Time to make a move and Canada Basketball's new look

All right, it’s getting to be fish or cut bait time for the Raptors, roster-wise.

And as we have though all along, the only decision they’ve got to make will be to keep one of Joey Dorsey or Ronald Dupree and the time’s about here to make that call.

Now, neither has been spectacular in the pre-season and we are talking about the 11th or 12th or even 13th man on the roster but, still, on a team lacking news, it’s what passes for it.

If it’s going to be Dorsey they keep, they have to waive Dupree by Thursday so he can clear waivers before the Raptors need to be down to the 15-man limit on Monday night.

If they’re going to keep Dupree, they’ve got a few more days to move Dorsey thanks to the way his contract is structured.

What it also does, in some way, is put some added time pressure on Bryan Colangelo. If he’s going to do a deal and needs one of those two guys as either roster fillers or cap ballast, time is of the essence.

Again, it’s not the biggest issue in the world but something we will keep on top off for the next couple of days.

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So, not sure how many of you have been at a game but there seems to be a new post-game tradition.

Buzzer goes, congratulations offered and the whole team gathers in a circle at midcourt. They say something to each other and then turn and wave to the crowd before leaving the court.

Cute?

I guess.

Seems it’s an “organizational” decision I was told, something the players were asked to do rather than something they came up with on their own.

I think some of them might be doing it grudgingly for one primary reason:

There will be nights after bad losses when the fans are, um, restless and standing out there as human piñatas might not be the most fun thing in the world.

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Maks and Brandy were pretty good last night, eh?

And how about Rick Fox and Cheryl showing up at El Segundo and the Laker practice facility to say hi to Kobe and Phil?

When worlds collide …

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Gotta love it when the kids grow up.

Alvin Williams, in his front office role, is off to some high-falutin’ NBA meeting in New York, I’m told; to talk about player development programs with execs from other teams.

Will keep away from a practice or two, I believe, but the kid’s getting on with life and becoming a big whig.

Good for him.

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Rather than me just throwing this out there, why not use an early submission to the mail:

Q: Hi Doug- So much earlier on re: Dampier. What's up? Is he just waiting for preseason to end before joining a team? Would he benefit us or is he to old, to slow and to expensive?

Doug L, Toronto

A: Funny you should ask. I was asking someone who’d know about these sorts of things that very question this morning and I’m told a decision should come “soon” and it’s probably going to be either Phoenix, Houston, Chicago or Toronto. There is no “favourite” nor is there a definitive order of preference.

And I still think he’d be a good fit and he certainly wouldn’t be too expensive see how all they can offer him is the veteran’s minimum of about $1.4 million.

But, hopefully, this saga ends soon.

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Dilemma time over here.

As you may recall, part of the gig in my PBWA duties is to sit on the committee that determines the all-star ballot you all can’t wait to see and the first of a series of conference calls to figure it out is this afternoon.

Now, there are a lot of people on that call who are brighter than I am but I do have some expertise when it comes to this team and that’s where the dilemma is.

As you also may recall, each team has to have three players on the ballot, even if the third, often the second, and sometimes the first, have no chance in Hades of making the game.

Still …

So, who gets on from here?

Bargnani as a centre? Yep.

DeRozan as a guard? Check.

And the third?

I don’t know either.

Wish me luck.

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Okay, the Canada Basketball moves, one last time.

I will reiterate what I said yesterday about Leo and Allison and that is that it’s not an issue of coaching – the teams finished where they finished on merit and talent – and having them back for maybe two more years is a good thing.

But the news is the other two hires and what it’s going to mean long-term for the game.

Renato Pasquali as technical director and Michele O’Keefe as director of basketball operations are, in my opinion, inspired hires that can only mean significantly good things in the development of the sport across the country.

Not sure if any of you remember this piece I did on Renato out of the world championships in Turkey but it kind of gives a glimpse of what he is and what he feels is important.

I think one of the things lacking in the sport these days is good, fundamentally-sound coaching for the young kids and if Renato can coach the coaches, it can only mean good things.

Michele? I’ve known her for years and I know how passionate she is about the game, bringing together the disparate sides from across the country and she has some very good ideas that should be implemented.

