10.03
The doors opened to the Ravens’ Nest gym at Carleton University on Thursday and in walked the first two arrivals for Toronto Raptors practice: rookie Roko Ukic, and one Chris Bosh.
The two arrived on the first bus normally reserved for youngsters and newcomers, but Bosh was keen to get on the court.
Head coach Sam Mitchell waffled a bit yesterday on whether Moon would be back in his role as the starting small forward.
“I really haven’t decided yet,” Mitchell said. “I’ve got a good idea but it’s really going to depend on who we’re playing.”
At the very least, you can pencil Moon in as a member of the starting five for all eight games against the Charlotte Bobcats and the Chicago Bulls. Moon matches up well against both Gerald Wallace and Luol Deng respectively.
Jason Kapono is the other option here. A strong playoff against Orlando, after a disappointing regular season, has management hoping he can carry that momentum into this season.
Whether Andrea Bargnani sees significant, or any, playing time at the small forward position remains to be seen, but whatever the case, Moon is going to be a huge part of the mix.
“Moon stepped in and brought things to our team that we didn’t have,” Mitchell said.
Hughes in particular, whose title is basketball development consultant and who joined the Raptors just before the start of last season, was all over the map this summer.
Beginning two weeks after that Game 5 loss to Orlando, Hughes went to Alabama, moved to Dallas, travelled to Vegas for three weeks, back east to Tampa, up to Atlanta, back to L.A. and then back to Toronto.
Over that span he worked with — individually and in groups — Jamario Moon, Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, Hassan Adams, Anthony Parker, Joey Graham, Will Solomon and Jason Kapono.
“The title is development,” Hughes said. “That’s what you do in the summer. It’s not to say you don’t do it during the season, but you have 82 games and it’s a fine line between how much extra work they can handle and how much rest they need. But in the summer, you just bust their humps.”
Keith D’Amelio, one of the Raptors assistant trainers in charge of strength and conditioning, also racked up some frequent-flyer points with visits to Vegas, Italy, Dallas, L.A. and Tampa as he worked to improve the fitness level of various Raps.
“I don’t think any of us were happy when we lost in the first round,” Raps assistant coach Jay Triano said. “We know we have to get our guys better. So the guys we didn’t trade or the guys we acquired, we wanted to make sure that we had people working them out. The NBA, it’s probably like a lot of professional sports –the summer is not time off, it’s time for a lot of these guys to get better and they use it and they’re using us to do it.”
Herbert, a former Canadian national team player, joined the team as an assistant coach in July and worked exclusively with Bargnani this summer. He was with the Raptors coaching staff for the summer league in Vegas and then stuck around for four days to work with Bargnani.
A Canadian who lives in Finland and has coached in Europe for the past 13 years, Herbert returned to Europe and rejoined Bargnani for 12 days of two-a-day practices in Treviso. The two met up again in Milan for more intense training before heading back to Toronto for a week of informal workouts in advance of training camp.
Deciding that there’s more to life than killing the players with work so early in a long season, coach Sam Mitchell has decided to lighten the load and lengthen the time he’ll use to get the Raptors ready for the regular season.
“We have to be careful and make sure we spread this thing out and use the entire pre-season to get to where we want to get,” Mitchell said after the session. “We’re not trying to get there by Friday or Saturday.
“We’re getting our time in but we have to give them more breaks, we have to make sure we go hard and in spurts. You just can’t go just long, long, long periods of time.”
A lot of that has to do with the number of bodies – with Joey Graham on the shelf with a strained hamstring the Raptors are down to a dozen healthy players – but some has to do with the way Mitchell wants to bring the team along.
He’s even gone as far as to eliminate the use of video in his workout sessions for now. It’ll come as a teaching tool soon but for this week, the coach is willing to let the players work without worrying about having their gaffes out there on a screen for everyone to see.
