Jose Calderon felt good at practice Friday morning and all indications point to him returning to the line up on Friday night against the Chicago Bulls.
Head coach Jay Triano did say that Calderon's minutes would be monitored and playing Parker at the point as a back up would be something he would consider. So for the first time in a long time, Toronto will have a full compliment of players although it remains to be seen how effective Calderon can be in his first game back.
The last time the two teams met Chicago won the game thanks to a small line up and the heroics of rookie Derrick Rose. Triano reflected back on that game (which came on the heels of two very emotionally draining contests against the Boston Celtics) and said that his team was just not able, as much as they tried, to muster enough energy to finish the Bulls off and grab a win. You will recall after a poor start, Toronto came back to take a lead but could not seal the deal. The Bulls small line up hurt the Raptors in the fourth quarter and Triano said having O'Neal back would help.
Going inside will be a key for Toronto because if the Bulls trot out their small ball line-up of Rose and Hinrich in the backcourt with Gordon, Deng and Nocioni up front and try to spread Toronto out, you may see some zone defence. At the other end, Triano stated that it is important for his team to go against its nature to play on the perimeter and hurt Chicago with an offense that gets the ball inside to take advantage of mismatches.
So how impressed is Triano with Rose? He recalled coaching the "scout" team last year with USA basketball as they were preparing the "Redeem Team" for the Olympics in Beijing and marvelling at Rose's ability. There would be scrimmages where his "scout" team would be leading thanks to Rose. Late in the shot clock after good defence by the big boys, the ball would end up in Rose's hands and he would just make something happen.
"He's going against Deron (Williams), Chris (Paul) and Jason Kidd and he was getting past those guys and then finishing over other guys, and I just said 'this guy is good,'" remarked Triano smiling and shaking his head.
"We'd be ahead in the game and it was all him (Rose)," laughed Triano.
While Toronto desperately needs a win, Chicago is dealing with its own issues as things are not rosy, Derrick's play aside, in the windy city. In the local papers yesterday they were calling for Vinny Del Negro's job and after an incident that saw Ben Gordon upset with a fine that was levied upon him, Del Negro shot back and answered his critics.
Memphis put another coach on the scrap heap as they fired Marc Iavaroni yesterday. It has been reported that former Dallas head coach Avery Johnson turned down a five year deal to run the show in Memphis. It is now being reported that Johnny Davis, currently an assistant with head coaching experience in the NBA, will coach the team for a couple of games before Lionel Hollins is hired as the new head coach. Hollins is set to hire Maurice Cheeks as an assistant which means that the Memphis bench will have three former NBA head coaches in Davis, Cheeks, and Kevin O'Neill as assistants.
With the global economy struggling and the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement expiring in 2011, you knew this was coming.