“I think one of the first things I need to do with the crew and the provincial sport organizations is find a system that works, that the kids play less games, train more but feel like their building to something. Not just to play for Canada but also to play for their future.

“The lure of the AAU is what the kids have now and we have to find a way to keep those kids home.”

Now, she’s not talking about every kid, there will be one or two who need to go south or somewhere else for whatever reason. It’s the middling talent that – truth be told – is little more than fodder for some prep school with little hope of truly realizing every bit of their potential who need to stay here and be a larger part of the growth of the game at the young level.

I said when Wayne Parrish took over as executive director way back in ’07 that I didn’t know if the job could be done but that they had the only man I could think of who could do it.

I feel kind of the same away about Renato and Michele.

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Mail? Sure, let’s start the process.

Click. Type. Send.

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I don’t know how it’s all going to pan out or whether he can keep it up long-term but Reggie Evans was channeling his inner Oak yesterday with the long, rambling, working-man-blue-collar-drive-your-truck quote that’s in here.

And on a team starved for colourful quotes, I’m hoping he becomes something of a go-to guy for us.

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The usual fare and some Canada Basketball news

A little tardy today, had an emergency “oops, forgot it was us in charge of car-pooling” thing happen. Hate it when life’s little calamities pop up.

Anyway …

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THREE POINTERS

He’s getting enough

It’s kind of interesting for me to read questions and comments about how the Raptors need to “put more stuff in” for Bargnani or “get him the ball more.”

As one guy closely associated with the team said Sunday: “It’s not that we don’t get him shots, he’s just got to make them.” And, yes, as you see by glancing at the stats, Bargnani does lead the team in field goal attempts, he’s getting the ball down low, at the elbow and off the high screen-roll.

He was as good Sunday as he’s been in any of the pre-season games and the “sky is falling” concerns about his shooting woes early seem a tad unfounded now, don’t they? I think the best thing for Bargnani is going to be the emergence of Linas Kleiza as a top scoring threat. As long as there’s somebody else on the court to attract some attention away from him, Bargnani can thrive. And they so desperately need him to score, any little bit of help is important.

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Is small effective?

For the first extended time, we saw the Heroes Of The Hardcourt go with a smallish lineup Sunday against Phoenix with Linas Kleiza in the front court as the nominal power forward.

And you know what? I think they should use it a lot more, even against teams that are more traditional with their lineups.

I know there will be some defensive issues with it but Kleiza seems to be strong enough, and savvy enough, to handle the assignment and their weak side and help defence seems a bit better so far this pre-season.

Offensively, as was mentioned in today’s missive, the free-agent Kleiza just has a way about him that makes him dangerous no matter where he’s playing.

This is a non-traditional team, without one big scorer or proven go-to guy so why not go a bit more non-traditional and play small more often than not?

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No shock at the reaction

Anyone the least bit surprised that Turk took a rather light-hearted approach to the reception he got ought to re-think things.

As we’ve known since early last season, Turk’s default position in all things is to laugh it off, shrug with a “so what” kind of attitude and plod along.

It’s how he’s wired and it became evident to a lot of us about last December.

Does it make it right? No. Is it entirely wrong? No.

It’s the way he is and whether or not you think it’s a character flaw, it’s certainly not going to change.

Oh, and the fans?

Not quite in full throat, and certainly not as vehemently angry as I expected them to be. Maybe it’s getting old?

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And on to the news of the day.

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Here’s the gist of what’s going to happen at this Canada Basketball show we’ve all been invited to after Raptors practice:

Leo Rautins is back as head coach of the men’s team on a two-year deal.

Allison McNeill is back as head coach of the women’s team on a two-year deal.

Wayne Parrish, who has a new gig at Post Media, is the new president of Canada Basketball.

Michele O’Keefe, most recently the highly-regarded executive director of Ontario Basketball, moves to Canada Basketball and while my sources didn’t have the precise title, she’s pretty much the overseer of all things basketball.

There may be more but that’s all I could get trolling the hallways around the Air Canada Centre on Sunday.

So, what do I think? We’ll get to it more in-depth tomorrow after this thing today but I have no problem with the coaching decision on either side, that’s not biggest issue facing the organization.

