But the coach isn’t immune to blame. Mitchell has always sold himself on his ability to teach his young players the NBA game. At the conclusion of last season he was awarded a hefty contract extension for presiding over the impressive development of Bosh, and T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon. He received some of the credit for Andrea Bargnani’s outstanding performance in the playoffs. He amazed onlookers by pulling something out of Joey Graham down the regular-season stretch.
This year all of those players, save perhaps for Calderon, have either plateaued or nosedived. Ford, 25, is playing casually and at times foolishly. Bargnani, 22, appears broken. Graham, 25, can’t get on the court. And the 24-year-old Bosh – again, blame injuries if you like – has taken a statistical step sideways.
How can a coach bill himself as a nurturer and simply throw up his hands when the pupils rebel or regress or simply don’t get it?
Still, it’s ultimately in the players’ hands. Mitchell, to be specific, has spoken on numerous occasions over the past few years of the importance of Bosh improving his right hand. Until he does, smart teams can force him into the dribble and know exactly which way the lefty’s headed. No surprise that Bosh was forcing it left when Hassell drew a late-game offensive foul on Saturday night.
Blame the coach. Blame the tactics. Blame the teaching. But if your $13 million all-star can’t stick an elbow in a smaller man’s eye and score at a game’s biggest moments, in a league in which the best player on the floor so often prevails, you’ve got bigger problems than the contents of the clipboard. You can also understand why Mitchell spent a few post-game moments attempting to convince himself, or maybe the world, that the guy who’d just shut down his best player wasn’t giving up five inches or more.
Almost overlooked from Saturday was the 1-of-10 three-point shooting in the fourth quarter and the combined four points scored to end the third quarter after T.J. Ford gave the Raptors a 70-69 lead with 4:42 left in the period.
The Raptors decided not to scout this weekend’s Final Four in San Antonio. The next showcase of college talent takes place at the annual Portsmouth Invitational, which begins Wednesday in Portsmouth, Va.
To borrow Allen Iverson’s line, the Raptors are talking about practice in these troublesome times.
Searching for answers that have been elusive for the better part of a month, the Raptors will be back on their practice court today after taking what amounted to a mental off-day yesterday.
It remains to be seen what, if anything, can be done to a Raptors team that continues to limp into the post-season by practising as they try to end their protracted practice of losing games.
With two full days to prepare for the Milwaukee Bucks and a day between tips for the remaining four games of the regular season, there will be plenty of opportunities to somehow change the mindset of a team that breaks down mentally in the fourth quarter at both ends of the floor.
They haven’t been able to stop athletic wing players all season and recently have been incapable of making plays in crunch time when a stop is needed or when a basket is required.
"We’re still in the playoffs,” Chris Bosh said. "We’re not in that big of a deficit. We just have to keep playing.
"We have to stay solid and carry out our assignments, especially on defence. We haven’t been able to practise in a long time and it’ll really help us out."
It’s not like head coach Sam Mitchell and his staff will suddenly install new schemes.
The game’s intangibles such as toughness and playing with urgency aren’t functions of teaching.
"Plain and simple, we’re not carrying out our defensive assignments,” Bosh said. "There’s no science about it.
"We can’t trade buckets. When it’s time to lock up, we have to make stops.
"The playoffs are about making stops."
While Raptor apologists talk glowingly about the team’s depth, the second unit produced the grand total of zero second-half points in Saturday’s 99-90 loss to the New Jersey Nets.
In the team’s most recent win, the bench stepped up with the paltry sum of seven points last Monday in Charlotte.
Rautins isn’t as opinionated or as loud and does provide a lot of insights into the game. In fact, during Saturday’s game he explained exactly why the Raptors were losing and why guard T.J. Ford often doesn’t think about who’s on defence before trying certain plays.
His failing is that he tends to speak in paragraphs and sometimes chapters.
Here’s how he greeted a basket by New Jersey’s Devin Harris: "One of the things you have to be careful of with Harris, he’s a better shooter than Jason Kidd was. He doesn’t create his own shots but he will make the open look and then again the transition basket, which we already touched on."
