Toronto Raptors

A day has passed since Alvin was given his walking papers. Doug Smith did his best with his rant to rile up the troops, but since then cooler heads seem to of prevailed and many fans although disappointed appear to get it. Come share your two cents if you disagree.

I like Alvin Williams as much as the next guy and hope he lands somewhere because he is the ultimate ‘nice guy’. Seeing him unemployed doesn’t feel right, yet at the same time there’s something about this move that is quite different than what we’re used to seeing from the Raptors. There’s an element of ruthlessness in it that is surprising, and dare I say it, refreshing. [Related: Alvin Williams' interview on TSN Radio (a little sad, still says 'we')] The value that Alvin Williams brought was always debatable from a fan standpoint, but a frank conversation about him was never had, mostly because it seemed a very minor role – almost like an internship. Low risk, low expectations. I doubt his departure has created a significant void of any sort; or maybe we’ll regret it in a few years when he’s become a super-scout and close to becoming a GM? I don’t know, but here and now, this appears to be culling of excess. Despite the media faithful lamenting the loss of a friend and calling it a bad PR move (Star, Post, Sun), I would contend that the organization should focus on making decisions with basketball value in mind, not PR. This also gets me to thinking that if a loyal servant of the organization such as Williams is shown the door in this cold-hearted manner, what chance does someone like Andrea Bargnani, or for that matter any overpaid, under-delivering employee have? None, I would suggest. Where does this leave guys like Linas Kleiza or Landry Fields, questionable signings that have provided little to negligible value? Masai Ujiri’s firm hand has shown that he does not intend his management team to have any ties with the organization’s past, which makes Bryan Colangelo’s move to his new role essentially insignificant. Ujiri’s certainly proven that he’s very good at firing people, and these exits will win him support among frustrated fans, and even sell a few season tickets to those who gave up a while ago, since nothing sells like hope. With each departure, though, the anticipation of Ujiri’s first real move grows. The draft, this space would suggest, provides an opportunity to make a move for improvement. Dennis Schroeder is my pick in the teens, but even if the Raptors don’t intend to partake in the draft, it presents a platform to get involved as a third team. Whether it be shedding Andrea Bargnani or scavenging around other developments for opportunities, this is where Ujiri has a chance to make an early mark. Any time a GM inherits a situation as rigid as the Raptors they are going to get some leeway and time to settle in, but as it stands there is a necessity for certain moves to be made just to field a roster! With $66 million in salary tied to 12 players, you have to wonder how the Raptors can even field a 15-man roster, especially if the amnesty is exercised. Acquiring a teen pick and paying a salary of around $1.5 million seems like a sensible way to add a player while keeping costs low. Easier said than done, of course. If all else fails, the following I figure is the “backup” plan: Amnesty Andrea Bargnani if there are no takers Flip Linas Kleiza’s expiring contract for a teen pick Draft with the pick, assuming it’s a teen pick, the net savings considering Kleiza’s contract are $3.5 million At this point, the Raptors would be under the cap at $54.9 million, giving them a chance to actually sign someone I’m not going to speculate on more drastic options such as trading one of DeRozan or Gay due to their games being similar. That’s a debate for later. So…final word is regarding Alvin Williams: Let not our emotions affect our judgement of Alvin Williams’ departure.

