A quick look into the mail

Told you I’d be a bit late.

Have at this for now; I’ve saved some for the middle of the week when I lose a day or so travelling.

See some of you tonight, game’s at 6, remember?

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Q: Hi Doug. In light of the blowout versus the Suns on Friday, I was wondering if it is easier to write a piece when there is a blowout (for either team - e.g. can start writing before the game ends?) or when it is a close match (more to talk about, perhaps)?

Diego S, Toronto

A: Personally, all things being equal with regards to deadlines, I prefer a close game with lots of different plays and issues to talk and write about. It lends itself a better narrative than some blowout that’s decided early, like Friday’s game was.

But I’m also not sure either is “easier” but you still need to find some kind of interesting angle to develop that people don’t already know about.

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Q: Doug. We all appreciate the great work you do covering the Raptors. In your articles, blogs, IGBT, you seem not to express emotions about our HOTHC. I am curious, are you a Raptors fan or simply a sports journalist covering the Raptors?

 A T, Niagara Falls

A: A fan of the team? No, not at all. I enjoy the game and the sport and a lot of the people connected to it but I am not a Raptors “fan” at all. I am a fan of good stories well told.

 

Q: Hi Doug. Weird question -- what happens if a ref falls ill or gets injured during a game. Is there a so-called 'bench' of refs? And have you ever seen this happen?

Thanks!

 

Kevin O, Waterloo

A: I’ve never seen it happen but I know it has, with refs getting sick or pulling a muscle or whatever. In the regular season, they’d just go through the game with two; in the post-season there are backups on site.

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Q: Hi Doug, an NBA history question for you... Why have teams that have moved kept their same team names? New Orleans/Utah Jazz, Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers, Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies? Would Oklahoma City be the Sonics if not for the name being allowed to stay in Seattle as part of the relocation deal? There has to be a WHY. These names are as ridiculous as imagining the Washington Expos or Colorado Nordiques!

Fergie F, Kitchener

A: Not sure there is a specific why but I bet the fact that when those teams moved, well, the Lakers and Jazz in particular, there wasn’t such a concern with marketing and the “brand.”

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Q: Hi Doug. When you watch youth sports it is usually pretty obvious who the best players are right away. Is it the same in the NBA?

Obviously Lebron or Dwight Howard stand out from the crowd, but what about a perennial all-star like Ray Allen, Deron Williams or Steve Nash, who aren't physically different, but have superior skills and/or mental approach?

Should it be pretty obvious to Raptors fans when we have a player here again that will be a perennial all-star?

Thanks,

 

Greg M, Halifax

A: I don’t think it should be obvious, no. Players blossom at different times in their careers and it takes time to find out who’s going to be quite good. I’m not saying there’s an all-star on this team but there might be.

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Q: Hey Doug, Who's the odd (big) man out when Reggie returns? Does Alabi go to the D-League again? Would they cut Dorsey?

Thanks

 

Francis L, Saskatoon

A: No, no one’s going to go to the D League although I presume, when Reggie’s back, Alabi goes on the inactive list for each game.

As for the minutes, here’s a direct quote from Jay on Saturday on the impact Reggie’s return will have on Amir Johnson and Ed Davis:

“They’ve both played well and we’re going to have to try to manage minutes for him and for the two of them … but different things happen and we’ll deal with it when we know he’s got the 100 per cent clean bill of health.”

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Q: When a player goes through an extended shooting slump, you often hear of him sticking around after practice or on off-nights putting up hundreds of extra shots trying to get it right. With Calderon's slump, I haven't heard such things (which, granted, doesn't mean he's not doing it; just that we haven't heard). I know he's a new father. If he isn't putting in the extra time, is that a reason why? He wants (or has to) get home to be with his baby?

 

G M, Vancouver

A: I wouldn’t say he’s putting in a lot of extra time, there are some tugs at home, as I think most could understand. And I’m not sure you’d say “gym rat” even at the best of times with Jose so I guess it’s a matter of what works for which player.

