The Raptors flew to Cleveland yesterday and by tomorrow, Sam Mitchell might make a paper airplane out of the exhibition-game scoresheet.
Such is the value the coach attaches to individual performances in NBA friendlies.
“Your guy can get 30 points (for one night) or guys on the other team shoot 1-for-15, then opening night, they’ll light you up for 40,” Mitchell said after practice at the Air Canada Centre. “I don’t waste my time worrying about who the other team is going to dress. Our veterans just want to get through the pre-season healthy.”
But Mitchell definitely is keen on seeing if those positive team vibes that developed through a week of training camp in Ottawa, such as the Chris Bosh-Jermaine O’Neal partnership, will translate in a game that doesn’t count in the standings.
“Teams that expect to do something (good) always play at a certain level,” O’Neal said. “Teams that don’t really expect anything just want to play other guys and see what they have. Well, we know what we have here.
“It’s not necessarily about how we do individually, it’s how we do as a team. There are going to be games where I struggle, CB struggles, Jose Calderon and on and on. But if we play together as a crew, that’s all that matters, like stopping guys on defence.
“We’ve only had a week of practice. You won’t see the finished product (in Cleveland), but you’ll see a team that works hard.”
Planning to limit his top stars to half a game or so tonight, and willing to let some lesser-knowns at the end of the bench share the load, coach Sam Mitchell said improvement rather that victory is the biggest key.
“We’re not going to alter practice for a pre-season game,” Mitchell said yesterday. “(The goal is to) keep everybody healthy but continue to get your work in on things you’ve got better at. We’re not going take shortcuts for a pre-season game.
“Obviously we want to win every game but … we’re not going to overlook things because we have a pre-season game. If it don’t count on your regular-season record, then it don’t count.”
An old baseball guy used to say, every year about when pitchers and catchers reported, that he didn’t believe a thing he saw in spring training games and when it comes to the eight games ahead of the Raptors, Sam Mitchell agreed that seeing isn’t necessarily believing.
“Not one single thing,” he said yesterday. “Maybe for young players you can, because they’re trying to make an impression, but veteran guys, no. They’re not focused, they’re not concentrating. As a coach you just tell them, for the minutes that you play, go hard and focus. But telling them that and them actually doing it for the whole exhibition season, forget it.
“Great players go 1-for-15 (shooting), then when opening night comes they light you up for 40 (points) because it’s for real and they get that level of concentration,” Mitchell said.
Operating on orders (he said a suggestion, I suggest it was more than that), Andrea Bargnani did not attempt a three-point field goal in any of the training camp workouts up in Ottawa last week.
I can’t remember if he took one in the Saturday afternoon playdate with his teammates (I seem to recall he did) but in the practices and scrimmages before that? Nada.
Can you imagine how that felt? Here’s a guy who lived beyond the arc for much of his first two pro seasons and now they’re telling him not to even shoot one?
“I learn to do other stuff, other than shooting threes but that’s what they asked to do and that’s what I want to do, I want to get better,” is what he told us.
“It’s tough but it’s fun. These three days, the coach asked me not to shoot threes so I didn’t shoot any threes at all in training camp.”
Wonder how many he’s got stored up to let fire in the pre-season?
Saw Nathan Jawai in the Air Canada Centre yesterday, clad in street clothes and certainly not working out.
I’m told it could be tomorrow or Thursday before they tell us anything about the results of the tests he had last week when he made a quick trip to see a cardiac specialist here in the States.
Everyone’s hoping it all works out – there was some optimism around the practice facility on Monday – and he’s back on the court by the end of the week.
“For me, I’ve missed quite a few games the last few years, so it’s not about easing into it,” the 6-foot-11, 260-pound forward said. “It’s about competing at a high level. When you practice and compete to win, it becomes contagious. So we don’t want to approach the preseason half-heartedly.”
O’Neal will certainly get his share of playing time; Mitchell has little choice.
With only 12 healthy players to call on – Joey Graham (hamstring) and Nathan Jawai (cardiac issues) remain out – and another game tomorrow, against the New York Knicks, simple logistics suggest the coach will be running his veterans out for at least 20 to 25 minutes each game.
But regardless of how O’Neal meshes or doesn’t mesh with Chris Bosh in the front court, Mitchell will be sucking on a large tablet of salt. A good game doesn’t mean much; a bad one means less.
“These friendly games? The exhibition games? For sure they are important,” said Bargnani, who shot just 38.6 per cent from the floor last season. “That’s when you start to play together, find the timing, find chemistry. Of course it’s not a regular-season game, but the effort should be the same.”
O’Neal plans to approach it the same way, and the Cavaliers might provide at least a hint of a measuring stick. The Raptors have struggled in recent years against good offensive rebounding teams and teams with elite wings – the Cavs excel in both areas.
Adding O’Neal is supposed to shore up both departments for Toronto, something he at least plans to do, beginning tonight.
“Teams that don’t expect to do anything just play their guys and see what they have,” he said.
“We know what we have. We have really good players on this team and we all need to use the preseason to get ready for the regular season.”
