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Chris Bosh named the problem, but he didn't name names as he listed his team's well-known shortcomings after another fourth-quarter failing by the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
It wasn't exactly a broadside. Failing to drive the basket? The Raptors?
Say it ain't so.
But when the franchise player figures it's time to speak out, it matters.
So what's he thinking about? And whom?
It hardly takes an insider to look at the Raptors' roster and gather they're lacking at the wings, at least by the standard of an upper-tier NBA team.
Every time an opposing shooting guard or small forward drops 30 points on them, it drives the nail a little deeper. Just to be sure, both Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony did the trick on Sunday for the Denver Nuggets. Toronto has yet to get a 30-point game of its own this season from positions that are traditionally about scoring.
But is that the real issue? Shooting guard Anthony Parker has been playing the best basketball of his NBA life in March, averaging 16.7 points and 5.2 rebounds a game on 51.2-per-cent shooting. He's not Kobe Bryant, but the Raptors have worse problems.
And it seems unreasonable to lay this team's problems at the feet of small forward Jamario Moon, a guy who was playing in minor-league oblivion last season. Moon was supposed to add defence and rebounding at a cheap buck, and all he's done is average 13 rebounds a game in his past three starts.
Jose Calderon? If he's the problem, the Raptors really have issues, as they're poised to sign him to starting point guard money in the off-season.
Being Mr. Clutch is not in Rasho Nesterovic's job description and, like Parker, the plodding big man is playing the best basketball of his Raptors career lately.
Who else? T.J. Ford is everyone's favourite whipping boy, but not because he's too timid.
Bosh didn't name names, but one name that could use some calling out is Andrea Bargnani, their enigmatic second-year forward from Italy.
He wasn't even on the floor during the Raptors' flaccid fourth quarters on Friday and Sunday, so you can't blame him for those no-show jobs.
But you can blame him for not showing up.
During Bosh's 10-game absence with a knee injury, Bargnani might have been expected to take the extra minutes and extra shots and run with it.
Not even close, unless you count 11.2 points on 37.5-per-cent shooting as stepping up.
After going 0-for-5 against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, Bargnani's performance against the Nuggets was typically mystifying, if that's possible.
He scored 16 first-quarter points on a pleasing mix of three-pointers, medium-range jumpers and layups earned with hard cuts to the basket.
Then it was back to a steady diet of passive jumpers for the rest of the evening, none of them finding the mark.
There is a steady flow of reasonable explanations for this, as their always will be for talented 22-year-olds in their second NBA season.
And no one suggested making the transition from a No.ƒ|1 overall pick to a reliable NBA player — we'll put stardom on hold for now — was easy. But Bargnani is beginning to make it look like talking about classical music with hip-hop aficionado Primoz Brezec, which is to say, unlikely.
Most concerning is that for a player whose ultimate trump card was the ability to shoot, he can't — at least statistically. He's only made half of his field-goal attempts in three consecutive games once this season. Forget putting together a good month, Bargnani has yet to put together a good week.
Overall, he's shooting just 36.7 per cent from the three-point line. Of the six Raptors with at least 100 attempts, only Moon is worse. No regular's field-goal percentage is worse than Bargnani's, 39.1. His rebounding and blocked shot totals are significant only by their relative absence.
The Raptors aren't blind to Bargnani's struggles, though there is still the belief that his ceiling is high enough that it's worth giving him the time to reach it.
But privately, they acknowledge he's fallen short of expectations this season and his off-season will be closely monitored, with a priority on addressing his NBA weaknesses rather than whatever national team commitments he might have.
It's hard to make the case he doesn't need the work.
You can't blame Bargnani for what Bosh said was a collective loss of nerve down the stretch over the past couple of games. That's because he wasn't on the floor, which says everything.
