Linkage - April 9
Even as he gets ready for his 71st start, Moon is more concerned with his team’s plight than any individual pursuit.
While honoured to be in the same company as Mighty Mouse and grateful for the opportunity the Raptors have provided him, Moon’s focus is on winning, which hasn’t happened to the team often in the past month.
And with the post-season set to tip off next weekend, Moon is fully aware of the urgency facing the Raptors.
"I’m just looking forward to us getting on a win streak,” Moon said yesterday. "To know where I came from and where I’m at, it’s just an added bonus to tell my kids.
"But I haven’t thought of any rookie record."
The knocks on Moon are that he doesn’t attack the basket with any frequency, fails to close out on shooters and can lose his man in transition, deficiencies that can apply to most of his teammates.
He’s one defensive rebound from tying Chris Bosh’s rookie record (365) and four blocks from tying Bosh for second on the rookie list (102). Marcus Camby holds the record with 130, but Moon has had a 19-game streak of blocking at least one shot in a game, which is tied for the third longest in club history, and a 15-game streak.
When he stepped on to the practice floor on Monday, Jamario Moon could sense a different feel, something he noticed again yesterday.
"Everybody just seemed to be energized,” Moon said. "I think everyone realizes we lost games we should have won and our frame of mind is just different."
Their three-point percentage, month by month, charts an ugly descent. In January, they were making 44.6 per cent and winning at a .615 clip. In February, they shot 38.9 per cent and played .583. In March, they dipped to 34.3 per cent and played .353. This month, they’re at 23.6 per cent from behind the arc and have lost all three games they’ve played.
So why can’t Bargnani shoot? The Italian, for whatever reason, won’t bend his knees. Mitchell figured he’d had an epiphany yesterday when discussing the nuts and bolts of the jump shot with reporters. It came to the coach, after prodding from a scribe, that Bargnani has been launching the ball more outward than upward. The coach asked one of his assistants, Jay Triano, to remind Bargnani of that textbook tenet.
Perhaps Dave Hopla, the shooting coach who worked for the Raptors last season but moved on to Washington this year, would have noted that flaw weeks ago.
Exactly why a team built on shooting no longer employs such an expert is one of the questions cranky purists will be asking if this season continues on a course so fundamentally unsound.
Oh, from the “There’s Nothing New” department, there’s nothing new on either the Garbo or lawsuit front.
Garbo keeps working out and got medical clearance to increase the workload earlier this week but there’s no chance of a miracle comeback.
And the lawsuit the Raptors filed against the Spanish basketball federation continues to plod along in the legal process. The slow, ponderous legal process.
"Obviously, when we shoot the ball well, we’re a tough team," said Anthony Parker, who has made just four triples this month in 18 attempts, despite his season-long standing as one of the NBA’s top three-point shooters. "You go through slumps like that. … At some point, it becomes mental and you have to go back to the drawing board."
One aspect Mitchell will be looking for from his three-point shooters — primarily Parker, Bargnani, Carlos Delfino and Jason Kapono — is a more aggressive posture when catching the ball.
"We’re all catching the ball on the weak side like this," Mitchell said, standing tall to illustrate. "If you’re like that, the defence can run at you 100 miles an hour [because the shooter isn't prepared to attack].
"If you’re like this," he said, taking a lower, more athletic stance, "the defence is going to slow up, because you don’t know if you’re going to shoot, pass or dribble.
"It’s a little thing … you have to catch the ball in a triple-threat position and that makes the defender pause. Those are the kind of little things that we have to clean up."
"I think that (pressure is) everywhere. If you’re playing basketball, obviously you want to win games. You don’t want to play just to be playing. The minor leagues are just like the NBA. Everybody wants to win. If you’re not winning, there’s going to be problems."
Moon and his teammates are finding that out now. Since the Raptors realized they could be a good team in December 2006, they have not lost with this sort of regularity, with this sort of media scrutiny and self-imposed pressure.
"Last year, we were on Cloud 9 right about now. We were chasing the franchise record for wins, yet still we exited in the first round," Bosh said. "Right now it’s just a reality check for us. We’re not going into the playoffs on cruise control."
So, is this slump, which includes losses at home to lightweights such as Charlotte and New Jersey, potentially a good thing?
"I think we’re more focused right now," Bosh said. "We have to be. We’ve noticed we’ve got beaten by teams that we should have beaten."
On Tuesday, a television reporter asked about toughness, because, well, most of the Raptors are so darned genial. And Chris Bosh, the team’s star, said that no, his team is not tough enough.
"I don’t think so," Bosh said. "I think we have the potential to do that. Have we been the last month? I don’t think so."
So the reporter then turned to coach Sam Mitchell, who deftly avoided the question despite some persistence.
