Part 2 and 3 after the jump.
Colangelo: “We have gone through an extensive evaluation process…and felt Triano was the right choice” Colangelo gives Jay a stamp of approval: “There are no deficiencies with Jay as the head coach of this basketball team.” Three year contract for Jay Triano. Triano “not given the most ideal circumstances to fight through but showed up each game”. Colangelo appears to be giving the late season push a lot of weight in hiring Triano.
Triano says that he’s looking forward to having a training camp to work with. Will try to work with individual players over the summer and determine their regimen and schedule. Says that the assistant coaching staff has yet to be determined, he’s though about it but hasn’t made up his mind, mostly because he wasn’t the head coach until today.
Colangelo says there wasn’t a need to hire a more experienced coach because Jay Triano had shown enough (basically evaded the question by praising Jay). Says “if you got the right candidate here, why look elsewhere”. Jay will spend a lot of time with Colangelo and Maurizio in determining what the roster will look like. He’s making it sound like Triano will have a lot of the say in the roster. Colangelo says he’s a “consensus guy”.
It’s “Jay’s call” as to who the assistant coaches are but they have to be approved by Colangelo (huh?). Says same is true vice-versa, Jay has to approve all assistant coaches. Triano says he values ball movement and defense. Two departments where the Raptors have to get better at. Triano says “We will be a lot different than we were last year”.
Triano says “toughness can be coached”. By better rules in training camp, coaching the right thing and forcing the players to do the right thing all the time. Hard cuts, good screens, being a good teammate. Showing up hard at practice. “Toughness is something we need to address”. Triano will likely bring in an older coach as an assistant to help with the experience.
Triano says Chris hasn’t thought as much about as 2010 summer as some people say he has. Says it the job of the franchise to build a winning atmosphere to players like him stay, says we don’t have to necessarily “prove” anything to Chris. That’s about it, just watch the videos.
