With a legacy on the line, who has responsibility?

What do you think is at stake tonight in Boston?

For the Miami Heat, that is.

How much does a loss diminish what they are, what they’ve done, what they’ve tried to accomplish?

Does elimination in the conference final – even at the hands of a team that’s been the better team overall since the series began – mean the whole Big Three experiment was an utter failure and that major changes should be in the offing?

Probably.

And I’m thinking the very first change should be at the very top, where Pat Riley needs to find someone to come in and do some general manager’s duties because, frankly, this is as much on him as it is on any player or coach.

Sure, he was a tad hamstrung by cap rules in trying to put some role players around those three but, frankly, he’s failed at almost every turn.

Eddie Curry? Come on.

Ronny Turiaf? You’re joking.

A rookie backup point guard? Can’t do it.

Mike Miller? Surprised he’s been hurt? Not me.

Shane Battier? Best days are past him.

Sure, it’s tough to find guys but here’s one for you: Aaron Gray, who was a total free agent even as training camps began last December, looks like Wilt Freaking Chamberlain compared to the people the Heat are running out there.

Anyway, all that’s really at stake is, fairly or unfairly, the legacy of a team many thought would be unstoppable once it was put together.

It was all well and good and explainable when they lost last year’s Finals to Dallas and Dirk Nowitzki because Nowitzki was playing out of his mind. To lose in the conference finals this time around, to lose a Game 5 at home with Chris Bosh back, Rajon Rondo so-so and Paul Pierce unable to hit a key shot for 47 minutes and to blow a game they had in control on at least three occasions?

Inexcusable and perhaps an indictment on a team that has yet to really become a “team.” You look at the Heat and marvel at their individual talent but you look at the Heat and you don’t really see cohesion, or a togetherness, or a grittiness, or a heart and will that you see on truly great teams.

Look, Erik Spoelstra is not blameless is this mess. He botched Bosh in the fourth quarter of Game 5 – only the most significant quarter of the season for his team – and his psycho-babble “it’s just a loss, nothing more; we have to block out the noise” stuff is a pure sign to me of a guy who talks a better game than he plays.

Dwayne Wade, who loafs back on defence more than any star in the league ever has, also has to take some responsibility.

LeBron? He’s been outstanding for three quarters; like we’ve never heard that before.

Now, the Heat could very well figure it out and win the next two games and go on to play for another championship.

But even if they do, there’s just something that’s lacking there. And I think it’s going to bite them in the bum and the questions and changes will commence very soon.

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Okay, stupid early flight today after a very short night (had an NBA ref call these kind of late-evening-early-wakeup days “night naps” during a social moment post-Game 3 in OKC) so we’ll get to comments when I get settled in Chicago.

Until then, feel free to fill the mailbag, I luuuuuuv hearing from you. Honest.

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Hmm.

Euro2012, is it?

Now, Our Man Cathal’s over there to chronicle it as only he can and I’m certainly not able to break the game down tactically at his level and that’s fine. It means I can sit back and watch with interest and not really care about 2-4-4 or 3-4-3 or whatever it is teams employ.

It also means I can piggyback on the passion of a variety of fans; I love sitting back on my little stool and watching them live and die with every game, to learn about the players and the coaches and the teams and see the joy and the angst.

Trust me, it’s something you should all try at least once as this tournament unfolds, it’s not something we see all the time and it is quite something.

Anyway …

It also means I don’t have a true rooting interest but I figure I should, right? Should be one team I want to win and to watch and here’s where it gets sticky.

Which one?

Well, because I continue to tilt against windmills, and have had my share of disappointments over the course of time – and I’m going way back to a time when we seldom saw soccer and there was something mythic about it – it’s kind of an easy choice.

So yeah, with memories of past losses and under-achievement dancing in my head, we’re all over the Netherlands.

Yes, Cruyff crushed me and Total Football became Total Letdown on so many occasions and that goonfest of a 2010 World Cup final was difficult to swallow.

And because of the number of times they’ve fallen just short, I don’t feel entirely like a front-runner backing them. Beside, they’re in The Group Of Death with Portugal, Germany and Denmark so perhaps it’ll be quick exit.

(Besides, the Mighty Stamford Hornets were orange and black, old habits die hard).

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I can’t be there, unfortunately, but there’s this basketball thing in Toronto tonight that you should take in, if you can and you might want to get there early, bet there’s a good crowd.

It’s as good a collection of very young Canadian talent as you’ll see as the junior national team finishes preparations before it goes to the FIBA Americas world qualifier next week.

