The Toronto Raptors at #4 in the NBA Draft

Some sports analysts are fond of saying that players don’t tank, but organizations do. For the Toronto Raptors some of the struggles that they went through this past season were due to unfortunate circumstance. But, towards the end of the season the team they were putting on the court each night was not up to snuff. Tonight the team was rewarded.

The draft lottery is finished, and the Toronto Raptors were fortunate to move up from 7 to 4. Picking at this spot affords the Raptors to simply let the draft come to them, and in all likelihood, take the remaining player of the, seemingly, consensus top-4 of Cade Cunningham (it won’t be him), Evan Mobley (it almost certainly won’t be him either), Jalen Suggs, and Jalen Green.

So, will it be Jalen, or Jalen?

While Suggs and Green share a first name their basketball games are not so similar.

Jalen Green is perhaps the best athlete in the entire draft class. He often plays at a frenetic pace, and has the speed to do so, like De’Aaron Fox, one thing that scouts seem to agree on is that he doesn’t have an off switch as of yet. He will need to learn how to play slow, at times, to maximize his ability when he plays fast. Green is a very good shooter from beyond the ark, and his athleticism will make him a threat to take the ball to the rim with authority. He is very slight, at only around 165-170lbs. which could limit his ability to switch as a defender. There seems to be a lot of scouts, and draftniks that see Jalen Green as a potential scoring champ, and a potential slam dunk champion. Even if he never becomes more than an average defender he could still be a good fit with the Raptors as they have multiple plus defenders. Given the struggles of Pascal Siakam last season, Green’s scoring ability may be a key piece for Toronto as they may not have that true bucket getter on the roster.

Jalen Suggs is not quite as good a shooter as Jalen Green is right now. He is a better playmaker, and a better defender. As an ardent Gonzaga Bulldogs fan I had the opportunity to watch a lot of Jalen Suggs’ basketball games this past season. He is a smart player, a very good passer, and a good shooter. He is unselfish, but at the same time not afraid to take the big shot, in the big moment as his overtime game winning three point bank shot in the national semi-finals showed. In many ways he reminds me of Kyle Lowry, a true floor general. His shot needs to get more consistent. And, if he were to be drafted by Toronto he would need to improve his shooting coming off of screens and handoffs as there will likely be a lot of times when he will be on the court with Fred VanVleet sharing the duties of primary ball handler.

Regardless of who falls to the Raptors at the number 4 pick Toronto will be afforded the opportunity to draft a player that could make an immediate impact on the team, and allow them to retool on the fly after a disappointing season.

Toronto Raptors: Ahead of the NBA Draft Lottery

The Toronto Raptors faced a very difficult shortened 2020-21 NBA season. The pandemic impacted most every NBA team, none more so than Toronto. The Raptors were relocated to Tampa Bay for all of their home games, thus becoming the only team to not play a true home game all season long. On top of that they dealt with a rather expansive, and severe COVID-19 outbreak midway through the season that halted some positive momentum that the team had been garnering.

The end result was a disappointing 27-45 record, and missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2012-13 season. The Raptors roster appears to be in flux as they head into an offseason where franchise icon Kyle Lowry enters free agency, and seems likely to sign elsewhere. The team also seems to have a large need at center to address.

Enter tonights NBA Draft Lottery, with a crop of 5-7 (depending on who you listen to) very high-end prospects the Raptors go into tonight’s festivities with the seventh best odds of winning the opportunity to draft #1. The overwhelming likelihood is that Toronto will draft either 7 or 8. If they do stand pat the opportunity to draft the darling of the 2021 NCAA Basketball tournament is tantalizing.

With the lottery hours away, the wait is almost over, and a new summer excitement for Raptors fans begins.

White Whale Speared . . .

I was recently featured in Beckett Hockey magazine as the Super Collector of the Month for my Markus Naslund collection. One of the questions that I was asked was if I had a white whale. And I responded with the oldest piece missing from my collection. The 1995-96 Penguins Foodland team issue card. In all my years of collecting I had, literally, never even seen a copy of the card in 16 years of collecting Markus Naslund.

