They’re too soft a team. In many ways, Colangelo has replicated the 7 seconds or less Suns. The problems are:

1. Calderon isn’t Nash
2. They don’t have a Shawn Marion
3. They don’t have a Barbossa.

Their problem is that both Bosh and Calderon are shams.

Bosh being the classic big number bad team guy. He plays like he is allergic to the paint and imo should not be mentioned in the same breath as the other top players from his draft class. He is a rich mans Mark Blount if you ask me.
As for Calderon, I have never seen worse defense played in the league. Letting opposing pg’s go where ever they want will not get you many wins.

Well, they certainly aren’t in the top tier record wise. If these two are so good, shouldn’t they be winning?

I stopped subcribing to Bosh when I saw Micki Moore own him in a playoff series against the Nets. As for Calderon, just look at opposing pg’s stats to see how effective he has been…

Remind me how great they rate at their respective positions again this spring when they miss the playoffs.

Professor:

I would have to ask you who you’re referring to in the gelling expectation of O’Neal to the Raptors. I saw this as a one-sided trade in Indy’s favor and a train wreck from Toronto’s standpoint. Anything they gave up for O’Neal would have been too much. Even by that standard, they gave up way too much.
 
O’Neal is the sham that D-dub must be talking about. O’Neal has shown no desire to play since he signed his contract. What O’Neal has shown is a desire to whine and grandstand about the league and racism thereof. He hasn’t been a relevent player in years. I don’t understand what Colangelo thought he was going to get out of O’Neal. At best, he’s a redundant, more expensive, washed up version of Bosh.

Bargnani is essentially a 7ft shooting guard. O’Neal and Bosh are both soft. Bosh being exceedingly talented but still soft. Calderon plays about as much defense as Iverson. With the surprise emergence of the Nets and the inevitable improvement that we will see from the Sixers, Toronto will be lucky not to be a lottery team.

I see the Knicks finishing ahead of Toronto. D’Antoni has complete control of that team and doesn’t need the malcontents on it to play .500 basketball.

I had the chance to watch their game versus Portland yesterday and their colour guy, Jack Armstrong made a great point, the Raptors don’t play consistent defense. If they did, they have the fire power on the other end to compete.

I’m not sure Colangelo knows what he wants. At first he assembled a roster that resembled the Suns. Fast breaking, jumpshooters. That was a good fit for Bosh and the hand-picked TJ Ford. Mitchell’s defensive minded schemes on a FIBA stocked team wasn’t ever going to work.

The Ford for JO trade made no sense to me. That seemed like a trade to placate Mitchell who they just fired. JO might never have a healthy season again.

..as his numbers. He hasn’t had the kind of impact in the games one would expect reading those numbers and he routinely disappears when faced against elite defenders or in big nights. That’s starting to define his career. He just plays scared too often.

Most importantly, he’s been bad defensively.

He’s still the best thing going on to Toronto, though:

Calderon is playing horrible defense, even for his standards, and being extremely conservative on offense (he’s playing hurt, but still…).

O’Neal is probably done. On his good days, he’s a good help defender and rebounder here and there.

Their perimeter defense is a joke. Moon and Kapono are terrible, Parker has declined really quick. And Bargnani at the 3? Bargnani is being forced into the starting 5, I think. During the Summer, they reported how they were trying to turn him into a more classic big. It didn’t work that well (although not that bad, either), and now they’re playing him at the 5? Anyway, I’ve been saying since the draft night that he’s an horrible #1 pick; Colangelo should just let it go and embrace that all he has is a decent backup, with potential to be a modest starter.

They don’t have a bench. They’re like 8 deep.

Last season they needed a defensive big to pair with Bosh. They added him, but he wasn’t the best choice for what they sacrificed. Now they need lots of things: a bench, a wing defender and a wing slasher, a good screener.

They need to decide if they want to try to run, if they wan to run the offense through the post, if they want to keep the pick’n’roll as their bread and butter; if they want to be an aggressive team on defense or if they want to keep being classic, playing man on man and funneling to the middle. Right now, they’re a mess.

Bosh is a finesse Center, in the NBA.

Until he gets the chance to play that spot again, the Raptors’ overall performance is going to remain erratic.

Given his strengths and weaknesses, CB4 has not been used properly by the Raptors organization, to this point in his career, e.g. others around the League today mistakenly think that he’s a scorer, first and foremost, when, in fact, he is far removed from this. Who he is, however, is someone that die-hard, traditional Celtics fans should have little difficulty recognizing and appreciating, i.e. Chris Bosh’s Strength … as a player and a person". Bes sure to click on the internal links. :-)

Toronto’s main problem, to this point, has been the mediocre work of their President/GM, Bryan Colangelo.

The JO trade was a basketball disaster because JO is a fraud and has been for several years. He’s usually hurt, and even when healthy he coasts.

But remember that JO’s deal expires in June of 2010, putting Toronto in the hunt for a blue chip free agent to pair with Bosh. So you can see the plan. But in the short term it stinks for the Raptors, just like the Iverson deal stinks for Detroit.

Bosh isn’t Russell exactly.

What he is, however, is an unique combination of some of the great centers in the history of this league, with a centrifugal force aspect to his game, ala Mr. Russell, when he’s allowed/permitted/MADE to focus his energy and efforts toward the less notable areas of the game, in a similar way to the Great Man, himself, e.g. Playing Behind in the Post, being a Central Hub for the Defense, Shot-blocking & Helping his teammates, Passing the Ball very effectively out of the Mid & High Post positions [not from the Low Post], Switching on the “smaller” players when need be [to help his teammates], REBOUNDING like a demon, running the floor in transition [both on O & D], and scoring only when need be, for the betterment of HIS team.

That’s who Chris Bosh is … or, at least, COULD HAVE BEEN if he had the good fortune to have been used to the best of his ability for the Toronto Raptors, since the beginning of his career, in the NBA.

Will he stay or go?

The Answer depends on Mr. Bryan Colangelo … and, IMO, all bets SHOULD be off, at this point in time.