Details here; I know it sounds like a bit of a shill but what the heck, you should probably get to know some of these kids.

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A total football aside.

The Canadian men in those blue one-time strips was an abomination, as we know.

I was telling someone about the other day about my aversion to blue (and I know it was a one-time thing but it was still wrong) and she says: “Wait ‘til you see what the women wear for their friendly against the USA.”

I’m intentionally not going to look before, I love a surprise.

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Major league baseball’s draft has ended.

It was hosted by Jerry Lewis.

No Mighty Red Tiger was selected.

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Celtics are survivors on the strength of their will

Centuries and centuries and centuries after some meteor crashes into us and renders this planet barren or global warming decimates Earth and turns in inhabitable, visitors from another galaxy will arrive to re-establish life here.

They will find dust and dirt and desolation, maybe a cockroach or two.

And the Boston Celtics.

Seriously.

Why wouldn’t you think this group couldn’t survive anything that’s thrown their way and thrive, why they couldn’t just summon some kind of will from somewhere deep in their souls and keep plugging along.

The effort last night wasn’t particularly pretty nor was it overly-athletic, there weren’t many moments that provided jaw-dropping wonder. All it was was thorough and professional and emotional and a team – far more a “team” than the one on the other side of the equation – simply finding a way to get it done. You really don’t have to like the Boston Celtics to appreciate what they’re doing. Sure, Kevin Garnett’s woofing like he does and, yeah, Rajon Rondo can be amazing one minute and have one of the great mind-farts of all time with an over-and-back violation at a crucial moment and Ray Allen is classy but hobbled and you almost feel sorry for him some nights.

But you cannot discount will, and effort, and desire. You have to marvel at Paul Pierce sucking most of the night and hitting perhaps the biggest shot of the season with that dagger of a three. You have to admire Doc Rivers for making all the right moves, taking out Garnett with seven minutes left in a taut game because he needed to buy some time so the team’s emotional leader would be fresh down the stretch.

Now, it would be folly to count out the Heat, or the San Antonio Spurs tonight for that matter.

There is no question Miami has the talent and, perhaps, Erik Spoelstra will remember down the stretch of Game 6 that Chris Bosh is available and even if he isn’t 100 per cent, he represents a threat and at least occupies the mind and body of Garnett a little bit.

But in the East, at least, talent is basically second to will.

You could make the case very strongly that the conference final should be over and that we should be making reservations for a June week in Boston (yeah, that’s not going to suck at all) because the Celtics have been the better team more nights.

It hasn’t been as electrifying as Thunder-Spurs, that’s for sure; but it’s been amazing in its own way.

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I want this kid cheering me on every time I fail.

How cool is that?

I was howling on the couch at the end of the game, wondering (a) which Heat player might charge into the stands or (b) how one person can be so positive.

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Did you know that they make ice cream sandwiches where it’s a nice thick slab of vanilla ice cream between two chocolate chip cookies?

How come it took this long for me to find out?

That may be the best snack invention since, well, since I don’t know when.

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Mail? Let’s start. Need to hear from some of you that I haven’t heard from in a while.

Click. Write. Send.

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Raptors news! Raptors news! Raptors news!

Well, not really but at least a HOTH story here, as I’m sure you’ve seen.

Two things pop out:

They think they might bring in up to 25 guys for workouts – they’ll probably start next week and, no, there are no firm details – and that’s an awful lot of “I just want to come in and play defence and do what the coaches want; I think I’d be a good fit here, I work hard and will do what the coaches want” clichés from teens.

And while it’s not new by any stretch of the imagination, the importance they’re putting on the interviews in Chicago and here and the role a psychologist will play is kind of interesting.

Now, I know you don’t want knuckleheads to dominate your roster, that’s a headache no coach or organization needs, I think we can safely say one or two guys with an “edge” to them don’t hurt.

You can’t have all choirboys and you can’t have all thugs and idiots but striking that balance is difficult. Important, but difficult.

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Okay, I know you’re not supposed to cheer in this gig – except for your story – but here’s a confession:

I want the women’s basketball team to qualify for London.

I like the women, I like the coach, I’ve written about a lot of this group for a very long time it seems and it’d be a perfect bookend for a couple of careers.

They are a fine group of women who represent the country with distinction and while they don’t get nearly the support nor attention they deserve, an appearance in London will unquestionably open some eyes and give girls across the country another group of role models and I would surmise they are badly needed.

