Smith: Nothin' But (Inter)Net

From www.thestar.com
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If you tuned in to the world basketball championships to watch Spain and see how Jorge Garbajosa looked, you must have left impressed.

But if you're like me, you're more impressed with his shooting touch than his much-ballyhooed toughness.

In the games I saw, he was far more of an away-from-the-basket guy than someone who'd go in the paint and start knocking people around and there's nothing wrong with that.

As advertised, he was a good teammate, looks to pass, has a smooth shooting style which made his low percentage easier to take because his mechanics are good, he gets his teammates involved in the game and was a solid help defender.

He wasn't Charles Oakley, though.

But the one indisputable fact is that Garbajosa and Jose Calderon know how each other plays, they seemed to have great chemistry on the court and since both will be members of the second unit with Toronto, that's got to be the best thing fans learned out of Spain's run to the world championship.

If the second Raptor unit — in a nine-man rotation — comprises Calderon and Garbajosa with either Anthony Parker or Fred Jones, Andrea Bargnani and Chris Bosh, that's going to be pretty solid.

BOSH NO FREAK: More than a few of you got quite disgruntled last week when it was suggested that maybe — just maybe — what had been going on at the world championships with the American team was a portend of what was going to happen with Chris Bosh and the Raptors this coming season.

The point was made that maybe Bosh would have a difficult time adjusting to a Phoenix-style offence if that's indeed what Sam Mitchell has in mind.

The point, and I stick by it, is that T.J. Ford and Morris Peterson and Fred Jones and Anthony Parker are probably going to be able to adapt more quickly than Bosh, who is good in the high pick-and-roll out of a halfcourt set and good with his back to the basket.

The comparisons in the e-mails and letters we got were to the likes of Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire, two bigs who've thrived under that style.

Well, that's apples and oranges.

Marion's game extends out to the three-point line, Bosh's doesn't and Toronto is going to need Bosh on the defensive boards — which makes him a trailer in a fast-break offence rather than a finisher — much more than Phoenix needs Marion.

And Stoudemire is just a freak. A freak with a serious knee problem, but a freak nonetheless. To think Bosh can do what he does is ridiculous; not to bash Bosh but he doesn't have the explosiveness, nor the dunking ability of Stoudemire.

I do think Bosh will still get his 20 and 10, but it's going to be in a relatively traditional offence.

I think the guys who'll thrive in a running game are Peterson, Jones, Parker and Joey Graham.

Let the cards and letters start.