SIMMONS SUNDAY: With the Raptors a mess under Nick Nurse for many seasons now, would Masai Ujiri consider making a change?

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It took a certain belief, conviction, and cold detachment for Masai Ujiri to fire Dwane Casey, then coach of the year in the NBA.

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That kind of thing rarely happens in professional sports.

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The question now is: Would he do something similar with Nick Nurse? And has the time come to be considering such a decision?

The Raptors championship is now four seasons past. The team is a mess. The honeymoon is all but over. Nurse can’t stop complaining about officials, night after night, and now his players, most recently Scottie Barnes and Fred VanVleet have followed his lead.

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His first two seasons, Nurse had an incredible .720 winning percentage, an NBA championship, followed by a coach of the year honour. He made his stamp as an NBA coach. Everyone took notice. The last three seasons, amid COVID difficulties and roster instability, he has a .481 winning percentage. Hard not to notice that now.

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The Raptors struggle with half-court offence, which is taught, and can’t play defence particularly well, which is taught, let Pascal Siakam play way too much isolation basketball, which is taught and don’t seem to get the most of their players night after night. The loss Friday night in Los Angeles to a Lakers team without LeBron James and with a half-hearted Anthony Davis was the kind of defeat that would claw away at Ujiri and by extension general manager Bobby Webster the way the playoff losses to Cleveland had him losing faith in Casey years ago.

Who’s having a great season on the Raptors? Full season? The whole season? Anyone. The coach certainly isn’t. Neither is Ujiri or Webster. A lot to wonder about here with 14 games to play and nowhere really to go.

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THIS AND THAT

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which likes to be on the right side of everything personal and political, needs to take a long hard look at removing TikTok from Leafs jerseys and from its sponsorship arrangement. The Leafs don’t need to be advocating TikTok at this or any other time … Coach Sheldon Keefe has 17 games left to figure out the majority of his playoff lineup for the Maple Leafs but his most important task: Finding a way to fix the 10-year veteran Morgan Rielly. He needs Rielly back in top form, sharp and confident which oddly has gone missing most of this season … The problem with Alex Kerfoot: He’s not a top six forward and he’s not a bottom six forward. So what do you do with him? … The real problem with VanVleet going public and getting personal with an NBA official is this: Officials are a brotherhood and a sisterhood in every sport. You call out one of them, you’re calling out all of them. Don’t expect Raptors to get the benefit of the doubt from officials the rest of this season … The $30,000 fine for VanVleet represents one-seventh of one percent of his salary. So for a guy making $100,000 or so a year, that’s equivalent to a fine of about $140 … Connor McDavid has 15 games to play after Saturday night’s game against the Leafs. Expect 60 goals from McDavid. Those predicting 70 will likely be coming up short … Try explaining Erik Karlsson’s season in San Jose. You can’t. He has more even-strength points than McDavid and leads the NHL having been on the ice for 94 even-strength goals, 21 more than McDavid. The next 35 players with even strength points behind him are all forwards not defencemen. And yet on the other side of the ledger, Karlsson leads the NHL in being scored upon — 96 times in all. This isn’t like Bobby Orr’s 139-point season in Boston where he finished at plus-124 or even like Paul Coffey’s 138-point season in Edmonton, where he finished at plus-61 … A long-time NHL evaluator says this about the New Jersey Devils: “Look at the Florida Panthers last year. Look at the Devils this year. Those are teams playing fast hockey. The common thread, Andrew Brunette was coaching in Florida last year and is coaching in Jersey now.” … Dougie Hamilton has 18 goals for the Devils. Combined, Rielly, TJ Brodie, Timothy Liljegren, Mark Giordano, Justin Holl, Conor Timmins, Luke Schenn and Jake McCabe have scored 17 times for the Leafs.

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HEAR AND THERE

Shout out to the Canadian athletes and former Olympians who signed a letter objecting to Russian athlete participation in the next Olympic Games. The letter was a strong worthwhile gesture but understand this: The International Olympic Committee, which forever kowtows to Russia, will do as it has always done, nod accordingly and hear none of this … Please tell me that talk of further NHL expansion is just talk. Yes, expansion to Seattle and Vegas has been successful financially and on the ice in those markets and way beyond any expectations. It’s been a win-win for the NHL. But now discussion of Houston and Atlanta (again?) seems premature and unnecessary. The league needs to strengthen its own markets, not water down its product by adding additional cities … The cities I’d like to see one day in the NHL — Quebec City and a second team in Toronto. It’s not going to happen but I can dream … I was in Atlanta for Flames games and in Atlanta for Thrashers games. It was hard to find a less engaged fan base … Canada is a great country. But why can’t we figure out how to dress our baseball team for the World Baseball Classic? Like, who did that? … Great as this current Boston Bruins team may be, it doesn’t exactly compare to the explosive 1970 Stanley Cup champions with Hall of Famers Orr, Phil Esposito, Gerry Cheevers and Johnny Bucyk and tremendous support players like Ken Hodge, Wayne Cashman, Fred Stanfield, Dallas Smith, Derek Sanderson, Johnny McKenzie and Eddie Johnston. One year later the Bruins had six of the top eight scorers in the league, including the top four Esposito, Orr, Bucyk and Hodge … The youngest of the Hughes brother, Luke, is expected to join the Devils once the season is over at Michigan. He might step right in on the Jersey defence. He’s that talented … Boy was Linus Ullmark sharp in the Boston goal Saturday afternoon. Very impressive … Was benching Liljegren a touch of piling on in the days following the trades of Rasmus Sandin and Pierre Engvall. There’s a human element to this — we’re benching you and trading your friends. Don’t think that was necessarily handled right.

