rounder was a fantasy force after rec

MONTREAL - The Raptors have made their eight-game exhibition slate look easy, for whatever thats worth. With Fridays 83-80 win over the Knicks in Montreal, Toronto closed out the pre-season with a record of 7-1, matching the franchise record for most exhibition victories and ensuring theyll finish camp with the leagues best record this fall. What does it all mean? Nothing, Dwane Casey said following his teams pre-season finale at the Bell Centre. Not one hill of beans. Exhibition, you can take this record and - I cant say what I want to say. But you can do whatever you want with the [stat sheet], because exhibition doesnt mean anything except for our conditioning and our timing and our rhythm that it gave us. Indeed, exhibition success is difficult to measure and theres no telling how it may translate to the real games. The last and only other time the Raptors have tallied seven pre-season wins was in 2006, just ahead of one of the franchises best campaigns which ultimately resulted in a division title. Last year they went 6-1 - their last game was canceled on account of a slippery court in Milwaukee - before starting the season 6-12. The lesson here: youre not likely to find much correlation between fall results and regular season success. Good teams, especially those with returning players, tend to excel year round, but there are always outliers at this point in the year. Going into Fridays action, the list of teams just below Toronto in exhibition standings included Cleveland, Golden State and Houston. No surprise there. It also included Detroit, New Orleans and Utah. So, who knows? We dont get a trophy for this? Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri joked. I think its the coaches time, its the players time, he continued. I think these guys have done a good job in preparing. I call it preparing. Its tough for us. I stay away, go to Europe to scout and get involved in other things just because you want to get down to it right away. Were here, a week out. And the reason why the Raptors feel good about where theyre at, just days before Wednesdays season opener, has almost nothing to do with wins and losses. Weve got a lot of guys from last year so we really dont have to figure out too many things, said DeMar DeRozan, who led Toronto with 15 points in Fridays exhibition finale. I think its mainly for the new guys to get implemented with our system on both ends. Its not too hard at all. As promised, Casey used Fridays contest to extend the minutes of his regulars, hoping to get them in rhythm and get comfortable in a more conventional rotation. One of his starters, Jonas Valanciunas, learned an early-season lesson courtesy of his defensive minded head coach. The third-year centre was beat on three box-outs in the opening five minutes, each resulting in an offensive rebound for Samuel Dalembert, before he was pulled and spent the rest of the half on the bench. Whatever message was sent at intermission, it was received in the third quarter when a noticeably more aggressive Valanciunas scored nine of his 13 points and added three boards. As a team, the Raptors held New York to 15 per cent shooting in the frame, besting them 14-7 on the glass and outscoring the visitors 25-11. As for those newcomers DeRozan referenced, they looked ready to start the new campaign on Friday. James Johnson was held without a point, on two shots, but earned praise from Casey after the game for his defence on Knicks star Carmelo Anthony. Casey called it his best game of the pre-season. Lou Williams did what he does best, knocking down a pair of big fourth-quarter shots and finishing with 12 points off the bench. Their first real test will come on Wednesday, following four days of practice and preparation, when they host the Hawks to open the franchises 20th season. Like a second home Le Nord Cest Nous, read advertisements situated throughout the city of Montreal, a French translation of the Raptors popular marketing slogan We The North. That message has resonated here, like it has in Toronto, throughout Canada and within the teams locker room. Fridays sellout crowd at the Bell Centre, like the packed house in Vancouver earlier this fall, served as a reminder that the Raptors are well on their way to being adopted as the countrys team, if they havent already. Its been huge, Casey said of the support his team has received throughout the Great White North. The pride that I see around the country for basketball, for the Raptors has been unbelievable. Part of the NBA Canada Series, the Raptors played their third pre-season game in Montreal. Along with Halifax, it’s the only Canadian city outside of Toronto to host three exhibition contests. DeRozan has made all three trips, first as a sophomore in 2010 and then again a couple years later. Its great, the Raptors all-star guard said of the atmosphere. Just coming off the season that we had last year and the success, just to come back around and be in Montreal, just to get that support in a different part of Canada definitely means a lot. I think We The North gives the country some pride and a good feeling about the Raptors, Casey added. Now we have to do our part in continuing to compete at a high level and I think its the way we do compete. Winning is important but I think people appreciate how hard our guys play, how we play defence, how we share the basketball and play together. I think thats a great lesson for the future of basketball in Canada. Respect for Nash Canada basketball took a hit late Thursday evening when the Los Angeles Lakers announced that Victorias Steve Nash has been ruled out for this coming season with a back injury that likely spells the end to his brilliant 18-year career. That said, the news did give Canadians and folks around the basketball universe an opportunity to pause, look back and appreciate everything the future Hall-of-Famer did as a pioneer for the sport in this country and one of the premier point guards to ever play the game. Its sad, Casey said of the two-time MVPs likely retirement. But hes done so much good; its hard to get sad for Steve because hes meant so much to Canadian basketball, to the NBA period. Hes the