Paul Jones

Paul Jones is the voice of the Raptors on the FAN 590 and writes regularly for Sportsnet.ca.

Lots of passionate folks Thursday night calling in to Hoops on the FAN 590 as I hosted with my broadcast partner Eric Smith.

It's true things are not good right now if you're a Raptor fan as inconsistencies in every part of their game is probably driving you up the wall. Well, join the club as the line forms to the right.

The very same sentiment has been expressed by management, coaches and even players let alone fans of the team, but some of the irrationality of the fans is almost comical at times. Yep, you gotta love talk radio as everyone has an opinion and because they own it and its what they believe, its hard to say its wrong. Are these opinions uninformed? Maybe. Irrational? At times. Educated and thoughtful? Some, but they are definitely passionate. Now if only the team would play with the same kind of passion, the record would be much better than the current 11-17.

Let's compare the team's talent this year vs. last season's squad. Take Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani and Chris Bosh out of the mix as they were starters on both rosters, as well as Marcus Banks, Patrick O'Bryant and Pops Mensah-Bonsu as a bench players and compare the following group A (last season) vs. group B (this season). Group A consists of Shawn Marion, Anthony Parker, Joey Graham, Jason Kapono, Roko Ukic, Kris Humphries, Jake Voskuhl, Nathan Jawai and Quincy Douby, while group B has Hedo Turkoglu, Jarret Jack, DeMar DeRozan, Antoine Wright, Marco Belinelli, Reggie Evans, Rasho Nesterovic, Amir Johnson, Sonny Weems.

You tell me which supporting group looks to have more potential. They may not be playing better but in these eyes there is no comparison which is why this season has been disappointing so far, not necessarily in terms of the record but certainly in the effort and overall improvement from the beginning of the year.

To be honest, the team is 4-4 in its last eight games when they slipped six games below .500 at 7-13. They haven't lost any ground but the bad news is they haven't climbed in the standings either. One thing that Jay Triano has pointed to has been a reluctance to take, and make, three point shots. It was a team strength early on and of late, long range marksmanship has dropped off to the point where they have fallen from third in the NBA to ninth. Over the course of the first 19 games Toronto shot 40.1% and since then they have only shot at a 30.1% clip including a one-for-20 output against Phoenix.

It's a key stretch for Toronto, only devine intervention will help the fan base if they lose to New Jersey Friday night at home, as they have games against teams that they should be able to compete with and get some wins. The good thing is that the team actually has some time to practice as there are days off between games. This is about the time a few seasons ago when the team started to put notches in the left hand column after a brutal early season schedule. Looking at the remaining schedule with four games against each of New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, and games with teams in the same boat such as Indiana, Charlotte and Detroit, it's time for Toronto to pick it up. More losses might dictate the winds of change that the fan base keeps looking for to blow in over its shoulder, may howl in swifter and stronger than expected.

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It was great to witness history Friday as I took part as one of the Masters of Ceremonies in the Olympic Torch Relay event as it came through York Region, specifically Newmarket. In a word - "amazing".

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