Man, the level of angst and anger in here is palpable and this was all done even before the Raptors-Pistons game. If that turned out poorly, I’m going to hide out for a day or so.
Otherwise, have lots of fun reading this and please, please, please, have a safe New Year’s Eve.
No knuckleheadism.
Dear Doug. Thanks for your sparkling sports reportage, as usual. I’m curious about the announcers.
For any given game, I can listen to play-by-play from: a) the Raptors TV announcers, usually Devlin and Armstrong; b) the Fan 590 announcers, often Smith and Jones, which I can access on Sirius Radio; or c) also on Sirius, the announcers for the opposing team. On Wednesday night, I listened to the Wizards radio announcers. Can I assume that there is also a second set of TV announcers for the Wizards? That would make four sets of play-by-play announcers.
Are all of those announcers physically at the game, or do the radio guys watch the game on video, like us? If the radio announcers are in the gym, where are they? Do they sit at the scorers table near Devlin, or are they in a special press box? Surely they don’t sit talking on their headsets in the regular seats?
You’ve mentioned your nose bleed seats, do you not get to sit in a press box?
Also, did the Washington fans see the same video feed that we saw, or is there another set of cameras for the opposing team that can highlight their players and announcers more?
You might be interested in
(BTW, I can't listen to the Raptors announcers anymore, but I really enjoy listening to the opposing teams coverage on Sirius. The commentary is usually informed but without histrionics and yelling (unlike Devlin). They report the game as it's happening, not whining about "what needs to be done to win" (that's Jones) and it really seems like everyone appreciates the Raptors. The Wizards reporters had a good time at Wednesday's game even though their team lost. I turn off the TV sound and sync up the TV to the radio, which is always delayed by a couple of minutes. That's fun! Devlin and Armstrong are too manic for me; FAN 590 is too depressing, even when we're winning, especially when we're not. And if the other team's announcers get on my nerves, I just tune to Channel 23, and listen to the Grateful Dead.)
Kerry
Generally, there are four broadcast crews at every game, radio and TV from both teams. However — and this is a post-COVID development — the Raptors and a few other teams don’t travel radio crews and they are left to do the nearly impossible, which is to broadcast games on radio from watching TV. It’s brutally unfair to them.
This is also new and money driven — the price of courtside seats is crazy — but in several arenas both TV and radio broadcasts are done from seats at the top of the arena’s lower bowl, not courtside. Luckily for viewers here, the Raptors have left all broadcasters courtside and moved reporters to the top of the lower bowl in the corner or in the hockey press box waaaaay up in the rafters.
For TV, there is one set of camera operators and a director from each team that decides which shots to use.
Doug, don't know if you saw this. We tend to take pro sports way too seriously and gambling has just made it worse. Either this guy is just doing this for the fun or he has a bonus clause if he makes the Pro Bowl. And having a kicker named Dicker has to have some divine inspiration.
Bruce from Oshawa
I did see that and sorry for missing your note on it last week.
I quite enjoyed it and if they’re going to give fans a vote, I have no problem with a guy not taking himself too seriously and vigorously campaigning for it.
But someone will have to tell me if he makes it because if they played the Pro Bowl on my front lawn, I’d go sit on the back deck.
Five things I’d love to see happen in 2024, but I know they won’t …
1) An absolute ban on “blocking” in basketball. Extend the restricted area to the whole key. If you’re close enough to try and draw a foul, you’re close enough to play defence. No one will miss it.
2) A Sacramento/OKC Saturday night ABC/ESPN game instead of the same old, same old.
3) A coach/player/broadcaster to call out the Giannis free-throw nonsense. Enough is enough.
4) An NBA superstar to admit that it isn’t a birthright to be on a championship calibre team EVERY season of their career.
5) Less Stephen A. Smith
Any comments?
Paul M.
I can’t see them banning taking a charge because it’s a defensive strategy, but I would certainly be OK with extending the restricted area. It would cut down on those scary falls we see if the offensive player had to take off earlier.
I’d love a Saturday night game like that, but the TV schedule is set in August and it’s always a guess. Shaking it up from a constant diet of the Lakers, Warriors, Bucks and Celtics would be great.
