The Morning After The Night Before, XLIX

Oh, I can feel the angst from the comfort of my little home office here. Lose to the Knicks? Someone’s got to get fired, forget the playoffs, let’s tank the season ‘cause there’s no way they can win a series anyway. How could Colangelo not trade for Kobe at the deadline? What’s Mats going to do?

Oh, wait, scratch that last one, that was for radio last night).

Anyway, they certainly didn’t distinguish themselves Friday. Even from the comfort of the Harbour Sports Grille with Stumpy and his Czarina it looked ugly. But still worth commenting, ‘cause that’s what I do.

Three Things I Learned

Desperate times call for …

Desperate measures and that’s just what it looked like when they had TJ and Jose out there at the same time. I guess when – another – two-guard is lighting you up, you use all the bullets in the chamber but it didn’t seem to work very well. Too small, too ineffective but at least it was something, I guess. Jamal Crawford once again exposed the fatal flaw in Toronto’s defence and I can only assume the general manager was quite displeased. Not sure what Sam does next. Maybe play a bit more zone? Use a Delfino and hope he’s having of his good nights?

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No, no, no

Jamaal Magloire is NOT coming home. There is no chance whatsoever that they repatriot him after he was waived by the Nets. His play wasn’t good enough to get him on the court with a very mediocre New Jersey team and its unfathomable that he’d be able to help here. It’s probably the end of his career, which is too bad, but it’s not going to end at home. End of story.

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What’s next?

I swear I looked up on time and saw Maceo Baston on the court. Checked the boxscore and I was right. And that makes me think that if Sam can find minutes for him, maybe he will find minutes for Primoz Brezec. And I’d presume Primoz would provide the same kind of stuff Maceo does. Which is not much.

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Entertaining Sam

Yes, I saw a bit of the pre-game Sam Scrum and it looked vintage. Andrew over in Ajax sent in a transcript, which made me giggle even reading it on the page. I wasn’t there – it was a Glamour Boy trip – but I will tell you it’s not the first time Sam’s patience (which is thin at the best of times) wore out in Gotham.

Reporter - "Coach Jose is getting a lot of attention this summer, is that a concern, priority of the organization to bring him back."

Sam - "Unless somebody is gonna take Jose off our team tonight, there's nothing I can do about this summer. So, I dunno what I'm supposed to do... Last time I checked, he's a restricted free agent right?"

Reporter - "Uh, right"

Sam - "So, what does that mean?"

Reporter - "Uh, well... I has asked..."

Sam - "So that means he can't go anywhere"

Reporter (hiding his head) exits

Sam - "Well there you go."

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Nickname time

I gotta start calling Bryan ‘Noah.’

Two Italians, two Spaniards, two from Slovenian, a couple of Texans and a pair of former teammates in Israel. What’s next? Another Argentine for Carlos, I’d hope.

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You don't imagine Toronto fans would have the imagination to start a "Fire Isiah" chant Sunday night do you? I'm told that was heard Philly the other night.

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Here’s one from the mail earlier this week (not to worry, we’ll have a big ol’ mailbag up later this morning for the rest of you.

Q: Hey Doug, got an interesting question to ask. So with only about 4 teams remaining (Portland, Toronto, Sacramento, and Memphis) to host a NBA All-Star game, if Toronto does get the 2010 or 2011 game, what theme do you think we'll have? New Orleans had the whole Jazz thing, Las Vegas had the whole Vegas theme but Toronto? A hockey theme is the only thing I can think of since that's all Toronto is known for... Tell me what you think.

Dilpreet S, Brampton

A: I don’t know what theme it’ll be but if it has anything to do with hockey, I hope everyone here boycotts it. It’s a celebration of basketball.

Maybe the world is the thing, right? Great metropolitan city, great diverse cultures. Yeah, let’s go with the worlds.

And it’s not going to be 2010 I don't think; the Winter Olympics in Vancouver are going to take away money, sponsorships and attention. I’d bet it’s 2011 is when it’s here.

