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I’m looking at this as Year One. Forget how we got here and look forward. To me, this team is much closer to being great than it is to being bad. But there is no doubt some changes are needed. We desperately need an elite knockdown shooter. And we likely need to trade Siakam for assets. With the big leap Scottie has taken, the only thing that should matter is setting it up so he has a solid group around him during his prime years. A bit of patience is going to be required to get there, but we still have a few years to pull it all together.

That’s two different topics.

Was it right to fire Nick Nurse? I’m not really addressing that.

Having fired Nick Nurse, did we make a good choice in hiring Darko? I don’t see how the answer to this cannot be a resounding “YES!”

Of course we do.

I’m no expert but I’ve watched this game for a long time and I think anyone with a brain can plainly see that he is an exceptional NBA head coach.

I mean…he has done one of the hardest things for a coach to do, which is to get your players to buy in to what you are doing and commit to a team-first approach. And he’s got them playing at an elite level on defense.

I think it’s too early to say what management “wants” to do. I think they wanted to see how things looked under the new regime and are now starting to think about what moves to make.

I took it more as them saying that when you go down big, it takes the crowd out of the game, so you can’t rely on them to pump you up.

And this is why you wait at least 10 games to assess anything.

Let’s give it some time, people. Learning a completely new set of offensive principles isn’t easy. Right now, it looks pretty terrible. But we should have expected that.

As a general rule, I try not to evaluate anything for at least 10 games. That’s even more so the case with a new coach.

However…

Based on the initial results, I am leaning a bit more towards trying to move Siakam, as long as we can retain OG. I’m not concerned about Siakam’s early struggles. It’s more that I feel like the sooner we can make Scottie the primary option, the better. Moving GTJ to the starting lineup will help with spacing. Try to get depth and draft picks for Siakam.

My other observation is something I was curious about, which is how Darko talks to the media after a loss. And unsurprisingly, I’m incredibly impressed. He has a way of defusing negativity and reinforcing positives that is extremely difficult for a lot of people. A key point is that when he talks about someone struggling, he reframes it to be about “we”. For example, he was asked about Siakam only getting 8 shots and his response was “we need to do a better job of creating better opportunities for him.” On the flip side, when offered a chance to give praise, he is effusive with it. He is also always thoughtful in his responses and seems to appreciate the opportunity to speak to the media.

Other things:

• Scottie is going to have a monster season
• Gradey has impressed me. Still needs a lot of seasoning
• Schroder’s YouTube channel is the new “How Hungry Are You?” but instead of gross food it’s wholesomeness.

Toronto has stuck with the same basic concept for all of theirs, which is to incorporate elements of past jerseys in a black/gold mix. The black and gold comes from Drake’s OVO label, since he is the team’s “global ambassador”.

IMHO this approach avoids the potential highs and lows we see with other teams in exchange for a fairly consistent look each year.