Here we go with the mail. Finally

With the schedule all screwed up thanks to that rare Saturday night home game, this is a day later than usual.

But, thanks to you, it’s just as wildly entertaining and informative as ever.

Honest. It is.

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Q: Thanks for emphasizing Rasho's performance in NJ, Doug. It is a huge positive in many ways, including building a strong feeling of TEAM on this Raptors squad. Surely it is a credit to players and coaches - and to Rasho as a person and professional basketball player.

In an era where individual performance is so heavily stressed, in an era where the STAR of NBA teams is such a focal point, what a pleasant change it is to see our team be successful without our star player available for one night. Can you help us understand HOW a team becomes a team in this era - what do players and coaches and execs do to create a feeling and fact of collective performance and recognition?

Charles N, Mexico

A: I guess the easiest way to put it is maturity and relationships.

While this certainly isn’t an “old” team by any stretch, the core group – Bosh, Bargnani, Calderon – has been together a while and looks at “team first” and winning as the only things that matters and that attitude trickles down.

In this group, the main newcomers – Hedo, Jack and Wright – also strike me as players who appreciate the “whole” as opposed to the personal.

It also helps that almost everyone has a long-term contract (on Bosh knows he’s going to get one), which cuts down on selfishness.

The other thing that comes into play, with this collection I’ve noticed, is that they seem to genuinely like each other. Not in the continually-hang-out, all-team-functions-all-the-time but there don’t seem to be any personality clashes that might even slightly fracture a team.

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Q: Hi Doug, who would you say is the third best player in the league after Kobe and LeBron?

Chaz E, London

A: Boy, that’s a toughie. But, pressed, I’d probably have to say Carmelo Anthony but I think if someone suggested – right now – Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade, I could be convinced.

But, at the moment, Anthony.

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Q: Hi Doug, hoops 101 question. What's the incentive for a team to do a sign and trade? Future considerations? It seems like they get nothing back in return. And how much more can Team A (doing the sign and trade) offer than Team B (receiving the player)? Thanks.

Ian M, Ottawa

A: We’ll run through this really quickly now because we’ll be hearing about it a lot once the summer hits.

For the team losing the player, the incentive is that they get players back for one who wants to go.

For the team getting the player, being able to shed contracts and personnel can’t hurt.

For the player? He gets money, lots more of it.

Now, don’t forget, it’s got to be a negotiation. If the two teams can’t decide on which players are coming back, there doesn’t have to be a deal.

Teams can offer their own free agents contracts that are one year longer and have larger annual raises than any other team can. That'll be about $30 million on a maximum value deal this summer, the supposition is.

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Q: With the talk of free agency and the fact that the existing team can pay extra there would seem to be three other factors that will play into the situation:

Personal happiness--very hard to evaluate.

Tax rate--Florida and Texas for example have no state taxes although the US could be in for a massive Federal hike due to their dire financial situation.

Bosh, Wade and James are all represented by CAA. This is the most powerful group out there and these three are by no means their top clients.(Bosh and James also have a separate agent but minor compared to this group)

It would seem that CAA would benefit by having two of these guys playing together or even all three. Your thoughts or have you had time to do an evaluation on this group and their influence?

Marcus R, Cameron

A: Agencies exist to make money, right? Well, doesn’t it make sense to have high-profile clients in different cities so they can sell more t-shirts and tickets, raise more cash so there’s more to go around? Not to mention the endorsements that wouldn’t have to be split in the same city.

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Q: Hey Doug. I was watching the Wizards game Saturday night, and it dawned on me that the TV folk are quite fond of mentioning one specific stat over and over: the win-loss record following our 7-13 start.

I thought it was interesting that in your blog you mentioned more than a few times that you shouldn't judge a team until 20 games (or so) into the season. That 7-13 record is 20 games. The funny thing is, it's consistently cited as the time they turned things around and became a better representation of "what kind of team" they are: pretty good.

This obviously flies in the face of your theory. Care to re-evaluate the 20 game stance?

