According to sources, 2005 second-round pick Roko Ukic, a 24-year-old, 6-foot-5 Croatian who can play either guard spot, will come over from Rome to back up Calderon, while the team will also add hard-nosed swingman Hassan Adams, to back up Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon.
Adams, a 6-foot-4, late second-round selection by the New Jersey Nets back in 2006, is undersized and extremely limited offensively, but is a relentless defender who attacks the passing lanes and is an excellent athlete.
Jose Calderon, the Spanish nice guy who announced yesterday that he has okayed an agreement in principle to sign a contract extension with the Raptors, was Babcock’s prize undrafted signee in 2005. And Roko Ukic, the Croatian who played last year in Rome and is now headed Toronto’s way, was very nearly a Raptor that same not-so-banner season, when the club was set to bring him to the NBA but the deal fell through.
Good thing Ukic didn’t make the jump; most Euro basketball observers will tell you he was in desperate need of the playing time he only recently found in the Euroleague. Still, never let it be said that Babcock didn’t leave a legacy a little more convincing than Rafael Araujo’s Russian league career.
Will Ford’s exit amount to a genius stroke of addition by subtraction by Bryan Colangelo, Babcock’s successor? Perhaps. Then again, Colangelo really didn’t make the decision between Ford and Calderon – Ford made the choice a no-brainer with his insufferable protest to his late-season, post-injury role as Calderon’s backup.
And the math could just as well work another way. There are those who suspect Calderon is a very good player who benefitted exponentially from Ford’s presence as a contrasting foil.
The Raptors, don’t forget, trumpeted the benefits of the Ford-Calderon platoon, arguing opponents had to formulate two different game plans to deal with two distinctively different point guard approaches. That’ll change now that there’s a clear No.1; the talent separation between Calderon and Ukic will likely be vast in Ukic’s first NBA season.
So Calderon’s challenges will be many. He’s almost certainly not going to be flanked by the slashing, scoring swingman the Raptors have been coveting but cannot afford. By the time the fall rolls around, Candace Parker, the WNBA star and sister of Raptors starting shooting guard Anthony, will probably hold the family lead in highlight-reel dunks, even if her tally currently stands at one. And Jamario Moon, the incumbent at starting small forward who shies away from the paint, has yet to meet a new challenger.
Calderon, too, will have to keep happy two big men earning an estimated combined salary of $36 million, Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal, even though both guys do a lot of the same things – i.e. use the threat of an alleged post game to set up a mid-range jump shot.
Calderon’s supporters will tell you a lot of that downturn was Ford-related and chemical. But Calderon has loyalties outside his fellow Raptors, too. This Olympic summer means he just began a five-week training camp for August’s Beijing Games, which will, come November, be presumably stacked upon more minutes than he’s ever played in the NBA. If he’s got the steam to keep making Babcock proud come next spring’s playoffs, Colangelo will be able to take all the credit.
Colangelo got Jose Calderon locked up to a long-term contract and signed Roko Ukic and Hassan Adams to deals that leave him with just one more spot to fill to get to the pared-down roster he wants to give coach Sam Mitchell this season.
None of the moves – and the soon-to-be-announced signing of second-round draft pick Nathan Jawai – comes as any surprise and Colangelo’s last addition to get to the league-minimum 13-man roster is likely to be a young point guard.
For Ukic, the move has been a long time coming. Originally touted as a possible first-round selection in 2005, he dropped to No.41 and spent the last three seasons playing in Europe.
But a solid season in Rome last year – and the ability to get out of his contract – made his arrival in the NBA easy.
“He was able to mature while he was playing in Europe and play at a high level,” said Marc Cornstein, Ukic’s U.S.-based agent. “He’s only coming to the scene, he should have a chance to contribute and be in the rotation.”
Former Canadian national team member Peter Gaurasci, who played against Ukic last year in Italy, said the 6-foot-5 point guard had an excellent domestic season, leading his team to the championship series.
