Word up: Jose is in, according to Matt Devlin.

I really, really, really hope he’s healthy and is back for good. I can’t handle any more 20-turnover games. If he comes back too soon and aggravates it again… well then it’ll be time to fire the training staff. Seriously.

Still, looking at the lineup tonight… Calderon, Parker, Moon, Bosh and Bargnani… backed up by O’Neal, Graham, Kapono, Voskuhl and Ukic… well, that’s the most complete lineup the Raptors have had since their west coast trip.

Does it translate to a win tonight, or any more wins in the coming weeks? Probably not.

First of all, Calderon and O’Neal gotta shake the rust off, and everybody’s gotta get used to playing with them again.

Then, you gotta deal with the O’Neal vs. Bargnani starting situation. Once O’Neal is back in the groove, how long is he gonna be happy sitting on the bench? How will Bargnani play, looking over his shoulder at O’Neal. His shot has already faltered a little lately…

Of course, of O’Neal gets traded first, then that doesn’t matter, but bringing in a new guy also creates an issue of guys needing time to adapt and gel with each other… and anyway, until that happens, the trade rumours surrounding the team right now have gotta be weighing on them.

Distractions, rust, playing time… not good issues for a struggling team to be dealing with.

But, as I’ve been saying, I don’t believe any of it ultimately matters for this season. Still, I’ll be happy to have the full team back (well, minus Hump) and hopefully healthy and gelling. That should at the least make the games more fun to watch.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Players, 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.