Thanks for all your hard work, my man!

Adam B, Kingston

A: Um, doesn’t it actually validate my theory that it takes at least a quarter of a season for a new team to find out what it is? And it did. Maybe it was 22 games, or 23, but my suggestion of 20 was, in fact, pretty bang on.

People who judged them as an historically inept defensive team and one destined for the lottery after 15 or 17 games were wrong.

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Q: I noticed before the Wizards game you spent quite a bit of time chatting with Bryan and Marc. Were you talking hoops or places to eat in different cities. Are those types of conversations off the record? We do not read much about Marc, can you tell us more about his role with the team.

Howard B, Toronto

A: Those are conversations you have in the normal course of doing business, it’s what I do. And some of them are on background, some aren’t and they happen quite often, just not usually on the bench minutes to tip.

Marc? He’s an adviser, he travels with team constantly to be around and offer whatever assistance and advice he can.

I think you might consider him a liaison between the front office and the players in some regards.

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Q” Hi Doug, Rhetorically, will Bosh’s new nickname be Wally Pipp? Great job by Rasho as I type this during the second game. My question is what can Jay do to help them with their mental toughness or is that a job for BC?_

Nick K, St. Catharines

A: There’s nothing either of them can do; that’s all on the players.

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Hey Doug. Long time fan ever since my school boy years and visits to the Sky Dome during inaugural season. As a dedicated student at WLU I spend break time from studying (that's what mom believes...) to check your blog, raptors.com, ESPN, etc. Ok, you get it - I bleed purple..I mean red, white and black. On that note, how about the Olympic spirit that is sweeping us non patriots up off our feet? I now know what it feels to be American. By far my favorite moment was Jon Montgomery's walk through Whistler, fan brings him pitcher of beer, Jon chugs it - on national television. Stereo-typers around the world were drooling as this truly 'Canadian' moment. What has been your favorite thus far?

Ben G, Waterloo

A: You know, having been in Dallas until late Monday night, at a game Wednesday, in Jersey Thursday and Friday and at a game Saturday, I haven’t seen enough to really have a “moment” yet.

I did see the Montgomery walk, though, and it was pretty cool.

Hard work, loud people and a clipboard bites the dust

Boy, this sleeping in until 7:30 on a Sunday morning sure feels good.

Means work gets done a wee bit later but what the heck, it’s a lazy Sunday morn.

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THREE POINTERS

Getting the job done early

Yes, the game was won shortly after 9:30 Saturday night (and that’s quite enough of the 2:38 marathon games, thank you very much) but the work actually began about 18 hours earlier.

With so many new guys in so many new spots, the Wizards were horribly difficult to prepare for and this coaching staff in Toronto is rather anal about knowing what teams like to do, what kind of stuff they run, how it should be defended.

So with nothing to go on, it was a scramble to get ready. They had a freelance scout at Friday’s Denver-Washington game and by the time I was talking to Micah Nori (who handles the preparing of scouting reports) about 45 minutes after the Raptors-Nets game in Jersey, he’d already received an e-mail with the play calls of Nuggets-Wizards with corresponding times they were called in the game. Like, “thumbs-down, 7:25 first; floppy-get, 5:29 first” and so on.

Micah also already had a DVD burned of Nuggets-Wizards and he spent the plane ride home matching play call actual play, compiling a report that said things like “thumbs-down is a down-screen for Howard” so something.

It was on Jay’s desk early Saturday morning, Jay got the arena about 11 a.m. to start figuring out how they’d like to defend each set and the coaches met in the middle of the afternoon to discuss it. By the time the players arrived for a 4:45 p.m. walk-through on the practice court, all the strategy had been devised and the teaching took place.

So when you saw Jay patrolling the sidelines, screaming out defences and what to look for whenever he heard what the Wizards were planning to run, it wasn’t out of guesswork. It was out of a lot of quick preparation.

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Quite a loud gathering

I’ve been known at times to mention that perhaps the crowds at the Air Canada Centre are, well, maybe not so good or attentive. Focusing on sauce-covered cardboard, a tad over-reactionary early in games; you know the knocks.

