I'm guessing Babcock sent this email out to some season ticket holders
recently.

Dear (Fan)

For a general manager of an NBA basketball team, this is a very
exciting time of year. With the focus being on preparation for the
June 28 NBA Draft, I want to bring you inside our basketball office
and provide you with a special glimpse into what a typical day of
draft preparation includes. You'll also get an idea of what a draft
prospect goes through. Here is our daily itinerary:

8:00 a.m. Breakfast with four draft prospects and two or three members
of our basketball operations staff at the hotel. This provides an
opportunity to spend time with these players in a relaxed environment.

8:45 a.m. Time to check my e-mails and voice mail. Players check out
of hotel and head to Air Canada Centre.

9:00 a.m. While the players get dressed and taped for the workout we
will put them through, I watch game tape of other players who will be
visiting us the next day. One player meets with the team psychologist
(the others meet later).

9:30 a.m. Players warm up while I finish watching game tape. Various
basketball staff members talk with the players at this time as well.

10:00 a.m. - On-court evaluations. All basketball staff in town will
attend this workout. The entire workout is video taped and includes
the following:

* Height and weight measurements
* Testing of strength, speed, quickness, agility, reaction time,
vertical jump
(only players not attending the recent Chicago Pre-draft camp)
* Skill testing by position (shooting, ballhandling, etc.) and all
drills are recorded and compared with all prospects
* One on one (different positions on the floor)
* 2 on 2 situations (low post, pick n' roll, etc.)
* 2 on 1 full court
* Defensive drills (2 on 2 and 1 on 1)
* Specialty evaluations (geared to the individual) For example: a 2
guard that needs to play point in the NBA will have extra work on
evaluating point skills.
* Finish with special competition drills that are fun, but also
measure the players ability to perform under pressure

12:00 p.m. After the workout, the players, head coach Sam Mitchell and
I will answer questions from the media. The media are not allowed in
the gym during the workout.

12:20 p.m. Lunch with the players. This is another opportunity for our
staff to get to know more about the players. We also show them a video
of the city of Toronto and the team. We want them to know that Toronto
is a great place to live and play basketball.

12:50 p.m. The players will relax in our players' lounge while they
take turns having individual meetings with myself, Sam, Wayne Embry
and our team psychologist.

3:30 p.m. The players depart for the airport and head for their next
visit. I will now spend the next two hours working the phones, talking
to other GM's, agents, making background calls on players, etc.
Players for the next day's workouts will be arriving between 3pm and 7
p.m. They are greeted at the airport and taken to the hotel where they
get a chance to relax a little before dinner.

5:30 p.m. I try to workout every day. It helps me keep my energy going
and deal with all the stress. Most of our staff workout every day.
Often, I will watch game tape while riding the bike (to maximize the
productivity of my time).

6:45 p.m. I return to the office to watch more tape and return calls.

8:00 p.m. I have dinner with one or two of the draft prospects that
will be working out the next day. We will split the staff with the
players so that we have more intimate dinners and this allows us a
better opportunity to get to know each player.

10:30 p.m. I usually get home between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. I will
return all late calls and try to watch at least 30 minutes of tape.

This is a typical day for us for the six weeks leading up to the
draft. Weekends are no different than week days - there are too many
players to workout and you can always watch one more tape. This year
we will have more than 60 players work out for us here in Toronto.
This is not the norm, but because we have four draft picks we need to
see a lot of players. In a typical year when you have one first round
and one second round, a team will have about 20 players in to work
out. We will not be able to work out all the players we'd like because
agents will not send their players to teams they feel have no chance
to draft them.

Scheduling these workouts is a nightmare. I handled scheduling for 12
years in Minnesota, and now I get to delegate this job to Scott Howard
our director of international player personnel. Trying to coordinate
these workouts and get the right players in on the right day is a
logistical nightmare, and Scott has done a great job at juggling these
schedules. We're limited by NBA rules to working out players in only a
2-on-2 situation or less. We can have more players attend in one day,
but only 2-on-2 on the court. We try to bring in players at the same
position so that we can have good comparative workouts. Many of these
players will visit up to 20 teams prior to the draft. They're as
exhausted as we are when the draft is over! We are allowed to bring a
player back one time and we will do that with several of the players
this year.