The hiring of O’Keefe is a bold move and one that should serve the organization well but it’s still a long, long road back to any kind of international prominence.

Canada Basketball has taken big steps forward in the last three years or so but there remains much work to do.

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Was that really Guillermo Mota that I saw warming up in the Giants bullpen last night?

What is he, 67?

Man, I wish Super Son was a situational reliever.

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You know what? That was an exceptionally well-officiated game Sunday.

I don’t know if it was the crew (a veteran group of Joey Crawford, Scott Wall and Haywoode Workman) or the fact the players were on their best behaviour after three of them were tossed for dissent the first time the teams played but everyone acted nice and responsibly and nothing untoward happened.

Excellent.

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Didn’t see Bryan an awful lot yesterday as they were rolling up another relatively easy pre-season win over the Suns.

Presume he was in the back calling the league to find a way to get the Raptors into the Western Conference.

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So I’m guessing the Raptors news of the day after practice is going to be health.

To catch you up from yesterday, David Andersen sat out with a back issue, Julian Wright had a heel thing and we found out after the game that Joey Dorsey’s got hamstring problem and he wasn’t available.

Kind of rotation by attrition, I guess.

The one that bears watching, though, is the grotesque elbow problem Jarrett Jack’s got.

The thing is swollen up almost twice the size – he told us it’s a bursa sac thing but seeing how my medical knowledge rivals my math abilities I’m not sure what that means – and while he’s playing through it now, it’s hard to imagine him lasting a really long time with it if things don’t improve.

But he hasn’t missed a regular season game in more than three seasons – and that’s a pretty good ironman streak – so who knows, maybe he can suck it up and go.

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The Goods On The Game, Suns at Raptors

Hey everyone.

A really nice day outside in Toronto; presume it'll cut into the crowd here.

And I don't blame you.

Homecoming and other fun stuff

All ready for Turk?

Oh, and Captain Canada? Kind of mixed emotions today, no?

Well, this should get you through it until 1 p.m. when we’re back to chronicle the game.

See ya.

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Q: Hey Doug. Okay, waiting for a 2 for 1 to happen so BC gets to keep Dupree (tough D) and Dorsey (hungry rebounding) around for a while is getting boring, so since you're asking for questions.

The NBA has had its fair share of famous Johnsons (not including Wilt's or Shawn Kemp's) so here it is: Pick your best NBA team of past or present players with the last name "Johnson".

Sounds like fun, huh? You're welcome.

 

Derek S, Toronto

A: Oh, man.

It’d be a smallish team but what the heck:

Magic, Dennis, Kevin, Avery and Larry.

How’s that sound?

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Q: Hi Doug, what would it take to get Rudy....just kidding!_My question is what would be the Rudy Fernandez scenario if the shoe was on the other foot? If Rudy was under contract with say Regal Barcelona and he made the same statements to try and play for Portland? Would he get fined and then reimbursed by Portland?

Thanks for your time!

 

Anthony R, Milton

A: I don’t think there’s a Grand Poobah of either the ABC or EuroLeague who’d take him, or his agent, to task for such disruptive public talk.

Besides, who’d want to leave Barcelona for Portland anyway?

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Q: Hi Doug, a Bargs related question for you (nothing stirs up the masses like a good Bargs question). I think we all know what Andrea does well and where he could improve, but one thing after watching him for 4 years now that I simply can't believe is the coaching staff STILL does not seem to have developed one solitary "set play" they run for him. After all this time being the unanimous 2nd option (and now 1st option) he still seems to have to find his offence. That's ok for a wing player or even a big who lives off getting put-backs and fast break dunks, but shouldn't Bargs have at least 1 play where they get him the ball in a certain spot, create some space for him, and see what he can do? What are your thoughts on this? Thanks as always.

Andrew J, Burlington

A: My thoughts are they do indeed have plays, and have had for years, to get Bargnani shots. Mostly high screen-roll, or pick and pop but they have had and will have again.

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Q: Hi Doug. I have been wondering what do players do to kill time when they are on the road? Or are their days fairly structured with travel, practice, team business that they do not have much time to get into too much trouble.

Brad L, Guelph

A: There’s only evenings and they’re usually spent doing normal things like dinner, maybe a movie, a walk, hanging out.