Well, not so much Saturday.

Maybe it was that the rare Saturday game gave them a chance to get more warmed up than they usually do in the post-work rush to get their midweek.

But they were in full throat from the start and really provided a boost in the game-turning fourth quarter run.

Shows you that momentum aided by from-the-heart cheering really can help a home team.

Second-best crowd of the year was the general assessment, behind only the Laker game but ahead of opening night.

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Live and learn

The Ljubljana Legend had another pretty good one – 10 points but only one rebound in 19 minutes of what had to be a tiring back-to-back to someone not used to playing much – and he did show he’s a quick learner. About four minutes into the third quarter, Rasho lumbers down the lane and hits a little floater that he throws up overhand to avoid any defenders.

Big deal, you say? Well, a night earlier, he tried some underhanded thing in the paint that Super Son could have blocked, a shot that never got more than eight feet off the ground before it was swatted away.

Saturday’s runner-like field goal was quite something to see.

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Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera

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Here’s one for you:

In 2008-09, the Raptors won their 31st game in the 80th game of the regular season; they got to 41 31 in Game 55 this year.

Yeah, it’s been quite the turnaround.

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Did you notice that another clipboard paid the ultimate sacrifice at the Raptors bench during an anger-filled timeout last night?

I believe that’s two this season that have given their lives so the Raptors could play better.

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You folks don’t know Michael Lee, who has the unenviable, and tiring, task of covering those Wizards. Let’s see, he’s had to deal with, in order:

Slow start, all kinds of injuries and chemistry issues; the seemingly never-ending Gilbert Gun saga, season-long suspensions, almost daily trade rumors and, finally, a week with two major transactions. Oh, and now he’s got the buyouts of Zydrunas Ilguaskas and Mike James to worry about daily.

Saw him before the game, had to laugh a little at his plight (we enjoy our gallows humour) and then told him I figured he had to glad all the off-court shenanigans are almost over. He looks at me and says:

“Gilbert’s in court next month, it’s never going to be over.”

Tough year for Mike. Very tough.

And here’s what he wrote about last night.

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Somewhere in the bowels of the Air Canada Centre, I would presume someone’s in a video room cutting footage of Marcus Camby for one of those 15-year tribute thingies, right?

He’s coming Wednesday with the Portlands and I hope they don’t get caught unaware and forget.

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I mention this only because it apparently got out there during Friday’s New Jersey broadcast of the Nets game, thanks to Mike Fratello, who has been a decade-long friend of Hedo and who shares representation with him, I’m told.

The quick trip back to Turkey last week was because Turk’s mom had open-heart surgery and when I talked to him about it Saturday night he said everything’s under control and she’s doing better.

And I will say this: If Fratello hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have asked him and if I had found out, I don’t know whether I would have told you.

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So, what’s up this week?

Portland here Wednesday, Cleveland here Friday, at Oklahoma City on Sunday where I’m pretty sure the citizenry won’t be glued to an Olympics pucks game that afternoon (although, who knows, a Russia-Sweden gold medal game might catch their fancy).

Anyway, it was pointed out to me that the Blazers are on a back-to-back when they get here and so are the Cavs so that’s got to maybe help.

The weekly guess: 1-2 would be pretty good, no?

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All right, I’ve got all kinds of mail to get to for tomorrow morning as it turns out, some kind of off-day story to drum up and, perhaps, a few hours of long-neglected couch time to deal with. Gotta love no-game Sundays.

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The Goods On The Game, Wizards at Raptors

Hey everyone

Welcome back; a rare Saturday night here. And no, there's no Don Cherry.

But there is me.

Ready?

A true pro shows up and a man's unmasked

I can hear it now:

Ra-sho, Ra-sho, Ra-sho

Some night for him, eh? Consummate professional all the way.

Oh, and a pretty funny guy, as you know.

