Report: Raptors consider signing Mickael Pietrus and improving Wing Position

       The Raptors have been struggling as they have now lost 6 straight there recent loss was last night against the Grizzlies 103-82. The Raptors are currently sitting at a 3-13 record and are in the 2nd last position of the Eastern Conference. At the same time, the Raptors are dealing with injuries to Landry Fields and Alan Anderson who are out for a month or so and also play at the small forward position.

        There have also been report according to Sportsnet that the Raptors are interested in signing Mickael Pietrus as they have been looking for a small forward due to the injuries to Fields and Anderson. It might be true because a reporter for the National Post spoke to Bryan Colangelo and said that he is interested in improving production at the wing position. (http://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/2012/11/28/toronto_raptors_consider_signing_mickael_pietrus/)

        Mickael Pietrus was in Toronto yesterday and was probably there because if he were to play for the Raptors, he would have to do a physical and do a workout before officially being signed. However, if Pietrus were to be signed by the Raptors, they would have to waive a player in order to make room for him as the Raptors currently have 15 players with guaranteed contracts. If the signing were to happen, the Raptors would likely waive a player with a one year contract such as Alan Anderson or Dominic McGuire. Who would you guys want the Raptors to waive if the Raptors were to sign Pietrus?

       I think that it might be a realistic possibility that the Raptors could sign Pietrus but it depends on Pietrus whether or not he would want to sign in Toronto as the Raptors have not been playing well. There are also other teams such as the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers who are doing much better than the Raptors and has opportunity for more playing time that are interested in signing Mickael Pietrus.
(http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1421320-nba-power-rankings-separating-contenders-from-pretenders)

       Do you think that the Raptors should acquire Pietrus as the Raptors have been struggling and are currently lacking players at the small forward position? Or do you guys think that the Raptors should wait for Anderson and Fields to come back from their injuries? I feel that the Raptors should sign Pietrus who is a veteran as hopefully he can help improve our record and maybe get us a playoff push late into the season. Feel free to post your opinion on whether or not Mickael Pietrus would be a good signing for the Raptors.

About Mickael Pietrus: 

- 30 years old

- Would be able to provide veteran help to Terrence Ross, Demar Derozan and etc 

- Played for Golden State, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns and just recently with the Boston Celtics in the 2011-2012 season

- Has a career average of 8.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and playing time of 21 minutes

- Good 3 point shooter as he has a career average of 36 percent from the 3 point line

- Stellar perimeter defender

- Tremendous athleticism and quickness on defensive end along with great hands

Raptors Basketball: Toronto Raptors regular season process, other Canada Raptors related news, Vince Carter and more!

      This blog post will talk about Raptors progress into the regular season as they've already played 5 games. This post will also talk the latest Raptors important news, Vince Carter truth and etc.

      So far, the Toronto Raptors have played about 5 games into the regular season and have a compiled record of 1-4 (maybe we should fire Dwayne Casey?), just kidding. The Lakers fired Mike Brown so early into the season as the team had a 1-4 record even with all the big pieces they acquired in the summer. Anyways, going back to the Raptors, they have been dealing with a couple injuries and have lost two straight. We all know the season is young and the Raptors have fresh faces, so here's hoping that they will get out of this slump and will get there game straightened out soon.

      The Raptors have not been playing well and I think the reason to that is there defence. There defence has been worse this year than last year when Casey adapted the defence first philosophy. As Casey has said, the Raptors have not been controlling the paint and getting back into transition. You could see that in the game as the Toronto Raptors were out rebounded 31-13 in the first quarter against the Mavericks. Another problem with the Raptors are bad starts because they dig themselves deep in the first quarter as they allowed the Mavericks to score 36 points on 60 percent shooting. Then the Raptors tried to make a come back at the 4th quarter but fell short like they always do.

