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Oh yeah, Happy Mother’s Day, moms.

Good morning Doug,

NBA playoffs have been fantastic. I took an NBA break from late January to the middle of April, but it’s been great diving back into the Association.

Questions for you.

A) Raptors - They need size and toughness. How do they go about acquiring it, as I don’t believe any draft pick this year will provide enough in year one. Are there any players that come to mind as an ideal fit for this role?

2) Blue Jays��- It’s been pretty clear for a while that the Shapiro/Atkins regime should end. The team has been declining for years and they seem incapable of understanding what is fundamentally wrong with this team, especially with its offence. I also don’t think they ever truly understood the market and the Canadian baseball culture.

Can you explain the process as to how the media decides to criticize team management and then publicly call for their jobs? It obviously can’t be taken lightly, but in the case of the Jays, it’s in blinding lights.

Thoughts?

-Jordy

There may not anyone in the lottery to draft but there is a second-round pick, trades are a possibility and second-tier free agents who might be signed. And, yes, size is necessary but if Jakob Poeltl plays a lot and they see Scottie Barnes as a ball-moving big in a small lineup, it’s not a crippling deficiency. So maybe a guy like Jonathan Mogbo or Colin Castleton can emerge or maybe they can find a backup like they did Orlando Robinson last season.

Not sure there’s any “process” to offering critical opinion and making the case for change. It’s the evolution of covering a team and it just kind of happens.

Hi Doug,

Some really good playoff basketball. That first Pacers-Cavaliers game was excellent.

I’d like to read your thoughts about Pascal Siakam. He seems to be in a similar position now, as he was during his tenure with those perennially successful Raptors’ teams: an underrated integral piece on an excellent team.

The Pacers seem to have been overlooked by most, even though they made the Eastern Conference final last season.

What’s your recollection about Pascal in the bubble and the quality of that Raptors’ team?

What does your basketball eye and reporters’ connections tell you Pascal is contributing to this Pacers run?

-Paul from Port

More than maybe any player in the NBA, Siakam was crushed by the inability to get into a gym to work for weeks after the shutdown and was caught unprepared for the time off. It ruined his year and you could see how out of sync he was in the bubble. It really was a shame, had that pandemic not hit, I am sure the Raptors would have been legitimate title contenders and even if either of Siakam or Marc Gasol had played to their capabilities, pc28����would have repeated.

And I think on an Indy team that I think has as good a chance at winning the championship right now as any of the eight left playing, Siakam’s a perfect fit. A very, very, very good player not forced to be The Guy every night out.

I just read where Tyrese Haliburton had a “bad” game only four points in their loss last game to the Cavs. Pacers PR never made him available to the media saying he will be available (Saturday).

I find that weak. If you’re a “star” of a team, the face of that team, you have to face the media no matter your performance.

Which got me thinking, I don’t recall any Raps players not being available. I could be wrong but I do know that certain players like Lowry would be available but not be in the most receptive of moods to answer questions, which is all well and good, but he was at least up there on the podium and performing his duty whether its in the best or worse of circumstances.

My question is how much is it on a team to make sure their players are available and do certain teams have a tendency to “guard” their players like the Pacers did with Haliburton? To me the Raps culture seems to be one of, you’re expected to be available to the media no matter the outcome as the players always seem to be.

Shouldn’t the league be more diligent in making sure all teams follow a consistent policy/rule as media is the league’s/team’s way in many cases to connecting to fans, the outside sporting world, conveying messages.

What have your experiences been like in terms of player availability post-game?

Thanks, safe travels and enjoy the draft lottery festivities and shenanigans.

-Doug B.

I’ve said this often: Every significant Raptors player of all-time – Damon Stoudamire, Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes – have always understood their media responsibilities, in good times and bad. They didn’t like it but they did it. Most of the credit is to the players but the team’s media bosses and their staffs, from John Lashway to Jim LaBumbard to Jennifer Quinn, make sure the players are aware of their duties and make sure they are held to that standard.

The league does take an interest, and a role. I would guess the Pacers got a call on Saturday and franchises and players who habitually ignore media duties have been fined.