Well here we are, Game 6 in what has to be the most confounding NBA final of any of the 12 or so that I’ve seen at least part of. Four games you’d probably consider blowouts in the first five – although when Game 5 got to a one-point game I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on – and I’m trying to figure out precisely why. And can’t really. I guess you could chalk it up to the relative talents of each of the teams, the case can be made that they are two superb clubs and when they get operating at full power, even the best opponent can’t slow them down. You look at what Miami did when the Big Three were all rolling in that Game 4, they were unstoppable, despite a very good San Antonio defence. And when the Spurs got Tim Duncan and Tony Parker going early in Game 5 and Manu Ginobili joined the fray, finally, they were at times otherworldly. Toss in the Danny Green phenomenon and it’s a no-brainer who wins. But for drama? The only drama we’ve had is wondering which team is going to go on some mind-numbing, game-winning run and when; outside of that Parker circus shot with five seconds left in Game 1, there hasn’t been any of the drama that would make you consider this series a classic. Yet it is. We can say with the utmost confidence that when we look back on this series, we’re going to call it one of the best we’ve seen and remember it for its greatness. Why? Because you don’t need last second heroics for something to become memorable, you don’t need transcendent individual efforts to make something stick in your mind, you don’t need high drama every night out for something to live with you for a long time. You need two teams with great players operating at top efficiency most of the time. In those games that haven’t been close, it’s not that one team played horribly, there were still moments when each side was at its very best, it’s just that the winning team went – as the boring, somewhat meaningless cliché goes – to another level. The Spurs and Heat have each won every game, it’s not that the other team lost it. It’s not been a classic series in the classic mold, but it has been classic and despite being out on the road for two weeks, I wouldn’t at all mind it coming down to one game Thursday night now. It’s been too good to end. - I get home to reclaim the car that the newly-licensed Super Son seems to have made his own – and that’s not going to happen too often – and not only is there half a tank of gas like when I left it but this dude’s CD is on the seat. And if you got a 16-year-old who can’t wait to see Trombone Shorty at the jazz festival, it’s not a bad little life. - Things you hate about travel: Making a long trek from San Antonio to Toronto through Detroit because you can’t get here from there; blowing off a 2 1-2 layover by writing and bugging people and all of a sudden having to sit for another hour on a plane for some reason known only to the Delta pilots who kept us entirely in the dark until they announced the “little” problem had been solved and we could go. End of rant. Now, if Air Canada screws me over this morning, we’re going to have some issues. - Hey, do you think it’s a coincidence that the TOD is rolling since I’ve been paying scant attention? And you wonder why all of a sudden the pitchers can pitch and the hitters can hit and guys with the gloves can catch the ball. And you think, hey, maybe the long, long baseball season isn’t quite over; we’re not at July yet and there’s every reason to think they’ll climb legitimately back into some kind of race. It is the fun of the game, isn’t it? A long season of ups and downs and the one thing you need more than anything is patience. Fans don’t have nearly enough of it and I wonder how many are now tuning back in after swearing them off in the middle of May. Fans’ passion is a wonderful thing even if sometimes over-reaction is the norm. - So, Miami. When

Doug Smith is actually openly criticizing the Raptors, specifically Tim Leiweke. This is a first. In what I think is a terribly short-sighted move that will rankle as many people as anything he does, Leiweke has told Alvin Williams that his services are no longer required. Yep, the chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment – on the job for less than a month – has jettisoned one of the great guys ever associated with the franchise and a man who wanted nothing more than to spend his entire career with the organization in some way, shape or form. Source