I was hoping that maybe, someone would see that and point me in the direction of a copy of this card. What I, honestly, did not expect happened on Saturday January 4. I woke up to an e-mail from a fellow collector that after reading the article he went down to his basement and found a copy of the card. He asked if I still needed it. I responded that I did. And I asked how much he was looking for, for the card. He said not to worry about any payment, but that he was “Glad I had it for you. Enjoy it and the hunt is over.”

I got home from work tonight, and there was a piece of mail waiting for me. I saw the return address and immediately knew what it was. I opened it up and laid eyes on the card that I had never seen in 16 years of collecting Markus Naslund.

Here it is the 1995-96 Penguins Foodland Markus Naslund:

 

The card collecting community is fantastic. It is people like D. Ellis from Portsmouth New Hampshire that make this hobby so great. Looking out for one another. This wouldn’t have happened without a fellow collector, Jason (@truecollector88) who DM’d me, on Twitter, back in November to see if I was cool with him passing along my info to Al Muir an editor at Beckett. And to Al Muir, and Beckett, thank you. Because of this article I was able to cross off a card that had been on my want list as long as I had a want list.

The search for my white whale has ended. But one of the great things about this hobby is that there’s still plenty more Markus Naslund’s to hunt down.

Comedic Timing: The HoneyDew Podcast

Today I am taking a look at the fantastic comedy podcast The HoneyDew, with Ryan Sickler where he brings on a guest, often, but not always a fellow comedian to laugh at some of the toughest moments that they have gone through. As Sickler says at the top of each show, these are the stories behind the storytellers, where they are highlighting the lowlights.

Ryan Sickler was the co-host of the fantastic CrabFeast podcast, along with fellow comedian Jay Larson. Over the span of seven years they managed to cultivate a rabidly loyal fanbase. With inside catchphrases like Hey Hey Playa!, 5*, and most notably FTCF (Fuck The CrabFeast), and the decision that they came to at the end of 2018 to end the podcast was a difficult one for many fans, myself included to accept. But, it had, understandably, become difficult to arrange schedules to produce the show for its toozdee release. Each host announced that they would be starting their own solo podcasts. For Sickler he would continue the storyteller format of The Crabfeast into his new venture, The HoneyDew.

Ryan is a phenomenal story teller himself, if you haven’t seen his first This Is Not Happening story, it is a must watch: Cocaine Alligator. As an interviewer he is able to put his guests at ease, and discuss what are often very dark stories from their past. His rapier wit, and ability to put a tag on something, making a tale that was very uncomfortable into something that you can’t help but laugh at. 

Speaking of laughs, Sickler’s is one of the most unique, infectious laughs I have ever heard. When he gets caught off guard by a funny quip from a guest his cackle gets me almost every time. If I’m ever having a down day, all I need to do is pop on an episode and I’ll be laughing my ass off forgetting about what’s had me down.

One of the many great things about The Crabfeast was the intro music, and the same goes for the intro to The Honey Dew. As we all learned on episode five, Ryan got longtime friend of over twenty years, Carlotta Wood to introduce the podcast with her sultry voice telling everyone that “You’re listening to The HoneyDew, with Ryan Sickler.”

In the end what Ryan has put together with this podcast is, often a cathartic release for his guests, and his listeners. It is always a podcast loaded with laughs, and as a listener you’ll be in a better mood after listening than you were before. Whether it was episode 25, with Brad Williams talking about dwarf orgies, and going off on a lighthearted rift about being able to be a football field goal holder that could “place hold standing up,” or episode 10 where Jessa Reed retells the gritty tales of her meth addiction in a way that you can’t help but laugh, awkwardly at times, but laugh nonetheless. It is a two hour and thirty three minute roller coaster ride that you just have to listen to from beginning to end. If there is one episode that I could have someone listen to, to really grasp what The Honey Dew is all about, it is definitely that one.

On last weeks episode, with Matt Balaker, I learned that Matt written a biography of my first favourite stand-up comedian, Greg Giraldo. I’ve been reading that book on vacation this week, and it has been fantastic. So, while also bringing me laughs every week, the podcast has brought me fantastic book recommendations as well.