I wrote about the women the other day, too (it’s here for those who missed it) before they headed off to Europe and a handful of exhibition games leading into the final qualification tournament in Turkey later this month.

One of the more interesting aspects of what they’ve gone through is that they’ve had to wait almost 10 months for this shot; they earned the berth at the Turkey tournament last summer and have a very, very long time to think about it.

And how’d they handle it?

Sports psychology, in part. Their big mantra this year is “win the day” because it’d been almost too hard to think about the end prize when the process took so long to unfold. And hearing it from an “outsider” made sense, coach Allison McNeill told us:

“Seriously, that did help just because there’s someone else there that’s saying the same message that the coaches are saying. And some of the older players have figured it out, how to stay in that moment.

"We’ve talked a lot about execution; if you’re executing, you’re not thinking about anything else down the line, you’re just thinking about today.

“We had a theme this year about “win the day” and it’s that we have to focus on that day, that game, that execution. We’ve just been practicing for that. It takes a lot of practice to stay in the moment and they’ve got some triggers and things they are working on if they feel themselves coming out of that.”

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Mighty Red Tigers tonight under the lights, think good thoughts and keep me up to date on Spurs-Thunder if you get the chance.

Thanks.

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Changes to Olympic hoops may hurt; and what will Bosh do?

With all this wealth of young basketball talent coming down the pike in Canada, how’d you feel about very few of them ever having a chance to play in the Olympics?

Yep, that’s perhaps no Games for Kevin Pangos or Andrew Nicholson or Myck Kabongo or Tristan Thompson or Cory Joseph or Kris Joseph.

One of things David Stern dropped on us at the lottery last week – and it’s not the first time he’s brought it up – is that the NBA will be pushing for the Olympic basketball tournament to be an under-23 affair.

Now, there are all kinds of political games still to be played and this is not a done deal. Stern didn’t say whether it’d be for 2016 or 2020 (my betting is he wants it sooner rather than later) and there are other issues at play.

FIBA wants the Olympics expanded to 16 teams and wants a three-on-three tournament (think beach volleyball for basketball) added to the Games. The IOC likes to have the glitterati at their Games, even if they can get lost in a multi-sport event so maybe there’s a compromise to keep the top world players in the Olympics if the IOC gives one or two things that FIBA wants.

But look at it this way:

Having the Olympics as Under-23 – even if you grant, say, two roster spots to players over 23; I believe soccer at the Games allows three exceptions – lets FIBA promote its World Cup as the biggest event for the sport every quadrennial.

The NBA wins because it probably keeps whining owners (hello, Mark Cuban!) a bit more quiet if their top players only have to give up two years out of every four to play for their countries instead of going almost every summer.

Players get an out, too. And I wonder how many of them, in the heart of hearts, would welcome just doing the worlds and being able to place responsibility somewhere else for not having to take part in the Olympics.

I’ve done a handful of world championships – Toronto, Indy, Athens and Turkey – and it truly is a “basketball” event, unlike the Olympics, where it’s just part of a grander program.

There are too many teams at the worlds, 24 when probably 18 or 16 would be better, but I do think it crowns a more legitimate champion than the 12-team Olympics does.

I know a lot of young basketball players here dream of the Olympics though because of the pageantry, because they are part of something bigger and to have that taken away would be tough.

It’d be especially tough here, where we place far more emphasis, rightly or wrongly, on the Olympic basketball tournament than we do on the worlds. But maybe we need to adjust our thinking a bit, maybe we need to consider the world championships the end all and be all.

We may be headed that way and I don’t have a problem with that.

(As long as Canada doesn’t wear blue uniforms)

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Big day for cops worldwide yesterday, wasn’t it? And for the dude at the internet café who fingered the alleged body parts guy.

But getting caught in an internet café? That’s got CSI or Law And Order or something like that written all over it.

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Well, for a team that had won 20 in a row, these last three games have been rather disappointing for the San Antonio Spurs, no?

Great one last night, though, for fans at least. Anyone who doesn’t appreciate the speed, creativity and skill that’s been shown in the Western Conference final might want to rethink things.

Funny thing, however, is how quickly perceptions can change which, as we’ve said, is a great thing about sports playoffs.

It was about week ago we were lauding the Spurs for being so efficient and effective, Tony Parker was phenomenal, Tim Duncan had been reborn and Manu was, well, Manu.

Today? Parker can’t handle long defenders, Duncan’s aging before our very eyes and Manu is, well, Manu.

Anyway, I don’t think the series is over, that’s for sure.

