The morning after the night before, II

Fire this guy.

Trade that guy

Bench this other guy.

Feel better?

In the cool dawn of a Mississauga morning, I can feel the angst, feel the frustration swelling, feel the anger and resentment and the suggestions that perhaps they should tank the entire season and get in the O.J. Mayo sweepstakes.

(And wouldn’t that be a whole new layer of stuff to deal with, play Mayo, Ford or Calderon?).

Yes, they stunk last night; yes, Chris Bosh was far below even average; yes, the wings defended like you and I. Yes, they have 79 games left.

Three Things I Learned

Mix and match time

If you’re sitting on the couch watching (the colleague had the pleasure of being in attendance) and you get back from a breath of fresh air to see Jamario Moon and Kris Humphries on the court in the first quarter, things are bad. Really bad.

No offence to either of them – The Hump actually played with energy he’d been lacking for a week or so – but if Sam Mitchell has to go that deep in his bench that early, it’s trouble.

But we know now Mitchell isn’t afraid to experiment if the starters are horrible. And that’s a good thing because it sends the right message: Play or sit.

Yi? Ha!

Kid’s gonna be good, maybe very good. Maybe quickly. Didn’t see too many obvious flaws in his game, although the token resistance given by the Raptors all night made it difficult to get a true read on him. Funny thing is, Toronto might have had him. There was a deal offered draft night for the No. 6 pick (it probably would have cost Toronto Jose Calderon) but the Raptors had no interest in taking back Dan Gadzuric, who had to be included in the deal.

Imagine Bosh, Bargnani and Yi? Pretty multi-faceted.

Don’t share, don’t win

Even when the game was marginally close, like for the first eight minutes, the one bad sign was the lack of ball movement. And don’t put it all on the point guards, although they were a bit too shot-happy. When these guys are their best offensively, it’s two, three, maybe even four passes before a shot goes up. Not one, a couple of dribbles and a force.

It’s a trust thing, and it has to be constant.

--

Three Things You Wondered

Q: What, in the holy name of Rafael Araujo, is happening to Bosh during first halves of basketball games?

Vladimir Oljaca, Belgrade, Serbia

A: I dunno. Well, I have a theory, but that’s all it is. I think maybe he’s a bit worried about his knee and he’s tentative to start games because he’s wondering how it’ll react. That may explain why he seemed to get stronger as the Boston game wore on. Last night, the two fouls in the first four or five minutes had him out of the game early and he never really got in rhythm.

Q: Doug, can you explain any conceivable reason that Juan Dixon continues to get consistent minutes? He brings nothing extra to the table over Kapono, Delfino and Parker? The other three can also refuse to pass while hoisting up terrible contested jumpers (even though they don't, which is novel), but they can also rebound and play some D

Please explain, without saying something about what he does in practice.

Ian Toye, Seoul

A: The one reason I can offer is this: Watching the various wings on this team, the one thing Dixon has over the others is the quickness and desire to drive, draw contact and get to the line. I don’t see it often enough from Parker, Kapono or Delfino and maybe the coaches see the same thing.

He is a concern on defence because opponents just post him up and that means the Raptors have to give him help they wouldn’t generally have to give the other three.

But on a team dominated by spot-up shooters, a slasher can’t hurt.

Q: I know it's early to jump on Sam but here goes! Raps are only down by seven after about seven minutes (last night) and are playing poorly, then Sam puts in five subs? In the second quarter while still down, instead of bringing Bargnani and some starters back on, he opts for Jamario Moon & co. and the Raps find themselves down 20-plus? Please, please explain why he gave this one away? Was he trying to teach the starters a lesson (this isn't college ball)? Did he legitimately think the subs give them a better chance to win?

Ben T, Richmond Hill

A: He gave it away? Yeah, right.

Think of this: After seven minutes of any game, he’s got at least three, maybe four, subs on the floor: Calderon, Nesterovic, Dixon almost for sure, and often Humphries.

Moon was in early last night because Desmond Mason was abusing whoever guarded him and they needed to try and get an athlete in there to defend. Would have been Joey had he been dressed.

And the way the starters were being abused, and how little they seemed to care, in the first quarter, why wouldn’t you give some other guys a shot?

It was a bit of a gamble, it failed.

--

Worst? Not even close

Now, having been subjected to this team for as long as it's been alive -- becoming, in my opinion one of the world's foremost experts on bad basketball -- I'm going to give you some context through which to veiw last night's horror.

Think of this as List Time from back in the day of Nothing But (Inter) Net

Here are three I witnessed that were far, far worse than what transpired last night.

