If you think this camp is fun …

Having just read your piece on the Raptors’ 20 for the start of training camp, the thing that strikes me is the number of contracts expiring at the end of this season. Just having Marc Gasol, Kyle Lowry and The Chef (Serge Ibaka) in that group will leave the team with at least one hundred million. Having said this, my question is simple: How do you foresee the beginning of next year’s training camp? — Bob

Some of that potential $100 million U.S. will be eaten up by a Pascal Siakam extension and, perhaps, obligations they take on in any transaction involving a guy with an expiring deal, but they will have A LOT of summer money either way. I’d suspect half of this team to be different starting 2020. Next year’s camp is going to be a wild, get-to-know-you exercise. I’m wondering if you have any memories that stand out from media days of the past. Let’s say you’re able to have a one-hour conversation with any player during media day to talk about how their summer went. Who do you pick? — Andrew

They really have all blended together over the years, so I’m not sure I can pick out one. The informality of years and years ago was outstanding — and a time long gone, sadly. Saturday, for instance, I got about 45 seconds with each of Fred VanVleet, Marc Gasol and Nick Nurse, and that’s only because I ran into them luckily in the halls. But if I could, I’d always want to talk to an older guy who might have spent the summer travelling to distant locales, living life and having experiences. I bet Serge Ibaka would have been cool to chat with this time around.

So, do you ever “Play Coach Nurse”? Where will our scoring come from? Assists? Rebounds? Is there a glue guy?

— Charles N.

I play coach every now and then, but it’s always a bit presumptuous so I rarely do it publicly. The most interesting thing about this team at this time is that we simply don’t know, nor do they. I’d think that there will be an incremental increase in stats for a lot of guys rather than, say, one player handling the bulk of replacing Leonard’s scoring and Danny Green’s regular season shooting. I think Siakam has to rebound better. I would expect OG Anunoby to have better numbers across the board and he has to be a rebounding factor. Glue guy is interesting. I know he took on a lot more leadership last season than he did in his first, but I’m thinking VanVleet emerges as a much more significant leader than he’s been. It’s funny. Here we are covering the defending NBA champions and a relatively veteran team and there are a lot of questions. Do NBA teams still give out media guides? If they don’t (as I assume) is there an official media website for each team, or do you use the same stuff that’s available to the proletariat?

— Paul M.

Some teams — a very few — still publish hard copies in a very limited number. We generally use what’s available through the magic of interwebs. There’s a super-secret Media Central portal that has almost everything we need. If it’s not there, we make it up (I’m joking).