On the rare day that we don't have players in, the entire day is spent
on tape work, trade calls and background work on players. We spend a
great deal of time checking out each player. It is important that we
have strong character players on our team. Our philosophy and the
success of our team is dependent on players that believe in the team
concept.

We recently finished a two week break from this process, but we didn't
get any rest. We attended the annual Chicago Pre-Draft Camp where 66
of the top prospects gather for a week of testing, drills, games and
psychological and medical evaluations. This is also an informal NBA
convention and a great time to have trade discussions. Although there
are not the "Franchise" players in this draft we've seen in recent
years (Lebron James, Kevin Garnett, etc.), there is a great deal of
depth with prospects that have potential to be solid NBA players.

Because of this depth, there has been a lot of interest in our draft
picks. We're certainly open to trades, but we will not make a trade
unless it helps our team for the future. We will not take a "band-aid"
approach regarding trades. We could take the four first round picks we
have in the next two years and translate that into some veteran
players who would get us immediately into the playoffs. The problem
with that approach is that though we might get right back into the
playoffs, those players will age quickly and we'll be right back to
square one (and with no players for the future).

After the Chicago Camp, we made a trip to a similar camp in Treviso,
Italy. This camp had several prospects for this year's draft, but more
importantly there were 40 prospects for the next three drafts that we
were able to get an early look at. Almost every team in the NBA had
scouts or GMs at this tournament, so it was another opportunity to
continue trade talk as well. There were 22 players at this tournament
that were 6'11" or taller. The international player has a significant
place in today's NBA.

As you know, I can't divulge our player ratings, but I want to share
with you a few of the players that we will be looking at for the 7th
and 16th picks in the draft (each group is listed in alphabetical order):

* Andrew Bogut, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Marvin Williams are
players that we are evaluating, but will most certainly not drop to us.
* Point guards that we're looking at include Monta Ellis (HS), Ray
Felton (North Carolina), Jarrett Jack (Georgia Tech) and Roko
Leni-Ukic (Croatia).
* 2's and 3's that we're considering include Franciso Garcia
(Louisville), Joey Graham (Oklahoma State), Danny Granger (New
Mexico), Gerald Green (HS), Ersan Ilyasova (Turkey), Yaroslav Korolev
(Russia), Rashad McCants (North Carolina), Marko Thomas (Croatia),
Hakim Warrick (Syracuse), Martell Webster (HS) and Antoine Wright
(Texas A & M).
* Inside players are Nemanja Aleksandrov (Serbia), Martynas
Andruiskevius (Lithuania), Andray Blatche (HS), Ike Diogu (Arizona
State), Channing Frye (Arizona), Sean May (North Carolina), Johan
Petro (France), Wayne Simien (Kansas), Tiago Splitter (Brazil), Fran
Vasquez (Spain) and Charlie Villanueva (Conn).
* Of course there can always be a sleeper pick that we aren't
mentioning, but that can be for you to figure out.

The players that we've had in for visits to Toronto have been very
impressive and we're confident that we will be able to acquire two
quality players in the first round. With our two first round picks in
2006 and the financial flexibility to use our mid-level exception over
the next three seasons, we feel that we're positioned to develop a
team capable of contending for the playoffs in the near future and one
that will continue to develop into a championship contender down the road.

We are definitely going to get younger, but with that we will get more
athletic, better defensively and build the type of character that is
consistent with our team philosophy. It is not going to happen
overnight, but I believe that you will see a hungry basketball team
that is working hard every night and is making consistent progress
towards our goals.

Now, I need to try to schedule in a haircut before the draft. Have a
safe summer. I hope you'll enjoy watching the NBA Draft at the Air
Canada Centre and I look forward to seeing you at our games this season.

Sincerely,

Rob Babcock
General Manager
Toronto Raptors