Eleven games removed from the eighth and final playoff spot Peter Vescey of the New York Post believes it is time the Toronto Raptors let coach Lenny Wilkens run free.  Toronto has been disappointing this season, and much of that has fallen on the hands of the team's coach.  

While Vince Carter and company have missed a large number of games through injury and this could be used as an excuse only to an extent, Wilkens has his club on target for its worst season since 1997-98, a time when the Raptors were nothing more than an expansion team and appeared to be going no where.

After a number of seasons in the playoffs and perceptions around the East at least of a team that should be feared the Raptors are back in the cellar, a place they should certainly not be after paying premium dollars to the likes of Vince Carter, Antonio Davis, Jerome Williams and Alvyn Williams.

Vescey writes that the team's recent loss to the Nuggets, one of their current four game slide, should be sufficient grounds to let Wilkens walk.  'Sidney Lowe got a visit from the Grim Reaper shortly after the Grizzlies got wasted a mile high earlier this season, John Lucas was measured for a toe-tag following a Cavalier setback, and the Clippers nearly sent Alvin Gentry to the mortician subsequent to his mortifying asphyxiation,' writes Vescey.

"It's almost a given," concedes a Nugget official. "You lose to us, you lose your job."

Wilkens maintains that his team simply will not quit, but with a guaranteed $5 million remaining on his contract next year the only person who certainly will not quit appears to be Wilkens himself.

The all-time wins leader, Wilkens is quickly approaching the milestone which will also make him the NBA's all-time losingest coach (seven away from tying Bill Fitch at 1106).

Vescey believes that Wilkens should not even get that opportunity.

'By this time, it should be fairly evident to the Raptors' five-man executive/ownership committee he has to go . . . immediately, if not sooner; it has been a foregone conclusion for months he won't be on their sidelines next season,' writes Vecsey.  The Raptors should use the remainder of the season to see how the team responds to another voice, assumingly assistant Craig Neal.

I don't want to say the game has passed Wilkens by, but he'd have to fast forward a decade or two just to qualify as retro.