Typically, on a travel day, the team will practice at 11, fly about 3, get to the destination sometime early evening, check into the hotel, do dinner, rest, have a shootaround from 11 ‘til noon and then be back at the gym around four.

After the game, it’s either a flight back to Toronto or onto the next city where it’s pretty much lather, rinse, repeat.

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Q: Doug, regarding the technical calls this year, do you think the NBA has a business plan with regards to the monies collected? I would expect the NBA would have an idea as to how much they expect to collect and a plan for it's distribution. Any way to find out what plans they might have?

 

Steph R, Glencoe

A: Oh yeah, there’s a business plan. All the monies the NBA collects from fines – technicals or otherwise – is passed on to the league’s charitable endeavours so the cash goes to good causes.

Too little effort and Shaq among the masses

Bit of a dog of a game, no?

There were 66 fouls and 96 free throws in a 2:42 affair and if that doesn’t say pre-season, I don’t know what does.

Anyway …

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THREE POINTERS

Lots of work to do

Having watched them stink it up at both ends of the floor most of the night, I’m unsure what has to be the emphasis on what is sure to be a loooooong workout today.

Then I figured, has to be defence, right?

I don’t know how you teach toughness or the willingness to really protect the paint but the one thing they can work on is quickening the rotations that were brutally slow and if you can’t get weak side help fast enough, there’s no one under the basket to knock anyone down even if they wanted to.

And that’s pure effort.

I don’t know how many times last night that help was slow in arriving but it was a lot and it was directly responsible for a dozen or so easy, easy baskets.

And this team is not nearly good enough to get away with that, as we’ve seen so far in the pre-season.

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Jump shots gone awry

Here’s the thing: I think we can safely assume that Andrea Bargnani, who is a shooter more than anything else; and Jose Calderon, a career 50 per cent shooter from the field (39 per cent from three) are going to improve but there are other troubling signs that need to be addressed.

DeMar DeRozan really hasn’t made many jumpers and if he doesn’t, teams will simply play off him and take away his drives; Sonny Weems seems oddly ineffective for long stretches and we know that Reggie Evans and Amir Johnson are not shooters by any stretch of the imagination.

Having the starters go a combined 17-46 against Boston – and just 2-for-7 from three-point range – simply isn’t good enough.

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Is 10 too many?

I know there’s not a huge difference in talent between a lot of these guys, which makes figuring out who to play kind of tough, but I’m wondering if it’s not time to get down to nine, or maybe even eight, guys in a rotation and work on clearly defining playing time and roles in the final three exhibition games.

Ten seems a bit too many but the trouble is, who goes? I’m guessing David Andersen would be the logical one to go from 10 to nine but if you want to get from nine to eight, I don’t see how.

You need two point guards, the four wings have to be DeRozan, Kleiza, Barbosa and Weems and you need three bigs, who right now are Bargnani, Evans and Johnson.

Guess maybe that’s the way you go with the ability to slide Kleiza to the four if necessary in some instances.

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Now, some fun stuff …

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This is apropos of nothing and a true digression but what the heck.

Ever have one of those moments when a song you haven’t heard in years comes on the radio and you smile?

Cover Of The Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook, made the drive in through the Jamison Street bridge construction a bit easier Friday.

That’s it.

We return you to the usual pap and drivel.

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Public service announcement:

You’ll be able to hear the dulcet tones of Smith and Jones on Sunday afternoon as the kids make their season radio debut.

And since I usually get the second-row seat right beside them in the two games out of three when I’m back there, I’ll be able to listen along with a lot of you.

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Now, this was an odd scene.

At the end of halftime, heading back from the press room to the court, we have to turn left in to the hallway to the bowl of the stadium, cut through the lobby of the suites and mingle with the people. The visiting players make a right of their locker room and follow a more secure pass.

Well, the walk last night was quite something since Shaq decided to veer the other way and I was about two paces behind him.

You should have seen the look on the faces of the fans, you could almost read their minds:

“Holy, crap. That’s one giant of man.”

Shaq played it to the hilt, too, shaking hands, giving high-fives and acting quite like the rock star mingling with the folks.

