Does another game mean more tinkering?

Another relatively slow day, it’ll be nice to have everyone back in town tomorrow so things get back into some sense of rhythm around here

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So what’s up tonight in Chicago?

Well, you can pretty much take it to the bank that you’ll see a third straight change to the pre-season starting lineup, I’m hearing.

We had a shift at point guard an done of the wing spots (Jack, Weems in) the other night in Boston from the first night in Vancouver (Calderon, Kleiza out) and don’t be surprised if you saw a switch at the bigs tonight.

Not sure if it’ll be both Bargnani and Evans who start the night on the bench and what combination of Johnson, Dorsey and even perhaps Andersen that Jay Triano will use but I’m dead certain there will be changes.

The deal all along has been to use the first four pre-season games (Vancouver, Boston, Chicago and at home to Philly on Wednesday) to mix and match and try to figure things out. Then the last four (home to Boston, Phoenix and Chicago and versus New York in Montreal) to fine-tune a rotation.

Makes entire sense, I guess. On a team with no five clearcut starters – and with Bargnani struggling you can say there might not be even one – trying to find a suitable combination makes entire sense. And with the competitive nature of camp it’s a bit of a reward and shows that the coaching staff is as it’s said it would be – open-minded when it comes to the dispersal of minutes.

I do think that, eventually, they will settle on the group that started the first game – Calderon, DeRozan, Kleiza, Bargnani and Evans – as the five guys who open things Oct. 27 here against the Knicks.

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Man, it’s costing Rudy Fernandez a fair chunk of cash to get out of Portland, isn’t it?

The league hit him – or his agent, more accurately – with a $50,000 fine on Monday for comments made last week about wanting a trade or his release from the Blazers so he could head back to Spain and play in more familiar surroundings.

That’s on top of the $25,000 fine levied earlier this summer for much the same thing – whining to get out of town.

I guess I can see the league’s point, it doesn’t want open rebellion and discontent from its players out there publicly and on the record (which makes Fernandez’s situation different from, say Carmelo Anthony) but it does seem a tad heavy handed to keep hammering them with fines.

Oh, and to head ‘em off at the pass, the Raptors had very, very cursory talks with Portland months ago about Fernandez, the asking price was too high and it hasn’t been re-visited in quite some time.

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If I was a betting man, I might put down a dime or two that says Linas Kleiza, whose knee is a bit sore, gets tonight off in Chicago and is back in the lineup here for Philly on Wednesday.

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Allen Iverson to Turkey?

The EuroLeague?

Where they practice more than the play?

Oh, yeah. That’s gonna work out just great.

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Here we go again, need to fill this out to make it worth all our while so a quick trip to the mail:  

Q: Hey Doug. Wouldn't it make sense for David Stern to focus on expanding to Mexico instead of Europe? Mexico City has one of the largest metropolitan populations in the world. I'm sure that they could fill 20k seats a night. It's close to the US so good in terms of travel time. Also, a team in Mexico would have the support of all of Latin America.

 

 

Jeffrey G, London

A: I don’t think so, actually. There are many more issues in Mexico – the economy, I believe there are some security concerns, there isn’t a long history of basketball in the country – than there are in Europe. And, truth be told, we are years and years and years away from any true globalization of the league.

I think the exhibitions they play in Mexico are quite enough right now.

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Hmm, a Game 5 in the ALDS or Raptors-Bulls pre-season? That’s a toughie and since I’d have to find a stool and a TV that has access to the Chicago home broadcast of the basketball game, I’m thinking I should watch the Rays roll to glorious victory.

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Speaking of mail, let’s put out the call.

I know there’s a link right over there on the side of the column but maybe you need some more urging.

Click. Write. Send. Make my day.

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Speaking of baseball, I can’t think of a better way to start a league championship series than Halladay vs. Lincecum on the weekend. Kind of makes the interminable wait worth it.

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The one interesting thing I’m looking forward to on Wednesday night, aside from seeing Doug Collins and Brian James to catch up a little bit, is to see the size of the crowd at the Air Canada Centre.

Attendance, especially early in this season, is bound to be lower than usual what with the lack of star power, the recent failings of the team and very much a wait-and-see attitude among the patrons.

Exhibition games traditionally draw audiences anywhere from 11,000 to 15,000 or so but I’ll be a bit surprised if it reaches the low end of that range tomorrow. But I also think that audiences will pick back up if this team continues to play the way it has in the first two pretend games.

Oh yeah, because we know things have a tendency to work in the arena, we’ll give another shot to the in-game blog thingy and get back to some sense of normalcy.

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Slow starts and terrible homers

We’re going to be a little short and sweet today because, well, mostly because I’m not on the trip, don’t have a lot of stuff and it’s a holiday.

No idea what we’ll do tomorrow, either.

Have fun.

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I didn’t see the whole game in Boston, there was a nifty turkey dinner to consume and it did come off well, if I do say so myself, and it’s kind of tough to see an awful lot on a small computer screen and I haven’t spoken to too many people yet but what the heck, there were some impressions.

Yes, Andrea Bargnani has had two bad games in a row where he can’t make a shot, isn’t defending with aggression and looks out of place.