Hopefully the fan base for this podcast continues to grow, and Ryan continues to produce this fantastic podcast. If you’re looking for a podcast to laugh your ass off listening to, then do the Dew.

 

The Vancouver Canucks – A Look Back (Part 3C): A Conflict of Visons – Free Agency

Free Agency

This aspect has, pretty clearly, been Jim Benning’s weakest area of player acquisition. This is probably true for many General Managers, as, for the most part, players hitting free agency are in their early 30’s who have already played their best hockey. That trend is becoming, slightly less true with the age that players are now eligible for free agency can be as low as 25, if a player enters the league at 18, or 27, even if they haven’t accrued seven years of NHL service.

With all of that in mind, it is often a minefield for NHL GM’s that try to add to their roster through free agency as we can see from Jim Benning’s track record.

Benning’s first free agency period was a good one, seemingly inverse to his draft record. There were two notable signings in the summer of 2014, they were goaltender Ryan Miller, and scoring winger Radim Vrbata. The Miller signing was a necessity after Mike Gillis traded away both Cory Schneider and Roberto Luongo. And Miller was a good bridge to the current Canucks goaltending situation. Millers three years in Vancouver were good, not great. Vrbata’s first year was fantastic, everything the team was hoping for when they signed him as he scored 31 goals and 32 assists in 79 games. His second, and final, season in Vancouver was not nearly as productive as he only put up 13 goals and 14 assists in 63 games.

The following summer, coming off of their last, at this point, playoff appearance the Canucks stayed away from free agency. The biggest splash they made in the summer of 2015 was signing Matt Bartkowski, and, I don’t think that qualifies as a notable signing. 

The year 2016 brought Jim Benning’s best free agent signing, as well as his worst. Over the years the Vancouver Canucks have waded into the NCAA college free agency pool. They are extremely low risk signings, and once in a long while a team can find a diamond in the rough like the Canucks did when they signed Richmond B.C. born Troy Stecher out of the University of North Dakota. Stecher has developed into a solid top-4 defenceman, who, at 25 years old, has the potential to be a core piece for the Canucks moving forward. On the flip side is Loui Eriksson, who the Canucks signed to a six year $36M contract. To say this signing has not worked out is a dramatic understatement. I will admit, at the time, I loved the signing. He had played with the Sedin’s internationally. He could be a big piece to solving the teams scoring problems. Not of that happened. In the last three seasons Eriksson has never scored more than 11 goals and 29 points. He was relegated to a fourth line role for a portion of last season, and his status with the team moving forward is very much up in the air.

I remember, on July 1, 2017 Ray Ferraro blasting the Canucks for the relatively low risk signings of  Sam Gagner, Michael del Zotto, Anders Nilsson. He was questioning why they were signing these players on July 1. I defended the Canucks, at the time, and will do again here as the team did have holes that needed to be filled, and at the time, did not have the players in Utica to fill these spots. To me, these signings, and Thomas Vanek as the season drew near showed a paradigm shift. None of the signings included trade protection. And, all four of the players have since been traded, while there are many that have been unsatisfied the returns these players brought back, the methodology was fairly sound from the prospective of a rebuilding team.

That hope of the team continuing to accept that they were in a full rebuild were dashed this past summer as the Canucks signed fourth line staples Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel to matching four year contracts worth $3M per season, each player also received some trade protection in their contracts. These two contracts brought into stark relief the conflict of visions that the Canucks seem to be following. There were players in Utica that could’ve filled these roles, they had a player, Nic Dowd, who took Beagle’s place in Washington’s lineup for $2.3M less. These contracts a blockade to younger players attempting to crack the Canucks lineup.

Aside from the fact that it’s not best practices to give term and, not insignificant, dollars to fourth line forwards and bottom pairing defencemen those signings show a team that felt that it was ready to take a significant step forward.  These were not signings from a team that believed it was in the middle of a rebuild. I will admit that Jim Benning’s Free Agent signing record has not been as bad as I thought it was it is still bad. And the mixed messages that the most recent signings show has, rightfully, left some Canucks fans upset.

