Maybe it'll be a bumpy ride

Hello from Chicago and halfway home.

Even keel, folks. Even keel.

No, they’re not as good as they were the other night against Cleveland and, no, they’re not as bad as they were In Memphis on Friday night.

At least not at the moment.

And if it was going to take 15 or so games to see how this all shook out before the season began, that remains the truth today, a mere two games Into an 82-game marathon.

But there were some things at the FedEx Forum. Like …

(Oh yeah, sorry I’m late, 3:30 wakeup for a 6 a.m. flight and there was no way I was doing this instead of getting about two hours of shuteye).

-

THREE THINGS I LEARNED

It may eventually work

About six and a half minutes to go, game’s still in doubt and they run a play you better get used to because it’s going to be a staple.

Hedo’s handling on the wing, they run a side screen-roll with Bosh as the other three Raptors are on the other side of the court.

They get a switch, Bosh immediately goes in the post with a small guy on his back, Hedo dumps it in and the Grizzlies immediately send the double-team off Turkoglu.

Bosh waits for the double to arrive, kicks it back out to a wide open Turk who misses a three but Bosh, because he’s got a small on him, easily gets the offensive rebound for a putback.

I know no one’s seen that enough in two games, mostly because Turkoglu is very much still finding his way and not nearly as aggressive as a facilitator as they want him to be, but it’s something you’ll see a lot of as the season progresses, I’d bet.

Here’s how Turk put it when it was pointed out that he didn’t get a whole lot of shots:

“We had guys who were feeling it … I just tried to do my job and keep myself ready … I took fewer shots than I normally do but if we are doing a good job of sharing the ball, then I am more than happy.”

Chicken angers Antoine.

Don’t imagine you caught this on the TV.

Forty-seven seconds left, the game’s over, the fans are on their feet and the Memphis Chicken, kind of a scrawny looking bear, is at midcourt waving this huge flag.

Well, he/she/it doesn’t notice the timeout’s over, the Raptors are walking back on the court and the thing almost clocked a couple of players with the flag.

Antoine Wright didn’t take too kindly to it – and I don’t blame him in the least – so he grabs it and gives it a nice tug.

The Chicken scurries away, wisely.

The rook’s up and down

Three DeMar DeRozan moments that perfectly illustrate what he’ll bring most nights.

Great block of, I believe, Mayo in the second quarter but only because he let Mayo blow by him on the way to the basket.

Excellent putback baseline dunk of a miss in the second half, perhaps his most athletic play in two games.

And, most important, a wicked crossover move on, again I think it was Mayo, early in the game that showed he can put it on the floor and if that becomes part of his arsenal, he’s going to make himself far more valuable. He’s been aggressive in straight-line drives; if he gets moves to get to the rim, he’s much more potent.

-

And, now, the rest of the story.

I heard there was some contretemps between assistant Micah Nori and Marc Iavaroni on the bench the other night – I didn’t see it but that’s what I’m told and have read about – so I figure I better find out just what’s going on.

Well, according to both principles in separate chats, they weren’t really mad at each other, they were both screaming at referee Greg Willard (and you all know the refs on Wednesday probably needed to be chastised a little bit) and it only appeared like they were at each other’s throats.

And, so I’m told, they cooled it when Willard looked over at them, put

his whistle to his mouth and was about to hit one or both with a technical foul.

-

I’m not a big Halloween guy at all so it never really bothered me that it me seems we’ve always been on the road or at a game on the big night.

Sitting at home with Super Dog going berserk with every ring of the doorbell and seeing a gaggle of cute little urchins was never my idea of fun.

“Look, honey, another Harry Potter character! How, um, cute is that?”

This year, I presume, we’ll be inundated with vampires since that’s the flavour of the month; can’t wait.

-

I believe they have just halted production of the shrine to Andrea Bargnani in Springfield, Mass.

But if they’re still building it, I’m pretty sure Marc Gasol just pushed it over.

-

If you were in Memphis this morning and woke up to see what was in the newspaper about the game, this is what you would have seen.

-

Hmm, Vince got a bit banged up in Jersey on Friday, mild ankle sprain is how the Orlando Sentinel reports it here, and he “hopes” he can go Sunday afternoon.

Now, I’m going to say this knowing it’ll be reason for all kinds of derision but, please, can you all get over the booing. It’s been almost five years, for goodness sakes.

