Let the signings begin. With Andrea

Quiet day, quiet night. Calm before the storm?

We, as they say, shall see.

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I will say this right here: If the numbers are right and the Raptors have locked up Andrea Bargnani for five years at $50 million – and I have no suspicion that those numbers are wrong – they got a bargain.

Maybe not a bargain in relation to real life but in the context of pro basketball, getting a 24-year-old, 7-foot centre-forward with Bargnani’s kind of skills on a contract like that is a deal.

We’ll be summoned to the Air Canada Centre for a big shebang this afternoon and I bet people in the organization will be crowing.

Regulars here will know I’ve always thought Bargnani had a chance to be very good and his play last year showed some flashes that would make even the greatest of naysayers at least take a look.

No, he doesn’t rebound like Dennis Rodman, or even Dennis The Menace some nights, but it’s undeniable that he was better at boxing out, taking care of his man and going to the boards last year than he was in his rookie season and especially his lost sophomore campaign.

He’s a good shooter who’s getting better, his mid-range game is improving and this contract is going to look pretty darn good in a couple of years, I suspect.

And now, having Bargnani and Hedo Turkoglu locked up for at least five years and with Jose Calderon under lock and key through 2013, there’s a pretty solid core in place.

I imagine Chris Bosh has noticed.

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So, what happened yesterday? A bunch of stuff, I guess, but nothing really newsworthy leaked out.

Dallas is the sole focal point for Marion at this time, the Raptors won’t take any money back, they need a third team, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All of which we knew 24 hours ago.

But there had to be other stuff being kicked around for other guys, I imagine.

The silence was deafening from people who usually will at least chat electronically for a minute or two.

Not sure when we’ll get to the gist of what Bryan was doing all day, I imagine it’ll be sometime tonight or tomorrow morning and it now looks like the Hedo thing won’t happen until Thursday.

But watch around the league today to see what teams renounced who or said they were not going to re-sign this guy or that guy.

This story from Paul Coro’s kind of interesting, Matt Barnes is one of the guys who the Raptors thought might fall through the cracks.

There will be others and we’ll endeavour to find out who they are.

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Hey, how about them Canadas?

Check this out, find out that the Under-19s beat Argentina and now move to the quarter-finals of the world championships and understand that’s a pretty significant win.

Not that they are guaranteed to be top eight in the world – although that’s quite an accomplishment – but because the kids on the team now get a rather significant reward for their work and it’s another way to show them that being involved in the national team program is a worthwhile summer endeavour.

The one thing that Wayne Parrish and his band of merry advisors (and put The Big M – Maurizio Gherardini -- right at the top of that list) have done is provide excellent programs for the kids who are the future of the senior national team and having them have some success means they’re moving in the right direction.

There’s no telling how this tournament will wind up – a medal sure would be important – but the challenge now is to make sure these youngsters stay with the program through their early 20s so that when they become ready to make a big step on the senior stage (which probably takes until their mid-20s or even later) they’ve got some more recent international experience to draw on.

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Hey, how about that salary cap?

It’s $57.7. million this year and the tax level’s $69.97 million and no one I’ve talked to is much surprised at that since it was based on last year’s revenue and while the economic crunch hit during the season, most of the big-money sponsorship deals and the like were already in place.

But – and it’s explained quite well here in Marc Stein’s story – the real crunch is going to come a year from now because if anyone thinks there’s lots of money out there for corporate deals this year, they sure haven’t been paying close attention.

And that might mean teams with their eyes on two maximum-value deals might want to blink.

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Hey how about them Yankees? I know at least one of you cares but the Mighty Yankees suffered an ignominious defeat last night, I think it was 19-16 or something like that.

Wasn’t a lot of gold glove defending, that’s for sure, and a mental blip or two on the bases proved, um, costly but what the heck, we’re 8-3 and that doesn’t stink.

And, as one of the guys I was corresponding with during the game on NBA matters (yeah, work really never does end this time of year) put it:

“Dammit. I hate a heartbreaker like that.”

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Comments

[fg]

I must say,

great job BC, that is great that we have players who want to be in toronto signed long term, we can build and hopefully have a competitve team for years to come.

And im impressed in BC, 50 million over 5 years in somewhat of a bargain, especially if he plays like he did late last season.

Centres are always given decent money, size is payed for. Acutally I think BC got a steal

Look at the Centres in the league, geez Gortat is getting near 7 million after the first couple pay increases. ZAZA Puchulia gets nearly 8 million, dalembert gets like 11 million,Nestorivic got 8 million in his prime, I did my research Most starting centres are payed between 8-13 million, and I really do think Bargs in the more skilled Centre in the league (obvisouly behind the all stars).
that really does give the raps flexibility down the road, 10 million for a starter is very fair, then the minimums and mid levels for your bench, thats how boston, La, orlando and the good teams are built.

[Paul]

What does $57.7M mean in relation to retaining rights on Parker and Delfino? Anything?

