Rapcast #134: The Doctor Is In – Terrence Ross’ Value, Bargnani’s Navel, My Bro Knows College Ball

by Steve Gennaro February 19, 2013

This week on The Doctor is In with Phdsteve, I look back the All-Star festivities and ask if Terrence Ross was worth the top ten pick in the 2012 draft in addition to thinking deeply about what’s inside Andrea Bargnani’s navel? In “Xs and Os, Jimmy’s and Joes” I build on Blake’s great article breaking down the Raptors playoff chances and look at the remaining Raptors schedule and the tall task ahead of the Raps in the quest to rise in the standings to .500 record and the #8 seed in the East.

My brother Mike swings by to talk College and we spend 30 minutes! previewing the top 10 teams in college ball with the new segment “My Brother Knows College Basketball” that starts with a great soundbyte of Bobby Knight telling off the media! And how could I do a podcast in trade deadline week without some crazy nonsense about trading Andrea- so I climb “Inside Colangelo’s Brain” to see if he has heard about my proposal of trading whatever it takes to get Dwight Howard.

Grab the iTunes feed or the plain old feed. You can also download the file (57:18, 27MB). Or just listen below:

Lino Dinardo

so why give away Andrea, Ross, and Fields, I don’t understand your logic here Doc. Dwight will not resign here. He has his choice to pick anywhere to play. Very HIGH risk where if he walks and he will, we will have NOTHING to show and lose a fan favorite in Ross. Cash in to what?… I’m not even that enamored with Dwight.. he has been nothing but problems for the magic and now lakers. He looks uninterested. Crazy suggestion.
- cb
  
  “dwight re sign here”? ???? what? you can only re-sign if you’ve already signed before… duh.
DumbassKicker

No endorsement at all for Bargs, but to answer the basic question posed: “who wants to spend $10M on a 6th man?” Spurs, OKC, two *ahem* pretty good teams.

Trade Bargs (unload), Fields, AND Ross, AND a #1 (“if LA wants”) for a 2 month rental of Dwight?????? Steve, ya gotta be kidding, right? Have you heard the latest “news” that Dwight’s priority this summer is to sign with a team that will contend for a ring? This has to be a joke.

PS. Walton hasn’t been with the Lakers for almost a year.
- raptors phdsteve
  
  thanks for letting me know- I just went back and listened to the podcast and you are right about Walton- the point I was trying to make here is that LAL would like to dump some salary here in a deal that nets them a player to start and the example I was referring to was the deal that sent Walton to Cle for Sessions. Cleveland wanted the draft pick but LAL was able to shed a dead contract in the process of making the deal happen. Sometime I speak so fast that my brian says something but my lips dont make it happen.
- sleepz
  
  The Spurs or OKC would want Andrea? Or are you referring to Manu and K. Mart?
  
  Those 2 teams are contenders and have solid infrastructures. Both those players fit their team and are significant contributors for their respective squads.
  
  Why have I been reading reports that indicate they may have to try and trade him in the off-season cuz there are no worthwhile deals for him?
  
  I thought BC told the fanbase he gets offers for Andrea all the time? Even after he got hurt he said there were deals on the table but teams wanted to see him healthy again. What BC probably meant to say and just forgot to inform us, is that he gets offers for him all the time….. they are just s**t offers.
  
  BC “asset management” at its finest.
  - raptors phdsteve
    
    on the point about 6th man:
    
    although Kevin Martin hasnt started a game this year in OKC- he averages 30mins a night- thats not really 6th man #s. just saying. And as for Manu- he could start on almost any team in the league- thats just Pops being Pops.
  - DumbassKicker
    
    I don’t believe I heard any qualifiers to the questioned posed in the Rapcast: “who wants to spend $10M on a 6th man?”. So, you think the question really meant:
    
    - non-contending teams
    - teams that don’t have solid infrastructures
    - 6th men that don’t fit their team and are not significant contributors for their respective squads.
    ????????????????????
    
    That’s expanding the discussion to qualify the player’s fit, to say nothing of opening up full scale evaluations of the organization’s quality of infrastructure as a qualifier. Valid discussions in their own contexts, but not part of the question posed, which was rather simply put.
    
    As far as your rant about “s**t offers” and “BC “asset management” at its finest.”, I’m glad you got that off you’re chest (all the other rants failed?), but I can only shake my head at the applicability to answering what was a pretty clear and basic question posed, without how ever many qualifiers you wish to attach.
Szhornitsky

Please stop the Howard nonsense talk.
raptors phdsteve

as for Dwight- I spoke about getting him here in last weeks podcast and the podcsat the week before with Zarar where I more clearly lay out the argument- but the basics are:

1) the Raps will have to overpay for any big name player
2) their best chance of getting a top10 guy is to trade for him
3) the most cost effective way to make a deal like this is to trade for a guy entering FA who looks like he is going to leave his existing team and where the perception is that your team will have no chance of resigning him either.

will Dwight leave TO in the summer- ya, maybe- but if you dont trade for him, will he come here as a FA (even if you had max room)- not a chance!

Once you get him here- and he plays with Lowry and Rudy and Demarr- and gets loved and welcomed by an entire country- and realizes TO is the 4th largest market in North America- and plays in Dwayne Casey’s system which made Tyson Chandler legit and would make Dwight a monster- you’d have to believe he would like being here.

Look, its a gamble- but Colangelo is a gambler and well, he has to gamble big here if he wants to take this team to the next level.

I understand why you dont make this deal- Im just saying, if it was me, I’d lay it all on the line to add a guy of Dwight’s caliber.
- 511
  
  Hm. Haven’t listened as yet, but gathering what you’re talking about here … and specifically, to the last line in your post – “if it was me I’d lay it all on the line …” – it’s hard for me to believe you’d actually do that if you could. Personally, I never liked Howard all that much. Talented? Yes. A force to be reckoned with? Absolutely. But … a head case? Very-much-YES … imo. Thought it was a bad idea for the Lakers to go get him and for my money, it’d be a worse idea to trade all that it sounds that you would for a rental in the hopes that he’d fall in luuuv with T.O. and the Raps. No. To all of it.
  
  (That said, your efforts to do a podcast and offer it up here is appreciated. Glad you do them. So … you know, thanks.)
unknown guest

Dwight is a Jim Buss signing much like AB is BC’s 1st round pick.

I don’t see either on letting go. I hope I’m wrong, but when BC “intentionally” hinted at AB being traded away–AB’s stock just went so low that it may actually be better to keep him until his contract runs out than trade him away for someone else’s headaches/headcase(s).
Jamshid

Great PodCast PHDSteve and welcome back
You were missed here this season .
- raptors phdsteve
  
  Thanks for the kind words- its great to be back….and thanks to all those who took the time to listen. 55 mins is a commitment! Having said that, I think it was a pretty good podcast and I thought Mike’s work on the NCAA was spot on! Thanks again Mike!
  - Jamshid
    
    We missed you all season so the 55 minute was a treat. Looking forward to the next one.
hater

What ridiculous team and GM.
JimmyJohnson

The awesome part of Steve’s podcast is that it doesn’t have to make any sense in order to be fantastic.
- raptors phdsteve
  
  agreed!