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Rap of the Day
Thank god my cable was out.
26 Raps
EXACTLY!!! Why the heccckkkk do we do that?? It’s not like we’re forced, this clearly some
sort of ’strategy’ that Triano/the coaching staff told the players to do. But WHY?? It
makes no sense.
Sometimes I feel like Triano tries to sound like a smart coach by doing stuff
differently, but he almost always fucks up when he does that.
I still don’t understand signing to him a 3 year deal. Why couldn’t we just sign
him to 1 year first? Or it is a law to do that. I am not saying that I am writing
him off as a bad coach, but still, I don’t understand it.
The defense today was atrocious. Even in the first half, we were giving them wide open
three points attempts and they were missing; we weren’t playing D. Probably the
worst play was (i think) in the first quarter when there was a pick/roll with Lewis and
J-Will on Bargnani and Calderon. Simple p’n'r and somehow both Toronto players got
stock to the picker and no Raptors rotated in the paint so Williams had literally a
free layup.
Stan had his boys shoot 32 3pt’ers… did it hurt them, no.
Consider that Carter and Lewis, went 0/11 from three point land, which plays
right into our strategy, and that still was not enough for that tactic to
backfire on the Magic.
So everything went according to plan and a team with a strong inside
presence feasted on us from the outside… the conditions were ripe for us
to win since two of their best shooters were blanked from that range,
yet we still get the big L.
Any other great strategies Jay?
(and yes they missed a lot of open looks, it gets hard cringing everytime
I have to see a raptor run 15 ft to contest a 3pt shot)
Really enjoyed the break down. you should do more of this. We had this bad switches
in the game against Suns as well.
I am just wondering if this is the player or the coaches??
This play is really natural to me, because we seem to do it, every possession.
Very true and I was suprised on why because it creates a real mismatch.
This is why I want to know if this is something that coaches ask the
players to do or is it our players tendecy or is it the coach of the other
team who is making this happen ?
Another example is how Calderon when defending seems to shift himself
to the side of his oponent. It seems like for example, he is trying to
close the passing lane by shifting to the right or left, instead of being
right infront of his guy !! this positioninghas led to guys just blow by
him !!! Again, is this something the coachs want ? Or is it Just Jose.
Calderon is also the only PG I notice that turns his back to opposing PGs when the get close. I know he’s protecting the ball, but it looks so pussy.
For the record, I actually LOVE the ghettoness of the technology! ;)
This is a tough situation. I think a lot of people might say that Hedo is the type of small
forward that you’d actually think you’d have the luxury of allowing to slide down and
guard DH momentarily — he has the height and could play PF at a pinch (though not
ideally). I do understand and agree with the principle of what you’re bringing up
though — screens should not be succumbed to, unless you just want to do
whatever the other team wants.
This reminds me of the phoenix game where on every procession Calderon switched on Nash, and ended with either Calderon defending Stoudermire, or Bosh or Barg defending Nash. This of course was not a ideal situation and both Nash and Stoudermire scored quite easily. Now for the first time or the next 4 or 5 I was screaming at the TV to why the raptor let it happen. Then as pretty much every procession went that way, I have to conclude that this is what Triano wanted. I mean somebody has to instruct Jose not to fight through screen.
And it worked I guess for that game. It showed me how little I understand basketball. The raptors did hold Phoenix 10 points below their scoring average and was in the game until the last shot.
As for the Orlando game, I didn’t watch the game. But from boxscore I think we did a ok job defensively. Look at the line for Carter, Lewis, and Howard (9-24, 4-13, 4-12). I really don’t get Triano’s defensive strategy, but for that game, I think it maybe the general lack of talent compare to Orlando that costs us the game
JJ Reddick, ’nuff said, that is why we failed!
That was the game plan as per the Phoenix game. Didn’t want to get caught with Dwight rolling to the basket for an easy lob.
Invest in a Tripod please.
Was there…. Bargs handed ticky-tack fouls and has to change his game and fouled out. Howard could have easily picked up another foul or two, which would have changed his game.
Give SVG credit. 2-3 times he called real quick timeouts after 4-5 Raptor points (2 possessions) and killed any momentum.
It was a tight game, we couldn’t hit any threes coming down the stretch, Barg’s had foul trouble and Jaye and JJ hit some big 3’s…..
Thats what I love about SVG… he always does that. Give up 2 buckets in a row, timeout.
Triano…. give up 10 pts in a row, timeout.
Saving timeouts is useless if you are not in the game at the end.
