Opinion | Ye Olde Mailbag: Scottie Barnes, a trip down memory lane and secret signals

What’s better on a snowy day than relaxing and going through Ye Olde Mailbag? Not much, I’d say.

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Q: Hey Doug, 

Heartiest holiday greetings to you, your family, colleagues, and irregulars. Best of health and happiness to all for 2023.  

It’s been wonderful to see the return of all those girls’ and boys’ newspaper tournaments in the Niagara Region. Do you have any memories of games when Triano, Meagher, Smrek, Skrlak, Zareski, DiMartino, and the Governor Simcoe OFSAA AAA championship team, amongst many, roamed the hardwood in the seventies? Some of those star players even went to the University of Welland and beyond. 

While data are king and enhances much in sports and our lives, is the instantaneous analysis of every shot, provided by the new tracking devices at the Raptors’ practice facility, detrimental? Are the players, consciously or not, trying to create the perfect shot rather than shooting? 

Pros and coaches often say, “Play as you practise, practise as you play”. What do you see when you’re allowed to watch? 

With all the extra shots/game that the team regularly generates, it seems that with a little better, even consistently average, shooting, the Raptors could reach internal and external expectations.

Stay sturdy on the stools this season. 

Paul from Port 

A: Oh, man, those are some names from the past. And, sure, I played in or went to the Review, Standard and Tribune tournaments throughout my lengthy high school career. I’m happy to hear they are back, I also played against almost everyone you mentioned at one time and was on the same national baseball championship team as Jay and Sam and Vito DiMartino has been a friend for years. Forget Governor Simcoe, the mighty Stamford Hornets OFSSAA championship at Brock in the mid-70s was great.

Now, for the stats.

Like a lot of stuff teams provide to their players, it’s just a tool they can or won’t use. Some have little regard for the info, some digest it fully but everyone knows it’s just one of many teaching things the staff has as its disposal. My guess is most players regard the information less seriously than the coaches do.

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Q: Hi Doug

First of all, noticed that Dave Feschuk and not you filed the story from Orlando, hoped that was your decision not to travel and not the Stars.

Please ‘splain whats happened to Scottie lately. Noticed that he was -24 in the loss to Orlando, only scored 6 points and only took 7 shots, not the stats we expected this year.

Also saw that Orlando shot 59%, what’s happened to the Raptor defense, it seems to be on and then off all season long?

Stay safe and healthy,

Happy Holidays,

Michael K

A: Yeah, Dave’s handling this trip because I can’t do ‘em all, too old, it’s too tiring and he’s more than able and willing to fill in. We divide most trips early in the year, he did Texas in November and I’ve got Philly-New York, New York-Milwaukee-Minnesota and a tough Sacramento-San Francisco-Portland-Phoenix-Utah in the next month and a half so that’s enough.

The Barnes situation is almost inexplicable, isn’t it? My theory is that things came pretty easy for him last season but he’s no longer a secret to opponents who can take away what he does best and he’s simply got to work harder to get better. But the level of disengagement some nights is really troubling.

The defence is inconsistent because the players’  attention to detail and execution is all over the map and that has to get fixed, too.

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Q: Hi Doug,

Basketball minutiae gets us through these doldrums with our team in the middle of the standings. When are we going to go back to starting Trent Jr? Often our second or third highest scorer, I feel that he needs to be out there from the get go. He seems to my untrained eye to be working hard on defense. Am I missing something?

Kerry

A: I won’t presume to try to read Nick’s mind on any lineup changes but my opinion is Trent is best as a primary scorer with the second unit and I believe that’s opinion shared by decision-makers. But who knows?

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Q: Doug

The Star often has articles about our Canadian women and their involvement in professional sports leagues in Canada and the USA. Why does it however fail to add their leagues (ie) WNBA when they are running in the daily “Scoreboard – BoxScore” section of the paper?

Byron Grant

A: Sometimes it’s space, sometimes it’s deadlines, sometimes it’s putting things in that might have more local relevance. But I will certainly pass this on.