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Q: Hey Doug, never miss a blog. If Jose were passing to Pierce, Garnett, and Allan does Jose make the allstar team? And if Andrea has D Howard to take pressure off of rebounding does he become an elite NBA player? Personally i believe so.

 

Jeff Y, Orangeville

A: I don’t think you can say definitively either way but I think it’s apparent that good teammates lead to individual success. As for those two specific cases, most likely not in the first and anyone would benefit from the presence of a Dwight Howard.

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Q: Hi Doug, former Raptors coach Kevin O' Neill is occasionally mentioned in some of your blog's most colourful recollections. You often note his ability to get his teams to play stifling defence (if at the expense of the offence). Can you provide a high level explanation of how this coaching style worked, its strengths and its limitations? Why can't aspects of it be implemented with the current Raptors squad?

 

Andrew H, Toronto

A: A high-level explanation? Probably not without getting into how they showed on screen-roll or rotated on the weak side.

But what KO did the most was slow the game down, no one went to the offensive glass, they didn’t run off stops and what it did was force teams to play offence against them at a rather slow pace, which tends to lead to more missed shots, longer possessions and keeps scores down.

But KO also had some better players, the impact of a veteran like Mike Curry at the back of the defence can’t be diminished.

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Q: Hi Doug. Quick question about the collective agreement and rookie contracts. This year's draft is on June 23. If a player gets drafted that day and signs prior the expiration of the collective agreement on July 1, would their pay be determined by the current rookie pay scale or would a drafted player be ineligible to sign a contract until after a new collective agreement is in place? Presuming that the owners will probably push for a claw back of rookie salaries, do you think that this might push a college player who knows they will be picked in the top 10 to come out early? One such player I was thinking of was Kyrie Irving of Duke, who has lost much of this season to injury. There seems to be some questions regarding whether he'll declare for the draft or not.

 

Jeff D, Mississauga

A: Anyone drafted this year comes into the league under the current collective bargaining agreement and its rookie scale contracts. The question kids and agents have to have is whether the new deal will be worse for them and whether it’s worth the gamble to stay in school another year.

I presume some will but I don’t know if it’ll be a big number of them.

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Q: Hi Doug; A quick one ... Now that BC has "stayed the course" at the deadline - Do you foresee wholesale changes again this offseason, or will he be more in tinkering mode? I realize the new CBA will be a major determining factor ... but anything in the crystal ball?

Always enjoy the read.

 

Bob M, Mississauga

A: Yes, the new CBA and possible lockout makes it impossible to know for sure but we are in for a relatively boring summer, I bet. I don’t think there are many moves coming at all, the whole point of this exercise was to put a group together and let it grow rather that make any kind of major overhaul.

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Q: Doug. Put on your swami's hat and peer into your Might Have Been crystal ball. In that other universe, Jordan doesn't interfere in the Charlotte trade and suddenly Toronto gets a starting five of Chandler, Bargnani, Kleiza, DeRozan and Jack. A backup point guard is needed, but in the immediate post-trade glow it's Banks, Barbosa, Weems, Johnson and Diaw as the second unit.

Seems like Ed Davis would have gotten precious little on-court training.

In retrospect, was it good or bad that Jordan killed the trade, as it pertains to the Raptors' future?

Gary M, Brampton

 

P.S. Does Colangelo do Reggie a solid and give him a buyout so he can get in some playoff action? I know nobody offered as much as a second rounder for the our favourite rebounder. But surely somebody (Orlando, Boston) would sign him for the minimum. And it's not like the Raptors would benefit long-term by giving Reggie minutes instead of Davis, Johnson and Ajinca.

A: If that trade had gone through it could very well have an impact on the long-term future but it also would probably have provided a better base to grow from with a big shot-blocking presence at the rim. But I also think they would have found minutes for Davis, regardless, and as we’ve seen, his abilities would have kept him on the court.

And I haven’t heard a peep about a buyout for Reggie. Don’t think that’s a possibility.

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Q: Doug, this business about player movement ruining the league is madness. As far as I can tell, the only way to avoid players leaving is an arbitration system like baseball's. But I would think that the NBA is more interested in reducing salaries as much as they can. Is it at all possible to get both?