As Tim Leiweke stressed the need for improvement for an organization that wasn’t good enough and Masai Ujiri talked about building his own small staff here in Toronto, many of us were able to foresee the organizational house cleaning around the corner. So when guys like Ed Stefanski and Jim Kelly were let go, I don’t think anyone around the team was exactly floored. But I don’t know how many people saw this coming, as fans and media alike were surprised to hear the news on Monday that former fan-favourite Alvin Williams had been relieved of his duties as a scout. In addition, Doug Smith reports that CEO Tim Leiweke made the decision and that General Manager Masai Ujiri never spoke to Alvin. On the surface, the decision is tough to swallow for Raptors fans. Williams gave every ounce of his body to the team during the only legitimately successful period in franchise history and was adored by Toronto basketball fans because of it. His hiring as an assistant coach in 2009 and his subsequent move to the role of Director of Player Development later on (Williams was most recently a scout for the Raptors working out of his hometown of Philadelphia) were celebrated by those same fans who simply loved the idea of “Boogie” still being associated with the team. From that angle, Leiweke’s decision is an unfortunate one as you could argue that even if Williams’ scouting services were no longer valued or needed, the organization could have found some role for him to fill with the team. After all, if Bryan Colangelo was protected from a full-on firing, why couldn’t Alvin Williams be? On the other hand, the big name hires of Leiweke and Ujiri were met with celebration and hope themselves, and part of their new jobs consist of making cold business decisions as they look to finally forge a new identity (and a successful one at that) for the Toronto Raptors. Whether fans agree with it or not, whether they understand it or not, at least one of Leiweke/Ujiri obviously saw this as one of those decisions. As much as we love the guy for what he gave to the franchise on the floor, we have no idea how good, bad, great or awful Williams was a scout. And again, a new CEO or new General Manager shouldn’t exactly be faulted for cleaning house and making tough decisions like this (though I am curious about the fact that Ujiri reportedly never made contact with Alvin about it). After watching and sticking with this franchise for 18 mostly pathetic seasons, all I ask of Tim Leiwke and Masai Ujiri is that they oversee the transformation of the Raptors from a league laughingstock to a perennially successful, winning basketball team. If they can do that, then as heartless as it may seem now, we won’t be bothered or preoccupied by otherwise insignificant decisions on the job status of team scouts, no matter how beloved they might be. Many people will make today about sympathy and nostalgia, but it’s important to look at the big picture. Tim Leiweke and Masai Ujiri have been entrusted with building a successful basketball program here, and they shouldn’t be faulted for wanting to build it exactly as they see fit. On a basketball level, many will make this day about the future of Kyle Lowry, who was close with Williams from his time at Villanova. In reality though, the connections and panic are likely greatly exaggerated. If Ujiri doesn’t believe that Lowry can be part of that aforementioned future success, then he’ll explore his options (the Raptors could look for trade options or could even buy out the final year of Lowry’s contract for $1 million up until July 15), but I’m fairly certain that they wouldn’t have fired Williams just because they may not see Lowry as part of the future. And if Lowry does stick around, has a great season in 2013-14 and is offered a worthy financial commitment from the Raptors as a result, I highly doubt he’ll turn it down just

Name: Andrea Bargnani 2012-13 Key Statistics: 35 games played, 28.7 minutes per game, 12.7 points, 39.9% from the field, 30.9% from three-point-range, 3.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.7 blocks, 11.2 PER. Comparison: Pitchfork Reviews It was the summer of 2006. I remember it quite clearly. One of my best friends had told me about a slew of new music releases to check out, including the critically acclaimed band, "The Knife," and their latest release, "Silent Shout." "Pitchfork gave it an 8.6 so it should be pretty solid!" he exclaimed. Aaaah Pitchfork. At that time, I wasn't too familiar with the website. I knew it was a site dedicated to music, particularly of the "indie" variety, but that's about as far as I got. Many of my friends swore on it as the go-to bible for all things music, so if an album received critical praise from the site, hey, it had to be a sure thing right? However I wasn't exactly a fan of "The Knife" after a few listens. In fact, the more I listened to it, the more I hated it. But how could this be? After all, in the review that garnered the 8.6 out of 10 mark, Pitchfork had noted: An early contender for best record of the quarter, here's hoping Silent Shout inspires similar imagination and pushing outwards; after all, no matter how heady and interior electronic music allows itself to become, it could never get as scary as the world outside. So how I could I... ...wait. What the hell does that even mean? Similarly, reviews for other critically lauded albums around that time, Grizzly Bear, Destroyer, Matmos, all met a similar fate as The Knife when placed into my CD player (hey, it was 2006, the iPod didn't find its way into my clutches until 2007.) Not only did I not enjoy the bulk of these albums, but I also started to become increasingly annoyed with Pitchfork's seemingly never-ending determination to present more and more obscure and abstract sonics, as if they were the second coming of Revolver or Pet Sounds. Sure there were moments when our respective musical tastes were aligned. But through the years these became increasingly few and far between to the point that I eventually just gave up on them, tired of trying to sort through passages like the following, hoping to discern some idea of whether or not the reviewer enjoyed the album, or just wanted to hear him/herself pontificate about the meaning of life: Actually, to be honest, that temptation remains. Khan's aesthetic is such a perfectly struck balancing act between earth mother hippie mystic and post-modern Gen Y art student (see: the cover for her latest single "Daniel", which depicts her on a beach, shivery and windswept, with a painting of The Karate Kid's Daniel LaRusso adorning her entire naked back) that it's difficult to forget about the sheer workaday craft that must go into constantly seeming so effortlessly, artfully rumpled. In a similar fashion I gave up a long time ago on Andrea Bargnani. I wanted to believe. Hell, I even penned this amidst his now-infamous 14-game flurry of intriguing play during the 2011-12 season. But from the moment he was drafted to be the team's center of the future I had my doubts (although it should be noted that I wanted the team to choose Tyrus Thomas), and those only grew to the point where after three seasons, I preferred the team dealt him while he still appeared to have some upside. However as we know, the opposite occurred, the team extended him once, and now is stuck with what could be an immovable piece. Bargnani is perhaps the biggest reason Bryan Colangelo's attempts at team building were unsuccessful, and now somehow new GM Masai Ujiri has to figure out a way to get some value in exchange for the one known as "Il Mago," or else it's likely on to Plan B - the Amnesty Clause. And I'd be fine with that. It's certainly not ideal, but at some point you simply make a decision; whether it's refusing to believe friends' gushings over a certain mus