Blogger's note: Nope

[gideon]

I was surfing nba.com and came across another article about Shawn Marion headed to the Mavericks:
http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/07/07/freeagency.update/index.html

I wasn't aware that the Raptors had anybody named Ryan Humphries on the payroll, but I could be mistaken.. C'mon nba.com at least get his name right!

[Brad D]

Doug, i'm not sure if you have answered this alaready or not but it is a concern of mine and i would like to hear your opinion. How do you feel about the length of Turkoglu's contract? I know that a 5 year deal is what it was going to take to get him done but do you think a 34 year old Turkoglu getting paid over 10 milllion will be problem?

Blogger's note: Sorry, but you'll have to ask me when he's 34. There are some good 34-year-olds, some not so good; I have no clue what this guy will be like then. No one does

[Nick]

RE: Salary Cap and Tax in 2010

You have to believe that with the doom and gloom memo from the league attached to the Current Cap and Tax announcement (good Marc Stein peice) that the big name free agents and their agents are looking at their current situations (who they currently play with and how much faith they have in management) in a new light.

Doug, I know that you don't like to predict the future, but humour me in some speculation. Do you think that any of the Big Guns from next year reconsider their stance on signing an extension this? If I were Chris Bosh, I believe I might, given what BC has done this year with the roster and his strong history of working very well to remake teams on the fly to make them competative very quickly has to make the 'Bird in the hand' perspective very tempting.

Thanks. Appreciate your blog and the time you put into it.

[Bball]

Doug, I entirely agree that the Bargnani deal could be a great bargain for this team. In fact, if the numbers are correct, his starting salary will be approximately $8.2-8.5 Million for the 2010 season which is about what his qualifying offer would have been for 2010 if he did not sign this extension. The contract is particularly good when you compare it to players like Emeka Okafor who makes an average of $12 Million per season and Tyson Chandler. Congratulations to BC on this signing. Doug, were there any rumblings from your sources that a Bargnani extension was close to being signed?

Blogger's note: I knew they were talking, wasn't sure it'd get done this quickly; pretty good multi-tasking by the GM, no?

[Clutch]

Once again, great blog Doug -

Hopefully Canada can pull out a win against the Americans next round! Getting this far should at the very least up their world ranking.

[Pharaoh]

Doug, pardon my ignorance, as I tend to shy away from all talk of contracts, free agency, mid-level exceptions, etc..., but what is the rationale for re-signing Bargnani now? I'm guessing that either (1) Andrea heard all the dire predictions about the coming economic crunch and decided to get the best possible deal while he still could; or (2) as you hint at, Bryan is doing everything he can to convince Bosh to stay; or (3) some combination of the above. Or are there other reasons?

Blogger's note: I'd say a combination, plus it gives the Raptors some financial certainty for five years with a guy they believe in.

[fg]

One more thing, GREAT JOB AND REPORTING DOUG
I was just on the TSN site (first time in a while, trying to boycott there writers)(worst journalism and reporting in Toronto).
anyway, the grunts are soooo negative and awful, write fantasy and bash toronto sports teams.
Have you guys ever read there comments/blogs, Geez Doug you think you have it bad with a few negative comments on here?? you have no idea how negative the TSN blogs are, must be puckhead fans, with no clue, no clue on BBALL and salaries. or many sports to be honest, must think its NHL baby salaries out there.

anyway just curious if you noticed how negative some RAPTOR fans, writers and blogs out there are. We all have our negative times, but still in the big picture we have to be positive fans, not apathy all the time

[Greg]

How much sleep do you think Bryan has gotten since July 1st? Seems like he's been going non-stop.

Blogger's note: Him, too?

[John S.]

Glad to see that Bargnani has been locked up at a reasonable price. Especially in a worst case scenario where Bosh leaves next year for nothing (although I'm sure that he'd rather do a sign and trade rather than leave $30M on the table) the Raps would have a strong core of 3 players for $28M a season which is pretty solid.

Two thoughts on the signing:
1) Why wouldn't the Raptors want to sign Bargnani for 6 years instead? If he was willing to do $50M/5 years, I'm sure that they could have got him to do a $62M/6 years deal.

2) If it were the case where Bargnani didn't want to sign for 6 years, do you think it's because he wanted to be a free agent when he's 29 rather than 30 so that he could lock up that last big contract of his career?

Thanks Doug.

Blogger's note: I have no idea; I presume it has to do with his next deal, how long it'll be and keeping him under 36 when he signs the deal after that.

[PC]

Wow... my I read that headline this morning my first thought was what on earth were they doing working on an extension right now, shouldn't the focus be on trades and such. My second thought was that I'm an idiot, by the end of this contract Andrea will be an all star if he stays healthy. 3/5's of a starting lineup for what? 28-30 mill a season in 2010? Sounds like a recipe with a line that states "just add Bosh". The Wizards are going to be paying Agent Kneecaps near that aren't they? Highway robbery by BC made even more impressive by the fact that he's been a little busy lately.

