TORONTO: Exceeds Expectations

5. Jonas Valanciunas

It’s deja vu all over again. Last year, a team above them unexpectedly took an athletic defensive power forward which resulted in a higher ranked big man unexpectedly falling to the Raptors. Colangelo and the Raptors brass probably can’t believe their luck. I was afraid they might still take Knight, but Colangelo showed he is indeed focused on the future, rather than the present.

Valanciunas will fill the void at center the Raptors have been lacking for, well, ever. While apparently a lot of Raptor fans are unhappy with the pick, I think they’ll eventually regret that as Valanciunas is the type of player that Raptor fans love. He’s a high energy player who hustles, defends and rebounds. English, though, is not his strong suit.

On the other hand, the pick they got from the Heat, which they traded to the Bulls for James Johnson, could have been used to pick Corey Joseph at 28, who went one spot later to the Spurs. Who knows if that’s who Colangelo would have picked, as he was projected to go in the second round, but I’ll certainly be comparing their careers. And since the Spurs are pretty much never wrong…

I would have liked to see them try and scoop up another pick, but it’s not a big deal that they didn’t.

SAN ANTONIO: Exceeds Expectations

29. Cory Joseph

Traded George Hill for Indiana’s 15th pick, Kawhi Leonard.

I assumed the Spurs would exceed expectations, and again they have. Trading for Leonard is huge, especially since he was projected to go in the top ten and dropped. He’s the type of defender than the Spurs love, is in the perfect situation, and should step in Bruce Bowen’s shoes, that have been empty for a few years.

If on of my sleepers, Toronto’s Cory Joseph couldn’t get drafted by the Raptors, then the Spurs would have been my second choice. And it’s incredible timing because they might have their replacement for Hill. Yes, he projected to go in the second round, but I think he has first round talent and so, apparently, do the Spurs.haunt them. Burks should be a decent player, but guys like him are a dime a dozen.

CHARLOTTE: Exceeds Expectations

7. Bismack Biyombo
9. Kemba Walker

Traded Stephen Jackson for Sacramento’s 7th pick and Corey Maggette.

Sold 39th pick, Jeremy Tyler to Golden State, I’m guessing for cash.

It hurts to say it, but Charlotte actually did well. I was surprised that they passed on Knight for Biyombo, as they’ve been looking for a real starting PG for, well, their entire existence, but they resisted temptation and went with a guy who I think will be better down the road. I also look forward to watching Biyombo and Tyrus Thomas being on the floor at the same time. The front row needs to watch out.

Maggette was a disaster in Milwaukee and now brings his brand of scoring and no defense to Charlotte. He’s probably going to lose games for them, but that’s kind of what they wanted, so maybe it’s a good thing?

Walker fell, but not as far as I thought he might. I think it’s still a pretty good pick at 9, but Charlotte seems to like picking decent PGs with little upside.

CHICAGO: Exceeds Expectations

23. Nikola Mirotic
30. Jimmy Butler

Traded 28th and 43rd picks for Houstons 23rd pick, Nikola Mirotic.

Butler was very efficient offensively at Butler, and is a very good defender, so the Bulls may have a sleeper on their hands.

How much do you think the Spurs are pissed at not getting Mirotic, who is exactly the type of player they usually scoop up at the end up the first round? He’s a huge steal, but will play overseas for a couple of more seasons. That’s fine with the Bulls.

DENVER: Exceeds Expectations

22. Kenneth Faried
26. Jordan Hamilton
56. Chukwudiebere Maduabum

Traded Raymond Felton for Portland’s 26th pick, Jordan Hamilton, and Andre Miller.

Traded for Laker’s 56th pick, Chukwudiebere Maduabum, somehow.

Although I haven’t confirmed that Denver is, in fact, keeping Faried, if they do this was a very good draft day. I would have liked to have seen them get more for Felton, but Miller is a good, veteran PG that will probably be shipped elsewhere soon. Plus they were able to pick up another pick and a SF who has a chance to be a decent pro.

Faried is the type of player that everyone loves and helps you win. So why didn’t he go higher? Probably because he’s not a scorer and a little undersized.

I have no idea who Chukwudiebere Maduabum, but on his Draft Express profile, he’s listed as Chu Chu. I think he’s worthy of picking just for that. He immediately is in the running for best All-Tim NBA name.

MEMPHIS: Exceeds Expectations

49. Josh Selby

Selby was considered a first round talent, so this has to be considered a steal. Where they’ll find room for him, is another thing.
DETROIT: Exceeds Expectations

8. Brandon Knight
33. Kyle Singler
52. Vernon Macklin

Although I question whether he can play PG, Knight was projected to go in the top 5 and dropped to 8th, so Pistons fans have to be happy. Of course, he kind of presents the same problems that Rodney Stuckey, who’s also a combo guard they tried to turn into a point guard, did.

