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By Ryan Wolstat

Thirteen games into the season the Toronto Raptors are a team with a split personality.

They have managed to go 5-2 at home, but have won just one of their six road games.

To say the Raps have played badly on the road would be a gross understatement, since they flirted with some of the NBA’s all-time futility records in scoring only 56 points on sub-28% shooting against Minnesota on November 1, and just 60 on 37% shooting, six days later in Washington.

This Raptors team has its flaws, chief among them being a Washington Generals-like offense, but they also can do some things very well, such as play defense.

New head coach Kevin O’Neil deserves tons of credit for turning the Raptors completely around from Lenny Wilkens’ putrid club of slackers to a team that plays hard at all times.

O’Neil has Vince Carter playing the best all-around basketball of his career, and the Raptors are playing solid defense, as evidenced by the fact that their opponents have yet to manage even 95 points in a regulation game so far.

Rookie Chris Bosh has given Raptors fans something they haven’t had for a couple of seasons… optimism. The rail-thin youngster may look like Keon Clark but he sure doesn’t play like him. Watching Bosh on the hardwood, it is hard to believe at times that he is just a 19-year-old rookie. He possesses court awareness and basketball knowledge that even many wily veterans lack. Bosh always seems to be in the right place at the right time and has shown the willingness and ability to step up in the clutch (such as the three-pointer that sent Sunday’s game one week ago against Houston into overtime).

Once he bulks up a bit, Bosh might look and play a lot like Indiana superstar Jermaine O’Neal. Bosh is not quite as animated and fiery as O’Neal - his demeanor is actually a lot more like that of Tim Duncan - but he has the skills to play just a notch below those two someday. Not bad considering Duncan and O’Neal happen to be the best forwards in their respective conferences.

Bosh, O’Neill and the rejuvenated Carter have made the Raptors much more dangerous and interesting than the sad-sack teams of the past two years.

General manager Glen Grunwald now at least has a solid foundation to build around, but he will likely do something as the season wears on to take the load off of Carter. The current team does not have nearly enough offense and could use help at the point guard position since Alvin Williams is looking as shaky as Mike Tyson after Lennox Lewis got done with him.

Until Grunwald takes action, expect the Raptors to hover around the .500 mark, some games playing like world-beaters, while looking like Lenny is still at the helm in others.