Asked him about the Slovenian Dream Shake move and he says, something like:

“I was saving it. I didn’t want to bring it out too early; you told me the all-star weekend was boring and I didn’t want to go. I wanted the days off.”

Anyway, on to the stuff

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THREE POINTERS

Big finish

End of the first quarter, Nets score with 5.5 seconds left. Raptors inbound the ball, Jose goes 50 feet in a blur, hits Antoine Wright with a perfect pass, Wright takes his time, pump fakes a Net and drills a three-pointer with two-tenths of a second left.

End of the third quarter, Raps have the ball up eight, the Nets have been charging. They move it smartly around side-to-side, Andrea (I believe it was) finds himself on the post with a double-team coming and the clock running out. Instead of forcing it, he kicks it to Jose who pump fakes someone and drills a smooth three with four-tenths of a second left.

This has not generally been a team that finishes quarters like that; quite to the contrary, actually. They usually give up those shots instead of making them (how many uncontested buzzer beaters can you remember them giving up to end quarters?) and that’s what made last night at least mentionable.

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Good one night, not so much the next

Remember way back in, I think, the Milwaukee game, when the Raptors junked it up and played a whole whack of zone defence near perfection in a comeback win?

Well, not so much last night. We saw that zone for the first time (at least in more than one or two successive possessions) and I think the Nets scored on at least the first three – hitting a couple of threes that made the game a bit closer than it should have been.

I don’t know how much they work on it at practice, but if they’re going to pull it out of the bag, they need some more. What I saw was slow defensive movement side-to-side, which is a danger inherent in zones and if they don’t clean that up, they can’t use it.

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No masked man

I look up before the tip and see Hedo fussing with the straps of the mask and then about six minutes in I notice it’s gone and I figure something’s wrong with the strap and it’s being fixed.

Then he never wears it again and I’m like, “oh, oh, this might be an issue.”

Says Turk when I asked him:

“It’s really bothering me because the game’s I’m playing with it, it’s effecting my shot and my game. I’d rather take it off and play without it.

“It makes me look bad, and not just from the look. I’m not worried about that; I look bad playing, not myself. You keep trying to fix it, it slides. You go into a pick and you get hit and hit covers the face. I make that decision … it’s basketball, you never know, but at least I know I’ll feel more comfortable now and try to play without it.”

The best thing everyone can hope for today is that when the doctors get a look at him again they find that the tiny fracture has healed well enough to go sans mask. And, believe me, it must be getting a lot better because there would have been a big issue with the staff last night had it not.

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More? I’ve got a little more.

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You know what’s cool on the road, especially when you’re on the east coast?

You finish writing and have time to relax, head back to the hotel, find a lounge and sit and check out what’s going on in the late games.

You discuss strategy, talk about the players, wonder what teams will call out of timeouts and generally go over and break down the game while letting the post-writing adrenaline rush calm down.

Same thing here Friday with one exception.

Thanks to whatever way-up-the-dial NBC network they had on the corner, a couple of scribblers broke down a narrow overtime triumph for Canada’s plucky women Olympic curlers and I think I’ve found my favourite Vancouver Games team.

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It cannot, at any level, be any fun covering those New Jersey Nets. But you have to write something and here’s how Dave D’s guy summed up loss No. 50.

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Same scenario plays out before games in every NBA arena. About 90 minutes before, some kids or fans line the edges of the stands next to the tunnels leading off the court and try to cadge autographs from players as they head back to the locker room after the warm-ups.

Well, we’re standing there last night as the early work gets done and Alvin Williams is heading back to the locker room.

A handful of kids are along the rail as Alvin jogs by, trying to get his attention. One was louder than the other:

“Hey, Mr. Banks! Mr. Banks! Mr. Banks! Please sign.”

Oblivious, Al keeps going, looking back over his shoulder to see where Marcus was. Marcus was nowhere to be seen, seems the kid was a tad confused and, I have to admit, Al wasn’t all that impressed being mistaken for a guy about five inches shorter.

Got a lot of yucks out of Marcus and him, though, when they heard about it.

