A good move all around and a gaggle of 'tweeners stops by

Seriously, what’s not to like about the addition of P.J. Carlesimo?

Really.

You get a guy as an assistant who’s entirely familiar with the head coach and with whom he’s enjoyed a fine working relationship for years.

You get a guy who’s been a head coach of four different teams (people seem to forget the three seasons and 137-109 record in Portland) with varying degrees of success.

You get a guy who sat to the right of Gregg Popovich for five seasons and if you don’t learn a thing or two about coaching doing that, well …

You know what we’re also getting?

A raconteur of the first order.

I remember back when P.J. was working for the Spurs when they were winning titles. Whenever the masses would be allowed on the court before San Antonio practice to do our work, a handful of us would make a beeline to wherever P.J. was stationed because he’d offer insight – sometimes in, um, colourful language – and a story or two that would fill our notebooks.

Can’t ask for much more than that, if you’re a guy writing every day.

This is a good hire all along; a hire, some of us think, might have come a year later than it should have.

The interesting dynamic, to me, is how the staff will get along.

This is the addition of a rather forceful personality into the room and how the interaction between P.J., Marc Iavaroni, Alex English and Micah Nori develops will be something to watch.

Now, I’m not saying it’s going to have any detrimental effect on what transpires on the court, and if there are differences of opinions, I’d expect they’d be ironed out behind closed doors but this is the first time in franchise history there’s been a staff assembled like this.

Because no one was talking on the record about the hiring last night, it’s still unclear exactly what the division of responsibilities will be.

I’m presuming, knowing now things worked out last year, that this will be a more collaborative effort in all aspects and that you won’t have one guy being in charge of one facet. It’ll be by discussion and consensus with Jay having the final say and I’m quite all right with that.

And, yes, Alvin Williams and Eric Hughes are back in their roles as assistant coaches for basketball development as I mentioned last night, there are no other changes to the staff anticipated at this time.

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Sorry to disappoint the dozens of you who were waiting but we have to delay the question-and-answer stuff until Thursday at noon.

Reprising my role as a golf scribbler who can bluff his way through a week or so of the national open, I’ve been seconded to a news conference starring Mike Weir and the guy who won last year’s Canadian Open this afternoon at St. Georges.

(Without looking below or using Google, tell me who won the Open last year to win a nifty prize. Actually, there is no nifty price. Answer below)

Anyway, what it means is we have to push back the Q and A until Thursday at noon, so we’ll see you then.

Besides, by Thursday, someone may have tweeted, my picks for the Final should be available for mocking and there might be more news to chat about.

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One of the more interesting things from a ho-hum day around the practice gym yesterday was that Jim Kelly put the kibosh on any thoughts the Raptors would back in the draft.

“I don’t think we would look to do that all. There is always the possibility of picking up another pick. Especially as we get into the workouts here, when you get attracted to one player who came in and personality-wise and basketball-wise, you said, ‘man, this is a guy we should try to get on our team’ but maybe he’s not a 13th pick, maybe he’s a bit deeper than that.”

Now, as for moving up?

Sure, they’ll explore that option but it’s going to have to be some kind of significant package that gets it done. But, as we say way back in ’08, when it was this time of year when the news first broke, Bryan’s willing to give up a middling first-round pick if he can get someone back (hello, Jermaine O’Neal!) that he wants.

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Well, there goes the perfect season.

Yeah, Mighty Yankee fans are somewhat subdued today I’m sure, as news of their 14-7 loss circulates across the internet.

It’s too early to whack the coaches, right?

After all, we can still finish 15-1.

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Nathan Green.

No, not Nathan Lane. Nathan Green.

There’s your reigning Open golf champion.

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Oh, and all you mouth-breathers who e-mailed me last night to suggest this assistant coach hiring is a bad move simply because P.J. has an Italian heritage? Can you please, for the love of all that’s good in the world, go away.

Thank you.

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So, what happened in the workouts Monday?

Not a whole lot surprising, actually.

We didn’t get to see too much but after watching for a bit and talking to some folks after, the general consensus is that Gordon Hayward and Avery Bradley are sort of Players Without Position but both of them are good enough overall to make up for that.

Stanley Robinson? Freak of an athlete (Jim Kelly said he could “jump to the moon”). Willie Warren? Well, we hardly heard his name mentioned, which kind of goes to my original thought that he was kind of workout fodder to make sure they had two guards and two forwards so they can run drills.