March 13, 1998

Clippers 151, Raptors 120

A 48-minute L.A. layup line (Clips were awful and shot 68 per cent from the field) made worse by the fact the game was in L.A. Sports Arena, an emporium with such a unique odor it was affectionately known as The Pee-Pee Palace.

Nov. 1, 2003

Minnesota 73, Raptors 51

That's when we knew Kevin O'Neill may be a defensive genius but having to watch that team's offence made one look for a sharp stick or some scissors to run with.

March 29, 1995

Orlando 126, Raptors 86

Brendan Malone played five two-guards for a large chunk of the second half, perhaps trying to point out roster flaws to general manager Isiah Thomas, who was not amused.  Neither were the people who paid to watch it.

Now, those were bad games.

Comments

[voislav]

It seems to me that conditioning is a big problem with Bosh right now and is really affecting his game. With all the injuries and the rest he had to give his foot that's not very suprising, so how about not dressing him for a week or two and possibly leave him in Toronto to work on his conditioning. This team has shown that it can handle stretches without Bosh, so why not bite the bullet and hopefully he comes back fit and eager to contribute.

[Doug]

I know next to nothing about basketball so apologies in advance for stupid comments.
I was at the game against Boston and watched the debacle last night.
It seems to me that if their shots are not dropping Toronto runs out of options to score points. They have a hard time defending other teams from scoring for some reason.
They seem to lack toughness, not sure if that is important in basketball. They turn the ball over quite frequently, especially Bosh.
They don't seem to run many plays through Bargnani, which seems confusing given that he is one of the few players whose shot is dropping.
They have a very difficult time getting a rebound. It seems they don't try as hard as other teams to get rebounds.
I hope I'm completely wrong, and given how young the season is I probably am, but this team seems to have some major problems.

[Jordan]

After last night I hope it is a very long tim before we see Moon on the court in a game that hasn't already been decided.
I'm sure Sam was thrilled with his 17 foot pull up jumper on the partial break.
Also just because Humphries hits a 15 foot jumper (with no rebounders) doesn't make it a good shot.
Terrible.

[axl]

I agree the basic problem on offence is ball movement. On defence, it's just spazziness.
I liked what Garbo did when he came in. Drew a foul on Yi, set up Dixon to attack Yi and drew another. Garbo was calm, got some stops, communicated.
A step slow or not, I wish Garbo was still starting or at least the first guy of the bench.

[Tom]

Watching the Raptors last night made first puke - then slash one of my wrists (my girlfriend stopped me from doing the other one) To see all the easy, fast break, backdoor, alley-oops from the Bucks was horrifying.
I'm not a violent or angry type of person - but the Raps last night got me FUMING mad. I know it's just one game - but it's what it represents.
The Raptors are an ONLY jump-shooting team. Is it Sam Mitchells play calling that COMPLETELY excludes any sort of easy buckets? Does he know what an alley-oop is? Why have we not managed what seems like less than 3 alley oops or layups since Wince left? Are these guys THAT un-athletic that we can't do anything but shoot forced long distance jumpers with ZERO rebounders in place?
My girlfriend - who knows almost nothing about basketball - repeatedly turned to me last night asking "why are they shooting everytime with none of our guys near the basket to get the ball back?"
Over and over and over again like a horrible nightmare. She did learn a few things last night though - like what a Travel, Turnover, Charge, illegal defence are....and apparently also what a D League calibre team plays like.
Oh...she also asked me if Milwaukee was the Dream Team.

[Brian]

Geez Doug, it's the Derrick Rose sweepstakes. Get with the times, mon.

[Dagomar Degroot]

In response to some of the comments regarding the imperfections of the Raptors as a team:

The Raptors do rely on the jumpshot, granted, but ideally, when Bosh is healthy, he can take it inside and get high percentage opportunities.
That's what makes the Raptors a multi-faceted team: getting Bosh in the paint, then spacing the floor for him with shooters. A slasher would be really, really nice, but that's really the major weakness of this team.
That, and rebounding. Usually the team can overcome those weaknesses (after all, every team has its problems) by moving the ball, shooting well, and relying on Bosh to carry them home.
Unfortunately, with Bosh struggling it takes away a lot of options. It's really quite unfair to judge the team this early in the season when the franchise player is clearly nowhere near 100%.
Besides, give it a while. The Bulls don't have a win, after all. It's not like these early-season trends last forever.

[Derek]

It looks like having 3 great players is better than having 12 average players. I'll be surprised if the Raptors win another game this year. BC is not looking like a genius any longer.

[Eric]

Ugh....the 126-86 Orlando game was the first time I watched the Raptors live. The seats were just as bad at the Raps that night. I was on the OTHER side of Skydome.

[raguv2000]

Except Moon was guarding Yi most of the time, not Mason