Locked-In

That is a scary scenario howland, but I think BC being so close to the threshold means it's even more necessary than usual for BC to wait and see what's he's got before he starts shopping. Barring injuries, I wouldn't expect any moves until the trade deadline, when unknowns are known, like JO's and bosh's knees, barg's production, do we have a backup pg. He might have to cut a big loose to shore up another area.

Pretty much like you're saying though howland any two of those things don't pan out and there isn't much room to work. But maybe it's best now to show confidence in the team as it stands and see how it plays out.

I live in Ottawa so the 13 of them coming here for training camp is awesome!! Hey, I'd be happy if only 1 came to town!

I think training camp will be more intense with just the 13 man roster..it will give the coaches time to structure the team, create their offence and defence, practice their plays, knowing that comes the season everyone at camp will be on the team. Everyone is down playing Solomon but there will be competion at camp because the 2nd pt gaurd spot is up for grabs and Roko and Solomon will be going at it...I feel Solomon will be the #2 guy comes November. The Raps will be a much better team this year, no need to go over the luxury tax....Raps4Life

With all due respect, I do get a little tired of the concern (whining) about possible player injuries. Injuries are part of the game that all teams must endure when it occurs. If given a choice of having a solid second offensive/defensive option with a healthy eager JO or a deeper bench, well the deeper bench last season didn’t quite give us the positive payout that was expected did it? I’m excited to see how this team responds to a tighter, better prepared team core this season.
I much prefer to concentrate and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of this roster than worry about what might happen if an injury occurs. There are few is any team in the east that can easily withstand an extended absence of play from their core group of players.

OldSchool -

Don't interpret the article to mean that I wasn't 100% in favour of the JO deal...the point is simply that there is an opportunity for the team to do some diligence on a few other players who might be available if needed this season and the team is not taking advantage.

Agreed, every team should have injury concerns.

Interesting view, Howland. Your point is valid - if we get injuries to key people, we're screwed. However, we are a little less vulnerable with JO and CB both on the squad. They've both been the man and would be comfortable carrying the team for a short load. And history suggests that both will go down for a little while.

I wonder if teams ever feign injuries, or at least overstate them, to give their best players a rest.

Anyway, I still wonder what happens if Bosh goes down and JO makes the team his in CB's absense. If JO becomes clearly better, is that a good thing?

OldSchool, I think the worry is less about whether or not a player gets injured and more about what MLSE would do about it. Clearly, they have no interest in going one penny into the luxery tax. BC made a big deal of Jose restructuring his deal to keep them under the tax. Although I agree that injury concerns are there for every team, I think the point of this article is that if we do get an injury to a key player, there won't be any signings to fill the void. If JO or Bosh go down, we are relatively ok with Bargs and Hump there to back them up. But If Jose or Parker go down we'll be looking at Salomon, Ukic or Adams getting significant minutes and that isn't a good thing.

Mind you, until that happens maybe we shouldn't worry about it - since it may never happen.

But we should be acutely aware of MLSE's strict spending rules. Players know when there ownership is willing to commit to a winner, and so far that isn't the message getting across.

I can't help but think it is a little short sighted too. If we put a couple of extra mil into a Pietrus we wouldn't have signed Adams, the Magic would have been one asset short and we would have had a much better team. If a pietrus wins us an extra playoff round, wouldn't that pay for going into the lux tax - both by the gate revenues and by increased interest in a successful Raps team?

Just saying, Howland is pointing out more than there might be injuries, he's calling out MLSE for being too cheap to bring in any competition.

Guys, I know it is popular to dump on MLSE ownership group for their lack of vision in developing winning teams and for the most part it is well deserved however I can’t blame them or BC for not going over the luxury tax in this case. I’m sure you realize that the ownership group would lose several millions if they exceed the tax on top of the millions to acquire a top level player plus penalties. Well, I don’t think it is smart business decision to spend that amount of money if we are still in the developing stage of building a real contender. Until you can say that we are close to being an East division winner and adding an available top player will put us over the top, I say it’s not worth the gamble yet.
We are just beginning to build the nucleus of a team that could contend for a few more years but a number of questions unanswered, Bargnani’s development, the biggest question. This is not the time to blow open the vault for a player when we hardly know what kind of team we are.
A quantifiable yearly improvement is all I ask in their development process. Yes, I agree that BC has little room to make adjustments however the trade route is still an option and we have very few long term contracts to tie us down for the long term.
We are in good situation.

