I voted Wizards because then you can ask about the moves that happened and the ones that did not.

um thanks for the link to a site where you have pay to read the article. Much appreciated.

I think Doug drinks too much cool-aid. This team needs help on the wing and pretending it doesn’t is just silly. Calderon is the most tradeable asset both because he has skills and his contract can net a good return (i.e. you can get a 10 mil / year player in return). I am not a big fan of bringing Howard in but if they are serious about making a run they need to do something and I don’t think they have a lot of options in the offseason if their intent is to resign Bosh. Its great to have PG depth but it if your team is weak in other areas then you have to make the move to improve.

“The Raptors are last in the league in defensive efficiency, and they’re slightly worse at that end of the court when Turkoglu is playing.”

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/britt_robson/02/04/hits.misses.trades/1.html

The number is 109.5 points allowed per 100 possessions

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats?sort=defeff&seasonType=2&league=nba&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fteamstats%3fsort%3ddefeff%26seasonType%3d2%26league%3dnba

However, without Johnson on the court the number is an incredible 117.3 points allowed per 100 possessions which is 9.0 more points allowed per 100 possessions than the next worst team; i.e. the Suns at 108.3

However with Johnson on the court the Raptors allow 107.5 points per 100 possessions or 9.8 fewer.

http://www.82games.com/0910/0910TOR.HTM

The 107.5 ranks 26th in the league. Of course if the the Raptors other guys were better defenders than they are then Johnson’s points allowed per 100 possession number while he is on the court would be a lot lower.

In fact here are his numbers from

2006-07 – 104.6 vs team of 105.0 +.4
2007-08 – 98.4 vs team of 105.2 + 6.8
2008-09 – 101.8 vs team of 110.0 + 8.2
2009-10 – 107.5 vs team of 117.3 + 9.8

So one can see from this how each of the last four seasons his on court points allowed per 100 possessions is not only better than the off court number but in each successive year the spread has increased.

One could respond that when Johnson is on the court the Raptors don’t score as much. This is true.

The numbers are

110.7 vs 114.1 or -3.4

So the Raptors do score 3.4 fewer points per 100 possessions when he is on the court, but then they give up 9.8 fewer points so that is a gain of 6.4 points per 100 possessions which is equal to about how many a team gets in one game.

Of course no way that Johnson plays 48 minutes. You couldn’t put up that many fouls on a scoreboard. The point is that the numbers show what we all sense from watching the games. That over the 50 games that the Raptors have played this year they are outsoring their opponents when Johnson is on the court by a fairly significant number; i.e., about 2.3 a game on the average when he is on the court.