No, that doesn’t mean they should trade his sorry butt today, it means that he’s had two bad pre-season games in a row.

Wait ‘til he’s had two bad regular season games in a row before you start the tar-and-feather campaign already being waged.

You have to figure it’s going to take him longer to get used to the new things this team wants to do. Stuff like run a lot of early motion in the offence, swarm guys defensively and show-and-recover off double teams and screen-roll defence.

It’s not that he can’t do, it’s just that it doesn’t play to his strengths and it might take all eight pre-season games and all those practices for him to figure it out.

So, yes, he’s been bad so far. But there’s an awful lot of time left.

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The other thing?

It goes to something I know Jack Armstrong has been talking about since we chatted about it when I saw him on Saturday at the Oak thingamabob downtown.

It’s only been two games – and everything should be couched in those terms – but these guys do play “hard.”

It’s a rather nebulous term, there is no clear definition of “hard” but in the second half – which is the part I saw most closely – they were hustling and challenging shots and defending.

Of course they should do that every possession of every game but that’s not the way life works; people in every profession take short cuts every now and then and it’s kind of refreshing that, so far, these guys haven’t.

I’m sure they will some time, I’m sure there will be nights of lethargy and it’s only been two games but there does seem to be some kind of new attitude prevalent.

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It struck me as the Thanksgiving dinner preparations were under way that you’d think that with all the bio-engineering that goes into food and farming these days, surely to all that’s good in the world some chemist could come up with a way to grow a square potato?

That dude would be as universally loved as the guy who first decided to put small wheels on suitcases.

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You know, I had great respect for Tommy Heinsohn as a basketball player but if he’s not the worst homer in the history of television, I can’t imagine who is.

It’s like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard or whatever else you list as the most grating sound known to man.

He whines incessantly, really has no personality and just generally seems like an unhappy man. Not what you’d like in a broadcaster.

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If you’re looking to follow some news off Sunday’s game, I hear Jarrett hurt his left elbow late in the game and they’re going to check it out today in Chicago.

The kid hasn’t missed a regular season game in three years so I figure if he’s even close to being able to go, he’ll at least get a couple of minutes against the Bulls.

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So, Oak.

Am sure you all saw this one in Sunday’s paper, kind of stream of consciousness Oak and it was a nice little conversation.

I tell ya, he can sure still draw a crowd.

Talked to him standing on the street behind the Jam Session thing – and that looked pretty cool – and there was a steady stream of passesby what wanted to shake hands, take pictures or chew the fat.

One little item that got missed in the paper was Oak on who is responsible for what he sees as the decline of the game.  

“I blame management for a lot of things that’s going on in the league. Just the general managers. Owners don’t know basketball, owners onl go by what p;eople tell them. Some might have a good IQ but the GMs, I think Danny Ferry killed Cleveland. Even though LeBron was there, they didn’t bring nobody in. They fell in love with LeBron instead of trying to bring someone else in there to win a championship.”

Oh, and he said he’ll be back for some Raptors thing later this week, no idea what it is but it’s always fun when Charles is around.

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When in doubt, or when you don’t really have enough items to get this to even close to the usual length, go to the mail.

So I will.  

Q: Hey Doug, for lack of a better (intelligent, even?) question... if you were a GM and had to build your team around either an undersized PG (Boykins-eque) or an oversized center (think Manute-Bol-Build)who would it be?

Note that I didn't use Allen Iverson or Yao Ming as my examples, so rid those players from your mind.

 

 

Andrew P, Toronto

A: I’d take the guard, for sure.

Mostly because they have a tendency to do a little bit more on their own, shoot it from range, take their man off the dribble, facilitate for others.

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Anyway, that’s it for a rather slow morning. We’ll figure out a way to be more entertaining tomorrow. I hope.

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Let's talk turkey, shall we?

I think Saturday, with the Lennon stuff obviously striking a chord with so many of you, was very cool.

Hope today is, too.

Here you go, I hope all of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving have a wonderful time with family and friends; I’m off to clean the kitchen and then get it all dirty again in the process of whipping up a turkey dinner.

Enjoy.

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Q: Hi Doug. In what's becoming almost an annual discussion, if the Raptors' coaches were to divide the team into two six man units, according to nationality, and hold a full-court scrimmage, who would win - the Americans (Davis, Johnson, Weems, DeRozan, Wright, Jack) or the world (Anderson, Alabi, Il Mago, Kleiza, Barbosa, Calderon)?

 

Frank B, Toronto

A: That’d be a heckuva game, wouldn’t it? I’m liking the non-Americans but only slightly. I wonder if I could get Jay to hook it up?

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Q: Why do I have so much joy for Roy Halladay, yet can't wait for the third banana in Miami to break his face again?

 

Shawn L, Bowmanville

A: Um, respect and schadenfreude.

Like many, I presume.

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Q: Hi Doug from Roma, how are you?

I had the chance to work 3 years for Benetton Basket when they built "LA Ghirada" just some years ago. Very nicely surprised by your comment on La Ghirada as the training top gym in the world. I love remembering those years. I think that we (both me and you) had more much colour on our heads.