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Let’s do this out of the mail:  

Q: Doug, re your unequivocal "yep" to whether you would hire Charles Oakley on your coaching staff, I am trying to decide whether there could ever be a more perfect match for Oak than a Raptors team that includes Reggie Evans and Joey Dorsey. Would Reggie and Joey pre-complete Oak's sentences like Radar O'Riley? Would Oak and his henchmen walk around in an inseparable trio like Larry, Darryl and Darryl from the old Newhart show? Would they record their own version of the Young Gunz dunk-off, in which they compete to see who could set the most punishing screen? If MLSE is truly committed to entertainment they should sign Oak as an assistant coach this season just to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

 

Mike D, Toronto

A: That might be the only scenario in which I’d hope they’d welcome us in to watch the entire practice, to see that interaction.

It would make interminable three-man weaves, shell defences and walk-throughs of plays almost bearable.

Almost.

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Speaking of Oak, was nice to see him again when he was in town for that NBA TV Canada thingamabob Friday afternoon.

And, as always, he dropped a bon mot.

When he walked in the joint and wandered over to where I’m standing, I mentioned that he’d sure been in town a lot lately and that he might want to take out citizenship or something:

“Oh yeah, they’re pimpin’ me out a lot, aren’t they?”

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Speaking of mail, send some.

Here. You know the drill.

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Speaking of Oak and the NBA TV Canada thingamabob, not sure what to make of the whole station change.

Yes, there will be a few more games on this year from last and that’s good but doesn’t it smack of a way to, you know, cut corners? Now they can pretty much just flip the switch most nights and days and take the feed from Atlanta.

Guess there’s enough Raptors programming now with the pre- and post-game stuff and the daily show but I fear the chance of new programming being done or old stuff being resurrected (Hello, Norma Wick Comedy Hour!!!!!) are gone.

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And, finally, Politically Correct Jay on the ‘respect the game’ stuff.

“I think that if it helps the image of the game, then it’s beneficial to everybody in the long run. It’s a learning curve that’s going to be taught. It’s like the rule change years ago (to disallow most hand-checking) where they came back with hands on the hip. It was rough at first but the players learned. And if the players learn and it’s good for the game, then I fully support it.”

 

 

The Goods On The Game, Celtics at Raptors

Hey, all.

Back for another one.

Enjoy.

Respecting the game is getting out of hand

This whole “zero dissent, respect for the game” program the league is embarking on seems to be getting entirely out of control already.

Kevin Garnett was thrown out of a game the other night, we saw three guys tossed from the Raptors-Suns game out in Vancouver and while I don’t have the totals anywhere handy, I’d suspect technical fouls are up a huge percentage this year.

As I mentioned earlier, this has the possibility to be a hugely troublesome issue; I can see some star being thrown out of a key game that ends up having a huge impact on standings or seedings down the road and I know that’s not what the league had in mind when it went all ballistic on the whining and complaining and arm waving and the like.

The trouble is, there seems to be very little common sense being applied in some cases. There has to be a way for players to react emotionally to calls without being hit with a technical or possibly ejected from a game because those emotions they display are such an integral part of the action.

Now, there does also have to be a crackdown in incessant complaining and the showing up of officials but it seems that fine line has yet to be reached.

And with the pre-season halfway through and no improvement in sight, I wonder if it’s going to be reached before games start for real.

The union’s involved now (check out this story from My Man Sheridan) and coaches and players are, rightfully, up in arms about the subjective nature of the calls.

Not sure what the answer is but this is something that’s going to dog the league for quite some time, I fear.

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Seems the wheels of NBA justice move a bit slowly in the pre-season.

Joey Dorsey got whacked with a one-game suspension last night for hitting Chicago’s Brian Scalabrine the other night.

Usually, any kind of disciplinary measures are handed down before the team plays its next game but the folks at The Home Office were a bit slow off the mark.

Joey didn’t a get a minute of time in the win over the Sixers, but that doesn’t count as the suspension because the league treats pre-season games as they should: things that don’t really count.

What’s interesting is that Joey will be suspended for “the first game of the 2010-11 NBA regular season for which he is eligible and physically able to play.” Which leads me to this: What if that game never happens? What if he’s waived and doesn’t land a gig anywhere? Does he owe the league a game somehow? Would he be in some kind of a Suspension Holding Pattern? Is there a statute of limitations? All good questions, no? Okay, maybe not.