But having just been in OKC I will tell you this:

That will the loudest arena ever. Like jet engine loud. Don Cherry suit loud.

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Someone remind me in the next few weeks when I’m complaining about the draft that I’m glad I don’t have to worry about the baseball one.

It might be the worst for tracking. A zillion rounds, a billion players from high schools and college and you’re supposed to know stuff about the players?

Yeah, right.

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So who’ve you got tonight?

Heat? Celtics?

For the “other” NBA conference final, there’s definitely some juice in this series now, thanks the Celtics and their resiliency and the Heat and their inability to find a level of cohesion.

The fun part tonight – if it happens and it seems like it will – will be to see how Chris Bosh handles more attention and pressure than maybe he ever has.

For the “other” guy in the Big Three, he’s certainly become far more important during his absence and I’m sure there are fans out there who will expect him to come in – if he does – and not dominate but at least shine and give Miami what it’s been missing

I wonder if he can. Or if he will.

Every now and then, Chris has shown a tendency to try and do too much, to get a bit too wound up, to over-exert himself when he knows he’s carrying a heavy load of responsibility.

I’m sure there will be all kinds of deflecting when it comes time for coaches and teammates to talk about his return; they’ll say no one player can do it all or make a huge difference but they will be wrong.

The Heat, simply, need Bosh. They need his presence because he demands attention from a defence; they need his presence because on defence he may not be the strongest guy in the paint but he is a presence and Kevin Garnett won’t be able to roam freely because Bosh is there.

I just want to see how he handles it because he could very well be the key to Miami winning this series.

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Bad uniforms, bad decisions and a couple of big losses

A series of unrelated notes and things because I pretty much coasted for a bit of yesterday and nothing sticks in my mind, or my craw, this morning.

Well, a few things do …

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I remember talking with The First Lady Of The Beat, who also dabbles in the soccer and the track and a handful of other sports, and she’s telling me about some fancy-schmancy sports-fashion thing she was at to unveil the new Canadian soccer strips.

Was a good time, apparently, and she’s kind of impressed if I recall so before the NBA game, I decide to check out the Canada-US friendly, not in hopes of seeing a goal (far too much to ask) but so I can see what the lads look like.

Funnily enough, the guide says the games on Sportsnet but something must be wrong because I recognize the Yanks but who’s that team in blue?

Can’t be Canada, right?

Canada is red. Or Canada is white. Or Canada is some combination of red and white.

Right?

Wrong.

Blue.

Blue!!!

Look, I don’t really care all that much about colours of uniforms or styles of uniforms (I kind of miss the old baseball flannels but realize time marches on) but there’s one thing about which I’d dead certain.

A Canadian team, in any sport in any competition in any venue at any time, needs to be decked out at least partially in red. And don’t give me the little red flag on the shoulder of the jerseys, it doesn’t count.

Red is how we are, it’s what we are.

I don’t know if Sunday was a one-night abomination but I sure hope so. (It was, thankfully; whew!) Because not since I was up in Ottawa eons ago and the women’s hockey team showed up in hoary clichéd pink did a national team uniform miss by so much.

End of rant.

Good game, though. The lads may not have scored but they didn’t give one up, either. Imagine that, a 0-0 soccer draw.

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So a couple of best-of-threes in the NBA?

I’m okay with that.

If you stayed up to watch the end of the Heat-Celtics, I hope you were like me and totally put off with the way Miami handled the last two possessions of the overtime, where they had four guys stand around while Dwyane Wade tried to figure out a way to get a shot off.

At no point in either of them did it look like he even considered the other four Miami players on the court, he was going to get a shot come hell or high water and it ended up that a 29 per cent three-point shooter took some twisting, off-balance three-pointer to win and it was entirely fitting that it didn’t go in.

Look, I love a team with a guy on it who can break down his man and make a play and win a game. But sometimes breaking down a man and making a play means precisely that – making a play for your team and not for yourself.

Hero ball, as it’s called in some circles, is all fun and games and it makes for nice highlights with a game-winner but, in many instances, it’s just stupid.

Sometimes – often times – you need a screen, you need to have someone set a screen for someone else, you need to look at all your options and then make a play that gives your team the best chance to win or tie.

Wade did none of that and his coach, Erik Spoelstra, completely abdicated all responsibility by simply saying: “Throw the ball to Dwyane, he’ll do something.”

Yes, stars win games and you want stars with the ball in their hand in those situations; but you also want stars to do what’s right for their team and that’s making the right play.

Wade didn’t. He coach showed no imagination in that final possession.

