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Calderon helps Triano in debut

MICHAEL GRANGE

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 12:23 PM EST 15/02/08

Point guard scores 22 points in victory over short-handed Nets, making a winner out of first Canadian NBA head coach ...Read the full article

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  1. Roger S from Canada writes: Oh My God, Jose Calderon!!!Jose is deserved to be in All Star Game. Triano beat Sam as well tonight. To be honest, my nine year old Nephew can do the same job Sam did. The reason this Raptors have played better since last year is simply because BC built a good team, it has nothing to do with Sam. At least you know Sam did nothing good with old Raptors team's roster Dallas just cleared their bench and got Jason Kidd for return, BC, come on, do something. You can always package Sam into any deal. I approved.
  2. andy c from Canada writes: horrific does not begin to describe the 4th quarter; the nets got killed in every which way i dont even think it's worth getting into specifics; this game was over before the half but wait, TJ has a great game against a garbage team the other day and it means nothing but when calderon kills a pretty weak back court he's a all star. go figure
  3. dan vanman from vancouver, Canada writes: Can't disagree in any more stronger terms than this Roger. You are wrong abour Sam Mitchell.

    He is one of the main reasons the Raps have done so well the last two years. They don't give Coach of the Year to just anyone. Or would your nine year old have won that last year too?

    Jose Calderon should be in New Orleans, without a doubt. But the Raps are well represented, and knowing what we know of Jose from his dealings with the media, the man honestly doesn't care about that stuff.

    He just wants to win. I'll take a well rested Jose ready to win more in the second half any day, than having him in the All Star game.

    He'll be in many of them in his career, I am sure.

    Have a nice day...
  4. Rich Chan from Vancouver, Canada writes: Nice game before the all-star break. I'm hoping that Colangelo has a nice little trade before the deadline without jeopardizing our scoring ability. With this said, it would be nice to pick up someone like Iguodala, and I kept hearing about an Iguodala trade in the forums but all of a sudden it went dead. Anyways, great scoring distribution as usual and finally Bosh admitted that it was unfortunate that Calderon didn't get the all-star nod. WOW, since Feb 11, Calderon has been a scoring and percentage fiend. Take that Arenas.
  5. Yertu Damkule from Canada writes: hey gil...i got yer all-star...riiiight....here.

    well, at least they put they're collective feet on their throats & buried 'em early. rog - you're right, at least about jose, he played really well, which is nothing new. not sure why you continue to dig @ smitch, since i'm sure you'd crap your pants were you to find yourself face to face w/ him, but whatever. i like how you invariably criticize BC for his moves when the raps lose, but when they win, all the credit in the world goes to him. nutcase. oh, and the 'old raptors roster' was, outside of bosh, pretty pathetic. considering that there are, what, two players from the '05/'06 team still around should confirm that it's doubtful anyone could have won with that sad group.

    and dallas didn't 'clear their bench' to get kidd - you're implying that they got him for nothing, which simply isn't true. dallas is giving up quite a few pretty good players & a couple 1st rounders. latest word is that george is blocking the trade, so it might not go down at all, at least as currently constructed.
  6. Archie Gillespie from Canada writes: Roger, Roger, it sounds like you're suggesting Jay came out of no where and made coaching decisions that Sam would be incapable of. Have you ever thought (although I doubt you ever think) that maybe, just maybe, Jay has learned a lot from Sam under his tutelage over the last three years?
  7. Clark The Mighty from Canada writes: Fire Mitchell.

    Trade for Artest.
  8. Bubba The Pas Huskies from The Pas Manitoba, Canada writes: A good win on a fragmented team. I hope the brain trust voting on who replaces Kidd at the All Star break continues with the brainfart to not include Jose. Seriously, a rested and vengeful JC is better for the Raps. And makes the Arenas of the world look that much dumber.
    I loved the quote the other night from Popovich of the Spurs, who after the game facing the media, was asked about the magic of his team and what it took to make them into the powerhouse they are. His answer was downright insightful " we were lucky getting Duncan and we didn't screw it up" He said it three times. They carefully handled the future franchise player, surrounding him with good mentors (the Admiral) and didn't ask too much in his formative years. Words to the wise for the Raps as a young team with young guns worth grooming and keeping for the long term. In a perfect world it'd sure be nice to see a true command centre like Duncan in Raptorland. Will AB be that in 5-8 years????
    Hope Jose doesn't make it. Shows the NBA allstar game for what it is, a love-in for the US media and their big city stars... Go Raps!
  9. Timothy Wearing from Vancouver, writes: Mitchell isn't all that well liked by a lot of Raptor fans, but he's not really given his due. He's not a great coach, and not very good with the x's and o's, but he's very good at getting all his players on the same page and bringing them together. What he's missing is better assistant coaches. Look at Tom Thibodeau in Boston, who, despite being an assistant coach there, has transformed the team defensively into one of the best in the league. Phil Jackson's strength is handling ego's and getting his players to focus on the task at hand. It was his assistant, Tex Winter, that brought the triangle. Getting so many new players to play together and win last year was an extraordinary feat for Mitchell. And while he's probably not the coach that is going to get them over the top, he's underrated by the fans.