OK, how many Raptor players are ‘in-his-face’ defenders? Bosh? No. Bargnani? No. Calderon? No. Turkoglu? No. DeRozan? No. Belinelli? No. Johnson? Maybe. Jack? Maybe. As a team, we put too little pressure on the ball. Whoever has it can shoot, dribble or pass with ease. That’s were defense starts, if there’s going to be any. Get used to it. Phoenix North. Until the players decide to play otherwise. Period.
Yeah, but have you checked lately – Phoenix is winning!
We will be winning, as well. Evans will be back eventually. The schedule will be easier. We’ll know each other better. The crux of the matter will then be, are we winning enough to take a second playoff series the distance? Anything less, and Bosh’ll be going …
Awesome post! I love the breakdown analysis of significant plays. Look forward to more of these. Keep it real with the ghettoness!
this is the best rationale that i could come up with for why the raps do this. i think it’s a rock and a hard place for the raps in this situation. it seems like triano’s asking the players to do in this defensive scheme and is taking the lesser of two evils:
rock: you don’t do the switch. you have a slow-footed hedo up top defending VC, who is quicker and can shoot. this is a mismatch particularly, if vc drives into the lane…too many bad things can happen. D’ collapses in, slow defensive rotations (we’re known not to be good at this) etc….although Hedo surprises every now and then with his D (and he has the length to bother offensive players)
if VC stays up top and ball goes down low to howard, a slow Hedo makes help defense slower to arrive…(admittedly the far end wing defender–can’t tell who he is (bargs?)–drops down immediately after howard receives the pass and seems to be the primary help defender.
bosh is also down low on howard in this scenario. although he is a better and quicker defender than turk, he still can’t handle howard down low by himself. there’s no one in the league who can. essentially bosh ends up being on on island.
hard place: do the switch. bosh is up top defending VC. he has the length to bother VC’s stroke, the quicks + length to defend VC’s drives. he’s also provides better help defense than hedo would.
hedo down low defending howard. he’s gonna get eaten alive, but his lead feet are at least covered up to some extent in this setup. bosh or far end wing defender can come help. actually if the far end wing defender helps, bosh is up top, and is better at rotating than any of the bigs on the floor. against howard it’s a crap shoot. no one’s got the strength and height to defend him one-on-one, whether it’s hedo, bargs or bosh, it doesn’t matter. so one bites the bullet, puts a long defender against howard, and puts the quicker defender up top. it hopefully minimizes the team’s defensive deficiencies…
just my take…
Aarse … Did you expect 6′10″ Hedo to fight through a pick by Howard to stay with the Magic guard ????
This post is ridiculous. As others have noted, the switching is indeed a strategy, NOT something that we “let happen.”
It’s not the ideal route in terms of defending PNR, but it’s a heck of a lot better than what we were getting done with the “hedge and recover” strategy that was previously employed. Our bigs collectively cannot guard the PNR worth a crap, and that’s why we have to resort to this strategy.
Moreover, in this specific case, FWIW, DH12 is NOT a dominant back to the basket player. Sure, he’ll have an easier time against Hedo than Bosh, but the Big Diesel (in his prime) he is not.
Agreed. This post should be retitled “How not to make a youtube video”
LOOOLL, If this is a strategy from our coaches to defend PNR :) then no wonder we are the last in NBA in defence.
we’re last in the NBA in defence because of many factors, but this strategy is NOT one of them.
This is not as horrible as it seems.
The basic mantra to cover pick and roll situations this year is “show and recovery”.
What that means? It means that the small defender goes under the pick in order to avoid penetrations (which were last year’s nightmare). This of course exposes you to a wide open outside shot. To prevent that the “big” defender leaves his man to “show” to the opponent guard, the “small” defender then recovers (passing behind his team mate) and the “big” defender has to hurry back to his man. You can see that on a consistent basis this year.
The weak point of this approach is when the “big” defender leaves his man to show to the opponent guard. At this point you are exposed if the guard lobs the ball to his big man. To prevent this you either need the second big defender to rotate and help (but then anyone has to rotate and when the raps start the rotate walzer they regularly mess up something and concede an easy layup) or you accept the switch which, in this case, put a 6″10 against Howard which is (kind of) acceptable since you still have your centre that can help coming from the weak side. Of course you’d need again to rotate and this is almost impossible since both Chris and Andrea are among the worst in the league in this specific aspect of the game.
This is to say that you have to pick your poison with the “playing personnel” you have at hand.
The Raptors switched Turk on Howard on purpose… not because of lack of effort. Does nobody remember the game against Pheonix when poor Jose Calderon spent half the game guarding Amare Stoudemire in the post? That’s the system, and it’s done that way by design. Whether you agree with it or not…. is another issue.
But… that they did exactly what they intended on that play. That’s what the coach wanted.