Looks good on them.

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The West Wing remains one of the greatest television shows ever made and Mrs. Landingham was a very cool.

RIP.

Other dramas that I wish were still around on some way up there channel of constant repeats?

Lou Grant.

Had a crush on Billie; knew a handful of photogs like Animal; who didn’t love Lou. Classic.

White Shadow.

Sure, lots of cliché characters but Salami made me laugh every now and then; can you make the case it was Friday Nights Lights Lite?

Six Feet Under

Totally under-rated; a story about a funeral home run by a weird family? They don’t make ‘em like that any more. Sadly.

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So I’m sitting at Mickey Mantle’s the other night (the OKC restaurant, not his house) and there’s two guys a couple of stools down.

They look up to see Hubie Brown and Kevin Calabro walk into the other part of the restaurant and the dudes are like two starstruck kids.

One says:

“He knows more about basketball than anyone alive.”

Close.

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Big-ish week for the HOTH coming up for all those who need to know the minutia.

The NBA’s pre-draft camp starts Wednesday in Chicago, top 60 prospects get weighed, measured, psychologically probed in private meetings with teams and do some drills.

Nothing gets decided, that’s for sure, but lists are certainly narrowed.

And that’s all I’ve got to sate your appetite for all things Raptors.

Sorry.

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Now, when we’re going down the list of old time sitcoms, you know Hogan’s Heroes was near, or at, the top of that list, don’t you?

And Newkirk, while now Klink or Hostetler or even Hogan or Schultz, as pretty good.

RIP.

Tough weekend, no?

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Now, I know I picked San Antonio in seven games in what I still hope turns into an epic Western Conference final and that remains a distinct possibility.

But after seeing two games in person – and it was like watching basketball on amphetamines considering what the Eastern Conference has to offer – I’m wondering about the wisdom of that selection.

I wonder if, as the series goes on, that the Spurs lack of athleticism and relative age doesn’t get to them. The Thunder can run through you and over you and passed you if you let them and the longer this thing goes, I now think the better their chances are.

One things is for certain: It is truly delightful basketball to watch most of the time; hope I can stay up late again after a long, busy day to watch it.

(And, no, not IGBT, there’s a bit of a reception I have to go to this afternoon and who knows what it’ll turn into.)

And having seen first Thabo Sefolosha come out of nowhere and help win a game and then seeing Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins go out of their minds offensively and win a game, I’m kind of excited to see which role player rises to the occasion tonight.

Matt Bonner, perhaps? I’d like to think so but the Thunder are just too long and too quick to give him the room he needs to operate so we can take him off the list, I’m afraid.

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The end of the weekend mail

All right, folks.

Early wakeup, long travel day (I’ll be thinking of you during my three-plus hours in Dallas, perhaps) so I’ll get to whatever comments there are when I can.

Enjoy.

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Q: I'm sure you have answered this before, but do you have a recommendation for a quality book about the history of Major League baseball?

Thanks

Kelly A, Toronto

A: Wow, there so many different eras and different storylines that one definitive book is almost impossible to come up with.

But I’d start with The Glory Of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter and then I’d do Five Seasons and The Summer Game by Roger Angell and if you could find Baseball’s Great Experiment by Jules Tygiel, it’ll take you through the Jackie Robinson era.

And I know this is not a book and it’s not the most recent but if you were to find Ken Burns’s wonderful documentary Baseball on DVD, you’d watch for hours.

Enjoy.

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Q: Hey Doug: With 'trading days' upon us, can you explain - without going into too much detail - what is and isn't allowed in the NBA? For example, I'm pretty sure that salaries have to match - if both teams are over the cap. What about trading a player to another team, and paying part of his salary? Is there such a thing as "a player to be named later?"

Thanks again for all that you do!

Tim H, Windsor

A: For ease of explanation and without going into all the esoteric details of the CBA, teams over the cap can make trades if the total salaries going each way are within 125 per cent, plus or minus $100,000 of each other.

And, no, teams cannot pay the salaries of players they dealt away, which in my opinion is a good thing.

As for players to be named later, that’s not allowed either.

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Q: Sorry Doug, this should have come here as opposed to a comment under today’s blog.

Doug, regarding your article about late draft players making contributions, with Buford in San Antonio being one of the best at finding these late picks that pan out. It's more than just finding the gem, it's developing that potential. San Antonio have more then just an eye for drafting talent, they have a system in place to develop them. Again, Buford deserves credit, and of course Popovich, but who else from that organization go unmentioned that other teams might look at to bring into their coaching staff to mimic? Or is the development system so well entrenched that coaches are inter-changeable so long as they follow the "system"?