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SCENE AND HEARD

With Bob Young in Hamilton, MLSE in Toronto, Pierre Karl Peladeau now in Montreal, William Shenkman in Ottawa, Murray Edwards and friends in Calgary, Amar Doman in Vancouver has there ever been more money in ownership in the CFL and that’s with the strongest franchises in Saskatchewan and Winnipeg … Don’t waste your time analyzing schedules over the last weeks of the NHL season. The Ottawa Senators, apparently fighting for a playoff spot, got shut out in Chicago and won in Seattle in recent days. How do you make sense of that? … After poor performances in Philadelphia and Minnesota, I wonder if this is it for Chuck Fletcher as an NHL GM. How would you sell him now as your next saviour? … Rest in peace, Bud Grant and Otis Taylor. You both made football better. Grant remarkably played four years in Winnipeg, coached the Bombers for 10 years before leading the Minnesota Vikings to four Super Bowls in 18 years. He also, you probably don’t remember, played two years in the NBA for the Minneapolis Lakers. Taylor was an explosive wide receiver, who played against Grant in Super Bowl 1V.

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AND ANOTHER THING

And so I keep thinking: Imagine Nomar Garciaparra with a pitch-count clock. He’d be called out before he adjusted his batting gloves … You always remember your first. My first favourite Blue Jay: Otto Velez … The three largest people I’ve ever seen in person: 1. Andre the Giant; 2. Haystacks Calhoun; 3. Shaquille O’Neal wearing an enormous fur coat … Joel Embiid’s month to date: 39 points, 39, 42, 31 and 35. He may be giving Nikola Jokic a run for MVP of the NBA although, Denver’s record this season when Jokic gets a triple-double is 25-1 … Why I’ll never be a film critic: I paid to watch Everything Everywhere All At Once. I want my money and my two hours back. And I’ll cringe quietly when it wins a pile of Academy Awards on Sunday night … I keep looking and watching award shows but I can’t seem to find the awards that BetRivers has won for its gambling app … Stick tap to equipment people, primarily Bobby Hastings from the Maple Leafs and to Devils staff who helped a young lady with a broken skate play goal — the game being on the rink opposite where the Leafs were practicing. Without their help, there was no win and no state championship … For those keeping track, this is the 10th straight seasons in which nice guy Michael Hutchinson has played a game in goal in the NHL. Suiting up for six different teams … Curtis Joseph has 454 wins in his career, which ranks him seventh overall. He also has 96 ties. If half those games turned to wins with overtime and shootouts, that would take him to more than 500 wins, which would place him fourth overall in NHL history … Gatorade must be paying big money to Sidney Crosby, Andre De Grasse and Leylah Fernandez to have all three in one of its television commercials … Happy birthday to Ken Baumgartner (57), Paul Bissonnette (38), Daryl Strawberry (61), Dale Murphy (67), Becky Hammon (46), Bobby Abreu (49), Cesar Geronimo (75), J.P. Losman (42) and James Taylor (75) … And hey, whatever became of Landon Wilson?

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BAUTISTA ONE OF THE BEST TO EVER PLAY FOR THE BLUE JAYS

The bat flip was a moment in time, and what an unforgettable moment that was eight years ago.

But Jose Bautista isn’t getting the call to be honoured by the Blue Jays for their level of excellence because of any one home run or singular accomplisment but because of all he managed in his improbable and unlikely 10 years in Toronto.

His name was on the waiver wire in 2008. He had already been with four big league teams. Then assistant general manager Alex Anthopoulos alerted GM J.P. Ricciardi that Bautista was someone worth claiming. In the end, Ricciardi agreed and Anthopoulos worked out a trade for a catcher named Robinzon Diaz.

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Diaz went on to hit one big league home run. Bautista hit 288 in Toronto, the second most in Blue Jays history, just behind franchise leader Carlos Delgado.

It wasn’t just the home runs for Bautista, although he did lead the American League twice in that category. All-time with the Jays, he ranks second in franchise runs scored, second in OPS, third in slugging, 3rd in RBI, second in walks, fourth in on-base percenage.

Those kind of numbers get you a place on the wall alongside George Bell, Joe Carter, Delgado, Tony Fernandez and the pitchers Roy Halladay and Dave Stieb. Halladay is the only homegrown Jays player to make the Hall of Fame. Bautista doesn’t have Cooperstown numbers but statistics that place him among the greatest Jays ever.

Carter’s home run won a World Series. Edwin Encarnacion’s home run won a wild-card game. Bautista’s home run and singular emotional moment against Texas rocked a stadium and its sport. That didn’t get him on the wall of excellence – 10 seasons of baseball in Toronto did that.