Rebounding woes continue to hamper the Toronto Raptors and listening to head coach Jay Triano and his players it's a matter of concentration and desire. There is an age old question out in the basketball world that asks can you teach desire? The answer is both yes and no as it's the whole nature vs. nurture argument.
On the "no" side one might say a player has to have that in them to be a good rebounder as it is competitiveness and effort. But on the "yes" side there are things that a coach can do to reinforce and teach effort.
You hear stories about the New York Knicks in the Pat Riley era - that came close to, but never won a title, and were probably the impetus for the league changing rules to make it a more open, free flowing game - having knock down drag out practices. With the likes of Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley on the front line, Riles fostered competitiveness in practice by allowing the players to play on.
All coaches do defensive drills where the possession doesn't end until the ball either lands in the hand of the defense or the offense scores a basket. But back in those workout sessions, Riley decried that there were no boundaries, "literally." If the ball went out of bounds or into the stands, it was still alive and you kept playing until one of the two aforementioned results came to pass. Hmmmm, it's an interesting way to try and teach competitiveness and aggressiveness.
Toronto's next home game is against the Dallas Mavericks who are coming off their longest home stand in 11 years going 5-2 in their recent stint at the American Airlines Centre. Dallas is playing better under new head coach Rick Carlisle and have welcomed Josh Howard back into the line up as he is returning from an ankle injury.
The New York Knicks were defeated in Phoenix last night and former Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni received a warm welcome from the Suns faithful. It was often thought that Bryan Colangelo was trying to create "Phoenix east" when he came to Toronto, but it looks more like D'Antoni is trying to move the model from the desert to the Big Apple with his team's style of play. There are rumours that the Knicks are interested in two former Suns, now members of the Charlotte Bobcats, Raja Bell and Boris Diaw. If that deal happens the only major pieces missing in New York will be Steve Nash and Shawn Marion. But D'Antoni has replacements for Marion in New York and it looks as if Marion could be on the move out of Miami and headed toward Cleveland.
The one thing you can never account for and it can be a major determinant in a teams' fortunes are injures. But so far so good for the Orlando Magic that have the most road wins of any team, the last two coming on the road without Dwight Howard who is nursing a sore knee. The Celtics are keeping a close eye on the knee of Paul Pierce who says he will be ready to go when they take on the Hawks in Atlanta Wednesday night. At least he was helped off the court and didn't need the services of a wheel chair.
Reggie Theus was shown the door in Sacramento yesterday bringing the total to six coaches that have been fired. So who's next? Nobody is sure right now but one guy who isn't worried probably because he's had it happen to him before, is Indiana's Jim O'Brien. It seems like Larry Bird is the patient type and it may pay off for him in the end. But that doesn't mean the weight of expectations aren't heavy around the league, and the recent firings have many, including league executives, keeping tabs on the situation and asking the question "What is going on here?"
