A List Of Suitable Centers For Raptors

[Raptor4Ever]

With all the talks surrounding Okafor and his contract and whether or not this is the best option available for Raptors, I started to think who else is out there that can fill the role.

I think we all agree that for Raptors to be competitive, they need a Center who is a great rebounder and a defender.


First ,from the centers that are in the league right now, who do we think fits this needs?
Second, Which one of your list do you think might become available ?


This is my list:

Okafor , Tyson Chandler, Nene, Perkins, Mark Gasol

From this list, I think the only player that might become available is Okafor as the rest.

Can we carry our TPE to another year or does it expire at the end of the year ?

[ceez]

expires at the trade deadline, from my understanding.

[DemarDaChosen]

Nene's going nowhere @ least until his contracts up, and even then I doubt he leaves Denver. Tyson Chandler is a Mav for @ least a year. Perkins is hurt for the next little while, in the final year of his contract (on a contender, no less) - cant see him being dealt. Marc Gasol is as close to untouchable a player as the Grizzlies have..... so that leaves.... Okafor (who I've seen discussed ad naseum)

Would love to see the Raptors make a play for Marcin Gortat, if we could pry him from Orlando's cold hands that is....(doubtful).

He should be on your list.

[Raptor4Ever]

Demar
I agree with everything you said. I am not very familiar with Gortat's play. How is he defensively ?
Can he carry a load as a starter because who ever we want, needs to be a starter, a guy who can defend well against the starting centers of the league while getting 10+ rebound a night.

[MangoKid]

Okay, here we go:

Okafor - Has the longest contract out of all the guys mentioned. Also one of the worst contracts. He's only 27, but it's like he's going on 47. If his annual salary was 9 mil a year, I'd definitely look into it. His contract in all essence, cripple any financial flexibility and he's not exactly a game changer.
Tyson Chandler - Love his game, his contract expires. Only problem with Chandler is that he's good for a few injuries a year.
Nene - Has injury concerns himself and has stated that when his contract is up, he's going to quit basketball and devote his life to his church in Brazil. The Nuggets are short handed up front as it is, so I can't see them parting with Nene
Perkins - Did you not see the injury he suffered in teh finals? He's gone for quite some time.
Marc Gasol - Out of all the names, I'd take him simply because I think he'd stick in Toronto for quite some time. Only problem is that if we're a running team, he'd be hard pressed to keep up because he isn't too swift. We'd also have to give up quite a bit to secure his services.

[MangoKid]

Demar
I agree with everything you said. I am not very familiar with Gortat's play. How is he defensively ?
Can he carry a load as a starter because who ever we want, needs to be a starter, a guy who can defend well against the starting centers of the league while getting 10+ rebound a night.

Gortat is solid. You shouldn't expect him to be a superstar. At best, he's a 10 and 8 guy.

[LBF]

wait until decmeber and there will be teams that are looking to dump salary like washington. could get blatche,mcgee.

[MangoKid]

wait until decmeber and there will be teams that are looking to dump salary like washington. could get blatche,mcgee.

I can't see Washington giving up Blatche or McGee unless they got a real sweetheart deal. They've stuck by Blatche for so many years and he showed what he could do last season. He's also a PF. McGee got named to the USA basketball team (because every other American 5 was injured or non-committal), so the Wiz might consider that an asset and want to hang onto him (dumb reason, I know)

[Gats]

Any of Portland's bigs (Oden, Pryzbila & Camby) would be a good fit. Again, not sure about health or availability, but they all fit.

[DoNDaDDa]

Okay, here we go:

Okafor - Has the longest contract out of all the guys mentioned. Also one of the worst contracts. He's only 27, but it's like he's going on 47. If his annual salary was 9 mil a year, I'd definitely look into it. His contract in all essence, cripple any financial flexibility and he's not exactly a game changer.
Tyson Chandler - Love his game, his contract expires. Only problem with Chandler is that he's good for a few injuries a year.
Nene - Has injury concerns himself and has stated that when his contract is up, he's going to quit basketball and devote his life to his church in Brazil. The Nuggets are short handed up front as it is, so I can't see them parting with Nene
Perkins - Did you not see the injury he suffered in teh finals? He's gone for quite some time.
Marc Gasol - Out of all the names, I'd take him simply because I think he'd stick in Toronto for quite some time. Only problem is that if we're a running team, he'd be hard pressed to keep up because he isn't too swift. We'd also have to give up quite a bit to secure his services.

i agree with everything u said but, even if were an up tempo running team it means nothing if we dont get the def. rebound. so id prefer my center to be under or around the glass to get a board rather then leak out on a fast break anyways, leave that stuff for weems,johnson & demar.

also there are teams that will shut down our running game so we still need some guys who can score in the post & set screens & so on.

