Download the Opening Tip here. It’s a good one and contains a picture of an NBA girlfriend. Those are always interesting.
Brandon Roy’s Blazers are at the ACC tonight and the last time they were here this happened. It was the best game of the year and hopefully we see something similar, at this point anything but a blowout will do. We’re 9th in the East and 3rd in the division, 2.5 games behind the Nets who are only showing signs of getting better as their young talent starts to gel. Portland is coming off a loss in Boston prior to which they had won 6 straight so they’ll be seeing this as a winnable game and rightfully so. When Brandon Roy openly disses Toronto I can’t take much offense because he’s 100% right, after the Celtics game he was asked about his offensive struggles and said:
Half of those moves I did tonight. They are going to work against Toronto.
Ouch. Really, that hurt. The Raptors should stick that quote in their locker-room whiteboard (assuming they have one) to pump up the motivation levels. Anthony Parker’s going to be matched up with him and should take this as a personal insult and only allow Roy to only drive by him on every other possession. We’re playing poor basketball in every sense of the word and are ripe for the picking. The first home game back from the West is always a tough one so its surprising that Las Vegas only has us as a 2.5 point underdog. They were wrong about putting us as a 5 point underdog against Utah and counted on us some sort of inner spirit and coach-being-fired-motivation to guide us. They got to watch Raptors ball more often.
Jermaine O’Neal’s asking the fans to be patient and stay with the team during this transition period:
I’m just asking that people that have supported us keep supporting us. We’re changing from two different coaching styles, especially on the defensive end. Even small things, such as how we close out opposing shooters are being done differently now. That’s why I hope the fans will be patient. I know they’ve been really patient already, but this team is really working. No one is trying to get embarrassed.
I get the feeling Triano is blowing everything up and starting over. It speaks volumes when the new head coach who used to be the assistant coach is changing things so drastically that simple closeouts are being re-examined. It’s almost like Triano told Mitchell, “We should closeout like this” and Mitchell said, “Naaah…here’s how you closeout” and employed his failing strategy despite the warnings of the assistant coaches. I’m just putting 2 and 2 together. The Raptors have fallen into very bad habits over the last two years and it’s going to be tough to “forget” what Mitchell taught them and start doing things the right way.
Chris Bosh also had his shot at Mitchell:
“I just want a system”
Bosh’s 42+ minutes under Mitchell was a sign of desperation by a coach who was trying to get as many wins while ignoring the long-term impact of stretching out a player. Bosh is welcoming the idea of playing fewer minutes as long as there’s a “system” to hold the fort down as he gets more than a 2 minute breather. I understand his insinuation that Mitchell was having a negative impact but until he puts up strong performances against good teams, anything he says won’t be taken too seriously.
I don’t know Ira Winderman’s writing that well but he’s got the Raptors figured out in a paragraph and is putting the blame entirely on a very weak SG and SF rotation which happen to be the two positions that are filled with the most talent in the league. Colangelo can’t be serious when he calls this a “deep” team and that’s probably whey he’s looking to deal, although somewhat less aggressively as we’d like. Again, trade motivation levels of a GM will never be known to the fans because that would be showing your hand.
The sense around the club is a wait-and-see approach as in we wait to see how the Raptors do in the games leading up to December 22nd – a stretch that will see us play 9 games in 15 nights. That should be more than enough time to at the very least, see what Triano is trying to do with the team and whether the team is responding. After all if you can’t get them to play hard or pay attention after their coach of 4+ years gets fired, you’ll never get them to do anything. There aren’t going to be as many practices as Jay Triano would hope in this stretch but that’s just too bad, everybody team ends up playing the same schedule and as Triano said, we need to suck it up.
That’s tough, but it’s no excuse, we have to play basketball, we have to expect to win every time we come out on the court. It’s a tough schedule, but this is the NBA. You’re always looking at a back-to-back, or games on the road against tough teams or teams playing very well.
I have faith in Triano that he’ll try to do the right things with the Raptors but if he still can’t get this team to play at the level Colangelo dreams of, then he’ll be forced to make a move because there’s only so many coaches you can blame until you start looking at the GM, as some have already started to do. The Jermaine O’Neal move was a calculated risk which fans could live with, but the signings of Hassan Adams and Will Solomon were a slap in the face to every supporter who wanted to see the team get deeper, not funnier. If we had simply retained Carlos Delfino instead of Hassan Adams and acquired a veteran PG, that alone could’ve helped this team. Colangelo is a frustrating GM and I sincerely miss Glen Grunwald who could always be counted on doing practical things.
One minor game note, Kris Humphries has right knee tendinitis and is doubtful for the game. In addition to the usual chat, we’ll be doing a live blog. Let’s get a win you Raps, please?