Let it go. At least on every single occasion he touches the ball. Really.

It’s old.

And silence is golden, right?

-

Tomorrow’s mail day, let’s try to not be game-specific, okay. Send ‘em in today and I’ll have something to while dodging ghosts and goblins tonight.

-

Speaking of Sunday, there’s some scoreboard tribute planned for Brendan Malone, who soldiered through that first season 15 years ago coaching an undermanned team to a record it probably didn’t deserve.

All Brendan wanted to do in every single game he coached was to win, even knowing he was ticking of Isiah Thomas every now and then by not playing more kids.

Brendan never cheated himself, his players or the paying customers and when they do that video thingy this afternoon, you should stand up and cheer like crazy for him.

He deserves it.

-

One last trip down memory lane.

Our western friends probably know this name far better than you do in Southern Ontario or somewhere else but the media room in Memphis is named after the late Don Poier, the Grizzlies broadcaster in Vancouver and Memphis who died suddenly in 2005.

I got to know Don fairly well in our travels over the years, he was a good guy very passionate about his job and a top-notch broadcaster taken from his famiiy and us far, far too soon.

Nice to see him honoured.

Oh, now that I think of it, a few more you would know him without really knowing him. He’s the voice that’s on the EA Sports NBA games that came out between, I think, 2000 and 2003.

-

The Goods On The Game, Raptors at Memphis

And here we go for road game No. 1

Raptors pre-game chat

Doug Smith hosted a live chat with Raptors fans earlier today. Read the archive, and come back later tonight for The Goods On The Game.

We're back on the air, live (sort of) from Memphis

Of crooked refs and cool blues

Dreary rainy day here in this garden spot, kind of like the mood around the league office, I’d presume.

Because …

-

Tim Donaghy’s back in the news.

Here’s the story that’s got everyone buzzing; what deadspin says are excerpt from a book that the publisher won’t publish because its legal department had enough qualms about some of the allegations it wasn’t worth putting out a book that probably would have made millions.

The details are quite titillating, but really nothing much more than what conspiracy theorists – some of whom cash cheques from NBA teams – have been thinking for years.

The league’s going to let former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz, who did an independent investigation when Donaghy was first arrested and sentenced, look at the charges; the FBI and American federal officials say they are aware of the story but nothing else.

What do I think?

I think Donaghy is a scum felon trying to make a buck off his story; I would be more impressed had he made these specific allegations while under oath – and subject to perjury laws – during the first phase of this sordid story because that would have lent them a level of gravitas they don’t now have being in a book that a renowned publishing house won’t publish because it doesn’t seem to believe what’s written.

Are all refs crooked?

No. Not at all.

Do they make bad calls?

Absolutely.

Is the perception there that they favour star players? Without question. And has been for decades and decades.

Do refs have issues with players they see a handful of times a year?

I’m sure they do. But I don’t think they go out of their way to screw them over.

And to me, the thought that David Stern is some magician behind the curtain, pulling strings in New York to get the desired result of games, is preposterous.

Do you think he’s stupid enough to risk a multi-billion dollar business for the sake of making a few more million? If you do, then nothing anyone says will sway you.

There’ve been too many San Antonio-Detroit and Houston-New York finals, too many playoff sweeps, to make me think even the outcome of series are pre-determined. Heck, the guy couldn't even get Kobe-LeBron last June.

Look, Tim Donaghy had his chance to make these allegations when authorities could get at him and he didn’t. The FBI, which doesn’t mess around and sweep things under the rug, had him and talked to him and decided not to charge another soul.

I’m sure, if they could have, the publishers would have verified the details and had a best-seller on their hands. It couldn’t. It didn’t.

It’s juicy gossip brought to you by a convicted felon.

Of course, there will be vehement disagreement with this stance, I’m sure. The conspiracy theorists have been around for years and years and will be for years and years to come. It’s part of the dynamic of the game, I guess, and something we have to live with.

-

B.B. King’s for B.B. King wheat lager and some excellent catfish with the blues playing and the TV on the ball game is a pretty neat way to spend a night, by the way.

Sometime, this job can be pretty good; tomorrow, with the 3:30 a.m. wakeup call to catch a flight to Chicago and then home to cover two practices might diffuse some of that enthusiasm.