Singler is never going to be a star, but last year he was considered a middle first round pick and they got him in the second round. I think he’ll hang on and have a decent career as a bench player.

DALLAS: Exceeds Expectations

Traded their 26th pick to Portland for Rudy Fernandez

The rich get richer. Dallas has no use for a rookie and no one picked there was going to help them like Fernandez. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up starting next year.

LAKERS: Exceeds Expectations

41. Darius Morris
46. Andrew Goodelock
58. Ater Majok

Without a first round pick, they were able to pick up a decent prospect, in Darius Morris. This might be the second year in a row they get at least one keeper from the second round.

PHILADELPHIA: Exceeds Expectations

16. Nikola Vucevic
50. Lavoy Allen

Vucevic should end up being a pretty good pro and probable starter. At 16, in this draft, that’s pretty damn good.

CLEVELAND: Meets Expectations

1. Kyrie Irving
4. Tristan Thompson
32. Justin Harper

Irving will probably be the best player, so it was no surprise he was the first pick.

Thompson was the first big surprise of the night. And while I don’t think it’s a bad pick, since I think Thompson is going to be a very good pro, but he was a big reach at 3. Valanciunas would have made much more sense, but apparently Cleveland wants to make an impact immediately. Something they might regret down the line.

I think Cleveland should have offered Minnesota everything but it’s first pick to move up to 2 and draft Williams. If they had come out of the draft with Irving AND Williams, their future would have looked A LOT brighter.

Justin Harper is a stretch 4 that isn’t very big and probably won’t be much of a rebounder in the NBA. If he sticks, it’s because of his shooting. On Cleveland, that’s devoid of talent, he might, but with Antawn Jamison and J.J. Hickson as well as Anderson Varejao, who will probably be traded this summer, it’s puzzling why they’d take another power forward.

NEW YORK: Meets Expectations

45. Josh Harrellson

New York gets the guy Enes Kanter apparently made into the player he is today. So says Harrellson.

MINNESOTA: Meets Expectations

2. Derrick Williams

Traded Jonny Flynn for Houston’s 23rd pick, Nikola Mirotic, and Brad Miller.

For some reason the T-Wolves don’t end up with the 23d pick, so it’s basically a Flynn for Miller deal. Not sure why they’d do that.

Keeping Williams is the right move even though he doubles up on Beasley’s skills. He should be better than Bealsey and should give the Wolves some star power.

UTAH: Meets Expectations

3. Enes Kanter
12. Alec Burks

Although a lot of people had Brandon Knight going to Utah for the months leading up to the draft, they apparently changed their mind with less than a week to go. And while I was a little missed he didn’t fall to the Raptors, I think Utah will be VERY happy they chose Kanter instead of Knight.

Of course, while I think they made the right decision at 3, passing up Leonard, who is probably exactly what the Jazz need, is probably going to

OKLAHOMA CITY: Meets Expectations

27. Reggie Jackson

Jackson is a combo guard who joins an already crowded Thunder backcourt. I really don’t know where he’ll find minutes. I wonder why Oklahoma didn’t simply trade out of the draft.

PORTLAND: Meets Expectations

21. Nolan Smith
51. Jon Diebler

Traded Andre Miller for Raymond Felton

Traded Rudy Fernandez to Dallas for 26th pick, which they gave to Denver in prearranged deal.

Getting Felton for Miller is a great deal for Portland. He might be the young point guard they’ve been looking for all these years.

Unfortunately, picking Nolan Smith over Faried, who they could really use, was a mistake.

ORLANDO: Meets Expectations

53. DeAndre Liggins

He’s a player that was on Kentucky, but now he’s not.

ATLANTA: Meets Expectations

48. Keith Benson

He’s got legit size for an NBA power forward, and he’s stronger than he looks. For the 48th pick, the Hawks did well.

For a team hitting their ceiling, I would have liked to have seen them a little more active. Maybe after the new CBA is signed, whenever that happens.

MIAMI: Approaching Expectations

28. Norris Cole

Somehow got the 28th pick from Chicago to draft Cole, a PG, who should provide insurance in case Bibby is not re-upped.

BOSTON: Approaching  Expectations

27. JuJuan Johnson
55. E’Twaun Moore

Traded their 25th pick for the 27th pick.

Johnson is a decent player, but I don’t see him making any impact on the Celtics, either now or down the line. But would anyone else have?

Moore is an undersized shooting guard, but I’m guessing what attracted Boston was the ability to tell people they drafted JuJuan and E’Twaun. And both are American.