Howland, based on my observations above, I don’t understand what you expect BC to do.
He accomplished two objectives over the summer. He signed JO, which is huge, resigned Calderon to a long term deal that is widely considered cheap in comparison to other recent signings and has a number of expiring contracts at his disposal. How much do camp invitees generally contribution to the overall success of a team anyways? I see no wasted money on this team and we are still just under the luxury tax. Not perfect but I can live with it.

I agree with OldSchool all the way: every team is suceptible to injuries. Any team in the league has players that if they go down, the team is screwed.

In previous years, the criticism was too much mediocrity on the Raps. There wasn't whole lot of difference between AP, Delfino, Moon, Kap, Rasho, Hump, Graham, Bargs in overall quality...all middling players. This situation even applied at PG: it was great to have Calderon when Ford went down, but why carry two capable starting PG's otherwise?

So BC jettisons Ford, sacrifices some depth (i.e. mediocre players) to form a much more solid starting five. And as a bonus, the addition of JO should actually make AP, Moon, Kap better, because they can go back to being role players, instead of trying to be more than they are.

So now, it is more all or none: their chances are much improved in the playoffs, but if there is a key injury, they'll likely miss the playoffs entirely. But the Raps weren't going to win with the collection of players of last year, and the improved chance to advance in the playoffs is much preferable to making them only to get promptly booted.

Remember, too, that the lack of bench and quality at positions outside of the Big3 was a huge criticism of Boston at the start of last year...and look how that turned out.

OldSchool, to respectfully challenge a few of your points...

"Guys, I know it is popular to dump on MLSE ownership group for their lack of vision in developing winning teams and for the most part it is well deserved however I can’t blame them or BC for not going over the luxury tax in this case." - Yeah, they are an easy target. I don't blame BC as he has shown with Phx that he will go into the luxery to get the players he wants.

"I’m sure you realize that the ownership group would lose several millions if they exceed the tax on top of the millions to acquire a top level player plus penalties." - They wouldn't lose money they just wouldn't earn as much. Besides, if it created a winner it would generate more revenue. If the Raps added 6 million to their payroll (and didn't waste 1 million on Adams and Salomon) it would mean 6 million in lux tax. That would put our payroll 10th in the league between Houston and Indiana. I think our market can compete with that. More importantly, think of the talent upgrade 7 mil would have bought! I used Pietrus as an example, but think Azubuike, JR Smith, Delfino, Finley, Gordon, Livingston, maybe even Magette could have been added to potential all stars at the 1, 4 and 5 spots. That sounds like a championship calibre team to me. Instead we took our 2 bits and bought 2 guys that couldn't cut it in the league. I know the NBA is a business, but we aren't fans because we like business - we're fans because we want our team to do well.

"Well, I don’t think it is smart business decision to spend that amount of money if we are still in the developing stage of building a real contender. Until you can say that we are close to being an East division winner and adding an available top player will put us over the top, I say it’s not worth the gamble yet." - I guess this is just where we disagree, I think we are that close. If anything, getting O'Neal (now 30) means that there might even be some urgency to taking advantage of this window. I hope not, but Bargnani may never be as good as O'Neal will be this year.

Again, I don't think it is just about the injuries, and I don't care about how many people come to training camp. It is about whether or not MLSE has turned off the tap now that we are at the luxery tax threshold. Who knows, they might spend in an emergency, but so far they are making it clear that they are done - thus the point of Howland's piece (I think, correct me if I am wrong).

I am also a big fan of the moves made this summer and it is a fair enough comment to wait and see where we might need improvement. However, I think BC made the trade because he thinks O'Neal will return to being a 20/10 guy with a couple of blocks thrown in. If BC is right, we are a legit wing away from being championship material. Above average wings may not grow on trees, but there are plenty of them around. We could have added Magette or Pietrus this summer without sacrificing any players on our roster. Start one of those two at the 2, and bring Parker off the bench and we are challenging for the East.

By doing nothing else, the O'Neal trade turns into more of a stop gap. I think we will be improved from last year, but we are still a second tier team. I just hope MLSE cares about winning as much as they care about business. If they don't the players will figure that out soon enough too. That then opens up a whole new can of worms...

