All kinds of things for kids to work on

Seriously, if these guys are going to make me live Groundhog Day, I need to see Andie MacDowell.

Really.

I do.

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THREE POINTERS

A new look

You saw the double teams come at DeMar DeRozan and you saw how he handled them and, yes, it was a bit of a train wreck, no?

And as he becomes more known as a scorer, he’s going to see them more often and he knows he has to be better at dealing with them.

“They were sending doubles and everything, you know. It was tough and I had a few turnovers that really hurt us and that’s what made it even worse. It was frustrating and they took advantage of it.

“Man, you just have to watch film. I’m definitely going to watch and see what I could have done, see what was open and get better and be prepared for the next time it happens.”

So goes the growth of a kid; another step necessary to become a legitimate NBA threat.

And you know that Stan Van Gundy and Erik Spoelstra and their staffs are going to see the tape of the Spurs game and I’m thinking DeRozan better figure it out sooner rather than later.

-

Biting his tongue

Yes, Jay was miffed and I know he probably wanted to unload on Andrea after the game but he wouldn’t. And he wouldn’t unload too much on DeMar either with this quote from the gamer:

“DeMar’s being spoiled right now with the number of minutes that he’s getting because of our lineup. I told him ‘you’ve got to play every possession like you were on a team where you were only getting 18 minutes a game.’ I don’t want him to form bad habits and ‘Dre’s in the same boat. You have to do other things so that when there are games that you don’t score points, that you are contributing to us in other facets.

 

“Those two aren’t alone, though.”

Jay’s right though.

With this roster, and a distinct lack of backup twos and threes, he is playing people just because he has to in order to give his team any shot at winning any game.

It’s part and parcel of the situation as it is and it has to be frustrating him.

-

A need to expand

Ed Davis has another pretty good one but it struck me that he needs one thing more than anything in his offensive arsenal.

A move going to his right.

Not sure what the percentage is, but it seems to be that about 95 per cent of the time when he goes to the basket, he goes left and you know that other teams have already figured it out.

Just more work for the second half of the season.

-

As the man once said: Now, for the rest of the story:

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Did Carmelo get traded yet?

(Hahahahahahahah!)

Seriously, how about that turnaround? Mikhail Prokorov, the Nets owners, tells the team to leave the Melodrama, get out of the talks entirely and it seems like we’ve wasted a whole lot of time.

Now, I don’t know if the Nets found out there was no way Anthony was going to sign an extension there and they made a pre-emptive strike or whether they just got ticked at the agents who were seemingly forcing the issue but it was a pretty cool decision, I think.

A hardball move, indeed; now the Nuggets (and old friend Masai Ujiri) have to start the whole process over.

Maybe they should just tell Carmelo and his people, “screw it, we’ll take our chances you won’t leave the money on the table and we’ll hang onto the new CBA gets here.”

Or maybe they find someone who just wants to rent him for three months and get something that way.

But if I’m them, I might tell the Knicks to take a hike, too; and let the chips fall where they may.

However, we are also in for another 30 days or so of this chatter and that ought to be fun.

-

So I’m walking through the tunnel out of the court at halftime, not paying much attention to what I was doing (perhaps it was the stunned disbelief at the score, maybe it was the fact I was texting) and it’s apparent the guy walking next to me was in the same zoned-out zone.

And when we bump into each other, I’m kind of jolted off stride because David Robinson is still a very tall, very strong man.

And quite apologetic when he almost knocked me off my feet.

-

How’d that one play in San Antonio?

Thusly.

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Did you know it’s 50 years ago today that JFK was inaugurated as the president of the USA? Now, I don’t remember it, my first recollection of him was his assassination, but I read an interesting piece in Vanity Fair about the hoopla around it and it must have really been something.

But half a century ago? Man, that’s a long time.

-

List time, sort of.

Q: As I was watching the game in New Orleans (on TV), I was reminded of an item on my "bucket list.”

I've always wanted to take in a Raptors road trip. Which cities or combination of cities would you recommend? (taking into account driving from game to game)

 

Roy D, Thunder Bay

A: Well, way back in the day, I’d have said Portland-Seattle without hesitation because it was the best one.

Now?

Hmm.

Well, if you can’t do Orlando-Miami tomorrow and Saturday there’s really nothing left in this season that involves more than one game. If I had to make a trip the rest of this year that’s multi-game and you could afford to fly, I’d do Phoenix-Golden State in late March because there’s a night off in Phoenix and San Francisco and that can’t be a bad thing at all.

