Confucius says "To Beat a Team You Must Be a Team"

Brian Colangelo builds teams and teams win championships. The Raptors are a team in the truest sense of the word. Yes, they are built around a superstar but they only win when they play as a team. Bosh is not the typical, swing-man, NBA superstar in the mold of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and T-Mac. If a comparison has to be made it would be with the player who has quietly had a Hall of Fame career: Tim Duncan.




Duncan and Bosh play the unglamorous power forward position. Their body type keeps them from throwing down the jaw dropping dunks that have made so many shooting guards famous. We don’t see them dribbling the ball up the court or running the plays from the top of the key. This results in less media attention and thus less attention from the fans. This is very unfortunate because what players like Bosh and Duncan bring is maybe the most important building block for a team. The threat they pose with their inside/outside game forces defenses to come out and cover them as well as double team them in the post. This opens up driving lanes and open looks for the rest of the team. Anyone that says Tony Parker would ever have been an All Star without Duncan is spending too much time looking at his girlfriend (a great pass time!) and not enough time looking at his game. Parker can’t shoot. He can lay the ball up with both hands and does it with the best but he cannot shoot. His career field goal percentage is a very deceiving 48.5% because of the number of lay-ups he makes. Anyone who watches his game will know that he has a very difficult time making jump shots on a regular basis. If you take away Duncan, you take away the lanes and you take away Parker. I can’t wait until Duncan retires and all those “great” Spurs players are forced to play without one of the greatest big men ever. Ginobili will have to go back to Argentina and Parker, well he can bask in the beautiful glow of Eva some where in the French Riviera.



Bosh isn’t as good as Duncan but Calderon and Ford are getting great lanes to drive and it is because of Bosh. Anthony Parker is chucking up a very respectable .433% from 3 point land because of good, team ball movement and double teams that Bosh draws. The team dynamic that Colangelo and Mitchell have created is what makes the Raptors do difficult to match up with. Unfortunately, the Raptors have a hard time beating teams with the same dynamic.



If you have watched the Raptors recent wins you may have noticed that are having a fairly easy time beating teams that focus their games around one player ie. the Lakers. They are also having a hard time beating teams that have a variety of weapons ie. the Pistons. Tonight they are facing a team in the later category. The Bulls have won the past fifteen games against the Raptors and that comes from strong team play. If the Raptors can win tonight it would be a huge moral boost and represent a major team accomplishment. By knocking off the Bulls, the Raptors can take a place as one of the top teams in the East and send a message that they will be tough to beat come playoff time. They will need perimeter defense and good shooting by the supporting cast. I am calling for Bosh to put up 25 and 8.



I do have to say that Anthony Parker did a fantastic job on Kobe on Friday night. If he gave an effort like that every night the Raptors would be a very dangerous team! I am also loving what Mo Pete does in the fourth quarter. He is hitting big shots and playing great D. Did anyone else see him cut off the base line and keep on the away from the net in the fourth quarter? I know his minutes have been cut dramatically but he has turned into a veteran player who can bring a lot of energy off the bench. I hope he realizes that Toronto is on the verge of something great and that he should accept a reduced role to stick around.