Embarrassment Should Equal Change

I was going to do a re-cap of the Raptors latest humiliation but I decided to just give you a quick run down in the first paragraph. The Raptors were against the worst team in the league and a team that they had beaten twice, by 20 at the ACC in late October and by 15 in Cleveland in January. After an embarrassing performance in NYC the Raptors returned home to take the bar even lower as it turned out. To be down 22 to the worst team in the league is totally unacceptable and quite honestly a joke. You can say what you want about the talent on this roster but I think everyone would agree there is more here than in Cleveland. How anyone can not hold Jay Triano responsible for these constant embarrassments is beyond me. True the Raptors as they often do made a run, and made the game closer than it truly was. But when it started and when it mattered they were a train wreck. The effort was awful and obvious. I love Reggie Evans and he never is lacking effort. But when Reggie Evans is leading your team in scoring for most of the first half something is wrong. True when you talk about effort that points to the players. But at this level it is one of the main jobs of a coach in my opinion to motivated and extract effort from your team. Not just effort after you have shown none. Apologists be dammed, Jay Triano owns some of the responsibility for this. We have seen some of the most humiliating and embarrassing losses in Raptor history with him as the head coach.

Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani are also part of this problem. They are a defensive liability and when you play point guard in this league and can't stay with Baron Davis that says it all. In terms of Bargnani there has been zero improvement in his game defensively and if you are going to give Triano praise for the development of DeRozan and Davis, you would need to blame him for Bargnani as well. He himself has admitted to his lack of improvement. Has Bargnani ever missed a start? Has Calderon, if it was not for injury? Would Sam Mitchell have allowed this to go on without sending a message to them? Not likely as Sam Mitchell for what he might lack in offensive creativity or X's and O's he knew how to get a message across. Triano may know his O's very well but his X's are sorely lacking. This all becomes a question of not wins and loses but of a culture. If you are the young players that will be part of this team's future how are you going to react to all this? You have a player in Bargnani that seldom brings any effort at all on the defensive end of the floor but is never really impacted by it. Jose Calderon gets blown by on a consistent basis and if you can show me the last time he fought through a pick I would love to see it.

Talking about defence is wonderful. Jay Triano has talked about it a lot. But his actions do not reflect his words to any real degree as long as Bargnani and Calderon are able to exist with no fear of losing their role no matter how awful they play on that end of the floor. Yet Sonny Weems after leading the team in scoring the night before for sent to the bench in favour of newly acquired James Johnson. Weems is not setting the world on fire with his defence either. But is this a consistent message. Is this the culture you want to create? I don't know about you but it sure isn't one that I want any part of. You can talk defence till you blue in the face, until we see it have actual real consequences for everyone on this roster from 1-12 it means nothing. The reality is with and without Chris Bosh there has been on constant in that Jay Triano has coached this team to the bottom of the league in defence. How on earth their is a story floating around that Jay Trinao may stay and Colangelo could be the one that goes is a total joke to me.

Now I am the first to say Colangelo has not done a great job as well. I have felt that major moves he has made since coming to the Raptors have been failures. But I will give him this much he has been able to press the reset button a couple of times and re-position this team to rebuild itself. This with the bad contracts of both Bargnani and Calderon on the books. Colangelo has to come to grips with the fact that Andrea Bargnani is never going to grow into what he had hoped he would. He lacks the drive and desire to be anything beyond an above average scorer in this league. I would also question is true toughness. Amir Johnson has played through so many things that we know of and probably a few that we don't. To have that drastic contrast to Bargnani is something that makes it pretty obvious. I will go into battle with a guy like Amir Johnson and even if I am not going win the fight, I know that at the very least he is going give me all he has. The longer you keep Bargnani the less likely you are able to move him. You only need to look at Jose Calderon for proof of that. He is to the point he is unable to be moved. Colangelo almost pulled a rabbit out of his hat this summer moving him to the Bobcats. But nothing Calderon has done has made him any easier to get rid of now. It just confirms what everyone knows already. Calderon is a talented pass first point guard at times. His shot is on a steady decline. He can't defend a broom and can be taken out of a play with a pick easier than almost any player in the NBA. While he has proven to not be durable on top of all of that.

I am willing to believe in Bryan Colangelo one last time. But only if some things change. Triano needs to go and Bargnani needs to go. While Sam Mitchell and Bryan Colangelo was not the best marriage in the world. Sam had some good core values about basketball that Colangelo is lacking. Colangelo has never put a high priority on defence and this team needs a coach that does. Not just that will talk about it but act on it.