We are not far away from the start of the 2019 Free Agency period, and with his job, potentially, on the line Jim Benning may well look to make some bold moves to try and bolster the roster. I am hopeful that the decisions made work out, but I am skeptical.

**As I was getting ready to release this post word dropped that Vancouver has resigned defenceman Alex Edler to a 2 year $12M contract with full no movement protection. The talk yesterday was that they were closing in on a 3 year deal worth between $5-5.5M per season and that would not have a no move clause which would’ve meant that he would not have to be protected in the upcoming expansion draft. Given the term is actually two years the slightly higher cap hit makes sense. And the fact that the contract ends before the expansion draft leaves me with zero issues about having the no move clause in the contract. Overall, I believe this is a good signing for the Canucks.

It’s nice to actually be able to finish this look back on a positive note.

#GoCanucksGo

#WeTheChampions

The Toronto Raptors are NBA Champions!

It feels so good to be able to write those words.

It is 1:40am in Calgary as I am starting to write this. I haven’t even had a chance to watch the whole game yet. I have it on the television right now, just coming out of half time. I was at work tonight, with a web browser open to the Sportsnet live tracker so that I could follow along with updates to how the game was going. It was a stressful evening to say the least.

A Canadian team has won a major sports championship for the first time since the Toronto Blue Jays won the MLB World Series Championship in 1993. Twenty-six years; I was nine years old when the Jays won that title. Now, at 35, I am able to enjoy this title much, much more. The grit, and determination of this team, is just awesome.

In a league where offense reigns supreme, the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Championship with their defense. In the six games of the NBA Finals the Golden State Warriors, the NBA’s most prolific offensive team during the regular season, never score more than 109 points until game 6, where the Warriors scored 110. (Right now I’m just watching the play towards the end of the third quarter where Klay Thompson tore his ACL. Fuck me. That was a rough looking injury, you could see the knee go).

Most Raptors fans would probably say that it started on July 18, 2018. I woke up to learn that the Toronto Raptors had traded franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan to San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard. At the time, to me, it seemed like a no brainer. Kawhi, when healthy, was a top 5 player in the NBA, the level of star, no offense to DeRozan, or Kyle Lowry, or Vince Carter for that matter, that the Raptors have never had in the franchises history. It was a deal that had to be made. I thought, they’ll have one year to win with Kawhi, if it works out, awesome. If it doesn’t they can start a rebuild a year early, as Kawhi is a free agent after the 18-19 season while DeRozan had an extra year on his contract (I was able to write that whole last sentence, without typos, after drinking heavily the last few hours, while watching the tv as I was focused on the last play of the third quarter, and not on the computer screen). The early reports that Kawhi didn’t want to come to Toronto didn’t faze GM Masai Ujiri.

For me though, it started on June 14, 2018 when the Raptors promoted longtime assistant coach Nick Nurse to head coach after firing Dwane Casey on May 11, who was later named the NBA’s Coach of the Year. That too, took some stones. It is not often that a team fires a coach off of a season where that coach is named Coach of the Year. But Masai felt something had to change, and, clearly, not realizing that Kawhi Leonard trade was in the offing, he felt that the best way to shake things up would be to change the coach.

At that time, I didn’t really think that what has actually happened, was going to happen. During the regular season we learned of load management. Kawhi Leonard played in 60 games, under the watchful eye of Director of Sports Science Alex McKechnie. The Raptors were a really good team during the regular season, the Milwaukee Bucks were just a little bit better, and the Raptors finished second in the Eastern Conference. The team breezed through the first round against the Orlando Magic. Then had a seven game, knockdown, drag out fight with the Philadelphia 76ers that culminated with the most iconic moment in franchise history, as time expired Kawhi Leonard, beyond the outstretched hand of Joel Embiid

made, “The Shot” .

