If any of you are familiar with my work on Hardwood Paroxysm, first let me start out by thanking you profusely. Secondly, you hopefully remember the things I’ve written about the junior varsity high school basketball team that I help coach. I began coaching last summer and have been hooked ever since.
What I’ve learned from coaching is that the biggest assets to your success can often come from places you don’t expect. Maybe it’s a play you have your team run that didn’t go well when you ran it in practice. Maybe it’s a light bulb that goes off in your players’ heads where they finally get into the defensive help line that you’ve been pleading them to straddle for months. Maybe it’s your team manager telling a stupid joke to guys on the bench that totally relaxes everybody and gets them to just go out and have fun. Whatever it is, it can often come from the most surprising places.
Basketball is all about athletic ability, beating a guy to an area using that ability and imposing your will on the person in front of you. At least, it is for the majority of those blessed enough to be a superior athlete. For the rest of us, it’s about honing basketball skill, knowing how to play the game and a little bit of luck sometimes down the court.
On the team I coached this year, we had one of those kids that just found ways to make things happen. He wasn’t the best athlete on the court – ever. He was an undersized power forward who should have been far too slow and physically ungifted to play against wing players. He did a nice job of sliding his naturally slow feet. He was a decent dribbler but not someone who could create his own shot. He was a deadeye shooter as long as he had five seconds to get the shot off (not the easiest thing to do in basketball).
But for some reason, he was our most steady force on the basketball court throughout the year. We were a really good team. We finished the year 18-5 and 9-1 in league to win our first JV league title in years. We have a couple of guys who will play college ball and one of them is going to play at a big-time school. And yet, this un-athletic kid with good but not great skills ended up being the guy who made the most things happen for us.
He came up with huge offensive rebounds against guys he shouldn’t out-rebound. He made steals in our full court press that he shouldn’t have gotten to. He scored and scored and scored when we needed it most. He was by far our best player on the court in terms of outright production. And by looking at him, you would have never guessed he could do the things he did.
So what does any of this have to do with your Toronto Raptors?
Sometimes trying to find the guy that means the most to your success can come out of the places you wouldn’t expect. Obviously, Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani are the two most important pieces to the current and future success of this franchise. Jose Calderon and Jarrett Jack are needed to run the show. DeMar DeRozan needs to Develop into a DeDamn good player in order for the DeRaptors to Dekick some tail.
However, the key to good runs the Raptors go on could be much more subtle. In my opinion, a guy like Sonny Weems can make all the difference. I’m a little biased because I’ve been a Sonny Weems fan since he was at Arkansas. His high-flying act of bravery and utter absurdity is so eye-catching that it makes all of the deficiencies in his game melt away from your consciousness.
I mean just look at it!
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPMmlokBuoQ]
It’s glorious!
But it goes far beyond what basic stats can show you. Hell, it kind of goes beyond what most advanced stats can show you too. Whenever I watch the Raptors, I feel like Sonny Weems is a part of good things going on with the team. His 5.8 points per game scoring average and his 1/11 three-point shooting on the year don’t show it. His 10.7 PER and 98 to 113 offensive to defensive ratings don’t show it either.
Even though it’s not a perfect stat and it’s hard to quantify just how much it says about the basketball world, the +/- stat shows some real value in what Sonny Weems brings to the team. He’s not first or second or even third on the team in +/-, according to NBA.com. He’s actually sixth on the team in this oddity of a statistic. But if you take out a couple of bad garbage time performances by he and his teammates (i.e. – blowout losses to the Bobs, Hawks, Bucks, Pacers and Rockets), his positive +/- performances have been extremely valuable.
When he scores a double-digit +/- the Toronto Raptors are 6-1. Of the Raptors top 13 lineups this season, Sonny Weems is in seven of them. He’s also in four of the top six lineups for the Raptors this season.
Maybe that’s not shocking to you but I found that astounding. The Raptors are just a better team when he’s on the court. Can you really explain it either? No. He’s not THAT skilled of a basketball player. He can’t shoot outside. According to HoopData.com, Sonny is an above 60% scorer from inside 10 feet and 37% shooter from 10 feet and beyond. He’s not a very strong dribbler and his passing isn’t great. He’s a decent defender but he’s not exactly locking guys down.
However, he does bring one skill that is hard to measure. His excitement factor can energize a team, arena and entire basketball game. Just watch that video above again. If he gets the ball and has a chance to get to the rim, he’s going to put on a show. When a guy dunks in a game, gives it a little extra mustard and seemingly does it out of nowhere it can galvanize a team and help spark a run. It can start and punctuate great stretches of basketball. And that’s what Sonny Weems is capable of doing.
Should he be a starter by any means? Definitely not. Is he better in small doses? Probably yes. But one thing for certain is Sonny Weems helps this team win basketball games more often than he hurts them when he’s on the court.
