hal firepower at Etihad Stadium to set up a fourth-round m

With a new management team in place and the addition of a couple of key role players, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey is hopeful his team can make the jump into a playoff position in 2013-14. Speaking on TSN 1050s Macko & Cauz show on Tuesday, the third-year bench boss is excited to see how his new pieces blend with the teams young core. “We needed toughness inside to go along with Jonas Valanciunas), Amir Johnson and Aaron Gray and we brought in Tyler Hansbrough, who I think our fans will be excited about.” To go along with the former Pacers power forward, the team addressed its perimeter shooting need via the Andrea Bargnani deal and in free agency. “We needed three-point shooting and we got Steve Novak and Austin Daye, who is a young untapped talented player who has three-point shooting ability.” Following a 17-32 start, the Raptors played the rest of the season one game over .500, in part because of a renewed emphasis on the defensive end. “We will get back to defence and let the offence take care of itself,” Casey said. “I thought Masai (Ujiri), Jeff (Weltman) and our management team did an excellent job of bringing in the type of players that will fit our needs.” Still, the team finished four games out of a playoff spot and new president and CEO Tim Leiweke decided to make a change in the basketball operations department, replacing former GM Bryan Colanagelo with Ujiri. Casey said Ujiri and Leiweke operate differently than Coloangelo in that the former GM took a more hands-on approach than the current structure. “Bryans management style is more hands on. Hes there every day, hes involved…Theres nothing wrong with that, its just a different management style.” Casey is confident where the team is headed, but noted that the expectation of a playoff spot last season may have been too unrealistic. “I thought we put the cart before the horse last year in talking about the playoffs too soon, we were still building…Adding Rudy, adding some of the pieces we have now, weve accelerated that building.” Casey mentioned that while the team is positioned to make a playoff push this season, the overall focus is still on growing and developing the talented core they have in place. “We have good young talent thats getting better, but at the same time we want to win. We owe it to our fans, we owe it to our organization to put our best foot forward and go out to compete to win.” Cheap NHL Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla. Cheap Soccer Jerseys . Catch all the action on TSN2 at 11pm et/8pm pt. The nine-time Big 12 champion Jayhawks are positioning themselves for another title, as they have run out to a flawless 6-0 mark in conference play thus far. http://www.cheapnfljerseyschinausa.com/ . -- Aaron Murray threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score, and led No. Wholesale Jerseys . -- Eastern Kentucky thrives off creating havoc for others. Cheap Jerseys From China . In taking its goal tally to 99 in all competitions already this season, City delivered another demonstration of its lethal firepower at Etihad Stadium to set up a fourth-round match at home to another second-tier team -- Watford.ALBANY, N.Y. -- The NFL has agreed to end a policy that prohibited the resale of tickets at below face value.New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday announced a legal settlement between the league and several states that was prompted by his offices investigation into NFL ticketing pricing.The former policy prohibited sellers from listing tickets on sanctioned resale sites for less than the full face value of the ticket.Schneiderman, a Democrat, says prices should reflect a free market and that fans shouldnt be forced to buy or sell tickets for artificially inflated prices.ddddddddddddThe settlement between New York and the states of Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia applies nationwideNFL spokesman Brian McCarthy says the settlement shows that the investigation did not identify any injury to consumers. ' ' '