The reason the Raptors are losing is not Bosh's fault at all. He obviously does "take this on the chin" and say he is responsible for the team's success, hence he goes out there and has 30+ point games, and even 40+ point games. He's hitting clutch 3s and grabbing boards. What else do you want him to do? Seriously, it's not like the guy can just say to himself "I'm gonna make my team win tonight" and do it. If it was that easy, no one would lose. Heck, Kobe who most people say has this persona to puts his team on his back and win games lost last year in the finals. Sure, he might not have played very well during the finals, but the dude still went out everynight trying to will his team to a win. Sometimes, things just don't click. You can't blame Bosh when this happens. You know, if the Raptors could get a few stops on the perimeter, the team would probably have 3 or 4 more wins. It doesn't help that the opposing guards and small forwards can tear your team apart because people like Kapono and Moon can't play a lick of defense. Remember games against Detriot, and NJ? Tayshaun Prince dominated, as did Carter. Who guarded them? Sure people were standing there, but did they really play good enough defense to stick a hand in the shooter's face, or force a bad shot? Even against Miami, the games were a lot closer than they had to be. Toronto should be able to beat Miami by 10+ points comfortably, but Wade was getting to the rim at will. I'll say this though, Wade does this against most teams, but it was frustrating to see him get easy layups at the rim. And yes, Sam Mitchell is responsible too, but a coach can only do so much. He's not on the court. He tells his players how to play, and they play. I mean, can you blame Sam for Calderon's inability to guard Rondo correctly? The guy has no jump shot, yet Calderon played him up close, allowing Rondo to get to the rim. Any head coach would have told his players to play off the guy, and as stupid as Sam is, I don't think he's dumb enough to tell Calderon to play him up close. Seriously, if the Raptors can at least limit opposing guards from getting to the rim, the team would have a few more wins. Bosh is not to blame. You can't ask anything more from him shy of hitting 100% of his field goals and grabbing every single rebound in the game, and maybe blocking every shot the opposing team takes.
Ok, so it's not Bosh. But you guys don't really sound like you're blaming Smitch so much as you're blaming the perimeter defense of Calderon, Parker, Moon and Kapono. I'm pretty sure everyone was hoping for a wing stopper to be brought to Toronto this summer and it never happened.
It's a mix. This is the first year where I've placed a lot of blame on Colangelo. He made a good trade for Jermaine O'Neal knowing full well that it'd deplete our bench, then proceeded to sit on his ass for the rest of the offseason and not do anything about it. His solutions for backing up Jose Calderon were bad judgments at best, just lazy decisions at worst (there was never any indication that Will Solomon was NBA calibre and Roko was always going to be a long-term project). He gambled that Anthony Parker would continue to play at a high level, despite his age, and that's clearly backfired. And he did nothing to address the hole at SF, even though it was blatantly evident towards the end of last season. BC deserves a lot of blame for that inaction. That said, I do still blame Sam Mitchell for some of this team's shortcomings. Dark Magician said that Smitch obviously isn't telling Jose to play up on penetrating PG's. While that's probably true, I don't believe he's telling him to stop. You could argue either way, but all indications over the past couple years leads me to believe that. Mitchell doesn't pick up on problems until they're so obvious that we're getting blown out because of them. His offense still lacks the kind of off-the-ball movement and variety to score consistently, and I think you see that whenever Jose isn't on the floor (the dude is just naturally good at creating shot opportunities).
ok, I am blaming Smitch for all our problems, look our record hasnt changed, last year we started 6-7. Like whoz fault is it? a coach has to ask to get help with his roster. Look if we dont do something soon we can say goodbye to playoffs, say goodbye to Bosh and wait for another 5 years to make the playoffs again.
I totally blame smitch, with a side of BC. Could it be that Colangelo askes Mitchell to do things to make him look better. I've seen Kapono on the floor way too much, especially during crunch time, when his defense is aweful. Could it be that Colangelo wants to justify the contract he gave him?...that was one of BC's biggest mistakes. Smitch doesn't use Hump enough, and I peronally would be playing Bargs small and Hump Big...rather then giving Moon any playing time. This team is very dissappointing. They have clearly regressed from the playoffs 2 years ago, and last year. I can easily see Bosh moving on to NewYork to play with LBJ come 2010.
Before I'm ready to fire Smith, I want to make sure we have a glorified next coach that CAN make this team better, no chances.
Bas, you have a good point. Teams that fire coaches in the middle of the season do so, either because they have a capable successor who they believe can do better or they're just so crappy that they're willing to tank the season with a random interim. I don't believe the Raptors fall under either category. I've been vocal with my criticisms of Smitch in the past, but I've yet to suggest firing him in the middle of the season. This year it makes even less sense considering what he was given. The recent rumours of Colangelo being active in the trade market are a confirmation that this roster is fundamentally flawed, and you'd like to see the current coach work with whatever solution BC finds.
btw, that Kapono signing really really hurts these days. When you think of how quickly and haphazardly we threw that money away, it makes you think. We could've kept Mo-Pete for little less than that (while he isn't that great a player, he'd be helping this roster so much more than Kap).
I'd say trade Kapono, around the league he is still known as the two time 3 point champ. Get a good wing (i.e. G-Wallace) or a lock down defender. Not AP lock down, pure lock down and young, and also a defender who isn't a chucker. Smitch has gotten lucky though, Bargnani is showing improvement, imagine how this season how have gone if he didn't show improvement on the Defensive end. This roster has holes, a lot of them, and they are all at the Guard and 3 positions. PF and C i believe we are fine, especially if Jawai can play a game of basketball.
meh, not yet. let him go if and when we want to tank the season. that's not going to happen so i'm pretty confident he'll have a job till after we lose in the playoffs. if he loses his players' effort, then BC needs to make a change but i think BC will give him at least to allstar break to see where we're at. major coaching changes should be done in the offseason unless you're okay with missing playoffs. there's no way CB4 wants Sam axed midseason while Chris is playing the best ball of his career.