At that point I was satisfied, the Raptors had made it to the conference finals. They would, rightly, be underdogs against the top seeded Milwaukee Bucks. Toronto was going up against the presumed NBA MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo. Midway through the series Nick Nurse made a critical decision, he decided to switch up his defensive responsibilities and put Kawhi on Giannis. That decision helped shift the momentum of the series as Leonard, a former two-time Defensive Player of the Year was able to slow down Giannis while not seeing his offensive numbers decrease, despite the increased defensive responsibility. It was his willingness to adapt that proved to be the greatest attribute of Nick Nurse. He tried many different starting rotations, and was never affraid to switch things up during these playoffs. That was a criticism of Dwane Casey in the past, that he was to rigid, and set in his ways. Nurse’s willingness to try something different wound up paying off in spades.

*As I am writing this there are 3:00 minutes left in the fourth quarter. I am going to step away from the computer now, to watch the Toronto Raptors win the NBA Championship.

**Sorry, had to pause the television to interject, that Kyle Lowry fadeaway with 2:10 left in the game, are you freaking kidding me?

It seems a fitting time to write this now, as I am watching this end of game sequence  now. When this was happening live, I was sitting at work, feverishly refreshing multiple webpages trying to figure out what was going on. What was going on was that the Toronto Raptors were closing out the game, and winning the NBA Championship. As I’m watching this I am tearing up. This was a long time in the making. And I didn’t know if it would ever actually happen, but it has. And I am so happy right now.

Seeing Kyle Lowry catch the ball at the end of the NBA Finals, just like he did at the end of the Eastern Conference Finals, and just like he did at the end of the second round. He was the catalyst in this game 6. After all the criticism that he has received over the years. He scored the first 11 points for the Raptors, and put up 26 points 6 rebounds and 7 assists in the most important game of his life. I am so happy for him. He can now say that he is an NBA Champion.

The glow isn’t going to come off for quite some time. I have started to sober up. It’s now 3:19AM, and, although it should be time to go to bed. I don’t feel like going to sleep quite yet. Even though it’s not a dream;

#WeTheNorth . . . no . . . #WeTheChampions Hell. Yes.

 

 

 

A Missed Opportunity

In game 5 of the NBA Finals the Toronto Raptors had a glorious opportunity to win the first NBA title in franchise history. I am going to look past the Kevin Durant injury, as awful as it is. I am going to look past the Warriors response after KD went down. I am going to look past the Raptors efforts to claw back into the game. I am going to look past the first forty-four minutes and fifty-six seconds of the game.

I want to focus on the last 3:04 seconds of the game, when the Raptors held a 103-97 lead over the Golden State Warriors, and try and figure out what went wrong for Toronto in those final few minutes where they only scored two more points, and came up one point short. I want to try and figure out how the Raptors squandered this golden (pun intended) opportunity to close out the game, and the series in game 5.

Kawhi Leonard had just scored 10 straight points for Toronto, and the defense had just locked down, yet again, forcing an empty possession from the Warriors. As Fred VanVleet brought the ball up to half court and handed it off to Leonard you can see Kyle Lowry looking to the bench and then calling for a timeout. After the game coach Nick Nurse said he called the timeout to get some rest for his team. There were some reporters saying that Kyle called the timeout, it was tough to tell, Kyle was looking back at the bench, but the last camera shot that showed the Raptors bench showed coach Nurse still in his seat. Normally, a coach would be out of his seat trying to get the attention of his team, or the refs to call a timeout in a situation like that. Regardless of who called for the timeout the decision clearly had an adverse effect on the team as the momentum that they were riding on was gone once they came out of that timeout.

Coming out of that timeout, and subsequent foul Kawhi came up short on a fade away jumper as Klay Thompson played some great defense. Thompson came back on the other end of the floor and drilled a three as Draymond Green set a great screen that Leonard could not fight through. On Toronto’s next possession Lowry was, inexplicably, left wide open, received a clean pass from Marc Gasol, but was unable to convert. While the shot didn’t drop, this was a solid possession. The follow-up possession to that was a mess, the team had little movement, Kyle drove to the lane as the shot clock ran down and then threw an errant pass intended for Gasol that ended in a 24 second shot clock violation.

After Steph Curry made another three pointer to tie the game Kawhi took a heat check pull-up three himself that came up short. Klay Thompson made a three after some vintage, beautiful passing from the Warriors that capped a 9-0 Golden State run in the span of 2:08. Toronto went from being up six points to being down by three.

