It's no longer Sam's Club

Seventeen games into an uninspired start to the season, the Raptors brass has fired Sam Mitchell.

8-9 isn't the way I thought this team would start the season, but to fire a head coach this early is kind of surprising... not a very Brian Colangelo like move.

I personally am against the move. There are so many reasons as to why Sam should have stayed, but there are also a lot of reasons he needed to go. But lets start with why I'm against the move.

The first main point that needs to be made is the roster dynamic. Last year the Raptors had one of the best benches in the NBA. Calderon, Delfino, Kapono and Rasho kept the Raps in games and allowed Mitchell to rest his starters. Turn that around to this year and its clear that the Raps depth is one of the worst in the NBA. Joey Graham has been a nice surprise and Roko Ukic is coming along nicely. But in order to win games, Bosh/Calderon need to play 40 minutes a night, something neither of them has done consistently in their short NBA careers. If Mitchell was given a longer look (maybe another 17 games), he might have been able to turn things around.

Injuries have also been a big part of this year. Jose and JO have both had minor injuries that have kept them out of action for some time. You can't blame all 9 losses on just injuries, but without JO the team lacks a sense of toughness. Without Jose, the team lacks a decent ball-handler. Mitchell has had to deal with these injuries by being forced to start Will Solomon (something no coach should ever have to do) and be forced to leave Bosh out there for close to 45 minutes a night. The great thing about Bosh is that he will never complain and he'll always welcome more action but over the stretch of 82 games, it's clear that he needs to get some rest. Playing him this much early in the season will wear on him.

Finally, Mitchell has been with the team since 2004. He's developed a lot of players on the team like Bosh, Jose and Andrea. I think every player in that locker room respects him for what he's done for the organization. Just like the players, he's developed as a coach as well. In his first year, no one talked about his coaching methods. They only talked about his soundbytes... "if you don't want to play, do everyone a favour... quit". His sarcastic way with the media made more headlines than his horrible coaching record. But once he was given some talent to work with, he did a great job. His level of brashness toned down quite a bit and in his last days as the coach, he was extremely relaxed (almost too relaxed). If the 39 point loss to Denver happened 3 years ago, there would have been a 5 minute tirade by Mitchell. When it happened a couple of days ago, he just had a solemn attitude and talked like he would after a 10 point loss.

But this may also be a reason as to why Colangelo let him go. Watching that interview after the Denver loss was kind of disheartening. I wanted to see Mitchell go off on his players. And I think Colangelo wanted to see that kind of fire as well. But the lack of passion from Mitchell and a seemingly lack of passion from the players probably influenced this decision. That and the fact that the Raps have had at least a couple of games in the bag this year and just blew it at the end. The game in Boston and the VC dagger shot and dunk are two things that Colangelo admittedly said bothered him. Maybe a new voice will wake the players up cause it is obvious that the Raps aren't playing with any sense of urgency right now.

With the team up against the salary cap right now, the 8-9 record couldn't be fixed with a trade. A lot of people thought that maybe Al Harrington or Gerald Wallace might be traded here but the Raps would have to give up a major piece in order to get a guy like that. And the only major piece the Raps have that is trade-able is Andrea Bargnani. Colangelo has been adamant that he won't trade him so this move was the only one that could be made.

If I've learned anything in the 3 or so odd years that BC has been here, it's that he hasn't made one bad move. He's the anti-JP so to speak. But it bothers me that the Blue Jays GM has had 8 years of losing seasons and still has a job, whereas Mitchell spent 4 years here, leading the team to the playoffs twice while winning coach of the year and still he gets fired.

I have no doubt that Jay Triano will do a good job because he knows the players that are here. He's already talked about wanting the team to run more so we may be looking at the Phoenix-East team everyone talked about 3 years ago. And only Brian Colangelo could make this move... making a Canadian the coach of Canada's team. Always a crowd pleaser and that's why he's Toronto's most loved GM.

DD

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