Big week coming in the NBA, it would appear, and it’s going to start some chatter in these parts, for sure.

Thursday marks the unofficial start of the trade season since that’s the first day anyone who signed a free agent contract can be trade and it basically floods the market with an extra 150 or so players.

Not only does it put some names out there that could be moved, it comes at a point where most teams know who and what they are and are far more likely to listen in trade talks than they were, say, 10 or 15 games into the season. A quarter of the way through always means to mark a point when general managers and team presidents truly understand what works and what doesn’t.

What’s it mean for Toronto?

Well, I don’t think an awful lot given how well the season is going but I think it’s going to be far more about Masai being contacted rather that contacting.

You know that rival GMs are looking at this team and thinking it’s a bit stacked. You’ve got three wings who all should play in Carroll, Ross and Powell (yesterday’s item goes into it a little bit), you’ve got two bigs in Valanciunas and Nogueira who are going well and a kid in Poeltl who has shown some promise and other GMs are going to see a glut there and likely make a call to see if anything’s possible.

Now, I don’t think Masai is going to do anything because (a) it’s not his style and (b) he’s got a good team that’s verging on very good and to even tinker now would be counter-productive.

But he and Jeff Weltman have put together a roster that’s deep and talented and has players with varying contractual obligations that is going to be hugely attractive to other general managers.

He’s got guys making no money (Powell, Nogueira), basically average money (Valanciunas, Ross and Carroll) and mixing and matching will unquestionable elicit some interesting proposals

Doing something makes no sense, though. To over-react now to the spectre of Cleveland is silly, there’s far too much time to go in the season; there isn’t a crying need anywhere on the roster at the moment and the prospect of both Jared Sulligner and Delon Wright getting back somewhere near the middle of the season is also alluring.

The Raptors are in a very, very good place in the league, other GMs will assuredly look longingly at the bits that might be pried away and Ujiri has to put his phone away and not bother to listen now that the market is truly open.

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Christmas? Bob Seger?

Go together like stuffing and gravy.

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Bit of a scheduling note.

For a couple of reasons that aren’t entirely important, I had to bail on going to Philly for the epic struggle tonight.

So I expect I’ll be like a lot of you and loafing around the house watching.

Everything will be back to normal for the end of the week and one of my regrets is that I wasn’t there last night so I could NOT have a Yeungling now that I’m boycotting.

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So, Penny Oleksiak wins the Lou Marsh Award and that certainly shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone, considering the year the 16-year-old had.

I had my choice and reasons for it but to argue against the selection of a multiple Olympic medallist who handled the inherent stress and pressure as well as she did at such a young age and at her first Games would be folly.

This is one of those things where there is no right or wrong, people have opinions on what constitutes an Athlete Of The Year, all of them are quite valid to the people holding them and they are to be respected. I don’t imagine it was easy for any of the selectors to come up with a five-person ballot, ranked, given the vast possibilities.

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Majority rules, as it should, and that’s what the selection process is.

I will say this, knowing more than a few people who were directly involved in the discussion and balloting:

It’s fine to hold opinions and voice them, to lash out at others simply because they didn’t agree with you is weak.

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Mail, please. At askdoug@thestar.ca if you don’t mind. Love to hear from you.

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This totally got past me last week and I kept forgetting to note it and thankfully I remembered last night.

Amid all the great losses to the sports world this year, athletes and coaches and administrators and writers and broadcasters, another happened last week.

Cecil Smith, who a lot of you likely have never heard of, passed away and that’s really, really too bad.

Way back, in my initial incarnation in this crazy business, I scribbled for a tiny thrice-weekly in Tillsonburg, Ont., as great a learning ground as you could imagine.

Anyway, one of the big sports event of the calendar year was a track meet – organized by the tireless Dennis Fairall, who you should know about from this story about his coaching and relationship with Melissa Bishop.

Dennis would organize an amazing track meet with the Tillsonburg Legion track club back then, there were attempts at sub-four minute miles, Charley Francis used to bring down his sprint crew from Scarborough; it was really an extraordinary evening a small town and it’s where I got my appreciation for track and field.

Well, each year, Dennis would import Cecil Smith to be the track announcer and Cecil has this booming voice and wondrous Welsh accent and you were immediately drawn to him.

He was tireless promoter of track and field, I remember covering a junior Pan Am meet he first organized in Sudbury that’s become a staple for kids on the circuit.

He was one of those guys in sports for all the right reasons, he loved the sport and the athletes and wanted to make it better for everyone.

Too bad he’s gone.

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