You know, looking at all the venom spewed at the Raptors, at Sam Mitchell, at Jose Calderon, at NBA officiating, at, well, everything in the last couple days, one has to think… how much worse would it be if we were the Sixers?

I mean, you can’t always look at the negative - it could be worse, and it is for the Sixers. As discussed in the season opener, both teams added new big men and came into the season with high expectations. Currently, the Raptors are at 4-3, having lost to the two best teams in the east from last season and this year’s surprise 6-0 Atlanta Hawks.

The Sixers are 2-5 and have lost three straight! Hopefully folks in Philly are still high on World Series euphoria and haven’t really noticed; I mean, if Sixers fans are anything like Raptors fans I can’t imagine what the outrage must be like. Raptors fans would be jumping off of buildings right now if the Raps were 2-5.

While Jermaine O’Neal has been inconsistent, the rest of the Raptors have been their usual selves, for the most part. For the Sixers, Elton Brand has been fine, but inconsistent play from Andre Miller and Andre Igoudala has led to them looking a little lost, especially on the offensive end.

But, you had to expect that there would be an adjustment period. For the Raps, O’Neal was considered a complementary piece to Bosh and Calderon - in other words, a little easier to integrate. In Philly, Brand was considered a major piece, maybe even the focal point of the team, and that’s harder to adjust to.

So far, it seems the toughest part for Igoudala and crew to adjust to is the half-court game. Philly is a team that features a lot of athletic young players who like to run; but Brand is best utilized in half-court situations. I personally didn’t think they’d have any difficulty mixing the two; I figured they’d be running as much as possible, and dumping it in to Brand when the game slowed down.

But the running just hasn’t been there, and Brand can’t do all the scoring. Igoudala and Louis Williams are each shooting below 39%, and Miller - never a great shooter - is at 41%. They need some transition scores to get into rhythm, but they’re not getting them.

Still, it hasn’t been all bad. Sam Dalembert is causing his usual wreckage, with 7 points, 10 boards, 2 blocks and 4 fouls a game. Thaddeus Young, meanwhile, has been impressive, averaging 15 points on 47% shooting (44% from three). There’s another young small forward the Raptors could use! He was quiet in the first meeting between these two teams, but he’s clearly found his groove; look for him to go off against Moon and Kapono tonight, as all small forwards do.

You have to believe that a talented team like this will gel eventually, or at the very least, have one or two nights where the shots start falling and/or the guards find a way to generate easy baskets. And given the Raptors inability to defend on the perimeter, that night could very well be tonight!

I’ve tried to avoid the doom and gloom panic that the majority of Raptors fans seem to experience following every loss, but even an optimist like me has to see that the small forward position is killing us. Kapono is doing OK on offense - he should be better, but we don’t run plays for him and he isn’t that great at creating his own shots - but obviously he can’t guard a tree. And Moon, well, I’m not entirely sure what he brings to the table. The occasional athletic play like the block/recovery on Sunday isn’t enough. He’s supposedly in there for defense, but he just isn’t a great one on one defender.

Compounding the problem is that most other teams have a small forward that plays both offense and defense. Even if they’re not great defenders, the Raptors don’t make small forwards pay for poor defense, and they score so easily that they outproduce the Raptors wings by a wide margin. Hence, I’m worried about Young tonight; I’m not sure what he’s like on defense, but he can score.

Much talk is being made about a trade for Gerald Wallace or Al Harrington. I don’t think it’s going to happen; the Raptors simply don’t have enough to give, especially if they’re intent on keeping Bargnani, as Bryan Colangelo says he is, and any trade would likely nudge them up past the luxury tax (even if its just a little bit) which MLSE doesn’t want to pay.

I don’t really know if either one works for the Raptors though. Wallace is the better fit, personnel-wise - his size and speed is suited to guarding the threes that kill the Raptors nightly. But the injury history (four concussions and separated shoulder) and contract 4 years, $50 million left) are hard to handle. Harrington has a manageable contract (done after next year) and has stayed healthy, but he’s bigger - more of a four - so I don’t know if he solves that perimeter defense need.

Besides, you’d have to give up some combo of Kapono, Bargnani, Parker, Graham and Humphries… not the most enticing of options for either team, and Raptors would be awfully short-handed (they’ll need to do a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 to make the salaries match).

So, let’s just say I’m not holding my breath for something to happen.

Back to tonight, well, I hope the Raptors are sufficiently motivated by their fourth quarter meltdown on Monday to come out aggressive and take things to the Sixers tonight. Philly played last night in a tough loss to Utah, so hopefully the day off will serve the Raptors well; plus, the Raps don’t play again until Sunday, so Bosh and Calderon can go extra minutes. But, I can’t stress this enough… the Raptors MUST rebound tonight. Remember game 1, when the Sixers outrebounded the Raptors by 23? If you cut that number even in half, that game would have been a Raptors blowout. The Raptors have to tighten that up tonight. If they do, and if Bosh and O’Neal hold down the fort when the Sixers blow by our guards, then I see no reason why the Raptors shouldn’t win by 10.

Tags: Chris Bosh, Elton Brand, Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 12:02 pm and is filed under Game Previews, Toronto Raptors.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.