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Speaking of stories from other places, the Wizards upset the Denvers on Friday and here’s what the Washington Post had to say.

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Oh, and this’ll be your last shot for mail; figure I’ll do it for Monday ‘cause tomorrow’s going to be really dead with a day off for the lads and, I believe, a Mighty Yankees Coaches Meeting And Social Hour to watch some pucks game.

Send the queries here.

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Oh.

My.

God.

I just heard some Talking Head on ESPN, talking – still – about the golfer dude’s soul cleansing statement yesterday and he said something like (and I’m paraphrasing here because I was too stunned when it was being spoken):

“People will remember it as a ‘where were you when Tiger Woods spoke moment’.”

I swear. He did.

It was a pro athlete confessing sins to save his marriage and his image. Nothing more. Nothing less. It was better than I thought it’d be, actually, but to use that kind of phrasing (and it goes back to the John Kennedy assassination, you young ‘uns) is just plain stupid.

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Anyway, a plane awaits in a couple of hours to shuttle me to the island so I’m close to the arena and can get right to work. Not sure how much I’ll be around here to do comments but I’ll get to ‘em eventually.

Have a nice day.

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The Goods On The Game, Raptors at Nets

With dozens of people in the building about 30 minutes to tip, it's almost time for ...

Ready

Real professional men's basketball

Raptors pre-game chat

Doug held a live Q&A today at noon, as the Raptors prepared to take on the New Jersey Nets.

Life Without Chris, the opening; and some trade reaction

Join Doug Smith at noon Friday for a live basketball Q&A, as the Raptors get ready to take on the New Jersey Nets.

So, life without Chris.

You gals and guys ready?

I can only imagine the angst that’s building in some minds today, what with Toronto – already capable of playing down to opposition – going up against the 5-49 Nets without its best player.

Oh, boy. They lose and I might have to turn this machine off lest it blow up.

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Well, it sure wasn’t The Gangster for Juan Dixon, was it?

No, not around these parts, where Bryan did the right thing, in my opinion, and stood pat with the group he’s got.

Which gets me to this.

Can’t remember who sent this the other day to the comments during the in-game chat and I apologize for not getting the name. So, a blanket thanks to whoever it was, hope to hear from you again because it’s a good point:

You seem to contradict yourself with a couple of your answers. You don't want to shake the team up because it’s going well at the moment but you also say that it is a .500 team based on talent. The players seem to have adjusted to each other at this point, and obviously going forward there is some room for growth from guys like DeRozan but if this team is only good for 43 wins shouldn't it be looking to add more talent?”

Actually, I think it's a bit better than .500 but I get your point.

And mine is that you grow teams by letting them stay together and to make a move with one of the core players is simply a step sideways at best, backwards at worst.

I think you can add without subtracting, by picking up a mid-level free agent in the summer, maybe a draft pick or simply by letting the six or seven guys who carry a franchise get more and more familiar with each other.

This is a pretty good group and eventually could be very, very good if left alone. Most growth of a franchise comes in a rather steady line rather than a huge jump, let’s let this line go rather that continually be putting key pieces in and out.

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But, yes, there were some trades and, in a perfect world, we’d be sitting here discussing how they affect this season, who filled what need on the perimeter or in the middle or on the bench.

But, no. The topic is money and cap space and LeBron and that’s a sad state for fans in New York and Chicago and Sacramento, as I mentioned in this morning’s offering for the paper and the web site.

Knicks-Rockets-Kings

New York gets

Tracy McGrady from Houston; Sergio Rodriguez from Sacramento.

Sacramento gets

Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey from Houston, Larry Hughes from New York.

Houston gets

Kevin Martin and Hilton Armstrong from Sacramento, Jordan Hill, Jared Jefferies, a 2012 draft pick and the right to swap 2011 draft picks from New York.

