Ford's injury shows other side effects

MICHAEL GRANGE

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

January 8, 2008 at 8:58 PM EST

Jason Kapono prides himself on his consistency. He works on getting the same shots, the same way, game after game.

The results are evident. He's second in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage again this season, converting 51.1 per cent of his chances, and recently took over as the career leader in three-point efficiency, knocking down 46.7 per cent for his career, surpassing Steve Kerr.

But Kapono hasn't been Kapono lately. In his past five games, he's connected on only nine of 23 shots. Most important, he's only hoisted four three-pointers, his bread-and-butter.

Kapono hasn't changed, but his struggles — and the Toronto Raptors' overall lack of production from their second unit — are yet another example of the trickle-down effect the team is feeling from the prolonged absence of point guard T.J. Ford.

While Jose Calderon has performed brilliantly as a starter — in 20 games he's averaging 13.5 points and 9.9 assists, while shooting 49.7 per cent from the floor and 37.5 per cent from three-point range — the Raptors' reserves are suffering without the luxury of playing with a starting-calibre point guard.

While Toronto could routinely count on outscoring an opponent's second unit, the Raptors have been outscored 57-23 in their past three games.

"Without Jose [on the second unit] we're back to square one," Kapono said. "We're trying to find a rhythm and way to play on the second group. That's up to us. We have to figure it out because we can't waste too much time. If our bench isn't playing well, it puts too much pressure on our starters."

Everyone is careful to tiptoe around the issue, if only to avoid appearing unappreciative of the efforts being made by Juan Dixon, a career shooting guard being asked to take on point guard duties.

But because the Raptors have had the luxury of putting so much weight on their point guards — nearly two-thirds of their offence is initiated by pick-and-roll play, where the point guard makes decisions on the fly — they are finding out the hard way that it's a system that requires a special hand.

"It's just a different fit," Kapono said. "Our whole game is a pick-and-roll game, the point guard makes all the plays for us, and that's a new thing for Juan. It's hard to put a guy into that position, so we have to help him out, too."

Ford's absence forces other alterations to the game plan.

Against tonight's opponent, the Philadelphia 76ers, Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell has always had the luxury of using shooting guard Anthony Parker to guard Philadelphia point guard Andre Miller.

Miller typically relishes the opportunity to post-up smaller guards, but can't do so as effectively against 6-foot-6 Parker.

Meanwhile, Ford would cover the Sixers' undersized yet super-quick shooting guard Willie Green, negating Green's best advantage.

Without Ford, the Raptors have to go to a more conventional approach and hope Miller doesn't force Calderon into early foul trouble.

In the meantime, Mitchell says he's hopeful a change in approach by his second unit can begin to generate some missing production.

"Everything is going to have to start with defence," Mitchell said. "We have to create some turnovers and get out and run more."

The Raptors do have another pure point guard on their roster, Darrick Martin, but the 13-year veteran has appeared in only 10 games this season, even though Ford has been out of the lineup for 17 of the Raptors' 34 starts.

And while club president Bryan Colangelo confirmed yesterday that Toronto would guarantee the final third of Martin's one-year contract — a decision that needed to be made by tomorrow — it was a move that may be more about the Raptors' next point guard than Martin's contributions.

Having Martin on the roster means Colangelo could potentially combine him and Dixon in a deal if a team is interested in clearing some room under the salary cap.

Other pieces that have some appeal in that regard include Carlos Delfino, who is a restricted free agent after this season, while Rasho Nesterovic, Maceo Baston and Joey Graham are all free agents after the 2008-09 season.

Veteran point guards rumoured to be available include Jason Williams of the Miami Heat, Luke Ridnour or Earl Watson of the Seattle SuperSonics and Damon Stoudemire of the Memphis Grizzlies.

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