Morning Coffee: April 8th Edition

Toronto Sun | Lack of effort a cause for concern with Raptors

Whether it’s Chicago, Brooklyn, Atlanta or Boston, Toronto’s four remaining opponents, each is jockeying for playoff positioning. But with the Raptors, especially at this time of the season, it’s not so much wins and losses, but how they compete, how much fight is summoned, how much pride is shown. “If we’re serious about being a playoff organization, our mental approach has got to change,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “I understand where we are and the season’s only got five more games. “But pride comes into to play, individual pride comes into play when you’re approaching the game.”

Sportsnet | Mackenzie on Raptors: Big V causes a buzz

“I think we’ve really seen a progression of him recognizing, reading, anticipating,” Casey said. “The key word, I think, is anticipating what the offence is trying to do to him. He’s doing a much better job of anticipating the speed of how things are happening, where things are happening, where he has to be. That’s the NBA. The NBA is a complex game when it comes to reading and anticipating. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.”

ESPN | NBA — Chris Bosh’s game is on a superstar level

[Insider] How can a player with barely a 20 PER be a superstar? Well, Bosh can’t be involved in as many possessions, given that he shares those possessions with two other superstars, so his PER is far lower in Miami than it was with relatively talentless Toronto (it was 25.1 in his final season there). Despite taking more long jumpers than ever, Bosh has a spectacular true shooting percentage of 59.0 (just 0.2 off his career high). In short, he’s become a more efficient scorer while subsisting on the most difficult of shots. Ask yourself: Is Chris Bosh playing any less hard than the days where he averaged 24 and 11? Is he any less effective? Close observation would prompt a “no” to each question, and closer observation would actually reveal improvement. He shoots better than before, he defends better than before, and he uses his right hand with increasing facility.