And now the off-season.

Thanks to everyone who has been contributing their thoughts, suggestions, questions and observations on the season just past and the immediate future. I'm still open for business at mgrange@globeandmail.com or in the comments section. As always I'm impressed at the passion and the quality of thought that goes into almost all of the responses. The Raptors are lucky to have fans of that calibre. I will be sorting through them, likely dividing them by theme – and yes, there do seem to be some recurring themes – and responding over the coming days. What else is there to do? For now however I'll start with some bullet points, in no particular order.

· This may not have a direct impact on the average Raptors fan, at least on the surface, but follow and you see how that it really, really does. Jim Labumbard has run the Raptors media relations operation for about a decade I'm guessing, and I have never heard a reporter or any  other media member say anything other than “Jim's the best.” Finally the rest of the league figured it out and Jim was voted media relations executive of the year by the Basketball Writers Association, an announcement that came down yesterday. Writing about pro sports is a dream job but not always dreamy, and – surprise, surprise – those who do it are on various occasions grumpy, sleepy, dopey (sometimes really, really dopey), wrong, and who knows what else. As the person who manages the relationship between the team and the people who bring news of the team out to the fans (see, this is relevant) Jim walks the perfect line between the team's interests and our interests, which don't always coincide. He's hired a great staff that follow his lead and generally makes what can be a stressful situation a lot of fun. His recognition was well-deserved and long over due.

· So Bryan Colangelo makes clear that there is no coaching change in the works and especially – especially! – makes the point that all that rumour and speculation about any possibility that Mike D'Antoni would ever end up here is just that, rumour and speculation. “Story-telling,” he called it. And then, you know, Jack McCallum reports that D'Antoni will not be back with the Suns, citing a rift between him and the Suns hierarchy.

· So is it relevant to push the D'Antoni to Toronto idea now? Hmmm. McCallum, who wrote the book on the Suns, cites Chicago (really?) and New York as possible landing spots and downplays Toronto as a soft landing, writing: "There has also been whispers of D'Antoni's taking over in Toronto, where Sam Mitchell's coaching future is an ongoing discussion and where Bryan Colangelo, D'Antoni's former boss in Phoenix and still a close friend, is calling the shots. But Toronto doesn't seem as comfortable a fit for D'Antoni as Chicago or even New York. Don't look for that to happen."

· I accept McCallum's take, because give his relationship with a lot of principles involved here, he would be in a good position to know, but his logic is flawed. I can't see any way how Chicago or New York are suited to his style more or less than the Raptors would. Can you?

·  I made a point of staying up to watch the end of the Suns era, as it turned out. When the Shaq trade went down I wasn't overly optimistic about how it would play out. But overall I just felt like here was this bold basketball experiment that was being trashed just a bit too early. Or at least the idea that the way they played couldn't ‘win' – if winning is defined as being an NBA champion – was just not true. There are lots of ways to play that don't end up delivering an NBA title – 29 of them every year as a matter of fact. The Suns way – or the D'Antoni way or the Colangelo way – came closer than almost all of them in recent years but never quite got there more because of extenuating post-season circumstances (Joe Johnson getting hurt in 2005; Amare missing the 2006 season; the suspensions in 2007) than the process, I'm convinced.  But whether it was the owner or Steve Kerr or D'Antoni or Marion's neediness or Nash's frustration they caved and made the Shaq deal, and then in the stretch, with the game, season and the whole damn franchise on the line, they kept going to Boris Diaw in the post. Perfect.