Now, it’s a big ‘if’ but if they can simply play well and get on a roll – and with the five games left against generally weak opponents that’s not asking a lot – the momentum they take into the post-season will do them wonders.
Remember this: They have the same guys running the same plays and playing the same defence as they did when they were eight games over .500 on Feb. 27.
Lots of suggestions – none from anyone who’s actually talked to anybody, of course – that Sam has somehow “lost” the team.
What’s “lost?”
They’re not trying? Ridiculous.
That they somehow tune his voice out? Hasn’t happened.
It’s really quite simple: Right now, they’re in a collective slump. And, I believe it was Yogi Berra, or Yogi Bear, who once said: “A slump’s like a common cold, everyone’s got a cure but it still takes two weeks for it to go away.”
Right now I’d have to say the Raptors are drinking the toxic Kool-Aid that comes from losing, made worse by falling so short of expectations – internal and external. They’re trying to hard or not enough. They don’t trust each other as easily. They probably don’t like each other as much, or at least the things about each other they always haven’t liked are in the forefront, rather than being glossed over by the sheen of winning. It’s the coaches; it’s the players; it’s management. It’s T.J.; It’s Bosh; it’s Bargnani.
It’s a mess.
All is not lost, however, given their schedule. Should they resume playing at a reasonable level, Toronto has a shot to sweep its remaining five games, with four games left against teams that are below .500, and a game next Sunday against the Pistons, who will be playing for nothing.
To prepare for that final stretch, which kicks off Wednesday night at home to Milwaukee, Toronto took Sunday completely off. Meanwhile, every team throughout the league will take tonight off: There are no games.
More and more athletes are asking for the Willis & Walker jeans. The demand is so great that former Michigan State basketball player Kevin Willis hasn’t had time to make his annual NBA comeback, although
Willis, 45, and business partner and former teammate Ralph Walker are providing athletes a simple staple that the general public takes for granted. Players rarely wore denim because they were too big and tall to buy off the rack, and tailors made them look like dress pants.
Earlier this season Willis sold some jeans to Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell. Mitchell noted Willis remains buffed despite his age and told him he looked like he can still play in the league.
"You know, I am always working out for health reasons and I like doing it for my mental state," Willis said. "He said you look like you still got something in the tank and I still do. I know I can still get those numbers. If something happens, then cool. If not, I have done it so long that it is a blessing within itself."
In recent years, Riley has reconnected with that fraternity, attending more league functions, encouraging the league’s younger coaches. Just last week, Raptors coach Sam Mitchell noted how significant a call from Riley was at the start of his career.
"He understands, as a young coach, what you’ve got to go through," Mitchell said.
They are now sitting at the 7th place, 2 games ahead of the surging Atlanta Hawks who are at no.8 spot. If the playoffs start now , TO will face Detroit. They’re chances against the Pistons are slim and none . If the Hawks overtake them , their chance of beating the no. 1 Boston Celtics is somewhere between zero and none. The Raps stink.
The last thing I want is a first-round exit where we win two or three games and give false hope to the fans and management that this group might be more than a .500 team in a weak East. That’s one school of thought. The other is that we somehow win a playoff round (facing Orlando or whoever) and build on it in the off-season replacing key components instead of blowing the whole thing up. Fine, this might be a legitimate roadmap and something that I still subscribe to but what the previous fortnight has shown me is that instead of requiring maybe a legit 3 and a rebounder, we need a legit 3, a real rebounder, a better shooting guard, a better coach, another decent 3 and maybe something else.
Statistically, Bosh has been averaging 24pts and 8rebs since he went off. Solid numbers, there is no question, but they have been relatively quiet. He has been getting his, but his teammates have not been feeding off him. He hasn’t made anyone around him better. He hasn’t been getting the ball in crunch time, and worse, he hasn’t been demanding it.
Not what you expect from your franchise player making max money. Lead by example, get dirty, bang in the paint, knock someone on their ass, get a f*cking technical foul…anything, for the love of G*d do something!