Coming out of the timeout, and now trailing, Lowry found Gasol coming off of the pick and roll at the top of the key, as Gasol drove towards the basket there was a lot (a lot) of contact, but the refs chose not to call a foul against Golden State. The Raptors D managed to lock in and force a backcourt violation turnover from the Warriors with 37.5 seconds left. On the ensuing play Kyle, aided by another Marc Gasol screen, turned the corner put up a layup attempt that DeMarcus Cousins blocked, but the refs ruled it goaltending, and the Raptors are now down 1 point with 30.4 seconds left.

Coach Nurse decided to put the game in his defenses hands, chose not to foul Golden State, as Stephen Curry was turning the corner around a Cousins screen Boogie took an extra half step and stuck his left hip out to impede Fred VanVleet as he was chasing Curry. The refs called the offensive foul on Cousins giving the Raptors the ball, with a chance to win the game, series, and NBA title with 15.7 seconds remaining.

A brief aside, the foul that was called here was, clearly, a foul. Many sports reporters, and pundits, were criticizing the officials for making that call, at that time. I guess this is a difference between basketball reporters, and hockey reporters, as there would be no outcry if a similar call were made in the Stanley Cup Finals. Rather the uproar would come if the call weren’t made, such a non-call happened in game 5 of this very NHL finals series. In hockey the mantra is call the game the same way in the playoffs as you do during the regular season. I guess, for many that follow the NBA the opposite mantra would be true.

Regardless, the Raptors had the ball, and Nick Nurse made another critical decision. He opted not to take the teams final timeout to try and come up with a play for the end of the game. Kawhi wound up with the ball at the top of the three point line with Klay Thompson on him. Andre Igoudala decided to step up, force the double team as Kawhi was making his drive with 5.5 seconds left. Leonard passed the ball to VanVleet who dribbled, started to turn the corner and then passed it to Lowry in the corner with 2 seconds remaining. Draymond Green fought through a Marc Gasol screen to get out on Lowry, and get two fingers on the ball to send it into the side of the backboard as time expired.

In that situation could Fred have tried to pass it to Gasol, who had his back to the basket, but no defender between him and the hoop. Yes, would it have worked out with Marc in that position? I don’t know.

After breaking down these final three minutes I saw something that I did not see while watching the game live. I saw some good possessions for Toronto that resulted in some good looks, but no points. I had thought, in the moment, that the Raptors had fallen apart to a degree, and I don’t think that’s actually the case now. I think that the two decisions that had the largest impact on the end result were the timeout taken with three minutes remaining, and the timeout that wasn’t taken with 15 seconds left.

The bright side, for the Raptors, is that they still have two chances, if necessary, to closeout this series and hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy for the first time. That first opportunity comes Thursday night in Oakland. I, along with over half of Canada, according to the television ratings eagerly anticipate that.

#WeTheNorth

 

 

 

 

The Vancouver Canucks – A Look Back (Part 3B): A Conflict of Visions – Trades

There are many Canucks fans that have been pleased with the teams draft record under Jim Benning. A foundation of prospects has been put in place; alas, the draft is not the only aspect of roster construction that a team must use to build out its team. By bringing in players via trade teams can get more of an immediate impact to boost the success of their team. So, it’s time to take a look at how Jim Benning’s trade record shakes out.

Trades

The trade record of Jim Benning is very mixed. There is no one home run trade that has dramatically improved the team, and there is no one disaster trade that has hampered the teams future prospects. His first batch of trades, the day of the 2014 Draft. The return for Ryan Kesler was disappointing, but that should be laid at the feet of Mike Gillis who had given Kesler the no trade clause which allowed Kesler to dictate where he would be willing to move, and he said Anaheim, which left Benning zero leverage in negotiations with the Ducks. I mentioned it in the last post, but trading a second round pick, that they had just acquired, for Linden Vey was just terrible. Okay, I’ll move on.

