It was supposed to be different. It really was. It was a second chance, a new marriage. This one was supposed to work. It really was. But sadly, the results seem to be too familar. It doesn’t look like there’s anything new, just the same old thing that everyone is used to. But that's the pessimist inside o me talking and not the optimist that comfortably resides in my head.
If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m talking about the Toronto Raptors. This season had so much promise. Jermaine was brought in, Jose was the man and Bosh was supposed to take that next step. There was even a 3-0 start and the team was looking better than ever… and then reality hit. And then reality hit for Sam Mitchell. And then it hit home for all the Raps fan, this team was playing mediocre basketball.
The drain of a long season of following the Raptors was about to start taking its toll once again. At least it was for all the people who actually follow the Raptors on a daily basis. Even I was having second thoughts about this team. Were they really just a bad team or going through a bad stretch? While I did question my faith in this team, I didn’t lose faith and will not lose faith. As bad as things are, I believe this team will turn it around. I believe after this tough sked we will come back with a vengeance.
I know many of you are not as optimistic as me but I think you should pay more attention to the team to know why they will turn it around. One of the main reasons for that is Jay Triano is trying to install a new offensive system and that’s very hard to do in the middle of the season when you don’t have exhibition games to try it out and work out the kinks. He has to do it on the run in the middle of one of the toughest stretches for this team. Under the Smitch system, everything pretty much went from the pick and roll offence and it was good. In fact, it was better than good. We ran the pick and roll as good as anyone in the league but Triano has a different vision for this team and rightfully so. If you haven’t realized yet, the Raptors are running a lot more professional sets and are having a lot more movement off the ball. And while I believe this system is good for this team, it will take time to get used to as the pick and roll dominated our plays for the past 3 years. This new system has a lot of different looks for both JO and Bosh as well as for the guards. And once the Raptors are accustomed to this new system, I believe we will see the same type of execution the Raptors did so well with the pick and roll. You can see the Raptors trying out the system during certain stretches of the game but if they seem lost, they switch back to the pick and roll because that's the only thing they know... for now.
Also, Triano is going inside to JO a lot more. He is trying to make this team work from the inside out with both Bosh and JO. O’Neal is getting a lot more touches and Triano is trying to make sure both of his big men are getting touches routinely instead of just keeping the ball outside.
However, even with all that happening, the Raptors are still getting killed defensively. The same problems are there from before, the lack of man to man defence and the lack of defensive rebounding. The optimist in me wants to point out that it has a lot do with the bad habits the Raptors have and it will take some time to break those habits. But let’s face facts, until the Raptors learn to play perimeter defence and learn to box out, they will never be taken seriously. You can shoot the lights out on offence but if you can’t defend, you ain’t gonna win shit. Jose, Kapono, Moon and Bosh need to learn how to play man to man defence. Jermaine is by far our best man to man defender as well as the best weak side defender we have. And that’s actually one of the things this team is not used to. The Raptors don’t know a lot about weak side defence since this team hasn’t really had any under the Smitch era so it’s not surprise that when JO does go help out, no one rotates over to box out JOs man. That’s one of the things this team needs to learn to do. Rotate on defence and talk. Next to JO, Bargs has been our best defender this year.
And quite frankly, Bargs should be coming off the bench. No offence to Bargs, he’s been decent in his role as a starting SF but let’s face it, he’s not a SF, he’s a PF. He should be coming off the bench and anchoring that weak excuse for a 2nd unit. He’ll get more touches and he’ll be more comfortable in his natural position. Also, the 2nd unit should play much, much faster because none of them have the ability to play half court offence in this league.
Anyways, that’s enough for now about the Raptors. I be back soon.
Until then remember two years ago, horrible November and December but we came back from January on to win the Atlantic. That is exactly what this team will do this year. (Except win the Atlantic).
PS. Whacha know about my boy JOEY G.
Tagged: Basketball, NBA, Raptors, Toronto