There are basically two types of players for Sam Mitchell. There are players he relates to and players he doesn't relate to.
For the latter, he makes little effort to put them in a situation to succeed, completely disregarding what they can do in favor of what he'd like them to do to help out the players he does like. This isn't the soundest coaching philosophy.
When Andrea Bargnani broke into the league, his play dramatically improved when Jorge Garbajosa started playing more minutes. They had some chemistry on the court, due to a friendship off the court. Watch Bargnani now.
Yesterday, at one point, you saw Bargnani on offense 13 straight times, and not once did he touch the ball. 13 times. He then got the ball and hoisted up a three, which ended up being flat. Two seconds later, he was on the bench.
How can you ask a big man to run the court, block shots, and rebound when you don't even let him touch the ball? You will notice that Will Solomon and Roko Ukic actually make an effort to pass Bargnani the ball once every other time down the court. With Jose Calderon, this is simply one of five of these freeze-outs I've witnessed this season.
If players like Chris Bosh and Calderon are making such an obvious effort to freeze Bargnani out, shouldn't a coach intervene?
No. Instead of coaching last night, every time the camera focused on Mitchell, he was trashing the play of player x, player y, and player z. He seems better suited as a commentator.
This club must make a decision now. After the talent and hustle upgrade, Bargnani's expecting to see the ball on offense, and if you've got Bosh and Calderon pulling a Jordan, freezing Andrea out, moving the ball to the side of the floor he's not while making it so embarrassingly obvious, you might have a problem on your hands.
It is a coach's job to draw up plays for their talented offensive players. In three years, Bargnani has never had a play drawn for him. Three seasons, and every point he's scored as a Raptor has been on an isolation, a post up, a spontaneous pick-and-roll, or a kick-out jump shot.
Has anyone ever set a screen to get him open, considering at the time he was drafted there were executives calling him the best shooting big man in the league already?
The situation mirrors the one in Detroit with Darko Milicic, where a coach doesn't get the player he wants, and then blames the general manager when he makes sure the player drafted struggles.
Sure, in hindsight, maybe Sam Mitchell probably feels bitter having to play Joey Graham, while Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay have turned into borderline all-stars. That doesn't give him the right to essentially throw Andrea's career down the tube.
Like with Milicic, Bargnani has been the target of criticism due to the players picked after him. Like with Milicic, Bargnani has gotten hate with the label of tough love from his coaching staff.
Unlike Milicic however, Bargnani has kept working. He didn't just give up and sulk like Milicic, but he kept on trying to improve.
How much longer can he keep trying when no matter what he does, his two best players and his coach seem hell-bent on making sure he doesn't touch the ball. Consider the value of Bargnani, and the offensive talent he possesses in comparison to Jason Kapono and Jermaine O'Neal. Look at this.
21 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
Waleed Ershad 8 months ago
Good article! I didn't know about the blocking statistic and the rebounding statistic. Seems like he's worked on getting bigger and playing more physical in the off-season since that's the type of player Sam Mitchell wants him to be. His rebounding and defense was always questioned and now he's improved on that, he's also a great offensive player. Get the kid some touches!
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Robert Seagal 8 months ago
If you check blocks per 48 minutes, even after last night, Bargnani has 1.6 in 22 mins, which projects him about .2 away from Josh Smith who's got something close to 2 in 30 something minutes. And he's been better rebounding the ball than O'Neal, better blocking the ball than O'Neal, and he's shooting the ball better than O'Neal. The only problem is, he's not Bosh's and Sam's new buddy, he's not a former All-Star, and he's certainly not going to throw a fit because he doesn't touch the ball... which he should. Jose Calderon has been awful at getting him involved, and I don't know why people always pointed at TJ and said he didn't pass to Bargnani, because he did. Bargnani just missed a lot. With Jose, there has always been some sort of... tunnel vision when it comes to basically coming down, handing the ball to Bosh/Parker, and at the last resort Kapono, even when Andrea will set a screen for him and roll to the basket. I have no clue why this team lacks faith him in him when aside from Jamario Moon (who's taken like 19 shots all year) he's been the best shooter percentage wise.. I mean this is CONSIDERING he's had a 0/4 and an 0/3 game. It isn't fair to just NOT play a player, or not pass to him when he plays badly to start. This is the EXACT reason why he's been so up/down. If he makes 2-3 shots, you give him the ball. If he misses 2-3 you forget about him for the whole game. SO he either ends up with 20 something, or 4.. and he's the inconsistent one? Talk about the coach being inconsistent, when a player can get 14 touches one night, and 3 the next. 30 minutes one night, and 17 the next, even if the match-ups DON'T reflect the decision. I've had it. Sam Mitchell is the second worst coach in Raptor History. He's brutal.
