Carter not taking sentimental journey

All year I have had my thoughts on the trade/buyout market with the thought that surely Vince Carter must be a huge candidate for a buyout. Isn’t he exactly what the Raptors need? Am I being foolish? Has he finally lost his ability to play effective minutes? ... I am probably letting sentimentality take over my better judgement, but what a perfect full circle to the Vince/Toronto story. — Dan

There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that Vince wants to leave Atlanta, no indication whatsoever that the Hawks want him to leave, and if there’s one thing that Carter has said for years it’s that he’s not going to chase rings.

A nice sentimental story that is not going to happen. Living close to Detroit, it’s interesting to see the difference in Dwane Casey as the year goes on in post-game interviews ... our old pal looks like he’s ready to pull his hair out at the lack of effort. Do you think he realized what a project the Pistons would be? — Paul M.

He absolutely knew what he was getting into and what the task was, just as he did in 2011 when he took the Toronto job. I know firsthand that this hasn’t been an easy year for him but he also loves a challenge, and this one won’t beat him. If a fan were to meet Masai Ujiri and begin a sentence with, “So I was playing around with the ESPN Trade Machine and ...”, what would be Masai’s immediate reaction? (a) Pulls out smartphone to make a note. (b) “Hold on a second, I want a couple of the other guys to hear this too. Hey, Wayne!” (c) “Security? We’ve got another one.” (d) Other. — Mike D, Toronto

Other, as in ... Runs screaming from the room like his hair was on fire, yelling “Smith? How the hell do you put up with this all the time?” Abit of Googling shows me that the best rookie coaches can be evaluated on the basis of best record and/or best improvement over previous year or best accomplishment. Names in the conversation include Steve Kerr, Tom Thibodeau, Ty Lue and, of course, Gregg Popovich. I’m wondering who you might argue for as the best-ever rookie coach and, in the too-earlyto-tell category. whether you think Nick Nurse might be in that conversation at the end of the year? — Steve

Yeah, you know, he might just be given those parameters. He inherited a very good team that added a perennial contender for defensive player of the year but, given the circumstances and the injuries and the subtle changes he made, sure, why not?

But I think that award might have to go deeper than raw numbers of wins-improvement or overall placing. I’m sure there have been many coaches we’d now consider great or really good who simply “survived” a first year, and there’s something to be said for that. One aspect of the big trade to me is an indicator of the Raptors confirming their move away from slow growth through the draft. That had me thinking about the best and worst drafts in Raptors history ... Who do you think are the five best and five worst picks in Raptors history? I am thinking DeMar, Pascal and Mo Pete could fit in the first group. — Brian Mackie, Gourock, Scotland

This is pretty open-ended and I’m going to go on the assumption that we’re only talking about the time they spent in Raptors uniforms and not how they careers turned out after they left.

In that case, my top five would be Pascal Siakam, Chris Bosh, DeMar DeRozan, Morris Peterson and Vince Carter.

And a bottom five would probably be Rafael Araujo, Alek Radojevic, Andrea Bargnani, Joey Graham, and maybe Michael Bradley.

That latter group’s tough. Declaring my biases upfront — Joans Valanciunas has always been underrated and Delon Wright’s artistic game is a treat to watch — my initial gut reaction was to hate the Marc Gasol trade ... I’m quite old and change disturbs me. Upon reflection, however, Gasol’s game has always depended more on smarts than athleticism and hence may age well.

Trading Lithuania’s best basketball player, one half of arguably the strongest single position on the team, is a gamble to be sure but, given the uncertainty around Kawhi Leonard and the timing of Gasol’s contract fitting in with the rest of the veterans on the roster, it demonstrates once again that Ujiri should be running the team, not me. — James A., Victoria

I think the price the Raptors paid was steep yet understandable. Gasol’s very skilled. I know his offensive numbers have dropped precipitously month to month this season but his intelligence hasn’t waned and, sometimes, a change of scenery and role can be invigorating. Read more on Doug Smith’s Sports Blog at thestar.com, and drop him a line at askdoug@thestar.ca. We reserve the right to edit for clarity, punctuation and space.