By Rick Brunson.com Information Minister B-Huge

Please excuse me because I have been completely out of contact with the world of the NBA for over 2 weeks but... Holy Moly! Doesn't it feel like the clouds have parted and the sun is suddenly shining? Who would of thunk that a single trade could make a 22-point difference in the Raptors' offensive output? Of course when you see a lot of the bizarro trade scenarios proposed by armchair GMs on the Internet I guess there might have been some.

The Raptors have maintained a 100-point average for the 5 games since the trade. They still seem be play the same way (start slow, finish strong) but now they get back into games with their offence instead of their defense. Of course, we all have to admit that the Raptors have entered the weak part of their schedule so we'll see what happens at the end of the month when the team goes on the road in the Western Conference five times. The team might not still be able to compete with the elite teams in the West but the games will at least be exciting and Toronto is now poised to be one of the best teams in the East (for whatever that is worth).

Personally the key for me is that this new team actually plays watchable basketball. This means that while they may start losing some games, at least those games will be entertaining. While Leo Rautins may argue that I'm not a basketball purist who enjoys all facets of the game, I'll counter that I'd rather watch a talented offensive player learn defense than the other way around. For some reason the league trend over the past 10 years has been to forsake offence for defensive abilities combined with the immature skills of a large influx of young players who leave college early or skip it altogether the art of offence seems to have been lost except for those few teams (Sacramento, Dallas) that collect intelligent, creative players. You can argue that neither of these teams has won the NBA championship (Dick Bavetta conspiracy theories aside) but they are experiencing huge successes and fans flock to their games.

When the NBA decided to allow zone defenses three years ago there was a lot of talk about how it would force teams to push the ball up the court more thus creating exciting basketball. Why didn't anybody mention that it meant teams could put defensively deficient players on the court and not get killed in the one-on-one game? Three years later it still seems so novel when an NBA team uses a zone defense. I can't figure out why coaches haven't embraced the zone defense yet. It forces your opponents to shoot jumpers, the now least-developed skill in the NBA!

Oops, I'm starting to enter Old Man Bueale territory so I'll leave it at that. What I want to say is that this trade has been a breath a fresh air. Not just the wins but also the quality of play. It's incredible to think that the Raptors have gone from being one of the worst offensive teams of all-time to their best start in franchise history. Huzzah!