Of the next batch of trades spanning the calendar year 2015 there are two nice trades. The Canucks traded a 2015 second round pick (who turned into Rasmus Andersson) for Sven Baertschi. While Baertschi has been good, injuries (namely concussions) have hindered him from becoming a consistent top-6 forward. Even though, he probably has the skill to be, the injuries have prevented him from being anything more than a complimentary player.

For the rebuild crowd, the trades of Eddie Lack (for 3rd and 7th round picks), and Kevin Bieksa (for a 2nd round pick) were nice trades. A trade that has not aged well is the Nick Bonino, Adam Clendenning and 2016 2nd round pick for Brandon Sutter and a 2016 3rd round pick. Much like Baertschi, Sutter has been plagued by numerous injuries, and at this point is nothing more than a fourth line center that can kill penalties, given the roster construction at this time, if he’s still on the team come the fall, he will likely slot back in the middle on the third line. And that will not bode well for Vancouver.

2016 brought Markus Granlund for Gillis bust Hunter Shinkaruk, when that’s the best trade of the year, that’s not really a great thing. This year also brought the trade that many, including myself, feel is by far the worst trade of the Jim Benning era, and that is the trade that the Canucks made on May 25 with the Florida Panthers where they acquired lumbering defenseman Erik Gudbrandon and a 2016 5th round draft pick for Jared McCann and 2016 2nd and 4th round draft picks.

I’ll admit that, at the time, I loved this trade for Vancouver. And I will also admit that I was dead wrong in that initial enthusiasm. I can, and probably will, dive deeper into Erik Gudbranson at a later time. For now I’d like to bring up that this trade brings into focus the conflict of visions that the team has exhibited. The Vancouver Canucks were not a good team. And the front office should’ve realized that. Trading away draft assets in a situation like this is a cardinal sin. It shows that the front office believed that they were still a team that could contend. And that is problematic.

The 2017 NHL trade deadline left many Canucks fans hopeful that the team would finally embrace a rebuild when they traded away Alex Burrows to Ottawa for promising prospect Jonathan Dahlen, and Jannik Hansen to San Jose for prospect Nikolay Goldobin and a 2017 4th round pick.

The 2018 trade deadline was less promising as the only move they made was trading away pending UFA Thomas Vanek to Columbus for borderline NHLer Tyler Motte. The biggest trade, that didn’t happen was that the Canucks did not trade Erik Gudbranson. Even though it was widely reported that the team received multiple offers. Those reports include an offer of young winger Miles Wood from New Jersey, the other apparent offer (from an unnamed team) was of 2nd and 4th round draft picks. Again, for a team that is ostensibly in a rebuild to not make either of those trades is worthy of much derision.

The last batch of trades, from this past season include the shrewd acquisition of middle six forward Josh Leivo from the Toronto Maple Leafs for AHLer Michael Carcone when the Leafs were in a roster crunch after they signed William Nylander to an extension, which ended his holdout. The team also traded away promising, and now disgruntled top prospect Jonathan Dahlen to San Jose for middling forward prospect Linus Karlsson, that’s another ouch. And then, finally, mercifully, for everyone’s sake Vancouver finally traded Erik Gudbranson to Pittsburgh for middle six forward Tanner Pearson. For a team, that again, is allegedly, in a rebuild it would seem to make more sense to trade Gudbranson for a young player on his entry level contract (like Miles Wood), or draft picks. As opposed to a 26 year old who has two more seasons left on his contract at $3.75M per.

What all of the trades, in the Jim Benning era, show is a team that is not committed to any one path. And that indecisiveness is not a good thing. The Canucks has never fully committed to a rebuild, and by doing that they have stunted the ability to turn things around, prolonging the struggles of the team.

Over the past four years the Vancouver Canucks have not been a good hockey team. In that time they have made 27 draft picks. This is problematic because their allotment, before any trades, would’ve been 28. For a team that is supposedly in a rebuild this is far from best practices. For a front office, who some fans hold up as a great drafting organization it would behoove them to accumulate as many draft picks as possible, because they would be better than others to actualize those picks into productive players down the line.

