Style and Tempo

[Duffman100]

Something has been missing since the Butch/Vince days.

An abundance of ball handlers? Yes.
Toughness? Yes.

But the key for me, is the ability to grab the tempo and force our style of play upon the other team. Use your strengths to make a team ADJUST to you, not always adjusting to them.

With the team mentioned before, they used their toughness, their grit, combined with solid ballhandlers and passers to force fast breaks. Defensive boards forced fast breaks, and they used Christie, McGrady, and Vince to finish.

So how does this team force it's will on other teams? Because currently, all this team does is attempt to adjust to the other team. Subs are made to matchup against them, rather than forcing the team to matchup against us.

If we are such a terrible rebounding team, why not throw a lineup of Bosh, Humphries, and Bargnani. Sure none of them can guard the 3, but can most teams guard all 3 of them?

Or if one of point guards are injured, why not take a risk? Make Delfino the point on offensive, and Dixon at the 2 guard. Why not switch it up, cause it currently is not working.

I'm tired of watching this team only playing well when the shots are going down. The NBA is about exploiting matchups. Make other teams match up to us.

[ohhla2000]

Excellent Post - I have been saying the exact same thing.

Do people realize we are 26th in pace!! We are no longer an up temp team, sadly we have become a half court, grind it out team. There's only one problem with this - we DO NOT HAVE the players to play this style!!

I have kept repeating this over and over, but Colangelo and Mitchell must not be seeing eye to eye. Colangelo built this team with the idea of playing Up Tempo basketball, and here we are struggling mightily every night to score. Mitchell is the problem here - all truley good teams dictate tempo, just like the OP said. We ALWAYS adjust to the other team.

The truth is this team has changed for the worse without actually adding any new SIGNIFICANT players - and THAT is SQUARELY on the coach. Mitchell took some heat when we stunk, but now hes had basically the same team for 2 years, and we are much worse than last year. Obviously Colangelo would never fire Mitchell with 3 years left on his new deal, but something has got to give. I'm glad im not the only guy who realizes what is going on here.

[The Letter V]

[ruckus]

Excellent Post - I have been saying the exact same thing.

Do people realize we are 26th in pace!! We are no longer an up temp team, sadly we have become a half court, grind it out team. There's only one problem with this - we DO NOT HAVE the players to play this style!!

I have kept repeating this over and over, but Colangelo and Mitchell must not be seeing eye to eye. Colangelo built this team with the idea of playing Up Tempo basketball, and here we are struggling mightily every night to score. Mitchell is the problem here - all truley good teams dictate tempo, just like the OP said. We ALWAYS adjust to the other team.

The truth is this team has changed for the worse without actually adding any new SIGNIFICANT players - and THAT is SQUARELY on the coach. Mitchell took some heat when we stunk, but now hes had basically the same team for 2 years, and we are much worse than last year. Obviously Colangelo would never fire Mitchell with 3 years left on his new deal, but something has got to give. I'm glad im not the only guy who realizes what is going on here.

It's not like we're missing TJ Ford or anything ...

Although Smitch is a part of the reason, he is not the sole cause. To infer that is completely ridiculous. To take over the game, you have to have the will to do so. Unfortunately, the Raptors don't have that collective mindset as of yet. They need to develop a killer instinct for lack of a better term.

[tecumseh18]

Excellent points. It's weird seeing the Raps grind it out against the Spurs or Indiana, and then try to play uptempo against Phoenix or Seattle.

Make Delfino the point on offensive, and Dixon at the 2 guard.

I saw this happening a few times on the Western trip, and it seemed to work. I even complimented Sam (in my mind) for doing it. But then they went away from it, and have been giving Juan the keys lately. Frustrating as hell.

[Duffman100]

Excellent points. It's weird seeing the Raps grind it out against the Spurs or Indiana, and then try to play uptempo against Phoenix or Seattle.

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I saw this happening a few times on the Western trip, and it seemed to work. I even complimented Sam (in my mind) for doing it. But then they went away from it, and have been giving Juan the keys lately. Frustrating as hell.