The one thing that is extremely clear to me is this. If Bryan Colangelo, Jay Trinao and Andrea Bargnani all remain when we start playing basketball again the Raptors are doomed to failure. If no changes happen at all to these 3 key positions in this franchise, how is anyone suppose to believe other wise. This team needs to have a culture of accountability, and it is clear with this group it is lacking that accountability. Why this is very important is you have a very young team that could easily fall apart if this does not change. Demar DeRozan and Ed Davis have still bright futures ahead. But if they grow frustrated with losing and nothing being done to change that, how on earth are they going to grow. People are human after all and if they are in an environment of losing after awhile it is going to have an impact on them.

Ever Raptor fan that was been on board with this franchise from day 1 can tell you all about it. For 16 years we have had to endure a team that has seldom performed to a level of a good team in the NBA. We have watched countless stars grow tired and frustrated and walk away from this franchise. The one theme between all of them is that they lost faith in this franchise to produce a winner. Fans don't have contracts or become free agents. Bloggers don't either to any degree. I have been both and still am both. I have endured 16 years of frustration and have had enough of this constant cycle of failure. The Raptors need to make bold aggressive changes if they are going to truly fix things. They need to look into the mirror and honestly look at where this franchise is at. Which is in a really bad place with people clinging to any small sign of hope they can find. Jay Triano is a great guy, he is and will be a real icon in the sport of basketball in this country. But he also is a guy that has shown no reason for people to have the blind faith they do in him. People always point to his job with Team U.S.A. That is not the NBA. Coach K that is the head coach of that program is smart enough to know what Jay brings to the table in that environment. He has a wealth of experience about the international game as a player and a coach. That doesn't make him an NBA head coach anymore than it does Coach K. Have you ever stopped to wonder why he stays at Duke? Simple answer is he is smart enough to know the NBA is a different, and while coaching an All-Star like roster for a couple of months can be successful, coaching even a great NBA franchise does not offer such guarantees

Change must happen for the Raptors and if it doesn't more embarrassing nights like last night are going to happen. Your future stars are going to develop in a losing culture and get frustrated and want out. Ask Chris Bosh, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and so on they will all tell you. 16 years of this is more than enough and having some of lowest points in this franchises history only serve to drive that fact home. Change or fail. Simple as that.

CB4 No More And Other Stuff

So training camp is underway and the debates have already started on what the Raptors starting 5 will be. I am not here to tell you that I know what it will be, but here is what it should be:

• PG: Jarrett Jack
• SG: Demar DeRozan
• SF: Sonny Weems
• PF: Amir Johnson
• C: Andrea Bargnani

Many may not agree with this. I also doubt this is what we see on opening night. However, this is what the starting line-up should be. In part, because with the exception of Sonny, the Raptors have long team commitments to all of these players. I would expect after this season the same will be true for Mr. Weems. This is an athletic line-up as well. In addition, to me, playing the Young Guns as a unit makes a lot of sense. Jose Calderon in a second unit with Barbosa also makes sense. We all know by now that Jose can not defend his position right? So Barbosa can guard the quick guards that Jose can not stay in front of. Kleiza can be a bigger scoring option in a second unit as well. Ultimately Andrea Bargnani should be playing at the 4. But unless Erick Dampier or some journey man center comes along that is not happening. You could also shift Kleiza to the 4 and give Wright some minutes at the 3 spot if he deems worthy of them. Also he can play at the 3 once Ed Davis is healthy and worthy of minutes. Which being a first round pick he will get unless he is a complete bust. All this talk of what Kleiza did at the World Championships is nice, but this is not that and he is not an NBA starter to me. Besides if you watched Summer League at all, it was really amazing to see what Demar and Sonny were doing on the floor together as a duo. It would be foolish to break that up.

CB4 Is Dead Let Him Rest In Peace

I am very tired of the Raptors constant attempts to spin the whole Bosh leaving thing in their favour. This talk of what kind of a leader Chris Bosh was or wasn't from Jay Triano serves no purpose. I say this with all due respect, Jay has enough to worry about without fighting a losing PR battle. This is also a double edged sword if you think about. So if everyone knew this about Chris, then why was a true leader not brought into this team? J.O is not one if they are going to try to sell that. The fact they traded him in less than a season says all you need to know about that. Jarrett Jack can be a leader but with his best friend? No not so much. In addition the fact as much of a leader as he can be, Jack has less playoff experience then Bosh. He has never made the playoffs. Where was Chris Bosh's Charles Oakley? A guy that had the respect to lead without being the man.