“I’m not worried about the mistakes that they’re making. I just want them to go hard and be aggressive,” he said. “We (the staff) will watch the scrimmage every morning when we have our meeting … but I don’t want to overload them with stuff, I don’t want to embarrass anyone right now.
“When we get back to Toronto we’ll pull some guys aside and show them some stuff individually but I don’t want to do that right now … I don’t want them worried about making mistakes the second day of training camp.
“We’re going to watch it as we get into the pre-season, we’ll watch it before every practice like we normally do. But I told the coaches, the first week, week and a half, I don’t even want to worry about it. We watch it. Not them.”
So, Jason Kapono as a two-guard? Didn’t cause a lot of angst among the faithful here so I guess everyone’s okay with it? As we’ve been saying for a month, the culling of the roster is going to reduce the number of rotation decisions Sam has to make and moving Kapono behind Parker is only logical.
There really isn’t another experienced two on the roster (I’m told Hassan Adams isn’t quite the answer) so who else?
Just two years after they spent the first full training camp of the Bryan Colangelo era aspiring to hoist 100 shots a game in a tribute to the Phoenix Suns, the Raptors came into camp this week with visions of being able to grind it out in the half-court at both ends when required.
“The thing I’m telling our guys is: ‘Your first look is going to be inside, your second look is going to be inside and if they throw it out, your third look is going to be inside,’” Toronto head coach Sam Mitchell said before camp opened. “If they throw it out, then you can shoot the basketball.”
It’s a focus that’s understandable given the Raptors added the 6-foot-11 O’Neal, one of the league’s premier big men before injuries sapped him for much of the past two seasons. But O’Neal’s biggest contributions might come on defence.
With one of the NBA’s premier shot blockers in the lineup – he’s ranked among the league’s top 10 seven times in his career – the Raptors might finally be in a position to benefit if they can force teams into a half-court game.
“You know those times last year, when we’d play excellent defence for 22 seconds and they’d get the ball and lay it in?” Raptors guard Anthony Parker said. “It’s like getting hit in the stomach, you know?
“Having him there with Chris [Bosh] saves those moments, those setbacks, when you do all the right things and but don’t secure the ball.”
Another possibility is Toronto’s perimeter defenders will be that much more confident to pressure opposing ball-handlers and aggressively run shooters off the three-point line knowing O’Neal can help defend the rim if necessary. That should make it more difficult for teams to shoot so comfortably from beyond the arc, where the Raptors gave up the third-highest number of made three-pointers in the NBA.
“He can block shots for sure,” point guard Jose Calderon said. “The good thing about it, you know you can force a bit more and he can help you.”
Still, it’s a quality Mitchell doesn’t want his team to be taking for granted.
“It makes guys want to be better defensively,” he said. “Because even if [O'Neal] blocks shots and stuff like that, it only takes someone getting beat so many times before he’s going to go ‘Wait a minute, I’m back here to help you, but you have to do your job, too. I’m just in case, not all day long. You’ve still got to guard your guy.’ So if he’s back there doing his job, then you have to do your job.”
“Look how big Hump done got,” Mitchell marvelled earlier in the week. “We have got to get Hump back on that form where he was during that 16-game stretch when he was just a beast rebounding the basketball.”
During that stretch, which actually was over 13 games in December, Humphries averaged 11.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. It was the best run of Humphries’ four-year career.
His explanation: He was getting consistent minutes, never fewer than 13 in a game. And then in January, he played at least 13 minutes in just five of 13 games.
“Everything in life is about a rhythm,” Humphries said. “Shooting the ball, whatever it may be. When you get a rhythm where you know you’re going into the game at a certain time in the game, probably play this much each night, it’s easier to prepare yourself. That’s not saying you shouldn’t be ready anyway. But you’re not sitting as long and it’s easier to stay in the flow of things.”
At that point, it becomes a chicken-versus-the-egg scenario. Mitchell would give Humphries consistent minutes if he cut down on the perimeter shots that are not his calling card. Humphries feels he would be able to cut down on those if he was getting consistent minutes.
