The recent play of the Raptors has increased the quality of my life by about 30%. I am using this time to clear up a few things, and own up to some others.

1. I did not think the Raptors would be this good this quickly.
2. Colangelo can do no wrong in my books. The man came in, and handled business. The best move this franchise made in a long time, hands down.
3. Swirsky should not be allowed to have his own show on The Fan 590, for no other reason than he is an employee of MLSE. The man is biased beyond repair. I want unbiased reporting, not a PR conduit for MLSE.
4. I am putting my nuts on the line that Mitchell, for all the good work he has done this year, will not be the Raptors head coach come next season - regardless of what goes down in the playoffs. He has really done a great job mentoring Bosh, and guiding this team, but his X’s and O’s seem suspect. I am interested to see how Colangelo handles this (new GM usually means new coaching staff, and by usually, I mean always).
5. The Raptors don’t get out of the second round of the playoffs…that is if they get out of the 1st round. They will definitely contend in the East in the years to come, but have to pay some tough dues now, circle of life man.
6. Desmond Mason and Gerald Wallace would make GREAT additions to this team. They would address the need for a slashing three.
7. For some reason, call me insane, I think Danny Fortson would be a good addition in the sense that he would bring toughness, rebounding, and low post defense (his attitude is bad, but he has some characteristics we could really use).
8. I blame Mitchell for the Cleveland loss - there were 16.5 seconds to get a decent shot off, and they came out of the time out, as always, in disarray, and did nothing with the opportunity.
9. If Bargnani ends up half as good as Nowitzki, in the toughness department, the kid will be sick.
10. My money is on a Spurs-Pistons final, with the Spurs in 7.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season pans out. 16 or so of the remaining games are against playoff bound teams. This will be a great temperature check for the Raptors, and give us a sense of where this ball club is. They are 2 pieces away from being an Eastern conference powerhouse, in my humble estimation. I dare not say a championship contender until there is another All-Star on this squad. Bargnani may be able to fill that role, but not for another couple of years. Another interesting developmet comes next year when Calderons contract is up for renewal. If he continues to progress at his current pace, he will be in line for a big time contract. I don’t know if he will be content playing backup to Ford for much longer. He can be a starting point guard on a few teams right now, who knows where he will be next year. What to do at that point? Trade him, or trade Ford?

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