Minutes and mail and more on The Regend's role

Given that the really isn’t a lot of division of talent between the two starting wings for the Raptors (DeRozan, Kleiza) and the two guys who back them up (Barbosa and Weems), it should come as no surprise that Jay’s pretty much split time almost evenly the other night.

And until someone takes charge and starts playing well for huge long stretches of time, it’s going to be like that.

“What they have to understand is right now, the minutes are going to be fairly split unless someone is really rolling and really playing well so the idea is, when you’re out there, you go and play those minutes as hard and as fast as you can with a great amount of intensity knowing that someone is going to be coming in for you and if you do well in playing those minutes, you’re going to stay on the floor.

 

“It’s a matter of those guys find a groove and my comfort level with the rotation.”

One of the points he was making is that players who play extended minutes have a tendency to find ways to take a possession or two off defensively to catch their wind. It happens all the time and the good teams get away with it because the other guys on the floor can cover up for the slacker.

This team?

Not so much.

The talent level dictates that everyone play every possession balls-out and the habit of slacking for even one could be costly. Now, not every player – not any player anywhere, as a matter of fact – is going to have the requisite energy and mental toughness to be perfect every time up and down the floor but the habit of coasting has to be broken here.

It’ll be interesting to see if any one of those guys emerges as head and shoulders better than the others and plays himself into a 35-minute-a-night guy.

I’m dubious that anyone will.

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Oh, yeah, the Rangers look great, don’t they?

Turn Matt Cain into Cy Young (although the dude’s been outstanding the whole playoffs) and, I tell ya, watching Vlade Guerrero stumble around the outfield was embarrassing.

I remember when he used to a Gold Glove guy; now he looks like a 52-year-old sportswriter, although I know one who was good-field, no-hit back in the day.

Anyway …

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Coming off the big opening night win over Boston, here's what they're saying about the Cavaliers in the cyber pages of the P-D.

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Early mail to get us started:

Q: Hey Doug. As I stay indoors to avoid the continuous wind of a recent south east Asian typhoon, I ponder the stat line of Hakkim Warrick and I wonder, with Nash at his side, is he capable of being a near 20 and 10 big man?

It makes me wonder if Nash's best ability is perhaps his ability to make others around him thrive. Which leads me to my second question: aside from Jack and Calderon, who* on this team do you think could really thrive if Nash was on the Raps right now?

*note: Of course the easy answer is to say almost everyone but I'm more interested in who would thrive most.

Cheers

 

Josh F, Ningbo, China

A: Since there are only a handful of 20-10 big men, I’m doubting Warrick gets to that lofty plateau but his numbers will surely go up. It’s the Nash Factor.

Anyway, here?

I’m thinking Amir Johnson. Rolls hard to the basket off screen-roll stuff, quick in transition and has vastly improve his finishing at the rim.

Kind of like a poor man’s Stoudemire. Very poor, but you get my drift.

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Don’t forget, we’re here at noon for the Question And Answer Hour (we need to get a nifty new name for that) so we’ll see some of you then?

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Hey, remember way back when I told you about the change in shootaround stuff and how the Heroes of the Hardcourt were going later in the day and that it’d make things slightly less hectic for me?

Yeah, right.

They’re reverted to form now, have the traditional late-morning shootaround with media availability after and it’s like nothing’s changed.

Why’d they go back? One guy says:

“We’re not good enough, we need the work in the morning.”

Probably true, by the time they hold a late-afternoon walk through they can’t go all that hard because game time is coming up so quickly; going 11-noon gives ‘em more time to recover.

For me?

It bites, especially on days like today.

The Cavs are doing their media before they shootaround at 10, Raps going after they shoot so it’s be in the arena by 9:30 to say hi to AP and Jamario (if I get this done on time and traffic’s not too bad), miss the Raps because I’m talking to you and then putter around on work 1-4 before the pre-game stuff really begins

Fun? Wow.

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Mail?

Please.

Here.

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So someone asks Jay yesterday about this whole Reggie thing, where Evans’s first reaction after getting any offensive rebound is to look out instead of at the basket.

And the coach had this to say about that:

“If he’s got a wide-open look, we want him to take it; he’s not going to run out with a wide-open look. But, he’s under-sized inside so sometimes its tough to get a shot up. We want him to get us another possession and if he can make a basket on it, we’ll take it; if not, we want the ball.”

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Hey, anyone got either a good restaurant or a good sports bar in Sacramento?

Halloween in that dreadfully uneventful town will only be made palatable by a good meal or a good seat to watch Game 4 of the series.

Thanks.

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Speaking of Sacramento, I wonder if Antoine Wright’s found a California Mona and has set up a soiree for his old teammates on Saturday night?

