Jump Ball - The NBA Off-Season To Date...

Howland, I agree with a lot of what you say - especially about Mo Pete being the one to blame for his lack of PT last year and not being resigned - but I have to take issue with this, in the discussion about Kapono:

"Bargs, Parker, Garbo and to a lesser degree Delfino and Graham can all hit from the land beyond. If Ford and Calderon could hit consistently shooting won't be an issue for this team."

This describes exactly why we need someone like Kapono. Yes, Bargs and Parker can shoot the 3, but we need more from them offensively, in terms of variety and involvement, this year than for them to chuck 3s.

Garbajosa was a streaky 3-point shooter - who admittedly improved through the year, but we need him as a backup 4 rather than a 3 offensively.

And the rest of those names (Ford, Calderon, Graham, Delfino) are guys who shouldn't be taking ANY 3-point attempts unless they're completely open, and should all average no more than 1 attempt per game without vast improvements in their shooting.

They're all right around 30% from 3-point land for their careers, and all of them have other parts of their offensive games that are vastly superior to their outside shooting (driving and passing for Jose and TJ, Delfino as the slasher, Graham using his strength to take it to the hoop and crash the boards when he's not being bad/timid Joey).

I agree that I'm not totally sold on the amount of money in Kapono's contract... However, as has been said before, we paid to get the best guy in the league at a skill we sorely need - high-percentage, rather than high-volume, 3-point shooting to open the floor without tying up Bargnani and Parker. Even if Kapono turns out to be an average defender and rebounder he'll be a bargain, especially because he seems to be the type to fit in perfectly with the team's existing chemistry.

The trick now will be for Sam to figure out how to balance PT with such a deep lineup. Can we bring in Hubie Brown to mentor him on the 10-man rotation, with Chris Bosh playing the role of Pau Gasol? :-)

The raps have improved but so has everyone else, it's going to be a great battle this year in the atlantic and the east.

Been enjoying "game in an hour"s on raps tv. From those, joey g doesn't look that bad. He always played better when the team was in control of the game. Anyone know if Bargnani's italian games are going to be televeised, rapsTV or otherwise?

Great article. The east will look a lot different this season. Anticipation builds...

I am more optimistic about the Jason Kapono signing. The Lenovo statistics indicate that he has one of the highest Miami +/-, especially for 2 and 3 player combinations. These statistics indicate that he can play effectively with a number of different players, and they add some credence to his reputation for good team defence.

Compare his Lenovo statistics with Morris Peterson's. Mo Pete was at the bottom of Toronto's +/-. I think that Colangelo expects that Kapono will be a huge improvement over Peterson and Mitchell will find ways to use his strong point guards to maximize this advantage.

I have heard that Kapano is a decent team defender (although not a strong individual defender) and obviously his 3 point shooting will help the real issue I have is related to the team as it exists before his signing. As we all discussed earlier about Joey, he needs a chance to get better. He showed late last season that he could be more consistent and he vastly improved his game. Unfortunately in the playoffs he looked completely lost (being sick was partially to blame but others sucked it and he should have too). That being said, if you weren't going to trade him for a piece then the signing of Kapano doesn't make sense when you combine it with the trade for Delfino. There are only so many minutes to go around and if your starters are going to be Bosh and Bargs at the 4/5 and Parker and Ford at the 1/2, who starts at the 3? Delfino, Kapano, Garbajosa and Joey can all play the position and when you throw Humphries and Rasho as backups to the 4 (along with Garbs) there is massive log jam for playing time. This is one of the reasons that Darko is still struggling after so long. He was stuck on the bench for the better part of 3 seasons in Detroit and only started getting burn last year. Who knows whether he will ever produce down the road in his career because he wasted away during the years most players are getting time(either in college or on crappy NBA teams). Joey is now in a similar boat. His leash will be short and he will constently have someone breathing down his neck for playing time. If it works then its great for everyone.....ooops wait it worked and now we are over paying Kapano to be a 7th or 8th man. See where I am going with this.
In a nut shell, the Raps have tied themselves to a 4/5 year deal for a player who may end up being a 7th or 8th man and at about 6 mil per year making him almost untradeable. The only solution to this that I can see is that BC must have an idea to move Joey as soon as he shows signs that he might be the player they need (for picks or exemptions or whatever) otherwise if Joey does step up Toronto will have cap issues for years as they will then need to resign Joey (and although he will be a restricted FA down the road he will still have to get paid) and then what?

