By Raptortalk


Some will say it’s too early to pass judgement on Jay Triano after only three regular season games as the Raptors head coach.

I see it differently.

I view Jay Triano as someone who has been coaching the Raptors for 78 games and his overall record is less than stellar. In fact, I’ll go a step further and say that Jay Triano may very well be Colangelo’s “Hoffa” – a very bad managerial move that needs to be corrected sooner than later.   

                          
                           Triano's not coaching Sherm Hamilton anymore

When Sam Mitchell was fired after going 8-9 early last season, I was surprised. While not a big fan of Sam Mitchell, the bigger problem on the Raptors was an overall lack of talent and not Sam Mitchell’s coaching. I was even more surprised when Jay Triano was announced as the interim head coach until season’s end.

Be honest, did anyone predict that Bryan would pick Jay? Anyone? It was an announcement out of left field that surprised even those close to the team. The only rationalization was that it was an interim tag designed to get the Raptors through the season.

Under Sam, the Raptors were playing ball at a disappointing .470 clip. Yet, under Jay they played at a miserable .380 pace. So the new coach didn’t have much on-court success when compared to his predecessor. That said, Jay was instrumental in Andrea Bargnani’s breakout – so his tenure was not a complete failure.


More questions than answers with Triano's promotion

Needless to say, I was even more shocked when Bryan Colangelo chose to not hire an experienced NBA head coach this past off-season and instead he provided Jay Triano with a new three contract to be the full-time head coach.

In my opinion, Jay Triano is a great assistant coach. By all accounts he’s very good with players. USA Basketball hired him as an assistant coach to develop the next wave of Team USA players. That’s all good and well. The key word here is “assistant”.

Jay Triano is not true NBA head coach material. The Raptors struggles are in part due to the man who walks their sidelines. Unlike Sam Mitchell whose teams were lighter on talent, Jay now has a talented group of players to work with. Yet the team struggles to win.

Jay’s player rotations are no better than Mitchells’ and Triano’s Raptors must have the NBA’s thinnest playbook. And they remain clueless on defence.


Concerns over Triano - the leader 

A successful NBA head coach must be a leader and a motivator and I see none of that in Triano.

Watching his press conferences and clips from various insider glimpses in Raptorland, I don’t get the feeling that this coach is the take charge leader who will guide the Raptors to the promised land.

Maybe he’s too nice, too calm, too polite or too Canadian?  I’m not sure.

But when he’s standing courtside he looks more like a high school math teacher than an NBA coach. While his fellow NBA coaches are busy working the refs in order to give their squad an edge, Jay appears to be content to raise his voice only after the Raptors have been screwed by a few bad calls. Then it’s too late.

From what I’ve observed, Triano is lacking a sense of urgency. He certainly is not a dynamic personality nor does he appear to be cut from the same cloth as most great pro sports coaches. I see Jay as solid college coach working with 18 to 20 year olds or as good NBA lead assistant – but not as a bone fide NBA head coach. He is lacking the intangibles that are difference makers.

A premier NBA coach wouldn’t allow his team to come off a season opening win against Cleveland and arrive in Memphis unprepared to compete. Good coaches motivate and invigorate.

The top tier of NBA coaches have the ability to push their teams to achieve more and it’s not always because they have more talent.

Jay Triano is simply not anywhere close to, nor will he ever be able to coach and lead like Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Rick Adelman, Doc Rivers, Stan Van Gundy, Larry Brown or even Mike D’Antonni.

"Pack the house" if you want the three ball to beat you

I was critical from day one of Jay's defensive philosophy - which was to "pack the house". During training camp, Triano announced he was fine with giving up three balls because he would rather focus on protecting the interior.

To paraphrase the coach, “we want to protect our house inside and if we get beat by the three ball, so be it”. Guess what? All through preseason and into the regular season, the Raptors opponents are having a field day from beyond the arc.

Where has Jay been over the past five years? NBA shooters can hit open 3 point looks at a 40%+ clip. Doesn't he know that 40% from beyond the arc is equivalent to shooting 60% inside? Look, no NBA team shoots 30% from beyond the arc anymore. Even the bad teams average in the high 30’s.

So far, the Raptors have allowed the opposition to go 29 for 63 from beyond the arc. That's a gaudy 46% scoring percentage.

It's worse when you consider that to generate that same point production inside (87 points on 63 shot attempts), the opposition would need to shoot 69% inside the arc.

Hell, against Orlando, the Raptors would have been better served to leave the interior wide open and defend the three more aggressively. If Toronto could have held Orlando to 40% from beyond the arc, the Magic would have scored 12 fewer points and it’s a whole different ballgame.


Triano's losing record speaks for itself

But, I digress.

Dating back to last November, Coach Triano has won only 28 games, while losing 48 games. Jay has won only 35% of the last 78 Raptor games he has coached.

Since the Raps lost to Philly in London, Toronto is 3W-8L with the 'new squad". And don’t tell me preseason doesn’t matter, because it does. Triano’s “pack the house” defence didn’t work in preseason and it’s not working now.

Instead of using his vast contact capital and MLSE’s deep pockets, Bryan Colangelo went shopping at the dollar store and invested in a second tier coach.  That’s a huge mistake which will come back to bite him, if he doesn’t bring in a real NBA head coach soon.

Bryan Colangelo may have caught “lightning in a bottle” when he promoted Mike D’Antoni, but lightning never strikes twice.

Now I'm sure that the Raptors will tell fans to be patient. My question to Bryan is - how long will Chris Bosh be patient if the Raptors coach can't figure out a way to win?

I'm sure Jay is a very nice man. I've followed his career for thirty years and was a huge fan of "Jay the player" and "Jay the Canadian coach".

I just don't think he's the best man for the job of Toronto Raptors Head Coach.