Sam Mitchell Analysis

Elmago · Post #1 » by **Elmago** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 6:34 pm

Once during a game I was at the Raptors were facing a critical defensive possession. A fan behind Smitch yelled at him he should take out Juan Dixon, since hes not a good defender. Sam quickly subbed him out and put joey Graham in. i was thinking this sure made Smitch look dumb, that he needed a fan to tell him to take out the undersized Dixon there, but recently I was thinking it showed humility on his part to understand the fan was right, and correct the mistake.

Post #2 » by **Duffman100** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 6:35 pm

I attended games screaming at Kevin O'Neill that he shouldn't be starting Michael Curry. He didn't listen to me.

Tor_Raps · Post #3 » by **Tor_Raps** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 6:43 pm

Duffman100 wrote:I attended games screaming at Kevin O'Neill that he shouldn't be starting Michael Curry. He didn't listen to me.

Omg... that was such a painful time. Can't believe he played ahead of anyone on the team lol

deeps6x · Post #4 » by **deeps6x** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 7:38 pm

Smitch and Leo need to be let go so they can go do a podcast together, argue about everything, and we can all ignore them.

johanliebert · Post #5 » by **johanliebert** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 8:06 pm

deeps6x wrote:Smitch and Leo need to be let go so they can go do a podcast together, argue about everything, and we can all ignore them.

Why do youngsters denigrate seniors? Leo and Sam were both pros and been around the game for decades. You can learn from them but thats a lost art now, everyone’s supposedly an expert.

GetFamiliar · Post #6 » by **GetFamiliar** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 8:44 pm

Elmago wrote:Once during a game I was at the Raptors were facing a critical defensive possession. A fan behind Smitch yelled at him he should take out Juan Dixon, since hes not a good defender. Sam quickly subbed him out and put joey Graham in. i was thinking this sure made Smitch look dumb, that he needed a fan to tell him to take out the undersized Dixon there, but recently I was thinking it showed humility on his part to understand the fan was right, and correct the mistake.

How do you know Sam didn’t already have that substitution in mind? Doubt coaches are taking advice good or bad from any fans during a game.

DKB333 · Post #7 » by **DKB333** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 10:32 pm

I was watching the game against the Hawks when Jalen Johnson got injured and Mitchell was like oh that is nothing they will pop it back in and he will be back in the game. He was out for the season. Feel bad for the young man as he had a real shot at being an All-Star. Love his game. I would probably flip Barnes for him.

Zeno · Post #8 » by **Zeno** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 10:59 pm

Not every event that follows another is cause and effect.

Kobe Anunoby · Post #9 » by **Kobe Anunoby** » Sun Mar 30, 2025 11:38 pm

Leave the petty king alone, not everyone can carry the weight of that crown.

mdenny · Post #10 » by **mdenny** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 12:22 am

Duffman100 wrote:I attended games screaming at Kevin O'Neill that he shouldn't be starting Michael Curry. He didn't listen to me.

I know the answer to this question. Curry was a tremendous team defender. Did alot of little things that went unnoticed. And Kevin's raptor teams were the first good defensive teams we ever had. I think we were amongst the top 5 in points against with him as coach.

Damn team was like watching ppl crawl in mud. But I remember being relieved that we finally had a good defensive team and to see what that was like as a fan.

Van_Trump · Post #11 » by **Van_Trump** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 1:08 pm

My favourite Smitch story:

Remember when he used to get so excited he would actually jump out off the sidelines and step on to the court during the game?

I posted on RealGM that he better not do that during the playoffs or he could get called for a very inconvenient technical foul in a key situation.

Then, magically, he immediately stopped doing it.

Post #12 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 1:16 pm

Duffman100 wrote:I attended games screaming at Kevin O'Neill that he shouldn't be starting Michael Curry. He didn't listen to me.

Ugh, KO...

I'd somehow buried that part of Raptors history out of my mind. And now you're dragged it back, like some kind of foul necromancer.... xD

Psubs · Post #13 » by **Psubs** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 1:17 pm

Duffman100 wrote:I attended games screaming at Kevin O'Neill that he shouldn't be starting Michael Curry. He didn't listen to me.

Should've yelled that he should fire himself. :-?

