*Updated* Turkoglu's usage rate is lowest in 5 years!

[vini_vidi_vici]

We should have more PnR w/ Hedo but it seems were content with Jose taking it and having Hedo sit out on the weak side. I actually cant complain yet because I think our O has no correlation to our D. But I do think its why we ultimatelt hate on Jose because we can replace his offense internally, so it doesnt negate all the horrible D.

The sad thing is im starting to believe on the right team he could flourish and better hide the flaws (ex: Por/Hou), and us not getting true value back. He is a decent player but hes exposed on this team, more so than most. Thats also why I dont want to touch Monta, its more redundancy.

[Kevin Willis]

This is on Triano. He should be calling plays where Jose brings the ball up and then IMMEDIATELY hands off to Turkoglu. The biggest positive I saw from this acquisition was the possibility that Calderon might have more opportunities to score with Hedo setting him up. Clearly, that's not happening, although it doesn't help that Jose's 3P% is way down so far this season.

You have some crazy Triano hate Scott. I don't know where it's from but it's venomous like Palmer's hate for Bargnani and Mustard Tiger's hate for life. wow.

[Brinbe]

I loved when we gave Hudo some more room to create in the Utah game, as he did a good job most of the time. But as mentioned, his work was undone by horrendous shooting by Jose and others. Hopefully they keep going back to that, it'll pay off when the team can actually nail down some shots.

And yes, shelve that dumb twin-pg line-up while we're at it (though I know it's not likely).

[LLJ]

The problem is that when Hedo's usage rate goes up, Jose becomes absolutely useless. Jose needs the ball to be effective moreso than any other Toronto Raptor on the team. With Jose dominating the ball, Hedo is still good enough to be productive.

It's really no surprise that Jose's stats went up when we gave up trying to run the offence through Turk.

[Double Helix]

In theory, I can see a lot of reasons why Jose should be one of the better PGs for a team that has Bosh and Turkoglu. We just haven't seen it fully on the court. Yes, his defence is bad but Deron Williams, Rondo, Chris Paul, etc are going to get into the paint and put up big numbers against many, many PGs in this league.

I also think Jose has the POTENTIAL to be a very good spot up shooter, which some PGs in this league aren't. He just hasn't done it so far this year.

I'm not really mad at Jose. I just think that as good as we've looked sometimes offensively, we'd look better and pose more problems for teams if Turk had the ball more. He's a true triple threat that helps spread out the floor and can find open shooters. He makes those around him better.

[Dr Positivity]

I think the SL needs to be shaken up. Right now we have 2 playmakers there with Jose and Turkoglu, then 0 on the bench. So why not play Jack and Turkoglu in the SL, then have Jose run the bench in his old role. Of course this also helps our defense with Jack being strong enough to not get destroyed by screens, and Jose going against backup PGs a lot more

[223red]

Hedo is still out of shape. Assuming he rounds into form eventually, I assume he'll demand the ball more on offence.

[LLJ]

Hedo is still out of shape. Assuming he rounds into form eventually, I assume he'll demand the ball more on offence.

He is not out of shape. He is playing like he usually does when he gets the ball.

The fact is he just isn't the type who demands the offence run through him. SVG had to force feed Hedo to make the best use of him, because Hedo doesn't exactly demanding it.

Our team could do it, but Jose would be rendered useless. The reasoning for Hedo's low touches is very clear, because it's all to accomodate Jose, who needs the ball so much.

[Abba Zabba]

Fatigue.

The same reason he sat out the pre-season. The guy just came off playing almost 12 months of basketball the last few at champioship levels.

One thing Triano has done very well this year is manage people's minutes. If this team is in contention at the end of the year our players will have the legs to challenge.

[redeye514]

If BC paid the man $60Mil to be a point forward, then Jay better use him as a point forward.


Not only are our two best players soft PF's, but our 3rd and 4th best are no D players who both need the ball in there hands to truly highlight their skills.

This team is all about repetitiveness and has no balance.

At the very least, like Scott Carefoot said earlier, allow Hedo to turn Jose into more of a scorer! Otherwise it just does more harm (defence) then good to have them both out there.

[KG1585]

We all know our defence is historically bad but if our offence can start firing with Phoenix Suns level precision we'll start to frustrate our opponents and demoralize them. That kind of offensive punch along with better defence will win us our fair share of games in this league.

Our offense so far this year has been better than the Suns.

The Suns of this year, yes, but these aren't the same Suns that used to score over 120 on a regular basis and who averaged essentially 110 per game over two seasons.

After some huge scoring games, over the last 5 we're averaging 101.2ppg. Still good but not at the Suns level like we thought we might be after some of those huge scoring games earlier.

PPG is different from Offensive efficency. this Raptors team is a better offensive team, than any Suns team in the last 5 years.

[LLJ]

If BC paid the man $60Mil to be a point forward, then Jay better use him as a point forward.



At the very least, like Scott Carefoot said earlier, allow Hedo to turn Jose into more of a scorer! Otherwise it just does more harm (defence) then good to have them both out there.

Jose can only be a scorer when he gets to handle the ball and choose his spots with the ball. He's not the type of guy who's gonna score off the ball. That's why he was putting up those 2 point games earlier this month when Hedo was getting those 5-6 assist games. Once Hedo stopped handling the rock as often, it dropped to 3-4 assist per game while Jose's stats went up again when he got to dominate the rock like he used to.

