Jack and Bosh are back together again

Like a couple of kid college roommates – which they used to be, in fact – Jarrett Jack and Chris Bosh were mugging for the cameras and goofing for the media during Jack’s introductory Raptors news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Fans can only hope they stay together longer this time than they did in the first go-round as teammates, when Bosh bolted for the NBA after just one season alongside Jack at Georgia Tech.

And with all the palaver about Bosh’s future when he can become a free agent at the end of the next NBA season, his new/old teammate figures it’s time to start the recruiting process right now.

Jack said:

“As soon as I pretty much got the call that Indiana wasn’t going to match, I said, 'we’re going to take this year, make the most of it as possible' and hopefully we’ll try to get him around here for a few more years.”

Bosh, of course, has never committed to either staying or going when he might be able to flee the only franchise he’s ever played for but he sounded at least a little bit like a guy who’s happy with the moves the Raptors have made and someone who’s glad to have another close friend as a teammate.

“I’m really happy to see him. He’s a really good friend to me, and that’ll make it easier, and he can play ball, too. It’s like killing two birds with one stone, he’s a good dude, a good locker room guy and he can ball. Any time you can have that, it’s a good thing.”

So, does that mean Bosh is coming back?

Yeah, right.

“For sure, I’m really excited about next year. Not too excited to the point I was last year (when he and Jermaine O’Neal were supposed to terrorize the East) but just looking at it, I think we have the chance to have a good team if we do the right things.”

Jack, a 6-3 guard, was termed “an ideal fit for this roster” by Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo, who stole the restricted free agent away from the Indiana Pacers with a four-year, $20-million contract.

Jack started thinking about the Bosh factor right after his agent called with news of the Toronto offer.

“Soon as I got off the phone with him, I called Chris and he thought I was playing a prank on him … I told him it was serious and the next day it hit the media,” he said.

“It’s unbelievable, not many times in this league do you get the chance to play with someone you really call a friend. Me and him were talking about the last time we played each other, it would be something to be teammates again and it came to pass now.”

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Comments

[rp]

Hi Doug - I really enjoyed the parts where Jarrett was talking about his parents :) It sounded as though they were going to be around quite a bit. Are they moving to Toronto?

Blogger's note: No, I don't think so, they both have jobs back home

[Marc Douris]

Hey Doug,

Gotta say some of these posts are ridiculous...

Anyways just wanted to comment on the video of the press conference. I just watched and found it to be interesting in a couple of ways..

1. At the beginnning when Matt Devlin is introducing Jarret Jack with such enthousiasm and the camera guy shoots to the empty room and the only person clapping is BC, thats priceless. No offense to Jarret Jack but that had to be more than a little awkward.

2. When the camera guy zoomed in on Jarret's extremely ridiculously jeweled watch I found that to be pretty amusing. It felt like the camera guy felt obligated to have a good few seconds of air time for Jarret's watch. Is it just me or does it seem like Mr. Jack has already cashed his cheque and spent maybe half of it on his watch? Again no offense to him, its his money, I just found it amusing the camera guy included such a long shot of the jewelery.

Onto an actual relevant comment/question...

I was wondering how much interest, if any, there is around the league for Carlos Delfino? Is BC the only GM interested in giving Delfino 4-5M a Yr.? Have you heard of which teams, if any have shown Carlos any interest? Could you think of any possible destinations other than Toronto for Carlos this season?

I understand the whole 'Bird's Rights' issue and how it doesn't affect our Luxary Tax situation, but I just wonder if we really need another player at the 1/2/ positions that is going to take away minutes from what seems to be a solid rotation of guards already in place. I just wonder how well an Antoine Wright,Demar Derozan and especially a Carolos Delfino are going to react to seeing limited time. I understand depth is crucial in success, but I think the team needs a balance of depth in order to achieve success on a higher level.

Thanks again Mr. Smith your hard work is again greatly appreciated...

And for those people who find it necessary to post such idiotic comments why not find something useful to do with your time?

Blogger's note: I haven't heard of any interest lately in Delfino, although I do know the Knicks had some earlier this year.

[Juan]

Just watched the press conference and I have to say that JJ seems like a solid guy and a hard worker with a great attitude. Gotta love that his parents came up and are planning to spend a lot of time here.

[Shannon]

Hey Doug,

Chris mentioned that he wasn't as excited as he was last year (which is good because look how that turned out) but on paper as of right now - which squad looks better? Last year's or the current roster?

Thanks as always for the great work!

Blogger's note: On paper? This one. On the court? Who knows

[Johnn19]

Carlos Delfino is something that the Raptors need that is in short supply, a WINNER, at the Worlds and the Olympics for his country Argentina, as a key contributor.

Raptors qualifying offer last year was $2.7mil as a RFA, so starting at $4mil is not an unreasonable number for a multi talented player who can guard SG's & SF's and score 10ppg and 5rpg in 20/24 mins per game, and is a familiar face with the team,as now a UFA.

[Joachim]

Doug,

Should we read into the fact that Rasho's back in town?

Blogger's note: No

[PC]

Doug,

Welcome back from Vac!

I was pondering the luxury tax dilemma the other day, it seems that with the exception of the teams that built their rosters to have as many expiring contracts as possible for 2010, every team in the NBA is going to be over the tax limit just by holding to the status quo. This one year car crash of an economy may actually have the result of penalizing teams for keeping their core players long term and maintaining a stable roster, which Stern has always maintained is best of the fans and the league.

I was wondering if the big brains at the league office were looking this far ahead. Do you think there are any contingency plans in case the cap and luxury tax drop past an amount that teams will realistically be able to cope with in a single season?

