Ugly Boys Raptors?

Yesterday night, on Twitter, Sarah [ticktock6] from Hornets Hype raised a valid point - trading Arron Afflalo from Detroit to Denver seriously shakes the hotness spread over the NBA. Pistons are definitely falling out from the top 10, first losing Allen Iverson to free agency, then trading cute Arron.

This made me think - where are the Raptors in the rankings? And it is not very optimistic. We've been known for losing lots of hot players in last years: Mo Pete, Vince Carter, TJ Ford, even coach Sam Mitchell's classy suits. The last loss of Anthony Parker only adds to our misery.


The core of Bosh, Bargnani and Calderon remains the same. Not stunningly hot, are they? Well, Jose can look rather cuddly on some photos, but he ain't no All Star in Hottie Contest.


With the new additions to our roster, you can make a case for Jarrett Jack's sweet smile [please, Pacers, don't match the offer!!!] and DeMar DeRozan's physique, but it really gets thin after that.


Our hope lays in signing Carlos Delfino which is still remotely possible.


So, is the era of Ugly Boys Raptors coming? I guess so. Hope they will be known for their good play, not for the looks.

Gimme back my Raptors

Yeah I want them back. The Raptors who gave us all these memorable moments:

1. November 21. Carter's alley-oop to win the the game for New Jersey in overtime. Another early lead blown. Vince first sends it to overtime, than kills us with his alley-oop. There's even a nice poster from Slam with this dunk, and Raptors standing around, staring with awe.

2. November 12. Calderon's hammy. When he went down, you never expected he'd struggle all season long, playing on one leg or not playing at all. How did it feel not having a legit backup point-guard.

3. December 2. Denver blows us up by 39 points. Embarrassing to watch.

4. December 3. Change of a head coach. If you thought Sam wasn't the man, why the hell didn't you fire him in the off-season? And why replace him with an inexperienced Canadian coach? Just to make a feel-good Canadian love story? FAIL.

5. December 19. Loss to Oklahoma City Thunder. You were so happy they were playing the worst team in the league, so you can watch them finally winning. Well, they didn't win.

6. January 11-21. 7 game losing streak. Very depressive period. You just wanted to start drinking really hard just to forget.

7. July 9. We traded for Jermaine O'Neal. Getting JO was supposed to take us to the second round of playoffs. February 14. We traded Jermaine O'Neal for Shawn Marion. Getting rid of JO was a desperation move just to make the playoffs at all.

8. April 5th. Knicks kick us out of playoffs. Like we didn't know that before.

9. Staring at the 33-49 record in disbelief.

10. Bosh's struggles with a joy of becoming a daddy throughout the whole season. Chants in ACC changing from 'MVP!' to 'Booo! trade Bosh!'

11. TSN2 fiasco. The everlasting history of cash-grabbing. MLSE, TSN and Rogers fighting for dollars in complete disregard of customers. Depriving us from 20+ Raptors games, Rookie-Sophomore game, some playoff games, because TSN had to show exciting sports like curling, Poker or darts, so the less important basketball had to be pushed on TSN2.

12. FedEx and 'Crosby doesn't stop' commercials.


There is hardly a possibility the next year will be worst. Expectation are not that high, as they were, which leaves less space for disappointment. Let's hope that:

- BC will fill in the holes in 2 & 3 positions. By trade, draft, whatever. Just put someone there. No more Parker/Moon/Graham/Kapono in these positions. None of them is an NBA starter.

- We'll get a backup point-guard or Roko magically improves in the off-season. El Calderon promised already that he wouldn't play for Spain, so his hammy has time enough to heal, but better to be on a safe side. Also we need a PG who can play ANY defense at all.

- Bosh won't have any babies. Without high-forehead moms to distract him, he should play his butt off. Especially that he wants to raise his value for the 2010 free agency, not to be a laughing stock behind Wade, LeBron, etc.

- BC won't get a player from Lichtenstein/Monaco/Azerbaijan (put your own obscure country here).

- No more nights when Joey Graham is your best player on the floor. It sounds beyond pathetic.

- No more hockey franchises in Ontario. We don't want Raptors to be pushed to TSN3 and us to be a witness to another game of thrones between rich people.

We hope. We read the news, chase for the trade rumors, analyze mock drafts. And we wait. Don't screw it up, BC.