Other notes  

       Dwayne Casey should be looking at shaking up the line up as the Raptors have been struggling. He should definitely be giving Terrence Ross extra minutes to show case the rookie and see what he can do. Terrence Ross played about 14 minutes against the Thunder and had 10 points. By the way, do any of you guys have NBA 2K13 and have used Terrence Ross? I've used him many times and he is such a CLUTCH player because its so easy to knock down 3 pointers with him and scoring from the perimeter.

       Remember how I said earlier in one of my blog posts that John Lucas III was playing so well that he could have easily placed Calderon if he got traded? I take that back because he has been a different guy into the regular season. He's been struggling with his shooting and I also noticed that he was chucking a lot of shots when the Raptors played the Thunder.

Vince Carter wanted to stay put in Toronto

       I'm pretty sure that you guys have probably heard about this that Carter wanted to stay in Toronto the day before he got traded. I find this kind of shocking and makes me hate former Raptors GM Rob Babcock(worst GM ever) even more because he traded Vince Carter the day before he said he wanted to stay and acquired two scrubs, Alonzo Mourning who didn't even want to stay in Toronto and a couple 1st round picks which wasn't even going to help our future. Babcock shouldn't had even pulled the deal because we would have been an all-star team back then with Bosh, Carter and who else at that time.

       What makes me even more mad and stupid and has probably made other fans feel that way is that we booed at Vince Carter when he was with the Nets because we thought he requested a trade to be out of Toronto when he clearly wanted to stay. Vince Carter has done many things to the Toronto Raptors that made them recognized in the league. Therefore, I  think that the management should be open to make Vince Carter a Raptor again (hopefully retires as a Raptor) but that all depends on if he still has the same feelings that he did before the sour goodbye. 

Philadelphia 76ers v.s Toronto Raptors preview

       The Toronto Raptors will play against the 76ers on Saturday at the Air Canada Centre at 7PM and you can watch it on TSN if you live in the GTA. If you're going to the game tomorrow, the Raptors will be wearing there camouflage jerseys to honor Canada's veterans. This is going to be a critical game for the Toronto Raptors as they are 1-4 and it is a game time decision for Kyle Lowry as he is dealing with a sprained ankle that he sprained in the OKC game. However, Kyle Lowry was not wearing a walking boot or had a limp in yesterdays practice and that might be a good thing. This team needs Kyle Lowry back as he has been averaging astonishing 23 points and 7 rebounds per game and has just been a machine. Andrew Bynum won't be playing for the 76ers as he's been dealing with his knee injury and that will hopefully make it a easier night for rookie Jonas Valanciunas.

      Landry Fields is also questionable for tomorrow's game as he has been dealing with discomfort with his right hand and he saw a hand specialist to diagnose his hand. Most likely, Alan Anderson or Dominic McGuire will start for Fields. Perhaps Fields injury is to blame for his poor performance with the Raptors as he has been unable to hit open shots and missing easy layups.

      After this game, the Raptors will be off to face Utah Jazz on Sunday and then they will have more tough games as they will be facing the Celtics and Pacers.

       In conclusion, this blog post talked about how the Raptors have been struggling in the beginning of the season, how Vince Carter wanted to stay put in Toronto and also a preview of the Raptors game against Philadelphia 76ers tonight. If you like what I'm posting on my blog page, please check out and like my Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest and links are posted below or you can click my the gadgets on the side. Feel free to subscribe to receive daily updates of my blog! I've also posted videos below for convenience Thanks and stay tuned!

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Raptors basketball: Toronto Raptors first game at the Air Canada Centre, Demar Derozans contract extension and more!

       In this blog post, I will provide my thoughts and review about the Toronto Raptors first regular season home opener game against the Indiana Pacers. The Toronto Raptors lost to the Indiana Pacers 88-90 as Andrea Bargnani missed a jumper in the final seconds to push the game to over-time. In this post, I will also provide my thoughts on Demar Derozan's new contract extension and I will also provide a preview of the Toronto Raptors game tonight against the Brooklyn Nets.

