The Trouble With Expectations

by Adam Francis on Apr 30, 2010 7:30 AM EDT

Part of the reason for Toronto's disappointing season is that there were very few Raptors who came close to meeting expectations...and as Franchise notes, those who did meet or surpass expectations, might not be coming back.

A quick Friday thought.

Watching the Phoenix Suns-Portland Trailblazers series last night it occurred to me that a good chunk of Phoenix's unexpected success this season was not only due to the tweaks Alvin Gentry made to the club's offense and defense, and the re-emergence of Amare, Nash and Hill, but also the emergence of an actual bench. Yes, for the first time in the Nash-era, the Suns actually had players they could turn to to relieve the starting group.

In the past, the Suns typically went 7 deep in the playoffs, with maybe an eighth man thrown in during foul trouble.

This year, players like Leandro Barbosa are still coming off the pine, but so are the likes of Robin Lopez, Channing Frye, Goran Dragic and Jared Dudley; all of whom, Lopez aside currently because of his injury situation, have played prominent roles for the Suns in the playoffs.

This was the case all year in fact, and watching Phoenix last night made me realize that the majority of these bench types exceeded expectations this year, hence the Suns' surprising third place finish in the West. (If you recall, many didn't expect Phoenix to make the playoffs at all this year!)

Of course, this whole line of thought was then carried over to the Raptors...

...where it promptly fell on its face.

Think about it for a second.

This was one of the biggest underachievers of the year in terms of NBA teams and it was the individuals that comprised this club that too fell way short of the mark many had set.

In fact, the only players I truly felt surpassed my expectations this year were Chris Bosh, Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems!

Jarrett Jack, Andrea Bargnani and Antoine Wright performed pretty much as I expected, but the rest of the club, from small disappointments such as DeMar DeRozan to huge ones like Hedo Turkoglu, just didn't cut it.

And the results were felt in the team's final record.

With so many disappointments then, how can Bryan Colangelo effectively evaluate this group?

Were the under-achievements due to fit? Was the bulk of this group overhyped to begin with? Is it a coaching issue, one that with another training camp, will help to iron things out?

I'd lean towards option b) right now, overhype, but it's a quandry for sure, especially in terms of who should be staying and who should be given their walking papers.

And the frustrating part is that the most eggregious cases of "hit the road Jack," are those with the biggest deals, folks like Hedo and Jose. And some of the more useful pieces, Amir Johnson and obviously Chris Bosh, Toronto may not be able to afford to retain, or may not want to return.

Bryan Colangelo meet your neighbour, rock.

Oh, and this is your other neighbour, hard place.

Poll

Assuming Bosh is gone, what are your off-season expectations of Bryan Colangelo?

Makes a few tweaks but essentially returns the same team

35 votes

Grabs a significant piece and keeps key free agents

96 votes

Makes wholesale changes once again to the roster

70 votes

201 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

You forgot Triano

The coach without a system.

Nash & Co. are able to exceed expectations because everyone knows their role.

Also – I would add that PHX had essentially an injury-free season AS A TEAM, which almost never happens. Barbosa and Lopez were the only 2 rotation players that went down for any period of time.

by B.C. on Apr 30, 2010 8:30 AM EDT reply actions

Great points

Perhaps another “tweak” for BC than should be to hire the entire Suns training staff? Not even joking here considering that, if you recall, when I talked to Grant Hill last season after one of the Raps’ games, he admitted that their staff did use very “unique” processes for treatment.

And…we’re going to go down the coaching path next week and get into that as yes…that’s still a major sore spot at the HQ going into next season.

Adam Francis - Publisher - RaptorsHQ.com

by Adam Francis on Apr 30, 2010 8:42 AM EDT up reply actions

Options

The situation in Toronto post season, is no different than all those teams who failed to make the playoffs. The options boil down to two: Fix your weaknesses by replacing players or fix your weaknesses by improving the ones you got.
It appears that your readers lean toward fixing things by trading and I think that certainly should and will be a big part of the process in this off season.
The questions are: " Is the Raptor organization where it should be in developing and improving their players, especially the young ones like Weems and Derozen and Johnson?" and if not “Who can you get to do that?”

