With 10 players under contract, and only one true center, Solomon Alabi, the Raptors need some depth fast. Barring the Raptors winning the free agency sweepstakes and landing Marc Gasol, Casey needs some bigs to throw into the mix.
With Bargnani shifting to power forward, Amir will need all the help he can get in the middle. It’s not as desperate as you might imagine with him being undersized and all. It’s a different league/game, and with only a handful of true big centers (Howard, Bogut, Bynum, Gasol), Amir should be able to build on his career year from last year.
Magloire used to be a good center in the NBA, an all-star in 2003-2004, but has seen his game deteriorate every year since. Culminating in playing only 157 total minutes for the Heat; a team that lacked a center of any sort.
Best case scenario: Hometown boy is the newest spokesmen for Rexdale Hyundai, and provides a big body to bang against in practice.
Worst case scenario: No real downside, the team will still need to sign a couple more players to field a full squad and his contract comes off the books for the 2012 free agency period.
I much rather prefer this move than handing Nene a max/near-max contract; please don’t give Nene a massive contract, please!
The games begin tomorrow, should be an exciting week or so before camp gets underway.
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