hating themselves for taking Oden first.




The Timberwolves
PG: Flynn, Ridnour, Telfair
SG: W. Johnson, R. Mason, W. Ellington
SF: M. Beasley, M. Webster, L. Hayward
PF: K. Love, R. Balkman, A. Tolliver
C: D. Milicic, Pekovic


Nope. Any team that’s starting Darko AND Michael Beasley has no shot in HELL of making the playoffs. Beasley, at least, can still make something of himself if ever gets his act together (nope) but Darko is done and the worst pick from that legendary 2003 draft. Love has got to be wishing he was Garnett right now, that way he could be traded to a winning franchise and never have to worry about this kind of stupidity again. David Kahn is almost Jordan bad … almost.

[trekfan]

From: Boomer Gibson
To: Ray Rudolph
Subject: Division Outlook
Date: August 21, 2010

The Mavericks
PG: Kidd, Barea
SG: Terry, Stevenson, Beaubois, D. Jones
SF: C. Bulter, C. Brewer, Stojakovic
PF: Nowitzki, Marion, Cardinal
C: T. Chandler, Haywood, Mahinmi


The Southwest is the most competitive division in the West and the NBA as a whole. Dallas is my pick to come out of it simply for the fact at how deep this team is in personnel and experience. J-Kidd, Nowitzki, Terry, Butler and even Chandler (injury prone as he is) bring a lot to the table … and then you bring in that bench (Barea, Marion, Stevenson, Brewer, Haywood) and Dallas is 10-deep easy. I believe in Dallas, they won’t get out of the West, but they’ll get further than most would give them credit for.




The Spurs
PG: T. Parker, G. Hill, Quinn
SG: Ginobili, Neal
SF: Jefferson, J. Anderson, D. Green
PF: Duncan, McDyess, Novak
C: Splitter, Blair, Bonner


On paper, the Spurs look good but not great. The question is how much left does Ginobili and Duncan have to contribute? Both looked tired last season and the Spurs went and got bodies this year, but they don’t have a super-sub among them and their young talent is more solid than spectacular. This has worked for the Spurs before, though, so who’s to say this won’t work again? Splitter is a nice get and Hill is better than people think, so maybe they’ll do something … but I think underestimating them will be hard this year. I see them getting to the second round and that being the end of their season.






The Grizzlies
PG: Conley, I. Smith, J. Williams, Vasquez
SG: OJ Mayo, T. Allen, X. Henry
SF: R. Gay, S. Battier, S. Young
PF: Z. Randolph, D. Arthur, L. Powe
C: M. Gasol, E. Dampier


This team has talent, the right amount of youth and experience, and a deep bench — but can they put it all together? The Grizzlies (our former Canadian brethren) are a team that is often overlooked and under-appreciated. All the while, Gasol has gotten good. The problems with the Grizzlies lie in Gay and Mayo. Both undeniably talented, both jack up a lot of shots. One or both has to go I think for the team to really mesh, but we’ll see if either can adjust their play for the betterment of all. I think the Grizz sneak into the playoffs, but they don’t get past the first round.




The Hornets
PG: C. Paul, M. Banks
SG: J. Jack, W. Green, M. Belinelli
SF: Ariza, Pondexter, Ewing jr.
PF: David West, Landry, Jason Smith
C: Okafor, Gray, Andersen, Mbenga


This team could be blown up and gone by the deadline. CP3 wants the franchise to show him they’re serious about winning, but the team is strapped for money and assets. They have a lot of overpaid guys that are just average (or slightly above) and their most valuable asset is CP3 himself. Don’t think NOLA won’t move him for the right offer, but he hasn’t declared his intention to leave yet (he is friends with Melo, though … could the Nets go after him? Or the Knicks?). The pressure is mounting on him to do SOMETHING in the playoffs (besides lose, I mean) and it’s getting to him. CP3 is going to implode if the Hornets fail to make the playoffs.




The Rockets
PG: Lowry, Dragic
SG: Martin, C. Lee
SF: Terrence Williams, Budinger
PF: Scola, Patterson, J. Hill
C: Y. Ming, Hayes, B. Miller, Thabeet




The Rockets are the team I feel the worst for. They had T-Mac, they had Yao, they had them both in their primes … and injuries derailed it all. Now Yao is left as the only remnant from that era and he’s going to be on a strict minute restriction for at least half the season … assuming he survives that long. He has two years left on his deal and could be dead weight next season if he’s still plagued by the injury bug. The Rockets have no stars on their roster and their young talent is still quite young (and, at best, above average to sorta-good). The team is going to lose a lot this year and they’ll lose close, and it’ll suck. The Rockets are grounded this season.