I appreciate your explicit love for Italy. So I want ask to you a suggestion. You MUST say what're for you the best restaurants in Roma and in the North East (Venezia and Treviso) where have to go sent by my favorite sports journalist and my best Canadian friend?

 

Paolo P, Roma

A: I wish I could remember the name of the seafood restaurant in Roma, just beneath the Vatican wall on a tiny dead-end street, classic family restaurant of about 10 tables, noisy and busy and outstanding food.

Treviso? Here’s one for you, and I had to go to my man Maurizio to get the name because I had forgotten. Ombre Rosse. Best meal I had there.

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Q: Doug, I've been hearing this phrase by commentators for the past 10 years watching basketball and its annoyed me for years. "He's listed at 6'9" but he's more like 6'6"

The guys in the league have stopped growing so why are there so many discrepancies with their heights? Why not just measure them at the start of the season (with shoes off)? It boggles my mind we can keep accurate stats on everything but not on physical attributes.

 

James M, Toronto

A: Sometimes it’s pure vanity because some guys don’t want to be listed as, say, 7-feet tall (hi, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan), sometimes it’s because kids do actually grow (Amir Johnson added a couple of inches after he entered league as a high schooler) and sometimes it’s because teams take old measurements from other published sources and they’re wrong.

But, truth be told, an inch here or there doesn’t make that much a difference on the court; they’re pretty much all big and fast.

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Q: Hi Doug. Well, that was fun to watch! Whether it translates into the regular season will remain to be seen, but it was a very enjoyable start for a basketball-starved Raptors fan.

However, I have a non-Raptors question today. There was some minor hoopla during the summer that all teams would be using uniforms made of some new, allegedly lighter and drier material. Have any of the players commented in any way about the new unis? Have they noticed any difference?

 

Kate C, Toronto

A: Actually, no one’s commented other than to say they feel normal and there’s nothing bad about them. At least none of the guys I’ve talked to, that is.

One thing they are is more “form-fitting” with a tighter fit and a mesh-like pattern that apparently “breaths” and wicks the moisture away from the body.

I’m going to let them get a couple of games under their belts, so to speak, before exploring whether there’s any difference or not.

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Q: A Dampier (or alternate new big man) question: How and what negative effects are there for the "team", the longer that the pre-season goes on without "the new big" practicing/playing with the team? At what point - if ever - does a late addition become more of a negative than positive impact on the team - and could it screw up the year for the Raps?

 

Basketball B, North Bay

A: The negative is that you’d be disrupting the work you’ve already done putting in offence and defence and acclimating people to their roles. It’s not a huge issue because it’s not like they’re performing brain surgery and there are only so many ways you can defend a pick and roll or run and offence so I’m not sure an addition now would have any big detrimental impact.

And if the player’s good enough, it’s never too late to add talent.

That said, I’m of the opinion that Dampier is not that big a difference maker and it might be time to put him on the hard deadline. Like tomorrow.

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Q: Hey Doug. A hypothetical question.

If you were just starting a team which Brother combination would you choose first?

The Lopezs, Gasols, Grahams, other?

 

Bob W, Winnipeg

A: I’m taking the Gasols for sure, Lopezes second and the Graham’s only if I truly want to confuse opponents and get easy baskets that way.

Sticking around for a little time and a visitor from the past

We’re seeing all kinds of notes from around the league about this guy getting cut or that guy getting waived or this other guy getting released as teams pare down the training camp fodder now that two-a-days are done and games are coming fast and furious.

(Speaking of fast and furious. I’d say Sunday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Friday-Sunday-Wednesday-Friday sure ends the Raptors exhibition schedule in a regular-season rhythm).

Anyway, you will have noticed that the locals haven’t yet sent Ronald Dupree away and, indeed, he’s going to go on the trip to Boston and Chicago that starts this afternoon.

People I talk to say there are a couple of reasons he’s still with the team.

One, he’s been quite good in practice, his jump shot’s a bit wonky but he’s as intense and skilled defensively as anyone on the roster and that’s made him rather invaluable in scrimmages, where he brings out the best in whoever he’s going against.

And, two, I’m told by people who’d know that this is the time of camp when general managers are really taking stock of what they have and how it’s all working out and if Bryan can pull off a two-for-one deal, he’d be more than happy to have Dupree stick around for a good long time.

Now, that doesn’t mean there is any transaction planned for the immediate future but there is still work being done on the trade-talk front from here.

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Couple of minor bumps and bruises to report from Friday; there wasn’t any space in the paper for notes or even the Reggie Evans story, I filed, it seems.

So here it is:

Linas Kleiza banged his knee sometime in the win over Phoenix and did not work out Friday, getting treatment instead.

And Sonny Weems was limping a little when we saw him walk out of the gym after he slightly rolled an ankle.

Jay didn’t seem to think either was too serious when we asked him about it and it’ll give us something to look for when we get into practice later today.

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So, I see that both games on this trip – at Boston on Sunday night when I’ll just be finishing up the making of the turkey dinner and at Chicago on Tuesday – are being broadcast by the local networks in those cities.

I also see that Raptors TV will have New Orleans at Orlando on Sunday when the Raptors are facing the Celtics.

Grrr.