Other that that, here’s what I’d suggest:

New York-Boston: Easy train ride, shortish drive, couple of great cities, but they’re seldom on the same trip for some reason.

Washington-Philly: Drive or ride the rails, still pretty good.

Los Angeles-San Francisco: A bit of a drive and I’m not a big L.A. fan but still, it’s San Francisco, which is a great city.

Chicago-Indy: Another easy drive and two very good spots to see games.

Happy trails.

-

A lot of players buy tickets for home game to give away to kids and groups and whatever and they tend to have these cutesy names.

No surprise, then, that there’s a section of the arena in San Antonio that’s known as:

Bonner’s Wicked Awesome Section.

Guess you can take the boy out of New England but not the New England out of the boy.

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WNBA news because I know you love it.

You know how we all hate the week in the summer when teams can negotiate with free agents but not announce any deals? How it’s all rumour and speculation and stuff you know will happen but have to wait to make official?

Well, the WNBA negotiating period runs from today until Feb. 1 and if any of you cared about the league, that’s waaaaaaaay too long.

But if ends with a player getting an hour of TV time to do The Decision, that’d be pretty cool.

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All right, The Lewis And Clark Travel Agency has me on the rather circuitous and seldom-travelled San Antonio-Minneapolis-Toronto route today so I have no idea when I’ll get back to check out comments or say hello.

But if you feel like it, the mailbag is open by clicking here, I’d love to hear from you.

Well, most of you.

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Comments

[sam]

I suspect the trade market for Peja was rather slim. Was that why they released him or is this a matter of BC giving a break to a player that wasn't in their plans? I'm certain the injury didn't help -

[Manale]

I had a nightmare we signed Troy Murphy last night.
No, really. That was my actual dream.
Disturbing on so many levels.

[RK]

Nba.com reports a buyout of Peja's contract. I know you mentioned that there was a faint possibility the Raptors would that, but I had expected them to get at least something for him. Anyways, so long Peja, all the best to you.

[J]

Well, that was disappointing. I figured the market for expiring contracts wasn't that great to begin with (New Orleans *did* use Stojakovic to "upgrade" Bayless to Jack, while taking on extra salary overall), so I was expecting Stojakovic to be bought out eventually. Certainly not this early, though. Of course, I/we don't have all the information available to the Raptors' front office, but on the surface, unless the buyout nets us 1) more financial savings than had we waited 'til after the trade deadline, or 2) *tangible* goodwill with players around the league, I'm not terribly fond of the move.

Hopefully one of NJ, Washington, Cleveland, Minnesota or Sacremento picks him up. As much as we're losing, they're playing even worse. I might be opposed to intentional tanking, but definitely not opposed to the five teams below us getting better. =P

[Keenan]

So the Raps bought out Peja...where might BC go from here?

Blogger's note: More in the morning

[J]

@ Rob V:

I can't say for certain -- your question about the restriction on re-trading traded players is more of a "public policy" issue rather than a simple application of the CBA =) -- but my guess is the players' side negotiated it into the CBA so that players wouldn't have to move as much. Without it, players whose value rests solely in the size of their contract might be traded willy-nilly just to make deals work. It's less likely that a player would be traded repeatedly and without reason in one-for-one deals, so they left that as an option. My guess, anyway. =)

[DaveT (Ottawa -- er, Dublin)]

The only thing I can think about with the Peja buyout is everyone sat down and said, "we can't trade them because of salary: I'll waive Peja, you waive Ajinca -- you can sign Peja for a playoff run and we'll pick up Ajinca off the waiver wire in order to have someone 7 feet tall on our roster".

[P.]

The fact that a bought-out player can immediately sign with another team for the league minimum is what kills the potential for trades involving players like Peja at the current point of his carreer.

It's to the point that players can get their cake and eat it too; to an absurd extent. They just need to get that last large contract and they're set. They don't need to fulfill their contract. They can go to any 'contender' they want, without losing the bulk of their $contract. What contending team wouldn't want a $15m player for the league minimum to help them on their playoff run? There's no risk.

Their bloated salary is no longer deterrent for team with an already bloated payroll. It no longer forces a team to make those hard decisions required for putting together a balanced roster with a reasonable payroll.

[P.]

Also, and probably the main point, why would a team trade for a large contract when they know they will eventually be ablet to get the player for the minimum after he's bought out?

Colangelo tradeable asset with Peja. Vultures were just waiting for the eventual buyout.

[P.]

Err, *had no tradeable asset*, I meant.