By THE HOOF

Toronto is rapidly becoming a place where coaches come to die. Brendan Malone, Darrell Walker, Butch Carter, and soon, Lenny Wilkens. Carter hasn’t coached since leaving, Malone has been assisting, and Walker spent a short time in Washington. That didn’t work out, and now he’s gone too. Perhaps it’s the pressure and circumstances that surround running an expansion franchise. Perhaps it’s the complexity and uncertainty of an ever changing line-up. Perhaps it’s some kind of strange curse. Whatever it is, it’s in Toronto, and if Lenny falls prey to it, he’ll be the fourth coach through just six years of play, a statistic that does not bode well for the stability of a franchise.

While the Raptors are on a winning streak in their last 4 games, this doesn't change the big picture.

Lenny Wilkens has simply not gotten the job done. Maybe it’s not right to put all the blame on his shoulders, but in order to breed success in a league where only a handful of coaches stand out above the rest, management must first look to player talent and only then to coaching. Whether or not the Raps actually have that talent has become highly debatable. It is, after all, their job to get it done on the floor. It’s obvious they haven’t. However, that debate is not one that management is willing to air in public. The Raptor organization claims to be confident with their player personnel. They proved it with some pretty big contracts, not the least of which was handed out to Coach Wilkens.

Since joining the Raptors, Lenny has coached them through, and into, some interesting scenarios, the most dramatic being at the point guard position. As we all know, Lenny used to play the point, and he played it pretty well. He was a bonafide floor general as a player, which is why as a coach, he runs his offence through the point, and the point only. When he arrived in Toronto, the Raps handed him Mark Jackson, a very savvy and intelligent point guard, and one of the sickest passers to boot. It seemed to be a perfect fit. Alas, Jax was sent packing on the pretext that he was a tad too slow on the defensive end. In came Chris Childs to play back up to one time bench warmer Alvin Williams. Yes, Alvin had come into his own under Coach Wilkens. Time after time he proved to be a tough defender, a solid passer, and a clutch shooter. It was clear to Lenny that ‘Boogie’ needed to dance, and Alvin couldn’t be happier. A seasoned mentor passed the torch to a hungry protégé. Williams had become the physical extension of all of Wilkens’ experience and expertise. It seemed like a gamble, but who is anyone to question the vision of a hall of famer like Len-Dog. This was his experiment. It almost worked.

This year, Alvin is putting up some pretty modest numbers: 11.8ppg and 5.8ast, on 40% from the floor and 30% from beyond the arc. But hey, who needs huge numbers from a defensive specialist. Alvin is definitely one of the best defensive point guards in the game... or is he? During their legendary thirteen game losing streak, opposing point guards averaged 19.6ppg and 7.7ast on the tenacious defender. Those numbers include two meetings with Chucky Atkins as well as one with both Darrel Armstrong and the previously mentioned Mark Jackson, none of whom are known for their scoring, none of whom scored much on Alvin. So what’s with the sick numbers against him? Well, all year long Boogie has been torched in his one-on-one matchups with elite NBA guards. In three meetings with Iverson, Kidd and the Baron, they averaged 32ppg, 6.7ast, 21.7ppg, 8ast and 17.3ppg, 9.6ast respectively. These are not the numbers of intimidated opponents.

To be fair to Williams, he hasn’t had much help. Childs is having a terrible season. He’s managing to move the ball well, averaging 4.9ast per game. However, his 3.8ppg on .316% from the floor is simply terrible. The rest of the backcourt scorers, Carter, Curry, Murry and for the sake of the argument, Peterson, have been perpetually injured, and when they’ve been healthy, they’ve been slumping. Again, in fairness to Alvin, it’s been rumored that he’s hurting too.

Regardless of his health, it’s clear that Alvin’s game has been questionable lately. Lenny’s coaching has been questionable for even longer. So, with the playoffs becoming farther and farther from reach, Raptor management has already set their sights on the summer. There’s no doubt, that in the off-season, management is going to look to the backcourt first to find the answers. Ultimately, they’ll find that Lenny Wilkens is responsible for most of their backcourt woes. He put together this crew, he handpicked Alvin Williams, he calls and designs the plays. He passed the torch, and now he’s getting burned.