Some (quick) Game 5 thoughts, pre-flight update

Okay kids, here’s the deal.

Just got back to the room from the arena and the newspaper part of the job and it’s like 1:20 a.m. and the Nuggets just got eliminated. Have a 4 a.m. wakeup call for a 7 a.m. flight and a 1 p.m. media availability with the heroes of the hardcourt.

So, if you don’t mind, I’ll give you a few thoughts on last night and save the big picture look ahead ahead for later tomorrow or Wednesday morning. That all right? Hope so. Oh, and the 50 e-mails that are in there already? I’ll load ‘em up and get ‘em answered either tomorrow waiting for the flight or while we’re sitting around the arena.

Deal?

Thanks.

Okay, to business.

Please, use the most rational thought process you have, look back at the totality of the series and tell me the best team didn’t win? You can’t, can you? Up and down the roster, from No. 1  through No. 9, the Magic were better. And that’s why they won.

Bigger, faster, stronger, older. And they played better.

I know the Raptors were in Game 2 and in Game 4 and in Game 5 and won Game 3 but they weren’t the better team.

Simple, no?

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Hey, check this out.

Guess someone made some noise.

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Action: TJ sits in fourth
Reaction: Is his Toronto time over?

It’ll be the hot-button issue, well, one of them at least, for the next little while but seeing how Jose finished every close game down the stretch of the season and every close game in the playoffs, it’s obvious who’s No. 1 in the eyes of the coaching staff right now. It’d be too bad if that’s how Ford went out, he can do some exciting stuff on the court; I just don’t think he can do it here.

If he was willing to come back as a tempo-changing backup (and it’s always better to change to speed rather than from it, in my opinion), he’d be fine here. I don’t think he’s willing to make that move.

And to all those people who wonder how it’s possible that they’d pay $15 million or $16 million for point guards? Well, some teams do it. They just split it up 13-2 or 13-3 but it can be done.

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Action: A road game
Reaction: Some red in the building

Was pretty nice to see a few red shirts around the arena, proving again that these guys have some great fans.

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They’re not gloating in Orlando but the writers were making reservations to go to Detroit to cover the Pistons-Sixers. Here’s what they wrote before the left.

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Action: Season’s over
Reaction: Who’s gone?

It’s a foregone conclusion that unrestricted free agents Darrick Martin and Primoz Brezec are finished as Ratpors. But who else goes?

You know Bryan’s going to be out there beating the drums for trades so I’ll leave that speculation for tomorrow.

The two restricted free agents are interesting. Well, one is, actually because Colangelo is going to re-sign Jose.

But what about Carlos? What do they do with him? That’s a tough one because I love the guy’s game when he’s on, when he’s off, it’s ugly. But I think a three year deal for around $9 million total, maybe $10 million, makes entire sense. As your ninth guy, he’s good.

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Action: Tiger’s courtside
Reaction: Didn’t see Jason go over for a tip.

But, I did see Kapono say hello to Scott Hoch heading back to the court at halftime. Hoch, a regular at Magic games, at least on the nights I’ve been there, was about four rows up in the stands.

He makes that putt at the Masters that year and he might have been sitting courtside, too.

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Cool sight about 30 minutes before tipoff.

Garbo’s out on the court with Erik Hughes, getting some shooting work in like he does before every game. At home, he’s in the practice gym, on the road, he’s on the court.

As he’s shooting, two dudes, decked out in Espana jerseys, are standing in the aisle about halfway up the lower bowl yelling and screaming and waving.

Garbo finally sees them, looks over and waves and I swear the two guys didn’t care what happened in the game, they had got what they wanted.

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Anyway, it’s really, really late now, kids, so I’m gonna crash and be back at this late tomorrow morning when I get back downtown.

Comments

[teddygreent]

Can you see a possible TJ Ford for Corey Maggette sign and trade happening?

Clippers need a PG and and the Raptors need a scorer.....

Calderon has made TJ expenable while Al Thornton has made Corey Maggette expenable.....

[Mike Brown]

Doug do you think BC will address the team's problems this year or will he be bringing in more soft shooters, who can't shoot, cause we don't have enough of them?

[Adal]

it didn't seem much of a mea culpa from peter vecsey, but i guess thats as good as it gets from him

[Alex L]

I was one of the people to fire off an email yesterday to Vescey. In it I asked him if he had obtained his quotes from the Hamburgler and I basically said he and his newspaper have no credibility (what I said can't be reprinted here). I think I may have to send him off a second email, because I must admit it takes big stones to 'fess up like that. He's still no Doug Smith!