 

Ray S, Toronto

A: I doubt that it is, I think you’re always going to have player movement and I don’t see it as that big an issues as long as there’s a better mechanism to keep star players with their teams, like some kind of “franchise player” tag like they have in the NFL.

But the biggest issue, according to people I’ve talked to, is economics.

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Q: Hey Doug. Love the blog and all the hard work you do, I've been a little out of the loop for the Heroes, but have they used the exemption that they gained with the Bosh deal? Does it not have an expiration date on it, when is that? Also,I watching the dunk contest, the round mound had a great quote of the raptors, it went something like "Brian Colangelo had put together a great young team that should be really good in the future, too bad we play in the present" - Great line.

 

Mike A, Stoney Creek

A: There is about $9.1 million left of the exception and it expires in the first week of July. The next time it will really be a factor is around the draft when trades that didn’t work out in February are often re-visited.

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Q: Hey Doug. You know what? I'm ticked off by all these American media folks calling Toronto (and Cleveland) the poster boys for 'How not to run a Franchise'. But in a sense, do we not do it to ourselves? With a Top 5 market size-wise, I think the root of a lot of problems come from who is really running the show... the MLSE insanity. Does being owned by such a huge and impersonal group not hurt the Raptors? Where are the Busses, Cubans, Prokorovs, even the Gilberts in Toronto? Does anyone above the GM office actually care anymore as long as the Teacher's pensions get paid?

I think we as fans deserve a lot more.

Sincerely,

 

Andrew P, Toronto

A: I think you speak for a lot of fans, a large majority in fact. And yes, while there are just as many teams that spend a lot of money foolishly and don’t win, the willingness to go into the tax level does correlate to success in some cities.

But, it’s not a case of simply being able to “spend” your way to success; you need to spend smartly, draft wisely, make good free agent signings and catch a break here or there.

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Comments

[Thane]

Doug, with the NCAA rules prohibiting players from engaging agents, will the potential draftees be able to recieve any real advice on how the new CBA/lockout could affect them?

How are they getting this if they are, and if they're not isn't the NCAA really hurting them by making them choose in the dark?

[Blake Kennedy]

While it's true that KO did slow the pace of the team down a lot, he also had them playing great defense regardless of pace: the Raptors were 7th in the league defensively the year that he coached allowing 100.4 points / 100 possessions. To put that in perspective, only 7 teams have bettered that mark in every season since 2003-4: the San Antonio Spurs, 3 times (2004-5, 2005-6, 2006-7), the Chicago Bulls, twice (2004-5, 2006-7), the Boston Celtics, twice(2007-8 and so far this year). So although KO did slow the pace considerably, he did more than that: he got that team performing on a defensive level that almost nobody has been able to match in the league since then (Popovic, Skiles and Rivers - and that's it). And I don't think he had a ton of defensive talent, either, so I give the man a lot of credit.

Now, offensively? Horrid. We were the second-worst team in the league per-possession that year as well, scoring only 97.0 points/100 possessions, and no team since then has ever been worse. So he had a lot to work on in terms of his offensive development, but there is no doubt that the man was an elite defensive coach (whatever his media relations/interpersonal relationship failings may have been) and did far more than just slow down the pace (although he did do that as well).

He also left the team as all-time franchise leader in smashings / 100 lamps. That is a record which I hope gets broken some day, frankly, if for no other reason than to get a chuckle at the mental image of a guy smashing a lamp out of frustration and wondering if there are any garage sales around today in which a lamp might be on sale for a relative pittance.

[LeeZ]

Nash had this to say on Friday about chasing a ring. It should be required reading for every player and fan of the sport. If you didn't already adore him before, how can you not adore him now?
“Well, I mean I think for me, of course I want to win a ring,” Nash says. “But at the same time I’m like, ‘I don’t want to win it with those guys. Those guys have been the enemy for X amount of years.’ So I’m not quite in that camp yet — ‘I don’t care, put me on the best team and I’m going to try to win a ring.’ I still feel like kids from my neighborhood want to beat the kids from that neighborhood, like we were growing up. I’m not ready to concede, ‘Well, they’re better than us, I’ll join them.’ I’m just not there yet. Maybe I’ll get there.”
“So I try to be thankful for what I have, great teammates, great coach, a city I’ve had a lot of success and enjoyment in, I just want to play until they tell me it’s time to move on.”

