It's no joke - Raptors fans should expect their team to contend in 2007-08, says play-by-play man Chuck Swirsky. (Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)

Q: Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo appeared content to tweak while teams like the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks made pretty significant moves. With Jason Kapono, Carlos Delfino and Maceo Baston the only additions, do you think Toronto did enough to repeat as Atlantic Division champs?

Absolutely. I think sometimes less is more and instead of the glitzy big names I think Bryan (Colangelo) likes the core group of this team and there’s nothing not to like. They won 47 games, they’re young…and what he did was add players that will be significant rotation players like in the case of Kapono, who has a legitimate shot at starting. What I think he’s done is he’s added and he hasn’t taken away what the core group is all about.

Q: How do you see Kapono impacting this team on the offensive end of the floor?

Well Chris Bosh is drawing double teams, so this is going to help Kapono. And one thing about him is that this guy is a gym rat, he loves basketball. He’s been a basketball fanatic since he was just a little boy growing up in southern California. So he’s going to fit in with the mentality of being a team player with the Raptors and this guy is a pure shooter.

He’s not necessarily a scorer but he’s a shooter. If you get great players – he shot 51 per cent behind the arc a year ago – who can knock down threes, it’s huge. That’s the trend and that’s really the theme of what the league has embraced.

Q: Another Raptor whos likes the deep shot is Andrea Bargnani, who’s moving into the starting centre position for Toronto this season. Do you see him being able to adjust to the challenges of playing that position on a nightly basis?

He knows better than anyone that his rebounding and his low-post play has got to improve and I think you’ll see that. His body is probably going to be a little bit more toned and I think he understands this club needs rebounding help collectively. In the big picture, yes, I think he’ll be better.

Q: The Raptors had a lot of players involved in international tournaments this summer, could fatigue become an issue for this team later in the season?

If they weren’t playing in tournaments and doing something, whether it be pickup games they might be doing something that’s unorganized in terms of not necessarily being a structured, FIBA tournament.

I like the fact that guys are playing, that guys are competing and that guys are staying in shape. Now it also has to come down to where a coach has to use common sense and Sam Mitchell is well aware of this. He (Mitchell) may not play a guy 35 minutes in a preseason game. And we’re talking about a player who’s still in his mid-20s or 30s, we’re not talking about a guy who’s 38 years old and barely hanging on.

Q: The Tim Donaghy gambling scandal this summer undoubtedly called into question the integrity of the game. As someone who’s had the best seat in the house for some of those games, did you have any suspicions that the game was being influenced?

None. I am so naïve when it comes to doing this. I’m so focused on the game on just the purity and the X’s and O’s and the relationships. To be quite candid with you, when that news broke, I was completely out of the loop, I was shocked.

Youngster Andrea Bargnani is ready to make the leap to the centre position, says Chuck Swirsky. (Canadian Press)

Q: Moving forward, how does the game overcome an incident like this?

The game is always bigger than one person. This is not to say the league didn’t take a hit, because it did. Having said that though, I do believe the league is doing everything it can to make sure that they are on the same page with their officials, that this was an isolated case and that it won’t happen again. I think the lines of communication with officials today are much better than they were say, three months ago.

Q: Kobe Bryant, Andrei Kirilenko and Shawn Marion all lobbied for a change of scenery through the media this offseason. Is the public trade demand becoming a problem in the NBA?

I’m completely fed up with it. I don’t like it, I don’t think it’s good for the game. I think the commissioner is fed up with it and that’s why he has more or less put the hammer down. If players bring it up, they get a severe slap on the wrist, if they continue to do it, they get fined and/or suspended.

Q: Like Kobe Bryant and Marion talking about how great it would be to play together in Los Angeles recently? It kind of seems like there’s a double standard for management and players in that regard.

There is a double standard, let’s not kid anyone. I’m a big believer that tampering is tampering, under any circumstances. You can’t have that going on. Does it happen? Yes. But when it’s so blatant where players are now talking about ‘well I’d love to be there’ and ‘you’d love to have me on the team.’ What is up with that?

Q: There was a lot of activity around the league this offseason, what franchise do you think improved themselves the most?

Boston added two all-stars in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. They’re probably number one on the list in terms of improvement. Of all the teams that really decided, ‘I’m going to shake it up,’ it was Boston.

Q: What’s your outlook for Steve Nash and the Suns this season? Is this the year they finally break through?

Well I took them to go to the Finals last year and win it and I’m going to take them again. I think that Steve Nash could win his third MVP award in four years. And the irony of it is, if Dirk Nowitzki didn’t have a great year (in 2006-2007), we could have been looking at a player going for his fourth straight MVP.

I think that Steve Nash is ready to lead this team once again. I don’t think that there’s any doubt when I look at their roster. I think the big question is Marion, what do they do? If they don’t trade him, he’s an unhappy camper. Chemistry is a very fragile element in sports.

Q: CBC Sports is also featuring games with rebuilding teams from the Pacific Northwest in the Seattle Supersonics and the Portland Trail Blazers. Both teams made big additions on draft day, but with Greg Oden out for the year after microfracture surgery on his right knee, has your opinion changed on who should have gone No. 1 in this year’s draft?

I think that the majority of teams, not all of them, but the majority would have taken Oden. Had Oden not been in this draft, Durant would have been a consensus No. 1. Because of Oden’s absence, Durant without any question is the odds on favourite to win Rookie of the Year because Seattle, if you look at the makeup of that team, they’re in a major rebuilding year.

He’s going to get a lot of minutes, a lot of touches and the team’s not going to win a lot of games which means he’s going to shoot the ball a lot. His stats are going to be big. I hope he stays healthy and I’d like to see him win it.

Q: Do you have any conference finals/ finals predictions?

I’ve kind of given up on the prediction thing because I have been so wrong lately. All I can tell you is that the Raptors can win 50 to 52 games and that they will repeat as Atlantic Division champs.

Q: Even with the wins spread out among the Nets, Celtics and Raptors in the Atlantic?

Yep. I think the Raptors are better, they won 47 a year ago and they lost some very close games which easily could have amounted to a 50-win season. I think this club is very much capable of winning 50 games.