Mitchell agrees, no Mo bench for angry Peterson
Swingman gets to start after rare public outburst
Morris Peterson knows there’s something seriously wrong with the Raptors at the moment and he’s going to get a chance to change it. A day after exploding in frustration at his role, his team and the mounting losses, Peterson was told yesterday he’ll get his old starting job back today when the 0- 5 Raptors face the 1- 4 Seattle SuperSonics.
Peterson, the 28- year- old swingman in his sixth season with Toronto, will replace rookie Joey Graham in the starting lineup as coach Sam Mitchell tries another early season shakeup.
“ I didn’t want to say I was mad about my playing time, I’m still getting the same minutes, it’s just frustrating starting 0- 5 and being in the situation we are,” Peterson said of the uncharacteristic outburst after Toronto’s Friday night loss to the Utah Jazz. “ We just think we need some changes.” So does Mitchell, who has tried everything available to him in the first five games of the season. After going with a small lineup and ignoring the underperforming centre duo of Rafael Araujo and Loren Woods on Friday, the coach is now going to start his most veteran group and rely on rookies and second- year players to carry the second unit.
Peterson will join Mike James, Jalen Rose, Chris Bosh and Aaron Williams in a starting lineup that represents the oldest, most experienced group the coach can put on the floor.
It’ll ease the load on Graham, who has had to defend the likes of Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Tayshaun Prince, LeBron James and Andrei Kirilenko in a difficult NBA debut.
It’s not as if Graham has been the reason the Raptors are winless — there is more than enough blame to go up and down the lineup — but letting him ease into his NBA career seems like a logical move.
“ I’m trying to figure out how to get Joey some more minutes,” Mitchell said yesterday.
“ I need to get him up to about 23, 25 minutes ( and) he’s been playing about 18. I just think I can him more minutes bringing him off the bench.” How that will be accomplished is yet to be seen but a second unit of Graham, rookies Charlie Villanueva and Jose Calderon and second- year forward Matt Bonner — if Mitchell does the expected and stick with a nineman rotation — may be short on experience but at least they’ll be playing primarily second stringers. “ It may help him out a little bit, too,” Mitchell said of the impact of the move on Graham. “ The first five guys he faced have all made the all- star team except Tayshaun Prince and that’s just a matter of time.
“( Graham will) probably get a little more opportunity, get out and run a little more, use his athletic abilities.”
Peterson’s outburst, which came after a game in which he missed all five shots he took before sitting out much of the last quarter, was more in frustration than anger.
He’s seen the team lose in all different manners, sometimes because of bad defence, sometimes because of bad offence and at least once because of bad effort. “ We need to just look at ourselves first and see what we can do to help the situation,” he said. “I’m pretty sure everybody’s looking for answers, everybody wants to win.”