[NBA] Skip To My Lou in Toronto


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hes a great player. i love his game..great defensive player...pushes the ball up the court...hes shooting skills has improved as well. raps need a player like him..its only gonna make jalen rose better. i always liked him in toronto...when glen (our old gen manager) gave him up..i was very upset...but rob (the new gen manager) seems to know whats his doing. a 6 year 29 mill dollar deal seems very fair and well priced.

for those of you who dont know...Skip To My Lou (Rafer Alston) is a play ground LEGEND. slam mag. did a cover on him a while back...and named him the best point gaurd in the world! ofcourse when he moved to NBA...he wasnt as good, cuz its a totally diff game...extra rules...and the fact that talking about your momma doesnt count as a defense tool just took him out of his game..but he had a crazy season with Miami..and i was shocked when they gave him up..if VC stays...im expecting an explosive season for raps.

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Rafer is good but...he's not that good. Not good enough to turn around an NBA franchise. I spent 2 years salivating over Rafer when he was at Fresno State; I thought he would get the Bulldogs to the Sweet 16 at least. And while he did break the school's assist record, they never made the Tournament with Rafer at point, and they lost in 2 NITs in a row. Playground legend, yes. And he deserves every single penny those whiny ******s at And 1 are making now...but for some reason he just cannot dominate the NBA like he can the blacktop.

One very promising improvement I saw last year was his jump shot. He had a couple game-winning 3 point shots and vastly improved his shooting range, however, he has no mid-range jump shot and he rarely drives to the basket and finishes, something Toronto will have a problem with. In Miami, Rafer had Lamar Odom, Dwayne Wade, Eddie Jones, etc. all guys who can take the ball to the bucket and made themselves available for Rafer's assists. But, where will that come from in Toronto? Who will he pass the ball to? Vince Carter's game is all outside now. Chris Bosh is good but he's a center, not a slashing guard/small forward.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see Rafer excel in the NBA. He's worked his butt off to get to where he is at and I'm glad he got the contract he did. He had so much pressure and hype on him when he got to Fresno State that there was no way for him to play up to it. But, I think his chance to get better and improve his game was in Miami. Hope I'm wrong.

The one thing the Raptors never had was a pass first pure pg. Well, Mark Jackson was there for half a season but he was over the hill anyway. Rafer addresses this need right away. He's probably not the best solution but looking at this summer's free agent crop, who else was there after Nash? The Raps couldn't afford Nash so they went after the next best thing.

All the Raps need Rafer to do is set up the offence, make a few good entry passes to Bosh, hit open shots when the ball gets passed out, get Vince or Jalen to go into the post and feed them while they're in position. This last aspect was one of the glaring weaknesses of current point guards on the team. Vince would eventually get frustrated and settle on the perimeter. It was maddening watching the guy run around and come all the way out to the 3pt line to receive the pass only to have an iso play called. That's what the offence came down to 3/4 trips down the floor. This will probably be addressed by Mitchell and the new coaching staff.

Toronto has a decent group of shooters like VC, Jalen, Marshall, and Mo(every other night). Of those VC and Jalen can create their own shot. The problem last year was that there was no movement on offence, very few cuts to the basket and the few times someone did, it was usually Mo. Mitchell has already stated he will address this by instituting a more up-tempo offense. We'll have to wait and see how well that works out.

Regardless of whether Rafer lives up to the expectations of his new contract, it was refreshing to hear him say "I'll work hard to earn every penny." When was the last time you heard a professional athlete talking about earning his paycheque?

well now that VC wants out it looks like its time to for Toronto to start rebuilding they cant match up with any team in the league if VC leaves time to move the whole franchise to a city that would take them in.

Yup, must be time to move the team since they're 8th in home attendance and average about 18000 a game. No support whatsoever from unappreciative Torontonians. :rolleyes: As for VC wanting out, well, we've heard that before so I'll choose to disregard any rumours until I hear it from Vince's mouth.

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