 

History Made

Come Thursday, the Toronto Raptors are going to be competing for the NBA Championship for the first time in the teams 24 year history. A few days after the Raptors won their Eastern Conference Championship series it still brings a big smile to my face to type it. The fan base can take a breath for a minute, relax. Maybe Drake can give out some more shoulder rubs.

There will be plenty of time to talk about the future, what happens in the finals, what happens after the finals. Right now, I think it’s important to look back at this teams accomplishment, of winning four straight games against the best team in the NBA during the regular season. It should be noted that Milwaukee lost back-to-back games only once all season, and never lost three in a row, let alone four.

In a league where offense is king. The Toronto Raptors rode elite defensive play to the NBA finals. They have held their playoff opponents to under 100 points in 11 of 19 games this postseason. The thing I find most impressive is that on more than one occasion they would struggle in the first quarter, surrendering more than 30 points, but invariably the defense would lock in and perform much better after. It shouldn’t be too surprising, they boast two former Defensive Players of the Year in Kawhi Leonard and Marc Gasol. They have another burgeoning star, on both ends of the court, in Pascal Siakam. There is Danny Green, who despite his shooting woes was still able to lock down on the defensive end, and is good for some steals, and even the occasional chase down block. Then there’s Kyle Lowry, who some question his defensive ability, but nobody can deny his effort. The Raptors may try to hide him on d, but his help defense, and willingness, and ability, to take charges should not be discounted.

In the four Toronto Raptors wins in the Eastern Conference finals they held the Milwaukee Bucks, who averaged 113.9 points per 100 possessions during the regular season, to 102.3 points per 100 possessions. That is elite, and Toronto deserves full credit for those numbers. It is not like the Bucks were missing a lot of open shots. Toronto was rotating, and helping on defense, doubling the presumptive NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and then chasing down shooters if Giannis passed it out. This was a masterclass in modern NBA defense. Coach Nick Nurse deserves a ton of credit for making the switch and putting Kawhi Leonard on Giannis as the primary defender, it befuddled the “Greek Freak” and Kawhi, somehow, didn’t seem to be any less on the offensive end of the court despite the increased responsibility on the defensive end.

Lastly this trip to the NBA Finals validates all of the moves that Raptors team President Masai Ujiri has made. There were many vocal fans upset at him, and the team for trading away the face of the franchise in DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard. It was worth it. Trading away Jonas Valanciunas, and key bench piece Delon Wright for Marc Gasol. It was worth it. The moves that he made have helped the Toronto Raptors get to the point that they are at now, a place this team has never been before, the NBA Finals.

Regardless of what happens moving forward history has already been made. Over the next 7-14 days we’ll see if the Toronto Raptors can make a little bit more.

#WeTheNorth

A Cornerstone; and Collecting Friendship

The card collecting community is fairly small. That said, it is quite dispersed. I had communicated with Julian Yeung on occasion, through the Beckett message board and the hobbyinsider.net message board, as he and I both collected Markus Naslund.

In 2006 I had decided to add another PC, something that I could start from the beginning, I wanted to collect someone from their rookie year on, and give me something to chase aside from Naslund. I zeroed in on Anthony Stewart. He had  been on two straight Canadian World Junior Hockey Championship teams, and drafted in the first round by the Florida Panthers. The first big addition to the PC was his Cup Autograph Rookie Patch that I picked up at the flea market across the street from where I lived in Edmonton.

A few years later, as my time as a University student was coming to an end I got a message from Julian. He knew where the 2005-06 Hot Prospects En Fuego 1/1 Auto Rookie Patch was; at a shop in Hong Kong. Julian was kind enough to facilitate my acquisition of this cornerstone piece by purchasing the card, having me pay him, and then he would send the card to me.

I, obviously, agreed. Sent him payment, and not long after, this beauty arrived.

While the card is awesome, the part that makes it truly special is the story behind it. The kindness of a fellow collector to help me out in adding this card to my collection. Often times, I, look at this hobby as something detached, buying and selling, adding and subtracting, cards on-line. Over the years; however, there are some connections that I have made with people, through collecting, and it’s about time I focus more on those connections.

It’s been a while, but thanks Julian.