[jhp]

Happy Sunday and hope the awards show is entertaining. Do you thing the Raptors would be more fun to cover if they were owned by an individual owner like Cuban? And since your are not a fan of the team do you see yourself moving onto to cover some other sport , like baseball?

Blogger's note: More fun? Depends but that are a lot of boring individual owners, too; and, no, I don't plan on going anywhere

[m]

@LeeZ, thanks for reminding us how cool Steve Nash is, (as if we didn't already know! -) ). Makes one proud to be a Canadian.

[doug]

people like @jhp need to be careful what they wish for...Donald Sterling is a individual owner as is Jeffery Loria in baseball,,and let's not forget Harold Ballard....your one answer got me to thinking about not being a fan as you have to be disengaged as a reporter...I understand all that, professionalism, ethics etc, but to me that sums up the problems that plaque the newspaper industry...fans have the internet as blogs devoted to teams are not only commonplace but thrive, look at your blog even...fans are passionate, care and want opinions on teams or dialogue....with newspapers we don't get that as much as we should...newspapers should have a column written by a fan,from a fans perspective...the approach newspapers take is going the way of the dodo bird and their mindset has to change, this detached perspective from newspaper reporters should change...look at Fox news (although I am in no way a fan) they do take a point of view, even if it is distorting, but are as passionate as their viewers in expressing it, as there ratings reflect it.....as their viewers distort whatever to there point of view anyways , (as we see on your blog on a daily basis)...I am not advocating distorting the truth, what I am advocating is reporters that take a stance, have a opinion and just don't write these "detached" articles...PTI is popular because they state opinion whether we agree or not...newspapers are so far behind, to me there following a archaic model that needs to change or we will continue to see what see...the slow demise of printed media...no one looks at newspapers for last night's scores or recaps anymore so if all we are getting is this detached writing (although professional) there is no need to buy a newspaper...I understand it's a catch 22 for reporters,editors etc..but they have to look outside the box...Toronto is a rarity as it has a fairly healthy newspaper industry in that there are 4 dailies...other cities aren't the same and newspapers are struggling mightily..

[DMcCalgary]

So a plaque is going up on the home Jackie Robinson rented in Montreal while playing for the Royals in 1946. Perhaps a little late, but very cool. ESPN has an AP article doing Canada proud, showing what can result when good people see no barriers in colour or language.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6164311
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My Dad, who was a baseball fanatic, and experienced the enjoyment of sitting in Delormier Stadium and watching the play of Jackie, Roy Campanella, Lasorda, Drysdale, etc. would be delighted and proud.

[GM]

I believe a reporter can be a professional (detached, unbiased and fair) and still be a fan of a team. Maybe not like the rabid fans we see around here, but have a bit of a rooting interest in the players he knows on a personal level and follows. Not sure I'd want to see that reflected in the writing, though.

[m]

Well, that makes your day, doesn't it! Just a great story people can be.

[doug]

do people realize that the sports section in all the newspaper is the only section where reporters aren't allowed to state their personal view of view or show allegiances to teams??...it makes no sense, look at the 4 Toronto dailies they all have their leanings and their writings reflect it, in entertainment we have reviewers talking about their opinions in movie reviews, we have food reviews, auto reviews etc....we editorial pages and so on...but in the sports pages it''s this same old mantra...really sports reporters from any of the 4 T.O. dailies are interchangeable...and to @GM newspapers are losing reporters to other mediums...such as Wilbon is gone and others have/will follow suit as even in Toronto Cox and Brunt have signed with Sportsnet just in the last month....Peter King is a excellent reporter and he has his points of views entirely and it's in written form....it can be done and should be....Duke Snider passed away today, brings back memories of me watching and listening to Expos games in my youth...the Duke and Dave Van Horne..both HOF'ers, just a great broadcast team and Duke a great ball player as well...