And "fit" comes into play. Lot's of players find themselves in situations where they don't fit, don't get a chance or are on teams that simply don't have the knowledge, expertise or system to develop them. Drafting based on asset acquisition without the ability to maximize said talent seems counter productive to both the team and the player. So when we hear "we will draft the best player available" is that not counter productive? After all an asset is only an asset if it can be displayed, developed and showcased.

And one last question, is asset acquisition based drafting and trading not fools gold .._ As always, thanks.

Steph R, Glencoe

A: Who else goes unmentioned? Basketball development coaches work tirelessly with players on skill development outside of practice hours, doing shooting drills, ball-handling drills, defensive drills. If you see a guy’s individual skills improve – and that’s generally what allows a player to crack a rotation – there would be three or four instructors who’ve helped immensely.

And, I think “we will draft the best player available” is one of the bigger clichés you’ll hear this time of year. It is so vague I’m not sure it holds any real meaning because there is so much involved in it. Not only is it size, position and skill, but it’s “fit” and personality and character. So it’s not so much counter-productive as it is a bit misleading.

Fool’s gold? I’m not sure what you mean. Both trading and drafting are part of an overall package of acquiring assets, along with free agent signings, for instance.

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Q: Hi Doug, not sure if you've answered this before but what happens if a player makes a shot whilst his teammate is fouled off the ball? Does the basket count and they get a free-throw? If so who takes it?

Thanks.

Chaz E, London

A: In the case where a foul is committed away from the ball after a shot has been taken, if the basket goes in, it counts and the person who is fouled shots one free throw.

It’s an odd three- or four-point play and you rarely see it but it does happen.

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Q: So what's the deal? No more love for BP and that lonely bar stool? Go to read the blog today and half way through I get a Kelsey's pop up I have to click on to keep reading. Not cool Doug. Say it ain't so. Please, say it ain't so! Love the blog and have read it for years but if the (m)ad men get involved, readership is going to take a hit. I already buy the paper every day.....Boo.

Heath M, Toronto

A: Oh, my love for the usual stool rages on and I have no idea about the ad in the blog. I can see where it’s troubling but you’ll have to give me some time to find out about it, no clue where it came from or how long it might be there.

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Q:

This is the only artist whose songs were covered by the Beatles, Stones, Bob Dylan. Long way from Alabama, Minnesota, Liverpool.

Speaking of long way. West conf vs East Conf seems galaxies apart.

Do your road colleagues see any reason for optimism with our HOTH????

John C, Mississauga

A: It’s funny, I was talking to a guy who works in the San Antonio front office on Friday after the Spurs practice and, of course, he asked what was going on with the HOTH. He knew, of course, because it’s his job to know but when I told him it was the East and I didn’t think the Raptors were too far from relevancy given the way the conference shakes down. I don’t think they’re more than a player away from being Indiana or Philly and those are two of the supposed up-and-coming teams and he readily agreed. I think that’s a commonly held opinion.

As for the travelling grunts? They’re more interested in where we’re having dinner and social outings than they are about how the team is shaping up.

The Goods On The Game, Spurs-Thunder Game 4

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.

The start of the weekend mail

Well, here is today’s offering, have fun with it.

But there’s not much for tomorrow so if you want to get in on the fun, you know how to do it. But please get ‘em in early, I only have the afternoon to work on stuff, Sunday morning starts with another 4 a.m. wakeup call for a 6 a.m. flight to Dallas and then home.

And don’t forget we’re back tonight at 8:30 for an IGBT for those who don’t have other Saturday night plans. I’m not expecting huge attendance.

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Q: Hi Doug! Well, we sadly didn't win the Davis lottery. Now we get to play the mugs game of bandying about names that don't really mean a whole lot, because we have no idea what the seven teams in front of us will do. Oh what fun.

I have a rules question that occurred to me watching the Heat - Celtics game. It concerns the goaltending rule. Lebron smacked the backboard on an early lay up attempt by Rondo when the ball was coming off of it on the way to the rim.

Is that goaltending? It of course wasn't called, but I just wasn't sure if it should have been.

Thanks for the blog and all the work. And thank goodness for the Spurs, and all they're doing to redeem these playoffs. They are playing some beautiful basketball.

Matt S, Toronto

A: Smacking the backboard isn’t goaltending; grabbing the rim or the net or blocking a shot after it’s hit the backboard is. I think that’s the play you were talking about?