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A digression but maybe it takes some of you of a certain age down memory lane and if even one of you young ‘uns gets something out it, all the better.

John Lennon would have been 70 today (I still remember Howard Cosell delivering the news during a Monday night game 30 years ago) and the airwaves are rife with tributes.

Now, I can’t imagine anyone disagreeing with the contention that Imagine was his greatest song (and I can probably argue it’s one of the best songs ever written by anyone) but let’s do this: What rounds out the Top 5?

Lots to choose from, isn’t there (presuming a few of you are at Google now).

Me?

After Imagine, I’m going with, in no particular order:  

Norwegian Wood

Revolver

Come Together

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

 

 

 

Give Peace a Chance.

You?

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You know how the Raptors could always use some help on the boards, right? Well, there was a visitor in the gym Friday who was the epitome of energy, some of it misdirected, mind you, who might have been able to help.

Yep, the One And Only Jerome Williams stopped by practice to hang for a few hours.

He was in town for a speaking gig or somesuch, chatted with the players, shook some hands and was on his merry way, kind of like a JYD Hurricane.

But seeing him stand under the basket with Alvin, rebounding for Marcus Banks, did take one back to a time when this team was kind of good.

Of course, JYD had to stop and have a long chat with Jarrett, catching up on old Washington, D.C., tales we presume.

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Had a couple of queries like this so …  

Q: Doug, I was watching a clip of the media scrum with Jay after the Phoenix game. Before the scrum began, it sounded as if you (it sounded like your voice) were arguing with either a fellow colleague or possibly a member of the Raps media relation staff. Jay even commented that he was more interested in what was going on rather than answering questions (as a joke obviously).

Could you let us in on what happened there?

Jesse N, Stouffville

 

A: It was me, it wasn’t a member of the media relations staff, it was some freelance cameraman hired by Raptors TV and here’s what happened:

We were getting ready to conduct the post-game scrum with Jay, I’d say there were 10 or 12 of us, at the place in the hallway the Raptors staff had designated.

All of a sudden, this gentlemen starts yelling that we all have to move down the hallway to where he’s waiting, “it’s Raptors TV, down here.”

Well, it was an inconvenience and when we all wandered down to where he’d beckoned us, I was a tad miffed and when there was a pregnant pause at the start of the scrum, I suggested rather forcefully that since the camera guy had been so adamant that we move to make his life easier that perhaps he’d like to ask the questions instead of simply piggybacking on our work, as is always the case.

He didn’t like the suggestion, I made my point again and he got miffed.

What a professional does, pretty much anywhere in the world, is find out where interviews are going to be conducted and go there; they don’t set up, try to run the show and then get ticked when it’s pointed out.

End of tale.

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Now, if you’ve got more mail, I’ve got more space in the mailbag and no plans for tonight.

Click. Write. Send.

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My man Paul Coro out in Phoenix finally caught up to the Suns yesterday (he didn’t make it up to Vancouver) and sent along this quote from Alvin Gentry last night.

Just putting it out there for you to see:  

 

“They were much better defensively than I've ever known them to be. PJ must've scared them into that."

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Finally, the secret of Leandro Barbosa’s shoes.

You know the ones: Looked they were from the Denver Nuggets the other night in Vancouver.

Well, seems he can’t get adidas to get him any with the Raptors colours yet and he’s taken to wearing his kicks from the world championships for now.

Look good with the Brazilian flag on the tongue, too.

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When is it time to make decisions. Oh, and Oak's coming to town

I totally get Jay’s point about mixing and matching starting fives and rotations and who plays with whom this early in the pre-season.

But if I’m him, I give it maybe one more game, two tops, before I settle on something and start getting guys used to their situations.

These players are in many ways creatures of habits and I’d say five or six games to get acclimated to what they do and when they do it would be just about the right amount of time, in my opinion.

The other night worked really well (I know, read very little into it but still …) and it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s precisely the way he went when the season opens in under three weeks.

What you want from a bench is a boost of energy and that’s precisely what you get from Jack, Barbosa, Weems and Johnson.

It’s not like he used two five-man shifts – there were more than a few moments where there were combinations of starters and bench guys on the floor – but that original grouping of subs, for the few minutes it was together late in the first quarter, did immediately change the tempo of the game.

The interesting part is going to be seeing how they finish games, especially close ones, and I hope the coach stays true to his word that the guys who are playing best that night or who have the most enviable matchups are on the floor.

That is going to be the true test of Jay’s resolve to be tougher and not fall back into routines that claim so many coaches.

By all accounts from players, assistants, other staffers and various hangers-on who have had far more access to practices than I have, Jay has been far more demanding this year than he’s been in the past. He’s setting standards that must be met consistently or he’s looking for other people who can do it.

And that is a very good thing.

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The great man cometh.

The one and only Oak’s going to be in town on the weekend and that can only mean one thing:

I need to dig out the Oak-to-English dictionary that’s hiding around here.

He’s in for the NBA’s Jam Session at Dundas Square on Saturday afternoon and I hear it’s going to be the place where all the cool kids should be.

A chance to chat with Oak should never be passed up so I’m guessing that’s how I’ll be spending some of my time, too.

That and because I’m cool.

