It's much more a matter of being smart

DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR

All this running talk and suddenly everyone's all atwitter.

A nice quiet day yesterday around the lads. Everyone was pretty much doing the same story everyone did on Sunday, more energy, more speed, fun and games and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Let’s see ‘em do it two games in row, then we’ll talk.

Until then …

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I’m so tired of all this running talk that it feels like I’ve been actually running.

(Of course if I had, it’d be carrying around an oxygen tank and be hooked up to heart monitors so it’d hard to type).

Really, it isn’t “run-and-gun” because that’s the old Paul Westhead Denver style or the Mike D’Antoni Phoenix style and to be even marginally successful, it takes that kind of unique blend of talent that doesn’t exist on this roster.

So spare me all that kind of chatter about these guys.

What the Raptors want to do is play smart offensive basketball. It’s that simple.

When they rebound, get going; don’t wait around to hand the ball off to the point guard, either pass it to midcourt or dribble it yourself. It helps to have more solid ball-handlers in Anthony Parker and Shawn Marion on the court so the bigs can look either for them or then can take off themselves.

And then it’s just a matter of taking what you get on the offensive end. If there’s a runout layup, great; if there’s an open three for a trailer like Bargnani or Calderon, great; if there’s an easy post up for Bosh, great.

If not, get into your stuff.

But, please, we need to stop with all this blather about it being some quasi-revolutionary style of basketball. It’s one that’s worked for good teams for eons, even marginally good teams, and it’s something these guys should have been doing all season.

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We’re all a’twitter over this tweeting stuff over here now.

Thanks to people who know what they’re doing – as opposed to, say, me – little “tweets” go out whenever I do anything. Work-wise, that is.

It’s at http://www.twitter.com/SmithRaps in case you were all wondering. And I hope you were.

Now all it’s going to take is me to figure out how to use it without it being too much extra work for me.

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Q: Hi Doug, since becoming the starting centre 27 games ago, Bargnani has averaged 19 points and 6.7 boards per night (if he can ever add 5-6 points per night by getting some easy low post points watch out). Has he finally turned the corner for good?

Andrew J, London, England

A: Hmm, a young teenaged 7-footer takes into his third year to fully develop? Wow, who would have seen that coming!

I have no idea if he’s turned a corner – I think he’s at least a long way around the bend – but I also think some people need to listen more closely when some NBA head coach suggests it takes time for a young teenage big man to develop.

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This is odd. Trying to do my usual “what are they saying” thingy, I go to the Star-Tribune site and can’t find a single word of news on the Timberwolves?

Hmm.

Anyway, here’s what they’ve got over at the Pioneer Press.

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So, Anthony Parker has zero points in New York and 24 two days later and it confirms a theory we’ve had for almost three years now.

No matter how, he’s going to average 12 a game. It might be 0, 0, 0, 48 or 0, 24 but when it comes to the end of year? A dozen.

Wait and see.

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Speaking of, remember a couple of weeks ago when the shackles were coming off Jason Kapono? He was going to be the modern-day Vinny Johnson?

It was in Memphis right?

Check out the FGAs since then:

15, 10, 16, 9, 13, 5. Which by my math averages to about 11.3 per game.

Before that? In the first 50 games, he had 354 attempts, an average of 7.0.

It’s coming, slowly but surely. But it’s coming.

And I think if they play like they say they want to (and that’s a rather substantial ‘if’) he should benefit perhaps more than anyone..

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A Marion question from the past:

Q: Doug, I am not sure if I am remembering this correctly, but I thought you were not all that fond of Marion's game in the past. Have you changed your mind or has he gotten better?

Terry D, Kingston

A: I still don’t think he’s adept at creating his own jumper and I think there are serious questions about his shooting range (the two things that led me to believe he was a product of Steve Nash) but I am impressed with his court savvy. The guy just knows how to find space and he has the quickest second jump of any Raptor that I can remember.

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I’ve been reading an awful lot the past few days about Stephon Marbury and, to a lesser extent, Joe Smith and how they’ll be bought out and sign with new teams this week.

Know what I’d do if I were the Knicks and Oklahoma City?

I’d wait one more week, until March 2. That way, both could still sign with championship contenders but neither would be eligible for the playoffs; the deadline for that is March 1.

Why? I guess I’m just opposed to players engineering their own buyouts so they can go where they want (which is quite different from what Sacramento’s Mikki Moore is doing) and keeping them out of the post-season may seem vindictive but it may give one or of them cause to think about staying where they are. And it may stop teams (Boston, are you seeing this?) from sending out signals to guys looking for a change.

In Smith’s defence, he’s never suggested he wanted to leave; in fact, he said last week he wanted to stay to honour his contract so maybe he wouldn’t be too put out by still being a Thunder this time next week.

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From the Department of Good News Department:

Hump was supposed to dump the crutches yesterday. Doesn’t mean he’ll be back on the court any time soon but it’s an important step. And hopefully it'll mean the return of Ask Hump, although that will be hurt by the absence of the comedic stylings of his locker-neighbour Jamario.