“He makes a lot of big shots,” Guarasci said in Hamilton yesterday before the Canada-New Zealand exhibition game.
The Adams signing, because it’s for a minimum value contract (one year guaranteed at just over $400,000 with a team option for a second year), can actually be officially announced this week under the convoluted NBA salary cap rules.
You know who was responsible for Hassan Adams bouncing out of the NBA?
Jamaal Magloire.
When the Nets decided to lavish Magloire with a $4 million contract a year ago, it meant someone had to go to avoid paying luxury tax and that someone was Adams, who got waived along with Clifford Robinson.
That sure worked out well for the Nets, didn’t it.
The Raptors also signed former New Jersey Net Hassan Adams to be a back-up at the wing position. A noted defender and spectacular dunker, Adams was cut in New Jersey because the Nets were up against the luxury tax threshhold after the 2006-07 season and spent last season playing in Europe.
He wowed the Raptors at a recent free agent camp and earned himself a one-year league minimum contract with a team option for a second year, much like Jamario Moon did last season.
“It’s a great fit for Hassan,” said David Lee, Adams’s agent. “He can lock down ones, twos and threes and will bring the Raptors the kind of toughness they haven’t seen in a while.”
Signing Adams almost certainly means Carlos Delfino, a restricted free agent, won’t be back with Toronto. It’s expected he may return to Europe to play.
The deal was struck after Raptors president-GM Bryan Colangelo and Calderon’s agent, Alvaro Tor, reached an agreement during a late dinner in Toronto after Tor had flown in from Spain.
“Jose is pleased,” Tor said. “This was his first choice, and he wants to stay in Toronto and do big things here.”
The guess is that Calderon will be an even more expensive option for the Raptors, with a contract likely worth $9-million a year over four or five seasons.
Tor said he had “introduced himself” to a few other teams in order to be in position to begin negotiations if the Raptors’ offer wasn’t up to Calderon’s expectations, but it never came to that.
One thing is for sure, the point guard debate is over.
“I salute the Raptors for making a tough decision,” Calderon wrote on his website. “They had two point guards who could really play, and no way to get the most out of both of them. So they swallowed hard, made their pick, and set a new course.”
Previously I labeled Jermaine O’Neal the MOP (Most Overpaid Player) of 2007-08. Although we frequently focus on the winner of any contest, there should be some interest in the player who was MOP runner-up. After all, in the event the reigning MOP cannot fulfill his duties, the runner-up will assume the crown. And who would take on such duties if J. O’Neal faltered? It’s none other than Andrea Bargnani, the new teammate of J. O’Neal.
In addition to being the runner-up MOP, Bargnani was also the L2P (Least Productive Player) of 2007-08. Bargnani – in only 1,861 minutes – produced a (-5.7) wins. Had the Raptors replaced Bargnani with a power forward that produced zero wins, Toronto could have expected to win nearly 54 games this past season.
Still, even if he doesn’t improve at all as a Raptor, he could help Toronto win more games if the minutes given to Bargnani are simply transferred to O’Neal. Specifically, the Raptors are about five wins better replacing Bargnani with O’Neal. And again, that’s without J. O’Neal getting any better.
Unfortunately, one suspects that the Raptors are not going to follow this approach. No, O’Neal’s minutes are probably going to come mostly from Rasho Nesterovic (who departed in the trade for O’Neal). Nestrovic posted a 0.104 WP48 last year, so the Raptors would have to be getting the O’Neal from a few years ago for this move to start to make sense.
In sum – as I noted last January – Colangelo seems to have a knack for finding productive players who are also quite cheap. It’s just the big decisions – trades, free agents signings, and the draft – that seem to cause problems.
Nevertheless – even with the O’Neal trade – the Raptors will still have five productive players in the regular rotation (Chris Bosh, Calderon, Parker, Delfino, and Moon). If O’Neal can return to form – and the team’s efficiency differential and wins move into better alignment (like it is for most every other team) – Toronto should win more games than it did last year. And if Colangelo finds yet another cheap, productive player, perhaps the Raptors can make this O’Neal trade look like a winner.
