Of course it's all about Sam, and there'll be more

Okay, had your fun? Some of the e-mails were cool, joking, mocking, cutting up and that’s all cool. The idiots and mindless creeps who made it personal? I hope you go read From Deep every day and make the life of M. Grange ™ miserable. Actually, I hope not because I quite like Mike. I hope some of you rot in the depths of some very hot and uncomfortable place, though.

But most of you I like and appreciate. This is sort of a bar or a house party where there’s all kinds of different conversations going on between diverse and interesting groups of people and we get to eavesdrop. Sorta cool, no?

But I digress. As usual.

-

Let’s get it out right away: No, I didn’t think it would happen and, no, I didn’t think it should happen. It’s too early in the season, there were extenuating circumstances and the roster? Well, the roster has flaws.

I like Jay an awful lot, we go back a long, long way. If he can make ‘em quicker in defensive transition, if he can make ‘em guard their men on their own, if he can get ‘em to play with more basketball intelligence and intensity, that’s great. I wonder if he can. I wonder if anyone can. The players are, as the say goes, what they are.

-

All right, let’s do it this way:

Plus: Jay’s probably a more imaginative in-game offensive coach and may be eventually able to install some new sets, which would be good.

Minus: It’s one thing to coach in the Olympics and world championships and it’s quite another to coach an NBA game. And experience, no matter what anyone thinks, counts an awful lot.

-

Finally caught up with Sam after deadline for the paper, which is too bad. He was in the air most of the day and didn’t get a chance to return calls until much too late for my needs.

But when I got him he was, as you’d expect, gracious and took the high road in every respect.

The highlights:

Overall:

“I’m disappointed but like I told Bryan, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for. All I want to do is thank everyone for the opportunity.”

On his legacy:

“A lot of players we had here over the years may not have been NBA players but I think I got something out of all of them.”

On his development

“I played 13 years in the NBA and nobody thought I’d make it. I think I proved I could coach and a lot of people didn’t think I could. I think I’m leaving as a better coach.”

He had high words of praise for the city, the fans, the ownership and even the media.

Now, you can go and kick a guy when he’s down and I know many of you relish in it because I’ve got the e-mails to prove it.

To me, you give a guy credit for doing the best he could with the team he had, you look at that Atlantic Division banner and feel proud.

Sam Mitchell wasn’t a perfect coach, no one is. But he was a good coach who did his best every single day. And you cannot fault a man for doing that.

-

Okay, back to the future

Plus: Jay’s got the respect of the players, who he’s worked closely with every day for all the time he or they have been there.

Minus: There is no bigger move than one seat over in the NBA. All of a sudden, the assistant coach isn’t the guy listening to the players whine while they work out, he’s the guy who has to deal with the different personalities as the boss, not as a sounding board.

-

Here’s a familiar name in the mail:

Q: Hey Doug, after the dismissal of P.J. Carlesimo, Eddie Jordan, and now Sam Mitchell, their replacements have been hired on an "interim" basis. What does that term exactly mean?

Sam C, Kingston

A: Well, what it means is they’ve got the job in the short term until a team can expand its search to include more candidates.

-

What’s the future hold?

Well, all of you folks out there who are still pining for Eddie Jordan or Avery Johnson or someone of that ilk to come riding to the rescue sometime this year have to chill.

Bryan made it glaringly apparent yesterday that Jay’s got the gig until the end of the season and then we’ll see what happens.

And that’s when we’ll start talking replacements because to debate the relative merits of the unemployed now is ridiculous. We’ll talk in April or May or June.

-

"So, why now?” Here’s a theory.

Let’s say they got this thing turned around this season, and that’s not a far-fetched theory given that they’ve done it before.

And let’s say they catch lightning in a bottle in April and win a playoff round.

What’s Bryan do then? Fire Sam? No way, can’t do it.

So the timing now is perfect.

It gives the GM 65 games assess Jay as a head coach and if it works, he becomes a legitimate candidate for the job next summer. If it doesn’t work, Bryan can say he gave it a shot by firing Sam when the season was still salvageable and now it’s time to go find another guy.

Perfect timing for a GM, methinks.

-

Someone owes someone:

Q: Doug. I am stunned, because ever since my boyfriend got season's tickets, I have learned most of what I know about the game and its back story from your blog so when he said last night that Mitchell was going to get fired, I said "Doug keeps saying it's not time for that yet". Here's my Q - as a basketball newbie -- can a guy who was an assistant coach ‘til today do any better than an experienced coach? Isn't it more about the roster the Raps have, the combination just isn't working the way they want it to??

