Toronto Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo told The FAN590 on Monday that even before the dismissal of Sam Mitchell he was active in discussions with other teams regarding the Raptors current roster. It looks like December 15 is the date to mark on your calendar as Colangelo said that he has been trying to "wiggle free" from the cap restrictions the team is currently up against and that is the date where players who were signed in the summer can be traded.
In short, everybody comes into play on that date.
Jay Triano is building for the long haul and trying to make his team better one day at a time. Yes, it's a cliché but he has said that each day at practice they focus on a major teaching point and he tries to make sure its understood and implemented. Over the years in his coaching travels, Triano has collected a book of notes from the NBA game and the international game and he consults it as he builds his team repertoire both offensively and defensively. At present, he is quite impressed with the way the players have picked things up in limited practice time (supplemented with video sessions). The team is in great spirits and you would never know that they are a team not meeting expectations having lost its last four games going 3-7 in their last 10 contests.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have put together a good season so far and have clearly separated themselves from the pack. Next to Boston, the Cavs are the best team in the East. Why? Well consider their line up: They have added a point guard in Mo Williams and unlike last season there are no hold outs. It always seems to happen coming off a successful season that some of the role players seem to suffer a hangover from what Doc Rivers calls the "trophy tour". The role players believe that the team won the trophy, or in Cleveland's case, almost won the trophy two season ago, because of what they did and the way they performed their particular duties. The natural instinct is to try and do more and they come to camp expecting to do more. But in Cleveland at the start of the previous season, they couldn't even get Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varajao into camp. It has been a different story this season. You can read here about Varajao's improved skills and how terrific the team chemistry is in Cleveland right now.
Cleveland's defence has been scary in allowing the fewest points per game in the league and owning the best defensive field goal percentage. Mike Brown has the defensive pedigree having been an assistant under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio but he is getting help from Lebron James' attitude. Brown feels James needs to be considered as an all-defensive team player at the end of the season. He says winning the gold in Beijing has catapulted LeBron nicely into the season.
The game on Monday in Cleveland will, as it always does, feature some of the best music in the league. During time-outs the music at the "Q" (Quicken Loans Arena) gets the crowd going. I guess that's to be expected when you're in the city that is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Heck, even our radio engineer is full of musical knowledge. Two seasons ago one of my all time favourites, one of the first records, yes I wrote records, you know vinyl, that I ever purchased, Eric Burden and War's Spill the Wine was blaring over the loud speaker and he told me the story of how the song came to be. Seems like the band was gathered in the studio with a bottle of wine for inspiration and a young lady came in and in and, shall we say, in an unorthodox way, happened to knock over the bottle and well, spill the wine. Behind every set of great lyrics there's a story right?
If you saw the highlights last Friday of Boston's Glen "Big Baby" Davis crying on the bench in full view of the television cameras in the game against the Portland Trailblazers you were probably wondering, what gives? Well the Celtics talked about the incident saying it was no bid deal as it was just players holding one another accountable and Davis saying that he's just an emotional guy. Still, it isn't something you see commonly in an NBA tilt.
Canadian Joel Anthony has become quite the shot blocking presence down in South Florida for the Miami Heat. The team has gone on a nice little run since Anthony has entered the starting line up and he seems to be coming out of his shell and showing some personality. Anthony was a find by Pat Riley last season and when Riles takes a chance on you, that's a major compliment. As a hard working, determined self made kind of guy that came out of nowhere, Anthony is Riley's kind of player.