I don’t have an issue with Giannis’ free throws, but do think the rule might be applied more diligently.
Shouldn’t every player, star or not, want to be on a title contender every season?
Yes. I agree.
Hello, is it just my imagination that recent superstars are often late draft picks and non-Americans? Is there really no way to identify future success in the NBA?
Glenn
Not your imagination at all and, yes, it does underscore just how much of a gamble the draft is, and also speaks to the need for patience with some later picks to allow them to develop.
Hello, Doug. Best of the season to you and yours. I am interested to know what you think of the flopping rule, and how it is being officiated this year.
I watch NBA games with some regularity and have seen flopping called four times, three against the Raptors and one in a non-Raptors game, I have not noticed any flopping calls recently. In one instance I witnessed a player mistime his move and fall backwards like he was hit by a Mack truck before the offensive player even entered his space (there was never any contact). An official was visible in the shot who has a smile on his face but made no call. Is this even an enforceable rule?
D and D
I think it’s been an OK start to the process of assessing technical fouls for flopping but, you know, at full speed in real time without benefit of replay, it’s as hard a call as block-charge.
What I like that the NBA has done is assess more than a few day-after flopping fines ($2,000, same as technical) after every game is reviewed.
So I guess I’d say it is enforceable, but it’s going to take some training before it becomes a fully functional part of the way a game is called.
The Raptors are not a good team, nor will they have a winning record this year. You spend a lot of time speculating about player moves. Why not spend time tearing down the upper management? No one cares that Nurse and the team won a championship a few years ago. The team was ruined due to letting a few players go — like Norm, DeRozan, and Lowry.
The current team has 5-6 good players. The rest do not deserve to play in the NBA. However, the real issue is with a management team that needs to be fired and replaced. There is no good reason that Nick Nurse got bored and gave up on the situation. His leaving resulted from management bringing in players who were/are useless.
Gordon P.
Wow, unhappy camper.
Things are not good right now. They weren’t last year, either, and as we’ve been writing for about 17 months, management bears the responsibility for flaws in the roster. That we don’t scream it is part because we know the realities better than most.
You’re 1,000,000 per cent wrong about the back nine roster players not deserving of being in the NBA, but I’ll give you the nonsensical hyperbole.
And I won’t quibble with your knowledge of the team, but I’d suggest trading DeMar DeRozan for a guy who won the team a championship and at least getting something for Kyle Lowry, who quite easily could have left for nothing, wasn’t bad management at all.
And Norm for Gary Trent Jr.? Six of one, half a dozen of another.
Enjoy the last 50 or so games.
Hey. Doug. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. May the coming year bring many compelling stories for you to write about.
Some questions about coaching. Part of the chatter around the Raptors has been their poor starts to games, and how they didn’t seem to be prepared to start the game with the proper energy. Keeping Darko out of this for a minute, is this the responsibility of the players or the coaching staff? Beyond setting the game’s strategy and calling plays, what is part of a coach’s mandate? We often hear about teaching young players, and managing personalities, what else is part of the mix?
Keeping in mind the very different rosters of each team, how would you rate the season so far for Nick Nurse, Adrian Griffin at one end of the standings, and Darko and Monty Williams at the other? They have all had challenges to overcome. How much of the Pistons’ horrendous season is Williams’ inability to coach this group? Dwane Casey seemed to be able to have the Pistons performing at a higher level.
Appreciated as always.
Phil
If there was a consistent issue at start of games, it could be pinned on game planning, strategy and motivation but, here at least, there have been enough good starts to suggest it’s an issue with the players and their ability to process information and find a way to not “ease” into games.
As for the four new coaches, I think each is about where I thought they’d be to some degree.
I didn’t see either the Pistons or Raptors being as bad as they are, didn’t think the Sixers would be that good, but that was a James Harden issue mostly, and Griff’s maybe a bit below where I thought they’d be.
But overall, each is about up to expectations.
Hello, Doug. Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year's.
Is it time for both ownership and management changes for both the Raptors and the Blue Jays?
The Raps have put the same lousy team on the floor two years in a row. They did nothing at the trade deadline last year, nothing at the draft deadline and nothing over the summer. These do-nothing guys should be removed immediately from their "jobs." Usually a job entails doing something.