It’s a fact of the Raptors that comes out of nowhere but sometimes that’s the best place to find exactly what your team needs.
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61 Raps
I like your assessment but why do you think he shouldn’t start? I understand that DeMar was getting the Batum-upbringing style but its getting near crunch time. SW has the same athletic abilities as DeMar. His shooting form is solid. They need the person that steps in that role to hit open jumpers. DeMar hesitates to take them because he hasn’t developed the swag that SW has yet. Would taking DeMar out of the starting line up hinder his development significantly?
I personally like his energy coming off the bench. DeMar has the ability to do the same, but not sure he has the killer instinct to make a huge impact off the bench. He would have more pressure to score as a reserve than he does as part of the starting lineup. Just a thought.
Demar belongs in the DLeague. Period. He doesn’t belong on a starting line up because he’s still just too raw, too inexperienced, and not confident enough.
he needs to beat up on some people in the DLeague and get that swag and develop his game more
I think he’s proved he is a legit NBA player, just not a starter. Sending him down to the D-League at this stage may hurt his development in terms of confidence more than anything.
agreed.
+2 on that it may cause more harm than good. confidence is a fragile thing.
Thank you! Someone finally agree that DeMar should be in the D-League. What’s wrong to be assigned in the D-League anyways?!
Go back to the whole you just climbed out of… No, Really…
I agree — I like Weems’ energy + aggressiveness off the bench. I think DeRozan is too passive to match that.
I agree with Raps Fan. I think someone like Sonny is best used with energy off the bench. He’s a change of pace guy that will be most effective in short little four-minute bursts throughout the game. Until he adds a solid jumper, that’s the best way to use him.
Just wondering what song that was on the mixtape
Man of the Year, by Lil Wayne. That entire CD is good, if you’ve not heard it before.
It’s shiat, along with 95% of pop hip-hop thats out there……Go listen to some Roots Manuva, hes legit
One thing that hurts Weems playing time is his contract. He is the lowest paid Raptor at $736K. The team doesnt really have an investment in him. They will definitly pick up his option for $800K next year. Hopefully they see past the numbers and give him some BURN!
Indeed. Is it too much to hope he improves substantially this summer? What concretely would you like to see him improve in his game?
Sonny is great in the open floor. And even some ally-oops. I’d like to see him drive into contact and force some fouls.
I’d like Sonny to start at SG. He is a very good defender and is more active offensively than DeMar.
But..I wonder how DeMar would feel if he is demoted to the bench in favor of his friend. In theory this should be irrelevant, but I’d prefer to avoid any potential issues by just starting Wright. Plus, Wright starting means that we can establish a defensive tone to start the game (I hope.)
Zach: There is actually some other statistics (Adjusted Plus/Minus) to suggest that he is a good option at wing:
http://basketballvalue.com/teamplayers.php?year=2009-2010&mode=summary&sortnumber=94&sortorder=DESC&team=TOR
Long story short, we seem to play (substantially) better offense and defense when he is on the court than off.
Sonny plays better with our best athletic players (see that same link) – he should be playing the most minutes with Amir Johnson (excellent rebounder – more fast break starts), Wright, Jack and even DeRozan at times.
Dear Raptors, please let us know who your friends are, and who we can replace you in the starting line-up with. We wouldn’t like to hurt your feelings.
That said, I tend not to worry about this season too much as this is a young team and all experience is good, even losing. So, I’d stick with DD if only to send the message that the Raps are not a knee-jerk organization.
Interesting write-up, btw. Only one grammatical error in this one.
I should say, “AND only one grammatical error”.
The and isn’t necessary.
Sorry, but there’s a difference between
“Interesting write-up, btw. Only one grammatical error in this one.”
and “Interesting write-up, btw. And only one grammatical error in this one.”
The first suggests it’s a good write-up because of the lack of grammatical errors. The second suggest the two points, while related, are separate. My point was that it is a good write-up, made even better by the fact that it contained only a minor error, which is unusual around here.
So…they say the same thing.
Been saying it a long time now… START SONNY!!!
Almost anytime we get ANY production from the 2guard spot, we win.
DD ain’t cutting it, he’s a total liability
Its amazing that the record is what it is with the starting SG & SF providing as little as they do on offense and sometimes/quite often a liability defensively.
Raps have a big hole at SG .. and that’s why Jay plays Jack & Jose together. Hedo is at the SF slot, Bosh is the PF and Bargs the point-center … not a winning mix for playoffs .. nevertheless an amazing run for the Raps. Hope they stay in the playoff section.
You know whars funny, Jamario (the bricklayer) Moon started how many games for us last year ? 70 something right ? HE WAS GETTING PAID THE LEAGUE MIN. So lets take the $$ out of the equation okay ?