[Ellie]

Outcome makes total sense. Orlando were the better team and I wish Howard and the Magic well as they go forward.

The people who think Bosh sucks are clearly nuts. Without him, we would have been swept out to sea in four games in embarrassing blowouts. He does need another consistent scorer to help take the pressure off, but that's what everyone thought Bargs would be, non?

It might be more productive to pray for good things at big man camp rather than bash the one guy who showed up all year.

[L Lo]

Doug, I'm sure I wasn't the only one but as soon as I read what Peter Vescey wrote, I sent him and email. You can say a lot of things about Sam and you can decide whether he is to blame for the Raptors disappointing season, but you can not telly outright lies about the guy. He is a professional and from what I have seen in over 70 games I have watched this year, Sam takes a lot of pride in the work he does. I am glad he retracted his story.

[Joe T.]

Funny, I'm almost glad the season's over already! On the whole, it was disappointing and I found myself not nearly as excited about these playoffs as I have been in the past. I would have liked the Raptors to advance past the first round but I certainly didn't expect it. A few random thoughts which I'm sure will probably already have appeared in the Comments above mine when they're posted:

1. No doubt about it, the Magic were the better team. We knew Howard was gonna do his damage on the glass and in the paint. But the difference between the rosters, clearly, is the other "Level 2" stars -- Turkoglu, Lewis and, in this series, Nelson. There's far more room for error with the Magic because they have guys who can pull them to victory in the Fourth as happened game after game in this series. For the Raptors, if the shots aren't falling, it's over, because of the lack of players able to really create;

2. Although I still think Sam should be the coach of this team, at least to start next season, he definitely made things even harder for his team with that starting lineup change for the first 2 games. While it's nice to go against convention sometimes, that kind of experiment to start the playoffs was foolish. I'm sure he's learned from it though. Still, losing the first 2 games likes that, in part because of a poor coaching decision, made a difficult task almost impossible;

3. I was thoroughly impressed with the play of Jamario Moon and Jason Kapono in this series. Jason appeared to actually play defense now and again as well as relocating his scoring touch. And Jamario started knocking down shots to go with his always-bothersome-to-the-opponent defense. With those 2 elevating their games along with the strong contributions of Bosh and the point guards in the last few games, the Raptors were possibly one good Andrea Bargnani away from winning this series;

4. Finally, thanks to you, Doug, for keeping this blog going and doing such a great job posting comments and answering questions. For anyone looking for positives and things to build on for next Raptors season, this blog should be, um, "in the conversation".

I'm looking forward to your assessment of the season and the players...

[patrick r]

Hi Doug,

Been a while since my last post. I thought I would kick off the off season navel gazing with this, before anyone writes off TJ lets first take a step back and look at what is transpiring in these playoffs and with the NBA in general.
Athleticism it would seem is clearly in and is more than compensating for any BB IQ deficiency. It was especially evident in the West where 50 win seasons were the norm rather than the exception. It is also evident in the playoffs as teams that are more athletic are performing very well against the teams that are seen as more experienced and traditional halfcourt teams and maybe lack some of the athleticism. See Orlando, Philly, Atlanta. Now that doesn’t mean they will win it all, after all the Spurs are still in the mix, mind you Pheonix isn’t the athletic team it used be and it will be interesting to see how they do against any of the Lakers, Utah and Hornets, but there is certainly a trend to these types of teams. Clearly based on the trend this year long and athletic can make up for a lot of IQ deficiency.
The Raptors seem to be caught in the two solitudes. With many of their players on the floor they are incapable of matching the athleticism of other teams especially on D. On offense they have some success with set plays but when confronted with pressure D too many are unable to take it up a notch and create shots that is why they settle for the J. On the Defensive end it is the main reason for their perimeter problems.
Before any decision is made on TJ , the team has to decide what identity they want. If you want to be a half court setup team than surely TJ would seem to be a poor fit, but so too would Moon and even Bosh as their lack of physical size is going to be a problem in a half court set. Getting beat up every night by bigger opponents wears you down regardless of how tough and gritty one is and Bosh, Ford and perhaps Delfino are the few players on this team whose grit and toughness cannot be questioned, but is a halfcourt game suitable for their game? I said back in the fall that the team's biggest weakness is the lack of any serious interior presence, especially to take the heat off Bosh. I believe I ruffled many feathers when I suggested that they consider trading a PG (Jose) to Cleveland for Verajao. My point than and still now is, just too be satisfied to make the playoffs isn't why you play. I think had that trade been made (and it was possible as Cleveland needed and still needs a point guard), the Raptor team would not have had some of the issues it had with Orlando. Regardless whether it is Varejao a big rebounder would make them a fast break team and they would be closer to being an elite team than it is today.
People may want to run TJ out of town, but if you want to be an athletic team with grit he is the point guard you want. Jose is the asset you have to look at trading. I don't think the team can afford to have both of them.

