Linkage - May 15
Jamario Moon has some extra cash to spend this summer.
The Raptors exercised their contract option for next season on Moon, giving him a guaranteed deal worth just over $700,000 (U.S.).
“We are very proud of Jamario for what he has accomplished and for the way he handled himself this year,” Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo said in a release. “Jamario’s path to the NBA and the Toronto Raptors is a great example of perseverance.”
Jamario Moon’s impressive season has landed the Raptor forward on the NBA’s second all-rookie team.
The 27-year-old, who came from obscurity to start 75 regular-season games for Toronto, was selected to the second team in voting by the league’s 30 head coaches.
This is why I love David Stern.
The whole idea of pyrotechnics is so over the top in some arenas, it’s ridiculous.
In Detroit, you can feel the heat from the flames 10 rows back; here in Toronto it’s not nearly as bad but there’s still too much. Watching the dudes having to come out and sweep the debris off the floor sure gets the fans pumped up.
I, like Stern, could be accused of “maniacal rantings of a fan from a different era” but sometimes with age comes wisdom and I’m sure we can do away with half the crap that tries to “enhance the entertainment” aspect of a night at the arena.
Depending on what they are able to go with the glut of swingmen they already have, one free agent on the market who’ll interest the Raptors, I’m sure, is New Jersey’s Bostjan Nachbar.
Now, I’m not saying he’ll be here and he wont’ be unless they can move one of Moon, Parker, Kapono and Delfino leaves but they had some interest around the trade deadline in February and I’m sure it’ll be rekindled in July.
What happened, according to People Who’d Know in Toronto and Phoenix was that Suns owner Robert Sarver explicitly told D’Antoni that he could not talk to the Raptors when he was out searching for a new coaching gig in that pre-fired time in Phoenix.
It wasn’t that the Raptors asked and were denied.
This is the same Sarver, I’m told, who has an e-mail sent before every Raptor-Suns game reminding Phoenix broadcasters they are not allowed to mention, interview or make reference to Bryan Colangelo.
What a tool.
According to People Who’d Know, the Jose Calderon press conference in Spain yesterday yielded nothing in the way of news. Thankfully.
Raptors president Bryan Colangelo would would like to make clear that he did not seek permission to speak with newly-minted Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, contrary a report out of Chicago this morning. “There is no accuracy to that whatsoever,’ he said. “I don’t know where that came from.”
Ainge is credited for acquiring this season’s Defensive Player of the Year, Kevin Garnett, and All-Star Ray Allen, who helped lead the Celtics to the best record in the league.
“(Ainge) orchestrated a stunning and record setting turnaround of a struggling team with two great trades and various other roster acquisitions,” Toronto Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo said.
Television viewership and traffic to NBA.com in Canada, along with attendance at Raptors home games all increased in 2007-08 over the past season, according to NBA Canada.
Viewership of NBA games — which air on CBC, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, The Score and Raptors TV — was up an average of 32 per cent from 2006-07. Canadian hits on NBA.com were up 28 per cent, while attendance for Raptors’ home games at the Air Canada Centre was up six per cent over the previous season.
The increase in the sheer numbers of kids playing the game in Canada, Mackenzie said, has helped boost the fan base.
It’s been a crazy week. I received many, many e-mails from viewers in Canada upon my resignation and I thank you for your support. Right now my wife is in the process of gathering information on possible sites we’ll relocate to in the Chicagoland area. I will promise you this, as was the case in Toronto, I will be active in the community and schools representing the Bulls as much as I possibly can. By the way, do you know how hard is it to find reliable people to show up on time to fix your house? The joys of moving…
Jose Calderon is a restricted free agent and his desire is to be a starter. Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo is on the record indicating his team will match any offer. One has to believe if Calderon stays, T.J. Ford is on the block. Ford has two years left on his contract at just over $8 million per year and has a history of breaking down. However, when Ford is “right,” he’s a pretty good player.