[MangoKid]

Any of Portland's bigs (Oden, Pryzbila & Camby) would be a good fit. Again, not sure about health or availability, but they all fit.

Pryzbila is the likely candidate to be moved, but the Blazers know they have an asset in him, so they won't let him go for cheap.

[DemarDaChosen]

wait until decmeber and there will be teams that are looking to dump salary like washington. could get blatche,mcgee.

Neither are going anywhere as they're both still under reasonable contracts, and along with Wall, are the building blocks of the franshise.

Gortat is fantastic defensively and would be a bargain @ 5.5 million if he started (which he obviously wont, due to Dwight Howard) - 4 pts 5 reb and a blk in just over 13 min last year..... we could double his playing time, gain a solid defensive presence, and still have enough minutes for the young bigs to develop. I would imagine he'll grow tired of his minimal role in Orlando as he obviously is capable of being a much bigger piece elsewhere... hence him wanting to sign with Dallas last offseason before having the offer matched by Orlando.

[Raptorfanatic]

I like Gortat at $6.7 Mil. But how about Samual Dalembert now that the Kings have Cousins?

[MangoKid]

I like Gortat at $6.7 Mil. But how about Samual Dalembert now that the Kings have Cousins?

Unless we're giving them the Bosh TPE, I don't see how the Kings would want anything we have. ANd I don't know about giving up the Bosh TPE for Dalembert. Yuck.

[DoNDaDDa]

if we could manage to land gortat or dalembert id be more then satisfied.

[DemarDaChosen]

Also, whats with this insistence on a Center that can run ? lol

There's not many of them in the league and if you look @ our lineup as presently constructed, and rumours that the young guns will play w/ Jack off the bench, I dont really see us having that sort of offence on the first unit. The run and gun will come off of the bench primarily and provide us a change of pace when it's needed.

Jose is a half court point guard, Bargnani's offence isnt exactly fast break and Klieza is a spot shooter more than an attacking wing. Add in whatever Centre is on your wish list, be it Gortat or Emeka and that leaves Barbosa as the only true "run and gun" guy on the first unit.

It's not a bad makeup, since we could (in theory) play 2 different paces and change our approach/lineup when needed.

[LBF]

Neither are going anywhere as they're both still under reasonable contracts, and along with Wall, are the building blocks of the franshise.

Gortat is fantastic defensively and would be a bargain @ 5.5 million if he started (which he obviously wont, due to Dwight Howard) - 4 pts 5 reb and a blk in just over 13 min last year..... we could double his playing time, gain a solid defensive presence, and still have enough minutes for the young bigs to develop. I would imagine he'll grow tired of his minimal role in Orlando as he obviously is capable of being a much bigger piece elsewhere... hence him wanting to sign with Dallas last offseason before having the offer matched by Orlando.

wait until the season starts and they'll be blowing up their team.

[Raptor4Ever]

Any of Portland's bigs (Oden, Pryzbila & Camby) would be a good fit. Again, not sure about health or availability, but they all fit.

I like Pryzbila and I also think that he will be moved. Portland can really use the TPE and unload some of their unwanted Salaries.
Now, Is Pryzbila a starting center quality in this league ?

[Raptor4Ever]

wait until decmeber and there will be teams that are looking to dump salary like washington. could get blatche,mcgee.

McGee is too young and too cheap for Washington to let go now. Blatche is a PF. We need a real starting Center.

Plus, Blatche is not good defensively and has shown that he tends to be quite lazy when it comes to defense.

[MangoKid]

Not to mention the attitude Blatche has. It sucks.