If you want to get Raptors fans on your side, tell them you’re focusing on defense. That’s what Jay Triano’s doing this year, much like he was doing last year. The Raptors spent a good chunk of their last training camp preaching and practicing their defense, terms like “protect the paint” were being thrown around and we was fooled into believing that we might have something on our hands. Similar talk is surfacing again, this time Triano hasn’t gotten around to implementing whatever he’s about to implement, but he does like the enthusiasm:
“To be honest, we haven’t really put much of that in,” head coach Jay Triano said, referring to the team’s defensive schemes. “We’ve talked about it. We haven’t really drilled it. But guys are being super aggressive with their defence. We’re not going to discourage them from doing that if the opportunity presents itself.”
Super aggressive on defense? Sounds good to me, what would make it really awesome was if a crazy fight broke out at training camp between Jarrett Jack and DeMar DeRozan because DeRozan was D’ing up Jack a bit too much and Jack, in his frustration, took a swing at DeRozan. Would that alter the mood for the worse? I don’t know, but it would be a sign of guys really getting after it. Of course, violence is not a necessity for a training camp to be intense, although Jordan swinging at Kerr and ripping Cartwright helped set the level of seriousness in the Bulls’ dressing room way back when. The present day Raptors appear to have that sort of an edge, but whether it’s just jokes and will translate to aggression and competitiveness in an actual game remains to be seen.
The salient point here is how playing with a level of seriousness and a competitive edge can enhance a practice. Jack Armstrong made a point about the Raptors a while ago which has always rung true: Do the Raptors’ practices prepare them for game situations? The examples given were Anthony Parker and Jason Kapono having great practices with the coach being very pleased at the end of them, but during the game it was a completely different story and both those players got torched. What options does the coach have in this situation to make his practices better? Not much he can do except pit the guys playing the same position against each other and tell them to go at it.
In today’s example, Weems and DeRozan are sure to go at each other in practice, maybe even challenge, dare and motivate each other to get better. It’s probably the only position where the talent level is somewhat even and good, and one of these winning a battle in scrimmage carries some weight. What about positions like point guard where Jose Calderon and Jarrett Jack are going against each other? Is that duel preparing either for what going up against Rondo, Harris, or Holiday might be like? Andrea Bargnani is easily the best offensive player at the position, David Andersen can try to guard him and maybe Triano even switches Amir Johnson on him, but that’s not going to prepare him for what a tactician like Scott Skiles might throw at him in the form of Andrew Bogut, or maybe a smaller but quicker player like Ersan Ilyasova. Going back to the DeRozan/Weems example, if Weems forces DeRozan into turnovers in a scrimmage, does it really speak to Weems’ defense given DeRozan’s weak handles? These are just points to ponder.
Holding practices that indicate what a team is truly like is tough when the roster has limited talent and experience. When Raptors players and coaches describe how a practice or scrimmage went, it has to be taken with a boatload of salt because the bar which signifies excellence is not set high enough. Triano is severely restricted in this sense and the only way he can gauge how far along his team is in training camp is during pre-season games.
Judging Linas Kleiza is going to be interesting, both in training camp and the regular season. He obviously views this season as a platform to announce himself to the NBA and feels that his talents were greatly masked by Denver’s use of him.
“I like to be all over the place. That’s what they never took advantage of in Denver. They never took advantage of me being down in the post, using my strength and going down and battling.”
With the confidence of the World’s behind him, a fresh new contract in his pocket, and a clear path to start at his position, Kleiza is set to make the small forward position his own with very little competition in the way. His previous career-high in minutes was 23.9 in 2007-08, that year his usage rate was 18.9%. Both those numbers will be increasing since Triano’s viewing Kleiza as a guy who “just knows how to score”. Whether the team wins or loses, Kleiza is going to get his and is headed for a career-year.
John Hollinger gave his Raptors player projections yesterday and only three Raptors are considered above-average according to their PER: Jarrett Jack, Amir Johnson and Jose Calderon, with Calderon leading the team with 17.10. He’s projecting a lower PER for Bargnani and Jack, and a higher one for Calderon. It’s all a mess and the article looks to be generated by an Excel macro. That’s how Hollinger rolls. This space isn’t suggesting that he’s undervaluing or overvaluing any of the players, just that giving PER40 projections is extremely lame. I mean, will David Andersen ever play anything close to 40 minutes a game? Get serious.