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The Raptors are looking lost without Jose at the helm
If you have been watching the Raptors recently, then you know that they have been experiencing a great many offensive woes. Namely, they are having trouble with ball movement and turnovers. None of the plays look smooth and the ball rarely touches every player’s hand.
In fact, the ball often ends up out on the perimeter in the hands of DeMar DeRozan or Rudy Gay, where they’re expected to make something out of nothing. Every single trip down the floor makes the Raptors look stagnant and lethargic. As a fan, it’s difficult to watch.
It makes one think, is Lowry really the point guard that the Raptors should have kept? Sure, he’s younger than the Raps’ former point, Jose Calderon, but he just isn’t the same type of player. Lowry is an attacker, whereas Calderon was a pass first guard, and it appears that he is having a tough time integrating with two other high volume shooters in DeMar and Rudy.
While Lowry has shown flashes of brilliance, he just doesn’t have the consistency or passing ability that Jose does. He has had a rough time trying to run the Raps’ offense and has several times even had to make plays himself but slashing to the basket and kicking the ball back out to the perimeter.
It’s not only Lowry’s lack of consistency with running the team that is troublesome, as he has also been shooting the ball poorly as of late. He has shot well under 50% for the past 5 games and hasn’t done a great job in picking his spots.
Jose, if one remembers, was doing very well at all of the things Kyle hasn’t been before he was shipped off to his new team in Detroit. And how has he been doing?
Since the difficult move, Jose has had a little bit of a hard time adjusting to playing in Detroit, but he is starting to pick up his game there. His latest effort with the team resulted in him dishing out 18 dimes in a win over the Washington Wizards, a team the Raptors lost to not so long ago.
That performance is the sort of thing the Raptors are missing right now and partly why Colangelo brought Sebastian Telfair to Toronto; a pass first guard. The Raptors do not have a pure point guard in Lowry or Lucas (who also likes to shoot), and thus they have had a dramatic decrease in offensive efficiency.
Even the big men, Amir Johnson in particular, are seeing their numbers drop. Jose was spectacular at finding ways to include bigs in the offense and often managed to find a cutting Amir for a layup or monster dunk. But without Calderon’s timely passes and court vision, the Raptors look lost out on the court, as though only Rudy or DeMar can cut through the thick fog of the defense in front of them.
Even if he wasn’t a good defender, Jose was and is still great at ripping apart opposing defenses. It has never been as obvious as now, with the Raps in the midst of a three game slump.
Hopefully, Lowry, Lucas, Telfair or anyone can figure something out quick to try and get the Raptors back on track and winning ball games.
But without a master at the controls, this team is going haywire.
I have been telling people this would happen but everyone keeps telling me he sucks. Now that he is gone people are finally seeing his true value. Hope we can get him back during the summer.
What I always find interesting about any article like this, one that touts Calderon as this stud PG, is there is never any mention that in 5 years with Jose as the Raptor’s starter, the team never once posted a winning record. With the 2010-11 & 2011-12 seasons posting over 100 losses.
Instead, statistics are cherry picked to make him sound better than he is, as was done here with his 18 assist game against Washington. What doesn’t get mentioned is it was a one point win where Jose had only 6 pts on 33% shooting while Brandon Knight poured in 32 pts.
Calderon is a nice player. Efficient, good asst/to ratio & shoots well. But he is slow, is going to be 32 yrs old & does not rip apart defenses. If you want the Raptors to actually move forward, then stop looking at their past for answers.