    And there's another reason to not want Calderon on the All-Star team. He's going to be an unrestricted free agent this summer. An All-Star appearance might up his asking price.
  10. Yertu Damkule from Canada writes: bubba - i brought the same thing up re. jose & the allstar game a couple weeks ago, here & on smith's blog. dougie thought it was a retarded idea, but then again, he tends to think everyone else's ideas are pretty stupid. us dumb fans.

    tim - i kind of doubt that jose being in the allstar game is going to have an impact on the offers he'll get. teams can only offer what they have available under the cap, and the raps can match any offer. if you look around the league at teams that will be looking for a starting PG, there aren't many that have a whole lotta cap space (at the moment, anyway). it'd be nice if they could lock him up for around $6M per, but whatever.
  11. Joseph Daniel from Canada writes: Rog no dig at TJ today, just ragging on Smitch? I am disappointed. I didn't get my morning laugh. I bet your nephew could outwit you in your posts on here, as well as out coach Smitch!. I will give Smitch this much his strength is not X's and O's I always thought Butch was better with that. But Smitch is good at getting people together and trusting his assistants with matters like that. Lenny never utilized Jay Triano, Smitch is smart enough to listen to what his assistants come up with. Somewhere up above Jack Donahue must be looking down on Jay Triano and smiling. Jay was always his man on the Olympic program. We should give some credit to Jack Donahue for Jay's success. I am suprised no one in the press has mentioned good old Jack.
  12. JA M from Our Town, Canada writes: "Clark The Mighty from Canada writes: Fire Mitchell. Trade for Artest."

    If Artest ever came to the Raptors I would toss my 14 OUNCE plastic cup of beer at him.
  13. Big Cayman from South Toronto, Canada writes: JD for me the jury is still out on Donahue. Many players have said in the past that he is what's wrong with Basketball Canada, ruining a program, and snubbing the best talent Canada has ever had on offer because they chose to play college ball in the US, and this list is long. The few good players to make the team would be stuck at the end of the bench, some of them were even All American. Even Rautins didn't play for him. Triano was Donahue's posterboy, and made out to be the best player in Canada which he was not even close but filled the Basketball Canada cookie cutter mold. I will say that I like Jay, he's a players coach but unfortunately he's from the same school of thought that has lost on the international scene for the last two decades. Triano owes more to Sam Mitchell than anyone else and has given Sam his due for keeping him around and giving him his opportunity (I watched the interview on The Score yesterday). While I don't want to take away the influence Donahue had in preparing Triano, I'll reserve judgment until I talk to someone very honest and intuitive with the inside track like Dwight Walton.
  14. Edwin Green from ns, Canada writes: how about the raps whiped momeys boy vinny love to see carter get beat
  15. M Spiker from Ottawa, Canada writes: Never mind SM vs JT, can we trade them for Van Gundy...he tells Howard to get more rebounds and the next night he grabs 24! When SM asks for more rebounding he's lucky if the entire team gets 24.
  16. Joseph Daniel from Canada writes: Big C, Donahue died in 2003, he hasn't been involved the national program for more than 15 years I beleive. I don't think pinning the short comings of basketball canada on him is fair. JT was Donahue's poster boy no doubt about that. I did give props to Smitch for at least giving JT the opportunity. I think Lenny and KO didn't even want him on their staff. Also at the time that Donahue took the team to the olympics JT was THE best player from Canada. Of course he has been replaced by far better talent now.
  17. Big Cayman from South Toronto, Canada writes: Yes I know he died, but from his inner circle, and the inner circle of Basketball Canada we've been given useless coach after useless coach, abysmal performance after abysmal performance. Their philosophies are flawed.
  18. Toby Maloney from Canada writes: Sheesh on the anti-Mitchell tirades. Even when he isn't at the game.

