I wrote those words on December 4th, Rudy Gay was traded 3 days later. In Masai we trust.
To be perfectly honest, the ruthlessness and efficiency with which Masai got rid of one of the biggest cancers in the league shocked me. I had a whole mini-series of posts delayed by the trade and the subsequent rumors that followed it, but I think that things have settled down enough to proceed. In this post I will examine the # 1 problem with the Toronto Raptors: coaching. Sadly, coaching is not only an issue this season but it seems to be an ongoing theme with this franchise. Sigh. Let's get started.
1. Player Development
I am going to start this section by posting the stats of some players:
Player 1: GP: 80 Min: 34.6 FGM-A: 7.3-17.1 TO: 2.9 PTS: 20.3
Player 2: GP: 80 Min: 27.5 FGM-A: 4.0-8.3 TO: 1.8 PTS: 9.7
Player 3: GP: 80 Min: 20.9 FGM-A: 2.8-6.9 TO: 0.9 PTS: 7.6
Player one is Kevin Durant in his rookie season. I want you to pay special attention to the amount of minutes Durant was getting as well as the amount of field-goals he got to take. At that time, Seattle (Durant played his first season there before OKC robbed him and the Sonics) knew that they were not going to be competing for a championship anytime soon; keep that in mind for what is to come. Player two and three (as most of you deduced, seeing as this is a post about the Toronto Raptors) are Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross respectively. The only problem with this is that I took the Stats for Ross and Val from THIS season (their second in the league). Once again, pay close attention to the minutes and shot attempts each player is getting. Seeing something wrong with this picture? Its one thing if the Raptors were serious title contenders and other, more established players were getting the majority of minutes, but lets be honest: this team sucks. So for the love of everything that is good WHY ARE WE NOT PLAYING OUR PROMISING YOUNG PLAYERS MORE??? I realize that using Durant is an extreme example but can you imagine if Seattle did to him what the Raptors are doing to Val/Ross now? The Raptors have this whole idiotic system in place where they:
-Want to put Val in a position of success
-Punish him severely for making mistakes and/or blowing defensive assignments
-Sit him during crunch time situations
In last nights tough loss to the Bobcats Valanciunas sat from about 5 minutes left in the third until the start of Overtime. Read that sentence again, once more: can you imagine if Seattle/OKC did this with Durant and Westbrook? Shouldn't the hapless Raptors, who are not going to be winning a title anytime soon be desperately developing their young talent in hopes that the players can blossom into stars? Even if they don't pan out at least by playing them you know that you gave them a real chance and wont get burned if they start producing for another team.
2. Game Management and Blowing Leads
I touched on the game against the Bobcats last night and mentioned in the previous section that it went to Overtime. What I did not mention is that mid-way through third quarter the Raptors held a 16 point lead. The Bobcats were on the road, playing the second night of a back-to-back, and down by 16 points; had Casey been coaching them, they would have lost by 35. So how did the Bobcats claw back and win the game? Absolutely shitty decision making by Dwane Casey that's how. He threw out line-ups that featured Hansborough and Patterson (Neither guy can create his own shot but both guys love to hold the ball and try to do so anyways) he refused to call time-outs (more on this in a bit) and he refused to change things up on time. If this was the first time the Raptors blew a big lead, I would not waste time writing this, it happens to everyone. With the Raptors however, blowing big leads is a disturbing trend. Even more disturbing is the amount of one-possession losses that the Raptors have accumulated during Casey's tenure. If your coach is constantly allowing big leads to evaporate and gives fans heart attacks with his awful end-game decisions then its time to hire a new coach. I'll leave off this section with this awesome video that perfectly sums up Dwane Casey as a coach: Big lead blown, awful end-game play calling and having Aaron Gray on the court to double team Kobe Bryant during a key posession.
3. Timeouts and Player Intelligence
This section is pretty simple. Casey does not know when to call a timeout to kill a team's momentum. I can use the Bobcats game from last night as evidence. Hell, Raptors Republic a website way more devoted to this team than I am regularly gives Dwane Casey an F for his coaching performances. That link will take you to the grades from last nights game, they sum up Casey's mistakes better than I could here. Dwane Casey also sucks at educating his team about simple things such as: foul when you are losing and the other team does not have to shoot the ball because there is less than 24 seconds left in the game. Sigh (again).
I mean did this guy really orchestrate the defense that last beat Miami in a playoff series? I think we gave Rick Carlisle way too little credit on that one. Can the Raptors hire some better coaches? For once I would like them to give the job to an established coach who wins games, I am tired of the Kevin O'neil, Sam Mitchell, and Jay Triano's of the world.
Hey Masai, Feel free to fire Casey after reading this, you made us all happier by trading Rudy last time (I can hope can't I?)
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