Goodbye Mr Mitchell! And the "What if?" game!

Well, goodbye to the Sam Mitchell era in Toronto. So just to recap, the Leafs fired their GM and coach in June, the Blue Jays fired their manager in June, the Argos went through TWO coaches during the CFL season and now the Raptors have fired their coach. 2008: The Year of the Toronto Coach! That being said, all were worthy firings. The Leafs needed to mix things up and start from the ground. The Jays seemed to be going backwards and needed to start hitting. The Argos would probably lose to the Rouge et Or. That brings us to the Raptors: Canada’s team in the NBA.

It’s been a garbage season so far. Things started out fine, then the Raptors forgot that they can’t play defence so they lost a few games in a row. Now they’re out west where they’re 14-112 all time (Can you believe that? 98 games below .500! That’s a fact) and coming off of a 39 point loss to Denver, they’ve fired Sam Mithcell. As Mad Dog used to say “Hey, good job by you Colangelo!”

Mitchell won Coach of the Year just two seasons ago for guiding the Raptors to the division crown before losing to Vince Carter and the Nets in the first round. Last season, a meagre .500 record and another first round defeat. This season they’re still hovering around the .500 mark and entering Utah on Friday night are sitting in 9^th spot in the suddenly competitive Eastern Conference. It begs the question as to how much of 2008s failures were Mitchell’s fault? How much credit should be given to their success’ in ’06? Imagine we could go back in time and see just how different this team could be if only a few things had changed. Last spring a certain coach was on the market (for a few weeks) and all I told anyone was how much the Raptors needed to sign him. Obviously it didn’t happen. Ok fine. Imagine if one of the core members of the 2006-07 division winning team didn’t get horribly injured and not only miss the ’08 season (pretty much) but also get driven out of the entire league? Imagine if the Raptors had chosen a different big man four years ago in the draft? With Sam Mitchell getting fired on Wednesday it seems only fitting for the SportsOne to address the questions that have been on his mind these last few years. Call it the “what if?” game. And we start with this past summer.

What if the Raptors had fired Mitchell last May, and put in a bid to win Mike D’Antoni?

Could you imagine? All of a sudden the Raptors have a coach who is a proven winner (you can’t throw the Spurs in my face here, there is only one team remotely like them in the East and that’s Detroit, and they’re on the way down) plus a lineup that wants to run and gun led by a point guard who wants nothing more than to BE Steve Nash! D’Antoni would be perfect for the Raptors lineup. Think about it. They have one of the most agile big men in the league (Chris Bosh) plus one of the best set up men in the league (Jose Calderon) and they also have energy in the SF and SG positions. You’re telling me this team couldn’t play D’Antoni’s style and win against everyone in the East save for probably the Pistons (too much like the Spurs, defensive and heavy in front) and the Celtics (easily the most talented complete team in the East)?

The Raps tried the “7 seconds or less” offence a couple years ago and it failed horribly. The reason: They didn’t have the right guy leading the offence. Calderon is the ultimate pass first NBA point guard. The biggest difference between him and Chris Paul is that while Paul has the ability to take over a game here and there; Calderon is forever in debt to his team mates. Think of Isaiah Thomas and Steve Nash. Nash is great at making everyone better and distributing the ball (Calderon); Thomas was simply amazing (Paul). With that in mind, Calderon would relish the opportunity to run the kind of offence D’Antoni likes and while this is being wasted in New York, Toronto has been forced to play a style that they are not built for. The Raptors can not play defence. They haven’t been able to in years; they can’t now. They could at least attempt to “run-n-gun” the offence and score 110 a game. We all know what happened. D’Antoni is in New York trying to clean up the mess there, while the Raptors are in danger of falling so far from their ’06 season that Bosh may walk in 2010. If he does, this team is in BIG trouble.

What if Jorge Garbojosa never got injured?

