Mail's late

So Super Wife goes and puts on a very early, exceptionally good, surprise birthday party for an old dude and, shockingly, libations flowed. Mail's gonna be late today.

Comments

[Dallas]

Sounds like you had fun, Happy Birthday.

Feel free to include any impressions you got from speaking to BC yesterday too.

[Ed]

Happy Birthday Super Old Dude

[Terence Gui]

Happy Birthday, Doug!

Hopefully no TJ comments/questions today so you can celebrate your birthday (and adult beverages) in relative peace.

[Ted S]

Happy Birthday Doug! Why don't you take the (blogging) day off and rejoin the circular firing squad tomorrow? We'll have more ammunition by then.

[Arun]

Happy Birthday.

[John]

Happy Birthday Doug.

[Julie]

Happy Birthday Doug! Make sure to have a drink for all of us.

[Sean Smith]

Happy birthday Doug.....we'll keep the noise down in here today! ;)

[Dave S.]

It's your Birthday Doug?

Happy Birthday

Blogger's note: It will be my birthday, we just got the party out of the way before the playoffs start

[Jonny F]

Happy b-day Doug!

Or as we say in Spanish, feliz cumpleaños!

I'm sure the rabid Raps fans will understand (well, some of them at least).

[Doug S]

Atta-boy Smith you deserve it. Let me do the mail for you today:
- Ford, Moon and Rasho will start for the rest of the year including the playoffs. They'll go with a 9 man rotation that sees Calderon, Bargnani, Delfino and Kapono coming off the bench (in that order)
- Colangelo isn't going to say or do anything else until after the playoffs are over. We will never see Magette, Josh Smith or Kobe Bryant in Toronto as much as we'd like to. Trading for draft picks isn't what this teams needs.
- Sam will do whatever he can to get guys to drive to the basket> He's no better or worse a coach than last year - but coach of the year will go to Rick Adleman.
- Unless the Raps get it together starting tonight it doesn't matter who they play in the first round.
- MVP - still goes to Kobe - see how CP3 and Lebrion have fallen off the last week or so?

Blogger's note: Ding! Ding! Ding!

[Darko Dubajic]

Happy B.day Doug ( is it on 10-th or 11-th Apr.)because mine is on 10-th. Shouldn't birthdays after 40 be outlawed because instead of being cheerful events, they are nothing but crappy reminders of ones age (to me anyways).
My question would be this, everybody is talking about upgrading at 2 and/or 3 with emphasis on scoring ( Craford, M.Miller, Maggette...). Knowing that defence wins titles and not offense, should we not go after premier stoppers at these positions and who could you tjink of that we might get our hands on be it trade/free agency or whichever way. What is contractual status of say Raja Bell, since BC already got him once.Thanks.

Blogger's note: Bell's got two years left on his deal and I cannot see Phoenix moving him.

[Jamie A. Grant]

Happy almost birthday?

Much to-do was made about Bosh extorting fans to be louder. Seems liek a chicken-and-egg thing to me. If the players are more competitive, the fans will cheer more. If the fans will cheer more, the players are more competitive.

[J.E. Skeets]

Happy birthday, Mr. Smith. How many Raps' playoff wins did you wish for?

[Riaz]

Dougie!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD MAN!!!!!

I know exactly how you're feeling right now. I'm only turning 30 this month and I feel like I'm at the end of the road. :(

[Ebs]

The tension is killing me... what truths will the mail bag bestow upon us today?

[Jason]

Happy B-day Doug!

[K.Wright]

Hi Doug,

Hope your shindig went well, happy bday old chap.

[Blaine Harrington]

Happy Birthday Douggie!
As much as I need my mailbag fix, you are entitled to a little grace period today.

There's some questioning of BC's long-term plan for the Raps this morning and I thought I'd just point out to people that, from what I can remember, the plan two years ago was to stockpile talent in order to pull off some bigger moves down the road. Do you think that plan changed when they overachieved last year?

Also, when do you think that BC will finally pull the trigger on something huge to really shake things up? This summer seems ripe to me.

Thanks

Blogger's note: I think he'll try for the big splash this summer, right around draft time.

[jk]

Happy Birthday Doug!

Now to the bad stuff:

Re Bosh's castigation of the fans for not cheering ecstatically at the Bucks game.

Earth to Chris Bosh,

These are the fans who have sold out the ACC in record numbers this year (for a mediocre team). These are the fans who help make it possible for you to go to the All Star game 3 years in a row (It's not like you draw a crowd when you play on the road).
These are the fans who have been loyal through some goddawful years and stuck by this team. These are the fans who came pumped and ready to tear the house down in anticipation of you showing VC and the Nets who was boss in the Atlantic division last year and instead watched you choke and make Jason Collins and Mickey Moore look like stars.
These are the fans who have heard you and the coaches and the rest of the team say time after time that this is "the time" to get aggressive and tough and play defense and rise through the standings only to shell out hard earned money to watch your team play weak and soft with no focus and little energy and inexcusably lose winnable games.
Even the game that got you all bothered, the game against the Bucks when YOU thought the crowd should be going nuts....the guy you were guarding, the guy who played the Celtics the night before, scored 38 point and it wasn't clear until the 3rd quarter that the Bucks (who were missing 3 of their main players) were even threatened.
The Raptors dipstick announcers try to make it seem heroic because you dove to the floor in a (futile) attempt to get a loose ball....really?? LeBron James, carrying his team single handedly to the Eastern Conference Championship....THAT is heroic...not doing your job by going after a loose ball....if you and your team had been doing that all along like you should have, you wouldn't have to whine about the crowd not cheering...
No one is entitled to be cheered...no guts, no glory...
This isn't college, you're a professional being paid millions of dollars to put on that uniform. A true leader and champion brings it ALL the time and inspires his teammates and the crowd by the way he plays...
The crowds in Utah, Dallas and Oakland, the cities cited by comparison have been give a reason to get excited by their teams....either by consistent, excellent, hard-nosed play, perennial winning seasons or out of this world athleticism and determination....in Utah, you don't get a cookie for diving to the floor for a loose ball, you get benched if you DON'T do it.
When you start paying the crowds to show up, you can tell them when to cheer, until then, you had better give them a reason to believe.

This rant on behalf of the fans excludes the morons who boo for free pizza or boo Bargnani or any player who is struggling...those people should be shot.

[Harm]

Hey Doug,

Congratulations! And respect for answering the mail hungover!

[yertu damkule]

since doug won't - DING! DING! DING1 for JK.

[Amanda Faris]

jk I don't think he was being overly serious, it's not like he's mad at us or something. He's just trying to get us all riled up and hope we'll be louder next time, because they need all of the help they can get right now. Detroit = 1st round exit. And Happy Birthday Doug!

[GM]

Happy birthday, Doug, but it's clear your lack of mention of TJ Ford further exposes your hate for the dude. Why don't you give it a rest!

[Mingo-Jones]

Happy Birthday Super Dude! A refreshing drink for ya when I see ya! ;-)