Sam Mitchell fired

[Cartar]

Toronto Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo announced Wednesday that Sam Mitchell has been relieved of his duties as the team's head coach. Assistant coach Jay Triano will assume the position of interim head coach. The remainder of the coaching staff will continue in the organization.

.........................

Mitchell was named the sixth head coach in Raptors history June 29, 2004. He posted a 156-189 (.452) record in his four-plus seasons at the helm of the Raptors. He garnered the Red Auerbach Trophy as the NBA Coach of the Year for the 2006-07 season. He also captured The Sporting News 2007 NBA Coach of the Year honours in a vote among his head coaching peers. In January 2007, Mitchell became only the second coach in Raptors history to earn Eastern Conference Coach of the Month honours.

I´m both surprised an not surprised about this at the same time. I guess it came down to the 8-9, which isn´t exactly, what they are capable of

[Andrew]

It's not surprising given their record and the way the blame falls upon coaches but I would've thought Mitchell would have received more leeway. We're still within the first quarter of the season and the Raptors aren't the only team to start off a little slow.

[The X]

Wasn't expecting this, but at the same time I'm not surprised as Mitchell was on chopping block prior to '06/07 when he won Coach of the Year....

[Alejandrov011]

Wow, Third head cut in a month

[NovU]

If only Jermaine Oneal lived up to half of expectations...

[Its_asdf]

As a Raptor fan this was a long awaited day. Sam Mitchell simply cannot run any offensive or defensive schemes whatsoever and makes piss poor rotations. I mean he DID win COY, but when you have Bryan Colangelo bring in 9 new players with zero expectations around the league it is easy to raise some eyebrows. When teams started to realize that the Raptors were a deadly perimeter team, they adjusted and Sam had nothing to help the Raptors adjust to the expectations.

I'll have to admit, Mitchell is a very good coach in terms of being able to foster great team chemistry and make everyone give their maximum effort. However, his large ego and stubbornness to not make any readjustments during the game far outweigh any positives he brings.

I'll take any coach as a replacement to be honest. Anything has to be an upgrade over this guy.

[Clueminati017]

....And Rafer Alston laughs. Sorry but he had a problem with him when he was playing for Toronto, but damn he was a coach of the year.

[Andrew]

I'll take any coach as a replacement to be honest. Anything has to be an upgrade over this guy.

Kevin O'Neill?

[tee-pane]

Sam Mitchell is the coach with the most wins in the franchise and therefore most successful. At least he led the Raps to Atlantic Division title and playoffs. Team is not going to improve after firing the coach. Unless players would step up, or if raps trade for better small forward.

[homicide1550]

You can thank the Nuggets blowout for his firing... But I do think the Raptors management shouldn't have fired him right away coz its still too early into the season...

[Its_asdf]

Mitchell actually had last season to prove himself as well and underachieved, so I do think that fans and management have given him his fair share of opportunities.

Sam Mitchell is the coach with the most wins in the franchise and therefore most successful. At least he led the Raps to Atlantic Division title and playoffs. Team is not going to improve after firing the coach. Unless players would step up, or if raps trade for better small forward.

He has the most wins because he has been with the Raptors for the longest. Just because someone spends the majority of the tenure in the organization does not mean that he produces the best results. The Atlantic division title was also bogus; every team in that division was absolute garbage. Also there are reports that Mitchell purposefully bogged down the offense in order to run plays (usually the same play over and over again, unsurprisingly) so you can also see how that can hold back many of the players, especially Calderon since he could never push the tempo.

And yes, I would take Kevin O'Neill over Mitchell. At least he had a defensive system that was somewhat effective.

[Skills]

Speaking as a Raps fan, I didn't love Mitchell. But I didn't hate him either. He helped get the Raps to the playoffs for the first time in a while. I didn't expect him to get fired this early. And it's kind of unfair that all the blame is going out on him. JO has yet to live up to his expectations, but he's slowly getting there. If only Toronto didn't get brutally assinated by Denver, Mitchell could've stayed. Anyway, any predictions on who the next coach will be? Personally, I wouldn't mind bringing in Avery Johnson. But since he's been down with TNT lately, I doubt it'll happen. My next pick would be Flip Saunders.

[Its_asdf]

Rumour has it that an Italian coach (Messina or something?) is headed over this summer.

[benji]

JO has yet to live up to his expectations

65% of his shots as jumpers, on which he shoots 35%? And still with 25% usage rate. I'd say he's doing exactly what we expected. Only with less shot blocking.

[cyanide]

About time. He's been around for way too long now. I'd take an Italian head coach. Anybody who can coach, really.

[Skills]

JO has yet to live up to his expectations

65% of his shots as jumpers, on which he shoots 35%? And still with 25% usage rate. I'd say he's doing exactly what we expected. Only with less shot blocking.

He's doing pretty good on the offensive end. It's his defensive expectations I was mainly reffering too, pardon me. As far as I know, he hasn't had that huge defensive game yet. But yeah, otherwise he's actually doing fine. All that pressure being taken off of Bosh is certainly upgrading his game, thanks to JO.

[tee-pane]

2 more Ls after firing mitchell!

[Andrew]

When you see a team continue to lose under the interim coach, you can't help but think about the question that Jeff Van Gundy raised during the Blazers/Celtics game last week, which was why enter a season with a coach if you don't think he's the right person moving forward? Van Gundy also suggested (presumably somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that sooner or later we'll see interim-interim coaches, a seemingly absurd notion but if coaches are going to be dismissed during the season when things go pear-shaped, who knows?

That's not to say teams should necessarily ride it out with a coach the rest of the way, sometimes a change has to be made sooner rather than later but with that in mind, why start the season with someone whom you don't have faith in?

[The X]

can't believe the Wolves & Kings are going to fire Wittman & Theus respectively....perhaps they should look at the team's GM's first, as they're the ones that created these teams....these coaches can only do so much with the talent that they've been given....

as for Jay Triano, I think he'll be alright, a bit unlucky against Blazers today....

[Andrew]

Well it's like Ben said in the other thread, the front office are hardly going to fire themselves. I think Adrian Wojnarowski brings up a good point in this column as well, the relationship between coach and GM being of great importance and that bond and trust being stronger when it's someone the GM has hired themselves rather than inheriting from their predecessor.

[StupidBoy]

Well, there goes another one, Wittman is fired.
So, who's next?

[Doobie]

Theus is next.

[FiZzO]

What a shame the Warriors actually won at Oklahoma city. Otherwise Nelson could be a candidate... He still deserves to be fired though.

[Andrew]

Why, because of the slow start? It's not all that surprising given Baron Davis' departure and the absence of Monta Ellis. If slow starts warrant firings then there's a lot of coaches in the West who could be fired.

[FiZzO]

Why, because of the slow start? It's not all that surprising given Baron Davis' departure and the absence of Monta Ellis. If slow starts warrant firings then there's a lot of coaches in the West who could be fired.

Not exactly because of the slow start but because of the "no big-men, no defense, no discipline" style which he likes that much. And do you really think that the Warriors will be much better with Ellis ? They've got like 23 other flashy guards. He is no pass-first pg that could stabilize their game. Of course, Nelson earns a lot of respect, but i really think that what that group needs right now is a new coach.