MILWAUKEE: Approaching Expectations

19. Tobias Harris
40. John Leuer

Traded Corey Maggette and 10th pick for Stephen Jackson and Charlotte’s 19th pick, Tobias Harris.

Getting rid of Maggette, who was a disaster, is good, but is Jackson really what they need? And how much longer does he have? Harris is a good pick, though, who’s been compared to Shane Battier.

PHOENIX: Approaching  Expectations

13. Markieff Morris

Morris might make a pretty good role player on a good team. Phoenix, however, needs home runs, not singles. They have a lot of role players and the engine that makes them go, Nash, is nearing the end of his career.

GOLDEN STATE: Approaching Expectations

11. Klay Thompson
37. Jeremy Tyler
44. Charles Jenkins

So they STILL have Monta Ellis, yet decide to draft yet another shooter, while Kawhi Leonard  and Nikola Vucevic were still available. Thompson might be the best player available, for all I know, though, and if Jerry West thinks so, it’s probably true.

I don’t know about Tyler, though, who seems to have the physical tools, but needs maturity.

WASHINGTON: Approaching Expectations

6. Jan Vesely
18.Chris Singleton
34. Shelvin Mack

A lot of teams seemed high on Vesley, but I don’t understand the attraction to him. He’s 6’11 and athletic, but he’s not a great scorer, can’t shoot, isn’t a good ball handler, will probably struggle defensively at the 3 and is a poor rebounder for his size. He’s apparently got a good motor, though, and he’s got a very hot girlfriend, so those are both pluses.

Singleton was on my don’t draft list and I really don’t see how he’s going to play with Vesley. Neither can shoot, but Singleton has even fewer skills than Vesley.

NEW JERSEY: Approaching Expectations

25. Marshon Brooks
36. Jordan Williams

Traded their 27th pick, JaJuan Johnson for Boston’s 25th pick, Marshon Brooks

When I first saw a trade between Boston and New Jersey involving Brooks, I thought it was a blockbuster. No, it was not Brooks Lopez, but Marshon Brooks, who bring his great shooting and horrible defense to a bad defensive team.

CLIPPERS: Needs Improvement

37. Trey Thompkins
47. Travis Leslie

The Clippers traded away a unprotected lottery pick that ended up being Kyrie Irving, who’s probably just what the Clippers could have used to solidify them as one of the teams of the future. What they ended up drafting were two solid NCAA players with probably very little chance of sticking in the NBA.

SACRAMENTO: Needs Improvement

10. Jimmer Fredette
35. Tyler Honeycutt

Traded their 7th pick for Milwaukee’s 10th pick, Jimmer Fredette, and John Salmons

So, the Kings trade John Salmons away, only to trade back for him a couple of years later. And move down in the draft in order to do it. Fredette might be a great shooter, but I don’t see how he helps Sacramento. He’s not going to be a good defender and will do nothing for the chemistry. Keeping the pick and taking Knight or Walker would have been preferable.

HOUSTON: Needs Improvement

14. Marcus Morris
38. Chandler Parsons

Traded Brad Miller, the 23rd pick and a future first rounder for Minnesota’s 20th pick, Donatas Motiejunas, and Jonny Flynn.

Houston’s GM, Daryl Morey, intrigues me. He’s apparently a big advanced stats guy and was initially a guy a lot of Raptor fans wanted to replace Colangelo, but he makes the most head scratching trades. Motiejunas was another on my do not draft list. He doesn’t defend or rebound, but should be able to score a lot, which makes him basically a bigger version of Kevin Martin

Morris is, yet another young, decent power forward to join Houston’s stable of other decent, power forwards. Apparently you can never get enough of them.

Parsons is a typical Rocket small forward. he does a whole lot of things, but none of them really well.

INDIANA: Needs Improvement

Traded their 15th pick, Kawhi Leonard, to the Spurs for George Hill

Don’t the Pacers already have enough PGs who aren’t really PGs? George Hill looked good in the Spurs system, but you need to watch out for those guys, because there’s a good chance he won’t look nearly as good out of it. And while the Pacers already have enough SFs, don’t they know not to trade a draft pick to the Spurs?

NEW ORLEANS: Incomplete

Traded completely out of the draft by trading the 45th pick, Josh Harrellson, to the Knicks for cash.

No, I really don’t think it’s a good idea to be combing through Europe to find the next Dirk, just as it wasn’t a good idea to start stacking your team with two centers, after Houston miraculously made it to the Finals, in 1986, with Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson, or to start trying to convert shooting guards and small forwards into point guards, simply because Magic Johnson was 6’9 and could pass and handle the ball like a guy a foot shorter.