    There may have been many coaching and management mistakes over the years at the Raptors, but that seems to be one area where they have made the most improvement.

    Are there better coaches out there in the world? Sure, and better players, but there are also better sports writers, better fans, and better online forum posters. Better cities to have a team, too.

    If you're over .500 and able to beat the best teams some of the time, but still losing to the worst some of the time, you're mostly on the right track and you needed to fill gaps, improve performance where you are weak (rebounding, defence) and become more consistent. You don't do that by firing the coach. That's called starting over, and it looks a lot like being an expansion team.

    Are some of you nostalgic for the early days? Want to go back and do it over again, start from scratch? Maybe pick a better team name this time?
  19. Yertu Damkule from Canada writes: oh toby, there you go again, trying to inject a little intelligence & rationality into the conversation.

    going back to the beginning, i've got not problem with the team name...now, the colours & the unis for the first 10 years....blech. i love them now, they're probably among the best looking unis in the league - that claw, so simple. unfortunately, we still get subjected to that frickin' dinosaur every so often. would it be so hard for websites to update the picture & never show that hideous monstrosity again?
  20. A non-Imus from Canada writes: Calderon should be the starting PG...and Triano should be the starting coach. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!
  21. Timothy Wearing from Vancouver, writes: Yertu, since Jose is a unrestricted free agent, it's more likely that more teams will vie for his services. And one team that will be under the cap is Atlanta, who could desperately use a PG like Calderon. Philadelphia will also be under the cap and have been rumoured to be looking to trade Andre Miller, which would open a PG slot for them. And an All-Star appearance would raise his profile, no matter how silly it is, and would give his agent a little more ammo in contract talks.
  22. Big Cayman from South Toronto, Canada writes: also Joseph, Lenny Wilkins welcomed JT because of his endorsement by Glen Grunwald giving him his first assistant coach gig, it was Kevin O that was not keen on him, as reported by Grange the day before.
  23. Yertu Damkule from Canada writes: tim - jose's a restricted FA, not unrestricted. and ATL seems pretty set at PG w/ the dynamic duo of TLue & claxton, w/ anthony johnson & law also in the picture (hahahahahahaha - how horrible is that...they could have had chris paul. oh, the insanity). at least AJ & lue come off the books. in all seriousness, unless they can find someone to take claxton & his contract off their hands, i sorta doubt they'd be looking at adding another PG, at more than $8M (they'd have to clear enough cap room first, and the offer would have to be ridiculously high for BC not to match). i'm sure they were expecting more out of law, but i can't see them ready to give up on the idea of him being a starter. they also have to decide what to do w/ their glut of forwards over the next couple seasons. childress & smith are FAs, and i'm sure they'd like to resign both (or at least smith), and he'll be making BIG $ (as will childress). but hey, who knows what'll happen. at this point, we've got to take BC at his word when he says he's going to resign jose. the downside is that the more they spend on jose, the less there is for other guys they'd like to resign (delfino), or to go after need-position FAs.
  24. Timothy Wearing from Vancouver, writes: Yertu, you're right about Jose being restricted. I could have sworn he was unrestricted. Strange. While Atlanta has a lot of money invested in PG's, they've shown they aren't afraid to have redundancy- drafting Shelden Williams and then Al Hordford, and then before that, drafting Marvin Williams and signing Joe Johnson after drafting Josh Childress and Josh Smith. If they think they're getting a better player, they won't hesitate. And Jose would be a vast improvement over anything they have, now.
  25. M Spiker from Ottawa, Canada writes: Yertu, if you want to worry about who might offer big $'s to JC worry about GSW. Davis has the option for next season and if they don't offer him a long term deal, he'll pass (become a UFA) and then GSW will be missing a point guard and have $17M in cap room from Davis alone (they are $7M under the cap regardless). If I were GSW, I'd rather have JC at $8-10M anyway.

    There are other teams that will have cap room and need a PG...PHI is likely to be one. It only takes one team to create a bidding war. They don't even have to make a formal offer, BC will hear about it from the agent.

    Yes BC can use an exception to sign JC but that will just take away from the MLSE imposed cap (budget) for signing more talent.