The same goes for the Jays sending out the same team again doing nothing to address the lack of hitting.
The only thing these two teams have in common is Rogers ownership, so is it time for Rogers to leave (sell to someone who really cares about winning) and just stick to broadcasting?
I am really somewhere between fed up and angry at the lack of progress of either team. There are 1,000 fans in this city who can do nothing for 1/10 what Masai is charging us. Time for some real meaningful changes and it starts at the upper level.
Best,
DL from Katrine, Ont.
No, it’s not time.
End of story.
End of discussion.
Appreciate your passion, but that’s about it.
It’s a tired, lazy point that isn’t worth debating right now.
“1,000 fans in this city who can do nothing for 1/10 what Masai is charging us” might be one of the most ludicrous and silly things I’ve read here, and I’ve read a lot of things here.
Happy New Year, Doug! Thanks again for giving readers an informative and insightful year of writing.
Looking forward to what you have to offer in 2024!
For now, some questions:
1) It seems the "X" factor missing for the Raptors is sustained intensity. It was only there for one half against the Jazz, but finally there for 48 minutes against Washington.
As for the Steph comment; the team WITH Curry is currently in 11th place in the West! Thoughts?
2) More of a comment, but I believe if a team can acquire a younger (or cheaper) player whose production is about 75 per cent of an existing player, the team should make the deal.
(Trent for Powell, Schröder vs. VanVleet, Maxey vs. Harden) … Not that I didn't love Norm or Fred!
Your two cents …
3) Following up on that, between Lu Dort or Mathurin, who's OG 2.0? If you were a GM, would you ever consider trading away Holmgren or Jaquez in Miami?
4) If the 2024 draft prospects are underwhelming, does that make giving up our first rounder (a lottery pic???) for Poeltl easier to swallow?
Thanks for helping Raps fans keep a level head during this rough period. Bring on 2024!
Bernie M.
I have long been mystified as to why some players every now and then “ease” into games and I put that solely on them. And I know there’s a laser focus here, but it happens in other cities, too.
It would depend on how astutely the team’s management spent the saved salary and it’s better for mid-roster discussions rather than stars. But, generally, I would agree.
I am a HUGE Lu Dort fan. I wouldn’t trade Chet Holmgren, I’m less certain Jaime Jaquez is sustainably good once teams see him two or three times and can game plan for him.
No one is likely to believe me and I really don’t care but I am dead certain Masai Ujiri, Bobby Webster and Dan Tolzman were aware of the depth of talent in the 2024 draft and that could very well have played a very small part in what they gave up.
Dear Doug. Patrick Beverley said the Raptors have no "dogs." If, by "dogs" one means guys with a tough dirtbag menace, guys like Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard and Charles Oakley and Doug Gilmour and Jack Morris and Roger Clemens, I guess that’s true. Guys that other guys don’t wanna let down — who you’d be afraid to disappoint with a half-arsed effort. Do you think the Raptors (and any great team) need at least one of those types of "dogs" to be consistently effortful?
Tony B. from Albany, N.Y.
Yes, I do. And have written on that subject quite recently, in case you or anyone else missed it.
It’s a different era and maybe the “style” of Oak wouldn’t fly today but something akin to that attitude — and locker room respect — is vital to success.
I don’t see it in this group and it has to be addressed.
Around here, we now do a Secret Santa draw of one person to buy for out of a dozen or so. I am clearly typecast as I received (a) a pair of socks labelled “your team sucks” and (b) a pristine copy of “We The North” to pair with the well-thumbed copy I already had. After consideration, I have decided to pass it on to a friend’s grandson who is both in love with basketball and averse to reading in equal parts. Ideally, a melding of the two will be possible.
Compliments of the season and, yes, I agree that the HOTH have to get a bit angry.
James A., from Victoria, B.C.
Well, this is an excellent note to get to end the calendar year. It’s much appreciated.
And you hit on one key fact that drives me: If anything I write turns even one reading-averse person into someone who appreciates stories, then I’ve accomplished something.
I hope the young fella enjoys the book. And a lot more books in the future.
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