17. Toronto Raptors Roy Hibbert 7′2″ Center Georgetown - The Raptors’ first-round playoff appearance was rendered void by the 20/20 statistical bonanza of Dwight Howard. The EuroLeague-styled Raptors have found that the NBA way is predicated on some form of space-eating roster big that can carve out hardwood square footage while providing an offensive touch from 10 feet in. Roy Hibbert is a nice fit with coach Mitchell’s mindset and someone that would add four points and two rebounds to All-Star forward Chris Bosh’s already hardy numbers. Just as meaningful, Hibbert’s game may not be aesthetically attractive, but his game coalesces with the NBA way akin to post play effectiveness. Let the record reflect Hibbert will impress in individual workouts during the pre-draft NBA tour.
Expect Glen Grunwald to remain in place at least through the draft, but it is more than likely that Walsh will look to hire his own guy to handle the everyday front-office duties. Walsh and D’Antoni both may be in on this decision, so you can figure they will look at Wizards executive Tommy Sheppard, Bulls consultant Jim Paxson, former Bucks GM Larry Harris and Raptors assistant GM Maurizio Gherardini.
The No. 1 pick is hardly a sure thing. Since 1989, more than a third of the No. 1 picks can be considered busts (Michael Olowokandi, Kwame Brown, Andrea Bargnani, Andrew Bogut, Joe Smith, Derrick Coleman and Pervis Ellison).
The brains of the Toronto Raptors have decided that they need to think outside of the box and the best way for them to find another Jamario Moon is to join forces with the powers of reality TV and create a show.
Coming this summer be on the look out for So You Think You Can Raptor. It will follow the layout of the Fox hit, So You Think You Can Dance and the end prize is a roster spot with next season’s Toronto Raptors.
I know Colangelo won 2 executives of the year, but all of the best moves regarding this Toronto team WERE NOT MADE by him. As noted above:
-the coach and team’s 2nd best player were the brain moves of Rob Babcock
-the teams’ superstar was drafter but Glen Grunwald
-and all the teams cap flexibility is thanks to Wayne Embry’s trading of Jalen Rose and the much maligned Vince Carter deal.
I know Colangelo has a rep for being a great GM but I’m just not buying it right now. He didn’t do anything at the deadline when a TON of good players were available in a year when the east is totally open and when the Raps were simply not good enough to win 2 let alone 1 playoff round. And come on, Are you telling me that Memphis wouldn’t have made a deal for Gasol if Toronto would had offered a package built around “Il Mago.” Colangelo is too proud to admit he made the wrong choice and I fear that the Raps, much like the bulls who were once a team that was 1 player away from being a real contender, now might get much worse before they can get any better. For real, Gasol on this team with Calderon, and Bosh (man, it hurts me every time I think about it).
If I have learned anything from the playoffs this year it is that you can never have too many big men. Obviously CB4 holds down the PF spot. Bargs would be his back-up and given the centre situation could also play some 5 in the right situations. There are still minutes to be had, provided they are earned. Hump, Ukic and Baston are the two guys that likely wouldn’t dress on most nights.
The C spot is all of a sudden a position of strength for this team. The addition of Camby with Bargs and Rasho backing him up would really change the face of this team. His presence would be huge and with Bell suddenly the Raps would be solid on the defensive end. There would undoubtedly be some growing pains as all of these players got accustomed to each other but it would be a team with many strengths and very few weaknesses.
Ripping a page from Charles Barkley’s book … Here’s my T-Mobile Fave Five (for Canada, let’s call it my ROGERS Fave Five) Raptors of all time:
1. Alvin Williams
2. Matt Bonner
3. Mike James
4. Vince Carter
5. Morris Peterson
(Note: My Fave Five was based on how a player was to deal with … from a media perspective. It was not based on skills or popularity (or lack there of)).
With due respect to Jeff Green and Al Thornton, Moon deserved to be on the First team before either of those two players.
Thornton had a solid year for the Clippers and he’s got a great future ahead of him. I can almost buy his inclusion on the top team.
But Green - despite having a successful year 1 as well - did not have the kind of impact on the Sonics that Moon did on the Raptors. Not only was Green lost in the hype of Durant’s Rookie of the Year season (again, I would have given the award to Horford), but he was putting up numbers on the second-worst team in the league.
