Half time Rap...

So the Raps are 24-19 after 43 games... that puts them on pace for somewhere around 46 wins for the season... not bad... but not great...

The Good:
- Jose Calderon - he's played amazing since TJ went down... he's grown a lot as a player, particularly now that he's got a consistent shot (which definitely wasn't there his rookie year)... borderline all-star, who's gaining fans (including Peter Vescey of the New York Times)...
- Chris Bosh - he started slow, but has picked up his game big-time... he's the All-Star he's supposed to be... so much for all the "overrated" comments from the US writers... clearly there's a lot more overrated guys out there - Jermaine O'Neal, Luol Deng, Old Shaq, etc, etc...
- Jamario Moon - what a shocker this guy's turned out to be... strong defender and an impact player, with crazy crazy hops... he REALLY needs to work on his shot though, as he's wide open almost all the time but shooting only 45% including all his dunks... 26% from 3 is not encouraging either
- AP - unheralded glue guy has helped this team through losing TJ and Garbo... he does so many little things well (though he has been a little turnover happy lately - turnovers of the silly kind)
- Ability to win on the Road - the team is 11-11 with big wins in San Antonio and Boston... no way they would have done that even last year!
- Hard part of the schedule is over - this team played a tougher part of the schedule in the first half... they already played Boston 4 times, Dallas twice, Houston twice, Phoenix twice, Portland twice, Detroit twice, New Orleans/Golden State/San Antonio once... That means they've played a lot of the top teams and are still over .500... which bodes well for the second half
- Depth - they've shown decent depth, particularly given they lost two starters from last year... different players have stepped up at times, and Sam Mitchell deserves kudos for going with whoever is hot
- Three point shooting - this team is deadly when they're on... as evidenced in the Boston game... Kapono is second in the league in shooting %... AP is fourth...

The Bad:
- Juan Dixon and Derrick Martin have proven to be terrible
- Andreas Bargnani's fall... he started the season with two great games, and then just fell to pieces... he has two fouls within the first six minutes of so many games now, and has just stunk in general... he's probably had 5 good games all season (out of 43)
- Lack of Toughness - Horford taking out Ford with no retaliation is bad enough, but when the same team tries to take out Calderon and there's still no retaliation? or at least standing up? Josh Smith was in the face of the Raptor bench for a good ten minutes during the stoppage in play yapping like crazy, but not one Raptor stood up and yapped back...
- Lack of Perimeter D in the clutch - this team has a habit of letting the opposing superstar camp out in one spot and make 3 after 3... (Dirk, LeBron, Brandon Roy)... Sam needs to work on this... Kobe hasn't come to town yet (well he's here on friday...)
- Consistency of Delfino, Humphries, Kapono, etc - these guys have been erratic... I thought Kapono had turned the corner but he's been terrible the last week or two... Humphries looked like an all-star for about a two week span... but then like Hoffa for just as long... Delfino is the worst of them all, as he yoyos in back-to-back games...
- Lack of respect - most of the powerpolls in the US have the Raps at 16th... the Raps are definitely better than that, but they need to show everyone else that...

Outlook:
- Team has done great with the schedule so far... I see them finishing with something around 48 wins... having said that, this team hasn't made a huge run yet (like Portland or New Orleans), so if they do, that could turn into 50...
- Team should make a move... cannot finish this season with Juan Dixon or Derrick Martin on this roster... or at least not both of them...
- Playoffs should be a lock as they are already 6+ games up on Jersey who is in 9th...
- Go Raps!