You see, the main reason it’s not a good idea to start copying teams that have just won Championships is because you can’t duplicate someone else’s success. There’s not blueprint you can follow. Every Champion has been completely unique. Look back at all the teams that have won and you can’t really say that any team was like any other one that ended up winning it all.

The teams that end up winning it all are usually teams that don’t try and be like another team, or even build itself to beat another team (talk about a bad idea). The real contenders are the ones who are trailblazers (no pun intended) and make everyone else adjust to them, not the other way around.

In the end, THAT’S what we may have learned this season. Well, if you hadn’t been paying attention the last 50 or so years the NBA has been around.

Now, I’m not saying the playoffs weren’t entertaining, because they most definitely were. Close games and unexpected results are always entertaining. But watching the playoffs, something kept gnawing at my brain.

When my beloved Spurs were knocked out in the first round, I realized that these playoffs were going to be a little different. The big problem was not that the #8 seeded Grizzlies knocking off the #1 seeded Spurs was a huge upset. It was, but not to the degree it seemed. The problem was that despite winning 61 games, second in the NBA, the Spurs were simply not that good a team. And neither were any of the other teams out there. I never once thought to myself, “Wow, THAT’S a Championship team”, while watching ANY team play. A few teams looked great in spurts, but in many ways, this year looks a lot like the 2004 season when the Larry Brown coached Detroit Pistons won their Championship.

2004 was, in many ways, a hiccup year. The two top teams were the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves, two teams that had not made it out of the first round of the playoffs in at least the previous three years and had only won 51 and 48 games respectively the previous season.  And both teams only won 44 games the next season.  This was a weird year, to say the least.

And the Detroit Pistons took advantage. Despite winning only 54 games in a very weak East, the Pistons were able to make it to the Finals just in time to play a collapsing Laker team that was on the verge of being broken up and Phil Jackson retiring (the first time, having learned from Jordan that only sissies retire once). The Pistons would become one of the least talented Championship teams in the last few decades, becoming the first team since 1979 to win a Championship without a current or former All-NBA player (Chauncey Billups would later make the All-NBA 2nd team, but not until after the team had won their Championship) on the roster.

So what does all that have to do with these playoffs? Well, as I said, no team really jumped out at me as being great this year, or in these playoffs, not even the NBA Champion Mavericks.

The Celtics completely screwed themselves when they traded Kendrick Perkins and, with him, the only advantage they had over Miami. Ironically, they made the trade in order to try and be able to defend Miami better, proving they were apparently one of the people not paying attention the last 50 years. Instead of making Miami adjust to their size, Boston blinked first and adjusted their roster to beat Miami. And lost.

Orlando went from contender to pretender when they tried to turn back the clock and sacrificed defense for offense in trading for Hedo Turkoglu. Orlando also hadn’t been paying attention the last 50 years when nearly every single NBA Champion consisted of one of the best defensive teams in the league. I find it amazing that Otis Smith, who until he got his job in Orlando was noteworthy only because he competed in a dunk contest against Michael Jordan while he was at Golden State, still has his job after trying to beat the record for killing a team’s title chances the fastest.

The Lakers won 57 games, but never once looked like the dominant team that marched to the Championship the last two years. And the Spurs, despite having one of the worst defensive seasons in over a decade, won 61 games, yet never seemed to be a real threat to win the title.

And then there’s Miami. Well, I do find it funny that there is so much discussion on the internet that the Miami experiment is now considered a failure and that the big 3 needs to be broken up. This from a team that came within 2 wins of winning the title. If Miami needs to be broken up, I’d hate to think what needs to be done in Chicago or Boston, both of whom could only take a game from Miami in their march to the Finals.

Miami was never the dominant team that some expected, but neither are they the disaster that people are making them out to be, now. On a related note, LeBron is being completely maligned after coming up short in the deciding game, yet until just a few games ago, people were talking about LeBron being better than Michael Jordan. Even Jordan’s wingman, Scottie Pippen, uttered such unbelievable thoughts. But just as they tried to anoint (and then tarnish and then anoint etc) Kobe Bryant as the air apparent, the media and fans try and jump to conclusions far too quickly.

So what does this all mean? Well, it means that Dallas is the best team this year, but that might not be saying much. It means that LeBron isn’t Jordan, but that’s not necessarily an insult. It means that everything will start over again in October, if we’re lucky.

As one of the main focuses of this blog is on the Raptors, does it mean anything to the Raptors? Well it doesn’t mean at all what PhdSteve, over at Raptors Republic, seems to think it does. I don’t see Miami’s defeat as somehow a “referendum” on just how valuable Andrea Bargnani is. The one thing we learned from these playoffs (again, for those who weren’t paying attention the previous 50 years) is that defense wins and bad defensive players Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Mike Bibby and Peja Stojakovic all are players that were never the greatest defensive players, but have simply become bad as they’ve gotten older. And all three watched their minutes plummet as the playoffs progressed.

