3 In the Key - Toronto Raptors’ Game Day Preview vs. Kings

Caught the Carleton/Arcadia game last night. Great show, too bad the refs were not up to par.

As for the Raps, I see that Orlando, Jersey, Washington, Sixers all won last night, and if we're not careful we can fall to seven or eight! We'd better wake up and play tough D today or we're toast.

Just take the over 213 tonight...

Seriously, Raps really need this one tonight.

On the bright side, if the game is a stinker, at least you can work on your brackets....

On the Raps homepage there is an ad for an on-going contest for a local coach to "win" a "coaching clinic" with Sam. I have not been on their page in so long to avoid the candy-coated crap, so I wasn't even aware. If the Raps HQ could follow this and then get an interview with the "lucky" winner after the clinic, I would profess my eternal allegiance to this site. I really, really want to know what Sam would offer as coaching advice.

We need Garbo right now.

He's a calming influence on the floor who does the little things.

However, we would actually need Smitch to play him. Not just ride the pine.

Get well ASAP!

Excuse my late reply to previous post.

Assistant GM says:
I believe you unintentionally insulted many of us Raptor fans with your comments. Your post is mildly self-righteous and assumes ignorance in regards to the Raptor faithful. Why? Because we have high expectations from both players and the coaching staff. This team prided itself on unity and cohesion last year, which was one of our team's major strengths. Lately, this has not seemed to be the case.

Response: Let me remind you that after Sam Mitchell was unofficially polled as the worst coach in the NBA 2 years ago Mitchell was chosen as COY by his peers last year. When counting the days of Mitchell’s demise was a media/fan distraction in the early part of last season Mitchell was able to focus and direct a young euro-infused team to their first playoff appearance in years. When Calderone was considered not-ready-for-primetime point guard he elevated his game the following year to be part of a dynamic pg tandem envied in the eastern conference.

The common trend was a discipline to patience and keen observation was exercised before any radical decisions were contemplated. Regardless to whether you agreed with the decision to sign up Sam Mitchell his recent accomplishments grants him the right to be evaluated when perceptions are clear and not hindered by game time emotion. The same applies to TJ Ford who is trying to recover from a serious setback.

Making team adjustments to recapture that team cohesion is the only order of the day.

Although I've missed some of the recent play, I haven't seen any Raptor take any charges on defense for a very long time.

Moon is a "recover" defender.

Delfino is the only guy we have that'll "stop the ball" by getting in front of a drive and follow through with the ensuing "half flop" which is how you get the call.

Bosh sometimes will.
That is one area where we miss Mo Pete.
Come on boys, stand in there and take some from a 6'9 250 pounder comin at ya...(easy for me to say true.)

Coaching clinic with Mitchell:

Step 1: Media manipulation

Step 2: Practice saying the words "Make shots"

Step 3: Review EA Live 08 for play call ideas.

Coaching clinic with Mitchell:

Step 1: Media manipulation

Step 2: Practice saying the words "Make shots"

Step 3: Review EA Live 08 for play call ideas.

LOL

PS - I think the Rappies win tonite in a close one thats high scoring.

Are we having fun yet !!!
C.O.Y......
Sixers Footsteps
Joke

this is just insane

Seattle (16-51) 29 29 27 31 116
Denver (40-26) " 48 36 43 41 168

College ball for rest of year for Me! at least effort is made.

Washington should catch Raptors tomorrow will 76'ers catch them too 7th is strong possibility.

Hump put up good numbers for time played.

Rashio 48 min??

When Bosh gets back He will probably get dnp cd again.

Same old problems. Rebounding weak, defence weak. The rebounding sits on Colangelo's shoulders b/c he did nothing about it. The defence has really not developed in the time of Mitchell's tenure here. Bargnani seems to tell us about 5 minutes into the game whether he is going to score 5 or 25. We will have to ride him out, but Mitchell has to become accountable for his team's defensive performance. Also, the team looks weak in terms of player development. Graham has never developed. Moon is not improving, though I'm starting to believe that he is a little slow on the mental side of the game. Kapono has never fit in here, but should! He has yet to be worked well into the team, though he rocked tonight up until Ford stopped passing to him? Delfino remains the only other guy on the team who will take a ball to the basket! 13 attempts from the line tonight. 13!

Since his return, Ford has looked like a Ron Artest to his team's spirit. The play has been dispirited to say the least. Last year, when Bosh went down the team scrapped and found ways to win and develop. This year, they have a solid plan for losing and regressing all around. The general manager was supposed to have prepared us for this.

I don't disagree with your patience or thoughts OldSchool, but if you read my comments either in the last post or the one prior to that one, you will see that I very clearly stated why I believe that Smitch has to go.

I am not spewing out "the sky is falling" propaganda. I am an observer of the game that I love and educated enough in the game to see when things are just not right. I love Sam the motivator (which he hasn't been doing lately), but I am not sold on Sam the strategist or Sam the player developer. His rotations are unclear, he doesn't know how to use his weapons effectively, and he favours players that don't deserve it (this is just to name a few of my concerns).

EaseMyPain...you read my mind. I was thinking the exact same thing this morning regarding the inability to develop talent.

I am not being rash in my assessments; I am just trying to be honest with myself...finally.

