The Raptors are currently tenth in defense and twentieth in offense. It is a strange place to live, like a house where the front door has four deadbolts but the roof is made of crackers. Since the All Star break, we have decided that scoring is optional but preventing others from scoring is a moral imperative.
Kirk Goldsberry released a chart recently showing this landscape. We are in the quadrant where people play hard but maybe do not know where the basket is located. It reminds me of my Uncle Jerry, who used to spend all day waxing his car but never actually drove it anywhere because he did not want to get the tires dirty.
The Georgian Connection
There is a conversation happening about Goga Bitadze. He is 6 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 250 pounds, which is a lot of person to move out of the way. He is from the same country as Sandro Mamukelashvili, and apparently we are trying to collect the entire Georgian national team.
Goga makes about 8 million dollars and his contract is expiring soon. People are suggesting we trade two or three second round picks for him, or perhaps a late first rounder. It seems like a lot of assets for a man who primarily exists to be large, but sometimes being large is enough.
Missing Prizes and Hypothetical Series
Someone on the internet won a RedTag giveaway in January and still has not received their prize. They contacted Fan Services and were met with silence. It is a bit like the Raptors offense, you are promised something exciting in the first quarter, but by the time the fourth quarter rolls around, nobody can find the person in charge.
I hope they get their prize soon. Waiting two months for a giveaway is a long time, especially when you have to watch the team rank 20th in offensive efficiency while you wait. It is hard to stay patient when the thing you were promised is floating somewhere in the void.
Small Victories and Large Jerseys
A fan recently added two more jerseys to their collection. This is a bold move in these uncertain times. Collecting jerseys is an act of optimism, you are essentially saying that you believe these names will matter in three years. I have a Jorge Garbajosa jersey somewhere that suggests I am not always right about these things.
Lastly, there is a debate about who wins in a seven game series between two hypothetical teams. It is a fun exercise because nobody can actually lose. In a real seven game series, someone always has to walk home sad, but in a hypothetical one, we can all just imagine that everyone played well and the snacks were excellent.