Sorry, got on a bt of a role there...

The Raps never should have traded TJ...I love the contraversy between him and Jose now all we have is Jose...oh wait I can see another one starting JO's health..why are Toronto fans such skeptics..nothing is every good for you guys...We force MLSE to blow up the Leafs and I guess if the Raps start 0-5 we will be blowing them up too...lets be optimistic here people, the same way someone can get injured during the year is the same amount of chance that he will play the whole year without an injury..so all these concerns about injury just wait and see, if it happens then you can talk..if it doesn't you are just wasting your breath....Raps4Life

Robert Archibald – we may disagree but not by much.

My only contention is timing in the justification for exceeding the luxury cap. I don’t know if Colangelo will ever get the green light to blow the cap if the situation presented itself but it is not now.

I believe that the Raps as currently constructed are capable to reach the second round of playoffs if they play to their abilities. So we are really talking about putting together the personnel to win the East division, right?

Now just suppose with the approach of the mid-season trade deadline the Raps are in an obvious position to challenge for the Eastern crown, would it not make more sense then to assess your strength/weakness at this juncture and knowledgeable go after the player that will make the difference. I say it’s preferable to throwing everything at the board at once and seeing what sticks. Colangelo would then have the option of packaging expiring contracts to possibly make a deal. Colangelo would probably never of signed Ford if he knew better about Calderon.
I can tell you as a small business owner, you never give away money no matter how much you earn unless you can damn well justify the decision.

RobertArchibald -

Precisely the point. Further, there is minimal cost (non-guaranteed contracts) to bring in a couple of other guys for camp.

The Spurs just did it:

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/54434/20080918/spurs_add_three_to_training_camp_roster/

I hear ya OldSchool, but come the mid-season or the trade deadline, the only way we will acquire decent talent is through a trade. That will mean giving up talent from our undermanned roster or draft picks. If we did something in the summer, we could get a FA without losing other assets. Admittedly it is a gamble, but at least there is a payoff. What is the point of playing just to get to the second round? I am not a small business owner and neither are the Raps. You have to spend a little to make a little, on the economies of scale MLSE can afford a few extra quid.

BC's logic seems sound to me.

If you accept the fact that he put himself this close to the luxury tax, then its hard to fault him for not inviting anybody with no space and more then a few NBA first timers on the roster.

Plus let's not kid ourselves as to the calibre of player that usually attends these camps. Think of a random three guys from our summer league squad. BC could've left solomon and adam's signings until late in the summer, and gotten a few bodies in training camp. However, when the salary offered to end of benchers is pretty uniform (minimum), why risk that the players you perceive as best fits in june, attend someone else's camp in october?

Once the dust has settled near the trade deadline, I hope BC makes a move or two to give us some breathing room under the cap for the stretch run. Maybe its turning an expiring in 2009 contract into a lower expiring in 2010 contract at a position where depth is needed.

To play devil's advocate here, if I'm MLSE, I don't give BC that extra few million during the summer. Memories a bit shaky, but I recall that on a net basis, the Raptors took on something like 2.5 million more then they gave back on the JO trade. That's your luxury tax buffer zone right there.

I don't think BC is "going for it" this year. Not unless a sweetheart deal comes down the pipe at the trade deadline. I think he's setting himself up to shore up depth /better redistribute assets in summer '09, and make a more balanced run at the second round in 09-10.

I think this year is more about getting this incarnation of the team to gel, and hopefully work out a few kinks (Bargnani, Ukic).

No Veteran Presence will be an issue for this team during this season. Yeah, Bosh is a leader but not the most mature guy on the planet. Smitch has an attitude and JO likes to party more than ball. Just check out the clubs in Vegas and you'll see the guy out every night. No joke...often by himself. Jose is sweet, but is he enough to keep the guys on track when the wheels begin to roll off? Is he? Would be nice to get that key veteran down the road.

For me, the point guard position is the one area I'm still concerned about. Yes, there are 3 in tow, but none, even Jose, have played a full NBA season running the show. It's impossible to insulate yourself against every situation agreed, but I still think a bit more financial strategy could have been put towards as sure a back-up to Jose as possible.