Think it’s just about time to throw this out there because it’s been rattling around the cranium for a few days and it’s been on the minds of some folks for far longer than that.

Given what I expect to transpire in the first few days of July around the Raptors, there are four things they need to do with Bismack Biyombo.

Make the only financial offer they can with the money currently available, which is the mid-level exception of about $5.6 million stretched out over four years for somewhere near $25 million and watch his agent double over in laughter.

Thank him for a good year’s service.

Graciously accept his heartfelt thanks for making him and his family rich beyond their wildest dreams with a deal that’ll easily top $40 million in total value.

Bid him a fond adieu.

And everyone goes away happy.

Look, Biyombo’s year here – most of it, at least – was highly impressive. He was an excellent interior defender, he became a passable free throw shooter at the end of the season and he became a semi-reliable roller to the rim.

He was a great story and a great guy and became something of a cult figure, with the big difference being he was a cult figure who could play, a total difference from so many in the history of Raptor cult figures.

You couldn’t find anyone who didn’t like Biz, with his gravelling voice and intriguing backstory and finger-wagging intensity.

But …

The stark reality, whether anyone wants to admit it or not, is that he’s not as good as the guy in front of him. Jonas Valanciunas is better, he’s bigger, he’s more advanced offensively, he’s the same age and vastly more experienced, and, in the harshest of realities, he’s got a $16 million commitment from the team already.

Those are undeniable facts that cannot be lost amid the fog of the past season, regardless of the breakthrough year Biyombo had.

Now, the perfect situation would be that Bismack takes that mid-level offer and comes back play 15 or 16 minutes a night in strictly a backup role but that sounds simply too far-fetched, You can talk “hometown discount” all you want and fit is one thing but role is another and I would wonder about someone who settled for 50 cents on the contract dollar, wouldn’t you?

And, no, I absolutely don’t think they should make some trade – say Terrence Ross and his $10 million to a team that can fit him under the cap – just to have money to perhaps toss at a backup centre.

There are other holes in the roster like a starting four, a backup three, that should be addressed before thoughts turn to a backup to Valanciunas with any money that comes available.

(A quick aside: Nothing is going to happen with Ross or Powell until the DeRozan situation is resolved so if you’re dreaming of some draft night deal with either of them, it’s time to wake up).

Look, we all loved watching Biz emerge this past season and it’s hard to imagine the Raptors going as far as they did without his contribution and that’s created a level of sentimentality that is as understandable as it is endearing.

But the reality is the reality and it’s best to be prepared for now, to see what’s truly what and look to the future not through the prism of one season but with focus on what’s real.

What’s real is that as nice as last season was, it cannot be reprised and the quicker everyone comes to grips with that, the better.

I am dead certain that Masai and the Henchmen are not the least bit sentimental about this, they know what’s got to be done and public pronouncements notwithstanding, they are prepared to move on.

As we all should be.

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I think it’s totally cool that they’re going to have a concert element to The Queen’s Plate this year and one of the great and many laments of life at this time is I haven’t been to the track in a very long time.

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But this is on tap Plate Day …

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After dropping the mailbag a bit last weekend, I vow to be back to normal this week as long as you’re up to the task and get your minds in working order with all kind of interesting enquiries sent to askdoug@thestar.ca.

The plan right now is to loaf on Saturday morning – that may change, though – and do one big one for Sunday but we should get started accumulating the questions today.

Ready. Set. Go!

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Hands up everyone who thinks the NHL grand expansion plan for Las Vegas is going to be a rousing success?

I don’t care all that much but I’m taking late fall 2018 as the date the first “league has to prop up struggling new franchise” story pops up.

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A quick stop at Biosteel yesterday to see The Future Of Some Other D-League Teams workout under the guise of Raptors draft prep didn’t yield a story worth reporting.

And even trying to sniff out what they might be thinking with their first round selections for next week (NEXT WEEK?!?!?! YIKES!) didn’t get much except for a “we’re not awfully close” comment from Dan Tolzman.

“Twenty seven is a little tougher because anything can happen in the draft and guys can fall that we weren’t expecting but definitely in the nine range we kind of know who’s likely to be off the board when we’re picking and then we know who we like in that range. And from there over the next week we’re going to be hashing it out, pare down that list and then get into a tighter group.

“We don’t start worrying about order until a couple of days out just because we want to see all the workouts we’re doing and we also want to do as much background work and the things that going into figuring out which groups there are. And then the last couple of days, that’s when we’ll start hammering down the order, even the day of. It’s really a lot of debate.”

I sense an overall ennui with the entire draft process this year and should probably snap myself out of it before, say, next Wednesday, right?

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