But, yeah, it can be pretty good.

-

Here’s one thing to watch when you see Marco Belinelli play.

His head.

Specifically, his head when he takes catch-and-shoot jump shots, or any jump shot, for that matter.

I’m told the one thing the coaching staff is working on more than anything else with Belinelli is keeping him from tilting his head back when he shoots.

When he does, it takes all the arc off what becomes his line-drive jump shot and if he makes it, it’s usually blind luck.

The coaches tell me it’s not horrible that he seems to shoot a fadeaway as a matter of course but only if his head stays at least level.

After each of the last couple practices I’ve been to, Belinelli’s been on of the last guys on the floor, getting up extra jumpers and working on that head thing.

-

Hmm, I’m two doors down from the Elvis Presley suite here in my hotel.

Wonder if he’s there?

Haven’t seen a room service tray with the remnants of peanut butter and banana sandwiches but you never know.

-

Speaking of Memphis, here’s what they’re reading in the local paper today.

-

So, they did Belinelli’s contract, which was a no-brainer, but there’s no official word yet on whether they’ll take the next step up the ladder with guard Quincy Douby.

It’s a big week for the good kid, if he’s still on the roster on Sunday, his partially-guaranteed deal becomes more fully guaranteed (I think it’s something in the neighbourhood of a guaranteed $200,000 but don’t quote me on that).

Not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, no; but I bet it seems like, well, like something in the range of $200,000 to a young kid who can probably use it.

As a basketball decision, keeping him really won’t make a huge difference right now; it’s not like they’d go out and be able to sign someone with that money who’d come in and even remotely challenge for a spot in the rotation.

No, what they do with Quincy will be all about money and the possibility to do something much later on should they feel there’s a need to.

-

Wow, big weekend for those with long Raptors memories.

Hope to run into Damon Stoudamire today, he’s an assistant coach with the Grizzlies; and then Brendan Malone hits Toronto with Orlando.

Wonder if they’ll have any great 15th anniversary tales to tell?’

-

Don’t forget, a new episode of GruntTV should hit the air sometime around noon and we’ll be here to chat about the game and stuff at 4 p.m. your time, too.

Of course, seeing how the wind and rain that’s pelting the area now have already knocked out the cable and internet in my room once this morning, there may be some changes to that schedule.

Stay tuned.

-

That was a big Opening Night hit, wasn't it?

Hands up anyone who saw that coming?

Didn’t think there’d be many of you.

Anyway, the caution is that it’s one game and you can’t draw too many inferences from one regular season game.

But, still, there were moments, weren’t there?

-

THREE THINGS I LEARNED

Talk may not be cheap

I know there had to be a few eyes rolled with each quote from pre-season about the dedication to defence and defence wins games and defence is the key to playoff success and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I know mine did because you hear that every year from every team and it’s mind-numbingly boring and trite, isn’t it?

Well, maybe they were, you know, telling the truth.

I know Cleveland’s offence was atrocious and they looked like five guys who’d never seen each other at times but if you hold any NBA team to 35 per cent shooting, you must have done something right.

They did shrink the court and take away the lane, they never doubled too aggressively in the post that would leave them vulnerable to outside shooting and I swear I heard more communication on defence in that one game than I have in one in quite some time.

Yes, there will be nights when they revert to form and are quite bad defensively but I think there’s a chance they might be pretty good, too.

Bosh had this to say:

“That is all we talk about. Defence, defence, defence. We are not going to work on it for no reason. You have to work on it if you want to win a lot of basketball games and that’s what we’re going to do. Nobody is expecting us to actually play defence so it’s good to come in the back door sometimes.”

-

Be ready, do something

Marcus Banks gets a lot of grief around here mostly for signing a contract that was offered to him.

But last night, he showed me a little something. And so did Jay.

Less than 30 seconds to go in the first quarter, dead ball, Jay wants to give his guards a break so he calls on Banks to play one possession. Bit of a gutsy move because who knows what kind of effort you’re going to get, right?

Well – and this tells me something about Marcus – Banks comes in, defends like crazy and forces a wild miss by Daniel (I refuse to call a grown man Boobie) Gibson to end the quarter.’

Banks then goes back to his seat on the bench, never to be seen again during the game.