[trekfan]

Started playing the season last night. Things are gonna be really interesting, got some new features I'm gonna try out, so expect the first game (what a doozy!) to be up tonight or tomorrow night (depending on how my schedule works out).

As always, thanks for keeping the faith.

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by trekfan

Started playing the season last night. Things are gonna be really interesting, got some new features I'm gonna try out, so expect the first game (what a doozy!) to be up tonight or tomorrow night (depending on how my schedule works out). As always, thanks for keeping the faith.

Working on the new feature -- can someone say SportsCenter highlights?

I got a new program to capture the gameplay (it works way better than I thought) and have my Sony Vegas fixed up, so now it's all about cutting down the clips into something 60 seconds or so.

Full Disclosure: I used to be a broadcast journalism major (the production side of things) and spent a lot of time in the editing bay. It's been four years since I tried anything like this (the journalism industry is just not for the idealists out there, as I discovered), so don't expect anything GRAND at first, but I'm hoping to put together SC highlights for about 10-12 regular season games at least, hopefully getting better along the way.

So stay tuned. I managed to get everything set up last night and will try my hand at editing it together and such tonight, with an upload late tonight probably.

As always, thanks for keeping the faith.

[trekfan]

And here we go. This is a superbly basic version of what I want to do -- still a lot of features and things to play around with (and if you have any suggestions on what I should attempt, do let me know), but this gives you an idea of what I'm going for. As the season goes along I'll get better at it (and maybe win a few games, lol) and add new bells and whistles, but for now here's a very basic highlight video.

Story post about this game (and the next one) will come tomorrow sometime. As always, any and all comments are welcome and thanks for following.

[trekfan]

October 31st, 2010

My first NBA regular season game wasn’t what I expected. The arena, the crowd, the buzz … all of it was damn near overwhelming. Training camp and preseason had been tests for me. The team had accepted me, partially, but no one was buying I was the guy who would lift the franchise up from the dregs of the NBA’s cellar and take them to the promise land. Not a single soul on that team believed that before that first game.


Our first game that year was against the Celtics — it would be the game that cemented that team as a team I disliked. They were in our division, of course, and they had titles galore (they had won the 07-08 title a few years before) and they were all about that green, in more ways than one. That team liked its money (especially Ray Allen, IMO).


The game was a fight from the beginning. Boston played off me, dared me to show them something — how could an undrafted rookie from overseas, with red hair, do anything to them? Well, I took advantage of them like a college guy at a high school party. I forced it down their throat, I shot it in their face, I passed out and traded elbows inside. I wasn’t going to back down.


Boston figured it out by the time the second-half started and adjusted. They pressured me, doubled me, forced me into some bad passes — I was cocky, so I took those passes and paid for it. I was sloppy with the ball in the second half of that game, but I had to prove it. My teammates were all in awe of what I was doing — during halftime Triano (lousy coach he was) basically said to give me the ball.


And they did. And I took it to them. We got a lead once before our youth and Boston’s experience showed up. The Celtics took to fouling me, hard, especially Rondo who didn’t like being shown up by a rookie for lots of points.


Well, he got showed up and showed up a lot. Rondo was lazy in that game, I could tell and so could his team. He just had no intensity.


We lost that game by five points and I wasn’t too mad about it. As a player, there are some games that you just need to go out there and show your stuff; the results don’t matter in those games, especially during a rebuilding campaign. I was mad at myself for throwing away some easy passes, for allowing Rondo to get in the lane late, but I was glad I got to drop 40 points on the Celtics in front of the home crowd.


They chanted “BOOMER” towards the end and, that first time, it felt like magic.


The locker room was filled with mostly silence before Danny Orton — just 20, barely older than me — spoke up and said, “Holy *hit, you can play.”


I took a swig of my water and winked at him. “More to come, Danny boy. More to come.”


Danny rolled his eyes, shook his head, but he chuckled. It was in that moment that I first felt a connection with one of my teammates. Danny, like myself, had been overlooked by a lot of people. He had been buried on the bench at Kentucky, the Magic had drafted him as a glorified bench warmer for Dwight and now he was here with the rest of us.


The locker room was only ours for a few minutes before the media was let in. A lot of them gravitated towards me since I had just lit the Celtics on fire with my play.


The cameras and bright lights on me, I was bombarded with questions.


And I just smiled. This was just the beginning.

[trekfan]

This was a fun game. Raptors entered into this one 1-2, Heat 3-1, but the Heat took us too lightly in the first half, then lost their composure in the second. Boomer had a HUGE game. Evidence below. (This video has a better flow to it than the last one, IMO. Feeling better about this).