“Didn’t the shrink know that waiting was one of the things that drove people crazy?” —Charles Bukowski



Patience is next to impossible at this time of year. The Raptors moved swiftly to re-sign two of their star players, and questions about how to shed salary soon followed. They got out from under DeMarre Carroll’s deal, and the conversation shifted to what they could then add. C.J. Miles was brought in, and quickly the question becomes who the Raptors might be able to add at the fringes of the roster.



This is what the chaotic free agency period does, with the five-day moratorium leveraging the collective anxiety of fan bases to create a sense of urgency that is perhaps not entirely misplaced. Even when teams appear to be done their shopping, well, we have two-and-a-half months until training camps, and there’s always a player or a trade for fans to plead for.



It can be difficult, then, to look at the snapshot of a...