See ya in a little bit

All right, folks.

Time for a wee break over here, much anticipated and pretty much needed.

May be back with a travelogue near the end of the week, could have some time to do a mailbag for the weekend and, who knows, there could be news sometime but we’re on vacation vacation. Not sure when, or if, I'll get to comments this week but I'll give it a shot sometime; don't take it personally if it takes a little while.

Super Family’s done the Sea Wall and Stanley Park aquarium, two things I can knock off the list, but there’s a whole lot of Vancouver-Whistler-Seattle-Victoria left to do (including The Forks, which was the genesis for this entire endeavour thanks to the reading habits of others) so I plan to be a bit busy.

See ya later.

Comments

[sb]

Safe travels, Doug. I hope it is an enjoyable trip for you.

[ro]

travel safe and have fun!

[Filip T]

Enjoy your vacation Doug, if anyone deserves it it's you.

[AS]

I consider you a left wing Raptor columnist, and Fesychuk a right wing Raptor columnist. You see the good in every move the Raptors make, and look at the positive. Your an idealist. Whereas Feschuk is a hawk, and more of a realist. For example, he realizes Bosh is not taking the Raptors anywhere, and you believe he is a franchise player that should be built around.

Where is the center columnist? The man who sees the grey. The man who realizes that Bosh will probably have a great year this in his contract year but will then walk unless we pay overpay him. But if we overpay him we are screwed.

Doug..i'd like to hear you thoughts. (ideally more than a witty one liner on how im crazy)

Blogger's note: Thoughts? About your opinion? You're entitled to it.

[Kevin A.]

We all recall what happened last time you declared a vacation...

Enjoy!

[Mike kovacs]

Did you get a chance to see Entourage last night? Johnny Chase in fine form indeed! Does he remind you of any NBA coach?

Blogger's note: Missed it, maybe I'll catch a repeat this week

[Matt]

Hey Doug,

Maybe this is a question for the mail bag tomorrow but i wanna know the update on the Banks for Carroll trade. Is the trade talks dead? Whats holding the trade from happening, would love to know from your sources thanks Doug

Blogger's note: When I get back, I'll probably check

[Matt Kovacs - Age 12]

Well probably no news now. But the raptors could still pull of that trade to get Carroll.

[Imran Pirani]

Booooo, you suck.

Blogger's note: Does it make you feel smart, or particuarly insightful or funny, to type stuff like that? Thanks for adding to the discussion

[Striker77]

Doug,

Have a good vacay, man... you deserve it.. Cheers,

[Aditya]

Actually, this wasn't a tough omission -- I just wanted to comment on the Villanueva-T.J. Ford trade. Disregard Ford's scary spinal cord problems, that he can't shoot to save his life, that he's a free agent two years earlier than Villanueva, even that he lost crunch-time minutes to Charlie Bell last season. Again, I want you to disregard everything in that sentence. From a pure basketball standpoint, since when is a young point guard worth as much as a young power forward who can rebound and shoot 3s? When has that EVER been the case? How fast did the Bucks' front office say yes to this trade? 0.79 seconds? 1.2 seconds? Did they say, "Hold on, we'll discuss this and call you back in a few hours," then hang up and start pouring champagne on one another? If somebody made this deal in my fantasy league, I would have protested it.

[Colin W]

Doug: Enjoy the break with Super Family. Here's hoping you get enough fun, rest, and TLC to come back fully refresh and recharged for what should be an interesting 09/10 Raptor season. Cheers!

[Kevin A.]

Is someone actually STILL hung up on the Charlie-TJ trade? Really?

[J]

AS: The center columnist would be the realist, not Feschuk, but it sounds like you're biased in favor of him anyway if you think he's just being realistic. If you've noticed, Feschuk only writes about the negative, which makes him a negativist.

[J]

Aditya:

"If somebody made this deal in my fantasy league, I would have protested it."

Thanks for putting your thoughts into perspective. Kinda funny though that you would confuse fantasy basketball with real basketball, and vice versa. Worst of both worlds, it would seem.

[siggian]

Dear Aditya,

Since when is a trade conducted in a vacuum? At the time, the Raptors weren't sure about what they had in Calderon and wanted a point guard to run their offense. In Charlie V, they had a player they weren't sure would give a consistent effort each night and played the same position as a superior player in Bosh. They were trading a player they didn't really need for one that they felt they needed. For 1 1/2 seasons, Ford played very well and more than justified the trade from a Raptor's POV.

As far as the "since when is a young point guard worth as much as a young power forward who can rebound and shoot 3s? When has that EVER been the case?" argument goes, I'd say that nobody but a complete idiot would trade Chris Paul for Charlie V.

Sorry, but your post annoyed me and I couldn't help demolishing it.

[Kevin.S]

The center columnist is Eric Smith!

Doug,

Have a good vacation! YOU INDEED DESERVE IT!

THANK YOU!

For the Blogs throughout the summer!

[Tim W.]

Doug, if you get this in time, you might also want to check out Granville Island in Vancouver. Parking is a b**ch, but there's there's lots of shops and restaurants to check out there. Also, when in Whistler, you can take a gondola right to the top of the mountain, which I would recommend. Great views, but put on your sunscreen.

By the way, I read that the Banks-Carroll thing is just a rumour and has no chance of going through. Not that I'm all that interested in the trade, but you usually don't report anything unless you have checked your sources, so I'm interested to hear what your take is.

And for those who are anxiously awaiting my final post about the Colangelo retrospective, it's ready and waiting for you here:
http://www.wearingfilm.com/picketfence/

Blogger's note: Did Granville Island, it's cool. My take was what I wrote the day I wrote it; it was being discussed, might take some time to complete. Haven't spoken to anyone about it in a week and won't until the middle of next week.

[JR]

Have a good break. You deserve it!

[Chris]

Where is the answer to my question in the last blog?

Blogger's note: It wasn't a question; it was more of a statement and a rant and I chose to mostly ignore it.

[Aditya]

http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/cid_toT,ovGDH2EaLKL67XnPo2.teamID_96781.compID_qMRZdYCZI6EoANOrUf9le2.season_2009.roundID_6327.playerID_54973.html

remember omar cook

[Imran Pirani]

No, it doesn't add to the discussion. I meant to suggest that it sucks that you are taking a well deserved break and I now have nothing to read in the morning. Apologizes if I offended you.

[Jeff W]

Dallas Morning News says Banks-for-Carroll has no realistic chance of happening (http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/08/dont-hold-your-breath-for-marcus-banks-t.html). Shawn Marion is no doubt heartbroken.

Doug, how about a top 10 list of shooters off the bench?

[Tej]

Enjoy the break Doug, the people complaning about you not blogging about this potential 14th player on the roster for the 15th player on the roster trade need to realize the insignificance of this move in the big scheme of things. If there are no injuries it's going to be next to impossible for Amir Johnson or Matt Carroll to move ahead of anyone in the starting 5 or Evans, Nesterovic, Wright, Belinelli and Jack for the rotation. In fact, the only real fight would be if either one of Wright or Belinelli can show enough to trim this down to a 9 man rotation and outplay the other one to relegate him to end of bench towel waver.

[dean]

Doug,

I cannot believe you are on the West Caost and I cannot buy you a beer !!!!

If you come through Squamish, stop at the Howe Sound Inn and Brewing and pick yourself up some wonderful, local, micro brew beer, you will love it, I am sure. Squamish is half way between Van and Whistler, so you cannot miss it !!!

Blogger's note: We stopped in Squamish on the way back from Whistler; but it was morning and a local micro brew didn't happen.
Peace Doug

Dean