Repatriating Nash would be a nice feather for Bryan Colangelo and would generate some serious buzz around the Air Canada Centre. What Nash would have left is another question, but his personal standards are high enough that I can’t see him merely hanging in for the money only, though I’m sure he is kind of feeling underpaid, at least in NBA terms. He’s a two-time MVP and just the third-highest paid player on his team. You don’t think he’d mind banking another $15-million (U.S.) or so?
The question is whether Nash would want to come to Toronto. By that time in his career I’d think a huge factor would be competitiveness: there is no way a guy who’d been winning 50-plus games and had an eye on winning an NBA title for a decade or so is going to want to finish in a limp.
But Mitchell, forever confident in the adaptability of experienced players, is not terribly concerned about O’Neal .
“Jermaine is a smart enough basketball player. He’ll pick it up,” Mitchell said. “We don’t do anything different than other teams. You just call [plays] a little bit different, do some situational things a little bit different. But at the end of the day it’s still basketball. And if you know how to play, a lot of the stuff you figure out.”
The pre-season is generally a poor indicator of regular-season success, but for the Raptors, it may have some merit. Over the last two pre-seasons, the Raptors have compiled a 12-3 record. The Raptors followed up both exhibition seasons with playoff berths.
In the previous two pre-seasons, the Raptors were 5-9. The Raptors posted a combined 60-104 records in the regular seasons that followed.
If you think Calderon already has arrived, you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. He played a lot of big minutes for the Raptors last season and did quite well with them.
Calderon’s game is intriguing, and so are some of his numbers. He shot 52 percent from the field, including 43 percent from beyond the arc. He’s a 91 percent free throw shooter and has an astounding assist-to-turnover ratio of better than 5-to-1.
Yet he’s still on this list. Why?
Because his game and numbers are likely to improve now that he’s the man in Toronto.
Not only did the Raptors trade T.J. Ford to Indiana, freeing up more playing time for Calderon, but Toronto also brought in Jermaine O’Neal, another legitimate frontcourt talent.
For the first time in his career, Calderon has himself a full-time point guard job — and a new multiyear contract to go along with it, by the way.
He also has a game that isn’t dissimilar from that of a younger Steve Nash. No, Calderon is not in Nash’s class. But he’s going to get a lot closer to it this season.
We (I) like to criticize Bosh for not being a “true franchise player” but I have never doubted his desire of wanting to be great and respect the work ethic, seriousness and commitment he brings to the team. I’m just waiting for him to elevate his game to the next level and maybe O’Neal can provide the backdrop for Bosh to rise to the NBA’s elite level – a constant MVP candidate.
Jermaine O’Neal has arrived in Toronto leaner and healthier than he has been in at least three seasons. He has said all the right things to the media, talking about his intensity, his will to win, and his burning desire. If he stays healthy (admittedly a big if) he gives the team a defensive presence underneath it has not had since Antonio Davis was an All-Star.
The team is hoping he will team with Chris Bosh to give them shot-blocking and rebounding to compete with the strong frontcourts in Detroit and Boston. His past statistics show he has had individual success against those team’s star post players, though did not always win the contests. But if he can consistently match his historical production against Garnett and Wallace, he may yet make the Raptors a serious player next spring.
Which one of these two player rosters would you prefer to have, going forward from this point, if you were Jerry West and you were the GM for the Toronto Raptors?
[please read the question carefully]
For the second part of our season preview, something a little different.
Here at the HQ we’re going to not only look at our original 10 queries to see which have been answered, but we’ll pose another follow-up question in each case, something to keep in mind as the season goes on.
Like Kardi and the Clipse, let’s set it off…
http://nba-tube.com/sam-mitchell-interview-oct-6-2008/
http://nba-tube.com/chris-bosh-interview-oct-6-2008/
http://nba-tube.com/andrea-bargnani-interview-oct-6-2008/
The other team looking to move up. They made a really bold move by trading for Jermaine O’Neal, and it’s one that could pay off if he’s over his injury issues. If healthy, he’s another 20/10 guy to go along the one they already have in Chris Bosh. The only drawback is that both guys have a rep for shying away from the rough stuff; that alone could put them in a situation like the Lakers ended up in the Finals, where an opponent that is willing to mix it up in the paint is able to push them around and make a close series a rout, or turn what should be a Raptors victory into a defeat. We’ll see. And by the way, it’s do or die time for Andrea Bargnani. He’s another bad season away from Darko, part II.
The former Bradley standout had a less than sensational start in the NBA, and after a few years of warming the bench behind players like Allen Iverson, he decided to take his game over to Israel. Parker signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv and was originally supposed to replace Deron Sheffer. Instead, Parker built a legacy, and earned a place among the Euroleague’s top-50 contributors; a list which includes Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, and former NBA superstars Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac, and Drezan Petrovic.
While in Israel, Parker earned the highest honor in the Euroleague by being named MVP in 2004-2005. He posted 18.0 PPG, 5.3 rebounds per game and 3.6 assists per game. In 2005-2006, he was named MVP for the second year, and then left Europe to return to the NBA. Parker left a legacy in Europe that Israel will not soon forget. He is now a member of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA, and is looking to add an NBA Championship to his resume before returning to Europe to close his career.
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