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Let’s get this out of the mailbag and clear up a misconception.  

Q: Were you at all surprised to see that the Suns were treated like the home team in Vancouver? There video was played and they were announced last. I was puzzled and so were all my friends who watched the game! I mean, I understand that Steve Nash is Canadian, however, you would expect the Raptors to at least receive the respect they deserve being that they represent Canada and have the maple leaf on their jerseys. The Raptors get no respect in the States and now it appears they don't get it outside of Ontario either!?

 

 

Mario A, Toronto

A: I wasn’t the least bit surprised they were treated like the home team since, um, they were the home team.

It was their game, they scheduled it, ran it, invited the Raptors to play in it. The Gorilla was there and not The Chicken, it was the Suns’ June Taylor Dancers prancing around and it was entirely a Phoenix production. It just happens it was played in the country where the Raptors live and had nothing to do with respect at all.

In fact, it was pretty good marketing by the Suns, to get a team in town that would draw some of its own fans.

And get ready, I believe the game in Montreal is a New York home game so it’ll be a Knicks show there.

Am now told it's Toronto's "home game" and they'll control game operations so I'm sure it'll be a hoot.

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Sitting in The Arena Formerly Known As GM Place the other night, I was trying to figure out the last time I’d been in the joint.

And seeing Steve Nash and Jay Triano in there, it didn’t take long to figure out and it was one of the bleakest moments in Canada Basketball’s recent history.

It was 2002, August, I believe and we were there for a Canada-China exhibition game ahead of the world championships later that year.

It was memorable for two reasons: While we were there, Steve Nash announced he was too banged up and worn out and would not play for Canada at those worlds (he would return in 2003 for the Olympic qualifier in his international swansong) and we also got to see the North American debut of Yao Ming, who’d been taken No. 1 overall by the Houston Rockets earlier that summer.

A wee bit of history all in one fell swoop.

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So Tim Lincecum strikes out 14, throws a two-hit shutout in his post-season debut and looks a lot like The Freak of old and the reaction?

Yawn.

That’s what you get for doing something great a day after somebody does something other-worldly.

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As part of an interesting conversation I had with Reggie Evans a couple of days ago (you’ll read more about it tomorrow) the chinwag got around to the team’s chances and what has to happen and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

He brought up a bit of an interesting point that it might not be solely dependent on what the Raptors do:  

“All other teams can have all kinds of stuff. They can have beefing with each other, they can have coaches and players beefing or whatever, players who want to get traded, a couple of injuries here and there.

 

 

“You just never know what the other teams are going through. If we can stay focused and take advantage of those opportunities … stay mentally strong, we’re okay.”

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Hey, you were right.

With hours to kill in 21G on the long flight home, caught a few episodes of Modern Family.

Hilarious.

Thanks.

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Mail? Here. Please.

Afternoon ball game (although Jay scheduling practice to start at noon kind of messes things up, thank you very much) means afternoon TV watching and what better way to while away some time than bluffing answers to your probing questions.

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I see by our web poll thingy that you seem to be as conflicted as anyone about who might be best as this team’s starting point guard.

Comes out about 50-50 in your votes and that kind of makes sense.

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Across Bloor and down Bay to the arena? That the parade route?

In the absence of any new inspiration, let’s go back to the tried and true method and you get it early because it better fits my schedule.

But if you’ve got suggestions to improve the old way of doing things, I’m all ears.

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THREE POINTERS  

Holy crap

(Sorry to borrow that Frank Barone old saw but …)

Anyway, that was a rather thorough dismantling of a tired, disinterested team that used its starters sparingly and played like dung.

But, still …

Guess the one thing everyone wanted to see – at least I did – was whether they could play with the defensive intensity I’ve been hearing about all week when a game came up.

They could.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a Raptors team press full court, especially in the first game out of the box, but they did and they did it pretty well. There was some trapping, some quick recovery by the bigs and, overall, it wasn’t bad.

Now, there’s no way they won’t suffer setbacks, that’s for sure; but for the first night out of the box it wasn’t bad and I’m sure the alternative is far less desireable.

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No dissent

The teams with good depth are really going to have an advantage early this season, I swear.

That’s because there are going to be guys thrown out of games for getting two technicals like you’ve never seen under this new anti-complaining war the league is waging.

No way in the world would anyone have been tossed out a year ago; nothing that Robin Lopez or Reggie Evans or Grant Hill did really warranted an ejection. And they looked entirely puzzled by the fact their nights were done when they walked past where I was sitting.

Tell you one thing I can see happening:

I can see guys getting past the limit for technicals in a season before being suspended because it’s going to take some time before the notorious hotheads – hello, Kobe; hi, Dwight; nice to see you, Ron; how are you, Kendrick – get what’s allowable and what’s not.

And if it comes down to a team losing a game late in the year because one of its best players was suspended and that costing them a playoff seed or homecourt or something, that’s gonna suck.

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A rather odd moment or two

Fans in conflict, you’ve got to love it.

Hedo touches the ball and the boos rain down.

Hedo passes off to a teammate who scores and the crowd cheers.

I tell ya, fans are wacky.

Although I can’t imagine the same thing happening a week Sunday in Toronto.

