Ed note: Some days have past since the original DS item and most of my answers and this getting published because I can only devote like 20 minutes a day to this because I am super busy because because because. Sorry.
Have fun. And good night. Or good morning. Or good afternoon. I’m not entlrely (sic) sure what it is.
Don't worry, you need zero context to appreciate the end of a ramblin' Doug preamble. Just bask in its warm sunshine-y rays.
Q: Hey Doug
At the beginning I followed this year’s free agency period closely as I was interested to see how things were going to shake down with Kyle Lowry and Raptors and by closely I mean checking my twitter feed a couple times a day to see what insiders and journalists were hearing and speculating in regards to free agents. This seemed to be a great way to find out information quickly and it worked out well as I was actually on my twitter feed when I saw Woj’s tweet about Lowry staying in Toronto.
I’m a fan of course and that is where my deep interest stems, but all that twitter seemed to give me was that instant sense of relief that Toronto was able to retain Lowry. Then of course my interest waned a little bit and then a little bit more and while I am interested to see where all the pieces land, I am absolutely exhausted of hearing about where they will all go. I have seen multiple headlines to the effect of, “player X is the domino/lynchpin that will decide where player Y goes”.
And so this need for instant information has become this non-stop cycle of, what seems to be useless, stories of will he or won’t he by major sporting news outlets. I commend you for staying out of it and letting the pieces fall where the may before passing judgement.
In a time before twitter, how did we ever survive? Now I can get 140 characters as soon as the news breaks and every story becomes breaking news. I feel the need for instant information has become a need to be able say “I heard the story first and therefore I’m in the know”. I realize for me, all it did was relieve me 12 hours sooner. I enjoyed that I was able to know that Lowry decided to stay in Toronto the movement it became public knowledge, but what I enjoy most are reading articles like yours that add context and deeper insight to a story.
I’m not going to suffer if I find out on Friday that Lowry deiced to stay on Wednesday. Just give me the scoop accurately and with some real substance and I’ll come back another day to see if you have anything more interesting to say.
I agree with your frustration, and don’t think you need to care about getting your readers the minute-by-minute breakdown of what LeBron James is eating at his not-so-secret, secret meeting with team Z. Unless, of course, there’s an incentive which leads me to some questions for you.
Woj broke the Vasquez deal on twitter tonight about 6 minutes after a brief story by him was posted on the Yahoo Sports page. Do insiders and journalists have an obligation to their employer before their twitter accounts? As a writer, if you had a source giving you a story before anyone else had it, do you break it on twitter then write your story? Do you write a quick blurb for the Star and then break simultaneously? Do you have free reign to tweet what you want or is a go ahead required from a higher up at the Star? Is there any incentive for breaking a story before anyone else, besides potentially gaining more twitter followers?
Keep doing what your doing. You are most definitely adding a greater context to my fan experience. Look forward to hearing some of your thoughts.
Mark
This was just a big fat, wet kiss to Doug's underpants area and deserves no answer. Twitter! Rumours! Bad! Old school! Reporters! Being popular! Newspaper man! Someone please ask a basketball question. Or a bagel question. I have strong opinions on both.
Q: Hey, i just read your piece on the Raptors and found it very refreshing. Im a big bball fan and every year im in my fantasy ball finals. Id like to ask your opinion on the PF position! Do you think Patrick Patterson should start over Amir Johnson this year?? I just dont see Amir being a better fit than Pat Patterson in the starting lineup.
I would love to hear your take.
Thanks for reading
Mike
Yay for basketball! This is actually a good question though let's throw out the concept of "starting" as some magical endowment of skill. The question distills down to: should Amir Johnon play less (and fewer minutes with the "starters" or better players) and should Patterson play more?
Amir spent much of last season hobbled yet still managed to appear in 77 games before hitting an 'ouchie' wall in the playoffs that became too apparent to ignore. I mean, the dude could barely lift his legs. Though he's soldiered though nine seasons in the NBA, he just turned 27 (!) and there's good reason to believe that rest and surgeries and more rest will allow him to come back in the condition we saw in the '12-'13 season. Whether he can sustain health after this contract expires and into his 30s is an entirely different matter.
When functional, Amir's strengths of screen-setting, pulling down offensive rebounds, alley-ooping and being smiley fit well with the dribble-and-shoot nature of Lowry and DeRozan's offence. He also takes pressure off of JV who is often a step late in defensive assignments.
Patterson, while not the defender, athlete or glass cleaner that Amir is, is the refined mid- and long-range shooter that was missing in the line-up before his arrival and has become invaluable as the Raptors' offence seemed to slip for long periods last season. Patterson works well with scoring-poor second units which we'll see again (James Johnson, Psycho, Chuck) this upcoming year and offers a fantastic corner three target for Vasquez's sometimes lovable (and often hate able) Globetrotters passes.
In essence, this predicament will mostly work itself because there's 96 big man minutes to dish out per game and no Kevin Love or Blake Griffin type workhorse to eat up starters minutes. Here's last year's minutes total:
Amir: 29
JV: 28
Patterson: 23
for a total of 80 minutes. Unless I'm given reason to believe JV won't continue to miss D assignments, pick up dumb-dumb fouls and start sucking air like he's Rob Ford navigating a stairwell, I have trouble believing he'll ever be able to stay on the floor longer. Amir might have to be treated with kit gloves but even if he's able to reign, there'll be plenty of opportunity to play AJ and PP together (a combo that I really loved last year). Slot a few minutes for James Johnson-powered small ball and significant clean up/foul trouble minutes for Tyler and Chuck and you have yourselves front-line depth.
The beauty of this team is that there are no constants besides heavy minutes from Lowry and DeRozan. Every other decision can and should flow based on game dynamics.
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