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When the referees refuse to blow the whistle, is it still called basketball? Game 1, Detroit at New York for example.

Then there is Ed Malloy. Why is he refereeing the playoffs? Cleveland has 20-plus foul shots as the first half ends in Game 2.

Is this something engineered by Adam Silver?

鈥擱obert McMillan in聽Alma, N.S.

Ed Malloy generally grades out as a very good official, and that鈥檚 when every call made by every official in every game of the NBA season is looked at by people in the league office.

That said, officiating is under the microscope in the playoffs and humans are held to a superhuman standard. Mistakes are going to be made 鈥� like layups are going to be blown and coaching decisions will backfire and I鈥檓 going to make typos. It happens. And please believe me, because I know it to be true: Every NBA official hates missing calls, and they hear about it from their bosses.

But I will die on the hill that says NBA referees are the most consistently good officials in the four major North American pro sports.

And I will add this, too. I know there鈥檚 an old wives鈥� tale about the game being officiated differently in the playoffs than in the regular season and I will dispute that with this: The players are different in the playoffs than in the regular season, the game is played differently and guys try to get away with more holding, hitting and fouling.

Hi, Doug.聽So far, the NBA playoffs have not disappointed and each series is entertaining.聽And lottery day is three weeks away! C’mon ping-pong balls!

Some questions:

I read the results of the recent players-only polls rating players and coaches. It’s interesting that their perspective sometimes doesn’t match those of the fans and media.

For example, Trae Young and Tyrese Haliburton are almost universally viewed as overrated, Norman Powell unanimously seen as not given enough credit. Opinions on Scottie Barnes were split. Is this likely due to the East vs. West differential in games played vs. the Raptors? (If your team plays 海角社区官网twice and Scottie has a bad game, it impacts your opinion.) Also, most felt an OKC vs. Boston final was likely and doubted the Cavs (and Donovan Mitchell). Thoughts?

2) Last year, we were surprised by a series of draft deals landing us four picks in total. Given the quality of this year’s draftees, do you think that we might see Masai Ujiri make similar moves?

3) Sticking with our roster, am I correct in assuming Garrett Temple and Chris Boucher are the only players that are unsigned currently? So two picks coming in means either one, both or some other players will need to be dealt as all spots are spoken for as of today?

4) Do you have any insights or rationale on the Orlando Robinson and Colin Castleton deals in the final week? Is there some advantage that the team has by releasing the former and signing the latter? Based on on-court performance, it wasn’t the choice that I saw coming.

Bonus question: Which former Raptors have the best chance of another ring this year? I’d say Kawhi Leonard, Powell or Pascal Siakam!

Thanks!

鈥擝ernie M.

Booked my flights and got the credentials for the lottery and a couple of days of the draft combine done, so it鈥檚 indeed getting close. Hope the border remains open.

The typical thing with those surveys is, there鈥檚 such a wide disparity of seriousness from the respondents that they all have to be taken with a wee bit of cynicism, despite the anonymity and the good faith work of the reporters doing them. And yeah, there鈥檚 a chance someone votes for or against anyone based on far too small a sampling. One thing I chuckled at was that Barnes got votes for both overrated and underrated.

No, I don鈥檛 expect the same haul mostly because they don鈥檛 have enough roster spots, and I think they鈥檙e too young as it is. Let this group age and grow.

Neither of the contracts signed late by A.J. Lawson and Colin Castleton has even a dime of guarantee on them. Jared Rhoden鈥檚 on the shelf for maybe six months, so there鈥檚 lots of spaces along with Boucher and Temple to play with.

The Raptors now get an entire summer to work with and look at Castleton, after having almost an entire season to work with and look at Robinson. And there鈥檚 nothing precluding them from inviting Robinson to camp if they want and he doesn鈥檛 have an invite anywhere else.

And of those two, I鈥檇 go with Kawhi (and don鈥檛 forget our old pal Norm there) but I suspect the correct answer is neither.

Doug, I enjoyed the question and answer last week about memories of players long ago. I am a bit older than you (actually a few bits older) but think that there was much more mystique attached to the games and players in the past. That was because the supply of sports was much more restricted than today.

I was a huge Mickey Mantle fan for baseball and John Havlicek fan for basketball. I think it was because I got to see these guys play on TV. Baseball was one game a week on Saturday afternoon and often the Yankees were featured.

Also, the Yankees were in the World Series more often than not, so I got to see the Yanks and often the Dodgers. I think I could still name most of the Yankees regulars from the late ‘50s and early ‘60s from Whitey Ford to Bobby Richardson to Moose Skowron.