Yes, the Knicks have an awful lot of money to spend this summer and they’re going to need it because they won’t have many players. I sure hope Donnie Walsh’s salesmanship is up to snuff because if he doesn’t land two of the biggies, that franchise is in the toilet forever. And think of this: Since a free agent can get about $30 million extra from his existing team and if he wants to leave it’s likely to be in some financially-beneficial sign-and-trade transaction, the Knicks have nothing to offer.

The winner? Clear cut, no-brainer.

The Rockets.

They get the best player in Martin, draft picks, a good young kid in Hill and have remade the team by turning one asset – McGrady – into a great package. This is a steal for them, regardless of what the Knicks do in July.

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Bulls-Bucks

Chicago gets

Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander.

Milwaukee gets

John Salmons

Money dump by Bulls, helping a team that’s chasing them in the playoff race but my big question is: What’s this mean for Carlos Delfino.

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Bulls-Bobcats

Chicago gets

Acie Law, Flip Murray and a first-round pick

Charlotte gets

Tyrus Thomas.

Bulls waive another white flag financially and rid themselves of what they saw as a huge headache of a player. But if Larry Brown can get to Thomas – and Larry Brown’s patience with young players is perhaps not the greatest in the game – the already-athletic Bobcats get deeper.

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Knicks-Celtics

New York gets

Eddie House, J.R. Giddens, Bill Walker

Boston gets

Nate Robinson, Marcus Landry.

Well, at least New York has some bodies to finish out the season. Nate in Boston? I don’t know. That’s an interesting mix of characters already and adding a Look At Me guy like Robinson is a big, big gamble.

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There were a few other minor deals, financial giveaways for Theo Ratliff for San Antonio to Charlotte, Ronnie Brewer from Utah (although Memphis getting Brewer strengthens an awful bench) and Dominic McGuire from Washington to Sacramento.

Yawn.

What the day did for this year? Nothing, really.

The Lakers are still the chalk in the West, the Cavs are still big favourites in the East and no contender made a move to really challenge them.

Can’t wait for this time next year when we get two more weeks of breathless analysis of where Amar’e Stoudemire is going. Again. As I said:

Yawn.

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Oh yeah, we’re going to answer some questions today, right? At noon. Right here.

That gives the golf dude a chance to cleanse his soul before we get to our important stuff.

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All right, you know how we usually give a link to what’s going on with the team the Raptors are playing and it’s always My Man Dave D down in Jersey?

Forget that.

He’s been freed from watching this Nets dreck and he’s A Boy At The Games. Check this out.

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I know there was some debate, or question, about who might start in Bosh’s place here Friday against the Nets.

Has to be Rasho. No other decision, really.

Makes entire sense in that Jay likes to do the thing that disrupts the fewest number of players and plugging in Rasho to that spot and leaving Amir and Reggie to the roles they play does that.

Makes entire sense in that Rasho can wrestle better with Brook Lopez than either of the other two, most likely.

The only problem is at the other end because without Bosh’s post presence it’s hard to imagine Lopez picking up his traditional two fouls that take him out of the game early.

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Speaking of that golf dude and his public whatever it is, I have to give a big huzzah to the Golf Writers Association of America.

Not sure if you know this – I didn’t until last night – but they were asked to provide three pool reporters to chronicle the statement and flat out refused.

They don’t want to be just a studio audience and I’m glad for that.

Not being able to ask questions and to sit there simply like props denigrates what they do and what they are and sends a bad message.

Look, I’m not entirely sure I care what Tiger Woods says but for him to entirely manage the entire process – one camera, a statement, no questions, no nothing – makes me sick.

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Okay, okay.

You’ve gone through Dave’s story by now, here’s what’s up with the Nets. And how many of you are going to see Hump and think (a) Tony Dow or (b) Fashion Model?

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Right. Mail. More please. Send it here.

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Deadline a dud; no moves afoot

This group of Raptors is the one that will finish the season.

Try as he might – and he was working the phones trying to make some move even if it was small – general manager Bryan Colangelo is sticking with his 14-man roster as the NBA’s trade deadline came and went.

“Nothing even close” was how one team insider put it minutes before the 3 p.m. deadline arrived.