It wasn’t just the teams in the Finals, though. On Boston, the former starter at center for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Nenad Krstic, watched his playing time disappear because, while a good offensive player, was a weak link on a good defensive team.

Now, astute readers will point to Zach Randolph, a player who’s never been accused of taking defense too seriously, came within a game of leading his team to the Conference Finals. Well, all I can say is that Memphis might have ended up beating the Thunder of Randolph was a better defender. Or if that doesn’t work, I could just say they’re the exception that proves the rule, whatever that means.

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COACHING CAROUSEL

Getting back to the Raptors, I find myself unable to get too excited about the coaching search. Dwayne Casey, Lawrence Frank and now Maurice Cheeks are are perfectly adequate choices. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I think they are adequate. Only a desperate coach is going to want to take over a 22 win team with mediocre talent, so the chance of hiring a great coach is pretty slim. It’s one of the reasons I thought the letting go of Triano was a little premature. First of all, I don’t think he did that bad of a job. No, he didn’t do a good one, either, but given what he was given, I don’t think anyone would have done much better. And I don’t know if there would have been much harm in giving him one more year. After that, the team might have more talent to attract a better coach.

GETTING TOO GREEDY

In my last post, I discussed how Golden State might be on the right track when rumours surfaced about a possible trade of Monta Ellis for Andre Iguodala. I’ve always thought that Ellis, while a fantastic scorer, is basically like a model with a drug habit. Sure, she looks great, but the relationship is never going to go anywhere. Iguodala isn’t the scorer that Ellis is, but he’s better at virtually every other aspect of the game. But now news is that Golden State wants more than Iguodala. Maybe that’s why I’m not a GM (well, that and I’m not exactly qualified). I’d take the offer and run. With Jerry West advising the Warriors, I wouldn’t be surprised if they now end up with Philly’s first round pick, or something.

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5. Carmelo Anthony to the Nets

First of all, I’m sick to death of reading about it. Enough already. Let’s just get it over with.

Also, it makes sense for everyone involved.

No one can give Denver a better package back for Anthony. Derrick Favors, a couple of first rounders and an expiring contract (Troy Murphy) would kick start Denver’s rebuilding process and give them way more in return than Toronto or Cleveland got for their outgoing franchise players. Denver isn’t going anywhere with him. The only time they got past the 1st round was when they traded for Billups and now he’s too old to lead them anywhere. Unless they want to become the Atlanta Hawks of the West, trading Anthony is the best thing for them.

You had to feel a bit bad for the Nets this summer. They went through a nearly historically bad season just so they would be able to have the cap room to make a splash in the offseason, and came up with Travis Outlaw, despite a flashy new owner who wants to become New Jersey’s (and Russia’s) answer to Mark Cuban and their front office putting on a full court press trying to sign one or two of the big names. And they had to overpay Travis Outlaw. They deserve SOMETHING for all their troubles.

Carmelo wants to go to the Knicks, but there a a couple of problems with that. The first is that the Knicks can’t match what New Jersey can send back without hurting their roster. And with Carmelo not being a stellar defender himself, going to a team and coach not exactly known for their defense, wouldn’t be a recipe for success.

And if Carmelo simply waits for the offseason, he’ll probably lose out on a lot of money with the new CBA.

The Nets have a top 10 center, and good PG, a well-respected coached, some nice roll players and an owner willing to spend money. Sure, they’re stuck in New Jersey for another year and a half, but then they’ll be in Brooklyn. And they’re a playoff team with him. If I’m Denver, I’d try and get Al Harrington thrown in there, as well. Even if it means taking Travis Outlaw back.

4. Jeff Green, Cole Aldrich and a 1st round pick for Anderson Varejao

Cleveland needs to rebuild. Maybe they don’t know it, yet, but losing 15 of your last 16 games should tell you something. Varejao is 28 years old and really should not be in Cleveland’s longterm plans. He’s played very well in a bad situation and is probably the player the Cavs can get the more for, right now.

Jeff Green is only 24 and would be a great deal if he would agree to sign an extension. He’s a solid
citizen, a talented player and would be a good piece for the future. Cole Aldrich hasn’t performed up to expectations, so far, but is a defensive 7 footer, something the Cavs don’t have, and is still a rookie. Getting another 1st rounder would be another important piece to a rebuilding team.

