Judging by Sam Mitchell’s recent decisions, he’s either impervious to criticism or he’s been given complete confidence by the Raptors’ front office. First, he disregards, or at least under-prioritizes, the development of Andrea Bargnani as the team’s starting centre in favour of the defence of Rasho Nesterovic. Next, he starts 27-year-old rookie Jamario Moon at small forward last night against the Bulls. The result: two straight wins.
Bargnani didn’t respond well immediately, with a nine-point, two-rebound game against Philly, but did manage 14 points (no rebounds!) against the Bulls. As for Moon, a consortium of dipshits on RealGM’s message boards were comparing him to a young Shawn Marion at the start of the season. Moon did, however, look mildly Marionesque in Sunday’s game where he had 12 points, three steals and six rebounds. It looks like he’ll start until he plays poorly enough not to. He’s also impossible not to love.
In short, this post is a formal apology to Sam Mitchell. I, amongst many others, have been hyper-critical of you over the past two-and-one-tenth seasons, and you’ve been confidently unpredictable and occasionally confounding, but you’ve earned the respect of Colangelo, and that’s a feat in itself. And I promise to ease off (as long as you stop playing Juan Dixon more than 10 minutes a night).
MoPete Watch: 8 pts, 2 rbs, 1 asst, 2-2 from three in the Hornets 93-72 win over Philly on Sunday. Also, MoPete’s chum, Vince Carter, is getting an MRI done on Monday to his sprained ankle. Fingers crossed!
Bargnani didn’t respond well immediately, with a nine-point, two-rebound game against Philly, but did manage 14 points (no rebounds!) against the Bulls. As for Moon, a consortium of dipshits on RealGM’s message boards were comparing him to a young Shawn Marion at the start of the season. Moon did, however, look mildly Marionesque in Sunday’s game where he had 12 points, three steals and six rebounds. It looks like he’ll start until he plays poorly enough not to. He’s also impossible not to love.
In short, this post is a formal apology to Sam Mitchell. I, amongst many others, have been hyper-critical of you over the past two-and-one-tenth seasons, and you’ve been confidently unpredictable and occasionally confounding, but you’ve earned the respect of Colangelo, and that’s a feat in itself. And I promise to ease off (as long as you stop playing Juan Dixon more than 10 minutes a night).
MoPete Watch: 8 pts, 2 rbs, 1 asst, 2-2 from three in the Hornets 93-72 win over Philly on Sunday. Also, MoPete’s chum, Vince Carter, is getting an MRI done on Monday to his sprained ankle. Fingers crossed!
1 comment:
look at this depth:
pg - ford, calderon, martin, dixon, delfino
s/m - parker, moon, kapono, delfino, graham, dixon, garbajosa
bigs - bosh, bargnani, rasho, humphries, garbajosa, baston
provided they can stay healthy, there's not a single hole. in some ways, it's gotta be easy to coach that kind o' team. you got options everywhere, every night.
at the same time, how do you improve? you can't make a trade because you don't really have a hole to fill. you can't easily stage a coming-out party for any of your guys cuz the rest of them'll wonder what you're doing. risky.
if you wanna improve, you have one choice: put the puzzle together. can sam mitchell get it done? we'll see.
(but he should do what the stones did to put their puzzle together- take a tab or two of lsd and trip out. i would pay to see smitch coach the raptors on acid. i would cut off my balls to see him coach and the team PLAY on an acid trip.)
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