This really wasn’t supposed to be the way things went down.
This was supposed to be another strong regular season by the Toronto Raptors, an opportunity to advance beyond the first round of the NBA playoffs, and a chance for further growth and development from the likes of Andrea Bargnani, Chris Bosh and TJ Ford.
Instead, as Raptors’ fans, our patience has been tested to the max lately as we watch a team that looks as rudderless as a broken vessel at sea.
A team we might add, that is slowly sinking as low as it can possibly go in the Eastern Conference playoff standings; eighth spot.
With their 99 to 90 loss to the New Jersey Nets on Saturday night, Toronto suddenly finds itself only two games above Atlanta for the eighth seed, losers of 15 of their past 21, and under .500 for the first time since November.
The expression “backing into the playoffs” is almost an understatement at this point.
Of Toronto’s 8 games in April … only one is/was against a team above .500 (Detroit – on Sunday April 13). In fact, when the month began, 6 of those 7 games against teams below .500 were against teams that were more than 15 games below .500! New Jersey (twice), Milwaukee, Charlotte, Chicago, and Miami didn’t look very daunting. The game against Atlanta looked to be a tough one – given how well the Hawks were/are playing – but is turned out to be a game that the Raps actual won … before fate (and the officials) took it out of their hands.
Perhaps that’s where the downward spiral began. In Atlanta. Here’s why …
If Toronto gets that game against the Hawks … they’re 3 games above .500 at 39-36. Plus, they’ve now won 4 of their last 5 games. They’re starting the month on a high … with that all-important ‘momentum’ seemingly building. But that loss – and the terrible, sloppy defense of late – carried over into Friday’s game against Charlotte … and it was still grossly evident in New Jersey on Saturday as well.
5.) Rasho Nesterovic: 60.7% FG, 91.7% FT, 20.0 PPG, 9.8 Reb, 1.3 Blk
I don’t know what has gotten into Rasho, but he has been a beast lately. I never expected to have him on this list, but he has been putting up the numbers over the last month. Toronto is already in the playoffs, but a strong finish could move them out of the dreaded slot of having to play the Pistons in the first round.
Some point the finger at Mitchell responsible for the dinos, who struggle to defend for extended stretches, still make poor decisions with the basketball, still play with no urgency and can’t find a way to step up in the fourth quarter, signs that all lead to an early April exit.
Others suggest, GM Bryan Colangelo deserves just as much blame for face lifting the roster with soft, cost efficient, perimeter oriented players. Or for selecting the debatable number one pick in the 2006 draft Andrea Bargnani over 2006 rookie of the year Brandon Roy or his budding teammate LaMarcus Aldridge who is averaging 18 points and 7 boards compared to Bargnani’s 10 points 3 rebounds.
Related posts:
it pisses me off that the raptors didn’t scout the final four. sign of more euros…
misery loves company, and i am glad to see that my negative sentiment for the raptors is shared by pretty much everyone, thanks scott, made my day!
Raps Fan’s last blog post..We Need a Hero
Bear in mind that both Bryan and Maurizio as well as one other scout did take in NCAA games and 2 of the conference tournaments.
Missing the FF is not too drastic to me. Any good quality player won’t fall to us in the draft unless we trade to move up, and, game tape as well as television broadcasts will give you unlimited access to those 3 games.
Scott’s last blog post..Linkage – April 7
———————————————————————-
re: Others suggest, GM Bryan Colangelo deserves just as much blame for face lifting the roster with soft, cost efficient, perimeter oriented players. Or for selecting the debatable number one pick in the 2006 draft Andrea Bargnani over 2006 rookie of the year Brandon Roy or his budding teammate LaMarcus Aldridge who is averaging 18 points and 7 boards compared to Bargnani’s 10 points 3 rebounds.
———————————————————————-
Change “just as much blame” to read more accurately as “the blame”.
khandor’s last blog post..THE problem at Bay Street & Lakeshore Blvd
… and, then … going up the food chain further from there.
khandor’s last blog post..THE problem at Bay Street & Lakeshore Blvd