Not a big play in the whole scheme of things and, yes, that’s what pro athletes are supposed to do, work hard when they’re called on. But sometimes they don’t and it was good to see Banks did.

-

More defence?

I don’t have a video clip of it, and I don’t know that one exists, but there was a play, with about three minutes left in the second, that perfectly exemplifies what Toronto wants to do on defence.

Ball’s at the top on the right, can’t remember who drives right into the lane and Antoine Wright, in perfect position protecting the paint and the “house” slides over two steps and draws a charge.

It’s really very simply weakside help defence but last year, and even in this pre-season, the slide would have come late, the lane would have parted like the Red Sea and whoever was driving probably would have dunked.

Again, not a huge play but one we don’t see a lot around the Raptors, who have to be among the worst team for drawing charges by off-the-ball defenders.

-

Now, with apologies to Paul Harvey, here’s the rest of the story:

-

This, apparently, was pretty cool.

Jay’s old Simon Fraser coach, Stan Stewardson, made the trip along with a handful of others to check out the first game of the season.

Well, I’m told Jay’s going to meet them in this little bistro after the game and when he walks and wanders through the place looking for them, spontaneous applause breaks out and one, um, exuberant Raptor fan gives him a big old hug.

Not sure the same thing happens to Ron Wilson.

Of course, the last time something like that happened to a Raptors coach was back in ’04 when the gathered boozers in the same bistro gave a rousing round of applause to Kevin O’Neill after one game.

No one hugged KO lest they get smacked in the face.

-

Hmm, Memphis tonight.

Blues City Café or B.B. King’s barbecue joint?

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

-

In Cleveland, where I’m sure they’ll be calling for Mike Brown’s head any day after that display of KO-inspired offence (lots of KO shots today, no?), here’s what they woke up to read.

-

Nice commemorative ball they gave Jose right before the game to honour him for that 151-154 free-throw year last year, which set a single-season NBA record for free-throw accuracy.

Then he bricks two in a row and I’m sure I saw Bryan asking for the ball back.

-

Good line from AP before the game. We’re chatting with a bunch of people and it’s brought up that he and Jamario, who used to have these goofy singing contests when they were teammates here, might be doing the same thing in Cleveland.

“There’s really no competition. He’s background, he does a lot of background for me, he’s good.”

-

Fifty-seven fouls. Seventy-four free throws.

Where were The Replacements when you needed ‘em?

-

Oh yeah, told you that whole Drake intro music thing was a ruse, didn’t I?

Yep, that’s me, on the cutting edge of modern music information.

-

Best thing about going to Memphis?

You can’t fly there directly, you have to go through Chicago, and you have to leave in the middle of the afternoon so you don’t have to go to practice.

Cool, eh?

More time to build a set for tomorrow’s episode of GruntTV.

See ya.

-

The Goods On The Game, opening night!

Well, folks, you all set to get this thing started for real?

Opening day Q&A

There will be a live chat today at 4 p.m., so prepare your questions and get in on the conversation.

GruntTV does the opener

And so it begins, again

Yay!

A game.

A real game.

After the month of camp, it’s about time to get into the rhythm of the season and start this show for real.

Let’s go.

-

Here’s the thing with trying to figure out what’s going to happen with these guys this season:

No one has a real clue.

Not you, not me, not Jay, not Bryan and not the players.

There are so many questions marks, so many new faces, so much still to be done that to make a prediction is, well, it is what it always is, a mug’s game.

You saw the point-counterpoint thing in today’s newspaper, right, three key issues that could turn either way and either make or ruin a season or a chunk of it.

But part of the reason we’re here is to make somewhat bold statements, generate conversation and, every now and then, get something right.

So yes. They will.

They will make playoffs next spring because I think in the way the East is constructed, they have at least as much talent as the middle-echelon teams in the conference, and more than some of the perceived bottom dwellers.

The way it looks from here, and the way it looks from just about every point of view, is that Orlando, Cleveland and Boston stand out and I’ve got Toronto, Atlanta, Washington and Chicago in that 4-7 group. You put Detroit, Philly, Indy and maybe even Charlotte (don’t sleep on a Larry Brown coached team) next in a dogfight for the other spot.

Of that middle group, there are questions everywhere. Toronto needs to defend and gel, Atlanta an interesting mix of personalities that could blow up, Washington’s never healthy and I still don’t see enough front-court scoring in Chicago.

