As per a press release from the Raptors, Hedo Turkoglu "suffered a small, non-displaced fracture of the orbital bone under his right eye in Sunday’s contest versus Indiana. The injury resulted from a collision with Pacers forward Mike Dunleavy at the 10:59 mark of the first quarter. Turkoglu did not return to the contest.

Turkoglu will undergo further evaluation Monday, and options will be explored for a protective face mask."

So either we see a Rip Hamilton/Hannibal Lecter-clad Turkoglu going forward, or he sits a few games.
My guess would be he sits a couple out, this isn't exactly Willis Reed we're talking about, no offence to Mr. Ball.


Either way, I'll be missing the short term outcome as I'm departing bitterly cold Toronto for a short vacation Monday.

The blog will return in daily updated form when I get back.

Not a ton going on today, but wanted to adress the whole Hedo Turkoglu "ball" thing.
I think of Hedo as a mid-maintenance guy. As in, he's not a guy that needs to be completely pampered and cow-towed to (like a Vince Carter, Dwyane Wade, LeBron, etc.), nor is he a low-maintenance guy who just goes out and does a good job without ruffling feathers (think Anthony Parker, Shane Battier, Tim Duncan).
Hedo has a bit of diva in him, not a ton, but a bit, and he was apparently pissed about the media and fans slagging him, even though to everybody else, it was justified.

He would be right to point out that it takes time to fit in with new teammates after playing with the same guys for years. He'd also be right to point out that Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis look far worse without him than they did playing beside him.

But I don't think anyone was on Turkoglu for not fitting in fast enough or not putting up his usual numbers. People were on him because he took training camp off to rest and looked woefully out of shape for the first two months of the season. Not to mention the way he was playing looked like he wasn't giving it his all.

One thing Toronto fans and media always pick up on is effort level. If you play as hard as you can, even if you aren't anywhere close to an all-star (Matt Bonner, JYD, Reggie Evans, Alvin Williams) you will get your props in Toronto. If you have all the talent in the world and are dogging it, you will hear about it.

And I think that's as it should be.




Just a reminder you can find me on Twitter: @Torsuncourtside

Yahoo Sports has announced the all-star reserves:
Point guards Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose are deserving first-time all-stars. Williams has been a bit banged up, Rose had a poor first two months of the year, but Rondo has been great all season.

In the duh category, Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, Gerald Wallace and Joe Johnson for the East. All very deserving. Al Horford is a bit surprising, but he's a stud and a major reason why the Hawks are in third place.

Chris Paul (who should be starting), Pau Gasol, Kevin Durant (who should be starting), Dirk Nowitzki (who should be starting) and Z-Bo, Zach Randolph are the West's reserves, along with Brandon Roy.

Horford made it instead of Josh Smith, who also deserved to go. Chris Kaman an Marc Gasol are noticeable absentees in my book.



As for the DeMar DeRozan rookie game no-go: I think he should be there. I can understand why Jonas Jerebko is there instead, the rules say you need a certain number of bigs, but no way has Oklahoma City's James Harden outplayed DeRozan to this point. I think Harden will be a slightly better player than DeRozan long-term, right now he's been very inconsistent and has shot the ball horribly.

Amare Stoudemire to New Jersey rumours seem to be blowing up the old Interweb today.

The talk made sense when it came out last week and it still does. Jersey has tons of expirings and some talent and a ton of draft picks in the next few years to peddle. Phoenix believes Amare isn't coming back and there have been reports for years that he and some teammates, including Steve Nash, have had their differences.

The buzz is it will be Stoudemire and Louis Amundson for Yi Jianlian (finally playing well after stinking in Milwaukee and early in his time in New Jersey), Courtney Lee, Bobby Simmons (big expiring contract) and perhaps a couple of firsts (not of course the 2010 pick earmarked for John Wall), likely one acquired from Dallas in the Devin Harris-Jason Kidd trade and another protected Nets first.

Brook Lopez and Amare Stoudemire plus Devin Harris and possibly John Wall and enough cash to sign a max free agent this summer would instantly make the Nets a team the Raptors would have to worry about in the Atlantic going forward.

Gilbert Arenas met face-to-face with David Stern Wednesday. He has been suspended for the rest of the season and the Washington Post reports he will not play with the team next year as long as Ernie Grunfeld is still employed by the Wizards.

When Bryan Colangelo and his cap guru Steve Fruitman worked some contractual wizardry this summer, bringing Hedo Turkoglu to Toronto and finding a new home in Dallas for Shawn Marion, the Magic replaced Turkoglu by trading for Vince Carter.
At the time, most pundits, myself included, praised the Raptors and Magic for making bold moves to improve their teams, while the Marion part of the equation was largely ignored.

To our surprise, Turkoglu and Carter have struggled to fit in in their new locales, to put it mildly and have been ripped by the media and disgruntled fans in both towns (Carter especially), while Marion, despite putting up career lows across the boards, has helped lead the Mavs to unexpected heights.
Only two teams have more wins than the Mavs, who have benefited greatly from the defensive presence Marion provides.

Turkoglu came through for the Raptors Sunday, sinking two clutch free throws after taking the ball to the hoop in the dying seconds, to lead the Raptors to an upset of the Lakers. Earlier he looked reluctant to shoot the ball in any sort of pressure situations, constantly looking to his teammates. That might be because the Air Canada Centre crowd has been on him lately, but his confidence will likely rebound, especially if he starts coming through when it counts as he has in past NBA stops.

Not sure about Carter though. Behind the scenes, teammates and coaches are griping about his lackadaisical approach to games and practices. To make things worse, unlike Turkoglu, Carter has failed to meld with his star teammates Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis. In fact, the pair is arguably playing the worst basketball of their career, largely because of an inability to play off of Carter, or vice versa.

There is still a half a season to go, so this all might change, but at this point, the guy nobody expected - Marion - has helped his team the most.


Interesting stuff from the New York Times Sunday.
The consensus last summer was the cap would be coming down next year, possibly significantly, because of the recession. However, the Times reports that:

The league expected a 6% to 7% drop in ticket sales but there has been only a 1.7% drop to date.
Attendance is flat or ahead of last season's pace in the majority of NBA arenas. The Nets and Pistons account for most of the small overall decline.
With this large piece of basketball-related income so far beating forecasts, the league's salary cap might drop significantly less than first feared. The NBA sent a memo to teams last July warning of a decline in the cap to a figure between $50.4 million and $53.6 million for the 2010-2011 season. But revenues could be on pace for the 2010 cap to be above $54 million and perhaps closer to this season's cap of $57.7 million.