And that’s not a bad thing to the current roster and coaching staff after everyone expressed confidence in the group already assembled.

“I think we have all the help we need in the locker room right now,” Jarrett Jack said after practice on Thursday afternoon.

And coach Jay Triano, who will be without all-star power forward Chris Bosh on Friday in New Jersey, also was fine with the lack of movement.

"Bryan’s been working trying to make deals and come up with things to make us better and I think, bottom line, we’ve all agreed in the locker room that this is who we like,” the coach said. “We think we’ve figured out how to play together a little bit better – still there’s a lot of work to do – but we don’t mind where we are.”

No Bosh for the game in Jersey

A mild sprain of his left ankle will keep Chris Bosh from realizing a goal of playing every game in this Raptors season.

Just finished practice at the Air Canada Centre to be told Bosh won’t travel with the team for Friday’s game in New Jersey, the first one he’ll sit out after playing all 53 so far this season.

Bosh was hurt late in Wednesday’s game against Memphis when he blocked a shot and came down awkwardly. He finished the game but the ankle worsened over night.

He wandered out of practice in sweats about 40 minutes before it finished and was off to get more tests done.

Coach Jay Triano said he’s mulling over a couple of possibilities as a replacement for Bosh against the Nets but won’t make up his mind until Friday.

There was no word on whether Bosh would be available for Saturday’s home game with the Washington Wizards.

The other news: Triano said that as of about noon, he didn’t expect president and general manager Bryan Colangelo to pull off a trade before the 3 p.m. NBA deadline.

But Colangelo was not in the practice gym, deciding to stay upstairs and work the phones.

Some good, some bad and of course Turk had to play

Tough night and there will be more of ‘em; get used to it if you aren’t already.

But it was a close game, almost a buzzer beater if Bosh gets that shot about a foot further, good early comeback by the locals and, all in all, not a bad night’s entertainment.

So …

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THREE POINTERS

Lose A Game, Save A Guy

Yes, Hedo Turkoglu was bad last night, couldn’t make a shot, didn’t play with much energy, took two very bad three-pointers late in a game that he shouldn’t have.

And you know what, I’m fine with him being on the court. No problem with that at all.

No one knows precisely what family issue he was dealing with last weekend in Turkey – his coaches and teammates know, we don’t and that’s cool with me, too – but it was obvious he wasn’t right.

But coaching is as much about managing men as drawing up plays and it was important for Turk’s psyche that he be out there and I’m sure Jay knew that.

“He wasn’t the only guy that struggled but when you think about what he’s gone through the last week, instead of knocking him down, we’ve got to try to pick him up and get him back into the fold with us.”

Yeah, they lost and Turk missed shots. But in the grand scheme of things, it was one game. And if you send a message and still take a loss, well, stuff happens. There goes the 30-0, post-all-star finish. Big whoop.

You don’t think Turk noticed that his coach stuck with him in tough times? You don’t think the rest of the players didn’t think, ‘hey, Jay’s giving a guy going through crap his usual role?’ I’m sure they did. And I’m sure it’ll pay off sometime. That’s how the game works.

It didn’t work out last night. Big deal. They still had a shot to win and didn’t.

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Two Out Of Three Pinfalls

I will say this for Andrea Bargnani last night: He got down there and did some hand-to-hand combat with Marc Gasol that made me sit up and take notice.

He was locking him up arm-in-arm fighting for rebounds – Bargnani has a tendency to shy away from that kind of wrestling – and I swear I saw Andrea get two rebounds in traffic in the fourth quarter.

I know it’s one game but, still, it had to heartening to see and when you compare it to the manhandling the Grizzlies put on Bargnani and Bosh and the Raptors when they played in Memphis eons ago, it shows how far the Raptors have come.

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Tough Kid

A whole lot of people thought last night might be a big Reggie night because they needed his girth and guile to go up against Zach Randolph.

Well, how about that Amir Johnson?

Reggie was okay in his four minutes – four points, four rebounds – but it was Johnson who more than held his own defending Randolph for long stretches.

