BAD MAMMA JAMMA’S KNOW I DON’T DO CLICHE,



FULLCOURT MESS IS BACK LIKE A VERTEBRAE!

Give me a break, I’ve been too busy watching basketball and enjoying some much needed downtime to actually write about basketball. But by gump, I’m excited about basketball right now and we’re about to get into it hardcore. But before I look around the East as a whole (look for that by Tuesday), I’ve got to write at least a little blurb about my passion, my team, the Toronto Raptors.

Currently in the East there are two legitimate contenders for the crown that are head, shoulders, knees and toes above the rest. Unlike in the West where games are mattering for a load of teams right now, the regular season in the East is just a precursor to the inevitable ECF match-up between Miami and Indiana which we’re all praying will live up to last years incredible slugfest. And while it is slightly upsetting that no one is even a darkhorse to contend with these juggernauts, it’s still fascinating to watch this shitstorm of tanking what teams are going to do to try and catch up with these teams in the future or if they’ll just patiently await the breaking up of the Big 3 in Miami. And while I’d love to go through every teams options of tanking (stay the course Philly) or competing (HA!), and how there may have been some interesting match-ups were it not for injuries (hard luck Atlanta and Chicago), what I’d really like to focus on now is my beloved Raptors, and their unique position in the abysmal East.

As of right now, the Raptors are sitting in fourth place in the conference overall, first in the Atlantic division with a record of 16-15 (.516). Detroit and Charlotte are slipping back in the standings, despite being well ahead of where many commentators, including myself, thought they would be, and that leaves three honest contenders for the 3-5 seeds and they’re the teams that currently occupy those spots: Atlanta, Toronto and Washington. The Raptors are currently a full game back of the Hawks and a half game ahead of the Wizards (who the Raps handily defeated last night). They are currently one of the hottest teams in the league, going 10-3 in their games since trading Rudy Gay, Aaron Gray and fan-favourite Quincy Acy to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Greivis Vasquez (*SWOON*), Patrick Patterson, John Salmons and Chuck Hayes in a blockbuster deal for two franchises who have been much maligned for the past, I dunno, decade or so? As per http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba, the Raptors have the easiest strength of schedule remaining in the Eastern conference (which gets especially easier after their games Sunday against the Heat and Tuesday against the Pacers), while the Hawks and Wizards have the 1st and 5th hardest schedules respectively. This is especially noteworthy when you realize that All-Star Atlanta big-man-who-is-really-a-4-but-never-gets-put-anywhere-but-the-5, Al Horford, is out for the remainder of the season with a torn pectoral muscle. We could go on and on here about Rudy Gay’s high useage percentage not meshing with the rest of the team’s skill sets, or how Terrence Ross has stepped up in a big way since garnering the starting spot and extra minutes left by Gay, how Grievis Vasquez is a bit of a no-stats-stud a la Shane Battier, defensive and offensive effeciency in the fourth quarter, net point differential in the fourth quarter pre and post Gay, highest scoring backcourts in the NBA, blah blah blah. But enough with all the statistical stuff, if you want in depth analysis of that stuff you can go to Raptors Republic, or NBA has an interesting article on Kyle Lowry you can check out. But that’s not why you’re here – let’s get messy.

The bottom line is that the Raptors are winning games after trading away their highest paid and arguably best player for downtrodden bench guys from a bad team, just a few months after trading away their second highest paid player for a couple draft picks. It’s like Moneyball meets Hoosiers; except instead of relying on burgeoning analytics to pick a rag-tag group of misfits for no money because some hot-head asshole we root for because he’s Brad Pitt says he’s right and everyone else besides the guy who got period blood on his pants in Superbad can go suck eggs, we have instead the team made from a rag-tag group of misfits for no money who are winning despite all odds by believing in the heart of the cards each other, and Dwayne Casey didn’t have to beat any children or alcoholics to get it done! HOLLYWOOD COULD NOT MAKE THIS SCRIPT BECAUSE IT’S TOO UNBELIEVABLE!!! … But maybe I’m overselling it a little.

