What Center Should BC Pursue Now?

[Quixotic]

Chris Kaman or in a high risk move, Greg Oden.

I'm with you on the high risk move, but it would obviously depend on what we'd have to give up. Buying him at the value he's at now, with his injuries and foul problems, would be worth it, but not if Portland wants us to reimburse them as if he's a legit #1 overall pick.

[Dinger]

If I might ask, who says Colangelo was necessarily looking for a centre? He's been stacking the team with big men, and there's no point to keeping all of them. Has it occurred to anyone that this was less about getting Diaw / Chandler and more about moving Calderon?

It's not like another team is going to trade PGs with us. Wouldn't it seem reasonable to stock the team with marketable commodities in the hope that we'll be able to use one or two of them (and our PTE) to get a solid starting PG?

Safe bet we don't need seven bigs. I think BC was just moving the undesirable pieces, and the acquisitions would come later. IMO anyway....

Yes it is true that we have a log jam of bigs, but none of which are a true center that can body up other dominant centers around the league. I cannot even remember before JO the last time we had such a player, ( and yes i realize he didnt pan out to say the least). The point is we we really need someone to rip down boards and block shots to coexist with our other more athletic bigs.

[daveyboy]

Yes it is true that we have a log jam of bigs, but none of which are a true center that can body up other dominant centers around the league.

I assume by this you mean a "center" that rebounds and plays help defence. Bargnani bodies up 1 on 1 with other big men quite well.

I'm not sure where the idea comes from that Tyson Chandler is not available now that he is on the Mavericks. You people do realize the Mavs just signed Brendan Haywood to a 55 million dollar deal to play the exact same position Chandler does right? As Haywood now has a BYC he basically cannot be traded. That leaves Chandler who coincidentally has an expiring. He will be traded, probably not right away but certainly by the deadline.

[Mr.Grinch]

i think trading someone or using the TPE for Greg Oden? he is a very good defenesive player.

[mo-sales]

Oden is the biggest high risk, high reward player since Bill Walton. I'd be down to use the TPE on him as he makes a pretty big salary and Portland has Camby locked up for three more years. I could see Portland moving on with the failed Oden era and shipping him out.

[ibzilla]

i think trading someone or using the TPE for Greg Oden? he is a very good defenesive player.

perfect fit...lots of upside and relatively cheap

Greg Oden was playing like an all star before he injured himself. Is he an injury risk? Yes but the risk is little. Its not like the Raptors are contending now that the trio in Miami have locked the championship for the next 5 years

[Tim W.]

.... and one of the worst defences in the history of the NBA.

...which was not all the fault of the PGs. Again, if you're going to blame anyone, you have to blame everyone. If you want to pinpoint, having a big man who is below average defensively is probably the biggest killer to any defense.

[Prime]

To OP:
Simple, the answer is none.

We still have a big hole at SF since Kleiza is obviously not starter material. A nice deal for a starting SF is where BC should prioritize before making any other moves.

[Frankthetank]

Pryzbilla's the perfect defensive centre to play with Bargni. Look at his stats they're better then chandlers on the rebound and block side.
He basically average 8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game in 22-25 minutes a game. Besides being white he's a perfect fit for bargni. Also depends how he recovers from his injury.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/player...s?playerId=682

[Hassan]

from what ive herd hornets fans are mor eager to get rid of stojakovich he wouldnt be the bad because his contract expires this season so i want a collison+stojakovich for jose plus evans

[hateslosing]

The Raptors already have a center. Bargnani. No one has yet been able to make even a reasonable argument why Bargnani is not a center. Now if you're talking about getting a replacement for Bargnani, then I'm all for that.



Yes, Jack and Calderon were so much of a failure last season that they ran one of the best offenses in the entire league. If your logic holds true, the Raptors have to trade every single member of the Raptors.

It's not about putting a center with him, it's about putting a very strong rim protector beside him. The reason people say center is that the best rim protectors in the league almost always play the center position. If Josh Smith, Andrei Kirelenko, or Gerald Wallace were options, that would be ideal but it seems far more likely that we could get Dalembert or some other center to take some of the pressure of Bargs on the defensive end. You will probably respond by saying that Bargs will just end up being burned by the four we move him to guard, but we can't know that until he is actually moved to that position, which he has never played.

[Marz]

I agree with the "none" answer. I'm quite content with the PF/Cs we have now. The only issue is our logjam at PG with Jack/Calderon/Barbosa. A Barbosa+Belinelli package could yield a decent 3 in a trade imo. No reason to go after a centre.

Raptors' current depth chart:

PG: Jose/Jack/Barbosa/Banks
SG: DeRozan/Weems/Belinelli/Jack/Barbosa
SF: Linas Kleiza/Weems
PF: Amir Johnson/Ed Davis/Kleiza/Reggie Evans/Dorsey
C: Andrea Bargnani/Solomon Alabi/Amir Johnson

You trade Barbosa+Belinelli (+Reggie?) for a decent 3 (we'll call him Bob for now):

PG: Jose/Jack/Banks
SG: DeRozan/Weems/Jack
SF: Bob/Kleiza/Weems
PF: Amir Johnson/Ed Davis/Kleiza/Reggie Evans/Dorsey
C: Andrea Bargnani/Solomon Alabi/Amir Johnson

Or perhaps a S&T for Josh Howard with the wizards (I don't think he's landed anywhere yet).

[vinnie_paz]

dwayne jones !

[Introcollapse]

Has it occurred to anyone that this was less about getting Diaw / Chandler and more about moving Calderon?

Thank you for being the one person here speaking some sense. We just invested money in Amir, and Bargnani's got years of big money left. I can't see BC moving either of those two, so why in the world would he pick up replacements?

All we're trying to do is move Jose. We're thin at the small forward position. If anything, we should be shooting for one of those.