Moon, meanwhile, was second on his team in rebounding (6.2 REB) and he scored 8.5 points per game as well. More importantly, the 27-year-old rookie started 70+ games for a playoff team. Whether the Raptors won more or less games than people expected them too … and whether or not they play in a ‘weaker’ conference should mean NOTHING. The fact is, they were in the post-season … and a major reason for their berth in the playoffs was the 70+ games that Moon started. His impact to Toronto was far great than Green’s in Seattle.
I find it laughable that Moon isn’t on the First Team and that, apparently, 3 coaches didn’t even vote for him at all!
I appreciate those of you who have made comments about me - or Jonesy - in regards to the future of the Raptors TV broadcasts. So have had positive things to say … others have weighed-in on the other side of the coin. But trust me when I tell you … I have NO idea what direction the Raptors/MLSE are heading. It’s a long summer, and I’m sure an exhaustive search will go on to find Chuck Swirsky’s replacement. His will be big shoes to fill.
Oh man, it is May and I am already tired of the Jose and T.J talk. So now the suggestion is that Raptors might be better served to trade Jose Calderon. It is a no-brainer he has the higher trade value if for no other reason he is not the health risk that Ford is. So if you were to trade Jose what would that do. Here is a trade that I can almost say for certain you will hear floated out there.
Calderon to the L.A Clippers For Corey Maggette and the Clippers 1st round pick this season. (With that Pick Raptors will Select D.J Augstine from Texas)
I honestly thought he would long be gone before the Raptors got to select but thanks to an early exit from the NCAA Tournament and people a little unsure of his skills and what he will be on the next level. Raptors should have a chance to draft Roy Hibbert if they would like to do so.
Tanenbaum is the major reason the Toronto Raptors are in the NBA, as he constantly tried to buy established teams and bring them to the city. Once he got an expansion franchise, he was influenced by Peddie, and various other members of the board. They “aided” him in who to hire, who to fire, and everyday things like that. Finally after a bunch of years of meritocracy, Tanenbaum had enough, and decided to let someone come in and run the show from top to bottom. That man was of course Bryan Colangelo. The Toronto Raptors have been much better off for it ever since.
After looking around the Internet at the various mock draft sites here are some of the names floating around for the Raps to take in the opening round.
Of the 16 playoff teams, only one team had 9 players that played at least 30% of the team’s playoff minutes: The Toronto Raptors. I said this was a problem last season (not paring down the rotation), and it still is a problem. They need to determine a core group of 8 guys they’re going to go with. 2 point guards, 3 swingmen, 3 bigs… and the rest is just filler. Why do you think that is? Do you think it had a reason to do with their lack of success?
Hakeem Olajuwon (Toronto Raptors) Was it a Dream or did Hall-of-Famer Hakeem Olajuwon really end his 18-year career in Toronto after 17 seasons as a Houston Rocket? At least he wasn’t sporting one of those vicious-looking dinosaurs across his chest.
Without further ado, here are the top 30 point guards, ranked by total value:
12. Jose Calderon, Raptors
Age: 26
EPG: 17.9
Contract: restricted free agent
On a per minute basis, Calderon is better than big names like Jason Kidd, AI and Baron Davis. He’s an amazing shooter (43% from 3PT) and has great court vision (8.3 apg). Toronto won’t let him get away.
19. T.J. Ford, Raptors
Age: 25
EPG: 13.4
Contract: two years, $16.5 M ($8.3 M per)
On a per-minute basis, Ford is in the top 10. But the big question surrounding Ford is his durability, as he has missed 38% of games over his five seasons in the league.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
welcome back…i could do without seeing swirsky anywhere….i mean, when tj is “right”??? give me a break. took him a week and a change of postal code to say what he really thought…cock sucker…
Raps Fans last blog post..An Open Letter to Rob Babcock
May 15th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Thought you would like that.
Time to research how to get a feed from the Chicago Bulls radio network next season…
May 15th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
that’s at the top of my list of things to do man, lol.
Raps Fans last blog post..An Open Letter to Rob Babcock