Well, if Tim Leiweke wanted to make significant changes to get away from the Raptors past, he’s picked the right guy to fire. In what I think is a terribly short-sighted move that will rankle as many people as anything he does, Leiweke has told Alvin Williams that his services are no longer required. Yep, the chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment – on the job for less than a month – has jettisoned one of the great guys ever associated with the franchise and a man who wanted nothing more than to spend his entire career with the organization in some way, shape or form. Alvin had spent last season scouting for the team, based out of Philadelphia, but he was far, far more than just an employee picking up a cheque. He loved the organization and the city, he was a link to some of the best times the team has ever had, he is a great guy who’d show up every now and then and sooth some antsy players, offer a unique perspective and be a valued confidant to many. Fired. Not by the general manager who never spoke to him, but by a CEO who seems hellbent on getting his fingers in every decision at some level. It sucks. Look, we all know that keeping people around this team forever is hard; there has been too much change, too many people discarded. I’d say that if you’ve got someone the fans love, the players trust, the coaches appreciate and who wants to be part of it, you don’t cast him adrift. You keep him around somehow, let him keep scouting, let him keep coming around every month or so, let him do his job. It’s not like Alvin was going to demand a seven figure salary and a say in all major personnel decisions. He wanted just to keep working, to be part of the Raptors. There aren’t a lot of that kind of guy around, I cannot see the harm in keeping him, if for no other reason that what he represents. Everyone knows how hard he played, what he gave to the team – hell, I bet he cut his career two years short by playing through bad knees because he wanted to win and for the franchise to flourish. As messages go, they just sent a crappy one. And people will notice. - Good way to end a San Antonio trip, no? - A week in San Antonio can be a long, long time. Things we like Rosario’s For Tex-Mex, try the three-taco combo with chicken, beef and pork and the Dos Equis draft, please. The Riverwalk Good people watching and the Irish pub across the river and around the corner from the hotel. St. Arnold’s summer pilsner Don’t know that I’ll have it again, but it’s a tasty delight should try. Things we didn’t like Torrential rain On five of the seven days, always in the late afternoon, early evening, the skies opened. And I’m not talking sprinkles or showers, I’m talking deluge. Post-game traffic Know how the Leaves People clog Yonge Street? Well, double it, cut a lane off the width of the road and you’ve got it. Sat in the bus after Game 3 dead stopped for about 15 minutes before we all finally got out and walked the final five blocks or so. Beat the bus by 20 minutes. The heat No, not the Heat, the heat. Was mid-30s every day and as some of you might have realized, I’m not built for mid-30s. Mid-20s, maybe. - So, is this the week? Remember how everyone waited for some resolution to the Colangelo situation with the HOTH? Well, we’re in the same holding pattern with respect to the coaching staff and I’m hearing from a couple of spots that this has to be the week they decide on who’ll work with Dwane Casey next year. I do know that Casey and Masai have met and talked several times over the last few days as they try to figure out just what they’re going to do with the staff and with the summer league coming up quickly. I don’t know if the changes will be wholesale but I do think a couple of Johnny Davis, Micah Nori, Tom Sterner and Scott Roth will be gone. Why? No particular reason – it’s not like they did b

