Raptor Talk 09-10 - Exciting If Nothing Else!

Apparently they will probably renounce Douby, Delfino, Marion and Parker.

The bench would be very thin - as it was last year at the beginning of the year.

I guess Marion didn't take the original offer $32 million over 4 years and the Raptors moved on, as did the Lakers when Ariza's agent dismissed the offer made to his client.

You can't blame the Raptors. In essense they are getting a borderline all star in Turkoglu rather than nothing significant by way of the the Jermaine O'Neal cap space.

But an injury would devastate this team. And they continue to be weak on the boards and now very thin at the 2/3.

A trade would appear necessary as they have a number of 4 men (Bosh, Evans, Hump, Jawaii, Mensa Bonsu if he returns) but need backup swingmen.

Question for the board: Would you rather have a 31 year old Marion signed for 5 years and 50 million or Hedo for 5 years and 50 million?

With the loss of Marion we are defensively much worse than last year. Could there be a trade coming up with either Bosh or Bargnani? In my opinion Bargnani's value on the trade market is a lot less than what it should be and if Colo started trying to move him it would only decrease that value.

Brian has said publicly that the plan is to build a team around Bosh. However playing Turk, Bargs and Bosh lacks d, toughness and rebounding (offensive and defensive). Calderon isn't exactly an all world defensive player either and we pretty much don't have a starting 2 guard right now.

Should make for a very interesting offseason.

According to Doug Smith, Orlando is unwilling to do a sign-and-trade involving Shawn Marion. Why not? At worst it gives them a chip they can use in further moves.

As it stands they get nothing.

The other guy to get renounced will likely be Joey G.

The lack of rebounding and defense up front concerns me.

But, obviously the negotiation with Marion did not go as well as hoped. He apparently did not accept the team's initial offer but we don't know all the details -- he didn't appear to get a long time to mull it over.

Marion would appear to have skills the team needs -- rebounding, running the floor, some defense when he puts his mind to it. But his numbers often were not great last year. He had a number of games where he really wasn't a major contributor. Near the end of the season his performances improved a lot as the team went on a small run.

Scoring has also been an issue for this team and Turkoglu should help in that regard. Plus, he wants to play here -- I think the two or three million dollar difference between this offer and Portland was not the major factor.

With such a scarce pool of A list free agents I don't think the Raptors could afford to sit around and wait for Marion to decide. They could have been left with a big salary slot and no player.

That said, Colangelo will have to earn his pay now figuring out what to do with the bench.

If they could find a way out of Banks contract that would be a major help but he's locked in for two guaranteed years at about $5 million per season. And few teams have cap space to take that on.

They're short a swing man unless they can find a way to bring back Delfino. They also must be scouring the D-League and summer leagues for a guy.

They already renounced Joey G... like before July 1!

Nobody makes a career out of doing well in the summer league so the Raps won't be scouring that.

And doubt there are any surprises left in the D-League.

There are many players left unsigned... quality players to boot.

The poor US economy is very much driving this free agent market. There will be many solid role players that will be playing for the NBA minimum for a year or two... guys like Matt Barnes, Dahntay Jones, Keith Bogans, and your friend Morris ALmond.

Think how Marion might not even get a mid level exemption contract... who woulda thunk that.

Colangelo's work has only begun and he will find away to further improve this team... because really... he has no choice.

Occasionally a team can pick up a useful piece out of the summer league. Brandon Bass, dropped by the Hornets, played some great ball for Dallas in the summer league two years ago and got a two year guaranteed deal out of it. He had added a fair bit of muscle to his game and was noticed. Von Wafer, dropped by the Lakers, parlayed a nice summer league a couple of years back into a contract with the Nuggets. They didn't use him much but the Rockets subsequently picked him up and he became a very useful guy once McGrady went down. They're probably not starters but good bench players.

You are right they would have had to offer Joey a contract by June 30th to retain his rights which they didn't do.

Will be fascinating to see what Colangelo can come up with.

Worse case scenario... things go full circle... Raps could bring Joey G and Moon back into the fold if they can't get anyone better.

Given that... heard Doug Smith say on the fan this morning say that there will be around 12 SOLID NBA veterans looking for work and playing for the minimum salary.

The full circle thing is a very strong possibility. I think either or both could help as second unit guys.

I know there would be a great hue-and-cry from many quarters should that go down but personally I'd be good with it.

There will be many other options as well. I say we have an adequate second unit before the tinkering is done.

Doug Smith reports the Dallas Mavericks are offering Jerry Stackhouse in a possible sign-and-trade for Shawn Marion but his contract of $2 million dollars is too much for the Raptors.

The Raptors would need a third team to get involved to get a minimum salary player who would not cause them to exceed the cap.

[quote="Coach Clement"]Doug Smith reports the Dallas Mavericks are offering Jerry Stackhouse in a possible sign-and-trade for Shawn Marion but his contract of $2 million dollars is too much for the Raptors.

The Raptors would need a third team to get involved to get a minimum salary player who would not cause them to exceed the cap.[/quote]

Are you serious? Raps can't afford 2 mill? wow were screwed this season, we have 0 bench and no solid 2 guard

Screwed? No its not over.

Let's see what we can get done. The Mavs is close we just need to pull some things together.

There will be good options still available at the league minimum. Colangelo will get some stuff done I'm sure!

Hey bronbron you didn't think he could get Turkoglu 'member!

We're not talking world beaters here just filling some spots on the bench with adequate NBA players. There are options out there!

ESPN reports that Andrea Bargnani has agreed in principle to 5 years at $50 million dollars. Pretty good value for an emerging player with his kind of potential.

NBA is planning on reducing the salary cap to the area of 50-53 million next year and have warned the clubs in a recent memo.

I wonder if they might reconsider if the economy recovers.

Is this a new trend?

DeMar is happy to be in our city (he called it an underrated city and his first choice of destination), Andrea is happy to play in this city with its huge Italian community, soon-to-be Raptor Turkoglu says our international flavour was a key in choosing Toronto over Portland.

Have we turned a corner of sorts - is Toronto becoming a place where players want to come to basketball? Its beginning to look that way.

Just as a little addendum BC made it clear that his work is not done there will be more changes moving forward. The players will be out there as the summer progresses and he will be seeking them out.

I like this off season better than the last one for Colangelo. He's making better moves this time around, so hopefully he has his old magic back.

That money was too good for Bargs to turn down. I think they erase the $4 million he was to make next year and instead he will get $10 million. And then $10 million more for each of the next four years.

He showed a lot of improvement last year and benefitted from Triano's patience. He probably should aim to improve on his five and a half rebounds a game. I think both he and Bosh should benefit from Evans in there to do some heavy lifting.

Hopefully Colangelo can get something back for Marion. Ideally he would get back a first rounder to replace the one he gave away getting rid of Jermaine. If we have to take on Stackhouse's buy out, I think it is still worth it. Colangelo should be able to figure it out.

The Banks contract is now the biggest albtross dragging the team down. He looked awful in his limited minutes last year. Hopefully he's over his injury and reports to camp in some sort of reasonable shape. He actually was a decent ball player a couple of years ago.