Oklahoma was supposed to take the next step this year and become a contender, but while they’ve played well, their weak front court is holding them back, as well as their interior defense. That’s why they drafted Cole Aldrich, but he’s struggled and might be a couple of years away from being a good center, of at all. Varejao isn’t a true center, but he’s performed well as one for Cleveland this year, and would solidify the Thunder’s frontline defensively. Jeff Green is a very good SF, unfortunately on Oklahoma he plays PF. And he’s a luxury they can’t really afford, which is why he hasn’t been extended. It’s a steep price to pay for a PF who doesn’t score, but Varejao would make the Thunder a better team and a real contender.

3. Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Channing Frye for Marvin Williams, Jamal Crawford and a 1st round pick

Does anyone really want to see Steve Nash finish his career on a team that has no hope of ever contending? He deserves better than that and the NBA deserves better than that. He’ll never demand a trade, but Phoenix should do him a favour and give him one.

Same goes for Grant Hill, but to a lesser degree. Nash is Hill’s fountain of youth and it would be a shame to trade Nash to a contender but not Hill. And Channing Frye owes Nash his career, and performs well with him.

Marvin Williams has never lived up to being drafted ahead of Chris Paul and Deron Williams, but he’s a 24 year old, athletic SF who has a lot of talent and a high basketball IQ. He could end up flourishing in a new situation.

Jamal Crawford would be an expiring contract and will help lessen Phoenix salary demands while they rebuild.

Adding Steve Nash to Atlanta’s athletic lineup would be huge and might make them capable of getting to the Conference Finals. Yes, it’s a gamble to add a guy who turns 37 in a month (as well as a guy who just turned 38), but right now Atlanta’s ceiling is the second round and that’s it. If they want to really compete for a Championship, this may be the best chance.

2. Jason Richardson, Jameer Nelson, and Brandon Bass for Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand and Marreese Speights

If Orlando really is going for broke, they might as well go all the way. A starting lineup of Dwight Howard, Elton Brand, Hedo Turkoglu, Andre Iguodala and Gilbert Arenas would have a total salary higher than all but 7 entire teams. And Turkoglu’s salary would would be the smallest.

Plus, I’d love to see how this team does. In Sports Guy terminology, this would be like putting Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jim Carrey in a movie together. Sure, they’re all expensive as hell and a couple of them are past their prime, but you’d want to see it, wouldn’t you?

Philadelphia probably would do it in a second, too.

1. Andrea Bargnani for Darko Milicic and the rights to Ricky Rubio

Come on, anyone who reads this blog on a semi-regular basis can’t be surprised about this one. Andrea Bargnani is having a great year and is scoring a ton of points, but he’s also one of the worst defending centers in the entire league and just about every advanced statistic shows he is actually a liability to the team despite his scoring. And if you don’t believe in advanced statistics, you just need to watch him.

Ricky Rubio is a completely unproven talent that very well might be the second coming of Bobby Hurley. He also possesses a skills that might make him a transcendent PG similar to Steve Nash. The guy has been a winner wherever he’s played, has an otherworldly basketball IQ and just turned 20 in October.

While Darko will never live up to his draft position, he’s actually become a serviceable center this year. He may not be the ideal long term solution, but he defends, rebounds and scores and will certainly do nicely until something better comes along or until either Ed Davis gains 35 pounds or Solomon Alabi becomes an NBA player. And gains 35 pounds.

For Minnesota, they’ve been holding out for Rubio to come since they drafted him, and this is year two. They say they are confident in Rubio finally signing with them this summer, but if if there’s a lockout, that might put a crimp in their plans. First, if they don’t sign Rubio after three years since he was drafted, he can demand to be paid more than the rookie scale. And does anyone really expect Rubio to play for Minnesota?

Getting a high scoring big man to pair with their high rebounding big man, in Kevin Love, might be enough to pry Rubio away. Sure, they will have major problems defensively, but not everyone is such a stickler about that sort of thing. It’s usually only winning teams that worry about that, and Minnesota certainly aren’t that.

So that’s it. Happy New Year and thanks for reading.

After a thrilling win against New Jersey, allow me to throw some cold water over things. It took career nights from both Bargnani and Kleiza, and a season best game from Calderon for the Raptors to barely beat the East’s second worst team at home, despite no New Jersey player playing really an above average game. The Lakers are a tad better than New Jersey.

On the plus side, Bargnani was barely recognizable in the second half, against the Nets. He was aggressive, and not just on offense, and despite a few miscues on defense (including allowing Brook Lopez to dunk on a post up right after Bargnani brought everyone to their seats on a drive and dunk- which was a microcosm of why he frustrates me), Bargnani had the best game I’ve ever seen him play. Yes, he took 26 shots to score 32 points, but most of those misses occurred in the first half. Ironically, it’s usually the first half that he does most of his damage, generally being content to fade into the background in the second half.

