Time For Triano to Grow a Pair & Hedo to Stop Whining

[Doc]

Fantastic article from Feschuk today. You have to read it for yourself to understand but I totally agree with what he's trying to convey via John Wooden's famous quote "If a player's not doing the things he should, put him on the bench. He'll come around."

There's too much coddling going on here and its time for Triano to do something about it. Even if some of those that are being coddled are making in upwards of $10 per season need a stern kick in the nads. For heaven sakes, do something about it Jay.

But Triano, if he wants a career as an NBA head coach beyond this, has to make his own decisions here. No one is saying they're easy decisions. He can't bench the whole team. The options in reserve aren't particularly appealing. Every win is important.

But if you won't sit a guy against the Nets, when are you going to sit him? And if you don't recognize that defence will be the story of this season, understand that the Raptors, with Saturday's 100-90 win, have now won 27 consecutive games in which they've held teams to under 100 points, the longest current streak in the NBA. As offensively potent as the Raptors are, all they need to do is play a tiny bit of defence. It's not a Herculean requirement. Half the teams in the league are holding opponents under 100 this season. Triano, at some point, has to make it known that he won't stand for all the standing around while the other team scores and rebounds at will.

Bargnani hasn't been the only slacker during the ongoing slump. Chris Bosh has apparently decided to recommence playing like an all-star, but Hedo Turkoglu continued to loaf through his early retirement in Saturday's first half, after which he somehow earned the second-half luxury of 16 minutes, second-most on the team.

For playing him, Triano got to hear Turkoglu spend another post-game scrum complaining about his miscast role to any U.S.-based scribe who cared to listen. At some point, that has to stop. Turkoglu has to start playing hard. Such is the reality of guaranteed contracts that Triano has but one card to play, and it's playing time.

But don't take it from the media. As Reggie Evans, the Raptors forward, was saying on Saturday: ``We're playing like we're in a rec league – prima donna-style basketball. That's what we're playing right now."

Evans didn't name names, but you don't need to be John Wooden to understand who needs to be brought around.

Source - Click here

[Apollo]

Feschuk hit the nail on the head with this one. Jay needs to start breaking some skulls but I don't think he'll do it. He's the "good cop" and as far as I can tell, there is no "bad cop".

[Hypnotiq]

I read the article and I agree with what he is saying however I stull had to ask "At what cost?"
There is no consistent play by anyone else that you could substitute and be comfortable with. Realistically, nailing these under performers to the bench would actually gaurantee a lost so why not take a gamble with them and hope for a win. 'Choose a hill to die on"

[mo-sales]

What is the root of the problem here? Is it that Triano's hands are tied by BC to play the guys he is paying big money to or is Triano trying to appease BC and keep his job as a puppet.

I'm trying to think of other player/coach situations where the coach has essentially backed down and catered to his GM/star players. Generally I'm a big player guy and think most of the time coaches simply let thier egos get in the way. Triano's lack of ego is allowing Turk to sulk and blame everyone else for his perpetual inadequacies.

D'antoni has been benching guys all year who don't hustle or get back on defense. He can do this because he has the full support of the GM, whereas Triano seems to be coaching as if he's on life support and simply doesn't want the BC to pull the plug.

Any other coach in the L who has any sort of pride would of benched Turk a long time ago.

If we are going to lose, why not lose with five guys on the court giving thier all. Jack, Derozan, Weems, Bosh and Johnson might not win a ton of games, but you won't have to question thier effort.

I love 'choose a hill to die on'. That's the mentality this team needs, but I don't think there is a person in the organization with the cojones to tell Turk that they no longer deliver pizza on this hill.

[yertu damkule]

i think this is what bargnani's supports seem to be missing when they complain that he gets 'looked off' or that the raps don't use him enough as a focal point in the offense. when a player's minutes are pretty much guaranteed (and there are few players in the league who's minutes are as much of a sure thing as are bargs'), the only recourse left for a coach to send a message is through touches. is it not possible that triano is trying to send bargs & hedo that message? that while he can't sit them for extended minutes (and we know why), he's basically saying, 'earn your touches.'

for anyone that's played the game, there is NOTHING worse than an offensively talented teammate who shys away from doing the dirty work (namely, D & rebounding). there's a code: 'i'll give you the ball when you work to get it, not just because you've been blessed with some skill. if that hurts the team in the short-term, so be it, because over the long haul, if you don't start pulling your weight, the team's going nowhere anyway.'

one other thing - i've been reading about how jack looks to be pouting & giving off bad body language. that may be true, but unlike some, i don't think it reflects poorly on him; if i'm jack, and i lose my starting job (to a guy who's worse defensively than me, and only marginally better offensively), while hedo & bargs keep theirs...what am i thinking? i'm thinking why am i being blamed for the team's shitty D, while fat-fuck turk & indifferent-3-games-outta-5 bargs skate on by like it's everyone else that stinks like shit.

[fyahmikes]

The article in the Star is great, but I wonder why we're well over 60 games into the season before such things are being written about, and still nothing is being done by the coaching staff. One of the reasons you have "depth" players like Rasho and others is that you can sub them in order to send a message to the starters. San Antonio, for example, is not deep at small forward, but this hasn't stopped their coach from benching him while he figures out how he's got to play in order to be a member of the Spurs. Now that he's figured it out, he's back in the starting lineup and only getting yelled at "2-3 times per game." The fact that the players called Triano out for not holding them accountable several months ago was bad enough; the fact that he still doesn't do it at this point in the season says a lot about why this team is in the position that it's in. If the coach can't get the players to play hard and hold them accountable when they don't, then what is he there for? Fire Triano and get a real coach who knows something about how to teach habits that lead to winning...Bosh and Bargnani may "like" Triano, but it seems clear that he's not helping them win.

[brothersteve]

Turk does whine far too much.

But the whole team has been out-of-sorts since Bosh was hurt vs Memphis.

[mo-sales]

Yertu, I agree with you in principle, but what is the point of having Bargs and Turk out there if thier not getting thier shots.

Mitchell made the same mistake when he said "I have not had one offensive conversation with Andrea all year". These guys games for better or worse revolve around thier ability to and create and make shots. I don't think the key to turning things around is to limit that, but something has to be done.

fyahmikes, when has liking the coach ever translated into wins? I just saw winning time, awesome by the way and Reggie says that they all hated Larry Brown, but that hatred brought them together as a team and forced them to hold each other accountable for the others mistakes.

I think this all goes back to Jay being an assistant coach and having a great report with the players and his inability to make the transition from friend and coach to disciplinarian and coach.

[fyahmikes]

fyahmikes, when has liking the coach ever translated into wins? I just saw winning time, awesome by the way and Reggie says that they all hated Larry Brown, but that hatred brought them together as a team and forced them to hold each other accountable for the others mistakes.

I never said liking the coach translated into wins; I was trying to say the opposite: there's no point in having a coach everyone likes if the team is losing. Who cares if they like him!

[Bendit]

JT better realize that if he wants to have a coaching career in the nba ...since all HC jobs are transient ...he better have the intestinal fortitude to be a whip-lasher when its required. You can be the best x & o coach in the world but if u cannot harness the 6-7 guys who are going to do most of the lifting, gms will have sniffed that part of the deficiency out and be loathe to give you another crack. Larry Brown, Skiles, Adelman are some names that come to mind who have had multiple jobs and what they have in common I believe is the ability to be consistent about how they handle their teams....defense, commitment/hustle & teamplay without regard to the personnel.

[Raffy15]

cmon now. don't be raggin on turk the turk.