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by Paul Jones
--raptors.commentator
November 9, 2004

Even though he’s in his first year as a head coach, Sam Mitchell is experiencing a sense of déjà vu.

Last season, as an assistant in Milwaukee, he helped a rookie head coach, Terry Porter, in a very similar situation to the one in which he is in now. Porter took the reigns of a team in Milwaukee that many pundits expected to finish near the bottom of the division, heck, they were forecasting the Bucks to be one of the worst teams in the league.

But as it so often turns out, those predictions along with a handful of coin will get you a cup of coffee. The predictions were dead wrong as Milwaukee finished sixth overall in the East before being ousted by the eventual NBA champs from Detroit.

Will it play out in Toronto the same way this season?

It’s early, but not many envisioned a 3-0 start for the Raptors including many well respected “believe-it-because-they-wrote-it” publications. They called Toronto to be watching come playoff time from somewhere near the bottom of the east. Mitchell is trying to accomplish what Porter did last season by surprising everyone and getting his team to the post season.

Mitchell is implementing his own style in Toronto. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)

Although there are striking similarities, and Mitchell has a blueprint, he’s not quite working from the plans in the same way as Porter.

“I think Terry and my styles are totally different,” said Mitchell. “Terry had success because he did things the way Terry wanted to do it. It was my job as an assistant to make that happen. (This year) We’re doing things here the way I want to do it and hopefully we’ll have success this way.”

While there are similarities with last year’s Milwaukee squad, there are differences within the entire package. The Raptors needed to establish a direction for the team before building a foundation and implementing the plan.

“Terry knew what he wanted to do, he had a plan, and the organization had a plan. Here we have kind of had to feel our way through. It was a little bumpy,” conceded Mitchell.

Milwaukee helped Porter by making personnel changes. Gary Payton was allowed to go to the Lakers as a free agent and Sam Cassell along with Ervin Johnson to Minnesota in exchange for Joe Smith and Anthony Peeler. Borderline players got the message. Toronto didn’t make any trades even though one of the guys Mitchell was going to count on wanted to be moved.

“We started the season out with the trade talk, and other things we had to deal with. In Milwaukee when Terry came in, they got rid of a few guys and kind of smoothed the road for him. Here, we didn’t have that kind of luxury. We just had to kind of grab everybody and try to pull them on to the page that we wanted them to be on.”

The style of play is a result of personnel evaluation, not simply because it worked last season in Milwaukee.

Speaking of the up-tempo style Mitchell said, “It’s not just the easiest thing to do. We wouldn’t run if we didn’t think we had the talent to run. You just can’t run if your guys aren’t athletic and talented enough to run.”

Regardless of this year’s outcome, and how much he follows the Bucks model that he was part of last season, Mitchell is prepared to do it his way and live with the results.

“I’ve always had my ideas about how I wanted to do things,” said a definitive Mitchell. “The one thing I was told is that when you become a head coach, you have to do things the way you think it should be done because ultimately, you are going to be held accountable.”

Raptor fans only hope that he follows the plan and tweaks it enough to get this team back to the post season.