I think I understand Triano’s rationale for playing the two point guards together, I just don’t necessarily agree with it. Despite the conspiracy theories (i.e. secret guarantees of minimum minutes etc.) I think it simply comes down to Triano wanting to have the five best players on the court down the stretch. Which makes sense… sort of. But eventually, for the reasons Howland expressed in this post, you have to have a legitimate shooting guard – that you have confidence in – capable of playing down the stretch if you want to be a legitimate playoff contender.

The real problem is that the only two serious options are Belinelli and DeRozan. Now true, Belinelli is an absolute wild card and DeRozan is a rookie but at some point Triano will have to take the leap of faith. If it were me, the only choice is DeRozan as he’s the future for this franchise as far as the wing is concerned.

Orlando was truly a missed oportunity as DeRozan was playing well (6 for 7 from the field, despite a few missed assignments) and the team looked terrible down the stretch and Jose and Jack together probably was part of the problem (or at least didn’t help matters). At least he started to sub offense/defence in the last two minutes – for which he deserves credit.

The other option is to use Weems for defensive purposes with either Jack or Jose, if the team has a lead. As long as he uses good judgment on his shot selection.

I think you mean “their ascent” in the first line.

liberty ballers is REALLY down on his team!

Agree with them or not they are working:
Orlando +5
San Antonio +5
Charlotte +4
Detroit +7
New Orleans +6
Minnesota +6
Washington +2
All close games down to the end won with
game management and players making plays.
In fact I can’t remember any last minute games
they have lost except Phoenix by 1 pt.

It does not matter who starts, plays how many minutes, or who finishes games, thats for Triano to determine, but Raptors need 48 minutes of effective PG play to compete with the good teams. This is the 1st time since 06/07 they have it available.
Without Calderon’s contributions they do not beat Orlando. There is no way you would move either player for any reason, having a brain in your head. Let Colangelo worry about the dollars, as he is paid well to do his job.

Triano has been wise not to play Derozen in the critical minutes. There is just too much at stake for Triano. If they lose, then all these armchair experts crucify him for playing a rookie at crunch time. When Jack came on board this summer, there were a lot of the TV commentators and experts who were praising Jack’s versatility, that he could play some at the two. Apparently, that’s gone by the wayside now with so many upset about Jose and Jack playing together.
Someone in a recent post suggested that Jack seemed confused when playing on the same line as Jose. That “someone” must have inside information that J Jack is mentally challenaged. I’ll stick my neck out and say he is quite capabile of handling the 2 spot, at least on spot duty.
As far as defending the 2, the roster only has two players with the potential to defend that position, Weems and Derozen, in that order.

LOL. I just read some posts about Eddie Jordan on the Philly fan page here in SB nation. I find it hilarious that so many of the complaints about him are the same ones I read for Smitch and Triano. Granted, this isn’t Jordan’s first rodeo but I cannot help but wonder if maybe fans are hard on their teams and coaches just for the sake of trying sound like they know what the hell they are talking about. Substitution patterns are difficult to gauge when it comes to success/failure as it they are easy to second guess without having to worry about being proven wrong. What I mean by that is that we can sit in our chairs and say JT should have had Weems or DD in the game instead of JC and JJ for this reason this reason and this reason but as those players were not in the game we have no way of knowing whether things would have actually played out that way or not.

They’ve won road games in the last 3 weeks at Boston, Portland, Sacramento, and most impressively, Denver. Hard to know what to expect out of this squad.

It’ll be nice to see JK again.

What a hilarious trade! Both teams get nothing, although I suppose the Raps can blame it on injury. The truth is that Reggie will barely play when he gets back unless Bosh or Bargnani are hurt. What was Colangelo thinking with that Kapono signing? $5 million+ for either of these guys is absurd since both of them are one-trick ponies (3-pointers and toughness on their own don’t really mean much).

One thing I would like to ask around here for 2011: should we re-sign Amir Johnson? for how much? Anything more than the $3.7 million he makes this year would be too much, and we are going to have little money to work with unless Bosh leaves.

Final contract note: O’Bryant is making $1,620,000 this year. What the hell is going on when someone who NEVER will play a significant role in the NBA gets this kind of money? How could BC possibly justify this one? Any scrub who is 6’10"+ could be paid 1/3rd this salary and do the same “job.” Blech.

Kapono would have been an OK signing if he would have shot the damn ball from 3. Not all of his fault in that the team was poorly constructed to take advantage of his skill set and covered up for his defensive deficiencies, but still he ended up being a reluctant shooter from 3 and that was what he was being paid to do.

You are right that in the end, both players are looking to be irrelevant on their new teams. I remember the Philly fans being very happy with the trade cause of what they got and Raptors fans being happy with the trade for what they got rid of.