New Assistant Coach

The Raps announced that they have brought in a new assistant coach, Scott Roth, to help under Jay Triano. He has an interesting connection to Jay, dating as far back as playing in the Turkish Basketball league at the same time in the 80's.

Last year, Roth was an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors. He has spent seven other seasons as an assistant in the NBA, with Dallas and Vancouver/Memphis, and also has served as a scout and advisor for Milwaukee.

Roth played in 160 games in his three-year NBA career.

More Offseason Happenings

Hey look! More stuff is going on! Today the Raps signed two assistant coaches - Marc Iavaroni and Alex English.
Iavaroni - who many expected would be signed as head coach a couple years ago - coached the past two seasons in Memphis (coaching terrible teams with a terrible GM, Kevin McHale) and, expectedly, put up two losing seasons. Prior to that, he was an assistant in Phoenix to Mike D'Antoni and helped coach the Suns to the playoffs several times. Bryan Colangelo has reason to be fond of him, as he's worked with him in the past and helped do great things with the Suns offense.
English is most famous as a player, elected to the Hall of Fame in 1997, but he has been with the Raps for five years and brings experience with the players and and has a great view of the game. English has scored the 12th most points in league history.

This seems like a great way for BC to cut his losses - if problems arise with head coach Jay Triano, he can simply insert Iavaroni into the head coaching position. And if not, he'll still be around in three years and will hopefully do great things with our Dinos.

Read the press release

"Boogie" Williams to Discuss Coaching Position

Former Raptor Alvin "Boogie" Williams has reportedly begun to discuss a possible coaching position with the Raptors, as reported on RealGM.com. Williams, 34, will meet with head coach Jay Triano in coming days to work out an agreement. Alvin was an important factor for the Raps, playing point guard for parts of 8 seasons from 1997-2006. While in Toronto, he always seemed very much like a player-coach, helping out younger players and showing great leadership. He would definitely be a nice addition to the Raptors' coaching staff, and would be a good influence on young Raps like Roko Ukic.

Williams averaged 9.0 points and 4.1 assists in his NBA career.

Coaching Change - What It Means

As you no doubt know by now, yesterday the Raptors fired head coach of four full seasons Sam Mitchell. Former assistant Jay Triano has been promoted to head coach on in an interim basis. Triano served as head coach once last year, coaching the Raps to a rout over Minnesota.

This deal could signal several things.
1) Bryan Colangelo seized the opportunity to bring in his own guy. For years in the NBA, it has been a custom that for every front-office regime change, there is a coaching overhaul as well. When BC was brought in, he told Sam Mitchell he has a blank slate and would only be replaced if he performed poorly. Well, Smitch went on to win Coach of the Year in helping completely turn the Raptors around. Unfortunately, Marc Iavaroni and Mike D'Antoni, Colangelo's two key coaches in Phoenix, are now the head coaches of the Memphis Grizzlies and the New York Knicks, respectively. If BC wants to bring in his own guy, it's pretty much down to Flip Saunders, Jeff Van Gundy, maybe Pat Riley - or Isaiah Thomas (that noise you just heard was your involuntary cry of "PLEASE GOD! NO!").

2) Jay Triano will be held over as a permanent head coach. Triano is a well-respected assistant in the league, having survived three head coaching changes (Lenny Wilkens, Kevin O'Neill, and now Sam Mitchell), coaching Team Canada to their best-ever record, and helping out with Team USA in recent years. It might be time for Triano to step into the spotlight.

3) BC has a trick up his sleeve. Bryan Colangelo is a man famous for making something from nothing. He turned a laughingstock Raptors franchise into a playoff team seemingly overnight, immediately after transforming the Phoenix Suns from bottom-dwellers into contenders. With the best-dressed front-office executive at the helm of this team, there's really no saying what will happen.

Sam Mitchell Fired

The Raptors have announced that following yesterday's 39-point loss to Denver, head coach Sam Mitchell has been fired. He will be replaced by Jay Triano on an interim basis. Mitchell holds Toronto's all-time coaching wins record with 156, and won Coach of the Year in 2007. The move was somewhat predictable, but hopefully the Raptors can realize the urgency of their current situation and turn the season around - fast.

Read the press release