Ninety and Oh

Intensity was the word bandied about the Toronto Raptors camp for most of last week. The natural reaction to this "news" would be to believe once they were in a real game situation they would flop worse then Vlade in the post... (see LA Lakers and Sacramento Kings center circa 1989-2005) I believe they call it 'Murphy's Law' or something to that affect.

To the surprise of most, they looked good... They looked intense, energized and like a legitimate team. It was a great night! However it was preseason, it was one night and it was against a tired Phoenix team that was playing a back-to-back.

So while the extremist in me (fanatical not religious) would like to make bold proclamations such as:

Linas Kleiza will be the leading scorer on this team,

David Anderson will be an integral part of a team that has legitimate playoff hopes,

and

This team will win as many games as last year and be 8th in the east, I will refrain from making those statements.

Instead I will highlight the highs and lows from 48 minutes of basketball.

the good

Linas Kleiza

Even after an outstanding summer with the Lithuanian national team I was cautiously optimistic surrounding his merits as a legitimate NBA player. I thought his game, specifically his scoring prowess, might translate better in the international game, based less on athletics,0 then in the NBA.

20 minutes of action has convinced me he will be a force. How much of a force is to be determined but it's obvious the man can score. The best way to highlight why would be his instincts. Kleiza has a knack for putting the ball in the hole. He shows range with his jump shot, an ability to get his shot off quickly and a fluidity to his in the post that makes him extremely efficient.

Jose Calderon

The stats will not show anything awe-inspiring or revolutionary but it was the changes in Calderon's off-the-ball activity that puts him on this list. Calderon still excels at facilitating an offence, hitting open jump shots and flapping his hands (this last point will never change).

What was more surprising and encouraging was how active he was on defence. The new system that coach Jay Triano has implemented is predicated on pressuring the ball to force turnovers. The mere mention of this with an attachment of Jose Calderon must give Raptor fans nightmares of blow-byes and breakdowns.

This was not the case for at least one game. It looks like Jose is in great shape and has some extra burn to his step. Over the last two years it looked as if Jose was in his mid-late 30s not mid-late 20s. If he can keep this kind of energy up and continue to hide his thinning hair, Raptors fans might uniformly embrace Calderon like they did in 2006.

2nd Unit

If the line-ups and rotations were to stay the same, this would be a very dangerous group.

Jarrett Jack, Leandro Barbosa, Sonny Weems, Amir Johnson = quick, athletic, frenetic, intense

These guys will single-handidly change games when they play together in the most entertaining of ways- turning good defence into transition opportunities.

In the early part of this decade Hubie Brown was coaching the Memphis Grizzlies and set up a two-tiered line up system that played 10 guys all equal minutes. There was no real distinction (minutes-wise) between the starters and back-ups.

A similar deployment of talent could be used by this incarnation of the Raptors with no 'real' star player.

the bad

Transition Defence

In large part the defence was good, the major wart that continues to show annually is transition defence. When the locals usually get hit with a disheartening blow it has to do with a leak out transition basket and that is a result of lack of focus.

Transition defence comes down to focusing on your man and sticking to him. There were a number of times, especially in the first quarter against the Phoenix starters, when the Raptors were beat down the floor by guys like Grant Hill, 38 year old Grant Hill with wonky knees.

All the full-court pressure, traps and defensive intensity will be negated if the Raptors cannot focus on this one simple concept.

Offence

It was incredible, the offence Wednesday night looked like it was performed by a group that had played together for the first time! Which is about right for a line-up with two new starters and a group that has never played in an offence not focused on Chris Bosh.

There was confusion amongst some of the staters, stagnation based on indecision and missed shots based in theory on the fact the players weren't ready or convinced when to shoot.

This along with the unforced turnovers should clear up once the players become familiar and more plays are implemented that are designed to start the offence (most likely centered around Andrea Bargnani and Linas Kleiza).

Andrea Bargnani

What was clear, expected and will continue to be a talking point as the preseason and regular season progresses is that Bargnani struggles with being the focus of the oppositions defence.

Bargnani looked lost most of the time on offence. A major part of that is contrary to some beliefs in that Bargnani had developed a tremendous offensive chemistry with Chris Bosh. Most opportunities, whether it be shots, assists or ball movement were based off of what Bosh did.

The hope is that Bargnani can find his place quickly or his confidence and therefore productivity will suffer greatly. Triano must help this process by implementing some plays early in the shot clock for the italian big man.

Randoms

Sonny and Leandro are fast

Sonny might always fall under the good and bad categories. He's kind of like Joey Graham (with the good Joey and bad Joey) except unlike Graham, Sonny will never disappear while he's on the court.

Speaking of Weems, he looked good on the block a few times.

David Anderson = Matt Bonner?

Jarred Dudley is awesome. If you are a fan of basketball, you have to be a fan of this guy regardless of what team he is for...

This team reminds me of a good College team. I don't know what that means yet but it kept popping in my head and Joey Dorsey mentioned it as well.

- J.Moore