World Series games were only played during the day, and I remember rushing home from school to see the last part of the game. It just seemed special, unlike today.

NBA games were rarely, if ever, shown during the season and the Celtics were in the NBA Finals so often that I got to see Havlicek and his mates beating up on Jerry West and his mates on the Lakers most years. I very rarely got to see Wilt Chamberlain and can’t remember ever seeing Oscar Robertson.

Today, sports seems much less compelling because there is just too much of it.

鈥擝ruce in聽Oshawa

I couldn鈥檛 agree more with the point that television has, in some ways, ruined sports. It used to be games were destination viewing; now they are background white noise. I can鈥檛 say this with 100 per cent certainty but if, say, Leafs or Blue Jays games were on once or twice a week, I鈥檇 watch; now I barely glance at the nightly onslaught. And I know I鈥檇 watch more out-of-market teams if they were on every now and then.

But, alas, we are where we are.

Two stories:

The first 鈥渏ersey鈥� I ever had was an old ribbed, sleeveless white undershirt (you know the kind) that I turned into a Havlicek jersey by scrawling the No. 17 on it in green marker.

And maybe we鈥檙e not of precisely the same vintage, but when I watch the Pistons these days and they refer to Jalen 鈥淒uren鈥� I immediately think of Ryne. (Google that one, young鈥檜ns.)

Hey Doug, greetings from the beautiful Okanagan valley: 20C and sunny, all the golf courses are open. You may have seen the viral video of the fisticuffs on the links in West Kelowna.聽Reminded me of Rodney Dangerfield鈥檚 old joke about going to the fights the other night and a hockey game broke out!

I was born and raised in the Big Smoke, 海角社区官网East General postwar house in Etobicoke, suburbia in Don Mills, high school at George S. Henry. Got written up in the Star (John Mable) and Telegram (John Iaboni) for organizing the 鈥渟econd annual Henry Relays鈥� in June 1971.

Had scrapbooks of the Make Believes growing up. Davey Keon was my favourite.

You can take the boy out of the city and all that, and I love reading your stories.聽But I go back to Jim Proudfoot and Milt Dunnell et al.

I鈥檝e been following with great interest the trials, tribulations and turmoil rolled up in one Edward Rogers.聽Never been a big fan of silver-spoon second- or third-generation tycoons.聽Stafford Smythe and Harold Ballard? The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Eaton brothers)?

I just found this article today from Maclean鈥檚 () that neatly summarizes his objectives for MLSE.聽Interesting how the link changes the word 鈥榟e鈥檒l into 鈥榟ell鈥�.

I was wondering how he was going to pay for all this AND pay Vladdy (no deferred payments). I understand he鈥檚 investigating selling off minority stakes in all the cellphone tower infrastructure.

You and others have reported on his opinion of Masai Ujiri.聽He vetoed MLSE getting involved with the WNBA team, with Mr. Tanenbaum already having his own sports and entertainment company.

Given his history as the Raptors governor, member of various NBA committees, his close friendship with Adam Silver and the other owners, do you foresee a future where Mr. Tanenbaum exits MLSE with the Raptors under his arm?

That would leave a question as to where to play so not to further enrich Mr. Rogers.聽海角社区官网has needed another large indoor arena/entertainment venue for some time.

As he would not be in direct competition with the Make Believes, MLSE should not be able to prevent him from putting up his own basketball-specific fieldhouse wherever he likes. He can partner with Drake. Kevin Durant needs a new home and motivation. Make him a part-owner.

As our old friend Arte Johnson used to say: 鈥淰ery interesting.鈥�

Thanks a lot, eh!

鈥擱ichard Rafton

I cannot fathom what is going to happen at the very highest level of the MLSE boardroom. It鈥檚 beyond my scope. But no matter what happens, I find it impossible to fathom severing the cash-cow Raptors (the single most valuable asset in the MLSE holdings) from anything else. The entire business model is built on one entity owning both teams and the facility they play in. And I can鈥檛 foresee someone, say, breaking off the basketball team 鈥� a multibillion-dollar transaction 鈥� and spending the hundreds of millions to build a new place with nowhere to play in the interim.

As I said, my business acumen is less than negligible, but I can鈥檛 see that ever happening,

Hi, Doug.聽If the Raptors fail to land a backup centre in the draft, I would like them to try and acquire Dereck Lively from Dallas. I believe he would be a perfect backup. Your thoughts?

鈥掷迟补苍

I am sure they鈥檇 love to get a 21-year-old, promising young big man still on his rookie-scale contract, and I would applaud the attempt.

And the Luka Doncic catastrophe notwithstanding, I would presume the Mavs would like to keep him, too.