Carla M, Toronto

P.S.: My boyfriend gets all braggy when you publish his questions, so if you actually publish this he'll be either really impressed or green with envy or both.

A: I’m hoping he’s more impressed than anything.

Assistant coaches can indeed make good head coaches, even if they don’t have head coaching experience. Every assistant coach worth his stats sheet thinks about what he’d do in any particular situation and, in this case, Jay’s been around the NBA for 13 years figuring out how he’d handle this and that.

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I’m out for now, gotta get up early to get some player reaction at practice and jet on over to Salt Lake City.

Keep watching this space for the goods.

Comments

[GM]

Well, isn't this a nice surprise! I like having you out west so I can read the blog at night instead of in the morning.

I'll never understand why some people take sports so seriously that it gets personal. What possible difference does it make? It's fun. It's a diversion.

Even though I think Sam should have been fired, I always feel for a coach in these situations. I hope he gets a chance somewhere else. Even if he doesn't, he can always pull a Brian Hill and be an assistant anywhere he wants.

I sure hope Jay is able to institute a better offense and instill better defensive schemes that suits his players. He won't, as you keep saying, make players quicker in defensive transition, or make ‘em guard their men on their own, or get ‘em to play with more basketball intelligence.

It sure will be interesting to watch on Friday. I envision another blowout loss, but you never know how these things affect teams.

[shom]

Hey Doug - Good round up on the Sam Mitchell situation.

Like I always say I disagree with you about many things and Sam Mitchel was number 1 on the list (he should have been fired after the Orlando series), but I appreciate the fact that you put out great content everyday. Debate is the fun part of it. At least you put your thoughts out there for us to disagree with.

[Claudio D.G.]

'morning Doug! I've red a lot of comments out of you and the fans already, but something no one seems to catch is: the real reason B.C. fired Sam is he saw the players not only weren't buying into him any more, but they were even playing AGAINST him. I mean, they were losing games to get him fired. Let's make it clear: the team didn't want that coach any more! At that point, the G.M cannot do anything else than swing the axe.
With all this, I don't mean these players are going to become All Stars under Jay Triano. But, please, ask B.C. if you don't believe me, if he did it, the issues were deeply worse in the locker than we all can see from outside.

[Jason]

Hey Doug,
I ended up being right when I said Sam would be fired, Jay would be interm head coach, and that they would do it on this road trip.
I seem to take some pretty heavy shots from some of the other readers about these three comments and now it turns out that I was right.
I'm not gloating I just want to point out that it looks like BC is as stupid as me! Okay maybe some minor gloating.
Actually, Doug, its for all the people who get too agressive and too quick to jump on people who have different views. I know you must get alot of the same.

[Jason]

Doug

"Perfect timing for a GM, methinks"
What??? Doug thinks BC should wait as its only 17 freakin' games into the season. Jason thinks the road trip is the prefect time to fire Sam and apparently BC support Jason and not Doug.
I suppose that now that you seen the end result, you can be more focused on the reasoning that I seen all along.

[j.carlos]

As bad as the situation may be, Sam Mitchell is one hell of a coach. He displayed tremendous patience and dedication and resiliency throughout his tenure here in Toronto. He persevered with the city through thick and thin, guided and stuck with the bodies he had during the team's lowest and highest points (hoffa, rafer and academy award winning Jalen Rose ring a bell to anyone? and oh not to mention Vince Carter and A. Mourning?). Who would have thought that after starting on a losing record back in 06-07, we would wound up winning the atlantic, have both the coach and executive of the year? Give credit to where it's due. It's not fair for Sam to get blasted for his shortcomings, no coach is perfect (i.e Pat Riley of a year ago, and oh despite having 3 all-stars at his disposal Mike D'Antoni failed to reach the promised land?). Remember, this man is responsible for what chris bosh is now, that goes with jose calderon as well. He shaped the "new era" that BC proclaimed when he first got here...he may not be phil jackson when it comes to x's and o's but Sam turned this franchise around, from a laughable team to a respectable team.

The best thing we could do for this person, no matter how bad or ugly the losses that were accumulated this season or during his stay, is thank him. Afterall, we can't all be hypocrites. I bet half of you painted him as a saint when we were winning. So give credit to where it's due and let's be fair for once.

[Brad]

Great blog today. As much as it was time for Sam to go he still put in 4 years of hard work with this team and will be missed. Hopefully Jay will be able to get more out of the players than Sam. I'm curious what Jay's relationship was like with Sam and whether he was suggesting plays to run or ideas that were turned down, or how far the assistants were allowed to digress from Sam's philosophy or playbooks when talking to the players? Just wondering how much impact he can really have b/c he's already been here for the 4 years that Sam has, is there really things that haven't been brought up before?