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Well, here we go again. Enjoy, folks.

Sorry I’m a bit late, folks. Was enjoying a loafing morning here for a change. Long day ahead; don’t forget to be back around 8 p.m. for the IGBT and a Happy Father’s Day to all. - Q: I'm upset that a couple of the texters on your noon gig yesterday did NOT include Amir as a core player. What's the single top priority of any member of a basketball ball team supposed to be? Winning, period. Which two players were on more than half the winning 5-man units last year? DeMar & Amir, NOT Rudy NOR Kyle! This stuff drives me to the edge, I tell you ... Can you explain it away for me? Bo K, Mississauga, ON A: No, can’t really. And, yes, Amir was a key member and energetic player for a team that won 38 games and missed the playoffs and should be considered part of the group that should be given time to grow together. I personally think he’ll end up being a very valuable third big who brings energy off the bench if his body holds up. - Q: Hey Doug, love all the "reporting" from all aspects of the final. Going down to Philly and Camden NJ August long weekend for Yestival, a one day festival headlined by Yes, with The Musical Box, Renaissance and Cal Palmer's ELP Legacy. And taking in the Phillies and Braves. In all your trips to the area are there any establishments, food and beverage that should be on our to do list? Oh yeah, any reports how Super Son is doing on the roads back home? Looking forward to the reports the rest of the way. And hopefully the Spurs have the kid back for the Anthem before game 5! Scott M A: Well, I’m not sure where you’re staying but if you’re in downtown Philly, where I tend to stay, the Reading Market is a great spot for lunch, there’s a really good sports bar right under the arch there called The Field House and if you don’t drink Yeungling, we might have issues. If you can’t get that, Stoudt’s Gold works in a pinch. If you’re looking upscale at all, The Palm in the Sheraton, I believe it is, has a nice bar to eat in and if Michelle is working and you tell her that Billy King’s friend the sportswriter from Toronto says hello, I’d appreciate that. Oh, and Second Avenue is always worth a walk to see if you can find a nice eating spot. - Q: You answered a question about not knowing how the Mavs handle the fare for their beat writer. I assumed it didn't matter because the Mavs own their plane. It has their logo on it. The reason I know is I have flown with the team on it. They used to (not sure if they still do) sell dream packages to fly with the team and stay with them in the hotel, watch their shootaround and seats to the game. Prices depend on length (we flew to Minnisota and back) and prices started at $5000 (according to other ppl on the trip). I won a promotion and didn't pay that much. We flew sat at the back of the plane with trainers, therapists, tv ppl etc. Watching Avery Johnson disect the game film of that nights game on the little screens. Mark A: It matters because no self-respecting newspaper would take some of such value without paying, it would put you in a compromising position. So some money would have to be paid, even if it was, say, a donation per flight or something, to the team’s charitable foundation. - Q: For me, one of the most intriguing things about the hiring of Masai Ujiri is the fact that he tailored his roster to George Karl's style of play. Assuming Dwane stays the coach and Ujiri similarly tailors the Raptors' roster to him, what does that roster look like - can you name a few players in the league that you view as "Casey-style" guys? Note that I'm not asking you how we would actually get them, because I know you hate trade rumours. Thanks, Mike D, Toronto A: Is it fair to say the Casey-style players are the good ones and he’d take any of them. But a tough guy like Reggie Evans sure catches his eye, older guys who’ve been around are his type of