I didn’t see the incident but when I was talking to one of the coaches before Wednesday’s game, he expressed surprise that the Raptors hadn’t heard from the league at that point. Seems a suspension was justified.

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Oh, a quick long-term heads up here.

We had a couple of queries about the old game day question-and-answer sessions we did last year and, yes, we plan to bring them back this season as well.

We’ll do a trial run next Wednesday before the Bulls game just to make sure we remember how to do it.

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Okay, esoteric, non-basketball reference coming in the answer to this mailbag query:  

Q: Doug, what does it take for a player's jersey to be hung on the rafters? I know that being loyal for a franchise and winning a championship or two helps, but what else? Does individual stats have any influence (i.e. franchise leader in points, rebounds etc)? Do you ever see HWHNBN I or II ever getting their jerseys hung up in the ACC?

 

J H K, Oakville

A: Okay, I’m paraphrasing and stealing from Potter Stewart, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice. And when you find the quote I’m referring to, you’ll get my point.

And, no, I do not at any time ever, in a kazillion years, see No. 15 or No. 4 hanging from any rafters.

Oh, and you left an ‘S’ out of the acronym. HWSNBN.

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So, what’s in a name?

Guess we’ll find out today when Raptors NBA TV becomes NBA TV Canada or somesuch at a little Real Sports buntoss.

Not sure what it all means – I guess NBA TV Canada plays better out there among the non-Southern Ontario masses or something – but the day also includes some kind of panel discussion on the evolution of technology.

And on that panel?

Oak!!!!! This ought to be a blast.

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Speaking of Oak, remember that nifty NBA Jam Session thing he was at last Saturday? Well, the three-on-three tournament that was part of it winds up this weekend.

Winners from the tournaments in the six host cities meet in round-robin thing Saturday and the final will be played at halftime of the Raptors-Suns game Sunday afternoon.

I didn’t get a chance to see very much of it last weekend – who could pass up a chat with Oak – but it’s probably worth paying some attention to this time around.

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Mail?

More please.

Thank you.

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Hey, wanna play Guess The Lineup?

I’m banking on Calderon, DeRozan, Kleiza, Bargnani, Evans for the visit by the Bostons tonight.

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Reggie and missing jumpers and tiny crowds

Sure, two overtimes is really nice, lots of extra basketball but I’m still a proponent of sudden-death or a free throw shooting contest to decide tied pre-season games.

Anyway …

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THREE POINTERS

A Change In Reggie

It was really early in the game, maybe the second or third possession, right in front of the Raptors bench.

Reggie grabs an offensive rebound right under the basket and Jay’s up immediately yelling “get it out, get it out.” Now, last season, Reggie might have been oblivious and could very well have tried to bull his way to the rim for a shot.

This time? He did indeed kick it out, to DeMar DeRozan who drove the baseline, scored and was fouled.

Not a huge thing at all but a slight realization of what Evans is on the floor to do, get the ball and get rid of it.

Now, Reggie as a starter.

It could very well be a case of the lesser of two, or even three, evils but I do think more than a few people with titles and decision-making responsibilities are leaning that way right now.

The thing is, one of the alternatives (Amir Johnson) still has that ugly tendency to foul, which would stress out the bench if he has to come out with two personals after, say, four possessions, and there is a school of thought that the energy he brings off the bench is significant.

And as much as some of you love Joey Dorsey (hi, Mike!) the coaches don’t quite share your, um, enthusiasm. David Andersen? Poor interior defender, a non-starter.

So, it might be as much as a default position as anything, but that’s the way they’re leaning right now and it was good to see Evans might be grasping a little more of what they need him to do.

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See The Play?

For all those “they don’t have any offensive stuff in for Andrea and how are they going to get him going if they don’t run any plays for him” we bring you:

Elbow.

Saw it a couple of times last night, mostly after timeouts and on the scripted first possession, but there is a set being worked out where Bargnani gets the ball at the elbow, they run a few off-the-ball screens and try to create some space for him.

Now, it’d be nice if they had a bit more time to work on it, and if Bargnani could figure out that one-dribble pull-up jumper that’s been so effective that’d be nice but there is stuff afoot.