So is fourth there for the taking? Sure. But so is seventh.

The wonderful thing about this season is that it begins with doubt and trepidation and a bit of excitement. Will they be good? Will they be bad? Will they be average? It’s going to make it fun, isn’t it?

My best guess, and that’s precisely what it is, is that they’re good enough for 43 wins, a 10-win improvement over last year.

That win 43-win total would have been good for fifth overall in the East last year, and the year before, and I bet if you offered that right now to Jay and Bryan, they’d sign the scorecard and see you in April for the playoffs.

Anyway, I’m just glad there’ll be real games to watch and dissect, lots of them starting tonight.

-

I remember seeing a comment here a week or so ago that the opening intro song was something-or-other by some local crooner called Drake.

Well, I don’t want to throw cold water on the information of others but reputable sources told me this week that it’s not Drake, or even The Drake, who’ll provide the musical accompaniment.

The sources, secret that they are, wouldn’t tell me what it is, though.

Guess you’ll have to be in the building, or reading the blog, to find out.

-

Did you catch the Cavs-Celtics last night?

Not a bad game for the first one out of the box. And if you didn’t see it, here’s how they reported it in the Cleveland paper.

There is not, as far as I can glean, any calls for the firing of Mike Brown, which just tells me those Cavs fans are not quite as, ah, excitable as you are.

(I keed. Sort of).

-

We’re standing there listening to Chris Bosh do his post-practice scrum – actually, I was standing off to the side because I’d done a lot of my work already – and noticed something quite, um, odd, I guess is the right word.

He had wrapped one of his braids around the others to create this kind of ponytail effect.

And having seen the debut of GruntTV, I was quite envious of having enough hair to even try that.

I gotta say, he’s got the best Raptors ‘do since Oak left town.

-

Speaking of Bosh, I don’t think I could have said this better when he was being dogged about predictions by experts.

It really doesn’t matter. How many prediction polls have actually been correct in the past 10 years? If you dig ‘em up, let ESPN bring that up. It really doesn’t matter.

I’m sure nobody picked the Magic to be the Eastern Conference champs last year, they were probably like sixth or seventh in the conference and look what they were able to achieve.”

Words to the wise. Or the unwise.

-

We’ve shown up at the arena each of the last two days to find young folks sitting on the sidewalk in front of the door – and this is in the late morning, mind you – waiting to be the first in the joint for Metallica concerts at night.

Now, I don’t recall ever, ever lining up that long before a show in my life but that may say more about me than it does about anything else.

We’ve seen all kinds of lineups over the years by fans waiting to get into concerts and seen all kinds of construction on the arena floor as crews build the stages.

Only once, in all the years the joint has been open, have we ever been even marginally inconvenienced, and it’s never been by fans.

One morning, again about 10 hours before the show began, we had to be wanded by somewhat exuberant security officials.

The concert?

Barbra Streisand.

Yeah, that kind of show attracts a dangerous crowd.

-

Don’t forget, GruntTV should be back on the air sometime around noon with some post-shootaround nuggets and we’ll see if there’s an appetite for a game-day chat this afternoon at 4.

-

You know, I think Charles Barkley hit the nail squarely on the head when he told reporters in New York yesterday that Donnie Walsh is doing a disservice to his Knicks franchise and his players by all but tanking two full seasons on the off chance he gets LeBron James next summer.

Frank Isola has the direct quotes here and they’re quite good in a Barkley sort of way. Which is to say “hey, I’m going to say something outrageous because I’m me!.”

-

So, I’m flipping around the dial just as the second half of Cavs-Celtics starts, getting my fix of DWTS, and there’s that Taylor Swift belting out a tune.

And all I can think is, ‘where’s Kanye?”

-

Time to get all sappy here for a second, if you’ll indulge me.

You don’t see the numbers that I do about this blog but yesterday we hit one that, even to a jaded old goof like me, was pretty impressive.

Thanks to you – all of you – there have now been more than 10,000,000 page views since we started this a couple of years ago. Ten million. That’s a lot.

It’s your passion and your curiosity – and dare I say your ability to goof off from work and school every now and then – that lets us get those kinds of ridiculous numbers and, from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you.

Now, get back to work so you can come back this afternoon.

-