Raptors thriving under Mitchell's tough-love approach

After starting to blossom late in his rookie season, former No. 1 pick Andrea Bargnani of the Raptors has struggled to shoot consistently in his sophomore campaign. AP

MAILBAG Ian Thomsen will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Also in this column:
• Point guards on the market
• The Knicks' latest PR blunder
• A cloud on Blazers' horizon
• Solving the Hornets, Sonics troubles

5 Scenes in 24 hours with the Toronto Raptors

5. The drive home. We were the last table of customers to come out of the fine Italian restaurant Prezza in the North End of Boston. Five of us.

"We have to get you a taxi, too," said Maurizio Gherardini, the VP and assistant GM of the Toronto Raptors.

"No, that's OK," I said. "Tonight I drove."

"Good," said Gherardini. "Then you can give us a ride to the hotel."

"But it's a small car."

"That's OK," said Gherardini, an Italian. "We'll squeeze."

When the valet brought up my old gray Volvo S-40, it looked no bigger than one of those toy cars the NBA mascots drive around the court during the timeouts. Gherardini, his friend Dennis Ozer, and Chuck Swirsky, the esteemed TV announcer of the Raptors, arranged themselves into the back like layers of prosciutto freeze-wrapped in plastic.

But I wasn't so much worried for them as for my guest in the front seat. He was 7-feet tall with legs like a giraffe's neck. Andrea Bargnani folded himself into the front seat little by little, bending his knees up high beneath his chin with his long arms folded into the steep canyon of his lap. As we drove across Boston I glanced about for signs of impending, acute claustrophobia.

"We're OK back here," said Swirsky, who was contorted not unlike Robert Shaw in his final scene in Jaws.

But it was Bargnani who troubled me. He had been in a slump in recent weeks: off his balance during the games, shooting from the wrong foot and questioning everything he tried to do. For half of the dinner he had conversed in his native Italian with Gherardini, who encouraged him in all kinds of friendly gesturing ways to play with confidence. Now he was stuffed into my car in a way that gave new meaning to the term "death seat."

"I know how this is going to go," I announced to my passengers while glancing at Bargnani's knees mounted grotesquely against the dashboard. "I'm going to show up to your game tomorrow night and Sam [Mitchell, coach of the Raptors] is going to let me have it. Andrea is going to miss the game with mysterious knee injuries. Sam is going to ask what happened, and he's going to say, 'I don't know. When I got into the car they were OK, but then ...'"

4. Confronting Mitchell. I showed up to the game the following night and fortunately there was no injury report on Bargnani. He was going to play.

This should not imply that I approached Mitchell without caution. He is among the most entertaining and articulate people in the league, as well as the reigning coach of the year. But the key with him is to get through the first five minutes of the interview while his eyes roll and he makes fun of the questions he's grown tired of hearing. It's entertaining in a heckling way for everybody except the person who asked the question.

"Whenever y'all ready!" was how Mitchell, arms folded and leaning against the hallway wall, began his pregame meeting Wednesday with the press.

Somebody asked if this was a big game for the Raptors in order to avoid a four-game season sweep by the Celtics.

"No," Mitchell answered. "This is the next game on our schedule. I don't even know how to answer the question."

It's hard to beat somebody four times, the reporter insisted.

"Yeah, it is," Mitchell said. "But we're not looking at that. What, we're going to try harder because it's the fourth time? I think our team tries hard every night."

I truncate his answers to provide the gist. Somebody asked if having two days to practice had helped prepare the Raptors.

"We're trying to work on things that we need to get better at. So we're going to take two days, not worry about us and put all our energy into playing Boston? And then what are we going to do? What are we going to do with the other 40-something games? We had two days of practice, we focused on Boston, and if you happen to win the game is the season over?"

Someone else tried to change the subject by bringing up the good play of Carlos Delfino.

"You pick one player and act like one player has helped us to get to where we are."

But weren't the Raptors surprised by how well Delfino has been playing?

"I don't think we would have traded for him if we didn't think he could play."

Then came a question about T.J. Ford's continuing rehab. What kind of work was he doing in Houston?

"Guys, he's doing a lot of things. He's doing ... there's not enough time for me to sit down and talk about all the things that T.J. Ford is doing down in Houston.

"Basketball things. I would think he's doing a little running. I would think he's doing some shooting. Some ball-handling. Things of that nature. The things that you have to do to play basketball. I don't think he's rock climbing. I don't think he's down swimming off the coast of Galveston. I don't think he's doing anything like that. I think he's doing basketball things."

It was quiet. Mitchell said, "Is there anybody going to ask me something good?"

"Everybody's scared," I told him.

"Good," said Mitchell with the slightest grin. "Good."

1 of 4