This is a huge x factor for the Raptors. Garbo was a major contributor in ’06-’07 and was poised to become the ultimate 6^th guy on the team. He wasn’t good enough to start (even though he did often, but coming off the bench in a Manu Ginobli type way would have better suited his style) , but he could chip in with a 9/3/2 every game plus he was far and away the best defender on the court. We can only guess as to what this team might have done had their second best forward not suffered a career ending (NBA anyway) injury.

What if they never traded Charlie V to Milwaukee for TJ Ford?

What if the powers that be could have seen ahead and known that Jose Calderon would be the beast he has become? How much better off would Toronto be if Charlie V (a fan favourite and one of mine too) had stayed with the club throughout all this mess? Sure the guy misses a few games here and there due to injury; TJ Ford misses half the season half the time! Charlie V ignites fans and his teams with dunks (remember that 47 point performance in Milwaukee in 2007?) while TJ Ford pissed us off and left us wondering why we traded for him in the first place. It’s never a good sign when you trade a top 10 pick for a player who is out of the city less than two years later.

What if they had not wasted a draft pick on Rafael Araujo?

It’s a thought that goes through the mind of Raptors fans every week. With the 8^th pick in the 2004 Draft Rob Babcock (to think, at one time we had both him AND JFJ running things here!) picked the Brazilian who is now out of the league and possibly making porn in Austria. Every time I have a conversation with buddies or colleagues they point to the fact that Andre Igoudala was still on the board. “Man, imagine how stacked our team would be with him on it now? It’d be crazy!” True, but there’s no way the Raptors would’ve wanted to pay Bosh, Igoudala and then keep Calderon at the same time. Igoudala is good, but he’s not great. Calderon has the potential to be a Top 3 point guard in the league. Right now probably only Chris Paul and Steve Nash are better. As anyone will tell you, with a few exceptions, a great point guard always trumps a good shooting guard.

Just imagine though if the Raptors had addressed their desire to give Bosh a great player down low by drafting Andris Beidrins. If Toronto had drafted him, they would’ve gotten a player who could not only learn from Bosh, he would’ve been a consistent double double every night AND they wouldn’t have had to trade for Jermaine O’Neal this off-season. Beidrins doesn’t cost nearly as much (6 years $54 million compared with $21 million per) and is has averaged a 17-15 in 35mpg this year. So if they take him at No 8 in 2004 then you don’t need Bosh to play center for three seasons and there’s no need to pick Andrea Bargnianni with the first pick in the ’06 draft. So assuming they trade the ’06 No 1 pick, (presumably for another top 10 pick and another forward) you still have TJ Ford backing up Calderon (and that’s IF they still make that trade, which I doubt they do but lets pretend they do). Instead of trading him for a center (which they’d already have) they could have packaged him with either the Top 10 pick from the ’06 draft OR Anthony Parker in exchange for a shooting guard like Jamal Crawford. So now you trot out a starting lineup that looks like: Bosh, Beidrins, Jamario Moon (or that top 10 2006 draft pick like Rudy Gay), Crawford and Calderon. And that’s if they DO make the TJ Ford trade. If they don’t make it you have Charlie V starting alongside Bosh and Beidrins. Instantly they’re the 3^rd best team in the east behind Boston and Cleveland right??? Is anyone else salivating at the thought of that starting five??? Beidrins is a huge improvement on O’Neal for about half the money (and he’s seven years younger!), and Crawford is a huge improvement over Parker for a little bit more. Even if they couldn’t have gotten Crawford from New York (which they totally could have if they threw in that ’06 draft pick) they still would have Parker, Calderon, Beidrins, Bosh and Charlie V.

Ok, I’m done now. But that 2004 Draft severely crippled this team. It’s too bad, because if Bosh walks in a year and a half, the Raptors are in the same boat as Memphis and Charlotte: Not in good shape.

Hey there’s a Thursday night football game this week too.

Raiders (+9.5) vs CHARGERS

Worst. Thursday night game. Ever.