I'm wondering if they might not allow the cap and tax to temporarily float a bit above the actual required levels. Another alternative would be allowing teams to eat a contract without it affecting their cap, ala the Finley rule (that should be applicable once every couple of years as a housekeeping option to get rid of some of the deadweight contracts that are still floating around, as well as debilitating but not career ending injuries and such... TMAC!).

If they don't do something some of these teams are going to be up against the cap with a half a dozen players on their rosters and no room to wheel and deal which I don't think is good for anyone. What do you think?

Blogger's note: I don't see them letting them float because they are a fixed percentage of a fixed income level and it would take re-opening a collectively bargained agreement, which is a whole other can of worms. What I have read as a very remote possibility is some kind of "tax amnesty" where teams could whack one bad contract to save tax hits (but not cap hits). I doubt, though, that even that would happen.

[J]

Maybe this is just me but considering Barnes is now off the market (and at such a reasonable price too, making Delfino look more and more like a bad deal waiting to happen if he signs for more than a one-year stint), and Kleiza might not want to come for the role he'd be filling, we should just sign Nesterovic with the BAE and... drumroll, please... re-sign Pops Mensah-Bonsu to a minimum deal.

Instantly, all three camps will be happy: we'll have a decent big man to back-up Bargnani, as well as mentor O'Bryant (and Bargnani); we'll maintain financial flexibility going forward by not overspending on Delfino; and the fans will get the Legend they apparently want back so sorely. If that translates into ticket sales even remotely, then the front office is bound to be happy as well.

This off-season is supposed to be a buyer's market, so it's looking exceedingly ironic that Bird rights and technicalities aside, we might end up spending close to the same amount on Delfino as Miami might on Odom, or as the Lakers have on Artest, at a time when most agents are scrambling to find their clients opportunities to showcase themselves for a better windfall in the future. Yes, $3 mil/year is probably not enough to warrant Delfino coming back but that's the reality of it. It's already a compromise on the Raptors' part to pay him more than NBA fair market value; it's certainly his right to make as much money as he can, but if he likes Russia so much, he can stay there.

As for Pops, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of his rabid fans. But if you look at how Calderon, Bosh, Bargnani, Turkoglu and one of DeRozan/Wright will be starting, with Jack getting minutes at both guard spots, and the two of Evans and hopefully Nesterovic backing up the bigs, we realistically only need someone to spell Turkoglu for 12-14 minutes a game, and that's only if neither Wright nor George can handle it -- doubtful, considering the minutes both played last season for the Mavs. They can even have Pops play spurts at the 3 just for the added energy and offensive rebounding.

I agree that ideally you want as many good players as you can get, but should it be at any cost? Not if you want to be like the Spurs, at least. If we bring back Delfino, where will he fit? We already know that Wright was capable of starting at the 2/3 for the Mavs, with over 25 minutes a game logged, so let him start, with the job his to lose should DeRozan prove to be more capable. With Jack around, it's not such a big deal if one of them struggles. By bringing in Delfino, you're forced to either cut into DeRozan's development time while wasting a useful asset, or overpay yet another bit part (see: Banks, Evans/Kapono).

Calderon/Jack/Ukic at the point, Wright/DeRozan/Jack/Douby at the 2, Turkoglu/George/Wright/Mensah-Bonsu at the 3, Bosh/Evans/Mensah-Bonsu at the 4, and Bargnani/Nesterovic/O'Bryant at the 5 doesn't look all that bad, does it?

[Lino]

When Delfino was here last time, I remember reading about how hard he took a defeat. Losing just drives him nuts. I like his game but his attitude towards winning (much like Garbo) is something that I think was missing from the team last year. In my mind his game would have improved even more than the first year he was here had he stayed. Coupled with his winning attitude Delfino should be brought back. His character is sorely missed in my humble opinion.

[Eric]

"Blogger's note: Well, it seems you weren't paying very close attention as it turns out. Of course, had you done that, it would have made your point even more irrelevant and we can't have that.
A direct Jarrett Jack quote:
"For a team, you really have to have some balance. If I’m in the starting lineup and you have Jose and Chris and Andrea and Hedo, those guys definitely have to get their touches and their opportunities at the basket. If I come in off the bench, I might have more opportunities to be aggressive and keep the game going."

Didn't hear it but I'll take your word for it. My bad.

[Nicolas]

I think that the starting lineup should be PG:Calderon SG:Wright SF:Turkoglu PF:Bosh C:Bargnani. We sould get rid of Banks and give that spot to Pops, and trade O'Bryant for a more aggresive center on defense and in the low post, like Jason Maxiell or a better passing center like Andris Biedrens(I think I spelt Andis wrong). Well, at least that's what I think.

[Unregistered]

Mr. TimW, Did you assume a Kobe Bryant for Ukic/Banks in a trade? Ukic was our back-up PG who played over 12 MPG averaging 4 points and 2 assists. Now, I have never been a fan of him, but I see a lot of lovers around (surf through Doug's blog comments over the months), so I'm sure there are people around the league who might rate him equally high, specially keeping development in future in mind. Would it be too much to ask for a back-up 2/3 who specializes in rebounding/slashing that gets to play about 12 MPG on a team already strong in that area? If he can give us a lay-up, a couple of trips to the charity line,
and 3-4 rebounds in those many minutes, wouldn't that match Ukic's productivity?
I'm simply talking strength vs weakness on this team. The team's weaker on rebounding and scoring in the paint than last year (at least on paper), and we have a at least 6 players who are either PG or can play PGs if required.