The Lakers have much better defenders to try and stop Bargnani on the offensive end. He played poorly against then in Los Angeles and there’s a very good chance will do the same today.

One big reason the Raptors were able to come back against the Nets was their use of the zone against them. Triano gets a lot of criticism, and in my opinion unwarranted most of the time, but he out-coached his more respected counterpart last night. Lopez didn’t go off, but he still was able to score 20 points on 7-13 shooting. What hurt them were his 6 turnovers, mostly caused by the swarming double teams the Raptors sent his way, as well as the zone he had to contend with.

The Lakers have much better 3 point shooters than New Jersey does, so a zone won’t work as well against them. That means that Gasol will probably have his way against the Raptors front line.

Kleiza certainly took advantage of getting back in the starting lineup, and may have made a case for returning there full time. The question is whether it would be simply to put Kleiza on display to up his trade value. I still firmly believe that both Kleiza and Barbosa should be shopped before the trade deadline this season. While they both bring attributes the Raptors need, I think they’re more valuable to the team as trade bait. Can they get a first round pick or two in return?

ORLANDO TRYING TO WORK SOME MAGIC

Speaking of trades, I did a double take when I saw a report that the Magic have sent Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus and a 2011 draft pick to Phoenix for former Magic player, Hedo Turkoglu, as well as Jason Richardson and Earl Clark. If that was it, it would still be a team transforming trade. But they also traded Rashard Lewis to Washington for Gilbert Arenas.

Here’s my take on the trades:

ORLANDO

Orlando has struggled lately, but for a contender to make such massive changes is unheard of. If Otis Smith truly feels that things are not working with the current roster, then I applaud his aggressiveness, but talk about risky. Not only is there a danger in bringing in three such dominant players, but not one of them has ever been known for his defense. That’s putting a lot of pressure on Dwight Howard on the defensive end, as much as it takes away pressure on the offensive end. And he also Orlando loses it’s only real backup center. And I haven’t even mentioned the contracts, yet.

When Orlando overpaid Rashard Lewis with that $100 million, three and a half years ago, it was a big gamble. Although he never was the player he was in Seattle, the gamble paid off. At first. Orlando even went to the Finals his second year in Orlando and made the All-Star team. Unfortunately every year his production declined culminating in this year, where he’s averaging an 11 year low 12.2 ppg on just .419 shooting. Way too low for a guy making $65 million over the next three years.

Lewis was quickly becoming untradeable, so they found another untradeable player they could trade him for in Gilbert Arenas. Arenas has a very good chance of helping the team more than Lewis, but the question is whether he’ll be more of a distraction than a help. He didn’t help Washington win much this year, but a change of scenery may help.

Acquiring Vince Carter was obviously a failure, as many Raptor fans could have predicted. Apparently they also feel letting Turkoglu go in the first place was also a mistake. Orlando definitely had it’s most success when Turkoglu was on the team, and have definitely not been the same since he left, but I’m not sure getting him back was really the best option for Orlando.

Turkoglu turns 32 this year, has declined a fair bit every year since he won the Most Improved Player Award three and a half years ago, and has never shown an inclination to really stay in shape or work hard. And he’s owed $42 million over the next four years. Add Gilbert Arenas’ nearly $80 million over the next four years and Orlando is investing A LOT of money in this deal. A lot.  If this fails, Orlando is going to have a hell of a time digging themselves out of this hole.

Jason Richardson is the least risky acquisition for Orlando. There’s no doubt he can score, but like Turkoglu and Arenas, defense is not his strong suit. This might end up being a problem for Orlando, since they’re trading away two strong defenders in Gortat and Pietrus.

As I said, this trade is a huge, huge risk for Orlando. It will either be a home run or a disaster. My guess is it will be the latter.

Grade: C-

PHOENIX

In one fell swoop, Phoenix made over their roster, vastly improved their defense and gave themselves a brighter future. Trading for Turkoglu was a big mistake and Phoenix figured that out fairly quickly. Getting Carter’s expiring contract for him was extremely fortunate. How Carter performs in Phoenix is largely irrelevant, since it is his expiring contract that they wanted. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sees a rise in his production playing next to Steve Nash.

Gortat should finally get a chance to start, and should immediately help Phoenix on the defensive end and on the boards. A team that has historically not been strong at the center position now has 3 that will battle it out for minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if Phoenix isn’t done dealing.

Pietrus was caught in a numbers game in Orlando, but should get plenty of minutes in Phoenix and probably even start.

Despite losing Jason Richardson’s scoring, this was a very good trade for Phoenix. Not only for the future, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it helps in the win column this year. They even get a first round pick out of it.

