<div class="quote_poster">Quoting toronto star:</div><div class="quote_post">If there is profit in shameless persistence, the Raptors haven't seen any this season. Toronto's NBA club loudly announced its pre-season intention to play a fast-paced brand of round ball in the mode of the quick-shooting Phoenix Suns. But a little more than a month into the schedule, the team that once talked about launching 100 shots a night (and actually got up 98 field-goal attempts in a pre-season win that also included 38 trips to the free-throw line), took exactly 80 in Saturday's win in New York. Gone, in the wake of a 2-8 start, is the running, and the gunning (especially the three-point gunning, in which the Raptors possess the league's third-worst success rate).</div> http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=970081562040 Suprize! we're changing the game plan already, although this was pretty obvious to anyone who was watching, we were a terrible fast break team. Reasons why i think we failed: -Sam Mitchell is a terrible coach. As soon as we heard 7 seconds and 100 shots i think we all realized this wasn't going to last. You can see the problems with our "run and gun offense" from the minute they stepped on the floor. What kind of a loser spends the entire training camp on one offensive set for the year than has to throw it out 2 weeks into the season? what a waste of our players efforts to show up to training camp early. -No one inbounded the ball quick enough to keep the pace going. Our guys would sprint up court and no one looked like they wanted to take the inbounds pass. It was pretty normal to see Ford or Calderon (still is now) to have to waive at someone to come back and inbound the ball. -Ford who was primarily the pg at the time didn't move or pass the ball quick enough. TJ may be lightning quick but a pass still travels faster than any player can so this slowed down the offense. He would also basically jog up to the 1/2 court line and then start breaking quickly towards the basket and then pass it off once he got inside the paint. If you watch Nash play in Phoenix he normally passes the ball much sooner or if he takes it over 1/2 he passes it by the time he gets to the free throw line. Getting so deep in the paint makes it hard to make good passes, especially for TJ since he's a spaz. -Guys couldn't make shots ... but this wasn't just their fault, when you spot everyone up behind the 3 point line what did you think was going to happen? Garbajosa, Anthony parker and a few other guys have decent mid-range jumpers ... if we had moved them in a few feet we probably would have improved our shooting percentage. -Our point guards didn't find the guys who were sprinting up behind the defense, which was ironic because the opposing teams seemed to have no problem finding the guys who ran back behind our defenders. As much as we abandoned this plan I'd expect when we eventually get a coaching upgrade we'll revert back to the run and gun.
Yea, I read this in the morning and it made me laugh a little. He's talking about this adjustment as if he's discovered a secret or something. You're completely right, a13x, Mitchell completely wasted the extra effort that the players put into training camp.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The league's fastest-paced team this season, the Denver Nuggets, are 10-5. The slowest-paced team, the Houston Rockets, are 11-5. Teams with in-between paces are playing as well, and better, and worse.</div> Thanks for the insightful analysis
<div class="quote_poster">Eclipse Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Thanks for the insightful analysis </div> im assuming he's arguing there is no silver bullet when it comes to winning basketball games
I don't know if its all mitchells fault....we know he is a terrible coach, but i'm not sure it was him who wanted to be run and gun. I'm pretty sure that was Colangelo.
<div class="quote_poster">norespect Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> I'm pretty sure that was Colangelo.</div> good point, a definite possibility.
Yea, but this team could have been, and still can, play a running style. The problem is that you have to be creative and think outside simply pushing the ball forward and shooting (the Phoenix model). Mitchell failed to realize that almost everyone on this team can take it to the basket strong and he hasn't taken advantage of that. Off of rebounds, there was almost never an outlet pass and TJ Ford/Jose Calderon were usually the first players down. The whole point would be to catch the defense off guard and make odd man situations, but we never did. Teams would get caught up in shooting 3's against us, but we never ran it down quick enough after the long rebounds. Basically, Mitchell's "run n gun" amounted to setting up a halfcourt set as quickly as possible, making a couple of passes, and shooting an open jumper (usually a miss).