Oh, and you know me and projecting numbers and how it’s not something I like to do? Well, Jay seems to have no worries, as we found out when someone asked him pre-game if he was worried about the big man.  

“Not at all. It’s not like he lost the jump shot overnight or he lost his ability to score the basketball. He’s proven he can do that. I think it’s just a matter of him acclimatizing himself with new guys, (and) a completely different offence from what we’ve done in the past that’s been put in place for a specific reason. We just want him to keep continually work on rebounding and playing defence.

 

“I have no doubt that he can score between 17 and 25 points a game; but that’s what he did last year and we didn’t make the playoffs.”

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And Then There’s This

This probably isn’t a talented enough team to blow many opponents out and the fact they’re shooting 65.5 per cent as a team from the free throw line and missed 19 foul shots against the Sixers has to be, um, troubling.

And the DeRozan miss with less than two seconds left in the first overtime that would have won the game really put a damper on the night for those of us on deadline.

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And now …

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So, what’s new around the arena?

Not a heckuva lot, actually.

They put new carpeting down at the entrance to the suites and Platinum Club and it looks okay; they’ve also put new carpeting down right outside the swanky Board of Directors Lounge and it’s a mismash of grey and white and black rectangles that’s either going to cause vertigo or remind some of what they might see at a Glo In The Dark miniputt joint. My guess? It’s gone by opening night.

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Let’s get one out of the early mail:  

Q: Speaking of Gilbert and the Wizards... I read on NBA.com that they Washington is considering changing their name back to the bullets. A connection was made in the brief announcement regarding the irony of that. Would that not be an awful PR decision for the team considering Gilbert's antics last year? Gilbert also changed his number to 9... Tell me the gun he was wielding wasn't a 9mm.

 

Chris M, Peterborough

A: That, in my opinion, would be a terrible move and dishonour the memory of Abe Pollin, who made the change from Bullets for good reason. And I would presume – and hope – the league would share my view, regardless of the presence of Arenas on the roster.

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Yes, that was the longest pre-season game ever for this franchise.

Only once before – a 107-105 win over New Jersey here in 2005 – had they even played one extra period.

They’d never gone two.

And, truth be told, if Lou Williams makes that ridiculously wide open three in the corner at the end of the second OT to force a third, there would have been some hugely disgruntled people.

Not the fans, because I think it was probably an entertaining game to watch, but the coaches, who still don’t want to stretch out their players too much.

Even with a game in the balance, Jay admitted after that workload had at least as much to do with who was on the floor as strategy did.  

 

“I didn’t want guys playing 10 straight (overtime) minutes.”

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Oh yeah, in the real estate battle for newcomers, Leandro Barbosa seems to have won. He got Chris Bosh’s old digs just inside the locker room and there’s room to expand to a second stall if the Raptors do the expected and waive Ronald Dupree.

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I think the most outlandish number of the night might have been 12.078.

That was the announced attendance and I’m wondering if they didn’t count legs instead of heads.

Anyway, a couple of us were chatting courtside about bad pre-season crowds and it was brought up that the smallest ever in Toronto was 9,346 for a game against Minnesota in 2001.

Odd, really, given that the team was actually pretty good back then and would usually draw sellout crowds.

Then it hit me. It was a late addition to the pre-season because that year we were supposed to go to Germany but the trip got cancelled after 9/11.

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Mail? Sure. I can handle more.

Thanks, just do the usual here.

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The Goods On The Game, Sixers at Raptors

Well, hello everyone.

Looks like we're back for another glorious season of ...

yes

Real Professional Men's Basketball!

Have fun

On limited minutes and more Goofiness From Gilbert

All right.

So they couldn’t score, didn’t defend, lacked some energy and got hammered on the boards.

Guess 89-1 (pre-season included) was unrealistic from the start, wasn’t it?

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Anyway, am sure the angst will flow (a lot of you were extremely cranky after a four-point loss in Boston) but I honestly think you need to consider this:

The most any player has played in any game so far is 27 minutes, that was by DeRozan and Jack the other night against the Celtics; and there have been combinations on the court that are little more than taking chances at catching lightning in a bottle.

