Raptors Roundup: Interleague Preseason Exhibition Edition!

The Raptors play their first game on October 8 against Real Madrid in an exhibition. You gotta love when the NBA schedules its teams to play against the best teams from other leagues, you know, because now NBA teams can play with even less enthusiasm than they already do during preseason.

In these scenarios the NBA teams are like the Varsity team from a high school while the foreign team is that J.V. team that doesn't really stand a chance.

The NBA teams are supposed to win (considering the NBA is the pinnacle league for basketball worldwide and all) against international teams. Sure, those international teams are good but they are littered with North American players not good enough to make it on an NBA roster.

What makes those games entertaining is when an NBA team loses to the international squad. When that happens it probably should be a little worrying to that fan base that maybe their team isn't as good as they originally thought (As in this case. The Raptors stumbled to a 41-41 record after finishing 12 games over .500 the year before.).

There are other reasons why I'm excited for the upcoming game against Real Madrid. No, it's not because by this time every off-season I'm so desperate for basketball that I'll gladly accept whatever the NBA lazily puts in front of me (Preseason! Raps! Timberwolves! MTS Centre!!!!!!!). It's an early opportunity to see: if the team has any chemistry, if the rookies can come into games and immediately have an impact, and if the guys considered to have potential have put in the work needed to improve their games over the off season.

That last point is really all I'm interested in (after all, it's only preseason). It reveals what kind of work ethic the player has, but it gives the fans an idea of whether that player can be the cornerstone for a franchise to build around.

Past Players the Raptors have Hoped would be their Cornerstone Guy:

Vince Carter: All the talent but a terrible work ethic (among other things). They have also had Chris

Chris Bosh: Great work ethic but not talented enough to be the number one option on a playoff team. But at least Bosh has videos like this:

Andrea Bargnani: He will be 27 by the start of the regular season. Including this year, he has 4 more years under contract. His work ethic is questionable - he has only averaged more than 6 rebounds per game once in his 6 year career, sometimes he settles for too many jumpers instead of attacking the rim, and his defense is often non-existent. These are all facets of his game that he can fixed.

I think he's reached his ceiling, but who knows? Maybe Dwayne Casey can continue to motivate him to play defense and rebound more.

I'll end this week's post by giving my reader(s) an apology. I've only recently been enlightened to Shaqtin A Fool by a friend (Shout out to Meghan!) and it's surprisingly funny considering how disappointing Shaq has been since joining TNT. Click on the link and enjoy Shaq actually talking loud enough to be heard.

Before I go, I need to give a shout to Marianne for mentioning one of the greatest Raptors to ever play, Jerome Junkyard Dog Williams, in the comments section of last week's post. My post (or life) wouldn't be complete without a montage of JYD putting in work.