    The only advantage BC has to block an offer sheet is the 7 day delay which ties up the offering teams cap and why they don't make offers unless there is a market anomaly (aka low ball offer).

    JC's getting paid and good for him.
  26. Timothy Wearing from Vancouver, writes: M Spiker, the Raptors don't need to use any of their exception to re-sign Calderon. He's got Bird Rights with the Raptors because he'll have been with them for 3 years. They can re-sign him for anything they want.
  27. M Spiker from Ottawa, Canada writes: Timothy: Bird Rights are one type of exception as are Early Bird, Minimum Salary, Mid Level, Minimum, and a couple of others in the CBA.

    GSW (or PHI, ATL, CHA, and others with need/space) has to have cap room to make an offer to JC. BC will have to use the Bird exception to respond unless he can clear a lot of cap room before July.

    He is still going to be exception limited by the MLSE budget which will be the difference between the soft cap and the luxury tax -- say $12M.
  28. Timothy Wearing from Vancouver, writes: M Spiker, Bird rights simply means that a team can go over the cap to re-sign their own player. If they had extended his contract over the summer, then they would be limited by his current contract- extensions can only be raises of a certain percentage (I can't remember the exact number) over the previous season. By becoming a free agent, then the only limit is how much a team is willing to pay him (and the maximum for a player who has played three seasons). Toronto, due to their Bird Rights with him, can pay him the maximum, if they so choose, regardless of whether or not they are over the salary cap, or how much the MLE is. If Calderon had only signed one year contract, then they would not be able to go over their cap to re-sign him without using their MLE. Early Bird Rights is something the NBA implemented after the Warriors were unable to match Washington's offer to Gilbert Arenas because they were over the cap.
  29. Timothy Wearing from Vancouver, writes: I just realized you wrote MLSE budget and not MLE. Yes, it all depends on how much Colangelo is allowed to spend. That will end up being the big question. Personally, I'd rather lose Ford and Calderon.
  30. Roger S from Canada writes: I realized as a fan we care too much. Who care MLSE's money? They had numerous bad contracts before, they paid Jalen Rose big, they bought out Morning without a single day service. Either 5 millions or 12 millions only mean one thing to fans: a number. As a fan, I demand BC and MLSE to match any number Jose could get, even it is rediculous numer. If not, BC should resign himself immediately, for his guilty of low-balling Jose Calderon.
  31. Roger S from Canada writes: I realized as a fan we care too much. Who care MLSE's money? They had numerous bad contracts before, they paid Jalen Rose big, they bought out Morning without a single day service. Either 5 millions or 12 millions only mean one thing to fans: a number.

    As a fan, I demand BC and MLSE to match any number Jose could get, even it is rediculous numer.

    If not, BC should resign himself immediately, for his guilty of low-balling Jose Calderon.
  32. albert strauss from Toronto,Ontario, Canada writes: I believe it was Lou Gehrig who got his one and only opening (which was all he needed) with the Yankees when the previous incumbent of first base was called away on compassionate grounds. ????????
  33. Yertu Damkule from Canada writes: albert: wally pipp (sp?).

    rog: well, if you demand it, i'm sure BC & MLSE will comply.

    spike: hadn't thought about pilly, figured they were pretty happy w/ andre miller (reasonable contract, another year left - i think - playing well, especially of late)...they'd have to move him before making a run at jose, no? i also thought they were pretty high on lou williams....it's actually a good situation for them, having miller start next season, grooming williams, and be able to trade miller during next season w/ williams taking over.

    it'd surprise me if GSW didn't resign davis, even if they have to overpay...biggest concern is his body/injuries (still young at 28, but he's seen a lot of action over the years) - he's such a fan favourite, would they have to deal with a backlash if they let him walk?
  34. Archie Gillespie from Canada writes: Rog, I'm sure BC will call you to explain and perhaps get your advise on the scenario. Besides, from your posts you just gush over Jose and care less about the team anyway. Maybe if BC doesn't follow your advice the Raps will lose him to, hmmm, let's say, the 9 - 40 Heat and he can get all the playing time, accolades and exposure he's due.
  35. Edwin Green from ns, Canada writes: dont you just love this kid moon not puting on airs, big smile, it is great to see the under dog make good wish him all the best at allstar game he is a rare find but sometimes you see one

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