It is February, and everything is very loud despite the weather being quite cold. People on the internet are currently engaged in a massive panic, which is a traditional Toronto pastime. I am not sure if we are melting down more than the Miami Heat fans, but it feels like a competitive race. Sometimes I look at the standings and then I look at my toaster, and I think they both have a lot in common.
The trade deadline season is a difficult time for everyone's blood pressure. We are all just waiting for something to happen, like standing in a very long line at a Service Ontario. People are upset, but everything is probably going to be fine, or at least it will be different. Being a fan is mostly just waiting to see which 6 foot 9 player we acquire next to fill our roster of identical humans.
Moving Parts and New Faces
The team recently added Trayce Jackson Davis. It is apparently just a low cost depth move, sort of like when you buy a backup hammer because you misplaced the first one. He likely will not play much behind our current rotation of big men. Some people are confused why we did not get someone much taller, but Project 6-9 is a commitment we made long ago. It is a philosophy that requires us to have many players who can almost touch the rim but also sort of dribble.
Cam Thomas was waived by his team and everyone is wondering if we should take a look. He is a person who scores points, which is something a basketball team generally needs to do. However, we have a lot of players who like to hold the ball already. If we added every player who got waived, we would have a roster of sixty people, and the locker room is simply not that large.
Looking Toward the Future
RJ Barrett is becoming an expiring contract soon, which apparently makes him more valuable in the eyes of people who enjoy spreadsheets. He is a local person, so we like him, but in three months he might be considered filler for a trade. It is a strange thing to call a human being filler. I once used a folded piece of paper to balance a table, and that felt like a similar transaction.
Immanuel Quickley has been playing well lately, though some say he is just a version of Fred VanVleet who shoots more often. His defense has not been bad, which is a nice way of saying he is trying his best. We also have a top twenty pick coming up in a draft that people say is deep. Every draft is supposedly deep until the players actually start playing, and then we realize some of the water was actually quite shallow.
The General State of Things
I think we all need to take a step back and breathe, possibly into a paper bag. The Miami Heat fans are also suffering, which should provide some comfort because misery is better when it is shared. We have all of our first round picks, and that is a nice feeling to have in your pocket. It is like finding a twenty dollar bill in an old coat, except the coat belongs to a multi-billion dollar sports franchise.
We will just let the boys play this year and see what happens. Basketball will continue to be played at the Scotiabank Arena until it is not. Jakob Poeltl might come back at some point, and we will have a center again. Until then, we will keep spinning around in circles, much like a certain former player who now plays in Indiana. We are all just trying to find our way home.