by RT... on Apr 30, 2010 9:29 AM EDT reply actions

Just watching the suns

Just watching the suns play is an absolute joy. Did anyone remember how a few years back they lost BC to us, then mike dantoni left, and they traded marion for shaq how everyone was criticizing steve kerr for f*cking up the suns? marion was the “motor that makes them go” and shaq was “going to slow their game down”. Now lookat them. jared dudley is absolutely amazing and he was some throw in for the JRich deal. grant hill is lik a bajillion years old operating on two surgically repaired ankles and noone even knew who this goran dragic kid was. You look at them and you look at the raptors, you see the passion the suns play with from the coaching staff down. What pissed me off this season was hearing Devlin say “Triano. FURIOUS. having a conversation with the ref.” IF YOU ARE THAT FURIOUS GET YOURSELF THROWN OUT OR SOMETHING! ANYTHING TO FIRE YOUR LACKLUSTER TEAM UP! GOD! The team just doesn’t play with enough passion, and those who do are hurt or not vocal enough to get the rest of the team to follow. Stop having “talks” and “closed door meetings” and go out, have some fun, and run through somebody like amare tries every single possession.

by claws on Apr 30, 2010 10:50 AM EDT reply actions

Looking forward to the upcoming coaching posts...

I have to admit that I was very unsatisfied with BC’s evaluation of Jay in his post mortem. He pretty much shrugged it off as he is a young coach and he learned something. Sam Mitchell was old? Stan van Gundy is old? what kiind of excuse is that? He has problems teaching Andrea how to help his team mates on D. I don’t get it… why is he protecting him? I understand his talking point about possibly 9 coaching vacancies in the league, but so what. Does that mean all the teams who dont sign Lebron, Wade or Bosh are just going to throw in the towel? Hire a new F#&%ing coach you silly silly man.

by PNUTZ on Apr 30, 2010 11:17 AM EDT reply actions

Maybe BC realizes that the poor results this season had more to do with him then the head coach. Colangelo brought in nine new players (not necesarily a bad thing), had a rookie head coach (again, not really a bad thing) then followed it all up by saying he thought this team could win 50 games (definately a bad thing). BC, as well as the fans, needed to do a better job of managing expectations. Most rational people thought this team was a .500 club at best. Turns out they were. Triano needs to work on some stuff, to be sure. Desciplin and accountability being cheif among them. Firing and hiring another coach isn’t going to provide positive results when you GM keeps serving pork chops and calling it steak.

by Posterized on Apr 30, 2010 2:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Agreed but....

What was the logic when the fired Mitchell? They performed much worse under Triano than they did Mitchell. I was just befuddled with almost all of the coaching decisions this year and someone should pay. Derozon starting all season only to be demoted right at the end, Hedo getting all those minutes until he called in sick, Jose going back to the starting line without earning it, not being able to teach Bargnani how to shuffle his fning feet when he sees someone attacking the basket, Sonny only getting burn at the end of the season, Beli getting benched, but all of the aboves minutes were locked in. This team was disorganized from day 1 and accountability starts with the coach. If your not afraid of losing minutes by coaches decision than you play how you want to play.

by PNUTZ on Apr 30, 2010 3:22 PM EDT up reply actions

If everyone also recalls, the move to Gentry was not initiated by Kerr but by Steve Nash. Nash is a true leader who saw things were not working with Porter and pushed to make changes. There is no one currently on our roster who has done that. Bosh backed Smitch even after he was fired and as far as we know, made no move to change Triano. If coaching is truly the problem with this team, shouldn’t Bosh know enough to say something? It is one of the reasons that I felt coaching is not the main issue with this team. The main issue is leadership on the floor and in the dressing room where this team lacks a player who is willing to call his team mates out when they lollygag around the floor or get too lazy to rebound or box out. I really believe that this is the number one issue that needs to be addressed this offseason. The Raptors have not had a player like that since Oak and are in desperate need of someone like a Noah or a Garnett. A player everyone else takes their lead from and have too much respect to just mail in games. I am not sure who is available (if anyone) either through FA, trades or the draft but nothing is going to change with this team until it is addressed. If your star player will not openly criticize a suspect coaching staff or their fellow player’s desire to win, what is the point.

by McGateway on Apr 30, 2010 12:04 PM EDT reply actions