prototypical point guard that you teach your point guards to be like. We shouldnt be sad. Casey remembers his days coaching in Seattle - an assistant with the SuperSonics - when Nash used to come down to workout with Gary Payton, an iconic point guard of the previous generation. Ive known him for a long time, said the Raptors coach. Nothing but love and respect for his game. Nashs resume is undeniable. An eight-time all-star, the 40-year-old is third on the NBAs all-time assists list and has appeared in more post-season games than any other player without a ring in history. Amazingly, he was at the helm of the leagues best offence for nine straight years, on two different teams. The way that Phoenix [team] played, Casey said, that style of play was unique because of him. I think a lot of people tried to emulate that style of freewheeling, up and down basketball but unless you have a Steve Nash its very difficult to play that style of basketball. Hes been an unbelievable player, Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry echoed. Hes done a great job for basketball in general. He kind of changed the way people look at smaller guards. Frank Thomas Jersey .J. Ellis have avoided arbitration, agreeing to a one-year contract. Carlos Rodon Jersey . - The Denver Broncos kept rookie wide receiver Tavarres King from joining the Green Bay Packers by promoting him to their active roster Tuesday. http://www.whitesoxteamshop.com/White-So...on-Kids-Jersey/. The third-ranked Buckeyes were down eight points to Notre Dame with less than 2 minutes to play and their offence was nowhere to be found. Harold Baines Jersey . - The fiancee of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez is set to ask a judge to throw out allegations that she lied to a grand jury. Jose Abreu Jersey . A larger-than-life personality known for his intimidating style in the 18-yard box, Schmeichels career spanned some 20 years -- including a memorable tenure at Manchester United.Each week, TSN.ca NFL Editors Ben Fisher and Mike Hetherington discuss three hot fantasy football topics. This week they take a look back and their best and worst calls of the fantasy season. What was your best call this season? Fisher: I didn’t hit on much, but at a time when Robert Griffin III was still getting QB1 grades, I was pretty adamant he wouldn’t live up to those expectations, not even close. I also predicted Griffin wouldn’t last the year as starter but what I didn’t see was Kurt Cousins also getting replaced … or for that matter Colt McCoy looking half serviceable. Griffin struggled even before his ankle injury – his proneness to injury another contributing factor to my low draft grade – and while he put up passable numbers in the games he started upon his return, he never came close to resembling a QB1. Griffin was exposed as a mediocre quarterback in Washington this season and almost certainly sank your fantasy team if you drafted him high. Hetherington: Way back after Week 1, I stated that Cordarelle Patterson was a boom-or-bust WR option and could be considered a sell-high candidate for owners. My reasoning included an imminent quarterback change that would result in a production dip and a run-first offence. Now, I’m not convinced having Teddy Bridgewater under centre was the sole reason for Patterson’s decline, but if you offloaded the second-year pro for a more consistent weapon, you likely got a major upgrade. At a time when Patterson was coming off a game with over 100 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown, one of my bolder calls of the season paid off. What was your worst call this season? Fisher: After watching a very mediocre running back in Knowshon Moreno put up monster numbers in a Peyton Manning-led offence, I thought a decent back in Montee Ball could put up even bigger numbers for the Broncos this season. At least I thought Ball was a decent running back. Ball was a below average running back before he got injured, which eventually led to CJ Anderson getting the job and halfway proving my point that a back better than Moreno could do some real damage in Manniing’s backfield.dddddddddddd It just happened to be a running back I’d previously never heard of. Hetherington: This one is painful to admit as I look back on it. In mid-October, I declared Colin Kaepernick to be the best dual-threat option over Russell Wilson and Cam Newton. Kaepernick was coming off his best game of the season; throwing for 343 yards and three touchdowns against the Rams defence. Kaepernick has not had a multi-touchdown game since and has subsequently dropped completely off the fantasy QB1 radar. Looking back, the correct choice would have been Wilson, but even Newton would have been a better choice than the one I made. Who was the biggest surprise performer this season? Fisher: DeMarco Murray staying healthy all season was a big one, and Andrew Luck taking the reins as top quarterback sooner than expected was surprising too, but Odell Beckham Jr. leads the list for me. Beckham was topped only by the Steelers’ Antonio Brown, another pleasant surprise in his own right, in average points per week by receivers. The rookie first rounder was a fantasy force after recovering from a back injury that kept him out of the lineup the first four weeks of the season. And the best part? He did it in style! Hetherington: I’m going to call this one a tie between Le’Veon Bell and Demarco Murray, both of whom were projected to finish outside the top five of fantasy backs. The two will finish as by far the best running backs of 2014 and are currently separated by just 0.1 fantasy points (Bell has that slight edge). Each are surprises for their own reason, however. Bell was set to share the Steelers backfield with LeGarrette Blount – and did briefly – but took over as the feature back, so much so that the Steelers to cut ties with Blount. He also emerged as a major weapon in the passing game, receiving for more yards than any other back. Murray’s value was considered relatively limited entering the season by his injury history, yet he handled the biggest workload of his career without missing a game. If you had either back on your team, you likely had major success this season. ' ' '