The comments seemed to get a little tense yesterday, I enjoy kicking around scenarios but let's not be quite so thin skinned. We're posting our ideas and asking Doug to acknowledge them and then if he doesn't agree we freak out and try to convince him and everyone else.

It's not like BC is going to read it on the sly and think it's so brilliant that he sends a muffin basket for saving the team as well as his tarnished reputation that we're all so sure he now has because he "overpaid" on Hedu who's signed to a contract approximately half of the size of the guy who played his position last year.

Sorry I didn't mean for that to become such a rant, I just think this blog is a lot of fun and it helps me get my daily Raptors fix, however I like it a lot more when everyone is positive and it doesn't scale down into chat room style arguements. I had to laugh at the guy who posted the seatbelt/airbags comment yesterday. Doug I'm thinking the next time something important happens you title the blog posting "Airbags Deploy"

[Jenuwine]

Doug,

BC got a huge steal in Bargs. That kid is going to be very, very good this year. As for Matt Barnes, since the Suns renounced him, he wouldnt be a bad pick up as a 7th or 8th man off the bench no?

Also, if Colangelo can't get a sign-trade done for Marion does that mean he has no choice but to renounce everyone then sign Turk? If he does that, then he has to find someone willing to take Humphries and/or Banks to get help at the backup wing positions right or is he going to use veteran minimum fillers for that?

As always, thanks Doug for the blog.

[Hassan]

Do you think BC will try to bring back Rasho?

[sean]

Calderon, Hedo, and Bargnani for the next 4-5 years sounds like a good group to build around to me.

[Josh]

From January 1, 2009 through the rest of the season, AB averaged 18.9 PPG and 6.0 RPG. If he can build on that, or even do that for a full season with his improved defensive presence, colour me happy.

[doug]

with all this free agent activity and salary cap talk etc..one thing has sorta been forgotten by everyone...are the Timberwolves planning on naming a new coach anytime soon??...

also in that summer league game I watched a bit of last night a interesting thing occurred ..with the game tied a player for OKC whose name escapes me at the moment with just over 2 seconds left was charged with a offensive foul (and it was offensive)..but since it was his 7th foul, as in the summer league you can have as many fouls as you want(imagine Jake in that league)they have a new rule, every foul you get over 6, the other team gets 2 foul shots and the ball out of bounds....so it was his 7th, so with 2 seconds left Hansbrough took the shots for the Pacers and they won the game....sorta bizarre, never seen that before ...plus I still don't get what people see in Harden he was invisible in that game, a summer league game, I think he will not live up to some people's projectons of him...

[LeeZ]

Alright, why all the silence, Doug? Why only one comment posted? Something's happening, isn't it? Stop holding out on us and give us the cheese!!! It's something huge, isn't it? Bosh for Lebron, even up? Well, I'm a public servant and I'm going on strike till you fill us in, so let it be on your head, Doug!

[Paul]

Can someone who knows about this stuff post Chris Bosh's tweet on the signing of Bargs, if any?

[KdubzTdot]

Good move by BC to lock-up the kid. I've been one of the few who actually think this kid is going to be a stud in a year or two. As long as playing in Europe in the summer doesn't mess with his NBA development, I'm confident that he can continue to make strides in his career.

[Paul]

Doug,
your thoughts on why they did this so early? the obvious is that Bargs is in a contract year, and would likely put in more effort, and cost us more next season...

the counter to that though, is we are trying to build a team, and show Bosh that he should stay... one would think we need Bargs playing with that "little bit extra" that players give in a contract year, for Bosh's sake... we might miss that now

Blogger's note: I think the former outweighs the latter.

[rp]

Hi Doug, is there a Bargnani presser scheduled for today? Thanks.

Blogger's note: Yup

[John P]

In your humble opinion Doug, what with the news of the salary cap drop and the NBA Memo, wouldn't it be in Bosh's best interest to sign an extension this summer now?
I would say the risks really outweigh the benefits now of treading into unknown waters next summer where everyone is going to be looking to undercut these players.
A bird in the hand is worth more then two in the bush, no?

Blogger's note: It makes no difference to the percentage he'll get so I'd wait, too

[anthony.mackay]

I have a feeling your right about Andrea, the kid was more consistent in the 2nd half of last years season and believe it or not I think his defensive positioning has really improved.

You commenters are quick to forget this guy was being started at the 3,4,5 spot, then other games coming off the bench at the 3,4,5 spot. Now with JO gone he will get starters minutes consistently at the 5 and I expect to see a HUGE improvement by the all star break.

Four of our starters are terrific jump shooters, with all that extra space they create I am expecting our slashing, dunking rookie to have a big season and challenge for ROY... !!

[Mitch]

Great to see Canada doing well... Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph are names all Canadian hoop fans will know soon enough...

Corporate deals are considered Basketball Related Income? I wouldn't have thought they affect BRI?