@McGateway....and anyone else who brings up Joey G...

Joey Graham is useless.

Anyone who has watched him these years KNOWS he will never become the player he should, and I'm sure BC can figure that out too.

Are you actually serious about Joey G stealing minutes from Kapono? Joey G couldn't steal minutes from me! The only reason BC hasn't moved him is because he's still cheap. 2 years from now he won't even be in the league. Joey G is a total non-factor on this team....an 11th or 12th man who has NO VALUE AT ALL trade-wise...that's why we get Delfino and Kapono. Just assume, like BC does, that Joey won't even play and the roster makes all kinds of sense.

^^^^ didn't mean for that to sound as harsh as it did, but really, talking about Joey's role on this team makes as much sense as talking about Maceo Baston's, or Luke Jackson's....their job is to keep the folding chairs warm for the real players.

BENCH RIDER'S ON THE STORM!!!!

Nice tete-a-tete, boys. Comments:

1. MattK and Peter Ibbott gave enough good reasons why Kapono is a solid signing. I will simply add that Kapono will only be 26 years 8 months at the start of his 4 year contract. MoPete, who is making the EXACT same money at the EXACT same 4 year term, is 30 years, 2 months at the start of this season. Kapono, at 26.5, is a VETERAN compared to the youth on the Raps, and is (hopefully) still on the upswing of his career.

No one (except possibly New Orleans management) would argue that MoPete is on the upswing of his career. For an up-and-coming team like the Raps that will probably be peaking in 2-3 years, locking in MoPete for 4 years would not have made either fiscal or team-composition sense.

2. Franchise, the Raps/Nets Game 6 was unfortunately (for the Suns) not the last game that Donaghy officiated. As Sports Guy Bill Simmons details with righteous anger...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070722

...Donaghy was involved in the ref incompetency that was Game 3 of the Suns/Spurs second round series. As for that fateful Raps game, you can find the Vegas line here:

http://scores.covers.com/basketball-scores-matchups.aspx?t=0

Click on May 4 of the calendar for the game. The Nets were favoured by 8 and the Raps covered by 7 (since it was only a 1 point win), and the over/under was 189 and the over was the winner (195, from a 98-97 score). So, if Donaghy was fixing that game, he may have wanted a close game with the Nets pulling it out, and a high(er)-scoring game. Mission accomplished on both counts.

3. McGateway, there is no way Toronto will "have cap issues for years"; BC is not retarded like GG was back in the summer of 2001 when everyone from The Nightmare to Wince to JYD to the waterboy were signed to cap-killing long-term contracts.

If you look here...

http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries/toronto.htm

...after this upcoming season (2007-2008), Dixon ($2.9M), Hump ($2.5M), Jose ($2.5M), Carlos ($1.9M), Joey ($1.6M), Luke ($800K) and Moon ($430K) are free agents or can be released from their contracts.

After the following season (2008-2009), the above 7 guys will be joined by Rasho ($8.4M), AP ($4.55M), Garbo ($4.35) and Maceo ($2M) as free agents. And so, if Joey becomes the second coming of Shawn Marion (cough cough), his BYC max contract wouldn't kick in until 2009-2010, at the start of his 5th season, just like Bosh and TJ are starting to make the big dough *this* year, at the start of their 5th seasons. Joey would only make the qualifying offer ($2.5M) in 2008-2009 before his big raise kicks in.

To sum up, in 2009-2010, the Raps only have 4 players under contract (Bosh, TJ, Bargs and Kapono) and a total payroll of under $30 million. Perfect time to sign a free agent swingman for big money, or re-up Joey Graham as the superstar small forward that McGateway somehow thinks he will be.

P.S. BC hasn’t – and won't – dump Joey for nothing, unless he totally disrupts team chemistry. One of the reasons BC left the Suns was that the new owner (Sarver) was a cheap bastard who wouldn't go over the luxury tax, so he is forcing Kerr to make franchise-crippling moves like unloading Kurt Thomas and two 1st round picks just to stay under the tax.

James White just got waived by the Spurs. Let's bring him in!!! What could we possibly lose. He's freakishly athletic and was considered a pretty stong defender in college (http://www.draftexpress.com/viewprofile.php?p=71). Talk about a guy who fits a need here. Even if he plays 5 minutes a game, he'll put bums in the seats!