Which one comes before the other?
“In the NBA, within a team, what you’re doing and what each player does individually [as past of a group] changes throughout the year,” Humphries said. “If you’re playing consistently, you kind of change with that. If you’re not, you have to come in get a different feel for what’s going on.”
The biggest topic so far at the Raptors’ training camp at Carleton University? The addition of Jermaine O’Neal? No. Jose Calderon’s transition from a backup to a full-time starter? No. The injury to Joey Graham? Certainly not.
Instead, Kris Humphries‘ newfound follicles have been the hot topic. Humphries let his hair grow over the summer, leaving his cranium covered with a decent amount of curly hair.
The reviews have not been altogether positive. And the look is not here to stay.
“I just got lazy,” Humphries said. “I’ll probably cut it later.”
(video) Chris Bosh gives us a sneak peek at the Raptors’ new black jerseys that they’ll be wearing this year, and I have to say, they look pretty stylish. We also get a look at (I think) every incarnation of the team’s uniform over the years. Did those jerseys from 1995 really exist?
Even though the Cinderella rookie season is over, Moon continues to lean heavily on his faith. He talked with Ryan McNeill during the Toronto Raptors media day about his summer, how important his faith is to how he lives life, his thoughts on the addition of Jermaine O’Neal and what his goals are for the upcoming season.
Sorry I missed the videos from media day, but we’re back in the swing of things. Stay tuned for some pretty big news, I have a couple things brewing that are really exciting. Check the Anthony Parker interview out and you will know why he is my favourite Raptor of all time…
Here are a few observations:
- Bargnani looked solid in the scrimmage – confident with his shot; decisive with his moves; using his body down low.
- Humphries dunking on O’Neal (not cleanly – but a strong move nonetheless) and then nearly getting him again on a steal and break-away that O’Neal ran down and nearly blocked … before committing the foul and sending Hump to the line.
- Moon nailing shots from distance and mid-range
- Around the 6:00 minute mark, Ukic came in for Calderon on Team Black, Sampson switched to Team White, and Bargnani switched to Team Black in place of O’Neal
- Team White with a 7-point lead with under 4:00 minutes to go
- With 2:38 to go, we saw: WHITE: Kapono, Calderon, Sampson, Adams, Humphries and BLACK: Moon, Parker, Bargnani, O’Neal, Ukic
- Airball on a 3-pointer by Ukic that could have cut the game to only 4
- Bargnani with a nifty no-look drop pass to O’Neal in the lane
- Hump iced the first half with a 17-footer with :30 seconds to go
Due to his high efficiency in shooting, and high assist to turnover ratio this season analysts couldn’t help but compare Jose to a young Steve Nash. But what I find more of telling comparator into the future talent and ability of Jose, is his attitude towards continuous improvement and development. Remember Nash was considered ‘old’ by NBA point guard standards before he ever received elite status or an MVP. A lot of folks were shocked by this fact, whereas those that were following Nash’s off-season work ethic and continuous improvement closely were not surprised at all.
Nathan Jawai is apparently going to see a cardiac specialist tomorrow. So keep your fingers crossed for the big man. I actually ran into him at the Rideau Centre (mall) yesterday afternoon and he told me he feels fine. He doesn’t think anything is wrong with his heart and he’s just itchin’ to get back on the floor.
(Sidebar – How the hell did the Raptors decide that Jamal Sampson was the missing piece for training camp? Perhaps he’s more serviceable than Hoffa, but wasn’t there anyone else out there with a BIT more upside, or was this move made strictly because Jamal is the cousin of former number one overall pick Ralph Sampson? And can they afford to keep him considering how worried BC stated he was about the Raptors’ proximity to the luxury tax mark? Was there a “Buy one former Cal grad, get a future Cal grad for free” deal on? Like The Sportsguy always says, “I feel like we need to know these things!”)
