Serge Ibaka. If you haven’t heard that name before, remember this blog as the one that told you about him. On Day 1 of the Euro Camp he was the guy that people couldn’t take their eyes off of; this prompted a salivating Fran Fraschilla (European hoops guru apparently) to utter the generic hyperbolic complement that makes you go Whaaat? How come I never heard of this guy??:
“If he were in high school in the U.S., he’d be the No. 1 prospect in the country.”
Chew on that McDonalds All-Americans.
Let’s turn our attention back to fantasy trades because lets face it, they are what keep the summer chugging along and without them we’re struggling like fish out of water. Here’s the proposition: trade #17 + TJ Ford + expiring for Dwayne Wade. Let that thought sink in. Sinking…sinking….sunk. His stock isn’t high right now and we’d be taking a gamble because of his injuries but what do we have to lose? TJ Ford and a pick? We’ll get a legitimate scorer (possible #1 on the team) and become the second best backcourt in the East behind Boston. It sends Chris Bosh a clear message that the franchise is doing what it can to win now and pumps the team up for next season.
Assuming we get some rebounding help through the draft and Bargnani returns to his rookie form, we’ll be alright. Am I losing my mind? I don’t think so. Wade can deny all the trade rumours he wants but he needs a change of scenery more than anyone in the league and I don’t care what Miami does this summer, they’re too tied down to Shawn Marion’s salary and a plethora of crappy players to be competitive next year. I’m looking at this through Danny Ainge glasses here so forgive me for being too bold. Once we have him in the bag, let’s try to land Richard Jefferson by dangling some expiring contracts and maybe a future first rounder. Kiki’s team is moving to Brooklyn and you know they’ll be wanting to make a run at Deron Williams or Chris Paul to lead them there – he’ll gladly tank a year as long as it means saving some dough. Now, we have RJ, Wade and Bosh – our own “Big 3”! So there! I’m not saying Miami would bite on this but its a path worth exploring.
Hoopsworld which is making a real habit of pulling stuff out of their arses is saying TJ Ford for Corey Maggette is one of the most likely trades this summer. You know its slow when blogs are reporting trade rumours started by other blogs. Jamal Crawford would be a nice addition but something tells me his 40% FG isn’t going to sit right with Colangelo, at least not right enough to give up TJ Ford for him. On the flip side, the Knicks have little motivation to trade one of the few players who produces well and plays hard for them.
The folks at Raptor Talk (not to be confused with Raptors Talk) inform us that raptors.com has completely deleted the Chuck Checks In archives from their website. They’ve also got a nice picture of Hazel Mae who always struck me as being in the GFFFFG category. Swirsky has resumed his blogging on the Bulls site.
CDR impressed the Nets in his workout but they’re not ballsy enough to take him at #10 and he’s not going to be there at #21. Its a dilemma. If Rush isn’t there, we should pounce on him.
The Chicago and Phoenix job openings have made us recall names that were seemingly gone from memory: Jeff Hornacek, Chuck “The Rifleman” Person, Vinny del Negro, Tyrone Corbin…I almost expected Joe Wolf’s name to pop up. Jerry Reinsdorf’s taking a lot of heat for not grabbing Doug Collins but I’m with him on that. Collins is a great analyst but not a good coach – at least not for this era. His demeanor is too hard-nosed and he doesn’t relate to NBA players as he should, his dismissals from Detroit and Washington were because of the same reason: a little too intense for the modern NBA player.
And that’s your Raptors blog for this morning. I leave you with the Steven Seagal emotion chart.