Casey:

I couldn't help but notice that as well. I would love to see the Raps bring in James White, too bad this didn't happen before the Baston signing! Giving him a camp invite would be a great idea in my opinion...maybe at the end of the day he could replace someone like Luke Jackson (who has less value after the Kapono signing).

You guys were the last people I expected to try and suggest that Tim Donaghy had something to do with us losing Game 6. We lost that series because New Jersey played better than we did, simple as that (and because no one, including Jose Calderon expected Richard Jefferson to jump that high to intercept that pass to Chris Bosh). People have been going over games where Donaghy was officiating, including his crew in those games and they can't find anything fishy, what makes you think you can?

"They can't find anything fishy", Blaxx?

Have a read, then:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=expertstatsdonaghy

All Franchise wrote was that "the game was altered", not that Donaghy engineered the game so the Raps would lose. However, if there was a lot of money on the Nets to win (but not beat the spread), there is no reason why he couldn't.

You guys are too quick. I just found out James White was released and came here to write about it, and you guys have already posted. James white is exactly the kind of player we need. Unfortunatley he plays our log jammed position.

Is there anyone willing to take Joey G for a draft pick or cash.

We can sign James White for the less than we are paying Joey G.

Saw him play in college was a great all around athelete, super energetic.

I agree with Howland, in the least give him a camp invite, but Howland I think someone might grab him on a one year or two year contract. My guess...Seattle.

I totally agree to disagree about the signing of Kapono, and I totally disagree with not resigning of MoPete, BC could have given MoPete the money that he gave to Kapono, and sign Kapono on a lower level, he is being paid too much money and the Raptors team is not short of shooters, this is one of BC's stupid move and I hope we do not live to regret it. Pease out!!

Moon and Baston will surprise - coach Sam will bring out the best in them.
Not so sure on the Kapono deal - seems like a lot of money. Hope he still shoots near 50% from the arc.

Joey Graham is better than James White.

Lets not play "woulda coulda shoulda" with the playoff game 6 at the Nets. Frankly, we had two banged up PGs, we had ample opportunity to take the Nets: 2 crucial missed free throws by AP (on a 3 FT opportunity), Bosh jacking up a shot (second last shot taken by the Raps) and of course Jose's game-ending pass. I remember watching the game and was not to torn up by the officiating (ie not more than usual). No matter if we had advanced I dont think we would have made the finals and it would have hurt anyway. There is only one group of fans smiling at the end of the season. Who wouldn't want a Phoenix success story here, yet the Suns boards are full of pain and anger.

Let it go.

To jjdynamite, I don't think you thought your post completely through. You said"...after this upcoming season (2007-2008), Dixon ($2.9M), Hump ($2.5M), Jose ($2.5M), Carlos ($1.9M), Joey ($1.6M), Luke ($800K) and Moon ($430K) are free agents or can be released from their contracts.

After the following season (2008-2009), the above 7 guys will be joined by Rasho ($8.4M), AP ($4.55M), Garbo ($4.35) and Maceo ($2M) as free agents. And so, if Joey becomes the second coming of Shawn Marion (cough cough), his BYC max contract wouldn't kick in until 2009-2010, at the start of his 5th season, just like Bosh and TJ are starting to make the big dough *this* year, at the start of their 5th seasons. Joey would only make the qualifying offer ($2.5M) in 2008-2009 before his big raise kicks in.

To sum up, in 2009-2010, the Raps only have 4 players under contract (Bosh, TJ, Bargs and Kapono) and a total payroll of under $30 million. Perfect time to sign a free agent swingman for big money, or re-up Joey Graham as the superstar small forward that McGateway somehow thinks he will be. ". There is a problem with this, your own numbers show that Joey is coming off the books next season (he is a restricted FA). Not to mention that JC comes off the books next year as well. The Raps will have 12 mil to sign players which sounds great in theory but most of that money will be needed to either resign Jose or sign his replacement. If Jose continues to improve you have to imagine that a number of teams will be lining up to offer Jose real money to be a starter for their team so if the Raps want to keep him they will need to sign him for at least 75% of that number (8mil or in that neighbourhood). That will leave only 4 mil to replace 6 players including Joey G. As I stated, if we assume that Joey gets burn this year and actually starts fulfilling his potential do you really believe the Raps will be able to resign him for less than 6 mil per year? If they resign him or match an offer for him, how do they fill the rest of their roster out without violatiing the cap? Yes they can make a trade but who gets traded and for what? Do you really want to see the Raps pull a phoenix and trade away a player and two draft picks just to get someone off the books? The following year you have to change your numbers as well because you know that the Raps will have people signed to longer contracts by then (who knows who it will be) so they will not have the cap space you think they will going into the 2009/2010 season. It is simply not going to happen. Even if the raps let jc and JG walk next year they will still have to sign someone to replace them and most players who are going to be worth that money are not going to sign one year contracts.

