Across the Atlantic

I think the real threat is the one you touched on at the end of your article - how many bad NBA contracts will we see now that the agents & players are willing to move overseas? I'm sure this has always been used as a bargaining tool, but now there's a greater element of realism to it. With Bargnani, if he doesn't develop, he just might be able to wait it out, return home and get paid like a max money player. That's pretty sweet for him, but it doesn't do anything to help the NBA.

What do I do with my "Delfino" Raps jersey now?? *UGH*

Adding on to what dsl said, Vujacic signed a 3 year - $15 million dollar deal and Biedrins just got a whopping 6 year - $63 million deal. Not bad for a guy who can't shoot! I doubt they would've come close to that without a Euro offer.

It will be interesting to see what happens between the Bulls and Deng & Gordon, because really, neither has any bargaining position right now without an offer from Europe.

Just came accross this interesting comment and I thought i'd share it with the hooplife family:

When Paul Pierce was asked if you could play with one Euro player who would it be?

He said Jose Calderon

WTF,

Interesting...where did you hear that?

If some NBA players want to go to Europe and play with lessor teams/talent for the dolllars, let them go & forget about them. There is a fresh crop coming from the NCAA draft each year with built in Superstars at cheaper costs. It may take a couple of years for the NBA to adapt to a free market system but it will prosper, & the defectors can stay in Europe,until the owners run out of money because they are losing it to buy NBA players.

Sounds like the 13th man has been chosen...and it's none other than Will Solomon.

We'll talk about Solomon this week but it's definitely not a name I expected to hear. In fact, haven't heard much about the former Grizz second-rounder since he was at Clemson...

...he is a combo guard though with experience, albeit it mostly international.

From the draft express artcicle: "This is not any potentially profitable investment, there’s no monetary return expected, perhaps only some political favors or under-the-table agreements."

Wow, I find this very hard to believe. There are too many teams and league over there for that to be true. Maybe they're not all making big money now, but surely that is the plan, to get some stars and blow up hoops in Europe like it is in North America. Maybe it can't happen, but it sure isn't getting less likely as time goes on. Personnally I hope it works out. The more bball in this world, the better.

Well written analysis Franchise.

Look at the example of Atlanta. They lost Childress, cause an equivalent offer in US dollars would've tallied close to 10 million per year. They turn around and sign Maurice Evans for 3 years 7.5 million total.

The way I see it, the teams that lose an "average NBA player" just go out and sign an average NBA player with their mid-level. Thereby causing a chain reaction which ends with the teams with the smallest amount of money, offering minimum type contracts to players from Europe willing to sacrifice for a chance at the "Big Show". And in a way, Euro teams are kind of saving the NBA from themselves, since there are few things more damaging to a team's salary cap then paying a role player big money over an extended term.

Re: Solomon, I didn't think they'd be able to mine the European market again, especially with the dollars being thrown around. However with Gord Hebert/s Euro coaching experience and Maurizo's connection, they should have a very good idea of what their getting in Solomon. Here's hoping he ends up being a Euro NBA success story in the mold of Charlie Bell, rather then Šarūnas Jasikevičius.

I think culture is a huge aspect of where players decide to play.

I can't imagine to many American players, who previously had never been out of the country, and to who Vancouver seemed foreign jumping to play in Russia. But similiarly players from Spain other countries with strong national pride don't have to come over here go through the culture shock of adjusting

Here's a link for Will Solomon (from his draft profile):

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nba/01draft/players/will-solomon.htm

I hope he's improved in Europe!

Stats from euroleague aren't bad:

21 games
17.9 ppg
55.9% fg%
37.8% 3pt%
81.8% ft%
3.1 rebounds
3.9 assists
1.7 steals

(and 3.1 turnovers / 4.9 fouls!)

Jdbar: I found it as I was skimming through hoopshype they put a link to a spanish article so I couldn't read the entire thing.

I agree, from an NBAer's point of view, that I would rather have Kelenna Azubuike over Boki Nachbar; however, I think it is unfair to say, "...what does that say about Andrea Bargnani (or Boki Nachbar)". It seems you are implying they are of a selfish conceited character, which may not be the case at all. Would LeBron James accept not being the star? And no one criticizes him for that. So what is wrong with Bargnani (potentially) or Nachbar wanting to be the man and get more money and play in their native continent? They have more than likely practised all their life, just like LeBron, to play in the NBA; yet they are bench players and sometimes have to fight for playing time. Why not play somewhere all the practise you have and do put in will give you the most playing time and live in a place that you lived in growing up.

I'm most concerned about the next LeBron James signing a Euro contract at 16. If an American born teenaged phenom signs with a Euro team at 16, how influential will the rookie scale be in his decision to return to the States? By the time that individual is eligible for the draft, he could be a worldwide icon making in excess of $10 million tax-free dollars a year. Not to mention the income that individual could earn in endorsements. European kids wear Nikes too.