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And in other pressing matters …

-

Seems I see a lot of crucial baseball moments in NBA press rooms.

I remember being in Portland, I believe it was, the night my beloved (at least they were then, I’m starting to grow fond of the Blue Jays) Red Sox won their first World Series in a billion years and yesterday we got to catch the final outs of Roy Halladay’s gem standing under a TV in the work room of GM Place, er, the Rogers Arena.

And, yes, I got goosebumps.

Something about athletic excellence, no matter who, no matter what sport, somehow really gets to me. And Halladay’s outing was a gem. I can just imagine what it would have been like to be there.

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The Heroes Of The Hardcourt have Thursday off (and why wouldn’t they be rewarded after that Glorious Victory) which means two things.

They can start investigating companies that manufacture rings; and,

I need to come up with an off-day story and a Friday morning blog.

Lucky readers.

(Hang on a sec. Pucks tonight, right? Forget it. You won’t find the off-day piece with a search warrant)

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So Steve Nash does a little media thing before they game and he’s kind of on autopilot answering basketball questions he’s probably heard dozens of times already this season. The answers are good, mind you; they just seemed to be delivered by rote.

Then someone asks him about his Terry Fox documentary and talk about perking up:  

“It was overwhelming, the response. For us it was a pleasure to tell Terry’s story again. He’s a hero of mine and as important a figure as we have in our history here in Canada. To be able to tell that story and to dig right back into all those lessons and the memories that Terry gave us was pretty special for me personally and then to feel the incredible response was rewarding.

 

 

“Terry deserves it. It’s his story and his accomplishment and his message and his way of handling life in his situation that was so inspiring.”

Not much I need to add to that, is there?

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Would love to tell you what Mr. Coro out in Phoenix had to say about the debacle (“ass-whupping” was the phrase I heard Alvin Gentry mutter) but he wasn’t in the building.

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Speaking of Halladay, consider this:

It took the Phils and Reds 2:34 to play nine innings of post-season baseball.

It took the Raptors and Suns 2:36 to play 48 minutes of pre-season basketball.

That’s just wrong.

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Mail? Sure, here’s one early:  

Q: Happy Turkey weekend! Doug with the Raptors dropping the morning shoot-around does that make your life/job easier?

 

 

Mike K, London

A: Not sure if it’s easier rather than different.

With the continual “feeding of the beast” we do these days, I’m sure someone is going to want something during game-days and I don’t quite know yet how to give them something.

The Question-and-Answer sessions we used to do around noon were often fueled by stuff off that morning’s shootaround so I’m not sure how effective they’ll be.

We’re still trying to work it all out but I’m thinking maybe a late-day session might work.

But I’m still going to have to be up about 6 a.m. to do that morning’s blog so it’s not like I can lie around eating bonbons all day. Sadly.

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Now to get your question in the mailbag, click here and type away.

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One more from Nash on the night.  

“You couldn’t make it up. When Jay was recruiting me to go to Simon Fraser from St. Mikes, I don’t think people would have thought 18 years from (then) he’ll be coaching the Raptors and I’ll be playing for the Suns and we’ll play a pre-season game in Vancouver against each other.

 

 

“It gives me goosebumps to think about it and he’s had a huge impact on my career and is a great friend and an important person to me. It’s a pleasure to be able to come back and share this with him.”

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I have no idea what happened to the wireless that made it ridiculously slow courtside – and we all had the same issue right down press row – but that’s why I hate neutral site games, even in big-league arenas.

Now, I’m not going to Boston and Chicago (after 13 days in Turkey and a week out here, I’m kind of travelled out and D. Feschuk needs to be around these fellas I guess) but I promise it’ll be up and running when they’re back home next Wednesday against the Sixers.

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The Goods On The Game, Raptors at Suns

The Goods on the Game is stalled due to technical issues. Will resume once wireless issue is resolved. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Well, well, well.

Lookie here.

The NBA is back

Not a whole lot out of season's first shootaround

Well, first shootaround of the season is in the books and, well, yawn!

Not a lot of news – Jay Triano wouldn’t tell us who’s going to start – but more of the same “we have to find out about ourselves” mantra we’ve been getting most of the week.

Said Jay:  

“We don’t know where we are until we play against somebody. We need to get up and down and play in a game and have referees call fouls. We don’t know if we’ve been letting things go too much and we’re too physical with each other or if we haven’t been aggressive enough.”

No idea what the refereeing will be like, either. In this new era of rapid-fire technical fouls for overt signs of disagreement, it’ll be interesting to see how things unfold.

The combinations I’m looking forward to seeing?

I want to see with which PG Linas Kleiza seems most comfortable with because I do think that might determine who starts in the backcourt.

And I want to see how Reggie Evans looks next to Andrea Bargnani. The thing there is that Reggie is a far, far more active rebounder than Bargnani and might make up for some deficiencies in Andrea.

One more? I want to see how well DeMar and Sonny play together since they’ve spent all summer and training camp going at each other.

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As for the crowd? No one’s saying just how many tickets are sold but the word going around is there’s a chance it’ll be almost a sellout.

That doesn’t seem to surprise Jay.  