Most of the team’s offensive sets have yet to be unveiled in a game – we’ve seen more freelancing in three games than we’ll see in three weeks once things start for real – and to judge how they’ll run stuff and for whom can’t be done until after the Oct. 22 game against the Knicks.

Seriously, while there are no expectations for this team and it could very well turn into a long, long, long, long season, to suggest anything that’s happened in these three games makes that a certainty is simply wrong.

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I will add this:

If you ever see a regular season starting lineup of Jose Calderon, Leandro Barbosa, Julian Wright, David Andersen and Amir Johnson again, there will have been a huge rash of injuries or Jay will have suffered a pre-game seizure and they will get drilled that night.

Just sayin’

The pre-season is time to experiment, especially the first two or three games, and that’s an experiment not soon to be repeated.

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So, we’re about to hit the halfway mark of the pre-season so this question makes a lot of sense:  

Q: Hi Doug, So it feels like Bryan Colangelo is standing pat on his current roster. There hasn't been much suggestion lately of any big moves afoot. Almost makes me wonder if he is trying to make us forget that he still has a big trade exception to work with.

What's your best guess.

Do you think Bryan leaves the roster as is for a while, perhaps even until just before the trade deadline? Or is there something percolating behind the scenes?

 

 

Brenda C, Sault Ste. Marie

A: Unless they get off to a gangbusters start, I don’t think he sits and waits until February and I can tell you this 100 per cent: There are minor trade talks going on every single day even now.

I don’t know how serious they are – some things “on the backburner” was how it was put to me by a someone with a big title around there the last time I saw them, which was Saturday – but that what makes guessing when something might happen truly impossible.

For all I know, and for all anyone knows, something could happen today or it could happen in three weeks but if I know Bryan, something is going to happen.

It always does.

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Hey, we’ll be here tonight for an in-game blog thing, if I remember how to do it.

All Irregulars invited.

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Here’s why I’ve always loved Vlad Guerrero: He doesn’t get cheated and he doesn’t wear batting gloves.

Cool.

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Oh, had Tuesday’s game in Chicago been a regular season affair, you would have witnessed history, had you witnessed the game.

The 22 rebounds collared by the collection of Rodmanesque Raptors represent the fewest in any game ever played by Toronto.

The low for games that count is 24, set one night in February, 1998 against Miami.

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An entirely predictable, um, Situation on DWTS, no?

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Hmmm.

Andrea Bargnani has 11 with four boards, shoots 3-for-9 from the field, making three three-pointers.

Can’t wait for the love in the comments today.

(I keed, I keed)

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The Sixers are rolling, winners of one in a row, and Old Friend JK lit up the Celtics last night, it says here.

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You know, this whole Gilbert Arenas affair is really confusing, isn’t it?

First off, the guy’s been all but incommunicative all pre-season, save for one post-game rant where he suggested he’d be gone from the Wizards and that might be better for everyone concerned.

Then, last night, he sits out what was to be his first game at home since the gun-play suspension last year, ostensibly because his knee was acting up, which had to be a troubling sign given that it’s been years that he’s had knee issues.

Trouble is, he admitted after the game that he faked the injury, or the severity of it, at least, so Nick Young could get the start and some playing time.

Here’s the Washington Post story that lays it out.

Arenas, who is still owed about $58 million on the three years left on his deal and who has played 47 games over the past three years because of knee injuries and suspensions, could very well be the most untradeable player in all of professional sports.

Stunts like the one he pulled last night sure aren’t going to make him any more desireable anywhere in the league.

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Getting back to the Heroes Of The Hardcourt, let’s play “Guess The Starters” for tonight’s game.

I’m going with Calderon, DeRozan, Kleiza, Bargnani and, well, let’s go back to Evans since it’s his old team they’re facing.

Fun game, isn’t it?

Who do you like?

(And, remember, it’s still the experimental stage of the pre-season).

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I’m thinking a Phillies-Rangers World Series would be pretty cool, no?

Although the chance to possibly see Roy Halladay pitch against A.J. Burnett in the ultimate series is pretty intriguing. Almost as intriguing as Halladay-Cliff Lee.

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Okay, enough rambling.

You do some now.

Mail. Here. Please.

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