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The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

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The rap on Sam Mitchell

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  • #1

    The rap on Sam Mitchell

    The rap on Sam Mitchell
    By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
    April 30, 2007

    http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slu...yhoo&type=lgns

    Adrian Wojnarowski
    Yahoo! Sports

    EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Privately, this is what advance scouts who have watched Sam Mitchell for three seasons were curious to see. They saw him with Bryan Colangelo's resurrected roster, and a depleted Atlantic Division, and thought it would be most intriguing to see what happened with the Toronto Raptors coach in the playoffs, when he had to make adjustments and counters under the scrutiny of a seven-game series.

    As postseason failures go, Mitchell's has been spectacular so far. What had been merely a troubling Eastern Conference series turned traumatic on Sunday night, a 102-81 Game 5 loss to the New Jersey Nets that was a 30-point game until Jason Kidd and Vince Carter left the Meadowlands court for good. The Nets have taken away everything – Chris Bosh in the post, T.J. Ford on the drive and, maybe most of all, the will of the Atlantic champions.

    They go back to Toronto for Game 5 on Tuesday with so much riding for this franchise, a season that was such a renaissance for the Raptors turning into a referendum on Mitchell. Whatever leverage Mitchell gained with a franchise-record 47 victories and the Red Auerbach trophy largely has been lost in the avalanche of this three-games-to-one deficit to sixth-seeded New Jersey.

    The Nets have neutralized Bosh, flooding the All-Star in the post and using Kidd to cheat on him because the New Jersey point guard has refused to respect Ford's jumper. Mitchell needs to get Bosh the ball where he can do damage. What's more, the Nets are forever adjusting to Toronto's changing defenses, constantly getting uncontested shots in this series. Kidd and Vince Carter are playing out of their minds, but that's partly because Mitchell's team looks intimidated and unwilling to challenge New Jersey.

    There's a lot on the line for Mitchell here. Several league sources insist that he's the top choice of Pacers president Donnie Walsh to replace Rick Carlisle in Indiana, and maybe that's still the case considering that the Pacers are looking like a rebuilding project. For now, they don't need Mitchell to be a playoff coach there. Nevertheless, the rapidly developing Raptors do, and Colangelo, Toronto's president and general manager, must consider how much he wants to commit contractually to Mitchell at season's end.

    Before Game 4, Colangelo, easily the Executive of the Year in the NBA, insisted that the entire body of work – regular season and playoffs – would be the judge for Mitchell's offer. He wants Mitchell back, he said. He deserves to be rewarded with a new contract. Nevertheless, Colangelo told Yahoo! Sports that there won't be a long negotiation process with Mitchell.

    "I'm going to try and get to a decision fairly quickly," Colangelo said. "It's nothing that I want to linger. June 30 is the official end of the contract, and I'm going to want to know which way we're going."

    Considering that Suns assistant Marc Iavaroni, who was part of the contender that Colangelo constructed in Phoenix, will be one of the most coveted candidates on the market, it's hard to believe that Colangelo will let him go elsewhere should negotiations stall with Mitchell. Around the league, there's a belief that Colangelo will low-ball Mitchell, dare him to leave and bring in his own guy.

    Colangelo bristles at the suggestion, saying, "He's the leader of the team, and that's what makes us encouraged about where we are."

    Yet, make no mistake: How Mitchell handles the next 48 hours will be a telling window into that leadership. After getting blown out in Games 3 and 4 at the Meadowlands, he walked into the losing locker room Sunday night and refused to rip into his team. Perhaps the old Mitchell would've gone off the deep end, yelling and screaming, but Mitchell has matured as a coach. He decided that he would try to build them up again, show his players that he still believed in them at a time perhaps no one else does.

    Nevertheless, this was no time for him to walk into his press conference and start telling people that no one thought Toronto would be here after a 2-8 start to the season, and blah, blah, blah. This was a misdirection play that carried little weight in this series because his team hasn't showed up.

