Post by Toronto on Jun 20, 2007 0:24:33 GMT -5
Move over Steve Nash; Theres a new Sheriff in Town[/size]
Toronto Free Press[/i]
Toronto AP- When you talk about great point guards in this league, names like Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Steve Nash and Chris Paul. But who thought that 29 year old Jamal Crawford, who has been long enough around to be called a veteran, is the current assist leader over Steve Nash at 10.1 apg. This is a guy along with his teammates was put on the trade block in the offseason and coulda been had by basically any team. There was alot of doubt if he can be a good point guard, we always knew he was a good scorer but his passing skills were highly questioned year after year. Crawford was part of the deal that sent Dwyane Wade to the Hornets. At the time not all the Toronto fans were pleased with getting Crawford, he actually was the backup point guard to Devin Harris at the time. The Raptors faced big problems with the hard cap and were unable to sign youngster Harris to a long term contract and had no choice but to insert Jamal Crawford into the starting lineup at point guard. It couldn't have worked any better for them, as the last two years he has been in the tops assists but this year he may very well on the way to win an assist title for the first time in his career. "If you look at the stats, Crawford has downgraded his scoring but has upgraded his assist total and when you can make your teammates around you better, we will take it. " said Raptors GM Ed Rodriguez
It was a big shame not seeing Jamal Crawford in the All-Star Game, but you can't blame the fans since he plays in Canada where they barely get recognition as a team unless it's Yao Ming with the International Press. "We love Jamal, he's a great teammate and a good kid, you know that he wants to win as bad as we do, he's been doubted all his career and now he's finally turning into the player that everyone was expecting him to turn into. "said Raptors Forward Kenyon Martin to the Press. Crawfords gives alot of appreciation to Raptors Coach Larry Brown who took over last season, he did the same things with other point guards and has surely elevated Crawford's game each season.
The Toronto Raptors are 26-13 which is good enough for 2nd place in the Eastern Conference, they have improved defensively from last year when they acquired big man Yao Ming, they finally got a pure center who can do it all, score, block, defend and most importantly rebound. It's obvious that the teams needs improvements to better there chances in the search of a Championship but they need to make changes to their bench that is far one of the worse of all contenders. They have been able to acquire F Ron Mercer, G Nate Robinson and C David Harrison who have helped improve the contributions by the bench significantly over what they had, especially Harrison who is the one with the best stat sheet of all bench aquisitions.
Toronto Free Press[/i]
Toronto AP- When you talk about great point guards in this league, names like Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Steve Nash and Chris Paul. But who thought that 29 year old Jamal Crawford, who has been long enough around to be called a veteran, is the current assist leader over Steve Nash at 10.1 apg. This is a guy along with his teammates was put on the trade block in the offseason and coulda been had by basically any team. There was alot of doubt if he can be a good point guard, we always knew he was a good scorer but his passing skills were highly questioned year after year. Crawford was part of the deal that sent Dwyane Wade to the Hornets. At the time not all the Toronto fans were pleased with getting Crawford, he actually was the backup point guard to Devin Harris at the time. The Raptors faced big problems with the hard cap and were unable to sign youngster Harris to a long term contract and had no choice but to insert Jamal Crawford into the starting lineup at point guard. It couldn't have worked any better for them, as the last two years he has been in the tops assists but this year he may very well on the way to win an assist title for the first time in his career. "If you look at the stats, Crawford has downgraded his scoring but has upgraded his assist total and when you can make your teammates around you better, we will take it. " said Raptors GM Ed Rodriguez
It was a big shame not seeing Jamal Crawford in the All-Star Game, but you can't blame the fans since he plays in Canada where they barely get recognition as a team unless it's Yao Ming with the International Press. "We love Jamal, he's a great teammate and a good kid, you know that he wants to win as bad as we do, he's been doubted all his career and now he's finally turning into the player that everyone was expecting him to turn into. "said Raptors Forward Kenyon Martin to the Press. Crawfords gives alot of appreciation to Raptors Coach Larry Brown who took over last season, he did the same things with other point guards and has surely elevated Crawford's game each season.
The Toronto Raptors are 26-13 which is good enough for 2nd place in the Eastern Conference, they have improved defensively from last year when they acquired big man Yao Ming, they finally got a pure center who can do it all, score, block, defend and most importantly rebound. It's obvious that the teams needs improvements to better there chances in the search of a Championship but they need to make changes to their bench that is far one of the worse of all contenders. They have been able to acquire F Ron Mercer, G Nate Robinson and C David Harrison who have helped improve the contributions by the bench significantly over what they had, especially Harrison who is the one with the best stat sheet of all bench aquisitions.