“I know there are basketball fans. You look at the history of the university programs here and the B.C. high school boys basketball tournament, there are a lot of people who enjoy the sport of basketball here.

 

“There’s an appetite for a game here and I think people will respect the fact that we came here to play this game and we did it because we knew there was going to be a good crowd.”

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That’s really about it, the Suns didn’t have a shootaround because they played last night so we haven’t had a chance to see Captain Canada or Turk.

One familiar face was at shootaround, though.

Todd MacCulloch, who was in town for the little get-together of the Canada’s 2000 Olympic team, rode over on the bus with the Raptors and took in the workout.

He looks great, a big bigger than his playing days but I guess that’s to be expected, and he’s just living the high life with his wife and two small kids down in the Seattle area.

He remains one of the good guys I’ve covered over the years.

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Okay, Rays getting drilled so that’s seems boring, guess I should go find lunch and wait to see Halladay’s post-season debut.

See ya.

 

Adding to the game and gaming with the guys

Yeah, I know.

A bit later than usual in the East. Guess I am getting used to this time zone out here.

Just in time to get back.

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Had a nice chat with Alex English after practice on whatever day yesterday was (they tend to run together at this time of the year) and it was interesting to hear him detail his summer’s work.

Seems he spent all kinds of time working with Reggie Evans and Amir Johnson, adding offensive skills both the sorely needs and, while it is to be expected, Alex came away impressed.

And if you can impress a dude who scored 25,000 points in his career by adding to what you do, that’s got to count for something.

Anyway, it also underscored the kind of work assistant coaches do in the summer, they tailor workouts to the specific needs of the players they work with and get to it.

For Johnson, English new he needed to work hard on his jump shot, trying to extend his range to 15 feet or so. Johnson’s good enough at running the floor, rolling to the basket after setting screens and he’s active enough on the boards that his growth his going to come with additional range on his game.

For Evans (and there’ll be more about Reggie in the next day or two), English had watched him try to, um, dominate the ball too often in the short stint he had last year and figured he needed a go-to move.

And they came up with a jump hook that Evans has been working incessantly on since camp began.

Makes entire sense, no? Reggie’s not going to elevate over people but he is certainly strong enough to create space for himself with his wide body and shoulders and if he does it the right way, the jump hook should be practically unblockable.

Now, please don’t think that these two are going to become focal points of the offence or that the Raptors think they will provide all the answers.

But do look for little changes to their games that could make them more valuable.

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I’m not sure if this is art imitating life or life imitating art or whatever but I found it entirely weird to be standing behind DeMar DeRozan at EA Sports on Tuesday night when DeMar DeRozan was being DeMar DeRozan in the new NBA Jam game.

Surreal for me, and kind of odd for him too, he said.  

 

“This is probably the craziest moment ever.”

Now I am of an age where I somehow missed the original NBA Jam, which was out in the ‘90s I’m told and the new one is way too complex for me.

But for a kid like DeMar, it’s a treat. He was telling me about saving up 50 cents whenever he could back as a kid in L.A. so he could play the original game.

Now he’s sitting there with a multi-million dollar contract playing with a bunch of kids at the end of an excellent tour of the gorgeous EA Sports campus.

Ain’t life grand?

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Okay, the Suns?

Well, they played Tuesday night, no key player played more than a handful of minutes and I don’t imagine we’re going to see much of Steve Nash or Grant Hill tonight.

I’d love to tell you all about the game they had against the Kings, or at least let you read what my man P. Coro wrote but it seems his paper doesn’t travel in the pre-season and there’s just this barebones game report.

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I’m going to miss UBC and the War Memorial Gymnasium, a really funky little place that I bet rocks when the Thunderbirds are playing.

With all due respect to the other gyms we’ve been at for various training camps, I’ve got to put War Memorial second on the all-time list.

And with Benetton’s La Ghirada in Treviso at the top, No. 2 is all any place on this side of the Atlantic can aspire to.

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Yes, in-game blog thingy tonight, game’s at 10 East, I’ll be here just before and hopefully everything will work. But it’s pre-season for us, too, so don’t expect regular-season performances.

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Okay, the Raptors? Well, Jay keeps telling us he’s using the entire pre-season as practice so I don’t know how much we’ll get of everyone and I can be pretty sure that the groups you’ll see on the floor won’t necessarily be the ones who are on the court when it starts for real on Oct. 27.  

“Still discussing it right now. We’ve got a handful of different ways we could go and we want to look at combinations. We may change it at halftime, we may change it for the next game we play in Boston. We’re not set now.”

So what to look for?

To see if they can defend aggressively, to see if the way they want to trap guys near midcourt works and to see if they have any kind of cohesion on offence.

At the moment, I’m thinking there isn’t going to be a lot of “smooth” to anything they do. But it’s a long, long time between now and when things start for real.

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Mail? Please. Long flight ahead.

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This might work out to be a pretty good day.

Shootaround just before 10, the first ball game’s at 10:30.

Now I see some benefits to these time zone things.

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Joey and Deke and no personal reporting gigs for me

Yes, I know it's late; so much for the late-night-here-in-Vancouver typing.

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Here’s one reason why Joey Dorsey is becoming a bit of a hit with his coaches and bosses.