    "I explained to them that we won 47 games, we won the Atlantic Division and we've earned the right to be in the playoffs," Mitchell said. "We can't let one bad night take away all that we've done."

    Here's the deal: The Raptors are here, and they shouldn't be so completely non-competitive. As much as anything, this all sounded like a concession speech for the end of a series. No one is terribly surprised that the Nets, with Kidd (17 points, eight rebounds, 13 assists) Carter (27 points, seven assists) and Richard Jefferson (23 points), are winning the series. Toronto is still young, still growing, but it is the third seed in the East. Everyone is surprised to see such little resistance, to watch the Raptors let the Nets do whatever they please on the floor without so much as the appearance of making a stand.

    Kidd is killing these Raptors, and Mitchell must take his share of the blame. Why in the world did he decide to question the validity of Kidd's banged-up left knee? This was Mitchell thinking like a player, not a coach. As most of the great ones do, Kidd lives for slights, real and imagined. Mitchell should've just said that whether Kidd was injured or not he knew they would get the best of the Nets' star. That's all.

    "To say I'm faking, that didn't bother me," Kidd said. Only no one in the Nets organization believed Kidd on that one. They know how Kidd thinks, how he finds his edge, and he understood this was the wrong play, way wrong, by Mitchell. "He did us a favor," one Nets official said. "What was he thinking?"

    For his own good, Mitchell could use a tough, final stand out of his team in Game 5. Right now, he's getting run out of the series. Whatever people thought of his X's and O's, Mitchell always has been able to get his team to play hard for him. Now, the Raptors look lost. They look rattled. He changed his lineup for Game 4, starting Andrea Bargnani, and promised to try something else for Game 5. He's reaching now. He's a little desperate. As it turns out, Sam Mitchell hasn't completely escaped his referendum season in Toronto.

    Perhaps he's coaching for the Pacers job, perhaps for a longer, richer extension with the Raptors – whatever. Through it all, Mitchell could go a long way toward validating his Coach of the Year trophy with a simple solution on Tuesday night: Just raise these Raptors out of the rubble again, just get them back to Jersey for a Game 6.

    This is a freefall for Mitchell and the Raptors, and a freefall doesn't leave historic franchise seasons with tidy bows and ribbons. They've come too far, too fast this year, to go down in this kind of heap. The coach is on the clock for Game 5.

    Adrian Wojnarowski is the national NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Send Adrian a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

    Updated on Monday, Apr 30, 2007 3:31 am EDT
    So Long And Thanks For All The Fish.

    If you've done 6 impossible things today?
    Then why not have Breakfast at Milliways!

    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

    The writer neglects how little playoff experience his team has. When [Scream]Rasho Nesterovic[/Scream] is your only player with postseason cred, you're in trouble.
    Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

      The writer acknowledges the team is young and that them losing isn't unexpected. The writer appears to think that "inexperience" isn't the whole story.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

        This has nothing to do with this thread, but Adrian Wojnarowski wrote one of the best sports/basketball books I've ever read. It's called "The Miracle of St. Anthony" and if you like basketball, you'll love it.
        "A man with no belly has no appetite for life."

        - Salman Rushdie

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        • #5
          Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

          Originally posted by Kegboy View Post
          The writer neglects how little playoff experience his team has. When [Scream]Rasho Nesterovic[/Scream] is your only player with postseason cred, you're in trouble.
          Check the stats again.. . .although it's nothing major
          R.I.P. Bernic Mac & Isaac Hayes

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          • #6
            Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

            the raptors situation now is eerily similar to our last season under isiah. that year's pacer team had its hot streak early while the current raptors had theirs late, but otherwise both teams ended up as the #3 seed facing a playoff-tested #6 seed. raptors look to be on their way to an early playoff exit that will cost the job of their coach too.

            imo it is fair to draw comparisons between isiah thomas and sam mitchell as head coaches. both have their players' respect and can get them to play hard, but neither are great strategists or innovators. i think a guy like sam mitchell would be a good fit for a rebuilding team (as the writer notes), but eventually we'll need to replace him with a "playoff coach".

