As the Raptors get set for the Magic tomorrow night, it’s pretty clear that they’ve got a daunting task ahead of them. How do you handle a team with Dwight Howard - the NBA’s leading rebounder - when clearly your biggest deficiency is … rebounding!?
And how do you give yourself a fighting chance in this scenario if you’re also going at it without your best player and rebounder, Chris Bosh?
Let’s just say I’m glad I’m not in Sam Mitchell’s shoes today - or any of the coaches for that matter.
Though Rasho Nesterovic has played well against Howard in the past, it seems unlikely that that success would continue without Bosh on the floor alongside him. Plus, Howard has a lot more weapons this year - specifically the 1-2 punch of Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis; two athletic big men that can provide help up front or simply stretch out a defense with their perimeter games as well.
Toronto gave up 50 rebounds to the lowly Bobcats last night and Charlotte wasn’t just getting it from their big men like Emeka Okafor (who had 15 on the glass) and Nazr Mohammed. Jared Dudley has 10 boards; Jason Richardson grabbed 7; and well-known rebounder, Matt Carroll, (note the sarcasm) had 6.
If the Raps are going to have a fighting chance against the Magic, they simply have to be better on the glass. Period. And a lot of that comes down to effort. While Sam Mitchell has said in the past that you can’t teach rebound - I agree and disagree.
Yes, it’s true, that you can’t take Jason Kapono (for example) and magically turn him into Charles Oakley or Denis Rodman. And, yes, it’s also true that some players are just born with a nose for the ball.
But I think you can teach positioning. And I’m not even putting on the onus on Mitchell or the coaching staff specifically. I think the players have to look in the mirror as well. Working together - coach and player - can you not make a bad or average rebounder better? Can you not improve on positioning? Can you not learn how to ready your body, block out an opposing player, or improve on your knowledge of how the ball may carom a certain way off the rim?
Rebounding has been an issue for the Raptors all season and it will continue to be one as long as Bosh is out. And even when CB4 returns, the woes on the boards will have to improve as Toronto forges ahead towards the post-season and a possible 1ST round match up against either the Magic or another solid rebounding team (and the third-best offensive rebounding team in the league right now) … the Cleveland Cavaliers.
E. Smith
Look at the Guys Sam Has Coached Well
Chris Bosh - would be an all star anywhere
Anthony Paker two time mvp in Europe
Rasho - was who he was before he came
Calderon - Sam told to press he had nothing to do with Calderon and if TJ had not gotten hurt we would have have found out how good Bosh and Calderon can be
Moon was an All defender before he came Sam cannot even get him to drive
Delfino was a brought in as a defender the fact he had skills Detroit never used has little to to with Sam. I do not think Sam taught him how to shoot and the fact he is a good passer was only an issue because we had no backup for TJ.
Players who are lost
Kapono best shooter in the league Sam cannot use him
Humphries would have career games and Sam just sits him, he is a physical monster which we need. Sam just sits him.
TJ an all star passer who just passes enough so he has excuses to shoot
Moon driving
Andrea’s Athletic ability has gone through the Roof and on offence he Sam still uses him like is the same kid that came off the boat last year.
Joey Graham is an incredible Athelete that Sam has never found a place for
My two biggest issues with Sam are rebounding and blaming the players.
Sam loves small line ups which kills any chance of us rebounding
Andrea is the only center in the leaugue forced to play at the three most of the game then asked after each game why he shot so many threes.
Sam has not pattern. Makes no sense. In the Pacers game they were making some threes so Sam goes with 4 smalls and a big to cover it. The Pacer who are not an elite team see our center area is weakened so they start driving. Now they are killing us in the paint. Sam’s solution. Go to 5 smalls and leave the middle wide open.
After being embarrassed by the Pacers Sam comes out big and we are killing the Bobcats. Then Sam goes small. The Bobcats start driving. The bobcats realize they are playing against and lousy coach and get their confidence up and kill us in the paint. We were missing Bosh but they were missing three players. Sam gets out coached by two of the worst teams in Basketball.
Before Colangelo got here Sam was voted the worst coach in the league. Then he gets a whole new team with an older and improved Bosh, Calderon. He gets Rasho and experienced championship center. He gets TJ a true point guard. He get Parker the two time MVP in Europe. He gets Garbahossa and Olympic Champion. Sam used his brain and came up with 100 shots a game. Early in the year you can see all the best teams used zone defence. Sam waits for the first game of the play-offs to switch to it and of course Kidd, Jefferson and Carter killed us driving because we could not know the defense.
Anyone could see Kidd, Jefferson and Carter could not hit long jumpshots. We just had to stop them from driving. They had one lucky game shooting threes and we spent the rest of the series defending against it when all you had to do was clog the middle. The only shooter they have is Nutbar.
Maybe it was unfair calling him the worst coach but it is a joke when he won coach of the year. The joke was we got stuck with him.
- Miles HershbergExcellent point, Eric. Rebounding has been a problem for the last few years, and it does have a whole bunch to do with coaching. It’s called boxing-out— a term, that as of late, I haven’t heard of enough of. It’s simple really, and shouldn’t be too difficult of a task for these guys to remember. When the ball goes up, turn, find a man, and box him the
- Jamie@#$% out! Everytime, this has to happen if you want to be a good rebounding team. You cant just forget to do this sometimes, it has to be clockwork…which is where the coaching comes in. Next time someone misses a rebounding assignment sit his butt down and get someone in there who wants to box out properly. It isn’t just the Raps and it’s not justthe NBA. Too many guys have the tendancy to go towards the hoop for a rebound afterseeing a shot go up. Bad idea. If the entire team turns finds their checks and boxes out properly, everytime, rebounding will never be an issue. It’s simple really, but it does take practice!