I know! Make Dixon feel comfortable on offense, and let the struggling Delfino focus on passing and producing, rather than shooting. Plus Delfino can't beat his man off the dribble, Dixon is having issues with that right now.

[99 Problems]

Face it, this is Sam's limitations as a coach.. For all the player development he does and motivation, he's not that good at strategy.. or at being creative.. when something goes wrong he goes back to the old ways of doing things, rather than something spontaneous and new... Bargs is struggling? Put Rasho in the starting lineup... Bargs is struggling again? Put him back in the starting lineup... Never a three big lineup...Than Dixon over D-Mart at the point, switch back to D-Mart again, and finally back to Dixon.. Why not try Delfino for a while? Or even AP? Its not like they can do any worse than Dixon...

We've been struggling to score for a while now, yet I still don't see anything new or creative he's trying.. We've had problems with off the ball movement and a stagnant offense since last year, yet nothing has changed in terms of his offensive sets... He either takes forever to adjust to things or he just doesn't do it at all..

[dacrusha]

Face it, this is Sam's limitations as a coach.. For all the player development he does and motivation, he's not that good at strategy.. or at being creative.. when something goes wrong he goes back to the old ways of doing things, rather than something spontaneous and new... Bargs is struggling? Put Rasho in the starting lineup... Bargs is struggling again? Put him back in the starting lineup... Never a three big lineup...Than Dixon over D-Mart at the point, switch back to D-Mart again, and finally back to Dixon.. Why not try Delfino for a while? Or even AP? Its not like they can do any worse than Dixon...

We've been struggling to score for a while now, yet I still don't see anything new or creative he's trying.. We've had problems with off the ball movement and a stagnant offense since last year, yet nothing has changed in terms of his offensive sets... He either takes forever to adjust to things or he just doesn't do it at all..

Obviously you haven't watched much lately. Vs. New Orleans, it was noted that several new offensive sets were introduced to the players to help kick-start the offense.

Face it. The #1 reason that our offense has stagnated is that TJ is out and Jose cannot handle the challenge of being the starting PG with heavy minutes.

[El Presidente]

Something has been missing since the Butch/Vince days.

An abundance of ball handlers? Yes.
Toughness? Yes.

But the key for me, is the ability to grab the tempo and force our style of play upon the other team. Use your strengths to make a team ADJUST to you, not always adjusting to them.

With the team mentioned before, they used their toughness, their grit, combined with solid ballhandlers and passers to force fast breaks. Defensive boards forced fast breaks, and they used Christie, McGrady, and Vince to finish.

So how does this team force it's will on other teams? Because currently, all this team does is attempt to adjust to the other team. Subs are made to matchup against them, rather than forcing the team to matchup against us.

If we are such a terrible rebounding team, why not throw a lineup of Bosh, Humphries, and Bargnani. Sure none of them can guard the 3, but can most teams guard all 3 of them?

Or if one of point guards are injured, why not take a risk? Make Delfino the point on offensive, and Dixon at the 2 guard. Why not switch it up, cause it currently is not working.

I'm tired of watching this team only playing well when the shots are going down. The NBA is about exploiting matchups. Make other teams match up to us.

Good post. Playing your style of play at your tempo is a key to success but I'm not sure we have a particular style of play or tempo which we're good at. Our half-court sets are mediocre which might make you think that we're a running team which we're also not because we don't seem to have the personnel needed to run breaks effectively, although Moon and Calderon ran it nicely early in the game yesterday.

The way we're playing right now I think a lineup of Humphries, Bargnani and Bosh can be countered fairly easily by a defense since Bargnani isn't shooting the ball well and Humphries offense is limited, you might improve your rebounding (maybe) but it's a lose-lose on offense.

The whole thing hinges on us developing a secondary threat aside from Bosh. Once we have two people attracting double teams, that's when we'll have the freedom to dictate what the defense does. Until then, no matter what we do on offense, the defense will double Bosh and force others to beat you which isn't happening.

