Joey has to clean up ‘D’
Graham says he’s learning when to be aggressive As for Villanueva, ‘I’m proving my critics as liars’
Confessed neat freak Joey Graham often can be spotted cleaning up plastic water bottles after a Toronto Raptors workout. Now, if he could only clean the glass as well as he does the practice court. A guy with the most sculpted upper body on the team would seem to be a natural NBA rebounder. He’s been a little better of late, but Graham at times has appeared a tad tentative for the job, often peeling off a player too soon or arriving too late.
Toronto coach Sam Mitchell yesterday said he’s been harping on Graham, the 16th pick in this year’s NBA draft, to stay on his defensive toes.
“ It seems like he’s getting a little better,” Mitchell said. “ He’s being more aggressive on defence. That’s the thing, making sure he’s aggressive; not necessarily on the offensive side but at the defensive end.” Graham was all but invisible in many of the Raptors’ early games. But he played hard in their win against New Jersey on Saturday, with six rebounds ( four offensive) and nine points in 25 minutes off the bench.
“ Coach has told me that was part of my role on this team; getting some offensive rebounds, staying aggressive and crashing the glass. I think I’m a great rebounder so I just go out and do it.” Graham said his inconsistency is easy to explain.
“ Every game I learn something I can do and something I can’t do. I’ve learned when to be aggressive and when to be passiveaggressive. Each player’s not the same; you have to play them a little different. And each team’s not going to play you and cover you the same way, so you have to find your points, pick your niches and get in there after it.” Graham said the change from college to the NBA isn’t as big as some people think — at least not when it comes to rebounding.
“ It’s the same,” he said. “ All it takes is a little effort.” The same might be said for his post-practice cleanups. Turns out Graham’s father was in the military and ran an incredibly tight housekeeping ship.
“ Oh, man,” Graham told the Star earlier this year. “ We had to iron our clothes just right. Even our beds had to be perfect.” A lot of the talk at yesterday’s practice revolved around how Mitchell left his three rookies — Graham, Charlie Villanueva and Jose Calderon — on the floor for the end of the New Jersey game, which they won going away.
“ It was surprising,” said Graham. “ We have a lot of veterans on this team but the way this team is going we’ve got to play whoever is getting the job done.”
“I’ve been telling Joey and Charlie that the way they played the last couple games is the way they need to play the rest of the year, and that’s coming in with intensity,” said Morris Peterson.
Peterson said he did something of a double take when he looked around the arena in New Jersey and saw himself on the floor with Chris Bosh and the three freshmen.
“ I was like, ‘ I’m the old man of the group,’ and I’m 28,” he said with a grin.
Villanueva said he keeps reminding himself how many observers criticized the Raptors for taking him with the seventh pick in this year’s draft.
“ I carry that every time I step on the floor,” he said. “ I think about what they said. I’m proving a lot of people wrong. I’m proving my critics as liars and that’s all I can ask.”
Still, Villanueva was laughing about how a U. S. sports highlights show was referring to he and Bosh as the NBA’s new Twin Towers.
“ They’re going crazy,” he said with a laugh. “ Eventually, we’ll turn into something like that. We’ll be a good one- two punch. But we’re only 21 years old. People don’t know that. It’s my first year. It’s his third year. Two years from now, that’s going to be really good.”