11/19/08
by: Scott
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Pardon my absence, but I've been working around the clock on that thing you see at the top of the site. There will be a press release sent out about this tomorrow morning which I'll publish here. In the meantime, here's my brief take on last night's loss to the Magic.
It would be easy to criticize Will Solomon for his performance (10 points, four assists, seven turnovers) but it's important to remember that he hasn't been in the NBA since '01-02 and we all knew there was going to be a dropoff at backup point guard now that T.J. Ford is gone. Rather than give Solomon a hard time, I'd rather take the opportunity to show appreciation for Jose Calderon — who the Raptors clearly missed last night.
The comparison between point guards and quarterbacks really came to mind last night as I thought about how both positions have a range of styles and ways to win or lose a game. Some quarterbacks are gunslingers and take lots of chances — throwing deep and into coverage without any apparent fear of interceptions. Brett Favre is this type of QB. Other quarterbacks are more athletes than throwers and can be more likely to beat you on the ground than in the air. Michael Vick is a classic example of this type. Then you have your "game managers", who don't take a lot of unnecessary chances and aren't extraordinary athletes but they do what needs to be done to keep you in the game and give you a chance to win. Kerry Collins is one of those guys.
What do Jason Kidd, Gilbert Arenas and Jose Calderon have in common, besides their position? Not much, but they can help their teams win in their own way, with their own style. Our man, Jose, is a game manager. He's not flashy and he doesn't take a lot of high-risk, high-reward chances — but he runs a steady, low-mistake offense and you're not likely to see him turn the ball over seven times in a game. Sometimes we'd like him to make riskier, more exciting plays, but he happens to be surrounded with a bunch of good shooters and Jose realizes he just needs to get them the ball in the right place and time for the Raptors to put up points. His style works for this team and, once again, he leads the NBA in assist/turnover ratio at 5.14.
Needless to say, we're all hoping he's back soon although he's unlikely to play tonight in Miami. Solomon and Roko Ukic put on a clinic of how not to manage an offense last night and I'm not looking forward to many more games like that. 
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