Interestingly, in one of the many articles I’ve been reading about the officiating situation, it mentioned a possibility of a ref calling 2 early fouls on the team’s superstar to get him benched and keep his team from winning. Immediately I flashed back to the playoffs where Bosh picked up 2 early fouls in at least one game that I recall, but it may have been in two games during the series. I remember thinking that the calls were very questionable. Not sure who officiated that game, but it makes you wonder.

I guess this is the type of thing that Stern is now faced with. Many doubters out there and many more will come out when a bad call will inevitably be made next season.

Franchise, Marcia, and all the others: We are all sad to see Mo Pete go because of his professionalism and his good personality. But we are trying to put together a winning team. So if you love the guy, put up a poster in your bedroom, play some Air Supply and light some candles. For the Raptors, it’s time to move on.

Mo Pete was the best 9th man in the league last year, but he is not on our team anymore for a reason. The only mistake BC may have made here is not trading him at the trade deadline like I suggested. There is absolutely no question JK is a huge improvement over Mo.

In addition, how can we complain about the money JK is making but then complain we didn’t resign Mo? Isn’t he making the same money?

If BC pulled off a trade of Mo Pete for JK, we would all be talking about him repeating as the executive of the year and how N.O. would not deal with him again because they got hosed. In effect, BC did trade MP for JK.

I have no doubt that JK will rebound better than MP. You don’t get many rebounds on the bench.

Zona - Air Supply and candles are locked and loaded ha ha.

Solid post jj and yes, a typo on my behalf as I had read the Simmons piece and should have put "last Raptors' game he'll over officiate."

I don't necessarily think that Donaghy made Toronto lose...but you can't help but wonder now about various calls etc and not just in that Raps/Nets game, but in any game he officiated. It's going to be very interesting to see how Stern attempts to restore trust in the league's officials.

As for James White, I'm starting to think he's actually the second coming of Rodney White. I loved the kid coming out of college but if he can't stick with Indiana or San Antonio (two teams that usually do a pretty good job of judging talent) than I think I'll pass if I'm B.C...

To follow up Franchise's comment, here is a nice YouTube comp on how Tim Donaghy and his boys royally screwed the Suns in Game 3 of the semis, in the only game he reffed after the Raps/Nets Game 6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvkKdXLwt0U

Anyway, McGateway, you are right in that I was too hasty in saying that the Raps' payroll in two years will be under $30 million; obviously BC will sign more players long-term after next season.

However, you are too quick to suggest that "the Raps will have 12 million to sign players" and will have to dedicate most of that to Jose and have no money for Joey after 2007-2008.

Here's why: the cap figure is irrelevant to take into account the Raps *own* Base Year Comp players resigning. You mention Phoenix; well, the Raps can resign Jose and Joey and go over the cap just like the Suns resigned Diaw and Barbosa last season ***even though they too were over the cap***.

And guess what, the Raps are *already* over the cap. The 15 players currently under salary now total $61+ million. And the cap is only $55.63 million for 2007-2008:

http://www.insidehoops.com/nba-salary-cap.shtml

The key term here is LUXURY TAX. The main reason why the Suns are making horrible salary dump trades like giving up Kurt Thomas along with two first rounders is that they are over the LUXURY TAX at $68+ million. The Raps are not.

True, if Jose and Joey turn into $8+ million a year players, BC will not be able to sign other FAs outright (except via the MLE and veteran's exception) as the Raps will continue to be over the cap. But as long as BC stays under the luxury tax, MLSE won't care. Given the way the Raps' salaries are currently structured, it would be pretty difficult for BC to go over the tax, especially in 2009-2010 when there are only 4 players currently under contract.

And my point still stands that even if somehow Joey turns into an All-Star, his "max" contract won't kick in until 2009-2010, at the start of his 5th season, so he would still be relatively cheap next season ($2.5M) after signing his big contract, just like Bosh was cheap last season even though he signed his big extension before last season started. Hope that's clearer now.

jj, that’s a great montage! I wish someone would put one of those together for the Raps/Nets game.