[Thane]

It's a foregone conclusion that Darrick Martin is finished as a Raptor? I'm not so sure about that, Doug.

If there's one thing that Martin showed over the past few seasons is that he's a court-smart player who has the ability to help inspire and push the younger players - that's why he was around for this season at all.

I think it would be an extremely short-sighted move on Colangelo's part to not try to keep Martin with the Raptors, somewhere on the coaching staff - there might be an assistant-coach position opening up, if some of our current assistants can find a head job.

I suppose time will tell, but I don't think it's foregone at all that the Raptors have seen the last of Darrick Martin.

[chris b]

Doug,
Does it matter that the Raptors don't have any money? They have $20 million in expiring contracts. Most of the time teams land a star lately, it's through trade and not free agency anyway. I expect nothing less than a top-tier wing here next season. I don't envy Mitchell having to shuffle around the likes of Parker, Delfino, Moon and Kapono -- we have the worst wings in the entire NBA.
Chris

[voislav]

I have to say that Vescey is still trying to weasel his way out of this one. "Improperly researched" and mistake is not quite the choice of words that comes to mind here. And he still continues to go on and on about how Raptors are sure to pick D'Antoni up if he's let go by the Suns and that Mitchell will be gone. I guess it's the new fashion in the US to "misspeak" and then pretend nothing happened.

[GM]

No surprise here about the Magic. They were really good all year. I thought their weakness was point guard, but those guys are decent.

Lately, I've not been so anti-TJ. I thought his game has come around a little bit. But last night I couldn't help noticing how he has tunnel-vision. It's like he feels he has to directly lead to an assist. He'd only pass the ball to Bosh or take the shot himself. Only occasionally, and late in a possession, would he pass to someone else. There's a trickle-down element that really negatively affects a team, I think. Now when players get a pass, they're feeling like they have to get a shot up because they never know when they're going to get it again. And the whole system deteriorates.

Bargnani, for example, is a pretty good passer. I think he needs to touch the ball more. If he's part of the offence -- not just as a shooter in late clock situations -- he can be more effective. So often TJ would look off him and pass to Bosh. Things just get forced. And Bargnani's just one example. I like Delfino, too, and think he just needs more of a role instead of freelancing. He's inconsistent, sure, but I bet he'd be less so if he knew he was going to play x-number of minutes every game.

Go Hawks and Sixers!

[J-Mart22]

Hey Doug. Big fan of the Raps and your columns. One thing that stood out last night was that the Raptors need to develope a 3rd scorer. Bosh and AP did their best and TJ & Jose did their best to distribute the ball. Jason Kapono did his best, but they need a true go to guy. One that can drive or pull up and hit the mid range shot. They also need a true center. Rasho did his best, but it wasn't good enough. The Magic have a big 3 in Howard, Hedo, and Lewis. We have Bosh and sometimes AP, and sometimes Andrea, and sometimes...etc.

I trust Brian Colangelo and his staff when it comes to the draft. I really hope the Raptors trade Joey Graham because he is not showing anything in regards to developing.

I'm still a Raptors fan. I've been there through the tough times and now. Better luck next year.

[Pedro Silva]

Hey now that the season is over and there it is likely that T.J. Ford gets traded do you think that Stoudamire would make a nice backup once he gets his NBA Champs ring at the end of this season (if you think the Spurs aren't gonna win remember that they are 3-1 in the series)? Also is there a "curse" (ala Tracy McGrady) around Sam Mitchell that says that he can´t win a playoff series?

Blogger's note: Amare Stoudemire, yes; Damon Stoudamire? Nope. Not a chance.

[bballer]

doug, where are you dude? people had to resort to responding to damien cox's article as an outlet. the sky is not falling in raptorland and everything is fine. boston, philly and other teams in the east got better. toronto improved marginally. hence the 41-41 record. it was a good season and allowed all to see the deficiencies with the team. if colangelo has a good summer we will all sing his praises again. as for bargnani, if he becomes a 12/6 player we will be fine. he may never live up to the number 1 pick, but we don't need him to. get us maggette and draft dorsey in the 2nd round and we shall be fine.

Blogger's note: Dude, it was crazy yesterday. About 90 minutes sleep, about seven hours in the arena listening and writing. Loooooong day.