Psubs · Post #14 » by **Psubs** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 1:20 pm

mdenny wrote:
Duffman100 wrote:I attended games screaming at Kevin O'Neill that he shouldn't be starting Michael Curry. He didn't listen to me.

I know the answer to this question. Curry was a tremendous team defender. Did alot of little things that went unnoticed. And Kevin's raptor teams were the first good defensive teams we ever had. I think we were amongst the top 5 in points against with him as coach.

Damn team was like watching ppl crawl in mud. But I remember being relieved that we finally had a good defensive team and to see what that was like as a fan.

That's just controlling pace. Only 1 player for the offensive glass and 4 back. It's supposed to may a horrendous team decent but it didn't. Such a terrible on court product. Oh the darkest of days.

Post #15 » by **Duffman100** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 1:25 pm

mdenny wrote:
Duffman100 wrote:I attended games screaming at Kevin O'Neill that he shouldn't be starting Michael Curry. He didn't listen to me.

I know the answer to this question. Curry was a tremendous team defender. Did alot of little things that went unnoticed. And Kevin's raptor teams were the first good defensive teams we ever had. I think we were amongst the top 5 in points against with him as coach.

Damn team was like watching ppl crawl in mud. But I remember being relieved that we finally had a good defensive team and to see what that was like as a fan.

Curry was 35 at that point and not as valuable as he once was on the defensive end. Definitely no where worth starting him.

And as another poster mentioned, we were top 5 in points against because we walked the ball up court and ate up the shot clock with terrible offense. We were the slowest pace and worst offensive that season.

Post #16 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 2:38 pm

Psubs wrote: Only 1 player for the offensive glass and 4 back. It's supposed to may a horrendous team decent but it didn't. Such a terrible on court product. Oh the darkest of days.

What it did is left us losing the possession control game on the offensive end, in an era where high-volume offensive rebounding was still a fairly important part of the game. We were actually 8th in the league in 3P% that year and shooting it at a decent volume relative to the rest of the league, but were brutal at drawing fouls, second-worst on the offensive glass, 3rd-slowest team in the league, we pulled a terrible mid-season trade for Jalen Rose, who was a merciless waste of skin. We had injuries. We had the shell of Alvin Williams' knees. Bosh was a rookie. We EVER started Milt friggin' Palacio.

That was an awful, awful season of basketball.

Yeah, we were 7th in team defense as a -2.5 defense... but we were a -5.9 offense. We were so bad on the offensive end that our D was irrelevant, which is why we were a 33-win team. It was horrible, horrible basketball.

And yeah, I cannot stress enough how bad Jalen Rose was, omg I hated him.

raps14 · Post #17 » by **raps14** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 2:42 pm

Duffman100 wrote:I attended games screaming at Kevin O'Neill that he shouldn't be starting Michael Curry. He didn't listen to me.

Michael (snitch) Curry was O'Neill's inside man. Pretty sure Curry came from Detroit like Kevin. Also count yourself lucky O'Neill's anger didn't get the best of him and he didn't break something over your head for screaming at him

Westside Gunn · Post #18 » by **Westside Gunn** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 3:50 pm

I yelled at Smitch to sub Darrick Murray in to keep the three point streak alive. He listened.

And it stayed alive.

Dennis 37 · Post #19 » by **Dennis 37** » Tue Apr 1, 2025 12:35 am

Elmago wrote:Once during a game I was at the Raptors were facing a critical defensive possession. A fan behind Smitch yelled at him he should take out Juan Dixon, since hes not a good defender. Sam quickly subbed him out and put joey Graham in. i was thinking this sure made Smitch look dumb, that he needed a fan to tell him to take out the undersized Dixon there, but recently I was thinking it showed humility on his part to understand the fan was right, and correct the mistake.

Ah, Juan Dixon. Back in the day when fans hoped every new body was the answer, only to be repeatedly disappointed.

Dennis 37 · Post #20 » by **Dennis 37** » Tue Apr 1, 2025 12:39 am

johanliebert wrote:
deeps6x wrote:Smitch and Leo need to be let go so they can go do a podcast together, argue about everything, and we can all ignore them.

Why do youngsters denigrate seniors? Leo and Sam were both pros and been around the game for decades. You can learn from them but thats a lost art now, everyone’s supposedly an expert.

But they don't share their knowledge. They share stories and anecdotes.

Syracuse for 500 Alex.