The last thing I want to point out is the break. I'm a believer that when your offense is struggling you need to get easy points. The Raptors are pathetic at leaking out and running the break and Calderon isn't great at encouraging it. Given how nobody aside from Bosh is really helping out at the boards, I would think the least they could do is leak out and try to get some easy baskets.

[99 Problems]

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Obviously you haven't watched much lately. Vs. New Orleans, it was noted that several new offensive sets were introduced to the players to help kick-start the offense.

Face it. The #1 reason that our offense has stagnated is that TJ is out and Jose cannot handle the challenge of being the starting PG with heavy minutes.

I've watched every game this season and the entire game in New Orleans. That game was an anomaly.. we never play like that, it takes a bunch of losses for this team to get motivated and mix it up inside, and then its back to the same old.. Smitch was saying something along the lines of the players need to be motivated and told over and over to do things, so maybe that has a factor as well... I still think if Sam had a proper system we wouldn't see us falling back into that same old stagnant offense over and over, during crunch time especially.. Maybe its both the players and the coach's collective faults, I dunno... I only watch them, I don't know what goes on inside the organization...

[ohhla2000]

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It's not like we're missing TJ Ford or anything ...

Although Smitch is a part of the reason, he is not the sole cause. To infer that is completely ridiculous. To take over the game, you have to have the will to do so. Unfortunately, the Raptors don't have that collective mindset as of yet. They need to develop a killer instinct for lack of a better term.

The "Killer Instinct " argument always cracked me up. So you're saying in oder to win games, (which we won 47 last year - guess it comes and goes) you have to "instinct" which is exactly what? Closing out games? Making shots in the fourth quarter? Essentially your blaming a sense on the Raptors struggles - something I don't think you realized when you trashed my point. Stuff like "Intangibles," "Mindset" and "Instinct" are not reasons for losing basketball games.

The problem is Mitchell and will be Mitchell until the offense changes. The TJ argument holds no water because even with him we where below the league average in pace and points, something that we where always top 5 in 04-05 and 05-06.

[ruckus]

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The "Killer Instinct " argument always cracked me up. So you're saying in oder to win games, (which we won 47 last year - guess it comes and goes) you have to "instinct" which is exactly what? Closing out games? Making shots in the fourth quarter? Essentially your blaming a sense on the Raptors struggles - something I don't think you realized when you trashed my point. Stuff like "Intangibles," "Mindset" and "Instinct" are not reasons for losing basketball games.

The problem is Mitchell and will be Mitchell until the offense changes. The TJ argument holds no water because even with him we where below the league average in pace and points, something that we where always top 5 in 04-05 and 05-06.

It is when you let up and let teams get back into the game. You see it in the contending teams (BOS, SAS, DET). They don't let up when they have you down. They stomp on your neck and they twist the foot. The Raptors have shown it once or twice this year but, they need to bring it consistently.

Conversely, Mitchell was the coach for 82 games last season and he won 47 games. Are you saying the Raptors won in spite of his coaching?

Also, in terms of pace, are you comparing the averages of 2 losing seasons to our pace this year where we have a .500 record? Weren't those teams also coached by Smitch?

[andyo]

I really think that Toronto had a great chance at the finals had Carter not undergone so many unlucky injuries while he was in his prime here. We had a group of strong veterans with a blooming superstar....I really miss Dell Curry and Charles Oakley back in the day. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Vince Carter right now but if the chance were to arrive in Toronto where we'd be given the opportunity to retire his jersey at the ACC, I would fully support it. I think people forget how much VC did for this organization...especially his charitable work off the court. Not only that but I think people misjudge the circumstances around his dismissal...management at the time was terrible and he had no desire to stay here...I mean who can blame him, Rob Babbcock, a new coach in Mitchell, and drafting Aruajo..not to mention having management (apparently) lie to his face about making a run for nash and granting Dr.J an interview.

But most of all, I think we miss our veteran presence and Carter, his ability to take over the game in the fourth quarter...he could have been a legend if he had more desire. I don't have skewed expectations for this team but I do have a standard in which I would at least want to be met....what really irritates me right now is Sam's overplaying of his bench and his lack of plays/situational shortcomings.