Do interim coaches get pay raises? I'm guessing up to the league minimum for head coaches, or is it negotiated or nothing?

[peter]

Hey Doug, does the firing mean that Colangelo has acknowledged that he made a mistake in constructing the roster, and that he is now hoping that this will magically lift the play of the squad, because he couldn;t really make any other changes

[John MacDonald]

I just have to say I'm pretty shocked like you Doug. I'm not sure it was the best move and I'm afraid the raptors season will be hurt by it. I am a huge Sam supporter, was he perfect, no, but he did do a lot of things while he was working for the raptors. I wish him well, and I'm sure he'll be back coaching in the NBA at some point (heck it wouldn't really surprise me that much if he got hired by another team this season). I have a couple of questions, when a assistant coach gets promoted to interm head coach, does his pay go up? After I heard about the firing I thought back to a couple of articles I read after the crushing loss to Denver. In summary the raptors skipped practice yesterday and instead the players did a "players only work out." I remember that O'neal was very upset after the game, and I'm sure Bosh is very frustrated. Is there any chance that some of the players (Bosh, O'neal, etc) might have voiced their concern over Sam's coaching, and influenced Brian into making a move sooner then maybe he wanted? Thanks for keeping us well informed.

[andrew gregg]

Hi Doug:

Admirable of you to stick up for Mitchell as he's being shown the door, but I think that he had to go--not because he's a bad coach, but simply because his style of coaching wasn't working here anymore. He'll get his chance somewhere else, but he's done everything he can do here, so it's someone else's turn.

I don't think the pressure is on Triano as much as it's on BC. I think Coach Jay is keeping the seat warm till the next guy gets here, regardless of what BC said yesterday.

Meanwhile, here's something for the chattering classes to chew on:
how come Triano is good enough to coach an NBA team but not the National Team? And I know this is an impossible question for you to answer, being part of the Raptors media fraternity and all, but: could anyone ever see Rautins taking over the Raptors on an interim basis?

AG, Toronto

[Mike U]

Whoa Doug! Some people are trashing you?! What the eff man...what the eff..thats all I have to say about that.

So, I'm happy with what transpired yesterday and I know you don't agree with the decision. Before you said that it wasn't the time to fire the coach and obviously BC thought otherwise. Now you say that people like Flip, Avery, and JVG are out of the equation? How do you know that you're not wrong this time? Of course, this is only if Jay Triano under achieves in his first few games.

[Alireza]

Doug,

What are the chances that Jim Todd be considered in the mix for the head couch next summer?

[Kevin]

Well, I have to admit, when I heard the news I was stunned and kind of upset. I've always been torn with all the talk of a new coach. On the one hand, I've felt since last year that they could probably use a new look on the offensive end. On the other, Sam was a likable guy that got a lot of crappy teams to play hard when they had nothing to play for.

That's tough to do. That being said, I'll also miss Sam's way with words. Here's to you, Sam. Wishing you all the best....when your next team doesn't play the Raptors.

[Vik Kapoor]

Hey Doug,
Read in another article that Gerald Wallace apparently refused to come to Toronto during the summer, for TJ. Any truth to this?

[Terence G]

Hey Doug... so how much sleep did you get last night?

So RapsTV aired Jay Triano and Colangelo's conference calls last night, but the audio feed was utterly horrible. A lot of background noise, static, audio breakup, etc... I'm pretty sure you were on those calls? Was this just a TV thing, or did it truly sound that bad?

And I'd be curious to know if this little bit of news has generated responses than the TJ vs. Jose issue from last season. I'm putting the over/under at at least 100.

[papa]

doug! you know you got to take a few licks for not believing the 'Fire Sam' Hype...it was real!

but seriously, I do feel bad for the guy. it just seems likes he had very few people on his side towards the end here. everything is about timing and his was just up. I'm sure he'll find another job and do well.

as for our raps, I do agree with you that the talent is the talent and there's only so much you can expect out of them, regardless of the coach. but at the same time, these players were not playing to their abilities, (which isn't championship contending abilities, to be clear!) so a change might be good.

as a fan of the game, I appreciate the hard work and dedication he brought to the team over these past 5 years and I wish him all the best.

