wow. good young bigs are much more important then good young smalls, and especially when there as versatile as cb4 and charlie. Mike James and Mo Pete are both very solid perimeter players, and to call Sam Mitchell clueless just goes to show about how much you know
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Mr.Wade:</div><div class="quote_post">Except when has Mitchell ever shown creativity and unpredictability in his playcalling?? I recall multiple times teams saying how Toronto ran the same play all game long, side pick and roll, iso etc. I have honestly never seen any other plays other than an iso, pick and roll and at the start of the game a mo pete curl.</div> guess you didn't understand or read what i was saying. you need to have a team that can comprehend complex plays, and right now that isn't the Raps...remember Mitchell saying that they kept telling them to stay out on Dirk and Terry? If they couldn't even remember that what's the chance they will remember plays or if they remember, execute them properly. That and there are lots of coaches around the league that just put the ball in one of their guys hands and let them do whatever. We should be happy our coach got our team that was slated to finish dead last in the NBA to COACH his team to .500 ball after a horrible start, and now we go to overtime with one of the top 3 teams in the league and you're bitching??? We blew a lead but didn't Memphis blow a 19 pt lead to Dallas just the night before? Is anybody yelling to fire Fratello? Is he a bad coach for letting that game slip away? Did he have 'bad plays' called with a lack of creativity? Cuz I'd like to know exactly why Mitchell is sooo horrible. He has the respect of the players, they are close, Bosh likes him and respects him, he makes them accountable to each other and there is a great comraderie the team hasn't had in years. Ya let's fire him! Good call Peddy-Lovers! and who were those two hall of famers who used the pick and roll all the time??? they were kinda good weren't they? I'm not saying James and Bosh are in the same league as Stockton and Malone...just that if they can use it all game long, why can't the Raps? Is Jerry Sloan lacking in creativity too!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TORaptors bb4:</div><div class="quote_post">I disagree with everyone harping on Mitchell's coaching abilities. The reason he run's the pick and roll with Mike and CB4 is because it's the best option we have on offense! Even when defences know it's coming, it seems that Mike and Chris can make it work out as there on court chemistry is so good. As far as our defense in concerned, I do not blame Sam whatsoever for our miscues. If you look at it, it seems that many times we have the right defensive set, it's just some of our guys (Matt and Charlie mostly) are too slow to close out on shooters and rotate correctly. If anything, I believe Mitchell is due for a contract extension any time now, especially with the rapport he and Chris Bosh have.</div> The thing about our pick and roll is that too many times it get's too stagnant down the stretch. Their is nothing wrong with doing the pick and roll, it's a great offensive weapon, but we need to incorporate some more offensive movement into it. eg: Instead of having James dribble around for 10 seconds then having Bosh come out to pick, have him dribble up, give up the ball to MoPete, curl around the baseline to the other side where MoPete get's him the ball back. As soon as he get's the ball, Bosh quickly goes out for the pick and roll, just this simple change will get the defensive moving, and open up some more opuurtunities. Against a good defensive team, too many times we get into our offense too late in the clock, and have to rely on forcing up a shot.
I agree that sometimes the offense sometimes appears to be stagnant, all I was trying to say was that the reason our offense sometimes seems to be repetitive and not to creative is that the pick and roll with Chris is by far our best offensive option. As far as Mo Pete being given the ball early in the shot clock, it seems to me that this often results in Mo Pete attempting to drive but end up taking an off balance shot from about 15 feet, a he will pull up early. Don't get me wrong, I really like Mo as a transition player, but as Sam has said, the Raptors don't draw plays up for Mo. Late in games our offense does seem to be forced into putting up bad shots often, but i blame this on Mike more then anyone. It seems late in games when Chris is open on the block, or Charlie or Mo are open for a kick out, James ignores them and would rather take the shot himself.
Ok - plenty of guys on the raptors liked lenny wilkens too, but there was a time when everyone realized that he had to go. Sam Mitchell does some things well, but as it seems right now; his handling of the rotation, drawing up plays and general in game management are rather weak. In terms of the Mitchell is coaching down to the level of his players theory - don't know if I can buy that. The guy runs the zone defense quite a bit with a team that isn't good at getting out on shooters or rotating on defense. I don't think some of the stuff he could implement to make us better would be that hard for our players to understand. For example - setting up bosh at the top of the key instead of the post when he's getting doubled so he can expose the defense. I will cut him some slack in the sense that he doesn't have much to work with in terms of someone to execute his plays - James holds the ball too long and Calderon is still learning. So if he wants to execute a play though his guard it's more challenging then it may seem...