Finally got to watch a west coast game. Sounds like it was the only one were the Raps played "OK". The things I noticed is that without the bread and butter pick and roll, the Raps offense is reduced to individual play vs. team play. What does this tell me? Well, we need a backup for CB4 and it ain't Bargs. He's too slow for the 4, which I guess makes him a 5 by default. Which is exactly the opposite of what I thought earlier in the year. But one thing the braintrust has to realize is that AB is more of a Dirk than a Shaq. The other thing I noticed is that Calderon looks like he's really forcing the issue regarding getting his teammates involved. It's like he's saying without Bosh they all have to pick up a bit of the slack - a very European approach. Whereas, TJ is playing like " hey with CB4 out, someone's gotta be the man". A very North American approach. That leads to some very mixed up teammates. If I was Sam I would be telling Jose to take more shots, then once the defense collapses to him then pass the ball. One sets up other. Setting up the pass first means the defense plays off Jose and makes the passes much more difficult. My 2 cents.

I will not pretend to be a student of the game as you claim to be Assistant GM and I respect your opinions on this subject so at first blush you have me at a disadvantage. While your points may all be valid, I’m reduced to basing my arguments on broad strokes.
So broad strokes it is:
1) Won the Atlantic Division
I acknowledge it was not the greatest accomplishment considering the caliber of play but one that was accomplished against great odds. He was written off by most of you so-called experts.

2) Colangelo extends Mitchell to 4 year contract
A past EOY must have seen something in Sam Mitchell to choose him to lead team into the future.

3) Raptors – Work in Progress
How much responsibility is due to the composition of this team? It has been acknowledged the team is defensively soft and needs a slashing guard. This would be Colangelo’s problem to fix, not Mitchell. Can’t help but notice that Doc Rivers was one notch above Mitchell as the worst coach last year. Did Rivers coaching ability improve that dramatically in 1 year?

4) Five Year Plan
Considering that the Raptors are just getting started in their development to becoming championship contenders, Mitchell may be the right coach to teach these young professionals the commitment required to succeed. Several players have thrived under Mitchell’s tutelage. An elite coach is not required at this stage of their development.

These points will not change your mind but until I see major cracks in the long term plan I will throw my chips behind Mitchell. I’ll be looking for your comments if Mitchell is able to pull this team out of the fire.

I guess you guys are too frustrated with last night's game that you didn't want to comment on it with a post game review.

What's going on with this team? It's so apparent that they desperately need Bosh back in the line up.

The one thing that bothers me most about this team is that they're supposedly built on depth. Shouldn't a team with depth be able to win a few games without their best player... especially winnable ones?

I think the success the Raptors had last year was actually detrimental to not themselves, but us as fans. They far exceeded anybody's expectations and I think they played above what they were. They had a weak Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division. They didn't have too many problems with injuries while other teams had some significant injuries. Therefore, with last years success, our expectations for this team were very overinflated.
I don't think even BC saw the success we had last year coming so early.

But now everyone expects them to achieve what they did last year. There's been a lot more injuries this year, and a lot of line-up changes, and this will affect the team's "gelling". I think the Raps have performed to their level this year. BC had a 4-5 year plan, so I think we need to ride this out and have patience. There's too much "the ship is sinking" syndrome going around.

OldSchool,

You must be misinterpreting my comments. In no way am I being arrogant regarding my knowledge of the game nor do I claim to be a student of the game by any means. The majority of people on this site are far more insightful than I am, and I have no problems accepting that. It's one of the reasons that I follow this blog so closely. All that I am suggesting is that I know enough about the game, (i.e., playing high school ball, and being a fan of this team since it's inception) to know when something smells bad.

Did Sam win COY because of the job that he did or because BC essentially overhauled the entire roster?

We discussed BC wanting Iavaroni to be Sam's successor on this site for the entire first half of last year. Sam showed ENOUGH improvement last year to warrant an extension (how could he justify firing the COY, deserved or not). I was of the opinion that we should give Sam an extension with the belief that he would continue to evolve as coach. I haven't seen that evolution and even though we are a few years away from contending, I believe that we need a coach who is a teacher of the game to help bring this team to the next level.

Do you listen to Sam's post-game interviews? He says the same things over and over again. What does he do in practice with his players to correct these flaws?

We still don't see any elaborate plays coming out of timeouts.

Again, all that I'm suggesting is that when a bunch of bloggers can clearly see what needs correcting on this team and how to go about it, yet the coach doesn't, it's a problem. He still doesn't utilize Kapono properly, he leaves Moon in the game even when he struggles, he takes Humphries out of a game when he scores 8 points and gets 6 boards in 5-6 minutes. There are just too many issues that baffle me to mention.

Re: Doc Rivers

He is only winning because of the players that Ainge brought in. My friends in Beantown, like Simmons, don't like Doc and know that his record this year is not a product of his coaching. When the Celtics still only had two losses in the season, fans in Beantown were begging for his removal. I am going to Boston this upcoming long weekend to visit friends and family. I am curious to find out if they still feel that way.

If the Raps improve when Bosh arrives, but I still see questionable decision-making from Sam, I will continue to stand by my position. If he isn't completely being outcoached come playoff time and shows an ability to adjust game by game, then he has a place in our long term plans. If not...then the Raps should move in another direction.

I also want to point out that I completely believe that your points are valid. I used to actually feel the exact same way. As the season has progressed, I have slowly started to change my mind...sorry for the long-winded response.