[Mark Waschkowski]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the great reporting, been a long time reader. I haven't always agreed, but do respect and enjoy your perspective. However, I feel compelled to disagree with your theory about timing of firing of Mr. Mitchell, it just sounds off base. My take:

Brian wasn't happy with the first round exit last year, especially that it was a lopsided affair. He upgrades the roster by adding a passionate defender (something Sam has always wanted) and says to Sam: "Produce, or else." Sees the double digit leads blown and big losses and decides enough is enough, cut the losses and try to salvage the season with Jay. We know Brian won't make spur of the moment decisions, but to not mention the poor start this year seems like you are ignoring the facts of this early season. I strongly believe that if the club had a better record (by not blowing some of the leads they had) and didn't get blown out in Denver, that Brian would have been OK with Sam staying on, and more so if he ended up winning the first round of the playoffs. I think he didn't see the potential of that happening and decided to make a change, which I agree with.

Look forwarding to your next blog.

Best,

Mark

[Manny]

Thank you Sam Mitchell for everything you've done. You brought back credibility and stability to the Raptors. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and while Sam Mitchell had his share of flaws, he did the best he could and got the most of the flawed rosters he's had. As the longest serving heach coach in team history, aside from not making it past the first round in the playoffs, he has accomplished the most out of any coach in team history. He was VOTED coach of the year and won a division title... there's no denying that.

[Jeff D]

While it may not be fair to Sam, BC had to do something. I like your logic on the timing Doug, but I also think BC is sending a message of intolerance. He will not tolerate losing, plain and simple. I think Smitch had started to concede defeat and that is not acceptable.

[Uncle Zeke]

Ha Doug... Thanks for the high comedy... Only you could come out with an article supporting Mitchell the day before he gets fired... Great sources... Hurry if you rush you can still print that article in support of P. Maurice and JFJ. Tell me is it just your schtick or were you really the only person in TO to realize that Mitchell wasn't doing a good job?

I think that you owe all your commenters an apology for the condascending attitude whenever anyone tried to question the coaching genius that is Sam Mitchell. Maybe, just maybe, some of your readers have a clue...

I think this has to be right up there in your Pantheon of all-time clunkers right next to the Boston Celtics being "life-and-death" to make the playoffs last year and the great underappreciated talent of Hassan Adams...

Blogger's note: It wasn't "sources" it was opinion, you really have to try to understand the difference.
And I owe absolutely no one an apology for having an opinion. Sorry.

[Andrew]

Hey Doug,

The people giving you crap, and crapping on Sam are the same ones who'd love to discuss trading Jamario for D-Wade. They're reactionary children, and I hope you don't let their floods of emails bother you. There are enough thoughtful folks on here who've got your back.

I said yesterday morning that I felt something was going to happen, I just feel like Colangelo's hand was forced. I like Sam (and my girlfriend loves the way he dresses), and I hope he gets another chance somewhere. My question is this: had Sam Mitchell been let go in the offseason, would Colangelo have sought out Mike Dantoni? Secondly - where do I apply to become an NBA head coach? Thanks!

[Ryan]

I hope the fans show some class, but I knew there'd be some that would make things personal. Sam did a decent job with the talent he had and the coaching knowledge he had. Are there better coaches out there? Yeah, of course. He probably learned a good amount from this experience and will be a coach again in the future.

Just keep your heads cool though. Celebrating that someone got fired is shameless, even if it is for your favourite team. In the future, should he be coaching another team, I am sure that we will give him the proper respect he deserves. If we boo him, we are completely classless.

[Wilber]

Doug,
Funny thing: driving to work Wed am and listening to Sam's segment on the FAN morning show, after which I turn to my wife and say, "I think Sam has plateaued. And he might be done as coach." Like him, respect him, wish him well, but my sense was this team wasn't going any further with him. And I came home last night and my wife says "you called it!"

Good on Jay. Not sure what my expectations are, but it should be interesting. Maybe he's here long enough to entice his old Olympic point guard to come be a player/coach a la Sam I Am in Boston.

And keep up the good work. When I heard the news, the first thing I thought was I've got to check out Doug's blog for the real scoop.

[Jay Triano Jr]

Yay! The Witch is dead!

[George]

Surprising yet inevitable. Sam had a good run here in Toronto but this team was not taking the next step. The Raptors are a good team but often appeared stale and lacking creativity. And the Colangelo question about whether Sam had managed to get the most of this roster was perhaps the most telling as to why it was time for Sam to go. Triano is in charge. Another person who seems to be taking charge and perhaps itching to get back into the role of team leader is Jermaine. I am sure that he does not want to make this his team or undermine Bosh's pivotal role on this team; but he has a lot to offer and I think that he is establishing himself as a leader in the locker room. Taking responsibility for the team's meltdown and if I read the reports correctly, initiated the team meeting following the Denver debacle. I think this is a good thing. I sure hope that this team wakes up and responds to the urgency shown by management to turn things around.