TorontoSun.com – Basketball – K.G. steals spotlight in Celtics win
All-star forward Chirs Bosh finished the game with 12 points and nine rebounds.
More importantly, his left foot, which bothered him most of last year, was fine.
“I’m going to try to play in all the pre-season games, so when the season comes, I’ll be full swing, unlike last year when I was forced to take some time off when I hurt my foot,” Bosh said.
“I feel like I’m going in the right direction.”
SportingNews.com – NBA – Raptors preview: International house of hoops
After the season, Colangelo didn’t sit by idly. He made some critical moves that he hopes will keep this franchise’s momentum going.
Toronto surrendered two second-round draft choices to Detroit for Argentinean swingman Carlos Delfino, who got lost in the talent shuffle with the Pistons. A member of Argentina’s 2004 Olympic gold-medal team, Delfino is not a pure shooter, but he’s fearless going to the basket like his Olympic teammate, San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili. He will likely take advantage of the extended minutes offered north of the border.
And while Morris Peterson has left for New Orleans, Toronto upgraded its perimeter game by signing Miami free agent Jason Kapono, who is coming off a year in which he led the NBA in three-point percentage (.514).
“Kapono is considered one of the best shooters — or arguably is the best shooter — and will complement our driveand- kick game,” Colangelo says.
Last season, Toronto was fifth in field-goal percentage (.463) and ninth in three-point accuracy (.363), and now the Raptors appear to be improved in both areas.
HOOPSWORLD | NBA News, Rumors and Information – Shooting For The Moon
Regardless of how the next few weeks unfold Moon is relishing his time with a NBA team.
“It’s heaven for me right now,” Moon told HOOPSWORLD. “I feel like I could die and I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted to accomplish so far.”
Don’t get it twisted – that doesn’t mean the wiry forward is content with simply making it to Raptors training camp. It’s just that Moon has become enamoured with the city of Toronto and his new teammates in the brief time he’s been in here.
It didn’t take long for Moon to fall in love with a franchise willing to give him his first opportunity at making an NBA roster.
“I love the city. It’s clean, it’s safe, everybody’s like you and smiling. Everyone gets along so it’s great.”
ShamSports.com – Talking about people playing with their balls: Why aren’t NBA players loyal?
The irony is that Jones’ contract would not have even been expiring, had he not declined the player option 16 months before he needed to make a decision.
So Fred’s loyal move towards the Blazers, giving up a year of multi million salary and a year of almost-certain employment just to be able to join them, has now left him perilously close to a situation in which he could be out of the league altogether, only 16 months after signing a three year deal.
Wouldn’t happen in the real world, let me tell you.
And that’s why the players are loyal to themselves first and truly foremost. Fred turned down $3.5 million in an act of charity, yet now, if worst comes to the worst, he won’t even earn $100,000 in the D-League next season, should he get stuck there.
Poor bastard, in both senses of the word “poor”.
Celtics working on transition offense – The Boston Globe
Garnett, a 10-time All-Star, has said Mitchell taught him how to be a professional after entering the NBA out of high school.
Not long after the Celtics acquired Garnett in a blockbuster trade in July, he called Mitchell to tell him how ecstatic he was to be going to Boston. Garnett reiterated those feelings to Mitchell in Italy.
“[Garnett] loves being in Boston, loves his teammates,” said Mitchell, the winner of this year’s Red Auerbach Trophy as Coach of the Year. “He said if he knew the NBA was like this, he would have wanted to be traded a long time ago . . .
“I just think everybody does things a little different and he just enjoys it. When you’ve been in one place your whole career, you forget how other people do things and he’s never seen how other organizations work. I think he’s very impressed with the way Boston treats their players and how they do things.”
globesports.com: Celtics embark on rebuilding phase
The Raptors were in the Celtics’ shoes last season — less the three big stars — and after handing out the name tags in training camp, they started the season 7-14.
Staying largely the same has been welcomed. “It makes a big difference, we know we have a really good thing going here and we’re trying to improve and continue the whole thing,” Bosh said. “I think it’s very good. You have to have chemistry on offence and defence.
“Boston might come in and have great chemistry off the bat, but you can’t rush it. Sometimes it’s not going to be the best situations and people get frustrated with that and tend to ask, ‘What’s going on?’ It happened with us. If they don’t come out and start the season spectacularly, people are going to wonder why.”
TorontoSun.com – Basketball – Trans-Atlantic rep battle
“We’re always going to be under the radar, to a certain extent, because we’re in Toronto,” Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said yesterday. “I can’t remember the last time we played on a TNT game or an ABC game, so what’s new?”
TheStar.com | Sports | Celtics’ `Big Three’ creating a buzz in the NBA
Will it be easier him to flourish with the Boston Celtics? Without a doubt, says one of his closest friends in basketball.
“Oh, yeah, without a doubt because he has no ego,” Sam Mitchell said yesterday of Garnett, who makes his debut for Boston alongside Paul Pierce and Ray Allen this afternoon against the Raptors.
“Kevin doesn’t have to take the last shot, he doesn’t have to, quote-unquote, `be the man.’ He’s been the man and he’s always going to be the man to a certain extent because of how good he is and who he is and that’s never going to change.
“But he doesn’t have to feed his ego like that. I know the only thing important to Kevin is trying to win basketball games and compete for a championship.”
TheStar.com | Sports | Raptors now all friends
if there is one prevailing upgrade to this team, it’s the cohesion it should show on the court.
“I like our team. I like the way our makeup is,” Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said yesterday. “We may not have three all-stars we can throw out on the floor, but we’ve got nine, 10, 11 players and over the course of a game we think we can wear people down.”
And nine, 10, 11 players who should each know what the others are going to do.
National Basketball Association – CBSSports.com
14. Sam Mitchell, Toronto: Anyone who tells you they expected to see Mitchell still coaching the Raptors when last season began is a liar. He was as lame-duck as they come, unlikely to be retained with new GM Bryan Colangelo set to bring in his own guy, probably former Suns assistant Iavaroni. Instead, Mitchell wound up the NBA Coach of the Year, leading a young Toronto team filled with international players to a surprise Atlantic Division title. Players respect him as a straight shooter who works as hard as he expects them to.
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