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A good point, and a defence:

Q: Doug, I agree, for the most part, that the Big Ticket and the Big Fundamental owe their teammates over the years to their success. However, I can't let you gloss over Timmy's accomplishments - before Parker and Ginobili played any significant role in the Spurs' success, the Greatest Power Forward of All Time had already collected an NBA MVP award (2002), a ring (1999), a finals MVP award (2002).

Craig M, Vancouver

A: I agree wholeheartedly that he’s the greatest power forward of all time but take a look at those rosters. See what’s there? That Robinson guy, who was no slouch, and a huge factor in both those championships.

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Comments

[Jamie]

That's right, the real issue with Jamario is that he was starting...coming off the ebnch for his salary with what he gives you is quality...he does still have some stuff to work on, but who doesnt.

[Darko]

Re: Vlade, ok he flopped time or two in his career (or per game,
I mean who's counting, right). Best part is he won against a guy from soccer world who only god knows how much money he embezeled in his forever lasting, never ending career.
You do remember best flop of his career, Indy, final game, about 7 seconds to go. He lost the ball at midcourt but did his best job to sell the foul, and got it. Knowing that ball does not lie, he missed both ft's. You should hear some of many funny stories about Vlade. God bless him, never met anyone to accomplish so much with so little work(effort), all talent.

Re: Yugo, it should be Yugo all the way except it was spoken for by Solomon or Hasan Adams (your choice) and they could not get us even that much (or perhaps that little).
It was more like my 2 cents on Bosh than Moon. DanW (i think) said it best, he is great to come of the bench fot 15min/game. Anything more than that would only mean we suck at SF position, as we did.

[JJ]

@K:

Seems that you are very concerned with cap/money issues and have been doing your research. Kudos. As for the Raps, there are a lot of IF they do this, THEN they have this much money available scenarios. In it's simplest form, they could renounce all their free agents and based on your cap number for next year, have about $10M to spend on free agents. That's probably the scenario Doug used to come up with $10M. But there are so many other scenarios, mostly based on what non-Raps free agents they are targeting, that it would be difficult to give a more definitive figure.

A note about the Marion salary cut: The other reader suggested $12M "over three years", so averaging $4M a season. Based on his current $17M, a little more than a 75% cut.

Good luck with figuring this cap nonsense out. I've tried a little here and there, and it can get complex to say the least. By the way, you're right, hoopshype.com is probably not the best. They still have O'Bryant listed at 1.5M for this season and 1.6 next year. I guess it's good that they've finally taken him off the Kings and put him on the Raps now, since last week after the trade, they were listing him on the Kings payroll. Now that's a "crack team". Not to mention that other sites have him listed as a min contract player, meaning he can only possibly be making $800K or so this season, which Doug confirmed earlier in a column. So hoopshype can get you close, but I wouldn't consider it highly accurate. I'd think the info on ESPN is probably more accurate, being the more reputable site. And if you haven't already, look up Larry Coon's FAQ about the CBA.

[Tim W.]

Well, it appears that Marbury has been bought out and waived. I have to agree that I would have lied the Knicks to wait until March 1st. When not even your teammates support you, that says something. I would hate for him to go to the Celtics, now, and win a Championship. If anyone doesn't deserve to win a Championship after wasting his talent like he has, it's Marbury.

And Mike, Marbury claims he was willing do do whatever was asked, but then when he was asked to finally play, he declined. When he made his claims about being ready for the season, apparently several current and former teammates rolled their eyes because it's something he's said before. Marbury is famous for saying the right things, but not exactly getting himself in a position to back it up.

[K]

"Blogger's note: Trust me, better people than you have pointed out far more egregious mistakes by me than reporting the miscalculations of the league's staff. But who can he get for that money? Right now, your guess is as good as mine"

I have no doubt more egregious mistakes of yours have been pointed out.

I suppose you are quite proud of your "better people than you" insult. I concede that it is clever and witty for you and I'm truly in tatters.

However, you have avoided the substantive question to answer the rhetorical one. How can you justify a trade that opens up only $10m of cap space and costs the team talent that is worth (arguably at least) more than $10m and also costs the team a draft pick? I point out again that even with Marion we are a long shot at best to make the play offs and you've conceded that he is as good as gone by season's end (and in any event could have been bid upon without the trade).

Blogger's note: I can justify the trade quite easily. You're obsession with salary aside, I'd argue -- quite successfully -- that $17 million Shawn Marion is exponentially better for this team right now than $21 million Jermaine O'Neal was. And I contend that having money to spend on trades or free agents this summer is better than risking being one of the dozen teams jilted by big name free agents who never considered Toronto a 2010 destination.
And you will no know until perhaps 2015 whether the trade cost them a draft pick, I think the general manager, and I, have been quite clear since the deal went down that the year they give up the pick they have the financial compensation -- thanks to what's turning out to be a pretty good deal -- to get a pick to replace the traded one.
Thanks as always for writing but there are many other people here so this case, between you and I, is now closed

[John]

Hey Doug,

I know it's busy now, but in the summer some time, how about a "CBA 101" or series of CBA/Cap/Tax/Trades (exemptions, etc.) blog entries that you could link back to throughout the season. I seems like you need to repeat yourself a fair amount, and even though I try to follow the rules, I bet there are a few things you could enlighten for us.

Some stuff on the details, with laymen's terms and examples would be great.

J.