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Comments

[Kent]

ok, the fact that "Toronto is the 4th biggest media market in North America" is probably true but it means absolutely nothing to NBA players. Being on TSN, the Score or SN1, doesn't count for NBA players. It's like being on FS Milwaukee. It's all bout ESPN and TNT for these guys and the truth is, Raptors games don't make it on those channels. Toronto might be a big media market but it's largerly an irrelevant NBA city. Being #3 in Miami is many times better than being the man in Toronto. During the 7 years in Toronto, I doubt the average American knew who Chris Bosh was. But before he even plays a single game for Miami, Bosh is on Jay Leno hanging out with Justin Timberlake. Bosh made the right choice and I am happy to see that his talents won't be wasted. Raptors fan will just have to accept the fact that they are the Atlanta Thrashers of the NBA.

[d]

Bahahahahahaha !!!

1. Cannot even sell out Opening Home Game
2. Lose home opener to the Knicks, yes the Knicks
3. Jose is just God awful
4. Nowhere to watch on TV except TSN 2 or Sportsnet One which if your cable provider does not offer, fat chance of seeing ANY Raptors games this year !!!
5. No franchise player and no prospects of anyone assuming that role

Can you say St Louis/Kansas City Raptors in 2014, I can !!!!!!!

Thanks BC for taking this franchise to an all time low not seen since the SkyDome days. What a miserable failure BC is , just total and absolute failure as a GM. I could go to the D-League and make a better starting lineup !!!!

Love your Leafs, hug your Argos, cuz soon enough thats all Toronto will have to root for. This franchise is on the fast track to contraction !!!!

Blogger's note: And yet you feel compelled to come here, read and comment. How could they possibly contract with such avid fans?

[The J]

Hey Doug, in the QnA today you said:
Doug: I don't know. Let me ask this: Four years, 50 per cent playoff appearances? That's terrible? Unlike many of you, there are people who look at bigger pictures than immediate things
-But couldn't it be argued that if one was to look at the big picture the main indicator would be progress? So in this case they went to the playoffs the first two years and missed it the next two. As for progress they have gone the complete wrong way. If you factor in expectations for this year, then they have really gone the wrong way. 50% playoff appearances is misleading when considering a timeline. Not to mention those playoff appearances weren't exactly deep appearances.
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Name ideas:
Doug's Rant Response
The Angst Hour
Unanswerable Questions and Annoyed Answers Hour

[Jamieson]

wow, the comments are exciting today!

[Boko]

Doug, doesn't it concern you that the Raptor games are being moved to channels that most current fans don't and won't get?

The Argos tried a blackout policy decades ago, and lost a generation of fans, and can't fill a stadium anymore.

WHY is history repeating itself here?!

Blogger's note: Concern me? Not in the least, actually. I'm sorry there's a business issue out there among cable providers and networks but, truth be told, I have a zillion other things to think about before I get to that.

[Kelsey]

How about I jump on the band wagon Bosh Sucks and Bargnani is the best. Bargnani will lead this team to the playoffs.. Lets see it..

The only reason I brought up Bosh this morning because its what people want to talk about..

We say effort yes.. But at least if Toronto had a rookie that we could look forward to ( maybe Ed Davis ) but DeRozan is good, but cant see him being elite 2 guard. Jack decent is what he is...Weems decent off the bench, Barbosa I believe reached his peak already. We already know what Bargnani can do (not much). Calderon going down hill..on and on etc..

Its not fun watch a bad team with nothing to really look forward to. I still love the Raptors but its real about the situation!!

[scottie_k]

@drew - comments are above. Authors are below. Just wanted to clarify that.

Thanks,

scottie_k

[scottie_k]

@Andrew C - Thanks!

scottie_k

[GM]

Column names:
Question Period
The Grunt Grunts
Basketball Babble-On

What's the deal with TSN2 in Ontario. I didn't get it until the Raps started putting games there and I didn't have to pay a cent extra for it. On Shaw here in BC I was able to swap it for one of the many other stations I never watch. Easy-peasy.

[m]

"What's the deal with TSN2 in Ontario. I didn't get it until the Raps started putting games there and I didn't have to pay a cent extra for it. On Shaw here in BC I was able to swap it for one of the many other stations I never watch. Easy-peasy."

On Shaw here in Alberta, TSN2 just appeared one day, I had to do nothing more than pick up the remote and go to channel 147 which is right next to 148, Raptors TV or whatever it is called now.

[J]

@d:

"Can you say St Louis/Kansas City Raptors in 2014, I can !!!!!!!"

" I could go to the D-League and make a better starting lineup !!!!"

How about we attach some credibility to such puffery? How big a check are you willing to write to the Jim Proudfoot corner of the Toronto Star Santa Fund? If you're right, I'll write the check; if you're wrong, better be ready to cough it up.