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Q: Hi Doug. I read your take on the New Orleans paper cutting back to three days a week. Peter King has something about it in his Monday column, then I read about Canadian papers looking at something similar.

How much longer can we in the GTA expect all four papers to be running and to keep giving excellent and sometimes diverse sports coverage?

Kevin M, Maple

A: That’s a question all of us ask ourselves often, and have for years. You would think, given the economics of the times and the shrinking advertising dollar that there’d be some culling of the flock but not yet. We have seen National Post make some dramatic cuts to its publication schedule as part of the last round of slashes but that is as far as it’s gone.

As a newspaperman, I hope we never lose one, I think competition is good and I have friends at all the other papers; as a realist, I fear for the long-term future of the four. Can’t say which one would vanish, though, because each seems to have a niche of the market.

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Q: Hi Doug: Our Raps have a great opportunity to acquire a good player and at the same time add much needed Canadian content to our roster. Andrew Nicholson has done enough in his career in the NCAA to warrant being a late 1st round pick. I hope Bryan and the rest of the management team see this opportunity and do everything possible ($$, draft picks/current roster players) to acquire him. Do you think the Raps brass have similar thoughts?

Cheers

Rich F, Orillia

A: Oh, I think Nicholson will be a first-round pick almost certainly; I’m not sure a team with, at the moment, a glut of young fours needs to make a move to add a pick who plays that spot.

The Raptors need to improve their roster regardless of birthplace or storyline and while I do think Nicholson is an NBAer, I don’t know how good he’ll be and I don’t think the Raptors need to go out of their way to acquire him.

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Q: Hey Doug, how about a list of Uncles Considered and Rejected by Pepsi Before They Filmed the Uncle Drew Commercial? #1 on my list was Uncle Reg (Reggie Evans, his beard died white, steps into a pick-up game and grabs every rebound, sticks his foot under a few shooters, and knocks a couple of opposing bigs to the tarmac with "accidental" contact).

Mike D, Toronto

A: Well, you’ve got Uncle Oak who sits in his rocking chair mumbling in some language none of us quite understands until he gets up and smacks some kid in the head for fun.

And maybe you’ve got Uncle Chuck who sits there yelling “turrible” over and over and over again and when he’s called on to play runs into a geriatric referee and hurts his back.

How about Uncle Shaq, who stands on the sideline dining. And that’s all he does.

And then there’s Uncle HWSNBN. He watches quietly, sees the kids doing all manner of zany stuff and first time he touches the ball when he gets in a game he does some stupidly athletic thing and then walks away, bored and leaving ‘em wanting more.

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Q: I promise, no "James Johnson, the rights to Sonny Weems and a future second" for Lebron but what true assets do the Raptors have to acquire a legit SF? As Mr. McCown has said in the past (although not maybe this exactly), the Raptors have Bargnani and a bunch of guys named "Who".

Jim S, Thornhill

A: With all due respect to Bob, he’s wrong. They have a lot of “assets” actually, young bigs with cheap contracts, a veteran point guard with a solid game and expiring deal and a draft pick along with millions of dollars in cap room.

So, there are any number of “assets” who would yield something in return, it might mean combining some of them but isn’t that why you acquire them, so you can make deals attractive other teams?

What if they were to package Amir and the pick, or Ed and the pick or Jerryd and the pick in a sign-and-trade? What about James Johnson as a cheap backup? There are myriad “assets” at Bryan’s disposal.

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Q: Doug, in your recent article you wrote: "In 1996, they (Toronto Raptors) were No. 3, moved up to No. 1 but were bounced to No. 2 by virtue of an expansion agreement that said they couldn’t have the No. 1 selection for the first three years of their existence."

Can you explain this "expansion agreement"? Did such an agreement exist for the Grizzlies and Bobcats? If it did not exist for one or both of these teams, why did the NBA place such a restriction on the Raptors?

Which other team would deserve the number one pick more than a new team coming into the league?! Seems very odd and unfair for a new team.

Mike S, Toronto

A: Not sure I can explain it more than it was the expansion agreement, the negotiated terms that allowed both Vancouver and Toronto to get into the league and it did exist for the Grizzlies as well.

I don’t believe the Bobcats had the same clause in their initial agreement but I am not 100 per cent sure; it was a different negotiation with the league.

And it was done – at least in the case of Vancouver and Toronto – to make sure the new teams, which were destined to be awful, weren’t going to get three straight No. 1 picks, an unlikely scenario but a possibility the existing teams didn’t want to think about.