I don’t know what the future holds for Amir – I still think he’s perfectly suited for the role of frontcourt sparkplug off the bench – but he continues to be the surprise of the season for the Raptors.

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The rest? Here’s the rest:

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Some deal, eh?

No matter what transpires the rest of this season, Danny Ferry won himself the executive of the year award with that gem of a trade Wednesday.

In case you missed it, here’s how it breaks down

Cleveland gets:

Antawn Jamison from Washington and Sebastian Telfair from the Clippers.

Los Angeles gets:

Drew Gooden from Washington.

Washington gets:

Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the rights to former second-round pick Emir Preldzic and a 2010 first-round pick from Cleveland and Al Thornton from the Clippers

The winner?

Duh!

I know the Cavs had a dalliance with Amar’e Stoudemire and everyone expected that deal to get done but Jamison is, in my opinion, so much better a fit it’s not even funny.

Great guy, doesn’t demand the ball, can play at both ends and would seemingly be a perfect complement to LeBron and Shaq.

Jamison, 33, may have two years and about $28 million left on his deal, but if you’re the Cavs, who care? This is all about winning this year and making LeBron happy.

Does is give Cleveland, which already has the best record in the East, what it needs to compete with the presumptive West champion Lakers?

Probably not; the Cavs are thinner at centre, are still lacking at point guard (if anyone thinks Telfair helps, they best adjust their meds) and don’t have many athletes at the wings.

But they had to do something to try to appease James and this was a bold, bold move.

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So I’m watching the Olympics for a second in the press room yesterday afternoon, listening to a curling tutorial going on over my shoulder, when I glance at the TV just in time to see that cauldron thing behind the fence.

And I’m thinking: Did they model that after the rusty monstrosity on the west side of the Air Canada Centre?

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Oh yeah, if you want to send mail, send it along to here. Figure with the game here on Saturday and no practice Sunday, we might delay the mailbag a day and do the usual post-game stuff on Sunday.

Or we might do what we did last week, nice tight mailbag and the usual drivel on Sunday morning.

We’ll see.

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This is how trade rumours start, sort of.

I’m sitting on the bench a couple of hours before the game when a guy sidles up to me.

“You hear? Chris and Andrea for LeBron and Shaq.”

Much guffawing and laughing and I tell the guy, sure, I’ll put it out there, citing an inside source.

“No way, use my name, let’s get this started.”

Okay, so, according to Alvin Williams, the Raptors are toying with a blockbuster that would send Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani to Cleveland for the expiring contracts of LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal.

(Now, before anyone – and someone will – starts debating the merits of it, it’s a joke.)

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Down in Memphis, this is how that game played in the papers.

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Still with trades, since so many aren’t official – Tracy to the Kings for Kevin Martin, Nate Robinson to Boston for Eddie House, even John Salmons to Milwaukee for Kurt Thomas and Francisco Elson – we won’t fully dissect them until the morning.

First off, deals can break down; secondly, I may need stuff for here in the morning.

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I will say this, though:

Darko Milicic for Brian Cardinal is perhaps less significant than Patrick O’Bryant for Will Solomon a year ago.

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So what’s going to happen with the Raptors before 3 p.m. today?

Well, every source I talked to last night suggests very little, which means something big could happen.

I kid, of course, but I do know Bryan is working hard seeing what’s out there, both in big names and little names, bold moves and tweaks.

And as we saw yesterday, things have a way of changing rather quickly. Amare’s not a Cav, Tracy’s not a Knick and the stuff you read in the days leading up to today don’t necessarily come true.

Speaking of Stoudemire, I asked a very high ranking NBA executive last night if Jamison to Cleveland meant Stoudemire to the Heat. Here’s what I got:

“Don’t know, but I’m beginning to doubt it.”

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All right, time to go get settled for what might be a busy deadline day. Travel times – a 4 p.m. Porter flight to Jersey – and practice times are going to preclude anything live in these parts today but, rest assured, soon as I hear something, we’ll get some post up from here.