It is March in Toronto, which usually means the snow is turning into a gray slush that looks like a melted Slushie from a gas station that hasn't been cleaned since 2004. The Raptors are currently entering a phase of the season where the roster looks more like a collection of names found in a lost wallet than a basketball team. Jakob Poeltl is questionable for Tuesday with an illness, likely because he realized being seven feet tall and having to defend everyone at once is exhausting.
With Collin Murray Boyles and Trayce Jackson Davis also ruled out, we are looking at centerless basketball. This is a concept that sounds progressive until you realize someone actually has to grab the ball after it hits the rim. It reminds me of the time my uncle tried to build a shed without a floor, he said it was for better drainage, but mostly he just didn't want to carry the wood.
The Strange Case of the Boards
People are asking where Scottie Barnes has gone on the glass. He hasn't grabbed five rebounds in a game since he bruised his quad about a week ago. Some say he is being used to run the break more, while others think it is just the injury. Maybe he just decided that the ball is going to end up on the ground eventually anyway and there is no sense in rushing the process.
It is a strange feeling when your franchise player stops doing the things that make him look like a franchise player. It is like when you find out your favorite local pizza place started using different cheese, it still looks like pizza, but the soul of the thing has shifted slightly to the left. We are all waiting for him to jump again, but for now, we just watch him jog.
New Friends and Old Cartoons
Markelle Fultz has made his debut for the Raptors 905 down in Mississauga. It is a long way from being a number one overall pick, but the Paramount Fine Foods Centre has very reasonable parking. Sometimes you have to go to the G League to find yourself, or at least to find out if your shoulder still works the way shoulders are supposed to work.
Meanwhile, the fans are getting creative with their sadness. There are trade proposals floating around that involve sending Immanuel Quickley and several first round picks to Memphis for a package featuring Santi Aldama and Scotty Pippen Jr. It is the kind of math you only do when you have stayed up too late watching Family Guy clips on your phone. If we trade everyone for everyone else, eventually we might stumble into a win, or at least a different kind of loss.
The Inevitable Conclusion
Garrett Temple is reportedly nearing retirement, which feels like the end of an era for people who enjoy watching a man in a very nice warmup suit give advice to twenty year olds. He has been the steady hand on a ship that has been doing circles in the harbor for quite some time now. We will miss his presence, mostly because he is the only one who looks like he knows where the exits are located.
Basketball is a game of runs, as they say, but right now the Raptors are just on a very long walk through a park where it might start raining at any second. We are watching for the sake of watching. We are looking for something, even if it is just a Markelle Fultz mid range jumper or a Scottie Barnes box out. It would be nice to see someone grab a rebound on Tuesday, even if they have to use a ladder to do it.