Raptors mailbag: An off-season wish list and how Toronto should

Assistant coaches or development coaches will visit players a couple of times in an off-season just to see how their work is going. The full-team workouts are not officially sanctioned by the teams, but there’s a wink-and-nod deal that everyone will show up in some city for a few days later on in the summer.

And yeah, players are given quite specific things to work on during their exit interviews at the end of the season, and they tailor summer workouts to that. It’s all quite co-operative between the team and the players.

Just as the Chicago Cubs had their goat and the Bosox had to overcome the trade of the Bambino, Toronto had Harold Ballard, who vetoed signing Wayne Gretzky because he couldn’t sell any more tickets.

It’s time that Leafs fans burn an effigy of Harold Ballard to get the hockey gods to lift their curse.

Go Leafs Go!

—Tom Zsoter in Toronto

Man, you must have some hate on for Ballard.

As much Old Hal was responsible for a lot of ills and was a bad person basically to his core, he actually died in 1990 and Gretzky’s dalliance with the Leafs was in, as I recall, about the mid-1990s.

And no matter what he could do, Ballard couldn’t veto that from the grave.

Nice try, though.

Hi, Doug. Can’t complain about the playoffs so far (NBA or NHL)!

Some questions:

1) It seems like most believe that Jordan Nwora won’t be a Raptor much longer. They always say “you can’t teach height,” so that means his defensive flaws are correctable with coaching. Then you have a young player with size at a low cost. What am I missing?

2) A lot was written about the “worst-case scenario” of the Raptors’ pick falling to No. 19 instead of 16. Isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration? Not that much difference in player quality in that section of the draft is there?

3) If the Sixers or Bucks fail to get past the second round (or first round) do you think Nick Nurse or Doc Rivers is likely to be fired? And will we see Adrian Griffin coaching again?

4) Speaking of the Bucks … no Giannis Antetokounmpo, no Zion Williamson for the Pelicans, no Jimmy Butler for the Heat! Just bad luck, or are some teams in need of a shakeup of their rosters?

Enjoy the ride to the finals!

—Bernie M.

I can see Nwora back on a non-guaranteed camp invite, but he’s also going to be 26 when the season begins and with his third team in four years. Almost cutting bait, no?

Not sure whoever would have suggested dropping to 19 from 16 (I presume in reference to the Pacers pick) as a “worst-case scenario,” but I wouldn’t pay much attention to them. Strikes me as ridiculous.

No, Doc and Nick will be fine. Their contracts ensure it.

Some teams have been hit with bad injury luck and bad timing. I’d suggest changes are needed in New Orleans, Phoenix and with the Lakers when this is all over.

I enjoy watching Kyle Lowry on the real estate commercials. Any idea if TV is in his retirement plans?

— Curtis S.

They sure dug deep into the archives to unearth that ad, didn’t they? The last time I talked to him about retirement — and that’s at least two years away — it was more about golfing and hanging with his sons rather than working for a living.

Hey, Doug. I guess a benefit of a bad Raptors season is that you have a bit of time to relax ahead of the lottery, draft and various summer shenanigans.

If you could choose a current NBA player and one head coach (though not necessarily from the same team) to sit down for extensive one-on-one interviews, who would they be and what would you ask them?

Do you think that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP-level play this season is a result of his participation in the World Cup, or would it have been at this level even if he had not been on Canada’s team?

Appreciated as always,

—Phil

There are probably dozens and dozens of answers to the first question. I’ll go with two easy ones.

I wonder what inside him drives LeBron James to do it at his age and with all he’s already accomplished. And I wonder if his personal history and loss have shaped Steve Kerr’s world view.

Shai? I think the success he had at the World Cup against that level of competition and the responsibility he had for the team’s success hastened his rise, but it was coming eventually anyway.

Hi. Doug. Hope you are doing well.

I understand some people are talking about the dominance of the three-point shot in today’s NBA.

I would think that the easiest way to dial this down would be to drop the three-point line to the sidelines instead of the baseline. No more corner threes.

I was thinking about the history of rule changes and the only ones I can recall that reduced scoring are the widening of the lane, especially the change from the keyhole. Introducing the shot clock and reducing the times makes defence easier but increases the number of possessions, so scoring goes up.

Is my memory correct, and does this imply that it is very unlikely that the league will go after threes?

Thanks.

—Jim R.

I think fewer threes would just mean more above-the-break threes, actually.

One of the great fallacies is that the league wants to curtail scoring. That’s just not true. Fans want scoring. It’s why the league has never been more popular or as financially successful as it is right now.

Maybe they put a measure of hand-checking back into the game, or maybe the top coaches devise defences to guard threes more successfully, but the league’s fine with where the game is now.

Sir, even though he dropped 50 last night (Thursday), all things considered if you were advising Joel Embiid would you tell him to go to the Olympics, or spend the summer getting healthy?

—Paul M.

I’d probably tell him to go. It’s at most six games. I can’t see him playing more than 20 minutes a game, given the style of play, and the experience will be great.

Of course, I also would have told him in the first place to try to get his homeland into the Games before cherry-picking a spot on an already-stacked United States team, but that’s another conversation.