First off, thanks to everybody who participated in the live draft blog, those who stayed through the whole 5 hours and the ones who swung by for 20 minutes. It was fun.
After a night of wheeling and dealing in New York where the Raptors were hardly involved in anything, there is a new light being shone on the TJ Ford for Jermaine O’Neal trade and it’s this: We were most definitely overvaluing the 17th pick to a degree almost dangerous. The fact is that Donte Greene (#28) and CDR’s (#40) stock fell so low that picking them with the 17th pick would’ve been ludicrous. Brandon Rush’s stock rose so high that he became a lottery pick at #13, well beyond our reach. Even Robin Lopez was out of our reach as he went #15.
When our pick finally came Roy Hibbert was still available and I suppose you could make a case that it would’ve been wise for us to draft him (assuming the O’Neal trade hadn’t been made) and address our rebounding need. However, I’d much rather have Jermaine O’Neal than Hibbert simply because he’s a legit former All-Star, lends credibility to the franchise, increases our PINP numbers and provides Bosh help. The way O’Neal’s been talking it looks like he’s over his injuries and that the rest and rehab have done the work. I’m willing to roll the dice with him knowing that there’s no way we could’ve landed the prized Brandon Rush in the draft. Anyway, here’s O’Neal’s quote:
“They have a ton of talent…When I sat out all those games last year, it was a career move, I knew what the situation was. I knew what the significance of me staying away from the game, rehabbing the leg and getting the knee back to its normal usage was. “I think playing alongside Chris Bosh gives us a different dynamic. You look at teams in the NBA, you look at their low-post players, and they always have one good player, and when that good player goes out, you can change your defence a little bit and load up on other areas. Even with us starting out the games together, one of us will always be on the floor. You won’t get a chance to adjust your defence.”
From the same article a mysterious source reported that we could’ve done a Gerald Wallace for TJ Ford deal and retained our 17th pick – more on that here.
The heartbreak of the night had to be CDR being taken with the 40th pick just before Indiana’s selection on our behalf. Those c*nty Nets traded Richard Jefferson and replaced him with CDR and Yi, shrewd indeed. I don’t think the Raptors were targeting someone in particular and were content on just about anybody falling to them, that’s the only thing that can explain us taking Nathan Jawai – the Aussie Shaq – despite having a plethora of big men. We also passed on Bill Walker in the second round who eventually wound up being taken by Washington and traded to the Celtics. The second round was marred by our inability to get more athletic despite some good, serviceable players available.
This is probably a good segue to the Dave Feshuk piece today which hints that Bryan Colangelo isn’t all that he’s cranked up to be and that the O’Neal trade is almost an act of desperation.
Indiana had a great draft, adding Brandon Rush and Roy Hibbert to a team with TJ Ford, Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy means they’ve got a nucleus they can build around and maybe rise to semi-contention within a year or two. What’s funny about Brandon Rush is that his and CDR’s games were constantly compared during the pre-draft camps, workouts and just about everywhere else. But once it was all said and done, 27 picks separated the two – a true testament to how good he can be and how clueless us fans really are.
There were many athletic players available in the late first round and early second round but the Raptors chose to remain dormant. They might regret this inactivity because Bill Walker and CDR could’ve easily been had, the latter with minimal amount of maneuvering. As it is, the Raptors select Nathan Jawai, another center who is expected to play for us next year. Bringing him over means he’ll be the fourth string big man behind O’Neal, Bargnani and Humphries. Adding another big man to the roster while not addressing the SF position means that its more and more likely that if Bargnani wants consistent playing time it’s going to happen at the 3 (topic for another day). Didn’t quite understand this pick but it is what it is, a second round pick and if you look at the history of Raptors drafting they’ve never actually come out with anything remotely good in the second round.
Mike Miller who a lot of Raptors fans had an eye on is on the move to Minnesota for a package involving O.J Mayo. The Knick fans soundly booed the selection of Danilo Gallinari, the fear of him being the next Andrea Bargnani is just too much to bear. The Houston Rockets drafted Frenchman Nicolas Batum and promptly shipped him over for Joey Dorsey who in this observer’s opinion will be a rebounding stalwart for years to come.
There’s no doubt that this was a draft with some great athletes, some surefire good players and some sleepers. What makes me feel better about giving up our pick is that the player I valued most was gone four spots earlier. That’s my saving grace. We’ve rolled the dice on Jermaine O’Neal, our hopes of contending next season rely solely upon his health, how well he plays with Bosh and whether our shooters can get cleaner looks. This draft was an opportunity to get more athletic and better our perimeter defense which we failed to do. Bryan Colangelo’s perception of the draft couldn’t have been that great, at least not as good as Portland’s or Houston’s, two contending teams who felt that this was an opportunity to better themselves and made moves which improved them. The Raptors were content with Jermaine O’Neal. Hopefully they’ve just deferred the improvement of this team to summer signings and trades because this can’t be it.
As of right now our roster simply cannot run the break and get easy points nor can we defend the perimeter. It’s not like with TJ Ford we were Phoenix East, but replacing him with O’Neal who is strictly a half-court player and putting the ultra-cautious Calderon at the helm slows our offense down to an absolute crawl. Roko Ukic, if brought in, might be able to change that to some degree but I hope Colangelo realizes that this team will need to be better in the half-court sets and for that you need a creative X’s and O’s coach, which we all know Mitchell isn’t.
I can live with us being a half-court team that runs everything through Calderon => Bosh or Calderon => O’Neal, but at some point we’ll have to address our perimeter defense and athleticism and it better happen this summer, otherwise this mega-trade is all for naught.
Once again, thanks for swinging by last night.