You all read, of course, the missive on our site, right, that includes a wee bit of overall draft thinking from Jim Kelly?

He also said:

"You’ve got a little star power up on the top with (Evan) Turner and (John) Wall but I think after that, it’s a pretty deep draft with maybe not a lot of star potential but I think you have a lot of good players who will be NBA players for a lot of years."

And I think that’s what you’re going to be hearing for the entirety of the next three weeks as the process unfolds.

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Today’s workout roster just landed in the in-box and it includes: Guards Ben Uzoh of Tulsa and Michael Roll of UCLA and forwards Latavious Williams of the D League, Devin Ebanks for West Virginia, Samardo Samuels of Louisville and Gani Lawal of Georgia Tech.

Guess I’ve got some research to do.

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See ya

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Comments

[dc]

I'm almost disappointed that Carlesimo is coming to town and NOT taking over as an in-game analyst. Not to disparage the current guys, but listening to P.J. and Matt Devlin makes any contest a thriller! Has anyone else heard them doing playoff games last season or this one? They're a regular Norm MacDonald and Artie Lange comedic duo! (rent Dirty Work, if you haven't already)

Seriously, Carlesimo is so animated when he speaks it's hard not to get caught up in the hysteria. Can't wait to see what he'll have to say coming out of half-time next year.

[AT]

Doug,
Should JT be looking over his shoulder a bit more often this year because of this hiring?

Blogger's note: Nope

[Matt M]

What? Mighty Yankees are 0-1? Fire the GM! Fire the coach! Trade the team for Albert Pujols. Why must Toronto suffer losing teams so.....(faints from despair)

[Andrew]

Do you think Chris Bosh would mind playing with Hedo Turkoglu next year on another team? They didn't seem to have good chemistry together.

Blogger's note: No idea

[DirtNasty]

'All you mouth-breathers' ... Classic!

[Matty-Pix]

Hah. Yikes, not exactly an A-list of draftees coming in!

-Since Jim Kelly is a scouting man, does that mean he was spared any Turk questions?

[Lawrence]

Nathan Green sounds like a Nate Robinson alter-ego.

[Chris]

I can't believe people would actually complain about an assistant coaches ancestry. Good lord, does it really matter? I don't care if his parents immigrated from the moon, if he can add something to the staff that helps us win games. All of the anti-European, neo-nazi, cross-burning, "mouth-breathing", racists (because that attitude is DEFINITELY racist) need to go back to your underground bunkers and clean your rifles with the other militia freaks, and leave the rest of us alone.

[John S]

I like the fact that PJ will bring some passion to the locker room and will hold players accountable and isn't afraid to get in a player's face.

I am a bit surprised that the Raptors don't look at bringing in a big man assistant coach. Look at how much Kareem helped Andrew Bynum, how Ewing helped Dwight Howard and how Mchale helped KG. And apparently Hakeem Olajuwon is working with Howard to help him with his low post moves. With Bargnani potentially becoming the #1 option, I think that it would have made much more sense to bring in someone like Hakeem who had the best footwork of any big man in NBA history and who has said that he enjoys Canada (he said that he wanted to live in Vancouver once he retired) as an assistant coach or at least a consultant.

[fg]

I dont like the addition of PJ
Colangelo things are really falling apart into shambles...

Arent we paying Sam still? so we go and spend more money on an assistant? We need to spend on ONE BIG profile leader, Avery Johnson, byrone scott type etc..
I dont like this head coach by committee, we need a leader....

Blogger's note: Sam? No.

[chris]

Willie Warren looked like a top 10 pick last year before he backed out and decided to go back to school.

He's hardly fodder.....though i bet he (or his accountant) wishes he followed through with the draft last year.

Blogger's note: And if this was a year ago, you might have a point. For a team with the 13th pick this year, he's fodder.

[James Online]

Adding PJ to improve personal relations with players. Now there's a real brainy idea. He's about as uncool as it gets, an awkward blowhard. Great fit with Iavaroni, I guess.

[knickz]

i love the raps but pj isn't the answer...did they look at his record...why hasn't ivaroni lost his job yet?

[Andre]

P.J. is a good signing... I see Jay as a passive guy... this guy will put some fire under the players butts.

