January 20, 2003

ANALYZE THIS--COACHING STAFF FAILING TO MAKE NECESSARY ADJUSTMENTS

     The first rule of coaching, regardless of the sport or the level—you are only as good as your players.  Coaches can take a good player and make him great and they can take an average player and make him good, but they can’t take a bad team to the conference finals.  Coaches can, however, imbue their character upon the team and insist that their beliefs become the team’s beliefs.  As such teams hire coaches more for the personality they bring and the attitude they possess than for their knowledge of the game—after all if someone wants to be a coach he’d better know the game or else he has chosen the wrong profession.

       It has been well documented that when the Raptors hired Lenny Wilkens they sought his experience, his calm demeanour, and the respect his name evoked.  Now it is becoming apparent that the Raptors, as they are presently constituted, need something different.  Their continued moribund play, their lack of defensive communication, and their lack of offensive creativity show that whatever strengths Lenny brought with him have long since worn away.  The team lacks passion, lacks cohesion, lacks confidence, and, regardless of the abundance of injuries it has suffered, lacks the desire needed to win games in the NBA.  While injuries are certainly a major reason for the team’s horrendous decline, it is not the main reason.  This team entered last season as an eastern conference favourite, but showed the lack of desire and passion from the outset—long before the injuries struck.  This season is merely a continuation of the downward trend of this team since Vince Carter’s last second missed shot against Philadelphia nearly two years ago.

       What has caused this dramatic fall?  Firstly, because of his many years in the game, Lenny has perspective.  He has seen just about everything there is to see in the game of basketball so when something goes wrong he stays calm.  He doesn’t show passion, he doesn’t give off a sense of urgency, he tries to stay composed and teach his players to stay composed as well.  But patience is a difficult attribute to possess, for if used too long it stops being a positive.  Waiting too long to make a move is the same as not making the move at all.  Patience evolves into complacency.  Poor play doesn’t evoke a change, and if changes aren’t made then the poor play will continue.  If players don’t feel that their job is in danger, if they don’t feel threatened, then they stop feeling the pressure that is inherent in their position.  Without pressure to succeed failure becomes commonplace.  The players need that pressure, and it is the coach who is supposed to provide it.  It is rare to find individuals who can self-motivate.  More often players need outside sources to motivate them, and motivation is a key attribute today’s coaches must possess.  Positive effects do arise from a coach who shows confidence in his players when they make mistakes, but when these mistakes persist then patience is an attribute that must be shelved.  The player needs to feel the threat of being sat down or sat out if he does not learn to eliminate those mistakes.  Raptor players rarely show any urgency, rarely show that sense of fear, and because of that they continue to make the same mistakes.  It has become painfully obvious—Lenny will leave coaching long before his patience leaves him.

       There are far fewer offensive plays in basketball than most people think.  There are offensive formations—or sets—from which plays evolve.  The first play that any basketball coach implements into his offence is the pick and roll—or screen and roll.  It is basketball at its most basic.  So what does it say about Lenny’s time with the Raptors when a coach that came to town with a reputation as a defensive coach has been unable to teach his team how to defend that basic play?  The pick and roll is a solid play that when executed correctly is difficult to defend.  The defensive team must communicate so that one player can step out to help while the player who has been picked drops down to cover the offensive player left open by the help.  If the help doesn’t come, or the rotation doesn’t occur, then an offensive player is left open to take an uncontested shot.  Now, communication may be symptomatic of the changing players in the Raptor line-up.  Players don’t have enough time on the court with each other to be able to pick up each other’s tendencies.  They don’t possess the innate understanding to automatically fill the spot vacated by a rotating teammate.  This is where the coach must simplify the defensive structure to alleviate the burden of the player having to think and instead giving him the opportunity to simply read and react.  The defence should know the player operating the pick and roll—if he is a shooter then get up on him, if he is not let him have the roll and cover the pass.  Make the poor shooters shoot—it’s the strategy opposing teams use on the Raptors.  Teams that can’t defend the pick and roll are the teams at the bottom of the standings—like the Raptors.

       Read and react.  This is one of the more important terminologies in all of sport.  While baseball and football are more structured, basketball, like hockey, is more of a free flowing sport.  Opportunities and breakdowns occur on the move and players have to instinctively be able to spot those opportunities and cover those breakdowns.  Coaches are constantly teaching players how to read certain situations and how to react, but coaches themselves also need to read and react.  A coach needs to see how the other coach is defending his team, or how the opposing coach is dissecting his defence.  The coach then needs to communicate to his players ways that they can respond.  The coach needs to find the gaps in the opposing team to put the other coach on the defensive.  Basketball is a game of runs—meaning one team is exploiting another team’s weaknesses on defence and at the same time cutting off their schemes on offence.   This is where the coaching staff needs to read and react, to find the gaps and the crevices in the opposing team’s game enabling his team to get on a roll of their own.  Too often this season the Raptors have allowed the opposing team to shoot more than 50% for the game, and the reason for such a high percentage is simple—too many lay-ups.  The Raptors are unable to find a way to prevent the opposing team from penetrating to the basket.  The coaching staff is either unable to read the plays being run by the opposing team or they are unable to react and implement a strategy to combat those plays.  Either way it’s the fault of the coaching staff. 

      Defending the Raptors is easy.  Opposing teams know that Lenny’s philosophy is that if a shooter is open he should take the shot.  It is unfortunate that this philosophy has become ingrained in a Raptor team that has a roster filled with mediocre shooters.  A simple look at their low free throw percentage illustrates their capabilities, or lack thereof.  This is a team that should not look to shoot first; it is a team that, unless the shooter is hot, should look to shoot last.  Raptor opponents simply cover the pick and roll and collapse down low to take away the post play, forcing the Raptors into a perimeter game; and the Raptors are only too happy to oblige.  This is the reason why the team constantly finds itself going five six and sometimes seven minutes between made baskets.  The defence baits, and the Raptors bite.  It’s like fishing in a barrel.

      When a team is hit as hard with as many injuries as the Raptors game plans need to be kept simple.  First and foremost—since scoring will be problematic—defensive intensity must be a constant.  If players are unable to perform defensively they need to sit and watch.  Without your best players it is unlikely that your team will score points in bunches.  Every possession is integral in the pursuit of victory.  Selective shot making is imperative--as is keeping turnovers to a minimum--and the team must limit fast break and second chance points.  In short the team has to win with intensity, with aggressiveness, and with intelligence.  Make the opposition win with a strong half-court offensive and defensive plan.  Make the safe play, the safe pass.  Don’t get ahead of yourself.  Don’t beat yourself.  The Raptors have rarely shown any of these attributes this year.  Too often they hang their head after a bad play, and it is readily apparent that the team assumes another loss will come long before it actually does. 

       As far as the playoffs are concerned this season is lost, but for the Raptor franchise they need to prove that they can be competitive, that they belong among the elite teams in the east.  For that to occur, and if they harbour any hope of competing again next season, this team needs to find the intensity, the enthusiasm, and the intelligence needed to win games.  And they need to find these attributes now. 

       Lenny Wilkens is a hall of fame coach.  He has won with many teams.  He has won with the Raptors.  He has shown that he still has the ability to take a young team and develop them into a contender.  He has also shown, unfortunately, that he doesn’t have the ability to take a contender to the next level.  It is becoming painfully obvious that, with this team, he can’t win any more. 

NEXT WEEK:  What’s next on the coaching horizon.