Sonny should start for 2 reasons:
1) He’s hotter than DD right now and DD should ‘hopefully’ do the same as SW does when he comes off the bench.
2) Give the kid a reality check. DD sounds like a down to earth kid and having him come off the bench I believe would promote more of a sense of urgency out of him.
It would be win-win Jay, comeon !!!
Well, Zack … I’ve helped coach mini-bball and above teams .. and my conclusion is that young immature boys and girls either play bball for fun because they are athletically gifted, or play for the effort and personal accomplishment because they are not necessarily athletically gifted. I’ve seen many athletically gifted players failing because of glaring inability to think without the ball in their hands. I’ve seen kids who can think and react while under the stress of play, and be very effective team players .. in athletics and life too. I see some of the same characteristics in younger NBA players.
Sonny Weems, a 6-6, 200# guard, drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the second round (39th overall) of the 2008 NBA Draft … has only been in the NBA for one year and gets the lowest salary on the Raptor roster. He is fighting for survival in the NBA, and he must feel the pressure.
What do you think about the strategy of starting DeRozan, while Weems sits? Which has greater potential in your opinion?
I think starting DeRozan is the way to go as long as it isn’t hurting the Raptors playoff push. You get to have him come out and see if he can make something happen early on in the game. If it looks like another night of him floating around in the background then you’ve got Antoine Wright or Sonny off the bench.
I believe DeRozan is hurting our playoff push. I didn’t mind getting him some experience with better players (i.e. starting lineup) early, but now its crunch time.
I think you’ll see Triano reduce his minutes in the coming weeks. I would prefer Wright to start most often – often the position that burns us (well, most teams) is the wing. Keep Weems (a decent defender as well) on the bench for energy and pair him with Johnson.
I agree with you that de rozan should play at the begginings of games because he plays against the best players when it dosnt have a big impact on the game, but sonny is better, so dosnt he deserve a starting spot?
Sonny would be my choice ahead of Wright, Wright is not as athletic as Weems and if you put Antoine on the floor with Hedo and Bargs, you loose alot of athleticism in the starting 5 and teams like Atlanta will continue to do what they do to us. Hmm , I wonder what would’ve happened if we had hit the 4 game skid prior to the trade deadline??
The real issue with Atlanta is that they can get away with putting Horford on Bosh and Josh Smith on Bargs. Horford is a very good defender…when Bosh beats him Smith is there to erase/alter the shot. Smith is athletic enough to guard Bargs, too.
So in effect, they can swarm Bosh and not worry too much about getting beaten elsewhere. So unproductive Bosh + getting dominated on both ends at the wing + and at PG equals blowout losses.
This is just the peril of our the way our team is constructed.
I love that everyone is s*itting on DeMar DeRozen. Best fan base ever. That was not a sarcastic remark, I can’t stand dude. Great post, Zach.
lol
Considering we are down to the most important stretch of the season, I’m pretty sure Triano can afford to pull back on Demar for a bit and go with his strongest options. Sonny gives them much better defense, and they will need all they can get to get some much needed wins. I don’t think it’s a knock on Demar, but they can’t sacrifice possessions, halves, or full games on making Demar a better player, their main concern should be the overall performance of the team heading (hopefully!) into the playoffs…
yeah im still a demar fan, yes sonny is coming along nicely.. but demar was a heavy scorer in college.. so it should only be a bit of development (raptors favorite word next to conditioning..).. and he should be a preimere player.
but for the moment.. sonny does derserve everything he gets.. if not more.. but i wouldnt pull demar just yet… weems and demar probably push eachother in practice and on the court.. its a healthy competition.. It would just be sad if they used us for a devolpment ground and then left us. BOOOOooo
“Basketball is all about athletic ability”
I’m a coach too and that’s an insult to the game of basketball.
That’s all I’m going to say
It basically is. Two words: Darius Miles.
And where is he playing now?
If it is, then Tyrus Thomas should be the MVP this season and Jason Kidd a D-league player
Or dare I mention a certain guy named Stockton? Or Petrovic, Drazen?
Petrovic was not the most Athletic but he wasn’t un-athletic either
Darius Miles played eight years in the NBA without much NBA skill and made over $50 million. For the most part, athletic ability is what runs basketball.
For every Matt Maloney, John Stockton and Darrick Martin who gets in with basketball skill and not much athletic ability there are probably 25 guys who get in on sheer athletic ability and no real professional skill.
Darius Mile was paid for potential NEVER for actual results.
Big difference.
‘Darius Miles played eight years in the NBA without much NBA skill’
he also played for 8 years without much success….
You basically just said that players careers should be judged based on how much money they got paid. A huge thumbs down for that.
