The pre-season gets underway tonight against the Suns at 10PM EST (TSN). No matter how good or bad you think the roster is, I think we can all agree that it’s great to see basketball finally get underway. The Raptors go up against BC-native, Steve Nash, at General Motors Place (now called Rogers Arena) where the smells and memories of mauled Grizzlies is still fresh. There’s not much to be gleamed in terms of team strategy from this game, and it really is just a chance to see of how the Raptors might take shape this season.
Going up against the Suns is always a test of a team’s transition defense, which means we’ll get to see how enthusiastic the Raptors are to play the tough part of the run ‘n gun – getting back on defense. Leandro Barbosa faces his former team of seven years, so he’s got to be a little extra motivated for this one. Whenever a player faces an old team, you always can count on him exploiting a weakness only he could know, or it works the other way around where the old team simply knows how to slow the guy down. Let’s see what Barbosa’s approach tonight is, and what capacity Triano will use him – either as a point or an undersized two. Triano talked about him having one-on-one quickness and an ability to breakdown a guy, I’m not sure I buy that and I think it might be an instance of open-court speed being confused with offensive prowess in the half-court.
Of course, we get to see the mug of Hedo Turkoglu whose ceremonious arrival was followed by an unceremonious season and exit. He’s their power forward and if any self-respecting power forward sees Turkoglu as the guy guarding him for the night, they’ll make a point to go at him. It’s not sure who Triano will start at power forward, it could be Andrea Bargnani who the Raptors seem to believe can do better as a four than a five, or it could be Amir Johnson, fresh of a new contract and looking to make his mark. Obviously, the better chance to punish Turkoglu would come through Andrea Bargnani, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be as simple as that. Hiding a defensive weakness is something the Suns are very good at, after all they’ve started Nash at point guard for years. The Turk went a typical 0-5 yesterday in a loss to the Kings; Nash only played six minutes so you expect him to see some time tonight.
Triano says that the point guard, power forward and two-guard spot are all up for grabs and that he’ll let guys play themselves into position by competing. A reporter asked him if Andrea Bargnani can handle the pressure of being the #1 guy to which Triano responded:
I think so, we’re not going to put a lot of pressure on him to do it. We’re not going to give him the ball 40 times a game and say you be the guy. We’re going to let the game evolve around him and he’s got a pretty good knack of finding the ball and scoring in different ways. We’re going to utilize him to be a scorer but do it in different ways.
Well, he partially acknowledge that Bargnani is the “#1 guy”. The proposed usage of Bargnani sounds great, but it hinges on whether he can be an efficient scorer instead of a volume scorer. For example, it’s surprising to see his TS% be only 7th on the team given his shooting ability. Shooting 78% from the line but being 10th on the team in PER48 FTAs seems like a weapon being wasted, especially when you consider that he can draw fouls when he puts his mind to it.
An article from a couple days ago about Jay Triano and his international career; here’s hoping it’s the last one because it’s getting nauseating hearing him talk about what he’s learned from the international game. I wish he’s focus more on his recent failings as a head coach and try to better that instead of getting all nostalgic about days gone by. Harsh take? Probably, but equating international basketball to the NBA is like comparing the CFL to the NFL.
Final word to the head coach about a topic that I suspect will come up a lot this season: team effort and intensity.
“Honestly, I just want to see that intensity with which we’ve played in practice carry out into games and that we don’t get caught up in being out on a floor in front of a crowd (and think) now we don’t have to do things as hard as we’ve done them in this gym”
And isn’t that what’s been lacking from every Raptors team in the last three years? The expectations are so low that an honest effort will make fans happy. It’s sad, but that’s what rebuilding is, a painful process that requires patience and luck. Patience shouldn’t be an issue on the part of the fans, we’re tired of seeing band-aids being applied, the luck part is the difficult one. The Raptors have to keep their fingers crossed and hope that one of DeRozan or Weems turns out to be a little special, otherwise we’re Clippers Lite.
As is the case with every game, Raptors Republic will hold a live chat, the link will be active five minute before game time. Check the top-right corner of the site.