My thoughts about the Toronto Raptors home opener against Indiana Pacers

       The Toronto Raptors had a pretty good first game against the Indiana Pacers, however there were a lot of flaws in the game like when the Toronto Raptors blew a 10 point lead when there were six minutes left in the 4th quarter and also went scoreless in the last 4 minutes 4th quarter. Overall, the  Toronto Raptors shot 36 percent from the line and were out rebounded 42-46. Dwayne Casey had positive things to say about the Raptors after the game at the Air Canada Centre and thought that the Toronto Raptors showed "grit and funk" which I also agree with him because the team did play hard, however little mistakes cost them the game.

      Jonas Valanciunas and Kyle Lowry who are the newest editions to the team played well as rookie Jonas Valanciunas was nervous in the beginning in his first game did have trouble guarding Roy Hibbert. 12 points and 10 rebounds and shows that he has the capability of being a double double every night.

      Point guard Kyle Lowry nearly had a triple double with 21 points assists, seven rebounds and five steals. Kyle Lowry is what the Toronto Raptors need as he can pick up the scoring load, make plays for his team and plays defence.

      Landry Fields who looked promising during preseason who I preached will be a important piece to the Toronto Raptors had a disappointing night with 0 points in 24 minutes.

      Andrea Bargnani in the first quarter seemed to look like he was coming to grip to be the player he was last year before he got injured as he had 11 points. However, he finished the game with 16 points, just 3 rebounds (more than Kyle Lowry), 3 assists with 4-16 shooting.

Demar Derozan contract extension

       I'm pretty sure that many of you have heard that Demar Derozan was granted a contract extension 4 years, 38 million dollars. Some people are happy and some are disappointed with the deal. In my opinion, I think it is fair for what Demar Derozan received because say if he will have a breakout season this year? We would probably end up having to pay him more than around 10 million per year.

       Bryan Colangelo also said that the Toronto Raptors may have lost Demar Derozan in free agency because as he would have been a restricted free agent where the Raptors would have had the rights to match any contract offered by another team. However, other teams would have overpaid Demar Derozan by offering him a poison pill contract which the Raptors would not want to match because they would feel he would not be worth the money and would have to lose him and a core piece. The other choice would have been that they would have matched the poison pill contract that the other teams offered which would ruin their Raptors cap flexibility and future plans. However, both choices are not a win situation.

       Demar Derozan is still 23 years old and has the work ethic to be sucessful. He still has loads of potential because in 222 games, he has averaged 14.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 30.3 minutes in 222 career games with the Raptors and has made 743 free-throws out of 927. He also had the biggest scoring increase in his second year from 8.6 points to 17.2 points. Demar Derozan is a fan favourite in Toronto and he also has lots of love for Toronto. However, I hope that newly awarded contract will make him more motivated and will eventually improve his game that he is not fully developed like being efficient in scoring, passing and defending.

Toronto Raptors v.s Brooklyn Nets preview

       The Toronto Raptors will face Brooklyn Nets today at the new Barclays Centre in Brooklyn 7:30PM. If you live in Toronto you can also catch the game on television on Sportsnet. Brooklyn Nets will also make their season debut after being affected by Hurricane Sandy and also moving from Newark which they were previously known as the New Jersey Nets.

       It's going to be challenging to handle the duo back court combination of elite point guard Deron Williams and guard Joe Johnson because the Toronto Raptors mostly used the back court combination of Jose Calderon and Kyle Lowry against the Pacers. However, let's see how Brooklyn's bench will last against the Toronto Raptors.

       This blog post provided a review about the Toronto Raptors first regular season home opener game against the Indiana Pacers which the Toronto Raptors lost 88-90. I also provided my thoughts on Demar Derozan's new contract extension and a preview of the Toronto Raptors game tonight against the Brooklyn Nets. The Toronto Raptors will play there next game against Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, November 4th at 6PM.

       If you missed the first Raptors game of the season, check out the highlights! It was a tight and very exciting game.