[KG1585]

Our offense is working pretty well. Hard to argue that he needs the ball more for us to put up points.

+1

I still don't understand the people bringing up offence. I couldn't care less what Hedo's usage rate is, as long as offence is this deadly.

Did you watch the Utah game where we weren't scoring? Have you seen how many open shots we're still missing? Our efficiency is dropping quick offensively. It's not as insane as it was to start the season and Bosh is still a huge reason for that efficiency.

Pretend for a moment our offence is a 70 out of 100. And our defence is currently a 10 out of 100.

Total = 80 out of 200.

I think it's more likely and we have better assets to turn our offence to a 90 out of 100 and with hustle get our defence to a 30 out of 100 for a total of 120 out of 200 than it would be to get our defence up to 50 out of 100 for the same result. The Suns were once 100 out of 100 on offence by such a wide margin that they actually had the best record in the league with probably a 30 out of 100 defence.

I know we're not the Suns. I don't expect to be anywhere near a top team but I think if our offence was as good as it could be we'd certainly make the playoffs. We can't simply pretend that we're as good as we can be on that end and think that we have the weapons necessary to become a very good defensive team. I simply think we need to maximize our strengths and improve upon our weaknesses.

I also know the scale out of 100 examples are a bit ridiculous. Nobody needs to point that out. I just wanted to try and describe the way I see both ends of the court at the moment.

I saw the Jazz game, and I saw bunch of tired players miss wide open jumpshots.

[Kevin Willis]

In this roadtrip Jose faced Baron, Nash, Billups and Williams. He did the best against against Nash but what it shows is that he's not an elite PG in the league right now (obviously). Hedo is an elite Point Forward in the league but he defers a ton (except the Phoenix game).

I think as the team defines itself throughout the year Hedo will define his role on the team more clearly. The fact that when the team is not going well we just feed Bosh from Calderon stifles creativity from Hedo. Hedo needs more touches and it's safe to say he'll get it.

[SuigintouEV]

If BC paid the man $60Mil to be a point forward, then Jay better use him as a point forward.



At the very least, like Scott Carefoot said earlier, allow Hedo to turn Jose into more of a scorer! Otherwise it just does more harm (defence) then good to have them both out there.

Jose can only be a scorer when he gets to handle the ball and choose his spots with the ball. He's not the type of guy who's gonna score off the ball. That's why he was putting up those 2 point games earlier this month when Hedo was getting those 5-6 assist games. Once Hedo stopped handling the rock as often, it dropped to 3-4 assist per game while Jose's stats went up again when he got to dominate the rock like he used to.

the real question is, in which scenario does Jose play better defense?? Because either way we're going to get ours and Hedo's D isn't the worst on the team, even if it's not all that amazing.

[LLJ]

No scenario makes Jose play better D. He's just less of a liability when he's being productive offensively.

Honestly, our players can only play one way. That's why we make the same bad habits over and over.

[vivekmj10]

If BC paid the man $60Mil to be a point forward, then Jay better use him as a point forward.


Not only are our two best players soft PF's, but our 3rd and 4th best are no D players who both need the ball in there hands to truly highlight their skills.

This team is all about repetitiveness and has no balance.

At the very least, like Scott Carefoot said earlier, allow Hedo to turn Jose into more of a scorer! Otherwise it just does more harm (defence) then good to have them both out there.

Seriously? Have you watched Bosh play this season? soft is just about the last word I would use to describe his play this season

[Double Helix]

Bryan Colangelo must play Fantasy Basketball. This is how his fantasy team looks:

POINTS
10 Points

FG%
7 Points

FT%
10 Points

REBOUNDS
1 Point

ASSISTS
3 Points

3 POINTERS
10 Points

STEALS
1 Point

TURNOVERS
10 Points

BLOCKS
3 Points

He's currently in 3rd place.

[LLJ]

If BC paid the man $60Mil to be a point forward, then Jay better use him as a point forward.


Not only are our two best players soft PF's, but our 3rd and 4th best are no D players who both need the ball in there hands to truly highlight their skills.

This team is all about repetitiveness and has no balance.

At the very least, like Scott Carefoot said earlier, allow Hedo to turn Jose into more of a scorer! Otherwise it just does more harm (defence) then good to have them both out there.

Seriously? Have you watched Bosh play this season? soft is just about the last word I would use to describe his play this season

How many blocks or charges drawn does he have this season. How many hard fouls has he given in his career?

[ATLTimekeeper]

If BC paid the man $60Mil to be a point forward, then Jay better use him as a point forward.


Not only are our two best players soft PF's, but our 3rd and 4th best are no D players who both need the ball in there hands to truly highlight their skills.

This team is all about repetitiveness and has no balance.

At the very least, like Scott Carefoot said earlier, allow Hedo to turn Jose into more of a scorer! Otherwise it just does more harm (defence) then good to have them both out there.

Well, our offense is the most efficient in the league, isn't that worth 60 million over 5 years (assuming for argument's sake that it stays that way)? Hedo's shooting #'s are better than last year, and if I'm not mistaken his assist-to-TO has improved slightly.

Calderon is getting more shots up per game and his scoring is slightly improved. He's been average from the line and his 3 point shooting is well below average, but had he hit even a modest clip from there his scoring numbers would be way up. Jose's been his own worst enemy in that he's missing the easy looks that made Nelson an all-star.

It seems to me if it's good for Hedo and good for the team, than he's being used well.