The Glaring Weaknesses
The point guard play was atrocious, let's not kid ourselves here. Jose was a Spanish turd on both ends of the floor, and Jarrett seemed disinterested. Not unpredictable to anyone, Deron Williams was on fire. It's too bad the Raptors couldn't put together any type of game plan to at least try to contain him. But in my mind, Jose just couldn't handle him, the same way he can't handle any point guard in this league. At the same time, the Raps either helped out too much with double teams, or didn't double at all. Listen, you assign one person or a person at a particular spot on the floor to come over to double. Everyone else stay on YOUR man. Instead, you have Bargnani floating over and sticking his nose into the business and his man ends up getting an easy jam. Or you got Bosh swinging in as well, next thing you know you got 2 opposition players on the other team with wide open shots. Or Turkoglu would just completely blow his cover and leave his man wide open.
Hose B
It's been quite clear to me these issues with Jose. He has no lateral quickness or general foot speed to keep up with a driving point guard. Secondly, he couldn't cover the 3 point arc if his life depended on it. He dips into the lane way too much to try to wave his hands at a post player who is already covered. Leaving his man wide open for 3's. Let's examine. He dips away from his man who is standing on the perimeter to try to disturb another play who probably isn't in the slightest bothered by Jose's half assed double team. And his man sinks a 3. So to conclude... he's completely useless on defense. He might as well not be there. In hockey, this is called a powerplay for the other team. So in essence, the Raptors are penalty killing the entire time Jose is on the floor. Let's not even mention how much it gets worse when Turkoflu is on the floor.
The Curious Case of Jay Triano
I am not blaming this loss on Jose, this loss was a result of many factors. Jose being one of them. When I take a step back and look at the big picture I see an issue with the coach and it's a tough issue because I obviously don't know him, I don't know how his schemes are. I don't know how his relationships to the players are. All I know is this... this is a team sport. Yes it's up to the players to ultimately perform but when a team performs like this night after night, displays glaring defensive weaknesses game after game, the eyes start to stare at the man who is in charge.This team is soft yes, but it's also a team absolutely loaded with talent and I believe it's talent that hasn't been harnessed to it's potential. That's the coach's job. It's the coach's job to come up with defensive plans for the opposition's best player. It's the coach's job to bench a jerkwad for blowing a defensive coverage multiple times. To these eyes, Jay is in over his head. I guess I wouldn't replace him since it's this late in the season but I would be shocked if he's head coach next season.
Ok jackass, what would you do?
What would I do? Well I would remove Turkoglu from the starting lineup effective immediately. Start Sonny Weems in his place. Then I would remove Jose and replace him with Jarrett. I would have Antoine in my back pocket ready to sub in at the first sign of defensive trouble from Demar or Sonny. I wouldn't keep my scorers out of the game when we are trying to catch up, I wouldn't keep them out of the game if the other team is starting up catch up. If players whine about their playing time, they can kiss my ass and show me their effort to justify me changing my position on the matter.
Chris would be in the game as much as possible. Amir would be his sub still but Chris would play the entire 4th or at least from the 10 min mark on. At no point would I have Bosh AND Bargs out of the game. You can't take both your top scorers out at the same time no matter how shitty Bargs is playing D. You still have to score to win and this team ain't gonna beat anyone with their defense no matter how good it is on a certain night. Turkoglu would not enter the game unless we had a very comfortable lead. I would just run ISO to Bosh with Bargs on the perimeter feeding the ball to him. They double Bosh, Bosh kicks it out to Bargs on the perimeter. Either that or clear the lane for Bargs to take his slow ass defender iso up high so he can shoot or drive the lane. That would be the basis for the offense. Add to that Jack's slashing and Sonny's strong mid range game.
One last funny thing, a few games ago Sonny was asked why he did well on that particular night. He mentions he was given the gift to penetrate... he he you can see where this is going. I am gonna go out on a "limb" and say all men were given that gift. Unfortunately for the Raptors, only some of them have the will.
My thoughts exactly, In 13 yrs I've watched probably all televised games from start to finish, but these last 2 I've been so turned off with the effort I can't stand to watch anymore. Last friday I was at the OKLA game, it was supposed to be an End of March Break treat for the kids which they were looking forward to since January when I got the tix. And as I was booing the crap out of the team at half-time I thought...geez...we actually counted the days on the calendar to come witness these guys give all their effort in the pre-tip hugs and secret handshakes???? A family behind us drove in from Niagara falls to treat their kids too....?? I know they say its a job and not everyday you feel up to it and perform well, but these guys are also entertainers also and owe it to the paying public to at least give an effort. Some families can't afford tickets to games and make a big sacrifice to try to treat their kids to a game, and I think the players should respect that ppl are spending big money to come watch them. Its easy for the them cuz after the blowouts they still get to go eat and chill in their luxury condos while the public drives home wondering what else they couldve done with the 2-3 hundred dollars they just liquified at the ACC on nothing.
ReplyDeleteSome good points. Jose and Hedo should be benched immediately. Bargnani should probably spend more time on the bench too, and share his minutes with Johnson.
ReplyDeleteMarcus, Rasho and Belinelli should be given more play time too. I mean, what's there to lose?
I agree with the lineup except I will start Wright instead of Weems because he is a better defender and can spread the defense. Derozan cannot and should not guard the oppositions best wing scorer plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteTriano is ticking me off with this lineup. The team can't stop anybody and when they do they have a blown box out and the other team gets the rebound. They need toughness in the starting five: jack, derozan, wright, bosh, bargs. I will pull the plug on Derozan early for Weems.
It is true that the offense runs more smoothly with caldo at the helm, but his defense is disgusting. He was like a pylon against Utah.
Justin
Id probably do the same changes, but i would also pull derozan and put wright in his place. i think DD right now is more concerned about scoring than defending, and he's becoming quite a scorer but the thing is he is the one who has the biggest task any given night, most of the time he's matched up with the opposing team's best player (kobe, wade, allen) he can go toe to toe with the best of them offensively, but the raps dont need that since they have bosh and bargs. that position needs to shut down the opposing team's best player and wright can do a bit of that. jack/wright/weems/bosh/bargs looks better on D, then id sub bargs for johnson towards the end of the 1st, unless bargs is playing great. the thing with triano is, he subs the starters waaaay too early, and i understand because the bench is deep and he has to give everybody minutes but try to look at the elite teams and their starters usually play 30-35 minutes a night.
ReplyDeleteYeah that actually crossed my mind to have Antoine start. I would have absolutely no issues with that. The benefit I see with having Antoine in right away is that you sick that dog on their best players right from the get-go. I would absolutely sub Amir for Bargs the minute he starts dog shitting it out there.
ReplyDeleteAs for the game at the ACC for the families. I was at that game too like i mentioned. My fiance and I brought her family out to see it and we were looking forward to that game for weeks. It was embarrassing to take her father and sister out to see your favourite team and have them witness probably one of the worse beat downs in recent city sports history.
I dunno if they owe it to their paying fans, I am sure that is on their minds. What's on their minds is their money, their jumpshots, and their teammates. Fair enough but they at least owe it to themselves to not play like a pile of waste. Sooner or later as a profession in any occupation you're going to have to look yourself in the mirror and if you've been under performing, usually a mechanism in your brain will kick in to compensate. So far that's been completely absent save for a few wins against the 2 worse teams in the league.