It probably won’t be, but it might look like one if the team wins more than 41 games in 2008-09.
Potential Problems?
1) Is the Raptors’ personnel going to be used like that this season?
2) Does Bryan Colangelo (GM) know what a great head coach looks like?
3) Is MLSE prepared to pay the price to sign a top flight head coach to run their team, if Sam Mitchell struggles, in this regard?
4) Is MLSE prepared to pay the price to sign the players it takes to fill out roster spots #12-15 properly? (like the Boston Celtics did in 2007-2008, possibly exceeding the Luxury Tax)
5) What is going to happen if/when Calderon, Bosh or O’Neal suffers a serious injury?
The Raptors still have the MLE to throw at a player so we should expect a signing at some point in the summer, hopefully a SF. It’s starting to look like Colangelo’s done acquiring pedestrian talent only to see Sam Mitchell retrofit a roster into a style of play. If we can establish an 8-man rotation and use the DL for what it’s actually designed for, we’ll start to see consistency on this team, regardless of talent level. This should in turn help our defense because it’s on defense that teamwork shows and trust amongst teammates mandated. When the same players play together more often, they automatically develop a better understanding of what each others’ tendencies and capabilities are and are likely to adjust better.
What the Raptors actually did, though, is the one which presents the most risk (comparatively speaking) to the short & long term prospects for success of their team … when coupled with other cost-minimization decisions like (a) signing a low-end Free Agent for roster spot #12 (i.e. Hassan Adams) and early talk of signing only 1 more low-end Free Agent player, prior to the start of training camp, and going into the 2008-2009 season with a tighter playing rotation and a 13-man (NBA minimum-allowed) roster.
With Bargnani most likely the starting small forward (for now) that means that Moon will take his athleticism and hustle to the bench where I think he will be a much better fit. He can come in and block shots and have a few throw downs and not be out there too long and forced into spots of taking bad jumpers. He has the skill set to be a very strong sixth man in the NBA for years to come.
i don’t really know how the shooting guard will play out. I mean AP is the guy I think but based on the playoff run of Jason Kapono maybe he would be the one to start. Granted he is also a great weapon off the bench but he will be a great asset to open up the floor for Bosh and O’Neil. Parker’s D is a lot better so that will most likely be the deciding factor for Mitchell.
So what do the Raptors have? Well, let’s take a look:
Bosh – All star forward finally gets some help up front and some pressure off his shoulders with O’Neal in town.
O’Neal – Has a chance to rejuvenate his career and prove that he’s healthy and ready to return to the form that saw him become a 6-time All Star.
Parker – Entering the final year of his contract and could become a mid-season trading chip depending on what direction the team is going in February. Still a deadly 3-point shooter.
Kapono – Will likely get a chance to start at the beginning of the year and the 1-2 punch of Bosh and O’Neal down low should have defences scrambling to get to the perimeter to cover Kapono.
Calderon – No more PG ‘controversy’. This is his team for the next 4+ years (unofficially). Should continue to excel in the pick and roll game with Bosh.
——————–
Bargnani – Will be looked at as the primary scorer in the 2nd unit. He has a lot to prove this year after a rough year two. Moon – Needs to bring his defensive intensity and energy EVERY night and use his athleticism even more. Could push Kapono for the starter’s job again.
Humphries – Frustrated at times last year … due to inconsistent minutes. With Rasho Nesterovic gone, Hump should see his role increase quite a bit. Needs to hustle and be a banger; not focus on scoring as much.
Ukic – The pressure will be on. It will be a baptism by fire.
Graham – We’ve probably said this for 3 years now: Can he finally live up to his POTENTIAL?
Adams – May be a little undersized at the two-guard and not a good enough ball handler to play the point for any extended amount of time. But he’s a hard worker and apparently has a great attitude and he should simply be thrilled just to be back in the NBA.