On Will Solomon: And Next season

OK I did not expect to hear that name but I checked him out on you tube (only a 2 min clip but hey it looked good) and his numbers in Europe were good. He may be better then Ukic he may not. He can score and is a COMBO guard (I hate that term because normally when your a combo guard it just means your two small to be a 2 and don't pass and drible good enough to be a 1)

I think he could be a nice fit and player who may surprise and steal a few minutes here and there.

So it looks set:
PG Jose/Ukic/Solomon
WINGS
Parker/Kapono/Moon/Joey/Addams
BIGS
CB4/JO/AB7/The Hump/Baby Shaq

with some flexiblity as Moon and Joey can play the 4 if need be and Solmon can play some 2 if need be as well.

It's a good team folks.

Let's look at it like this.

Our best player is CB4 most teams in the league would take that.

Our second best player is Jermaino Oneal a 6 time allstar who has always been his team best big until now.

Third best player Jose Calderon(you could argue he should be 2nd and Oneal should be 3rd i know it's close) Potential allstar as your 3rd best player that's pretty good. Could be a top 10 pg this year if he's not all ready.

4th best player Anthony Parker: you could argue he was our second best player last year, atleast in the coversation, however with the addition of Oneal and the subtraction of Ford (making Calderon that much better and more efficent with more minutes at the PG) Clearly now he becomes our fourth best player which again is pretty good.

5th-7th

Moon, Kapono and Andrea:

Make no mistake about it the season will rest on these 3 because if the top 4 stay healthy we will be good, really good but if one or 2 of these guys step up of the 3 we will be great.
These 3 all have the potential to have breakout seasons this year.

Moon- I think fans are down on him because of his poor outside shot and his unwillingness to go to the rack (as am I offcourse) but he has the potental to be a shut down 3 he already is a good defender great rebounder and his athletic ability is off the charts if he can just go to hole more he could be a solid NBA starter.
Andrea has a ton of talent just needs time, this could be this year or it could be in 2 years but he still should be much better then last year.
Kapono-We saw the good Kapono in the playoffs, if he can play like that all year he could be an awsome weapon for us this year.

8-13
Ukic/Joey G/The Hump/Addams/Baby Shaq/Solomon

Sure there are huge questions with each of these guys but as long as one of Ukic/Solomon are not horrible and one of the others can bring 10 minutes of energy minutes we should be fine here.

All and All we look good on paper and I don't think were getting the Buzz locally or through the NBA that we deserve. This JO trade should have generated more.

Get ready Raps fans this is your best team in franchise history and in my opinion as good as any team in the East not named Boston (who I think we can beat in 7 game series by the way)

Am I Homer? Yes
Am I crazy? No

Granted there are good teams in the East, and we could be anywhere from 2-7 but that's pretty good is it not?

I see a 2 seed and a loss to the Lakers in the Finals.

Yup I am homer, but I remember that Spurs team from back in the day with Robinson and Duncan and there supporting cast was similar to ours. They had a shooter in Mario Elie We have Kapono they had a PG in Avery Johnso who is not Jose but was effective and ran the offence correctly and then they had an aging Sean Elliot and a few other rif rafs and won a title.

Were beter then that team, we really our! however probaly 10 other teams in todays league could beat them in a 7 games series...

So what am I saying is that it is possible that this team can win the East and we have never been able to say that and it be more realistic then it is right now.

And I love it.
Go Raps

raptorize, that's ridiculous. Both David Robinson and Tim Duncan are 1st ballot hall-of-famers.

Bosh and O'Neal are simply not of their caliber. Sure, the Raptors *could* win the East, but if O'Neal and Bosh play less than 70 games each they could likelier end up in the lottery. Neither have been the picture of perfect health.

Some people have forgotten that Bosh has missed 15 games, 13 games and 12 games the past 3 seasons, and is spending this summer playing the Olympics. His injuries were easier to cover up the past couple of years because of depth at PF (Garbo, Bargs) and depth at PG who had excellent driving/shooting skills so could take over the offence given our below average SG/SFs (TJ AND Jose). Where are these backups this upcoming season?

Sorry for being a pessimist, but it's important to realize that JO's 22 million contract has killed the Raptors' depth. And predictions for the Raps this year MUST be tempered with the fact that our two All Star bigs are injury prone, compared to opposition like Dwight Howard (4 years, played all 82 games in each).

Excellent breakdown, raptorize blogmaster shayne.

The only major glaring weakness I see in the raps now is the perimeter defense. If Kapono can't average 3-4 made 3s per game, plus another filed goal or two, he's still going to be the complete defensive liabilty he was last year.

His lateral movement is despicable, but if he's an offensive nightmare, it could compensate. I don't buy the whole "two bigs in the middle saves kapono's d" idea.

It doesn't. It's on him to improve and become much more effective.

Have to agree jjdynomite and that's not being pessimistic, that just realistic. If the injuries are a major problem come playoff time, raps are done for, if know there's reason to hope for great things, but that's about it. I like where you're going raptorize shayne, but even healthy, there's way too many intangibles and unknowns to start talking finals... for this homer anyways.

Injuries, shminjuries.

