khandor’s sports blog

Sometimes, and despite the best of intentions, what a person thinks s/he is seeing happen in a specific basketball game isn’t actually what is really [truly] happening at all.

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Raptor duo saying all the right things: Calderon and Jack content with their roles in point guard rotation, have faith in Triano

It has been common practice that Calderon and Jack have been, and will continue to be, on the floor down the stretch in tight games.

And Triano said Tuesday they will be joined by Hedo Turkoglu in some kind of three-headed point guard monster the coach likes to unleash.

“I like having three ball-handlers and they can all shoot the ball as well,” Triano said of his finishing group that also includes Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani.

“I don’t mind that. I don’t think it’s something we want to do on a steady basis throughout most of a game, but to finish games I want guys on the floor who can make free throws when we have a lead and who can make plays for each other and who can make shots.”

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As long as the Raptors’ head coach insists on using the following Five-Man Unit:

Jose Calderon, PG
Jarrett Jack, PG 
Hedo Turkoglu, SF
Chris Bosh, PF
Andrea Bargnani, C

for important stretches … either, at the end of games, or at key points earlier in the match-up… the Raptors are going to continue to perform below their current Capacity For Excellence.

In spite of what Jay Triano may believe, winning closely-contested NBA games involves doing many more things than just:

1. Making Free Throws, on offense;
2. Making “plays” for one another, on offense; and,
3. Making shots [i.e. Field Goals], on offense.

and, includes, for example:

iv. Preventing “dribble penetration”;
v. Preventing “pass penetration”;
vii. “Contesting” each Field Goal Attempt;
viii. Committing Personal Fouls in a strategic way;
ix. Making steals;
x. Making deflections;
xi. Blocking shots;
xii. Recovering loose balls;
xiii. Executing a range of different Strategies and Tactics, on defense;
xiv. Eliminating Opponent Offensive Rebounds/Rebounding each missed Oppenent FGA/FTA; and,
xv. Retreiving missed FGAs/FTAs by creating an offensive rebound;

Five-Man Unit stats from 82games.com for the Raptors

Top Five-Man Floor Units

Top Five-Man Floor Units, Details

none of which are enhanced by using a two Point Guard line-up, when these two specific players are:

Jose Calderon, 6-3, 197
Jarrett Jack, 6-3, 205

each of whom is a non-elite level defender/rebounder and lacking in outstanding explosive quickness,

in conjunction with:

Hedo Turkoglu/SF … who is a non-elite level defender/rebounder and lacking in explosive quickness;

Chris Bosh/PF … who is a solid defender/rebounder;

Andrea Bargnani/C … who is a non-elite level defender/rebounder and lacking in explosive quickness.

There are Three Main Phases to a basketball game:

Offense, Defense and Rebounding,

and, until the Raptors do a much better job of incorporating ALL THREE phases into their game-planning, at all times, they will remain a middle-of-the-pack team in the NBA landscape.

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PS. What makes this a particularly egregious faux pas, in the Raptors’ current situation, are the number of other Five-Man Unit options which they have available that would do a better job of balancing The Three Main Phases Of The Game for Toronto:

OFFENSIVE & REBOUNDING EMPHASIS
Calderon + DeRozan + Turkoglu + Bosh + Bargnani
Calderon + Weems + Turkoglu + Bosh + Bargnani
Calderon + DeRozan + Weems + Bosh + Bargnani
Jack + DeRozan + Turkoglu + Bosh + Bargnani
Jack + Weems + Turkoglu + Bosh + Bargnani
Jack + DeRozan + Weems + Bosh + Bargnani
Jack + Belinelli + Turkoglu + Bosh + Bargnani
Jack + Belinelli + Weems + Bosh + Bargnani

DEFENSIVE & REBOUNDING EMPHASIS
Calderon + DeRozan + Turkoglu + Johnson + Bosh
Calderon + Weems + Turkoglu + Johnson + Bosh
Calderon + DeRozan + Weems + Johnson + Bosh
Jack + DeRozan + Turkoglu + Johnson + Bosh
Jack + Weems + Turkoglu + Johnson + Bosh
Jack + DeRozan + Weems + Johnson + Bosh
Jack + Belinelli + Turkoglu + Johnson + Bosh
Jack + Belinelli + Weems + Johnson + Bosh

more than one of which have yet to be tried at all by the Raptors this season.

Tags: 82games.com, Amir Johnson, Andrea Bargnani, Antoine Wright, Chris Bosh, Demar DeRozan, Hedo Turkoglu, Jarrett Jack, Jay Triano, Jose Calderon, Marco Belinelli, Rasho Nesterovic, Sonny Weems, Toronto Raptors

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Analytics, Basketball, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.