Weekly Takes - Monday, February 13th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, February 13th Edition

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs convincing win against the Blue Jackets on Friday…

1. William Nylander

2. Pierre Engvall

3. John Tavares

2. My three stars from the Leafs awful loss to the Blue Jackets on Saturday…

1. Nylander

2. Michael Bunting

3. Timothy Liljegren

If it was not obvious already, the Leafs are who they are in the regular season. A playoff lock which takes so many nights off against bad teams. This has been who they are since they started becoming a perennial playoff team.

They thought they had this one wrapped up after the first period. They most certainly did not.

3. The greatness of LeBron James is hard to state properly.

He was the most hyped team-sport prospect of all time and he has somehow ended up exceeding expectations in every possible way.

The all-time scoring king, a four-time champion (the Finals MVP each time), the man who, in the 2016 Finals, delivered the most remarkable three-game stretch I have ever seen from an athlete, a four-time MVP, a defensive force, an eventual 20x All-Star, a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, and perhaps the greatest passer of all-time.

And he has done it at an elite level for two decades, season-in, season-out.

He may not be Michael Jordan and he has surely made mistakes along the way, but he is right there in the discussion as the greatest team-sport player of all time, let alone in the discussion as the best NBA player of all time.

Pure greatness, at its highest level, for 20 years.

4. The Raptors trade of Jakob Poeltl – if you want to look at it through the lens of this team trying to be as great as possible – is a good one, since the lack of a true centre was the biggest missing piece on the team.

It is even better when you consider Poeltl is not just a “true centre,” but rather a high-end one due to his defensive and playmaking ability. His impact will be significant.

The issue is if they wanted to truly improve to go on a run this postseason, they needed to go a step further and added a backup point guard who could shoot, as there is now no question that the biggest glaring need on this team is the lack of bench shooting. Nick Nurse is on another season of playing his starters a ridiculous amount of minutes and that is 100% on management.

They did not do that, making their ceiling no higher than a team who can win a round in the playoffs. A waste, with Pascal Siakam having another All-Pro season.

5. The question with the Raptors becomes whether or not they even should have been buyers, given how flawed of a roster they had coming into the deadline.

I would have gone with “no.” I would not have blown it up by trading Siakam or OG Anunoby, two All-Star level players who are under contract beyond this season, nor would I have traded Gary Trent, who they should re-sign in the summer.

But I would have traded Fred VanVleet, who the Raptors cannot bring back next season due to having to pay Poeltl and Trent in the summer, and then Siakam and Anunoby in the next.

Collecting assets in a VanVleet trade and making your draft lottery odds a bit higher in the process would have been the short-term play for me, with trying to revamp the roster in the summer to be good as early as next season being the longer-term play.

Instead, I am a bit confused as to what the end goal of Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster is. Who do they believe in moving forward? Who do they plan on letting walk and trade? This summer will be a franchise-defining offseason, one way or another. It has to be.

6. When it comes to the future situation of the Raptors, I do think a lot of the talk about their lack of activity at the deadline is quite overblown.

The reason there was so much hype around the Raptors at the deadline is due to teams wanting so many of their core players. And the reason they wanted them is because the Raptors core is a top-half core in the entire NBA.

It is tough to blow it up when that is the case, more so when their underlying numbers do show that they have gotten quite unlucky throughout the season. They are not a title contender – and they should start to strive to be one again – but there could be a lot worse situations.

It continues with Nick Nurse, who some are saying should not be brought back next season. I have some concerns with Nurse, but you absolutely bring him back next season and assess him when the team is finally properly built.

I think moving off him this summer would be a mistake.

7. The Kevin Durant trade closes the chapter on one of the greatest “what ifs” in the history of sports.

Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden had the potential to win multiple championships together. They, at the very least, should have won one.

Yet they did not make it out of the second round.

A true waste. It is easy to point blame and poke fun at Nets management, but they assembled one of the greatest trios to ever play on one court together.

It just happened to fail miserably.

8. Lost on it being the end of an era for the Nets (who made out relatively well in the trade) is that the Suns skyrocket to NBA title favourites.

They are unstoppable offensively. As long as Deandre Ayton can get back to being the Ayton of old, there is no reason they should lose four times in a seven-game series.

9. My top ten NBA teams, post trade deadline…

1. Suns

2. Celtics

3. Nuggets

4. Bucks

5. Cavs

6. Grizzlies

7. 76ers

8. Clippers

9. Lakers

10. Warriors

Honourable Mention: Mavericks and Pelicans

Quite the gap, for me, after the top seven teams, but it is tough to leave the Clippers, Lakers, and Mavericks off after their successful trade deadline period.

Mavericks end up as an honourable mention though because of their defence, while the Pelicans end up there too because of the health concerns around Zion Willamson.

10. Eagles-Kansas City was an all-time classic between the two very best teams in the NFL.

It was quarterback play and play calling at its absolute highest level, leaving any football fan in absolute awe.

When people reflect on this Super Bowl, many will remember just that, as well as the greatness of Patrick Mahomes, doing what he did on one ankle as he cemented himself as an all-time great, while cementing Kansas City as a true dynasty in the process.

But people will also remember the phantom holding penalty in the last minute of the game, turning a game destined for a climactic ending into a dud of an ending.

A shame, because Kansas City deserves better, but fitting, because terrible NFL officiating is a true epidemic.

There was absolutely a hold on the play, but 99% of plays involve holds. It is on the officiating to decipher what is worthy of being called a hold and what is not. That was not worthy, more so given the ball was not catchable.

11. As for the halftime show, Rihanna was great, but it was always going to be tough to follow up on Dr. Dre's halftime performance from a year earlier.

More so when she had no special guests on stage with her either.

12. The disgraced John Tory leaves office as the man who will be remembered as a corrupt, corporately-made politician who oversaw the decline of a world-class city.

Riding Toronto’s transit system is a death wish, being homeless in Toronto is death waiting to happen, the amount of construction makes it impossible to move in the city, and rent – largely due to his housing plan – is soaring to inhumane rights.

The list is long and bad, fitting for one of the worst politicians in Canadian history.

13. Potential mayoral candidates…

On the left…

• Mike Layton

• Josh Matlow

• David Miller

• Gil Penalosa

• Chole Brown

• Ahmed Hussen

• Adam Vaughan

On the right…

• Michael Ford

• Karen Stintz

• Brad Bradford

• Giorgio Mammoliti

• Ari Goldkind

Centre-ish…

• Stan Cho

• Michael Coteau

Outsider…

• Pinball Clemons

There is only one reason “the left” should not win this election. There is no one on the right/center that is a serious candidate, outside of Cho and Coteau, while Layton, Matlow, Miller, and Penalosa are heavy hitters that would have serious political backing, with Layton, Penalosa, and Brown having serious grassroots backing too.

The one reason? There are so many potential candidates on the left that it could lead to a vote split, which has cost the left a…. few elections over the years.

More so when the OPC is already saying they will ride with one candidate through the election process, whether it be Bradford or Cho.

Joe Cressy probably would have been the front-runner on the left if he decided to run.

14. The only politician that should have had a worse Friday than Tory was Premier Doug Ford, who should be removed from office immediately for hosting Greenbelt Developers at his home, while asking for donations in the process.

Corruption, at the highest level, blatant for everyone in Ontario to see. This story should lead every newscast in Ontario until he steps down.