If Garnett or Pierce is hobbled at any point of the year the Celtics were a lottery team too.

As it stands I'm closer to raptorize blogmaster shayne than to jjdynomite (though I see Bargs as being a better candidate for 4th best talent on team rather than AP - I thought AP disappeared offensively far too often last year and he looks IMO to have crested the hill and started the downwards slide)

As for Kapono being the big weakness on perimeter D, if he can play the way he did in the playoffs I don't care if we play 4 on 5 defensively.

The injuries to Bosh are a little less concerning than the ones JO has continued to battle.

A previous poster made a correct point: If Garnett and Peirce get injured then the Celtics are a lottary team. However upon closer examination you realize that P squared and KG (especially the latter) have been extremely durable throughout their career.

Bosh and JO (especially JO) have not and have had to battle through nagging injuries. JO's are a bit more serious in that it involved knee surgery to an older player.

In fairness to all player mentioned there is no way Bosh and JO are playing at the caliber of Duncan and Robinson. However that is no reason to think that they can't be very competitive in the playoffs.

I don't know whether I'm being positive or negative. Instead of looking at the glass half empty or full I just figure its half a glass.

If everyone on this roster stayed healthy what they are missing is a wing player who could make guys like Lebron or P squared work on the defensive end. Without that guy I think the Raptors at best will be a 2nd round playoff team....if they play to their 100% potential they might be able to squeak into the semi's but I would be a lot that they won't be able to beat the Pistons, Celtics they're probably more at the level of the 76ers, Cavs and Wiz.

Whops again at the end of my post I meant bet not be....I have got to start looking this stuff over

Injuries are the great unknown, and every team is vulnerable. Think LA without Kobe, Orlando with Howard, Cleveland without Lebron...think Duncan, Paul, Nash...any team.

Granted, some are more vulnerable than others, but those differences really only mean a change in the regular season standings...no team is going to win a championship if one (or more) of their key players go down. Its sort of an all-or-none thing, but it rests on every team.

So quit sweating it. JO is apparently as healthy as he has been in *years*, the Raps medical staff is notoriously conservative. Yeah, Bosh, Calderon have had injuries...so have a lot of other players.

As long as we're healthy going in to the playoffs, then I think the Raps can challenge any team in the East.

Kwame was signed my Detroit... thats sure to compete with Jermaine..lol

Hmmm, Solomon? That was quite unexpected... To me he has been quite decent in Euroleague play but not a particularly big star, he's just one of the many dominant american guards playing in the league. He can score and put up good numbers, but I never felt his play was something to write home about.

Still, it's curious that the Raps have again signed an ex-Maccabi player this year, that makes it three in a row after Parker and Baston.

In Doug Smiths blog today,someone mentions that Solomon can be guilty of going nuts once in a while....Dougs response was,not to worry,Sam will keep him under control....just like he kept T.J. under control !!!,I can still remember the last 9 shots he took in one game...Sam did what ? thats right nothing....I guess at the end of the day this is becoming more and more Sams team.

Yeah, it's a tough call looking at our lineup.

I've been Mr. Positive this off season, but then I started sobering up once I got my new job working for the government 8-4, and couldn't blaze at my old roofing job anymore....(and frequently drink which was kind of scary on the second story roofs.)

I think, as most probably do, we are hurting at the wings, we are going to get lit up. Parker kind of sucked last year a lot of the time, shooting accuracy aside.

I called a Kapono trade months ago, and I'm gonna stick with that prediction....toss Moon, Parker, Peddie, whoever in that deal and get us somebody else to play with our new kick ass trio!

By the way, going nuts once in a while cleanses the system like you wouldn't believe.

Does anybody think Parker, Kapono, Moon, Graham are that much better than Delfino who's playing in Russia this year dunking on Hoffa....just saying...upgrade...I guess 20010 is when we get help at those positions?? Great.

DayOner,
I disagree with your assessment of the Raps wing players. With the rules as they are, it is pretty tough for anyone to guard anyone alone on the wing or guard spots. Other points could get by TJ and he moves his feet as quickly as anyone. You need team defence and players to be utilized well in that team defence. The problem is that in Sam's time here, the Raps have never been a strong defensive team. If Sam can come up with a team defence that works and figure out how to get the most out of his wing guys, we are understating their abilities. With the offence running through the bigs, the wings don't have to do much to be good, but they do need to know their rolesand how to fulfill them. Moon could be a very good defender. Offensively, he doesn't need to be a great slasher, he just needs to slash. Graham could be a good ball player on both ends. In the right match up, Kapono is a valuable offensive player who should be able to play enough defence, with help, to make his shooting a huge gain. Parker is pretty solid all around, he is just a little in need of a push and a rest once in a while. He also needs to slash a bit more, but he can create his own shot when he wants to. As for our final guy, the missile, he can be a good change of pace if used correctly.He is too desperate to stick in the NBA to be soft. If Sam can get the best out of them, they will be a surprising positive.

EaseMyPain,
You're right, I hear what you're saying. The Raps' d will be totally different this year with O'Neal, and I hope that happens.