Gani Lawel would be the steal of the draft. Maybe getting one of OKC's high draft picks and pray Henry drops to 13. That would be a good set of young guys coming in

[Paolo]

Doug,someone suggests that hiring PJ Carlesimo is a bad move because P.J. has an Italian heritage? Ok, after Triano, Bargnani, Cuzzolin, Belinelli, Gherardini, Iavaroni, I can give you a great scoop: the italian Colangelo, next year, is going to hire me directly from Rome.

Thanks for your comment on this kind of silly racial analysis. Maybe they don't like so much pasta, pizza, wine, music and love!

[Lorie]

Hi Doug,
One can only imagine how annoyed you must have been by having to pry yourself away from the computer, and sixty fun-filled minutes of queries on all manner of things such as Turk (what was he saying?), Bosh (what is he doing?) PJ (what was Bryan thinking?), Draft Lottery (that, I won't even touch), to venture out to the sunny, pastoral and oh-so-beautiful St. George's Golf Course and mingle with Mike Weir and others. Well, I for one, hope you recover quickly from the obvious disappointment. :)

[Patrick Rutledge]

Hi Doug,

Ebanks, Lawal and Samuels you may find are the kind of Players Kelly is referring to. I really like the size of Samuels and the other two are very athletic.

Can you take a look at this video, and if it meets your approval could you pump up the DeMar Slam Dunk Book Club on facebook we are looking for 1000 fans by the end of the summer, and potential sponosrs wouldn't hurt either.

http://www.youtube.com/cruetvmedia

Thanks Doug

Patrick Rutledge

[Peter]

I don't care who they hire as a coach, I'd just like to see a team that plays with some fire.

[Adrian]

Hopefully some player moves are to follow. I find it a little peculiar that Colangelo starts with this but I'll reserve judgment until he's done with the more meaningful changes. T - 5 wks.

[Mauds]

I think its a great addition, and seeing as Jay has been on the US national teams staff, I think he knows how to handle the whole coaching by committee thing quite well. It's never bad to have another perspective on the bench when things get stagnant, and he is a fiery personality, the type that can motivate by pissing players off to prove him wrong type deal.

And lets all remember basketball is meant to entertain us, it is a game after all, and we too often let it consume us with irrational fandom. Not that passion isn't good, it'd be great if we could bottle up our frustrations and implant it into the players we think don't care. :)

[doug]

i thnk this signing is a good move and in retrospect one that should have made last year, not the iavaroni signing...as jay's strength lies in the X's and O's element of coaching as does Iavaroni's...where P'j's strength lies in the personality side of things, confrontation, going thru the wars of personality conflict (literally) and surviving...so a good hire....just as people like to point out stats for players they are equally irrlelvant foir coaches unless taken in contenxt...is Mike Brown as good as his won/loss percentage no...not even close, hence his firing, P.J, had some bad teams, as i have always said do coaches make a difference ...no...when just answered in a short answer, do good coaches make a differnce yes, do good good assistants make a diffrence yes just ask Rivers about Thibodeau, or Brooks about Cheeks, or Phil about the impact of Tex Winter ...coaches make and formulate a teams philosophy...so this move needed to be done before player moves were...good hire adressed a weakness as should player moves...

[Steph]

Doug, who would be relagated to the back bench? Micah I would guess, but then is PJ and MI the most, um, stable bench we could have?
..
Could Jay wind up having more issues dealing with the coaching staff then the players?

Blogger's note: Anything's possible but I doubt it. And I have no idea of the seating chart yet.

[Leaf fan in Van]

Excellent news - JT will be holding the Coaching seat nice and warm for PJ; by around Nov 21, 2010 - the Raptors will have a real coach!

[JHP]

I'm not sure if another coach will help but time will tell. Would you be surprised if one of the assistants leave ?

Blogger's note: It will really depend on what happens with various openings; if a close friend of one of the assistants gets a head job, the guy may leave. I don't anticipate that happening, though

[Aditya]

i heard you on the radio saying if raptors can parlay the hedo piece into something significant and convince chris bosh that this is the right situation for him...etc..... i am assuming you think the raptors can parlay hedo in a trade and bring a significant piece back.....who wants hedo though (may be philly for elton brand although doug collins probably wants to give it a try in rejuvenating brand, wizards for gilbert arenas).... but we can't swing hedo in a trade and get a significant piece back (hedo has the lowest trade value in almost the entire league)......