Come to think of it, the movies Moneyball and Hoosiers may be very apt analogies here, in that the recent success of the Raptors can be seen as a blending of the sports messages seen in both movies. In Moneyball, Jonah Hill explains advanced statistics to Brad Pitt, the manager of a small-market baseball team, and using that against all of baseballs conventions they build a team of statistically specific players after the departure of the teams superstars to achieve some type important success for the franchise, forever changing how baseball is scouted and managed. There are some interesting analogies between political liberalism and conservativism, you should check it out it’s a pretty good movie. In Hoosiers, another fantastic movie, Gene Hackman convinces a small group of non-athletic, undisciplined losers what it means to be a winner and, after convincing a superstar to come back to the team, they triumph together because they believe in themselves as a group. Between those two movies is the recipe for creating a winning basketball team, and the Raptors seem to have found it. The Moneyball Method is the direction so many teams in the NBA are moving now, using advanced statistics and analytics to measure a players impact on the floor in a way that was never measurable before, using toolds like the SportsVU cameras and the ‘all-important’ Schumann Stats. From the Raptors perspective in this regard, it was vital to get rid of Rudy Gay’s inefficient mid-range jumpers and isolations, because they just didn’t make sense in terms of optimizing the scoring potential of the team, as much as Rudy might not want to admit it in his crusade as posterboy for the “Jon Schumann is a Meanie” fanclub. My views on the advanced analytics/statistics being employed by teams will be saved for another day, but it’s important that the Raptors (along with the rest of the NBA) recognized these shortcomings in Rudy’s game and traded him away for a group of more efficient players. “But then” you ask, “how does this fit into the Hoosiers Method of team building? They’re not picking up a star to enhance team chemistry, it’s clearly just that they are statistically better without Rudy hogging the ball and putting up bricks.” I know you asked this because you’re a savvy audience. What’s crucial is the difference between basketball and baseball, namely that basketball is much more of a team sport whereas baseball is much more of an individual-based team sport. The intricacies of the trust involved for basketball on both the defensive and offensive ends of the floor are paramount to success. This is how the Raptors fit into the Hoosiers Method of team building, as they’re developing the trust and chemistry necessary for winning basketball that isn’t as important for winning baseball, as a strictly Moneyball Method would provide.

And therein lies the beauty of basketball for the initiated. The current Raptors run, for those that can see it, is about a myriad of things: The trust that only camaraderie can yield as shown by stellar defense. The lifting up of a young men struggling to find their path towards greatness in unfamiliar territory as demonstrated by the emergence of Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas. Kyle Lowry finding the balance between attaining personal success and team success; realizing nothing but good. The recognition and acceptance of destiny from Demar DeRozan, finally becoming the man he was meant to be. The indomitable will of the human spirit, exemplified by the defiance of coach Dwayne Casey and GM Masai Ujiri who scream at the NBA world that they will not go quietly into the lottery, but will rage against the dying of championships ethereal light. This is why I have passion for this iteration of the Raptors. They’ve lit a fire in my belly that I know also burns in theirs. Will the winning last forever? Of course not. But that does not extinguish the flames once they’ve been lit in the belly of the beast that is competition.

Random Basketball Note(s) of the Day:

I’m emotionally exhausted from expending so much energy on my excitement, wit and tenderness for the Raptors, so this will be quick; 1) Did you see that Andre Igoudala game winning three last night? Shame on you Perro Antic. 2) Do you know how many 6’11+ Plumlee’s there are between the NCAA and NBA? There’s nothing in particular going on with them, I just think it’s cool I guess… ALWAYS LEAVE ‘EM WANTING MORE!

-George Ingerman

P.S.

I’m sticking to my pre-season prediction: The Executive of the Year award is Masai Ujiri’s to lose.