Lunchbox Links

I think the Raptors are now in good shape for life with or without Bosh. If the team comes together as many hope, then he’ll be walking out on a good thing. If not, then he can figure out where he wants to play. The Raps will then have enough cap space to figure out their next move if it comes to that.

The Stephen Jackson scenario – exchange for DeRozan and Banks is fascinating. Strange to imagine the potential short term versus long-term trade offs. I don’t watch enough of Jackson to know his game. His stat line says he can score, and he’ll probably play to prove himself this year. Still, he has 4 years – and reportly 36 million left. Sounds like a killer contract – however, would he be the missing link for them? They’d be pretty deep with him in? As GM, I’d turn this one down.

Two things you shouldn’t do as a GM in the NBA, and that’s trust a player’s scoring numbers who happens to play for either Nellie or D’Antoni; the caveat being unless they’ve put up similar numbers in other, more defensively oriented, systems. To be fair, Jackson has previously put up over 18 ppg, but that was nearly half a decade ago; realistically, the Raps would be getting a 15ppg player at best in Jackson, who also happens to be turnover prone and comes with some baggage.

I think Derozan isn’t going to give this team 15 a game, but he has a good shot to hit double digit scoring, and most importantly he’s young, won’t demand the ball and will be playing on a rookie scale contract.

The only 2 players I want from G-State’s roster are ANthony Randolph and Andris Biedrins (and maybe Azubuike)…..that’s it!

Rob