News

Good morning. The countdown is officially on. Thank God. I'm writing from an absolutely frigid hallway at the Air Canada Centre where Ron Wilson has the Leafs poised for a run to ninth place. All typos are because my fingers can't move.

Today is signng day -- table upon table of jerseys, hat, balls and other memorobilia to be signed by the Raptors. Bosh and O'Neal have the most to do, at least 100 pieces each. Hassan Adams is going to be done in about 20 seconds. I think Kapono has it just right -- maybe 20 pieces and he still gets that $6-million, not bad.

Anyway, this pre-season in these parts, had a just get through it quality that I don't remember from other years,  mainly because there are so many important questions around the Raptors, unfortunately none of which were answerable during the past month. As a result the pre-season seemed like more of an obstacle to understanding exactly what the Raptors are about, rather a window into what might be.

Elsewhere, league play starts tomorrow night. In my eyes, here to me are the five NBA storylines to watch this season, in no particular order:

1.      Is the Greg Oden era about to begin?

2.      Just how important is James Posey?

3.      Can LeBron James lift his teammates and overcome them at the same time?

4.      Will Brandon Jennings change the face of the NCAA/NBA talent map?

Will Lakers coach Phil Jackson stay awake long enough get his 10th  title?

I raise these because I'm going to be launching a new feature on From Deep.

Some guy at some other paper is pretty well known for his mailbag. This is sacred ground I will not tread. There will be no mailbag here. But that's not because I don't value your contributions. So after much brainstorming and some consultation with marketing types (I retained the same firm that that helped Basketball Canada decide they needed to change their name to Canada Basketball a few years back) here it is. Ready?

Okay.

The From Deep Letter of the Day. Or, the FDLOD. Or we can just call it the ‘The Load', if we want to be cool.

Pretty sharp, eh? You email me a question, comment or observation at: mgrange@globeandmail.ca. Or, even better, drop one in the Comments section.

Then I think about it. Chew it over. And then I pick the best one and respond

This can't fail. It must work.

So there you go. Rev up those e-mail machines. I'm waiting.

Anyway, some Raptors thoughts:

Okay. We've got a season to play. This is good news. As has been established the pre-season has been A) not particularly impressive, at least from a Raptors point of you and B) not particularly relevant.

This is good for the Raptors, because if you were trying to find something to be excited about after a healthy and motivated Chris Bosh and a ‘where he left off' Jose Calderon, the list is pretty short. Andrea I guess, but he was just as impressive in pre-season last year, so his performance falls in the ‘not relevant' category.

Jamario Moon? So impressive that Joey Graham is giving him a serious run for his starting job, and Graham missed the first two weeks of practice.

Will Solomon? Nice guy, but he lost his minutes in pre-season to Roko Ukic. And then he got hurt.

Ukic has thrived in the sense that he's likely exceeded expectations, at least in terms of his work ethic and professionalism. He definitely wants to be good, but that doesn't mean he is or will be soon.

Jermaine O'Neal? His one shining moment against the Clippers: 20 points, nine rebounds and five blocks. It is a touchstone for those around the organization who were waiting to see exactly what he might bring to the table. But an otherwise unremarkable pre-season has been explained away as a veteran guy ‘getting into basketball shape' and then getting his timing back. All quite legitimately, mind you. Just that it would have been nice if was a little closer to being ready to go a month ago, but that's just me.

Hassan Adams showed some signs of life. Then he got hurt.

Kapono? He had the quote of the pre-season, when the Star's Dave Feschuk asked him about the struggles of the second unit: "It's like, `Oh my God, dude, why are we always faced with four seconds on the shot clock, being forced to take a bad shot?'" said Kapono. "We've been, uh, slow to gel."

Kris Humphries? Unremarkable.

I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but you get the idea.

But hey, it's only pre-season. There has been some work been done by the folks at 82games.com about the predictive value of pre-season records, a 4-4 mark by a team that was 41-41 the season before predicts not much.

I will be posting my ‘preview' in the paper, but as you might guess I'm certainly not convinced about the Jermaine O'Neal era. Then again the Raptors probably aren't either.

Trading a strength – point guard depth – to shore up a weakness – interior defence and rebounding – only works if Calderon stays healthy and O'Neal does too.

It's safe to say that the second unit – another Raptors strength fo the last two seasons – will suffer somewhat at the hands of Solokic, but it's also likely that overall chemistry should improve because the whole team isn't bitter about their playing time.

Bargnani? Another huge variable. Would this roster look that much better with Brandon Roy or Rudy Gay in the lineup? I think it would. But that ain't happening. If Bargnani earns consideration as sixth man of the year, he can go along way toward dispelling that kind of speculation.

Will it happen? Your guess is as good as mine.