Raptors' Make Push for Home Court

[RaptorsGM]

THE TORONTO STAR
Doug Smith
April 30, 2005

Toronto--

Despite the the recent five game losing streak, there is alot of reason for optimism around the Toronto Raptors' locker room. At the trade deadline this past week, Raptors' General Manager/Coach trevc3 went out and got two more players to help this team. The first was a deal that saw veteran center Greg Ostertag leave town, along with 3 draft picks. Out went the old, in came the new- 23 year old power forward Drew Gooden.

"Gooden is the type of guy that is gonna help us alot this year, but his major contributions will be in years to come. He's a capable small forward, which is pretty important to this team with Mihm at the 5 and Boozer at the 4. As long as Gooden resigns with us, he's gonna bring alot to the table next year and the years after that," said trevc3.

With the B potential, Gooden is expected to get better. He is averaging 13.8 points per game and 9.0 rebounds per game. Many Raptors were very happy to see Gooden be brought in. Carlos Boozer was especially happy.

"I remember, back in the College days when we [Duke] played Gooden [Kansas] in the Final Four. His strength was something that really blew me away. He's not that big of a guy, but he's really strong and really quick. I mean, the Kid is a B inside, A- defender and B rebounder. All it could take is one training camp for that to be B+, A, B+. And that would be 20/10/3 territory."

Gooden was not available for comment, as he was working out with trevc3, but issued a brief statement through trevc3 after the workout.

"Drew told me to tell you all that he is estatic coming here. After getting bounced around, from Cleveland to Seattle, he was hoping he would be moved again to a contender. He loves the atmoshpere here, and he loves the fact that we are only going to get better."

The other move made by trevc3 at the deadline was an even bigger move. trevc3 brought in two time all-star point guard Baron Davis to lead this team to the promise land. Davis is leading the League in minutes played, and assits per game. Davis was an all-star in 2005 and in 2006, and was named to the first team defensive team in 2005. He struggles at times with turnovers, but those have been reduced since he donned the Raptors' uniform. trevc3 had this to say about Davis:

"Obviously it's said to see Luol [Deng] go. I think that kid is going to be a very special player some day. And I thought Sam [Cassell] was doing a pretty good job running the team. But Baron is a two-time all-star, averaging a double double. Plus, he's only 25, and to top that all off, he has B potential. It's not unrealistic to think that Baron could be a B, B offensive player, with A handling and A+ defense. That would be unchartered territory."

Davis was also unavailable for comment as he was reviewing tapes of the last 5 games, all losses. Those games were horrible, but the Raptors remain in fifth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race, just 1.5 games out of 4th, and home court advantage.

The Raptors may not have a Championship-calibar team this year, but with starters the age of: 25, 22, 23, 22, 25, they have a bright future. And with potential of C,B,B,B,B in the starting lineup, they will only get better.

The future indeed looks bright in the Big Smoke.

[RaptorsGM]

I think we ought to start to put some articles up on the Main Site. That way there would be more visitors to the League, and we could weed out some of the non-active GM's and replace them with others.

[RaptorsGM]

Thanks for all the comments, hoe-bags. No wonder no one writes articles here.

[NetsGM]

Articles are linked to on the main site.

and we do weed out the non-active gm's.

and i fail to see how articles bring people to the league.

and how much do you expect us to comment on an article pumping up your moves?  It's essentially what we say in the threads for completed trades except in another format.

[HornetsGM]

Power rankings / rookie rankings are a lot more effective and will get more comments because they involve the whole league... And you still have a chance to pump your team up in the process  

I read it because of our trade. I like the bolded names, that was a good touch. However, flagrant lies don't work: no one believes that you work out  

BTW, Cassell is very happy to leave his legal troubles behind in Toronto:
http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0718/1582781.html

He also told the Hornets GM that he's happy that he can go down to Bourbon Street because, according to Sam, "The drunker they get, the better I look!"
He is especially happy that the ladies are too drunk to read about his recent "honor":
http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=257&SectionID=1

[CavsGM]

Yeah, articles that involve more teams will get more comments.

[RaptorsGM]

Articles are linked to on the main site.

and we do weed out the non-active gm's.

and i fail to see how articles bring people to the league.

and how much do you expect us to comment on an article pumping up your moves?  It's essentially what we say in the threads for completed trades except in another format.

It would be the first step in making the main site more presentable. People go there, find a nice site, want to join.

And we don't do THAT great of a job weeding out non-active GM's. CelticsGM hasn't been replaced yet, and his team is suffering because of it. A few tweaks in the depth chart could make that an ok team.

[HawksGM]

Power rankings / rookie rankings are a lot more effective and will get more comments because they involve the whole league... And you still have a chance to pump your team up in the process  

I read it because of our trade. I like the bolded names, that was a good touch. However, flagrant lies don't work: no one believes that you work out  

BTW, Cassell is very happy to leave his legal troubles behind in Toronto:
http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0718/1582781.html

He also told the Hornets GM that he's happy that he can go down to Bourbon Street because, according to Sam, "The drunker they get, the better I look!"
He is especially happy that the ladies are too drunk to read about his recent "honor":
http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=257&SectionID=1

that's hilarious Hornets, it's great

[RaptorsGM]

Lol, too bad the Hornets traded Tskalidis

[GoldenStateGM]

Bah... We all know Doug Smith is a big homer...
Lol...

[RaptorsGM]

How can he not be, when the future looks this good

[GoldenStateGM]

How can he not be, when the future looks this good

Actually, I would say the now looks very good, as does the future...
But the Raptors have one weakness...  And that is outside shooting.

In fact, right now, the Raptors may be the worst perimeter shooting team in the league (Ellis is a B, Davis and Rogers are B-'s)

It will be interesting to see how that affects you
Doug Smith forgot to mention that  
Told ya he was a Homer  

[NetsGM]

As I said, they are linked to on the main site.  

I'm not worried on the looks of the main page.  At all.  I'm looking to make the main page functional.  I'm not looking to market the league.  Nor do I think we really need to.  Look at our gm waiting list, and look how quickly we filled up positions when we started this league initially.  I haven't even gotten close to contacting all the people on the waiting list.  In fact, nobody's even replied to me saying they didn't want it yet.

I think you're far overstating the impact articles have.  The bottom line is that the jazziest site won't get any new members if nobody knows about the site.  There are no links from external websites to this league.  Not on the FBB main page, not anywhere.  So until I actually go out and look for people, new people aren't going to be interested.  A million articles or not.

We've had 2 inactive GM's (that by our criteria needed to be replaced).  1) Pacers last year, 2) Celtics this year.  We replaced the Pacers, and we'll replace the Pacers.  The key to a successful and active leauge relies on your ability to keep current GM's, not your ability to replace GM's.

The value articles have is to encourage discussion and debate.  Their recruiting value is so far close to minimal, IMO, it's not even funny.

[NetsGM]

And yes, his outside shooting is terrible.  Especially with Gooden at the 3. I think he loses site of that with his "we score inside" mantra, that you have to be able to pull defenders out from the paint in order to score down low.  As you can see with Tim Duncan, he was much more effective in San Antonio with Parker and Gnobili than he was in the Olympics with Iverson and Wade.

[RaptorsGM]

Yes, I lack some outside shooting. But I don't really care all that much. This is a winning team, wheter you all like it or not.

Ellis is a B outside shooter, could easily by and A- by the time he is done. And please, PLEASE dont forget about the 11 million in cap space this summer