Media day

It was media day for the Raptors at the ACC before they headed on a plane for Italy. Raps TV conducted interviews with the players although at this point I have no idea when they will air those. Monday they put up the weekly schedule on raptors.com so hopefully something will be shown next week. Regardless, the Raptors first pre-season game vs Boston will be on Raptors TV next Saturday Oct. 6th at 2:30 pm.

A few things said today that made the web...

"I see guys a little hungrier this year," Colangelo said. "You've got guys that have had a little taste of the apple, a little taste of playoff action. . . I swear T.J. (Ford) had his game face on two weeks ago in the informal workouts here."

Good, these guys know that all the talk is once again about everyone else except them. Boston already has the Atlantic divison according to most observers. Let me be clear here and say that it does not matter that the Raps are getting little respect, or at least little faith, by some of the people out there. Last year during the season it was annoying, but this year it's different. The Raps did end up getting Coach of the year, executive of the year and lots of MVP talk for Bosh when everything was said and done so they have not been ignored. I am not handing the Atlantic over to the Celtics or the Nets though, although I am sure some people would look into what happened during the playoffs last year as a reason why the Celtics and Nets are favored both over the Raps. I do think a close look into what happened in the Raps/Nets series would show a toughier situation then normal for the Raps, but as an outside observer, they just see the Nets winning in 6 which is fine and fair. A Mavs fan might see things that I missed, as I just saw the Warriors kick ass. So I can't blame people for picking Boston right now over the Raps, even though I might not agree. And at the same point, everyone sleeping on the Raps should be firing up the players, something to prove, and that is a good thing for us fans.

"From a pure offensive standpoint, I think we're going to be one of the best shooting teams in the league," said Colangelo. "I'm not sure you could put many people in a shooting contest with Anthony Parker, Andrea Bargnani, Jason Kapono. . it's a situation where there's going to be a lot of shots made this year."

I think it's pretty set that its Ford/Parker/Kapono/Bosh/Bargnani for the starting five. And Colangelo is right, who are you going to use to double? Every player except for Ford can hit from outside. And hopefully that is something Ford has been working on. Bosh backs this up...

"It improves us," said Bosh, who continues to cement his spot as the cornerstone of the franchise. "I think our outside shooting has improved, we have Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono, and Andrea Bargnani all spotted up and me and T.J. attacking the basket, you have to pick your poison a little bit. Our athleticism improved, our outside shooting improved, and that's the kind of game that we play. We definitely got better."

Bosh says the goals are...
"Get to the playoffs, be in the upper tier in the Eastern Conference and advance in the playoffs," all-star forward Chris Bosh said of the team's goals."

I would say that it would be a very disappointing season if they don't win at least one round. I know the East got better, but that is how much I believe that they are better then most teams.

Here is another article talking more specifically about Bosh's foot.

"I'm not going to lie and say it's 100 per cent, but it's a lot better than last year, and I'm looking forward to it going away and leaving me alone," Bosh said Friday, a day before Raptors training camp in Treviso, Italy. "I'm staying on top of it, I'm treating it with respect, and making sure I can prevent it from happening again."

It's impressive how little Bosh showed any type of pain. Seriously, I knew he had the injury at the start of the season, but I thought it was gone by the time January rolled around. Sounds like that was not even close to being the case.

"The most important thing is we would like Chris to have more practice time, because it's hard to get better just playing in the games," said Mitchell. "He missed a lot of practice time last year, so if we can get him on the floor for practice time, that will help us."

"I got off to a slow start last year because I didn't practise," Bosh said. "This year, I expect to practise constantly, expect to be 100 per cent and I expect to get off to a good start.

And with the summer being used to stay off his feet, he has been hitting the gym and is said to be looking stronger. Excellent. Bosh always had the finesse, but to continue to add a power game would be a nice addition.

"I have minimal pain right now, I've come a long way. I'm just happy to wake up in the morning and be able to walk without any pain."

HE still has pain??? Good lord.