Are we actually competing for an NBA title or trying to win a playoff round? What is our measure of success this season? I wish Colangelo could answer this question. All those of you with press passes, do me a favor and ask this question of him. Please. Concentrated talent is a good thing though, it allows a coach to define roles properly, make sensible substitutions and manage expectations of players. If Mitchell manages to properly do that for his 8-man unit I think I’ll be more than pleased with him. Just please don’t bench Humphries for a month and then play him in the fourth quarter of a tight game for 8 minutes.
“Everything that I do is always fun. I try to show some personality off the court so that everything I do doesn’t have to be ‘can you hold this basketball’ and that’s it. I can go and show my personality and have fun with different projects.”
Bosh and Los Angeles Clippers point guard Baron Davis have an ongoing video-skit challenge to see who can created the most creative and entertaining videos, and as Bosh will tell you, it’s serious business.
“That is going to be a lot of fun and it’s going to be tough. If it wasn’t tough everybody would do it,” said Bosh, who takes all his extracurricular projects seriously.
“It’s work. I’m not going to lie, its work. But that’s the price of success. If you want to be successful you have to know what’s going to come at you if you do well, and you have to embrace it because if you fight it, it’s only going to get worse.”
On the court Bosh has learned to deal with that added pressure of becoming a superstar by not letting the extra attention he receives during games change the way he plays. He says he just embraces everything that comes his way and tries to enjoy the whole process.
One process in particular that he truly enjoyed was the Beijing Olympics where he and his U.S. teammates captured a gold medal.
“It really helped my big game experience because the pressure in that gold medal game was unbelievable. Just having to perform like that under pressure really helped me grow as a player. It was a great ride and I think I learned how to be a better teammate and how to enjoy myself but at the same time bring it and take it to the next the level when it comes time to play basketball.”
It seems that in the NBA coaches seem to take the fall when things go badly and superstars are glorified when things go well. This hasn’t happened to Mitchell.
In his first season, his team simply wasn’t talented and the blame went to Carter and Alston. Ironically, the Toronto media forgot to mention that Carter and Alston turned things around in New Jersey and Houston respectively. In fact, Alston drew plenty of praise for his leadership with the Rockets last season.
Are we to believe that Alston left Toronto and simply decided to stop being a pain? Was it simply a coincidence that he walked out on Mitchell’s practice and was suspended for two games and has yet to repeat anything of this nature for the past three seasons? When one factors in that Alston played a strong leadership role in Miami in 2003-2004 prior to being signed by the Raptors, one has to wonder who was really at fault.
Carter and Rose spent a considerable amount of time chatting on the bench in the fourth quarter. While Sam Mitchell was trying to make a point to his two highest-paid players, he dipped Carter’s minutes and points to the point where casual observers concluded that he had regressed as a player.
Was Carter benching himself and averaging a career low in minutes because he was out of breath? It certainly made it hard to market him and along with the poor performance and lack of development from Rafael Araujo, it ended Rob Babcock’s tenure as a General Manager in the NBA.
While everything in Toronto might hinge on the knees of Jermaine O’Neal, Bosh will power the Raptors to wherever it is they’re going to go this year. A healthy O’Neal lifts the Raps to higher heights, but should JO catch a case of Penny/Gil-itis, the weight of the world is going to shift over onto Bosh’s shoulders and there’s nothing he’ll be able to do but play through it.
As the days draw nearer to Toronto’s opening night (27 left and counting), Bosh finds himself in an interesting situation. It’s not very often that a 24-year-old with his pedigree—the guy who flat out is the cornerstone of his team—doesn’t have control over how successful that team will be in the coming season. It’s that simple: if Bryan Colangelo’s trade works, the Raps should soar in the East. If it doesn’t, Bosh will be forced to watch as another great individual season gives way to team failure in late April.
Q and A with Jermaine
audio – Kris Humphries
The starting Point Guard for the Raps talks to THE FAN 590’s Eric Smith at Raptors training camp in Ottawa to preview his 2008-09 season.
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