Seriously, name ONE player you would take from the Cavs besides LeBron?  Ok, I know Bosh and LeBron are on different levels but what I am getting at is, you don’t necessarily need the best players on your team to win, you need a good leader and good team chemistry and we have neither.  The Cavs has bought into the team philosophy of defence and they all truly believe, like the rest of the world, that LeBron is the greatest player in the league right now (Sorry Kobe).  The only thing it seems like the Raptors have bought into is a philosophy that we can’t close out games and no matter what happens, its always your fault, not Chris Bosh’s. I have been at almost all the Raps home games and I have seen things progressively getting worse and worse as far as team chemistry goes.  It all started when Sam Mitchell got fired, Bosh was noticeably sulking and that’s fine with me for a few games but you are a professional get over it. Then during halftime warm ups, as soon as his teammates came to join him he would sit on the bench and….sulk.  Then I saw something funny while I was at the Phoenix game, Chris was flying down on a 2 on 1 with Joey Graham and he fired a very high and hard no look pass that Joey couldn’t handle.  Chris then began to yell at Graham, usually Graham would apologize but this time he just walked away from Bosh and when he continued to yell, Joey turned around an just waved Bosh off, as if to say “Shut up, it was your fault anyway”.  To me that shows a sign that not only has he lost faith in the team but the team has had enough of his antics and lost faith in Bosh.

What are the Raptors options now?  With a losing record, an unhappy franchise player and no cap space, not many.  Now that Bosh has gone public and let the rest of the league know he is no longer happy in Toronto, his value INSTANTLY dropped.  That is an all too familiar situation for us Raptors fans, welcome Vince Carter 2.0!  The only benefit Raps fans have this time around is a better GM, well supposedly.  Will we trade Bosh?  I am not sure? I could even see this story being denied by Bosh in the next 48 hours and that could also be Colalgelo’s plan, so we don’t end up with Alonzo Mourning in return.  If we do trade Bosh right now I don’t even think it’s possible to get fair value for him because of his contract and where he is in his career because obviously if you trade Bosh you are instantly in rebuild mode and you’re not going to get 2 or 3 young studs for well..1 young stud???  Its a very weird situation and one that will be very interesting to see if it plays out as a saga or more like a short one page story.

For me, if Bosh really said this stuff (after all it was Stephen A. Smith who reported it) I think it should show the organization what type of player they are building around.  Sure losing is no fun but man up and wait till the offseason to let the team know your intentions for the coming year.  You certainly don’t go calling up ESPN after a 20+ point blow out and tell the team that way. Because you just look like a sore loser that can’t handle the pressure of being the leader of a losing team.  If you need some inspiration, look at Paul Pierce.  That guy went through the wringer EVERY YEAR he was in Boston and from what I remember, he never publicly demanded a trade (to clarify Bosh didn’t directly but this has to be seen as a back hand way out) and now look at him.  I know the chances of us landing something similar to KG and Ray Allen are very slim, I just think there would have been a better way out than this.

Can we turn this around?  For sure!  We are only 4 games out of the final playoff spot and the Raps last 2 months of games is about as easy as it gets in the NBA.  We do probably need to make a trade though, just not CB4.  I am not even sure O’Neal should be traded but something has to go down and the deadline is only a few weeks away so don’t be surprised if that is sooner than later.  In the mean time, Bosh you’re a good player but you have your faults too, so stop blaming your teammates, start taking the ball to the rack and most of all, keep your future plans to yourself and out Stephen A. Smith’s ear.  There is one thing for sure, its onlt going to get a lot harder for Bosh here on out because he’s definitely going to hear it from fans that are upset about what he has said…

Peace!

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Sam Mitchell in his classic 4th quarter pose.

Salutations,

I apologize if I cannot hide my glee as I type these words but ITS ABOUT TIME. For those of you living under a rock or just not interested in Toronto sports, Toronto’s “other” team has finally severed ties with what felt like a 20 pound anvil tied to the ankles of the players and organization for the past two seasons.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Sam Mitchell hater. I really think he was a great motivator, player developer (if you’re not in his doghouse, see: Joey Graham) and team guy. But when it came to X’s and O’s, I don’t think there was a worse coach employed in the NBA. I only have some mid-level basketball experience and A LOT of basketball watching experience but I can say with complete confidence that I could out coach Sam in the last 5 seconds of any game. And let’s be serious, would you ever let a player score 81 on you? Sam just sat there with his usual “Oh well, here’s another loss” look with his hand rubbing his brow. I have an idea, don’t let Kobe isolate his defender, double team him or even FOUL him hard enough to make him think pass on his next wide open drive to the tin. But I digress, the past is the past, so let’s move on.

If you haven’t guessed by now I am a maple syrup drinking, beer chugging Torontonian. So it brings me great pleasure that we not only have a new coach but one of my favourite coaches, Jay Triano. I will never forget when he took team Canada to a 5 and 2 record at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Of course you can say this team had the services of back to back MVP Steve Nash but unless you’re Canadian or lived in Dallas in 2000, you probably hadn’t seen Nash much. And unless you went to highschool with anyone else on this squad you had never heard of these guys before or after. It came down to coaching. Triano had these guys believing they COULD win and he gave them the right system to do it. For Triano to turn this Titanic away from the iceberg I think he only has to tweak a few things.

First off, play your $5M dollar man (Kapono) A LOT more and when he does play, MAKE SURE HE ONLY SHOOTS. Show him some tapes of Dell Curry rocking that fade and jacking J’s in his purple dino jersey. He had no problem collecting cheques by shooting and pretending to play defence, why do you? You’re the greatest shooter in the world (sorry Damon Jones), dont try to be a slasher or a distributer…SHOOT!!!

Which brings me to Jamario Moon, talk about playing to your contract? Maybe he has a fear of 7 digits? Or the rim? It was only 12 months ago, Moon was slapping gravity in the face with his fuzzy walnuts on the way to the rim.  He had people believing he could take off from a solid foot behind the chairty stripe. Now, he settles for his awkward J not even near the key, he doesn’t rebound well, he take DUMB fouls and it doesnt look like he cares. He needs to start attacking the rim or take over Joey’s spot on the pine because Kapono can at least shoot.

And last but not least, BALL MOVEMENT!!! I am lucky enough to have season tickets to the Raps, so I get to see first hand what ball movement can do. I say this because on TV it’s hard to get a grasp of how confused other teams are without hearing them yelling at each other when the Raps get into one of their ball movement grooves. There have been SOME glimpses that this year, 4 or 5 nice passes around the perimeter for an open J or to the open man inside for an easy deuce. Don’t get me wrong, Chris Bosh is and ANIMAL this year and derserves all the accolades and hype he is FINALLY receiving. He also deserves to not to settle for that 18 footer he is forced to take so often. Of course we can’t blame Mitchell for that totally but with more focus on ball movement and hustling it,will be a lot harder for Bosh to settle for that jumper when he’s trying to whizz the ball around to Parker or Kapono for a wide open trey.

At the beginning of the season I was thinking 45+ wins for this team, when J.O went down I was thinking 41 MAX. A lot of this just had to do with Smitch’s inability to utilize players properly and to put his pride aside when it came down to making the right decision. Now that he is gone with some tweaking to the system and maybe a minor trade, we can be top 5 in the East.

In closing I would like to say “So long Sam, thanks for memories”! (well most of them) and congratulations Jay make us proud. Now hopefully I won’t have to spend my days defending how a team can get blown out by 39 points, blowing a 13+ point lead late in the game or watching VC dunk my Friday night down the crapper.

Peace!

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