GRADE: A

WASHINGTON

Getting rid of Gilbert Arenas was a priority for a team that needed to separate itself from the past and give the keys to John Wall. Lewis not only has a (slightly) shorter contract, he fills a need for the Wizards.

GRADE: B+

I’m sure most Raptor fans took great delight in the former Raptors scoring a combined 22 points while both appeared visibly frustrated. In fact, Bosh sat on the bench for most of the fourth and looked thoroughly displeased despite the win, which I’ll discuss later.

Carter had a slightly better game in Orlando, but was on the losing end of possibly the best Raptor game of the season, so far. While Carter looked like a shadow of his former self, he looked like a rather big shadow. Did anyone else notice that Vince’s jersey seemed to be a little, well, full? Considering his reputation for not exactly be a workhorse off the court, isn’t Vince the type of guy you can see gaining a ton of weight once he retires?

And while the Raptors were missing 3 key rotation players for both games, their impressive depth meant they didn’t skip a beat. The three top scorers in both games were Bargnani, DeRozan and Weems, who is taking full advantage of starting in place of the injured Kleiza. While Bargnani and DeRozan’s scoring was expected, Weems might end up making Triano think hard about what to do when Kleiza returns. In his last 4 games, Weems is shooting 65% from the field and is actually passing the ball well. In fact, Weems dished out 5 assists against Miami. At the beginning of the season, Weems never looked comfortable and appeared to be forcing everything. The promise he showed at the end of last season seemed to wear off, but he’s really made strides this month.

DeRozan stuggled a bit defensively against Miami, but put together back to back 20+ point nights for the first time in his career. Even more impressive was that they were on back-to-backs against two of the best teams in the East. What is probably the most encouraging this is how DeRozan played in the fourth quarters against Orlando and Miami. He was probably the best Raptors on the floor in those quarters and shot 10-16, while playing aggressively and doing the little things to help his team compete. DeRozan will have his ups and downs this season, but he’s shown real promise, so far.

Bargnani had a stunning 1st half, at least on offense, against Orlando and then proceeded to stink it up in the second half. He missed everything, turned the ball over and looked to be a completely different player. Against Miami, he didn’t hit a single shot in the first or third quarters, but went 4-6 in both the 2nd and 4th quarter. A rather odd statistic. While Bargnani scored well in both games, and even grabbed 9 boards against Miami, he took 23 shots each game, only getting to the line 4 times in each game. So far this season, Bargnani is averaging 17.5 shots per game, but has only had 3 games where he took fewer than 17 shots. With Bosh gone, the feeling was that the Raptors would have to spread the shots around a bit more, and that is true to a degree, but Bargnani is taking more shots per game than Bosh did.

Amir Johnson, after struggling to start the season, has started to look like the player who deserved the big contract he signed this summer. It’s looking more and more evident that he should be starting full time, like he did against Miami. While Reggie Evans is obviously a boost on the boards and in the hustle department, his incredibly poor offense hurts the team. While I understand Triano wanting Johnson’s energy coming off the bench, which was missed against Miami, it’s probably best for the team to have him starting, at least until Ed Davis returns.

Calderon had two very good nights and has now gotten a lot of fans calling for him to start and for Jack to be traded. Ah, Raptor fans. More on that in an upcoming post.

So while Toronto lost against Miami, the Florida swing has to be looked at as a success. If they continue to play like that did, they will start to garner some respect around the league, even if they don’t get a lot of wins. Learning to play hard every night is the first step. The second step is learning how to win.

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Since we’re on the subject of Miami, what is up with LeBron complaining he is playing too many minutes? When he and his two buddies signed with Miami, was he not aware there would be the potential that Miami would have to fill the roster with some subpar players since they pretty much used up most of the money? Okay, they were able to get more quality players than I, or most others, anticipated, but the fact is they are not a deep team and LeBron HAD to have known that.

And as I mentioned before, Chris Bosh does not appear to be a happy camper in Miami. While I never wished him ill will or had much of a problem with him deciding to leave Toronto, it’s hard to feel sorry for him, despite quite a bit of criticism in the press, including more and more people talking about how he might not fit in and might be traded. In the game against Toronto, Bosh apparently sulked on the bench, even while his teammates celebrated the occasional play while Jack Armstrong mused how Pat Riley would feel about seeing that. It would be a monumental disaster for Bosh if Riley decided to trade him, but looking at what has happened so far, it would be hard to blame Riley if he did. The most important thing for Riley should be a Championship and not keeping the big three together. Still, I have a feeling things will change soon. Like him or not, Bosh is too good a player to continue to struggle like he has.