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes</div> - George Soros
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">There is shame in allowing a mistake to happen when it was staring you in the face throughout training camp.</div> - Chutney
Great bit by Mitchell today on raptors tv. They were talking to him about why Fred Jones is still playing even though he's stinking up the place on offense. He gave them the "this is why I'm a basketball coach and you're a media peon" look. He basically said Jones is playing good defense (questionable - who goes 0 for everything and plays good defense?) and he hopes that he hits his shots in the future. What he didn't say was that Fred Jones has never been a jump shooter and there is a better chance of hell freezing over than him consistently hitting the j. Has anyone witnessed this "good defense" we apparently have? I haven't noticed it, but i haven't really been watching him that closely either. Normally on defense i'm watching our bigs to see if they are boxing out etc... since we seem to get dominated inside quite often.
He's taking the same approach with defense that he did with offense. Of course you remember that whole "I don't mind us shooting a poor percentage, as long we're getting quality looks" stage that we went through. From the descriptions of his defensive evaluations, it seems Mitchell's been rewarding players for being in the right spot and contesting shots even if the opponent still scores. Consequently, a player like Fred Jones might be contesting every shot and be considered a "good defender" by Mitchell, but his lack of height has made it easy for his opponents to score over him. Garbajosa is in a similar situation. btw, I'm curious to see what Bosh has been recieving in Mitchell's defensive report cards. From what we've heard the players have taken their grades personally and its been a matter of pride. You'd think that Bosh would be getting around a D, simply because he lets his opponent establish position, gives away the baseline, doesn't box out, and generally lacks energy. I have a feeling that they just give him a C or a B though, because he's the franchise player.
<div class="quote_poster">AirJordan Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">mitchelle isnt a "run n gun" type of coach, more of a half court, no defense, crappy coach</div> Thats a recipe for success in my book ha
<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">He's taking the same approach with defense that he did with offense. Of course you remember that whole "I don't mind us shooting a poor percentage, as long we're getting quality looks" stage that we went through. From the descriptions of his defensive evaluations, it seems Mitchell's been rewarding players for being in the right spot and contesting shots even if the opponent still scores. Consequently, a player like Fred Jones might be contesting every shot and be considered a "good defender" by Mitchell, but his lack of height has made it easy for his opponents to score over him. Garbajosa is in a similar situation. </div> that makes sense. I can honestly not remember one player we've locked down so far this year. We held Paul Pierce to a decent performance but he was still effective because he was able to find the open man and create for his teammates. When i think of our perimeter defense, I picture guys running out late to contest 3 pointers.
<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> There is shame in allowing a mistake to happen when it was staring you in the face throughout training camp. - Chutney</div> we went 7-1 in the preseason. I think it was certainly a lofty goal and the whole 100 shots was just a bench mark to try and motivate the team to get up the floor & shoot. I just don't get it... we were very critical of the raptos offense - specifically their reliance on garbage shots they would put up early in the shot clock. So mitchell changes strategy and all of a sudden he is proven stupid? What would you perfer some doggedly persistant coach who refuses to give up the old ideaology, or a coach who recognizes its not working at makes a switch??? IMO that whole 100 shots a game theory came from upstairs (colangelo). Look I do get fed up with mitchells sets and i know he has had a pretty poor career record but he has also had some pretty crappy teams aswell. This year we defintly have the talent to make the play-offs but we are no more talented than Boston, New york, or Philly. We are currently sitting at 7-10 tied for first in our division (and have the 8th seed if the playoffs started today). Lets at least wait till the the new year before someone commits a murder suicide involving Sam Mitchell.
I'm not blaming him for changing his approach, that's definitely a positive. But his approach was so obviously flawed from the beginning that its hard to really give him too much credit. I only caught the last few preseason games, but even as we were winning, I thought it was obvious that our players were overachieving in a system that didn't suit them. And I seriously doubt that the 100 shots thing came from Colangelo. BC built a fast-paced offense in Phoenix and never once did you hear such a ridiculous statement from D'Antoni. The fact is that a fast-tempo offense is supposed to create high percentage shots and better percentages. An increased number of shots is simply a byproduct of the system, but Mitchell was retarded enough to make that the emphasis of his offensive philosophy. If anything, Sam should've made the goal to be a certain amount of layups/a certain shooting percentage.
Wow, I thought that putting almost no emphasis on an amazingly poor defence and instead focus on hurling up 100 shots a game would obviously lead to more wins... Guess not.