But as bad as it looks, and it sure looks bad, you could find any number of bad calls in a given game and put a collage together to "prove" someone is not playing by the same rules. The fact is that there were 3 referees at the game. I don’t believe all those bad calls in the clip came from Tim and I haven’t heard anyone suggest that others are involved.

Those strips on Nash in that video were called by different refs. The last was by Rush. Those clips were sickening.

This was an awful game, mostly going against the Suns. Duncan got calls his way.

Bonds is NOT a legit HR king, and the Spurs are NOT the legit champs. Take away the drugs, take away the calls, and let's see if you can compete on a level playing field.

This is bad for the game. Real bad.

Sorry, one more point is, I think that Tim could not have done this on his own. he had help from other zebras.

Holy cow! That Atlanta game, where Ford's basket near the end was not reflected in the score? And that altered the flow at the end?? That was Tim's game too!!

"Raps got Philips shave?" on slam sports

"An incorrect final score led to an altered gambling result from the Hawks-Raptors game that Friday night at Philips Arena.

The Raptors, a three-point underdog, were beaten 97-93 by Atlanta. For gamblers, that ended up as an Atlanta win.

But late in that game somehow, a Toronto basket by T.J. Ford went unaccounted for and the final score was improperly listed as 97-93 in favour of the Hawks.

Had the score been totalled accurately, Atlanta would have won 97-95, which by virtue of the three-point point spread, would have meant a Toronto victory for gamblers.

When the Raptors lost by four in Atlanta, assistant coach Jay Triano was aware the scoreboard was incorrect. The matter apparently was brought to the attention of the scorer's table and never went any further than that.

Beginning with, if the NBA was aware of trouble on the Donaghy front as early as January, how did the league allow him to work playoff games, including the Raptors' Game 6 defeat in New Jersey?

Who made that call? And why?"

Good questions.

I had read something similar about that game. I remember watching that game and wondering what had happened to that basket and then the next day the NBA did an investigation and decided that it did not change the outcome of the game. The official line was that the Raps missed it at the time but now they are saying Triano brought it to the attention of the scorers table. This is clear evidence that something should have been done about it and that the NBA was naive not to think the missed basket might mean something. The NBA has been making strides towards some sort of relationship with sports betting (Las Vegas all star game is just the start). In the future, considering how the basket did make a difference on the line, maybe the NBA will award the basket to prevent cheating by their officials.
One final point, wouldn't the fact that the scorers table didn't change the outcome seem to indicate that the someone was messing around? I had heard the league hired a PI to investigate Donaghy and now I am wondering if this incident might have been one of the reasons why they started (along with his reputation for being a big black jack player). Teams probably tell scorers to add baskets all the time and the scorers table would normally have to consult with the refs to decide whether to award a basket. In fact if you watch the games you can see the refs hold up their hands to indicate whether a basket is a 2 or 3. The likely scenario here would be that Tim was responsible for indicating the Raptor baskets and did not indicate that the basket counted. Teams score baskets all the time in games that do not end up counting for one reason or another (foul on the play, offensive goaltending etc). If that is the case maybe we were all witness to the beginning of the end for Tim. Hmmmmmm.

There is no indication, except for an over imaginative media, and sore loser fans, that
Donaghy did anything to shave points in any games. Lets just wait for the results of the investigation to be made public, before we
criticize all referees for point shaving games.

Back to the Raptors....

BC has signed a Nigerian scout, Masai Ujiri, to find us the next African Dream:

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_6464970

Is a blog on Raptors.com next?

We already had good 3 pt. shooting, but I think Colangelo realized that a Sam Mitchell offense needs excellent 3 pt. shooting. I think Kapono will always be overpaid to an extent, but he's a legit starter (so he's not JYD overpaid) and he'll be much more valuable on a Sam Mitchell-coached team.

Kapono
-26 years old
-salary cap (2007) 55.6 million

Contract = 4 years/24 million

JYD
-28 years old
-Salary Cap (2001) 42.5 million

Contract = 7 year/40.8 million

Chutney is right, Maybe we overpaid SLIGHTLY for Kapono, but as you can see comparisons to JYD's albatross are a little severe....I'm really warming up to this deal, and in fact I'll be surprised if people are still saying he's overpaid after what he does this season. Top Tier three point bombers are real easy to love....after he crushes the spirit of the opposing team with a well-time dagger in the fourth a few times, that money will look like it is well spent.