No rush to fill a hole and it's Soccer Day (sorry, Cathal)

We’re a bit all over the map today, which is what you get for an off-day with the HOTH and some idle time for me.

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So, what should they do when, and if, they get an open roster spot at the end of the Anthony Carter saga?

Well, I’m sure there’ll be some clamouring for a third point guard still – a young kid maybe out of the D League – to come in and work in practice and take the scant minutes that Carter usually played.

Makes sense to me but I don’t imagine they need to do that until March 16, or a day after the trade deadline.

Everyone I talk to around the team, and around the league, anticipates that the Raptors won’t do a thing in the next few days but you never know with Bryan and having that open spot makes more sense right now then having a kid sitting on the end of the bench.

I fully expect Bryan will not be able to help himself and will at least try to get involved in some kind of transaction but he has to basically stop himself – or be stopped by his advisors. It’s hard, very hard, to hit a home run in a trade, I think it’s best to sit pat until the summer and see what transpires then.

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Guess I’m going to beat Mr. Kelly to the punch here – I’ll give him a free Grace day sometime – but I found myself sitting on a stool catching Fly Emirates vs. Fly Emirates, er, I mean Arsenal vs. AC Milan, for a large chunk of yesterday afternoon.

And I tell ya, even those among you who whine about the lack of scoring in the game would have liked this one.

It was 3-0 Arsenal, who still lose the aggregate 4-3 as Milan avoids what can easily be termed humiliation, but it was the kind of sporting event that just draws you in.

There were goals and great saves and one of the all-time scoring gaffes by Robin Van Persie, who blew a certain aggregate-equalizer with a little flick instead of a hard boot that will haunt him for a while.

I guess what it showed – and, again, I was shocked by the number of fans who were able to blow off work for an afternoon game – is that I’m one of those sports fans who can watch almost anything as long as it’s played a high level and has some drama and importance to it.

There was a time when I was kind of anti-soccer, it was boring and I didn’t know anything about the teams or players, but now if there’s a good game of some significance, I can easily sit and watch because the essence of sport is excellence and competition at the highest level and, frankly, it doesn’t matter what the game is.

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Mail?

May as well get the process started, right?

Do it here.

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How come just about every time I think about soccer, this song resonates in my mind?

Who doesn’t like a little You’ll Never Walk Alone? And who doesn’t like the idea of tens of thousands of fans singing in unison and support for their side.

I can only wish at least one North American team could inspire such a performance from its fans, that’d be cool. Very cool.

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NBL Canada playoffs began last night and it appears it was a doozy, London over Saint John by one on the road to open the best of three.

I know John Kennedy, the league’s commissioner, has been working hard all year to get some big deals going – you’ll get to read about it here on the weekend, if all goes according to Hoyle – but one thing I hope they can get done (and you better be listening, TV networks) is to get some coverage of the championship series, whenever it begins.

Even tape-delayed would be okay; I think they need to end the first year with a bang and that’s a good way to do it.

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The Bobcats beat the Magic and the Pistons beat the Lakers and we’re supposed to be surprised?

(Total aside: Best part of the entire night was not the Knicks losing or Lamar Odom being booed a bit at home or anything on the court. It was Kobe’s black mask, which is entirely cool and I wish Turk had tried one a couple of years ago he might have liked it).

Anyway, those two results are hardly shocking, not in this NBA season which, more than any I can remember, is chock full of seemingly odd results.

Remember that the next time the HOTH either win one they’re not supposed to or lose one they were supposed to win.

Odd things are happening these days; the one thing you want is to see a team that works consistently hard, develops better individual skills and finds some kind of chemistry.

I would say the Raptors have done the first, struggle at times with the second and the third’s okay, too.

I think just about everyone on the roster could be better in some facet of the game, I think good chemistry comes from winning and is a tad over-rated but the work ethic seems to be there.

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While we’re on the subject of football, how about the TFCs?

Big game vs. The Beckhams tonight, I hear. Maybe 40,000 at the dome to see it and all I really hope is that traffic west eases before I’m heading home from my game.

But I can clearly remember the last time I cared even a little bit about a single game and that was the year they went to New York needing a win for the first playoff berth in history.

Lots of hype, fair amount of general interest; I can remember My Man Girard telling me how big a game it was.

New York Before They Were The Red Bulls 5, Toronto 0.

That’s like a zillion to nothing in a lot of other sports, isn’t it?

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It’s been so long since I’ve heard a Sidney Crosby update that I was sure his concussion/broken neck/soft tissue injury/upper body ailment/cold/flu/allergies/virus/career-ending situation was all cleared up.

Imagine my joy yesterday when the breathless reports surfaced that he is in fact alive and well and ready to resume full contact practice.

My joy is matched only by that of Air Canada’s since they’re about to hit the Motherlode on the generally seldom-travelled Toronto-Pittsburgh corridor thanks to the unquestionable media frenzy that’s about to occur.

After all, the trade deadline’s come and gone, no one’s flown to wherever Ron Wilson is to be treated like excrement and where else are the networks going to spend their money and resources.

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Comments

[Dave]

@ Ted S. - You seem to believe that finding these "hidden gem" players is a regular, everyseason occurance, and all of the teams in the league do it except the Raptors....but truly, it is the opposite....there are very very few "star" players who went undrafted, or were second round picks. Truly...even Lin will not be a star player (imo). He benefited from a D'Antoni system that inflates and has inflated many players' stats, and a team that was without it's star ball-stopper for a while. You can laud a San Antonio team for hitting on Ginobli in the late second round (?) but understand that that very rarely happens. To label an organization's scouting as 'terrible' because they havn't done what very few teams have seems ignorant...And to suggest they swing for the fences on long shot players that every other team in the league has passed on in hopes one of them works out? that seems even more crazy... Honestly. how many roster spots and how many minutes per game would you like to see filled by undrafted players or late round picks in hopes that one of them flourishes? 3? 5? One of them eventually HAS to be good, right? Then the Raptors scouting staff would be great!? Seriously, man. Seriously.

[Ted S.]

@ Dave .....once in a franchise history would be fine with me. Other than the high first rounders this scouting department hasn't shown much over the years. I don't pretend it is easy, but this franchise is due for something great. Almost 20 years due.
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I'd like to look at every franchise's 2nd round picks/FAs/10-days and show you how we've done in comparison. I look up at the screen and Luis Scola seems to cross San Antonio (now playing in Houston) off the list.