Some Things V1.7:
1. You have to give it to Triano. For a guy coaching his first pre-season and a team that has had some fairly lofty hopes placed on it by his boss – does 50 games and a No.4 or No.5 seed feel about right just now? – Triano has done a good job of not coaching the game and instead coaching his team through seven exhibition starts. It would be easy to panic a little bit and try and get a win to save some face, but Triano has stuck to a plan about using the exhibition season to build minutes and run a continuity-based system that doesn’t necessarily cater to his club’s offensive strengths but provides some structure as his club gets familiar with one another.
2. That said, I’ve watched five of the seven games now and I’ve yet to see any cause for serious optimism. Obviously Bosh and Turkoglu are a bit behind, but early on in training camp it was suggested by Triano and others that having those guys out was a good thing because others would get more reps. It didn’t make sense to me because with so many new pieces you need every possible moment to make things work with the horses they need to take them where they want to go. Outside Bargnani I can’t think of one key rotation player that has looked even quite good so far. Calderon? Shakey. Jack? Still finding his way. Wright? Hurt. Evans? Hurt, but beforehand I think he demonstrated that the range of his contributions is decidedly narrow. Belinelli? Not sure what to expect, but my suspicion is a garbage-time maestro. Weems? Nice camp until Sunday, when he was awful. He needs to bounce back. DeRozan? Some glimpses certainly, but not yesterday when he struggled with his shot, his handle, his hands and trying to keep track of Ray Allen.
3. Pre-season is pre-season, but a glance at the league standings more-or-less corresponds with the general expectations of what the standings will look like when the ball goes up for real: In either conference there are no projected top-four seeds that are simply stinking it up. In the East Cleveland is 3-3, but they have Shaq on their team – just guessing he’s not going to hard just yet – and have had a serious flu bug to deal with. But Orlando and Boston? A combined 10-1. Out West the Lakers, Mavericks, Jazz and Spurs are a combined 15-6. Denver is 2-3 but had a trip to China to cope with. The bottom third of the standings in each conference look about right, with clubs like Minnesota, Sacramento, Memphis, Jersey and Toronto all struggling. The Raptors better hope they’re the exception.
4. Eric Koreen offered of the National Post offered up an excellent observation along press row the other day: Given Marcus Banks’s role as designated hugger, should the Raptors not be concerned that he’s come down with the flu?
5. Was chatting with Ray Allen before the game and mistakenly asked him about his ankle – it’s Tony Allen whose out with an injury. Allen – Ray – spent the next 15 seconds touching various pieces of wood, including a couple of beat writers’ heads. “Don’t jinx me now,” he said. I was suitably apologetic.
6. Was sitting front row yesterday and it’s a great place to get a feel for the game, if not see everything (blocked out by the coaches; Sam was brutal in this regard). Some rapid-fire observations:
- If Usain Bolt is a lot faster than Rajon Rondo – and we know he is – it would be a sight to see. But on one play Rondo took off as the wing on a fast break, getting up to speed as he ran past me and, well, you just don’t see people run that fast very often; you just don’t.
- Rasheed Wallace is tubby, but fun. He almost brought the rim down when he caught an alley-oop. The basket standard shook for a good 45 seconds. He was jawing at everyone – saving his best, it appeared, for Amir Johnson, his Pistons protégé – and did a spot on karaoke performance to Best of My Love by the Emotions coming out of a timeout. Just note perfect.
- Triano was on fire in the second quarter. He called two straight "15s" -- side screen and roles involving Bargnani and Calderon and got a dunk and shooting foul. Then he called for Johnson to set the screen, Bargnani stayed high and found Johnson for a lay-up underneath.