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

              Originally posted by Fool View Post
              The writer acknowledges the team is young and that them losing isn't unexpected. The writer appears to think that "inexperience" isn't the whole story.
              The writer interjects a whole bunch of assumptions, most of them debatable.

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

                Inexperience, yes...of the coach.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

                  Originally posted by wintermute View Post
                  the raptors situation now is eerily similar to our last season under isiah. that year's pacer team had its hot streak early while the current raptors had theirs late, but otherwise both teams ended up as the #3 seed facing a playoff-tested #6 seed. raptors look to be on their way to an early playoff exit that will cost the job of their coach too.

                  imo it is fair to draw comparisons between isiah thomas and sam mitchell as head coaches. both have their players' respect and can get them to play hard, but neither are great strategists or innovators. i think a guy like sam mitchell would be a good fit for a rebuilding team (as the writer notes), but eventually we'll need to replace him with a "playoff coach".
                  Errr...Reggie Miller was still a main guy with that #3 seed team. Brad and Ron were there the year before for the 5 game heartbreaker loss to NJ. JO had his time in POR and then 3 years of 1st round series.

                  All of that is exactly the kind of experience people mean when they say you can't win till you get some experience. It's not like Rip and Billups and Ben Wallace brought a ton of experience to the Carlisle Piston that went to the ECF.

                  The Raps are far more inexperienced than Isiah's tank job.

                  OHOH the writer is making a good point to say that it's one thing to be upset and another to take it lying down. I liked where the Raps were this year, but this playoff effort paired with Sam's first 2 seasons as coach don't exactly scream out "difference maker" as a coach.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

                    I have to agree that the book he wrote was good. For emotional, puff stuff, I love the guy. I don't know if insight is really his game.

                    As for Mitchell...

                    To me, i think you can argue that when your starting point can't keep food down and looks terrible, you bench him and bring him out in spurts or not at all. Calderon can hit the midrange shot, so Kidd is forced to guard him. the guy was shooting 52% for the season, I mean...come on, give it a try. I know Calderon was banged up a little here and there, but he looked ok in the minutes he has had. Additionally, can anyone say that they expected points anywhere than the 4 and the 1? I mean...anthony parker is ok, and has been pulling his weight, but...when you truck out bargani drained from surgery for your 3, and rasho is your 5...you might not be able to score much. what is depressing is that the d hasn't stepped up, and i thought they would. so...i don't completely blame mitchell for "blowing it" because i don't think the roster was as good as some people assume...but man...how about a shake up by now?

                    About the last thing I want in a coach is someone that can't make adjustments. The last thing I want is a "player's coach." Give me someone that can bring leadership and accountability to the locker room. I think mitchell can do that, but i wouldn't mind actually contending at some point too.

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: The rap on Sam Mitchell

                      Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
                      Errr...Reggie Miller was still a main guy with that #3 seed team. Brad and Ron were there the year before for the 5 game heartbreaker loss to NJ. JO had his time in POR and then 3 years of 1st round series.
                      well ok, the current raptors have less playoff experience than the 02-03 pacers. they have mo pete and... er... well, no one else. on the other hand, all that playoff experience didn't pay off for the 02-03 pacers - jo and ron played well sure but reggie and brad both struggled. and the only guys who looked like poised veterans that series were wearing celtics uniforms.

                      maybe you can use this to argue that isiah was much worse than mitchell, but imo it only shows that they were pretty close as far as results go.

                      Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
                      OHOH the writer is making a good point to say that it's one thing to be upset and another to take it lying down. I liked where the Raps were this year, but this playoff effort paired with Sam's first 2 seasons as coach don't exactly scream out "difference maker" as a coach.
                      this we can agree on.

                      Comment

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