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Q: Hi Doug,

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

World Cup, b-ball, football, and hockey (plus a partridge in a pear tree!) What’s not to love?

Some questions:

1) Noticed Mo Pete and Oak at the game earlier in the week and was wondering if ex-Raptors are guests of the team or do they have to pay for their own seats (not that they couldn’t afford to) ? Does the team (or MLSE) reserve a certain number of seats for any VIP’s that potentially show up? Any idea how this works?

2) It’s a bit early but all the talk by the tv team talking about the Tatum-Brown duo earlier in the week made me think, “Hey, Pascal and OG are just as good!”

Is it time to campaign for them to get some All-Star votes?

3) For years it was generally thought that the Western Conference was superior in the NBA. Do you think those days are finally gone?

Thanks for another week of interesting and educational articles, I would expect nothing less.

Bernie M

A: Yeah, it’s certainly a great busy time of year for sports but I’d prefer the soccer in the summer.

The various departments – marketing, basketball operations, media – have tickets at their disposal and if alumna let anyone know they’re coming, they are generally taken care of.

The all-star hype will start next month when voting begins, believe me. Plans are already afoot, I’m told.

It’s always been a bit cyclical but I believe the East has more good teams than the West now. Doesn’t necessarily mean the champion will come from the East but the playoffs might be epic.

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Q: Hey Doug,

I could not believe the two World Cup games on Friday. The Dutch second goal against Argentina was spectacular. Messi is a beast. Looking forward to Saturday’s games. I’m sure you are as well but hope you can squeeze in an answer to the following.

I see the NBA refs pat the top of their heads during games.  What is this signal to the other refs or the scorers’ table?

What does it men when players pat the tops of their heads when a teammate makes a spectacular play? Is it for a 3 pointer, slam dunk or something else or does it differ from team to team.

It seems some kind of teammate shorthand showing appreciation.

Brian in TO

A: Saturday was one long, tiring day of soccer with Kyle And The Miscreants in a couple of spots. Glad today’s a day off.

The refs are signaling to each other that the quarter is almost over, the shot clock is off and time is running out.

The players are basically celebrating a teammate – and kind of mocking the opponent – for a dunk “right on his head.”

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Q: Hey Doug,
I’ve heard that the radio broadcasts for both the Raptors and the Leafs no longer travel with the team and broadcast the games remotely.

Besides the obvious reason of cost savings, what gives and why now after all these years?   Are the numbers that down for radio listeners?
Eddy

A: That’s been the case for some time now, it’s not new. Began the pandemic and has continued on. I can’t speak to numbers but it’s a financial decision through and through. The product suffers, I am 1,000 per cent sure of that.

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Q: Suppose a team in the same division as the Blue Jays desperately needs a catcher but the Jays, having a surplus, do not want to do a trade with that team.

Can the Jays request the team who they end up making the trade with do not flip the catcher to the AL East team as a condition of the trade?

J. W. Paul

Peterborough 

A: No. Well, I guess technically they can but there’s no way that request would be granted.

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Q: Hi Doug, NBA players have earned a strong reputation for donating their money and time to charitable causes, community projects and social justice issues. I’m wondering if you know of anyone on the Toronto Raptors, or any NBA player who devote their resources in the fight against climate change or other environmental protection causes? We don’t hear much about these players and their efforts should be recognized and celebrated.

Best wishes, 

Matthew Maxwell-Smith, Ph.D

A: I have not heard of anyone. I am sure it’s something the more enlightened and socially active players care about but I do not know of anyone pro-actively engaged. They should be.

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Q: Doug

Am I the only who gets tired of Raptors announcers going off topic while game raging on. Going about their past history in league, non game topics, etc. etc.

Missing minutes of ongoing play each time!

Keith

A: No, you’re not the only one at all but I admit I enjoy some of the stories during boring stretches of the game. Every now and then I can see them being an unwanted distraction but all in all, I’m okay with them.

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