"If that’s what Chris said to you, and that’s Chris’s opinion, then that’s Chris’s opinion," Mitchell said.
Well, do you agree with that assessment?
"If Chris says that, and that’s how he feels, then I agree that’s how Chris Bosh feels. That’s fine with me."
Well, that is not much of an answer, Sam.
"I agree that if Chris feels that way, he is in the locker room with those guys and he understands his teammates. We just got to get back to being aggressive in the way that we play, on defence, on offence. If that entails being a little bit more nastier, than that’s what it entails. If our captain feels that way, then I agree with him."
English, a Toronto Raptors assistant, is the NBA’s 11th all-time leading scorer and eight-time All-Star for the Nuggets. A Hall of Famer, he shot 50.7% from the field and averaged 3.6 assists with four teams in 15 NBA seasons, so he, too, feels no sense of hypocrisy urging his players to pass the ball.
"That’s how I was able to get open shots," he says. "I would hit the open man if they double-teamed me."
English, 54, owns two Wendy’s franchises in his hometown of Columbia, S.C., but laughed aloud at the idea he could be doing something else. He wants to be an NBA head coach. He got a taste of it in the NBA’s Developmental League, leading the North Charleston (S.C.) Lowgators to the 2002 finals.
English, who played from 1977-91, remembers traveling on commercial planes, waking at 4 a.m. to catch a 6:30 flight.
Is it worth attempting to offer sheet Jose Calderon with the Mid-Level? Probably not, because the Raptors will give him more than that. But it could prompt them to trade Ford, which you could jump into for a short-term solution at the point. The Raps may want Jamal Crawford for Ford, which I turn down.
Our Raptors, sadly, have adopted our nation’s persona. “Uh, so…it would be appreciated if you wouldn’t mind taking a few steps rearward, kindly, otherwise I’ll have no choice but to lodge a formal complaint,” while Americans say, “Git outta my face before i gnaw off your nose!”
Until we rectify this, we’re going to continue to come up short, continue to break down in the last :30 seconds of games, continue to lack leadership and continue to get pushed around by inferior teams with swagger. We’re entering the Playboy Mansion Grotto despite being castrated. How are we expected to come out on top?
Give us our balls, BC. Let’s make this the “Summer of the Hombre”.
But before we close the book on this season, we should take a look at the next. The most important step for the Raptors is to assess what they will do in the upcoming season, not because this year was a regression, but because there’s a real danger that this team will simply just be mediocre in the long run, rather than become elite. After all, the most difficult transition is to get from being a 40-plus-win team to a 50-plus-win perennial playoff competitor.
The danger of their current positioning is that the Raptors are currently unable to attain a high lottery pick to discover the talent they need. By the same token, they also have a lot of space tied up in salary until the 2009 offseason. Therefore it’s crucial that next year be a true evaluation point as to the direction of the team and just how far the team is from being championship calibre. Can the Raptors continue to build on the promise we all saw in the 2006-2007 campaign? Or is there a significant structural flaw to the team’s makeup that needs to be addressed? There are several factors that will help us figure this out and all of these things will play out in the upcoming year:
It looks like my Raptors will be playing against Detroit in the first round, which is great news for Toronto. Can I introduce you to a gangster named Primoz Brezec? Big ‘Moz is on a warpath this year! The Pistons will rue the day they traded him. Here’s a preview: Charlotte traded ‘Moz … and he had 4 points and 2 rebounds in 4 minutes the next time he played the Bobcats. A point per minute! If he plays 38 minutes a night against Detroit in the ‘offs, he’ll average 38 points and 17 rebounds a game! Eat that, Sheed. Eat it and like it and floss and don’t swim for 30 minutes. RAWR!
Apr 9th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
hopla would have noticed that weeks ago…i think hopla wouldn’t have let that even become an issue…great management letting a shooting coach leave a shooting team…great stuff.
Raps Fan’s last blog post..Raptors vs Bucks - April 9, 2008
Apr 9th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
*laughs hysterically at Fanhouse quote*
It’s surprising that no one questions the Raptors lack of ball movement as a reason to why their shots are not falling at the same clip as earlier in the year.
Guess that’s something that will take Sam at least another year (if ever) to figure out. In the NBA, slow and steady gets you on the golf course early.
Spudz’s last blog post..Earth Hour | March 29th 8pm
Apr 10th, 2008 at 10:42 am
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re: … We just got to get back to being aggressive in the way that we play, on defence, on offence. If that entails being a little bit more nastier, than that’s what it entails. If our captain feels that way, then I agree with him.”
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Which is well and good … except that,
“Girlie, tough ain’t enough.” - Frankie Dunn (Million Dollar Baby)
khandor’s last blog post..Mis-diagnosing the Raptors, again