With about 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter during last night’s Raptors – Cavs matchup, LeBron James drove to the basket in what was supposed to be a routine two-points. Little did he know…
.. That Jonas Valanciunas was about to throw him to the ground. Although Valanciunas earned a flagrant 1 while enraging LeBron James, the decision was conducive to what the Raptors are trying to establish this season.
Forget LeBron’s ensuing two missed free-throws and the message that was sent with that foul – it’s the bigger picture that matters. This team has lost its swagger and last night was the first time they’ve showed some ‘cojones’ since that game in Atlanta. And before that, ‘swag’ was few and far between.
I know what you’re thinking – why in the bloody hell am I writing an article about swag? Because in the NBA, you need it. You need to make it clear to opposing players that they need to think twice about coming into the lane. You need to make it clear that it’s not ok to come into your house, and start dancing on your court.
If I were Dwane Casey, I would replay that GIF over and over again everytime the Raptors are about to play against LeBron James. Ditto for anytime an opposing player taunts the team. How many years did Raptor fans suffer, having to hear their team being labeled as ‘soft’? Don’t let me take you down that dark tunnel now.
Finally, those days are long gone. Getting rid of the ‘soft’ label may almost be as important as establishing a winning culture in Toronto.
This is not just an opinion from the outside looking in. Discussions about being soft and lack of swag come from within the locker room itself.
“I think this game can really set us up to get our swag, our confidence back. We lost but shared the ball, the scoring was spread out, we had guys play extremely well and we took the lead, the crowd got into it and that’s playoff basketball right there. For us it’s a great learning process. We’re playing for something down the road.”
– Greivis Vasquez, post-game
Furthurmore, Valanciunas shared his sentiments on the Raptors’ lack of swag – albeit in different wording – after the blowout loss to Golden State:
“We were kind of soft, too soft… We’ve got to man up and show that we can [hit first].”
So why is swag important? Simple – it has direct correlation with confidence. If the Raptors don’t have one, they don’t have the other. And that’s been apparent in these past few games apart from last night. Ironically, the one game the Raptors show their teeth and start fighting they lose. I wouldn’t worry about that much. The importance in the win / loss column these days is moot. On the one hand, there is ambition to break the franchise record and break the 50-point mark; and on the other hand there are more important forces at play.
The Atlantic division is all but clinched. The Raptors can come first, second, third, or fourth. It doesn’t matter. It’s all one in the same. Coming first or second might actually translate into disastrous territory, as the 7th and 8th seed are currently occupied by Toronto’s two bogey-teams: Charlotte and Miami. Third place would be ideal, since Milwaukee is probably the easiest foe of the lot. Washington would be tough, but arguably no tougher than a seven-game series against the Bobcats and Heat.
That’s all assuming the playoffs started today, of course.
So what are the more important forces at play?
Valanciunas needs to keep developping as a player from now until the post-season. Forget season-to-season progress, we need game-to-game progress. Last night’s performance was encouraging, but his usage needs to consistently meet the 20-25% territory.
Dwane Casey needs to instigate that move.
Dwane Casey also needs to insert Terrence Ross back into the starting lineup. I realize James Johnson is vastly superior to Ross, and that Greivis Vasquez links up well with Lowry in the backcourt, but the great thing about JJ is that he can put up his numbers and help out from any role given to him – he’s just that good. Terrence Ross doesn’t have the same luxury or mental stability to do the same. Ross’ numbers have taken a huge hit since he’ s been demoted to the second unit.
We can presumably all agree that moving Ross to the bench was a pretty sound move. He was missing rotations, getting blown-by defensively, and his shot just wasn’t falling – even the good ones.
In hindsight, you can conclude that the experiment to demote Ross failed. Nothing wrong with Dwane Casey coming to grips with that reality either. The team started to slump, and Terrence Ross died a little inside.
Ross’ confidence has been battered, and he’s mentally too fragile to handle it. Being around these guys you can see their emotions off the court too. There is a difference between the mental state of Jonas Valanciunas, and that of Terrence Ross. The former gets distraught with lack of playing time but continues to play efficient basketball in his limited minutes; and the latter gets completely rattled emotionally, to the point where he can barely speak, and it dramatically affects his form on the court.
Inserting Terrence Ross back into the starting line-up would not only do good to Ross, but also to the team. Statistically, the most efficient five-man starting line-up Dwane Casey has put out this season is the same one that blitzed through the opening quarter of the 2014-2015 campaign: Kyle, DeMar, Terrence, Amir, Jonas.
Keep the mojo going Dwane, steer this ship and stick with what’s working.