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Brad LeClair 8 months ago
I agree with you 100%. Bargnani has probably been Toronto's most improved player thus far and he's getting absolutely no respect on the offensive end. He's easily a 15 ppg player on another team, but with the Raptors, nope. Oh also, add Joey Graham to your list of relate to/non relate to with Mitchell. Graham seems to make one mistake and he finds himself on the bench, meanwhile a guy who had to come up from the d-league (Moon) makes mountains on them yet still remains out there.
Take a look at the stats per 36 minutes on basketball reference and tell me Graham's numbers aren't comparable to all of ou wing players.
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Captain Fanatic 8 months ago
Hey Robert another great article. Right to the point, Smitch is doing a crappy job. It's sick to watch the way he belittles some of his players... the man is BUSH...very bush!
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Robert Seagal 8 months ago
Yup, Graham is another situation where a player works his ass off, and seems to just seems to be on a PT yoyo. I think the Raps organization have a sticky situation on their hands with Bargnani, and I think overall... they're eventually going to have to pick between Bargnani and Bosh... just because Bosh is a smart guy. He knows that Bargnani is a guy that Colangelo picked, and he probably also realizes that trading Bargnani right now would get them into playoff contender status. So you have a situation where Bosh likes Mitchell, Mitchell doesn't like Bargnani, Colangelo likes both Bosh and Bargnani, Bosh resents Bargnani, and ultimately, you come down to
a. Fire Sam to develop Bargnani and Piss off Bosh
b. Keep Sam to keep Bosh happy, and risk wasting Bargnani
c. Trade Bargnani to please both Mitchell and Bosh.. but risk losing Bosh in 2010 anyway
d. Trade Bosh for a franchise wing player and a young big man to eliminate the problem
e. Group Therapy
I can seriously say that Bosh is an honest guy.. and whenever he's talked about Bargnani, he's always implied that he "needs to get on him" or that he's "talented..but". You can tell that he's looking over at LaMarcus Aldridge.. saying that's the guy Colangelo.. that's the guy we should have gotten. Instead he was told to give Bargnani a chance, and 2 years later he's probably given up. Sadly, Andrea isn't at fault. Poor habbits which needed to be broken, a language barrier, adanoids and a plethora of sicknesses last season. You can't tell me this guy doesn't care. He's gone from 240 prior to the draft to 262 in order to play out of position next to Bosh as a center.. can't tell me he's not working. He needs someone to just say.. listen.. You're valuable to us.
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Deez Nuuts 8 months ago
cmon bustnanni is garbage much like your bias writing trade that bum quick!
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E Deezy 8 months ago
bargnani is a complete and utter bust! I don't care how good he could potentially be, its been 3 years, quit making excuses and put up or shutup. I would have traded him last season. The longer BC waits, the more Bargnani's trade value depreciates. All he can do is shoot. At best his rebounding and shot blocking is averaege. He has NO mental toughness. Dude is soft. And I am not a big supporter of Sam Mitchell either, if I had my druthers I ship his ass out too, give me Flip Saunders!
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Robert Seagal 8 months ago
Drugs...what would we do without them?
Also.. if Bargnani's rebounding/shot blocking is at best average, that doesn't speak too well about Jermaine O'Neal's shotblocking/rebounding or Bosh's shot blocking for that matter. Actually... his defensive awareness has been about the best of any Raptor with the only competition coming from Anthony Parker and once in a while Jermaine O'Neal. Flip Saunders? ... yeah he's not bad. He's the guy Sam looks up to most as a coach though. Also, it is really easy to bash a player, but why don't you look at the reasons? I mean, if you give Andrea 4-5 more shots per night, right now you're talking about a guy averaging 12/5/ with good defense off the bench. It ain't number one pick production, but he's never been given a number one pick role either right?