Hi Doug,

Hope you are enjoying playoff season. Imagine if the Raptors were in the thick of things too!

Well, hopefully next season (fingers crossed)!

Some questions:

1) Do you get to attend the NBA Combine? Have you ever or had the desire to do so?

It seems that it’s the final step for players whose talent is under scrutiny; last chance to back out or to erase doubts. Your thoughts?

2) How many players are there who had careers like Patrick McCaw? By that, I mean short NBA career, but more than one championship ring? Tons of players who experienced the opposite, so not asking about them :)

3) If you’re OKC, no matter how these��playoffs end (a ring is definitely not a certainty) isn’t it time to use their draft capital and trade for a Kevin Durant? (Or a Giannis��Antetokounmpo, but I think Durant would probably cost less.)

4) As a writer and a fan, how difficult is it to separate the two when your team is in the mix? How often do you write something only to realize that the fan in you might have gone too far? I imagine this would be primarily when you just got started.

Bonus question: do you think the “most overrated player” survey might have fueled Tyrese Haliburton’s performance a little?

Fingers crossed for ping pong Monday!

-Bernie M.

I’ve been at the combine several times over the years, most recently last year and I’ll spend a few days there this year. It’s mostly for teams to get medical baselines, watch workouts, conduct interviews. The real “last chance” assessment is during individual workouts over the next five or six weeks.

I bet Pat McCaw’s one of one and good for him. I can’t think of another one.

I think OKC needs some old heads on the roster who can still play and the best way to get them is package young talent with picks. So, yes.

Here’s the thing: There’s no “fan” in me. So I really don’t have an answer, you search for good and pertinent stories and try to tell them well.

I suppose the “under-rated” thing might have worked for one game, it certainly didn’t on Friday so maybe it’s not a real thing. Besides, I always wonder that if a team or player needs outside influences to get them going, are they admitting they don’t go full out all the time?

Concerning a Giannis��Antetokounmpo��trade.

Assume Scottie Barnes and the 2025 lottery pick leave. The front line is Jakob Poeltl, Brandon Ingram and Giannis. Pretty formidable. I’m looking around and I don’t think I would trade them for anyone else’s front court. Scoring, rebounding, rim protection, play making. Everything.

The back court of Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett might not measure up, but overall this is a stronger, bigger, more experienced team and puts them into the playoffs.

It may rest on the lottery pick. A top-four pick might swing the decision to continue the slow build. They are a young team still, but I can’t help but salivate when I think of Giannis on the Raptors.

-LD in��Guelph

It would certainly seem to be an imposing frontcourt and something fans should be interested in. But I’ll also remind that there will be several other teams who might make even more packages the Bucks want and there’s no certainty they’re even interested in making a deal.

One thing you’ve mentioned that’s for sure: More will become in focus after Monday’s lottery.

Dear Mr. Smith.

Good health and long life.

With both OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam making a splash in the current NBA playoffs ...��How would you evaluate the trade value to the Raptors?��Do you think RJ Barrett was a good move into the future?

Yours truly,

-Adam Berel Wetstein

I think the evaluation is that the trades were necessary rather than good or bad. That group had run its course, you could feel it.

I do think the return for OG Anunoby and to a much lesser degree Precious Achuiwa (basically buried by the Knicks staff now) was very good. RJ’s played some of the best basketball of his career in a year and a half here and with him and Quickley, at the moment backcourt mainstays, it was a win.

I think they might have sold low on Siakam, but, then again, I wasn’t privy to the conversations with other GMs and trust enough in Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster that they got what they could. I think maybe if they’d moved in the summer before or after (extend-and-trade) it might have been wiser but guess it didn’t work out.

The NBA needs a sportsmanship rule. It would wipe out, perhaps even reverse, all those tortured, forced defensive “fouls” on three-pointers.

The same rule would stop the torture of Mitchell Robinson and others.

Surely it would improve the game.

-Robert McMillan in��Alma, N.S.

I agree they need to address the grifting or hunting for three-point fouls – the number of abnormal “plays” made by shooters looking for calls is an epidemic – but I also think that fouling historically bad free-throw shooters, with how the rules are set up now, are strategic decisions that I’m okay with.