I absolutely love social networking. It is absolutely breathtaking watching reactions unfold right before your eyes about subjects people feel passionate about and as I said in my Downward Dog post, Raptors fans are a passionate lot.
So, while news of Hedo’s decision to hang with his Turkish brethren in Toronto rather than the .. um .. non-Turkish people of Portland hit the online universe, it was incredible to watch reactions from both sides of the fence. Twitter alone was spazzing out and a few of us were waiting to see if Hedo would hit the trending topics along with boobies and fireworks. From the Portland side of the ledger, we had both indignation and relief. They were wondering how the Turkoglu’s could thumb their collective Jackie Christie type noses at a beautiful city (and it is indeed beautiful) to move to Canada but as that wore off a sense of possible relief came rolling in like a fog. They now have their $9mill back to play the stragglers on the market and they no longer have to worry how a 30 year old man will hold up over the course of a 5 year contract (not to mention you’ve seen better defence from a barn with its doors removed).
Now we turn to my favourite creatures: the online Raptor community. Twitter has, so far, been home to cool level-headed Raps fans. Being able to choose who you follow helps, of course, but I don’t get the sense that the Real-GM type jackasses have permeated the Twitterverse yet. This fact alone had me anticipating what was to come. Support? Shock? Awe? Intense debate on what number he should wear and the best pizza joints in Toronto? It should come as no surprise that the answer is all of the above.
You could almost taste the shock. A real honest-to-goodness free agent said no to a team and actually wants to come to Toronto? Shaddap. The virtual high-fives and chestbumps were heard around the world. We is gonna be a contendah, ma! This was followed closely with what truly makes us Canadians: “what’s the catch?”. The answer: 5yrs and upwards of $56million and the fact that we have to renounce the rights to Marion, Parker and Delfino, as well as lose our $5mil mid level. As you can imagine, we went from having a woman-having-sex-with-young-Brad-Pitt type euphoria to a woman-having-sex-with-Carrot-Top type gag reflux. Later still we had people realizing that the Raptors bench could potentially be thinner than the hair on a 40-year old mans head. As the night wore on and as more people stumbled across the news, the overall feeling went from acceptance to WTF just happened to acceptance to Colangelo is a jackass to refusing to accept the future of this franchise being held in the hands of Bargs and Hedo, two players that don’t exactly scream consistency. You know you have to worry when two die hard Raptors bloggers (Dino Nation Blog and RaptorsHQ) hammer out middle of the night tomes that absolutely tear the franchise (no pun intended) a new one. The social network spies at MLSE won’t be printing those pages off for BC’s bathroom reading, that’s for sure.
My take on the trade? First, I’m taking my own advice and chilling. It’s still not a done deal and won’t be until July 8. These next 5 days are now the days that will show Raptors fans what Colangelo is made of. It has to be difficult for him to let Marion go and even more difficult for him to work out a sign and trade. We need to use Marion’s value to help salvage any bench depth on this team. I believe Colangelo will get it done and I believe Marion will actually help facilitate it. Marion owes the Raptors franchise nothing, but he also knows that they can help either get him a payday or help dictate where he ends up.
July 7 at 11:59pm is now the new deadline day for Colangelo. He either gets something in return for guys he will have to give up or he watches them walk away with nothing coming back. We all know that is not likely to happen. So, if the Turkoglu’s decide to call Toronto home as of July 8th, let’s wait until that day to start judging Colangelo and this trade. We all know how important this summer is to this franchise and that alone should give us reason to be patient and let transactions transpire without losing our collective minds.
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Alt, looks like you’ve found your place of peace in the eye of the storm while the rest of us are bing tossed around like ragdolls.
Ugh …. I don’t know what to think right now. If we do sign Hedo then right now we’re fucked when it comes to depth. So, for BC and the Raptors sake I hope this team remains healthy for 82 games next season because if not we’re in bigger trouble than we were last year.
Great write-up today Alt.
Sillz….which is saying something considering I’d normally be ripping BC a new one.
Doc….I think BC learned his lesson last year with a shallow bench. I think he can scoop some half decent help from the market. Will he get game-winners? No, but he’ll get bridge players that can keep the team afloat while the starting 5 are off the floor. I’m anticipating not as much of a dropoff as last year.
I still have a feeling we sign & trade Marion with Orlando and they flip him somewhere.
.-= AltRaps´s last blog ..Well, you wanted action. =-.
The raptors can’t use marion to sign and trade unless its to orlando for Hedo. In order to sign hedo the raptors have to renounce marion, delfino and Parker
Steve, that is exactly what I said in my comment “I still have a feeling we sign & trade Marion with Orlando and they flip him somewhere.” I was alluding to a Marion/Hedo transaction.
And we don’t have to renounce all. We can s&t them all as long as we don’t take additional salary back. Only restriction is it needs to be in place by July 8, if we do indeed sign Hedo.
.-= AltRaps´s last blog ..Well, you wanted action. =-.
I’m taking your advice and am gonna do doggy-style until July 8th, then either praise or rip BC…
.-= Raps Fan´s last blog ..Turkoglu heading to Toronto =-.
hedo found out when he flew to portland that the place is a sxit.
that’s what he got from listening to his magic teammate gortat
who is polish and who said portland is the same as poland !
Arsenalist has written a good article on the CAP mess on the Republic site.
BC had to choice but to go to the Turk @ the last minute as Marion would not sign with the Raptors for less than 5/$50.
Turkoglu is a much better value for 5/$53 as he can do many more things to effect the Raptors offense and defense than Marion.
Johnn19, “Marion would not sign with the Raptors for less than 5/$50″ is pure bullshit. I repeat, pure bullshit. There is no truth to that whatsoever. If you have something, feel free to show it.
um….okay.
Great post. I agree with the patience that is needed before anyone fully digests this deal. BC would have to be a total nut to go for this knowing his first options off the bench would be Evans/Ukic/Hump (yikes!). Hedo would equally have to be nuts to join a team as top heavy when he had a chance to be a contender down in Portland, regardless of his wife's preference (yes, I know they do hold a certain power, ask Antonio Davis or Chris Pronger…). This deal with a creative play to get 2 decent bench players = great success, and a bold move for Bosh to let soak in when determining his future. This deal as is, with a crap bench = a sign that BC may be going mental, and Bosh already arranging to moving trucks to New York as we speak…
I'm all for players looking after family. I was one of the few that had no issues with Antonio leaving for the reasons he stated.
Colangelo has other balls in the air, one has to hope. If not, we truly need to be concerned about the direction of this franchise under his leadership.
your a jack ass!
Solid post.
It looks like the Marion sign-and-trade is up in the air at this point, so I really want to withold judgment, too. I'm not excited, though. Really worried about how much he'll be giving us at 34, 35 years of age when he's still making $10-11 million.
this coming from someone who can't even come up with a good user name.
I sure will take that to heart.
To hang out with like minded individuals, feel free to go to realgm….they are more on your level.
Thanks.
The tail end of the deal is incredibly worrisome. We'll see.