He invokes the name of Dikembe Mutombo as a guy who taught him the game.

Had a little chat with Joey after practice on Monday and the one thing that hit home is how he figures his short time with the Houston Rockets taught him what it takes to get into the league and stick there.

Here’s how he put it:  

 

“Being in Houston was a huge thing for me. I learned from some many vets there, Mutombo, Chuck Hayes, Shane Battier. A lot of defensive players so I think with my defence, it’ll help me out a lot trying to make this team.”

Deke especially:  

“He always kept me after practice, taught me the different angles and everything to make my opponent switch up his moves.

I love Mutombo, I love Mutombo.

 

Being on his team and just seeing how hard he words at the age he was, it was unbelievable. It was great just to be o that team and see that type of maturity from him. Coming in early, working out with Yao and everybody after practice and putting in extra time. I think that built me up to be the player that I am now.”

If that’s not enough to make some of you like him, I don’t know what will.

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Oh, this isn’t going to sit well with some of you who want those breathless non-news updates on game days.

You know the ones about injured players and whether they’ll play that night and we’re usually told, “no idea; he’ll give a shot later this afternoon and he’ll be a game-time decision.”

But for some of us, the news is pretty good for the rest and relaxation portion of our lives.

No morning shootarounds for home games.

Nope, they’re moving from the usual 10 a.m. walkthrough to something late in the afternoon and the first time they’ll have to deal with us is when the locker rooms open 90 minutes before game time.

I am hardly surprised that they’re making the move and can’t figure out why they didn’t do it before.

Players are creatures of the night, mainly. They play at night, they travel at night, they usually eat something late at night and it seemed counter-productive to me to make them get up between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. to get to the arena for a sleepy 10 a.m. walkthrough.

More than a few teams, citing sleep pattern studies and travel times for their players have gone to a late-afternoon session and the Raptors are now one of them.

I’m told they’ll still likely shootaround in the morning of some road games but if they’re going to move the ones at home, I bet they look at moving the road ones, too. Or at least they should, shouldn’t they?

Anyway, I have no idea what that’ll mean for me and you and the question-and-answer session we used to do game days. That’ll have to be figured out as we move closer to the actual start of real games.

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Here’s one for all my friends who live out here.

Do all cab drivers out travel precisely at the speed limit if not a couple of kilometers an hour below it?

Seriously, aren’t these guys supposed to be daredevils rather than beacons of responsible driving?

I don’t get it.

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I get this news release from ESPN yesterday morning that tells me they’re launching something called The Heat Index that’ll run on the website daily and that they’ve hired Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Michael Wallace of the Miami Herald to provide content.

Which led me to ask just two questions:

Chris Bosh has no juice down there?

He doesn’t need a personal chronicler?

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And that brings us to this from the early mail:  

Q: Doug, over the last couple of months, since the Super Friends united, I've been reading where CB thinks that his marketing possibilities have increased dramatically now that he is in Miami instead of Toronto. Do you think this is really the case? I really have no feel for whether he'd get more press in Miami than Toronto, I suppose that in TO hockey is always king, so by definition a sport like basketball can only be 2nd best at best, and so the marketing opportunities will likewise be lessened.

But, it is also possible that he is riding a temporary wave of high interest based on the hype of the 3 stars signing together? I see him steadily settling in line as the distant 3rd star where he'll be eclipsed by D-Wade and LB as 2 very popular and high-profile players. Is it possible that, in the long run, his marketing opportunities would actually be reduced, as compared to being the primary star in Toronto? I can think of James Worthy in LA - didn't seem to do much in terms of marketing in his day, or maybe Robert Parish in Boston.

 

Don H, Lima, Peru

A: My opinion is that if Chris was going to Miami to maximize off-court financial opportunities he was delusional because I simply don’t think there’s (a) a lot of money for that and (b) he’s a distant third of that three in desirable pitchmen.

But, and this is where the move feeds into his personality, he is getting a lot more notoriety and fame and that could translate into chances for him to “market his brand” as time goes on. He’s doing more national TV, getting his face out there in a way that he didn’t in Toronto and one that will feed his need for attention.

It is, however, more than he would have done had he remained with the Raptors and if that’s what he was after, he got it.

Of course, he’s only getting it because of who he’s with rather than for what he’s done; no way he’s on all those shows if, for instance, he had gone by himself to Houston or Chicago.

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From the Department of No New Is … well, no news …

Asked again for an Erick Dampier update after practice on Monday and was met with blank stares and rolled eyes.

Nothing’s going on.

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Hey, how’s my man Vinay doing with his Leaves thingy?

You’re all reading, right?

Immediately after checking here each morning, that is.

Every time I read it, I’m impressed. Hope you are, too.

Speaking of, you think the Pucks dudes win 30?

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So, DWTS? What the hell happened?

This is the trouble with travelling.

Spent the first part of last night in a cool sports bar (hi, Smileys!) and figured asking them to change one of the dozen or so TVs away from Monday Night Football might not be the greatest way to endear oneself with the locals.

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Yes, I think we are going to try and reprise the in-game bloggy thingy Wednesday night if there are no technical glitches.

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