Also this talk about the offence is now some how better without Bosh in it makes me laugh. At least that is what is being implied. The point was made (by Triano) about when Bosh took jumpers that was one of the weakest plays for the Raptors. Which is factual, but what is also fact is the reason for that is because your # 1 pick out of position center can't rebound. The Raptors can choose to downplay their former star all they like. However the proof is in the Raptor record book. Bosh owns a lot of the records in that book.

Are the Raptors happy about how he left them and bolted for Miami? Obviously not. I am not happy about it and the way he left did not reflect the guy that was here for 7 years. All of that being said if fans want to hate on the guy that is their deal and they are entitled to do so. In doing these things to devalue Bosh's Legacy in Toronto the Raptors are making a mistake. How on earth will you ever get a star player to stay when the last 2 star players you have had, you threw garbage on as soon as they were out the door. Is there a lot of stuff on both sides of this we don't know. Sure there is. Chris Bosh could be a class A jerk in how he treated the organization when he left. It doesn't matter you don't say anything. Bryan Colangelo knows how to do that. He did it with Hedo Turkoglu who didn't deserve it. Colangelo has had less toxic things to say about him than Bosh.

I will make one last point about this. Both Vince Carter and Chris Bosh ultimately left for the same reason. No it isn't that they hate Toronto or Canada. It is the failure of this organization to produce on the management side of things. As the franchise players do Carter and Bosh own some of the blame for why their teams failed. Yes they do, but ultimately when you look at it from their prospective it is hard to blame them. Vince Carter had seen a number of coaches and G.M's come and go in his time here. He grew frustrated and said enough is enough. He literally quit on the Raptors. However his ultimate point that pushed him over the edge was the hiring of Rob Babcock. Guess what V.C wasn't wrong about him. Babcock was awful and the fact Vince Carter was able to force him into a trade ironically proved his point.

Bosh has also seen his share of coaches and management changes. He endured Colangelo makeovers year after year. Was he suppose to stay and wait for re-build number 4? Bosh also made a very valid point that you as Raptor fans should all embrace. The fact that in his time here the Raptors never were a tax team. Bosh feels that you must be that to be a championship team. I agree with him. It is not like MLSE can not afford the tax right? If the NHL was run under the NBA system does anyone doubt that the Maple Leafs would be a tax team? Factor all of this with a once in a lifetime chance to play with 2 top 5 players in the league on you team. Hell in some senses he would have been insane not to go. I think I would seriously question his desire to win championships if he stayed.

Speaking of championships what ever happened to that? Now this is a franchise that would be thrilled to be 7th or 8th in the East? That sounds like the hockey team not the basketball team. I understand that the Raptors got to go out there and say they can make the playoffs. However the chances of that happening are pretty bleak. Colangelo was brought here to make Toronto a contender not the warm-up match for the Magic, Celtics or Heat. Not to mention what exactly is his future? If he is not staying for the long term, is this who we want running the show heading into an uncertain future for the Raptors, and the NBA for that matter with a new CBA on the way. I think Colangelo is a professional and will do right by the franchise. That being said he felt he was doing right by the franchise drafting Bargnani, Signing Jermaine O'Neal and Hedo Turkoglu. Not to mention re-signing Jose Calderon to his awful contract.

Bottom line is that CB4 is dead and everyone in the Raptors Organization should leave it that way. It serves no purpose to slag this guy for the franchise and does nothing good for it's reputation. Sure people in the media are going to ask the questions. That being said there is no law that I am aware of that they have to answer them. If they are asked something about Chris say something like, I really enjoyed his performance on Entourage.

So It WAS LEO!!!

A little note that Canada Basketball likely didn't want you to know. Seems Leandro Barbosa confirmed something that many speculated to be true in fact is true. He said, that if not for the firing of Jay Triano from Canada Basketball, that Nash would still be playing for Canada. Would he lie about this? What possible reason would Barbosa have to do so. Jay Triano can say to Canada Basketball how you like my gold medal from the World Championships. Well he could if coaches got medals which I am pretty sure they don't. After an 0-5 performance at the Worlds for Canada this latest revelation is likely not what they needed. But as much as I support the program and the players that make up the program, this is something the people in upper management of the program that fired Jay brought on itself. Note to Canada Basketball, if the Raptors season goes as bad as some are predicting it to be....Jay Triano might be available.

Trying this Chat thing again tomorrow at 4pm (Eastern). I will be there for sure this week. We can talk all the Raptors and NBA you like and we will try to build a tradition with this Thursday Chat.