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Trapstar Star 7 months ago
Ughhh...get Bargnani a better coach and yes, even though he wasn't worthy of being a No.1 pick, he'll definitely prove early first round. Secondly, he's like the Most Improved player so far this year...So Bust? Because of one bad year out of 2?
Anyway, nice article...ummm...whoever wrote this. I just found this for the first time.
I def agree with the notion of players being under-utilized on this squad It's unreal.
On wednesday against Detroit, Humphries comes in in the last minute of the 1st Half. He does EXACTLY what every single living soul related to the Raptors wants to see. He drives to the rim, gets the points, gets the AND 1, makes the free throw and a few seconds later, the 1st half ends.
And so ends the tale of Kris Humphries versus Detroit. Never to be seen again.
Anyway, back to Bargnani. I swear I've never really heard or thought about him being frozen-out, but I noticed it in one of the games before Atlanta (either Detroit or Milwaukee)...Calderon completely ignored him in one possession and he was wide open almost under the rim.
About the other players doing it, I don't know if that's part of the freeze-out.
With the addition of JO, the thought of two players being hustled and harried in the paint, leaving our excellent shooters wide open sounded very exciting to me. I couldn't wait to see it. I was ecstatic to see exactly that happen in the season opener against Philly. It was pure-joy. However, I'm yet to see that happen again since then. I sit in front of my TV screaming at Bosh and O'neal "Pass to Kapono!!!", "Pass to Calderon!!!" while they're both busy posting up versus double-teams down in the paint. I understand Bosh can take care of himself in those situations, but for me, he hasn't done a good job of finding the open shooter.
O'Neal has been straight gabbage on offence, but i appreciate that "little" bit extra defensive presence he has brought so far.
To cut it all short, I personally see it as Pure selfishness on the part of the Bigs, because IMO Bargs isn't the only victim. All our outside shooters are not getting the ball in their hands quite as much as I thought (or think) they should.
Joey Graham is another article entirely. I'll leave that one. I'd like to see him on a team where the coach tells him "Just do your thing, man".
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robert stevenson 7 months ago
Good atricle, I didnt know about the per min stats either and I will be watching the Raptors game with more intrest now.
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dan lev 7 months ago
completely disagree, with everyone it seems
first, bargs is not a bust. it has not been 3 years. it's been 2 years and 5 games. and he's playing well this year.
sam will give him minutes as he continues to improve. you really think there is a freeze out?? and you really think per-48 minute stats matter at this point? wow. drew gooden has great stats so far, mario chalmers had 9 steals the other night. get real, we're 5 games in.
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dan lev 7 months ago
oh and apparently spencer hawes is the best player in the league, per 48.
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Paolo Nardi 7 months ago
I completely agree with you Robert, Bargnani's second season could have been bad for various reasons but this doesn't mean that the guy is not working hard to get better and improve on defense, rebounding and so on. Moreover, this doesn't mean that he's no more a talented player or he's no more able to shoot or put the ball on the floor.
The matter is if you trust in him or you don't trust in him, i guess it's an easy concept. If you trust in him, you have to make him play and while you ask him to concentrate on his weakness you also have to let him touch the ball and take the shots that he's able to take.
Could be that sometimes Bargnani hide imself on the offensive side when he's not involved in the team offense, but as you said it's a coach's job to find a way to let his players do what they're able to do. It's a coach's job to draw a play for them (and Bargnani never had a single play drawn for him in more than 2 years). It's a coach job to let them touch the ball on offense.
It seems that since Mitchell doesn't like Bargnani, he's asking him to rebound, block shots, run the floor, defend hard, without involving him in the team offense cause there are other players who are before him in the coach consideration and in the team hierarchies.
Bargnani is not a real offensive option in Raptors offense, first of all Calderon goes to Bosh (obviously), next is Parker, next is JO even when he throw around 30%, next is Calderon himself, next is Kapono when he's on the field, sometimes next is Moon who is getting more three pointer than Bargnani, last one is Andrea. How many times will Andrea Bargnani get the ball on offense in such a situation? How is it possible that sometimes he takes 3 o 4 shots in the whole game, playing 18-19 minutes? Which kind of stats would you expect?