Of draft picks and legacies and, yes, Liz's big weekend

Think I mentioned that a few of the Henchmen are out in Minnesota this weekend for one of those gang workouts for draft eligible kids that’s basically for second-rounders.

Well, it’ll be interesting to see what they think when they get back.

As you know, second-round draft picks haven’t been the most glorious part of the past for the HOTH, unless you’re thinking Remon Van de Hare, Giorgos Printezis, Solo!!!!, DeeAndre Hulett or Tyson Wheeler are just gems being polished.

And this year, it could be double the fun, given that the Raptors now have two picks in the second round.

Or it couldn’t, according to Bryan.

“It may even be unlikely that we utilize both picks, one being a little bit later. Maybe you take a player based on future, if there is someone on the board who piques our interest but would be better served playing a season or two in Europe whether or not that player was an international player.

“A lot of times a second round pick finds himself in a situation where the contract offer is just not there and they are better suited going to Europe and making a little bit of money and developing their game.”

I know one of the fun things to do is rag on these guys for not making the most of the second round picks they’ve had and, sure, Van de Hare, Wheeler, Hulett and Printezis are pretty good examples but, frankly, it’s so much more an inexact science when you’re picking 35-60 that teams probably deserve a bit of a break from constant criticism.

We know the draft is a crapshoot in the top 10 or 14 (see Oden vs. Durant, everyone vs. the Lakers wanting Kobe, etc, etc, etc), think how much basic luck you need to have a second-rounder pan out.

Lots. And lots.

I don’t know if these guys, or any team, can find a gem that far down the list, for every Manu Ginobili (who was years away from being a player when he was chosen, huge credit to the Spurs staff for that one) there are dozens of gambles that simply don’t pan out across the league.

It’s why I tend to zone out when the second round starts, it’s barely worth paying attention to.

More Bryan on it:

“Second round picks have been places where teams have hit the occasional triple, maybe even home run. You could call a Manu Ginobili in the second round parked in Europe, that’s a home run, maybe a grand slam. You look at the Paul Milsap pick, that’s a triple and yes, we acknowledge he was on the board when we picked that year. But that’s where you have to do a lot of homework, but again get a little bit lucky as well.”

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So Liz gets to the big 6-0 in charge this weekend or something, right?

Funnily enough, it’s not all over the news down here in OKC but I did hear about it from back home.

Good for her; couple more decades or so and she can reach the level of Hazel.

Of all the jobs in the world, wouldn’t being Queen, or even a basic run-of-the-mill lowly Royal, be one of the all-time greats?

You don’t do an awful lot, people bow and curtsy towards you all the time and you can travel wherever you want on someone else’s dime and see the world.

People fawn over you, the hours are what you make them and no one’s really ever been fired from the gig. It’s a job for life and it looks really, really easy.

Outside of Canadian Senator or Governor-General or something like that, it seems like one of the great jobs in the world.

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Love the way the league rigged that game last night so the Spurs-Thunder series got much better.

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Looks like rain might be coming here, maybe some stool time later this afternoon and what better way to kill some time than doing mail, right?

Let me hear from you so I can get it done and maybe sleep in tomorrow morning. That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?

Click. Write. Send.

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How the heck did it get to be June already?

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So what do we think might happen up in Boston tonight when Game 3 unfolds?

The one thing about this group of Celtics that’s been impressive the past few years has been their mental resolve but coming back after that gut-wrenching Game 2 loss is probably going to be too much for them to handle.

They didn’t get a lot of calls while LeBron and Wade kind of ran amok, they did all they could to keep the game close and still couldn’t close the deal in the final few minutes and you wonder when the mental grind is going to get to them.

Tonight?

I wonder.

The one guy I want to watch closely will be Rondo, who was so utterly excellent in Game 2 with nothing to show with it. We know he can be brilliant, we also know he can be mercurial and go for stretches where he has little impact on the game.

I do know that given the circumstances – the iffy bench, the health of Ray Allen, the stakes of being down 2-0 to a team that has better talent – this has to be one of those nights where he follows up his Game 2 effort with something close it in Game 3.

Can he?

Not sure.

But if he can’t, the Celtics can’t win and I can’t see that series even getting to five games.

Not much pressure on the kid, is there?

All that’s on the line is this series and, in some ways, the legacy of the Big Three. This is unquestionably their last kick at the can, it’s strange to think that the “other” guy is going to be so responsible for how they’re remembered.

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