Jawai – The great unknown. Has only be playing basketball for about 5-6 years. A BIG body with great hands. Likely not a major player in his rookie season, but who knows if he could be a sleeper that actually finds some minutes here and there in the front court rotation.
So why then has Count Chocula been left out in the cold free agent discussions concerning the Raptors? After all, this is a player who over 40 minutes would have averaged about 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists, not bad therefore as a spark off the bench. Del is a solid defender, one of the best on the perimeter that Toronto had last year, and was also the only Raptor besides Bosh and Ford who at least occasionally made the effort to get to the rim. Based on these facts, shouldn’t he have been a priority for BC and co. starting yesterday?
Unfortunately not. However the rationale behind ignoring Delfino has more to do with the numbers situation facing the Raptors’ than Delfino’s own value. Let’s take a closer look.
I don’t know why B.C. thinks Adams can help this team when he couldn’t even get onto an NBA team and stick with them this past season. He was a very late second round draft pick in 2006 and had a less-than-stellar run with the New Jersey Nets before he was let go. He’s very athletic but I don’t recall him being able to do anything particularly well on the court. He’s just been signed to a minimum scale contract, so it doesn’t affect the mid-level exception but I’m really scratching my head about this one.
Raptors/Calderon comic..
Up in Toronto, another point guard, Jose Calderon, has reached agreement on a new contract with the Toronto Raptors. The Associated Press originally reported that the extension only continued through 2009. But according to the Toronto Star, the Raptors and Calderon agreed on a long-term deal believed to be valued at about $8 million a year.
Former Toronto Raptors forward Jorge Garbajosa, who had surgery on his left leg and ankle in December, expects to be fully healed and available to the team in time for the Olympics.
“I’ve come in training for a number of days with the maximum intensity. I don’t have physical problems,” he said.
In a move to boost Western New York and expand the Toronto Raptors’ fan base, Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Buffalo News Publisher Stanford Lipsey are trying to woo the Raptors here for some preseason — and regular-season — games.
Following efforts begun by Lipsey, Schumer spoke with Raptors Chairman Larry Tannenbaum about the possibility of bringing some National Basketball Association games to HSBC Arena as early as the fall of 2009.
“They’re very eager about having some of their games played in Buffalo,” Schumer said Tuesday while in Wyoming County.
Lipsey said the Raptors are “very interested, and I would expect us to get a preseason game in 2009.”
How about regular-season games?
“I wouldn’t say it’s done, but I think it’s on the table,” Schumer replied.
The proposal comes five months after officials announced that the Buffalo Bills will play five regular-season and three preseason games in Toronto over the next five seasons.
“What got me started on this idea was the Bills,” Lipsey explained.
Lipsey thus joined the ranks of many Bills fans who proposed the same idea about bringing Raptors games here following the announcement of the Bills games in Toronto.
“I think the link between the Bills and Toronto has been an initial success,” Schumer said of the brisk ticket sales and huge interest. “And I think we could have a nice reciprocal relationship with basketball.”
Schumer, who has helped lead the fight to keep the Bills in Buffalo, cited the benefits to both sides of the border in playing some Raptors games here.
The games would bring tourism and entertainment dollars into Buffalo, while also allowing the Raptors to expand their fan base to Western New York, thus encouraging area residents to travel to Toronto to cheer on the Raptors.
Further developing the relationship with our Canadian neighbors is crucial to the future growth of Western New York, Schumer said.
Related posts:
When the Buffalo Braves first began to play a handful of games in Toronto it was a boon to starving NBA aficionados (like me) … but a surefire deathknell to their long term prospects for success as a Western New York-based outfit in the NBA.
Bob McAdoo, Randy Smith, Ernie D., Jim MacMillan, etc. … with Chuck Healy & Van Miller … ahhhh, those were the days …
… which, unfortunately and, inevitably lead to the San Diego/Los Angeles Braves/Clippers.
Raptors playing games in Buffalo is a BAD idea for their rabid Toronto fanbase.