It is a measure of the Toronto Raptors' season that general manager Rob Babcock is still being grilled over trades that reportedly could have been made months ago.
If the Raptors were comfortably above the .500 mark and getting ready for the playoffs, the rookie general manager would likely be beyond most second-guessing.
If rookie centre Rafael Araujo was showing more obvious signs of progress, Babcock's star would be shining brighter.
If Vince Carter weren't starring for the New Jersey Nets while Eric Williams and Aaron Williams were contributing in Toronto, the lineup of doubters would be shorter.
But none of that is happening, so every move or non-move Babcock makes is open to scrutiny.
A report in a Toronto newspaper on Monday suggested Babcock passed on two tantalizing trades, inspiring another round of second-guess the GM after the Raptors finished practice yesterday in preparation for tonight's game in Boston against the resurgent Celtics.
The report said Babcock could have landed New Orleans Hornets centre and Toronto resident Jamaal Magloire in a deal involving Carter. In addition, a draft night deal would have brought Seattle SuperSonics guard Antonio Daniels to the Raptors and still provided Toronto with the No. 12 pick, likely high enough to get Araujo, whom the Raptors took at No. 8, several picks higher than expected.
Babcock routinely declines to comment on trades, but tried to clear the air yesterday.
"We could not have done a deal with New Orleans," was his simple explanation regarding Magloire.
The more complicated explanation delved into the nuances of the National Basketball Association's collective labour agreement.
Magloire's salary is $8.53-million (all figures U.S.). Under the agreement, New Orleans can use only half that to calculate which players and contracts it could take back from the Raptors in a deal.
Given that the Raptors were trying to deal Carter, who earns about $13-million, and salaries have to match within 15 per cent in trades, the Raptors and Hornets would have had to agree on a deal that involved a large number of players and potentially a third team to make any trade work.
As the number of players and contracts that would have been included in any deal increased, the likelihood of the Raptors making a trade decreased, given Babcock's stated intention of preserving some salary-cap flexibility and the organization's goal of avoiding the luxury tax.
"There was not a deal to be done with New Orleans," Babcock said. "Anything to the contrary would have been false."
He added that the draft night deal, as reported, was not plausible, either. "You can't trade a player for a draft pick unless you have a [trade]exception," Babcock said. "So again, that trade [as reported]was completely false."
Still, until Babcock begins a record of success, it's likely that the general manager will have to face more second-guessing.
The Celtics have won eight of their past nine games since trading for former Celtic Antoine Walker, a run that has seen Boston open up a 4½-game lead in the Atlantic Division.
The future is often now in the NBA, and the league has taken note of the red-hot Celtics.
"You have to tip your hat to [Celtics general manager Danny]Ainge for pulling the trigger on that," Raptors point guard Rafer Alston said of the Walker deal.
"It served them well. They know what's at stake. They saw themselves falling out of the playoffs and they made a deal, and now they're looking at the No. 3 seed."