It's important that Andrea Bargnani learns how to play in the post, get better on defense, plays hard or grab more rebounds, but you can not completely ignore him on the other side cause you don't like him and you would a completely different player in your team. It's a way to "throw his career down the tube" instead of trying to put him in a situation to become the player he can be. It's like you would ask to Yoachim Noah to take three point shots cause you're a shooting team and you don't need or you don't like an energy guy who plays under the basket.
An italian fan.
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Max 7 months ago
great article. But in the end, if the Raps will stick with Bargs, it will come down to what Brian Colangelo originally predicted: "Bargnani is a 5 year project". BC knew from the beginning that he wanted to make a totally different player out of Bargnani, an unconventional C.
Now, his rooke season was just to go out there and learn the NBA game. Basically Bargs could do whatever he wanted to. But then came the offseason and instead of letting him work on his new position (like he did this summer), he was free to play with the italian national team. Which turned out to be a big mistake. He should have been sent to big man camp, be coached his new position already back then.
So, his second year turned out to be a big disappointment, for Bargs, for the Organisation, for the fans.
But this offseason, he worked his ass off and you're starting to see where Bargs can head to, that is being a legit NBA centre. And as far as i see it, THIS is actually his first real season as a C and i am pretty sure that, if Bargs will be traded, a lot of Raps fans will regret it in future.
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Andrea Fiori 7 months ago
This is one of the best articles I've ever read about Andrea, it's such a pity to see what's happening to this great young player...
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Paolo Nardi 7 months ago
You're right Max, both BC and Gherardini knew very well that it was necessary to work on Bargnani to get out of him something different than he was in Italy.
Bargnani had never been coached as a big man, as a young player he was a small forward getting almost all of his throws from the mid-long range. A very quick player, a 7 foot with wide shot range, able to put the ball on the floor and often finish with a dunk.
In the two latest years of his italian career at Benetton Treviso, he tourned into an "european style" power forward, growing is body, getting better on rebounds and blocking shots, but still taking a lot of threes and showing his talent far from the basket.
It's absolutely normal that he had to learn a lot of things once he landed in NBA, but i don't think this is a good reason to treat him in this way. As far as i remember, he's the only number one pick who never had in the first years of his NBA career a real number one pick role in his team, even Kwame Brown had a +30 MPG season at the same age of Andrea...
Another example: when Dirk Nowitzki came into the League, he was an horrible defender and a poor rebounder. I don't want to compare the two players, since Andrea still has a lot of job to do and i guess he'll never reach a similar playing level than Dirk, but do you remember someone asking Dirk to completely change his play to get more playing time? No, in his second season Nowitzki had 36 MPG and a lot of shots per game, even if his defense was horrible and even if he was only around 6 minutes per rebound.
So, could be that BC did a mistake by drafting at #1 a player with the same playing position as the team superstar, but once this choice had been done the biggest mistake has been to leave the team in the hands of a coach like Sam Mitchell who didn't like the pick and wanted a completely different guy to play near CB4.
So the question is: is there a project on Bargnani in Toronto? Or they're only trying to get something from this guy to trade him and make their coach happy?
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Paolo Nardi 7 months ago
I completely agree with you Robert, Bargnani's second season could have been bad for various reasons but this doesn't mean that the guy is not working hard to get better and improve on defense, rebounding and so on. Moreover, this doesn't mean that he's no more a talented player or he's no more able to shoot or put the ball on the floor.
The matter is if you trust in him or you don't trust in him, i guess it's an easy concept. If you trust in him, you have to make him play and while you ask him to concentrate on his weakness you also have to let him touch the ball and take the shots that he's able to take.
Could be that sometimes Bargnani hide imself on the offensive side when he's not involved in the team offense, but as you said it's a coach's job to find a way to let his players do what they're able to do. It's a coach's job to draw a play for them (and Bargnani never had a single play drawn for him in more than 2 years). It's a coach job to let them touch the ball on offense.
It seems that since Mitchell doesn't like Bargnani, he's asking him to rebound, block shots, run the floor, defend hard, without involving him in the team offense cause there are other players who are before him in the coach consideration and in the team hierarchies.
