B.C.’s Epiphany: Slow & Steady Wins The Race

I’ve been away from TRC for a few days after hitting you guys with daily entries for pretty much an entire week. This isn’t going to be a very long or in-depth piece of writing but I thought it’d be interesting to take a look at how Bryan Colangelo has transformed the team this offseason. He seems to have changed his vision with regards to how he wants the team to play. He came to Toronto in early 2006 and from the jump, it was evident he wanted to play the same fast-paced, up-tempo style he chose for the Phoenix Suns. He traded promising rookie Charlie Villanueva for a breakneck-quick point guard in T.J. Ford. He brought in European stars like Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbajosa to fit right into the system, and then traded old scraps to acquire Rasho Nesterovic. Sam Mitchell’s initial ‘100 shots per game’ idea didn’t work out and now the team has a very different look. Here are the storylines and possible reasons for the change:

1. T.J. Ford Is Traded

If you’re looking to run, you should probably get a fast point guard that can force the tempo, control the game and have good court vision. Regardless of what T.J.’s detractors say, he is a player capable of doing all of these things. Unfortunately, his time ran out in Toronto and Jose Calderon is the new sheriff in town. The reason his exit is so telling is Ford was the free-wheeling guard that got into the lane, fought through traffic and took a lot of shots – good or bad. He was the flashier of the two point guards. On the other hand, Jose Calderon thrives in the half court game where he and Chris Bosh have perfected the pick-and-roll due to Bosh’s versatility and Calderon’s shot-making ability, as well as being able to get to the basket. You’re cutting down on the risk factor in so many ways by trading T.J. while calming things down by keeping Jose as the floor general.

2. Sam Mitchell Played Tough

I’m not sure exactly when B.C.’s point of realization occurred but at some juncture, he came to the conclusion that Sam Mitchell was the right guy to coach this team. However, as much as Sam loves to see his team score, it’s not the type of game you immediately associated with Mitchell from his playing days. Obviously, the NBA has changed a lot in the years since Sam’s been retired but there is still room for toughness and hard-nosed basketball in today’s game. We all know he likes guys that can score but how many players have been on this team in his four years that we can say are truly “Sam” guys? How many scrappers are there? How many players are willing to do the dirty work? Where are the Antonio Davis’ and Jerome Williams’ of the world? They haven’t been here. Maybe B.C. finally realized that you can get the most out of a coach when you give him the type of personnel that matches his vision and temperament.

3. The Blueprint: Fast-Paced Basketball Wins Nothing

Do you want to be entertaining or do you want to be good? Is it possible to do both? Sure it is. When you look at the recent NBA Champions, how many were high-octane scoring machines? Michael Jordan’s Bulls were very sound defensively. Tim Duncan’s Spurs have always hung their hat on defense. The Detroit Pistons have always been a hard-nosed, gritty basketball team that played in the half court. The Los Angeles Lakers put up a lot of points in the Shaq and Kobe era but with the Diesel in the middle, their defense wasn’t too shoddy. Again, the Miami Heat got stops when they needed to in 2006 to become the Champions. The Boston Celtics had one of the all-time great defensive seasons in the history of the NBA and labored on the other end at times. When you look at teams like the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Denver Nuggets and the like, it’s easy to notice a trend of flaming out due to a lack of defense. If you can’t stop people when the pace slows down in the playoffs and you can’t just hope to outscore your opponent, there’s little hope for a Championship. B.C. must’ve noticed this.

4. A ‘True’ Big Man Is Brought In

There were other deals on the table for the Raptors to mull over a couple weeks ago. Rumours had it that Richard Hamilton, Gerald Wallace and Boris Diaw were all offered to the Raptors in various packages involving T.J. Ford. Those players probably would’ve made the offense better and even improved the defense a little but nothing can replace the presence of a big man in the middle. Is Jermaine O’Neal the biggest or most imposing physical force in the NBA? No, of course he isn’t. However, he plays like a guy with a lot more weight on his frame and unlike Rasho Nesterovic, he can make plays on the defensive end by getting blocks for his size. A 7-footer should be able to get blocks – case closed. I think we can all appreciate what Rasho was able to do with his great positional defense but he wasn’t what you could call a playmaker on that end of the court. With a true big that can play on both ends of the floor, you’re placing more emphasis on the frontcourt. Now, everything will be done by playing off of Chris Bosh and O’Neal. The shots and open looks perimeter guys get will be off what the big men create. This is a problem the Raptors have never been able to cause for other teams.. at least not for any considerable length of time in the past.

5. D Wins The East

This sort of builds on my third point: the Eastern Conference is constantly won by teams that can play phenomenal defense. When you look at some of the teams in the conference that score a lot of points like Indiana and Orlando, they didn’t see much success when it comes to being close to a ring. On the other hand, Boston, Cleveland and Detroit have remained atop the East because of D. Cleveland was able to get all the way to the Finals in 2007 with their defense. The Raptors were in the middle of the pack in most major defensive categories and that had to change in order for them to compete with the powerhouses. I’m not saying the Raps are now on that level because their perimeter defense will likely still be horrendous this coming season but at least they have a proven big man waiting in the background to clean up some of those breakdowns. This isn’t the Western Conference where you can get into shootouts with teams and most of them don’t care about defending – it matters in the East. It’s time the Raptors stop building for regular season success and look to earn a ring in the next couple seasons.

This is just something that came to me a little while ago and I thought about it so I wanted to see what people noticed about the changes as well. It’s definitely a short entry – about a third of what you’re used to seeing in here – but it’s a welcome change, I’m sure. Until next time..

-Mark R.

[The Raptor Core]