And Greece says hi, to you and to all the athletic guys on Team USA.
He is right, though. If you are unathletic, you are less likely to be able to create your (high percentage) shot.
Sometimes offense create your shot, not yourself, just for the record.
And right now I can name two MVPs of the last decade who were not known for being atheltic, Steve Nash and Tim Duncan (four total MVP awards).
I don’t care about the money Darius Miles made, I’m not the one who paied him, but he’s out of the league right now. So is Gerald Green.
Athletic ability without a team oriented play and will to improve is useless. I see a lot of potential in DD because he is a hardworker and has a lot of people around who can team him how to play the game (Calderon, Turk, Bosh, Jay)
I dunno…Duncan had only slightly above average athleticism for his size, but had great size and excellent fundamentals.
Steve Nash is not as unathletic as he is made out to be…ambidexterity and great touch to me are part of athleticism.
OK, so to perfectly qualify things, you don’t need to be hyper-athletic in the NBA. But if you are of only average athleticism, you need to have amazing gifts (excellent size/wingspan/ambidexterity/fundamentals/footwork/touch/BBIQ/court vision) to make up for it.
I read that as BBQ not BBIQ at first. Needless to say, I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how BBQ could be classified as a skill set. Perhaps hashing that out will be my next post…
Haha. Well, the ability to grill high-quality cuts of meat into delicious meals is a key skill required to be a good basketball player. This is why so many good basketball players come from the south (Chris Bosh and Sonny Weems being prominent examples.)
Raul, Steve Nash has been an athelete all his life. Spent his earlier years playing soccer and comes from an athletic family. Tim Duncan set swimming records as a child before being drawn into the world of basketball. The two are quite intelligent, but there is no question that they are athletic.
The will to improve and knowledge to play the game are necessities but every player in the NBA has some level of athletic ability. No one is there because of they’re GPA..
Basketball is not five guys playing one-on-one against each other.
and I believe the Raptors learned that lesson on the last two games they played out west , they forgot to play as a team.
Did you actually read the full paragraph. I could have sworn that the second half spoke to the need for others to hone their skills etc. And are you saying that athleticism is of no benefit?!? Do you have your team members submit IQ tests in advance of your tryouts?
Weems doesn’t bring much to the table. Like most of the players not named Bosh, he’s a disposable pine-rider.
He has .2 win shares. He hasn’t even produced a single win for the team yet.
Well, I think you can add a win produced tonight!
i’ve said this before and i’ll say it again.
The coach’s job is to provide a system offensively and defensively for his players to buy into where those players can most take advantage of their strengths and succeed and not try to take away from those strengths.
Are the raptors doing that? honestly…. the answer is no.
playoffs is just around the corner and JT it seems like is still in experiment mode.
having said that – keeping DD in the starting line-up really is a double edge sword; a) he starts – then the opposing wings will exploit him – as we’ve seen a lot which means most often than not the raps are playing catch up (to good teams anyway) b) put him on the bench in place of SW then your concern about his confidence. So what do you do? i say – put the best team you can put out there to be competitve and build a lead and then bring him in where he can afford to make mistakes. For the amount of money that the kid is making – i’m sure he’s got an entoruage out there making sure his confidence isn’t broken.
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I’d like to see Antoine get some starts in place of Demar. It might take some pressure off Demar. Maybe not at the beginning, as his confidence will take a hit, but eventually he’ll adapt.
Wright should give the Starters a little more defensive presence – just as long as Jay makes Antoine understand that. A regular rotation from the Bench of Weems, DeRozan, Amir, and Calderon should provide an up-tempo style of play. As games go, these guys will be mixed in with the Starters, so with Bosh or Bargnani as the other Big, the Full game mix could be just right.
As for Weems, the floor was pretty low (in my expectations), so where he’s at now, is a great bonus. Same with Amir.
On another note, Jay needs to minimize the Evans/Amir Big combo. I realize with Bosh back, that this issue goes back into the shadows, but should one of CB or AB get hurt, I’d prefer not to see that combo get any significant minutes.
Read a report that says Andrea has been ill – what’s the update on that.
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I love how 90% percent of the “mixtape” is vs. NJ! Glorious? That’s pure domination, baby!
FREE SONNY WEEMS!
Sorry I’m not adding too much to the conversation here, but I especially loved the part about the undersized power forward who was totally unathletic and was supposed to be unable to do all the things he did because it reminded me of me a few years earlier, when the coach probably only let me on the team because he needed 15 players. Then I got some garbage time and eventually got a chance to contribute very much. Great article otherwise, but I just felt some personal connection with that guy that I wanted to point out.
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[...] is expected to play today, which is crucial.). Triano went with Amir in the starting lineup, and Sonny Weems had a career game. Bosh did practice yesterday and is expected to play today, which is [...]