Bargnani is not a real offensive option in Raptors offense, first of all Calderon goes to Bosh (obviously), next is Parker, next is JO even when he throw around 30%, next is Calderon himself, next is Kapono when he's on the field, sometimes next is Moon who is getting more three pointer than Bargnani, last one is Andrea. How many times will Andrea Bargnani get the ball on offense in such a situation? How is it possible that sometimes he takes 3 o 4 shots in the whole game, playing 18-19 minutes? Which kind of stats would you expect?
It's important that Andrea Bargnani learns how to play in the post, get better on defense, plays hard or grab more rebounds, but you can not completely ignore him on the other side cause you don't like him and you would a completely different player in your team. It's a way to "throw his career down the tube" instead of trying to put him in a situation to become the player he can be. It's like you would ask to Yoachim Noah to take three point shots cause you're a shooting team and you don't need or you don't like an energy guy who plays under the basket.
An italian fan.
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Clint Eastwood 7 months ago
This is kind of ridiculous, imo. There are a lot of sweeping judgements in this article, the most glaring being Sam Mitchell's dislike and apparent writing off of Bargnani. This is not true, he has defended Andrea consistently and is only attempting to help him get adjusted to just how different the NBA is compared to European play.
http://hoopsaddict.com/2008/09/15/inside-scoop-on-bargnani/
Read that, it's a good counter to this article, and it actually quotes interviews, etc, rather than just making unfounded speculations.
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Robert Seagal 7 months ago
I'm sorry, but as a coach you have to be diplomatic, and say the right things about the players you're given.. especially so in the case of Bargnani (managements choice) BUT don't assume this means anything. Last season Andrea battled injuries, and sinus crap and still played almost a full season. STILL despite being a warrior and trying, Mitchell didn't talk to him for 3 freaking weeks (this is documented btw) and till date only plays Andrea when he plays well.. hence.. if Andrea plays 30 mins you KNOW he had a good game.. where-as Jamario Moon plays 28 mins regardless of what he does.. Bosh does as well.. Ford did as well.. same with Jose. There have also been interviews when he's taken cheap shots at Andrea "well.. if you look at the other team.. they have rebounders that go after the ball.. they have athleticism" (saying this after Bargnani probably grabbed like 2 boards in 23 mins).. and you can tell they have NO relationship.. Bargnani's relationship with Sam is basically watching him in all dead-ball scenarios to see when he'll be taken out of the game (he's been better in this regard this season, but Andrea's been a way better player as well)
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Bill Jones 7 months ago
Dude you dont know jack. Im tired of reading articles by so-called-experts who are writing about a team from 1000 miles away based only on what you see on TV. Have you ever personally watched Sam Mitchell and Andrea interact? Do you see them practice? After games? All you're doing is re-working stats and numbers to support your agenda. You have no first hand knowledge what so ever and that makes you beyond lame, its makes you a wannabe loser who needs a real job or a tangible hobby.
You're a total douch. This article is not worth the cyber space it takes up. If you actually consider yourself a "sports writer" or "Journalist".....you're wrong. God why did I click this link I though it would be real writing. I have to brush my teeth now.
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Robert Seagal 7 months ago
Jeez Bill. Well for starters I have seen Andrea Bargnani and Sam Mitchell interact, in person. I figure it best to tell you that
1. Andrea was in Mitchell's Doghouse in his rookie season after 2 games
2. BC stepped in and had Andrea inserted back into the line up after a 2-8 start with Andrea playing like 12 mins per night
3. Due to his frustration with Andrea's inconsistency (er injury, sinus, w/e) Sam Mitchell REFUSED to talk to Bargnani for 3 weeks (IN A ROW) last season
4. After playing amazingly well for the first few games of the 2007-2008 season, Bargnani was benched, and yanked in and out all season. Why? He was given the spot and to his credit, he earned it during the preseason and the first 4-5 games (scoring 20+ in less than 25 mins sometimes) and after I believe 1 bad game he was out... Nesterovic in. And why? Because Bosh was playing very poorly with Bargnani and needed Rasho to come in and create some space for him to operate. Bargnani's season was thrown down the drain (yanking young players in and out is a little.. disheartening?) because he wanted Bosh to play well. I'd argue that Bargnani is just as importnant a piece, and his development is just as crucial. Mitchell however has yet to DRAW A flipping play for him in 3 years. 3 years. Number one pick. Offensive mismatch. 0 plays. Hope you brushed real nice.
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