<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Forget the image of the Raptors becoming Phoenix East and dredge up videotape from the Boston Garden. Knowing that his personnel will never evoke comparisons to Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and Boris Diaw, Raptor coach Sam Mitchell said he wants his club to try to emulate the great Celtic teams of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Larry Parrish. "Have you ever seen the Boston Celtics play, the old tapes of the Boston Celtics?" Mitchell challenged reporters after the team worked out yesterday. "They used to run a fast break and the ball never hit the ground. "You have to run according to your personnel, and we're trying to run but what made me convinced we could do it was when I watched Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale on the floor together, and Danny Ainge. "They didn't even have a little quick point guard, they had Dennis Johnson." added Mitchell. "They ran. Why? They were committed to do it. The ball never touched the floor. That was my inspiration for running."</div> Source
It's a good thing considering the Celts won championships with that style, it's bad because Sam Mitchell is still the coach.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"Have you ever seen the Boston Celtics play, the old tapes of the Boston Celtics?" </div> Maybe he should be watching some old tapes of the Detroit Pistons playing defence and learn a thing or two.
<div class="quote_poster">Eclipse Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Maybe he should be watching some old tapes of the Detroit Pistons playing defence and learn a thing or two.</div> Yea that would probably be a good priority, our last years team definitely didn't focus on defence enough. Hopefully even if Mitchell doesn't stress defence too much, some of our new players (Garbajosa, Rasho, Tucker, Parker will put effort into D), Mo Pete usually is pretty good, and Bosh is ok (could do better).
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"They didn't even have a little quick point guard, they had Dennis Johnson." added Mitchell. "They ran. Why? They were committed to do it. The ball never touched the floor. That was my inspiration for running."</div> Uhhh Sam.... that's called travelling.
<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Uhhh Sam.... that's called travelling.</div> Well...he's reffering to the fast breaks where the player takes a couple of steps and makes a chest pass. Those are beautiful. But I agree with you guys, defense should be our priority.
<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yea, I know. I was just joking.</div> Wasn't a very good joke.. you have lost your joking previlages
<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Yea, I know. I was just joking.</div> knew I have a feeling like that we won't be as good as last year, mostly because we lost 2 of our best scorers, Mike James and Villanueva, and haven't really replaced their offense. Hopefully Ford can bring something different to this team so others don't have to rely on themselves to create offense, because nobody is really capable besides Bosh, Mo, Parker (though I haven't seen him much), and Jones (for himself).
<div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Uhhh Sam.... that's called travelling.</div> I agree Chutney, the Raptors need to take advantage of the league's absence of calling travels. If we start just running with the ball without dribbling our players will be quicker and capable of dodging our opponents!
<div class="quote_poster">Fever Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The guy doesn't get it, the offence was NEVER a problem. Please focus on your defence Sam.</div> outscoring the opponet is a strategy
<div class="quote_poster">SkiptoMyLue11 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I agree Chutney, the Raptors need to take advantage of the league's absence of calling travels. If we start just running with the ball without dribbling our players will be quicker and capable of dodging our opponents!</div> Way to help me save face on a crappy joke Skip.
^^lol, you're welcome. Anyway, the Raptors do have two quick pgs, and I don't know if they have any big player that has the passing skills of Bird. (As well I don't know if the other bigs on the Celtics were good passers) So although I guess the Larry Bird Celtics may be a good inspiration for our running game, I don't know if we can really model our game after them.
<div class="quote_poster">P.A.P. Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> knew I have a feeling like that we won't be as good as last year, mostly because we lost 2 of our best scorers, Mike James and Villanueva, and haven't really replaced their offense. Hopefully Ford can bring something different to this team so others don't have to rely on themselves to create offense, because nobody is really capable besides Bosh, Mo, Parker (though I haven't seen him much), and Jones (for himself).</div> From what I've seen in the Celtics and Nets games, it looks like we can replace their scoring. It won't be one individual but Garbajosa, Jones and Bargnani should be able to make up the points we lost from Villanueva and James. Parker hasn't done anything yet, but he should be able to contribute offensively as well. I think we have a much more well-rounded team than last year. I'd rather we have 5-6 capable scorers than just 2-3 good scorers. Our bench should provide much more scoring than last season as well.