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My man Frank Isola, TV star and beat grunt, sums up the Knicks win in his own inimitable fashion.

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Once more into the mail and you can click here to get something in the pipeline.

Q: Nice to see the NBA's trade rules get manipulated by including retired players (Aaron McKie, Keith Van Horn).

What's to prevent an NBA GM from signing me, a technical support supervisor, to a $4 Million contact to include me in a trade to balance salaries? Sweet gig if you can get it.

Do you think Stern will revisit this issue?

Brian S, Toronto

A: First, you have to have actually been an NBA player who has yet to file official retirement papers. And as league legal guru Matt Winick said all-star weekend, each case is judged on its own merits. They made sure Aaron McKie would go to Memphis and play and they made sure Keith Van Horn would show up in Jersey before they approved either deal.

You can bet that loophole will be closed in the next collective bargaining agreement.

Comments

[Kevin D.]

Re: Feschuk's article, "Brezec brashly asks for chance to play"

Who does this Brezec guy think he is?

Pop his name into YouTube, and you get a video of Dwayne Wade dunking on him... a shot of him "humping" Carlos Boozer... a whopping 16-second highlight reel in which he makes a series of unimpressive layups and exactly one dunk... and a clip of him making a full-court, one-handed shot - ON NBA 2K8!

[Mike S]

I had to do a double take when I saw Maceo Baston at the scorer's table last night. You know you're in the doghouse when Maceo gets minutes over you. Hump was such a key factor in the late season run last year after Bargnani went down, what's happened to him? And, if he's not careful, do you see Bargnani's minutes getting cut in favour of Rasho or Brezec? I mean, he will still start, but he seems to be getting yanked rather early lately.

[Horace]

How long before John Hollinger, or someone of that ilk, points out that if the Raps still had Dixon they would have beaten the Knicks by .3 points?

[Zack]

Brezec's comments may have seemed a little harsh (it was in a Feschuk column though and he tends to make things look worse than they are) but I'd rather have a guy coming in with a fire under his ass trying to get some PT than some scrub getting payed to sit and wait out the rest of the season.

[GM]

I really thought the Camel (TM) had turned a professional corner when he had that really great week or two earlier this season. He just hustled, which he still does, but he wasn't always looking for his shot first. He'd take what came to him. Why can't he remember that when he does that, it'll come. But his holding on to the ball and doing everything in his power to get a shot off really hurts the team.

[Chris C]

Everyone see the familiar pattern with this team…big impressive feel good momentum building win on Wednesday to come out of the all-star break followed by last nights deflating, back to ground zero horror show. If this team can not string a win streak together in the next week, the upcoming 5 game west coast road swing is going to bring us right back into the pack of teams below us. Tomorrow is going to be just like the Washington back to back, we blow them out at home, but losses like last night cannot be good for building anyones confidence in raptor nation, including the players, coaches and GM.

[Sean Smith]

Ahhh...Sam's timing it right so that Hump is hungry again down the stretch and into the playoffs...we know that Hump needs to be motivated to play a particular way, right?

And, shouldn't the chant in Toronto be "Keep Isiah!"...?

[MW]

Think if TO gets the ASG in 2011, hopefully it will be USA vs World. Might be a bit unfair since most all-star players will be US so some will be shafted, but that's not any different from every ASG.

[John Q]

Why don't the Raps give him a chance, Magloire had a more than decent college career, had an all star season, isn't even 30 years yet and will create a buzz with the media people and sell more tickets.
Stop hating on the Big Cat.

Blogger's note: The college career was a decade ago, the all-star season was about half a decade ago, he practically had career lows in rebounds and points in 2006-07 in Portland (better than only his first two years in the league) and couldn't get activated for a game in New Jersey behind Jason Collins, Josh Boone and, now Stromile Swift.
Being in the media, the buzz would be nothing and they sell out every game.
It's not hate.
It's fact.
Sorry