A bit of dissection of the big transaction is in order

So, what’s new?

A bit of a night, wasn’t it?

We’ll stick with the usual format but be focused on the big deal, okay?

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THREE POINTERS

(Well, maybe four or five, depends on what kind of roll I get on)

An interesting dynamic

You know what I’m wondering a lot in all of this?

How Dwane’s going to work with what Bryan’s given him.

Now, I am not for a second suggesting there’s any kind of conflict there, they get along, they want the same thing, they have as solid a relationship today as they did the day Bryan hired Dwane.

But …

We all know Dwane likes to coach with a defensive bent and with a rather controlled offence that will take its shot at an early shot in transition but one that he’d like to have that relies on a steady hand on the tiller if that doesn’t happen.

That doesn’t exist with the new group, I don’t think.

The Raptors are, as far as I can glean from what I’ve seen and heard, going to be far more high risk at both ends of the court than Dwane would like, I bet.

They will gamble on defence – and gambles seldom work – and they will be far more improvisational on offence. Kyle Lowry, who was very good in Atlanta, is not the precise, scripted kind of guard, at either end of the floor, that the coach prefers.

I don’t presume things will deteriorate at all between coach and players but I do think Dwane’s going to have to temper some of his expectations about his team and how that team is going to play.

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There has to be more

Bryan told us after the game (and it’s in here somewhere) that he thinks more could be coming in the three weeks before the trade deadline.

And it has to.

I know he’ll continue to try and find a new home for Andrea Bargnani (and Bargnani went through shootaround on Wednesday and could be back in action on the weekend at the latest) but there has to be at least one other move.

There is no way they can keep going with just two point guards on the roster, especially given the fact Kyle’s been banged up more often than not this season (his back’s not quite 100 per cent now) and John Lucas III is not the answer as a full time backup, even though he looked okay on Wednesday night.

So that has to be Job 1 and with an open roster spot now, I’d expect the hole gets filled sooner rather than later.

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Thin, thin, thin

Remember when depth was something that was going to be a tremendous help to this team?

Not so much now, is it?

Consider the knee woes of Mickael Pietrus and Linus Kleiza (I don’t now if either of them will play for a very, very long time) and the reluctance to use Aaron Gray (the last two games notwithstanding) and the vagaries of youth that make Terrence Ross Quincy Acy dicey propositions night to night, this is not a team that can go deep into the bench.

And that’s going to make health a significant issue as the rest of the season unfolds.

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We interrupt the various rants for this. Just because.

Big football game down in NOLA, I hear?

Well, this dude’s got some NOLA connections and if you hear some Harry Connick Jr. in your day, it’s not a bad day.

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A personal note

I think you all know this but there hasn’t been a nicer, more genuine, normal person to deal with on this roster in the 18 years I’ve been around than Jose Calderon.

He is just a good, good man; honest, friendly, respectful and he will be greatly missed.

He is an excellent NBA player regardless of the blinders so many of you wear; he plays hard every night, he turned himself into one of the best shooters to ever wear a Raptors uniform and his love for the franchise and the city cannot be understated.

Boss Davis? Dwane once said Ed was fooling people because he was the smartest kid in the class but didn’t want anyone to know it. He was a good and personable kid who never refused a request to chat and often had some solid insight to give.

The locker room is a worse place today than it was yesterday and since I spend a fair amount of time around this team – and, yes, it’s all about me – that’s too bad.

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Stevie Boy sends this photo array along; dude does good work, no?

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So …

I understand at a high level the love and desire this franchise has had for Rudy Gay for years; Gay is now the second- or third-best small forward in franchise history before he’s even put on a jersey or taken part in a practice.

But …

That was a steep price to pay, it really was. They are terribly thin in the frontcourt now and paper thin at point guard. Yes, Bryan suggests more moves are coming but we all know talk can be cheap and until something does come up, this is what it is.

I’m glad they didn’t give up either Ross or Valanciunas along with Calderon but I think they gave up too much.

It’s an okay deal at a steep price and until we see how this team performs over, say, the next month, I can’t suggest it’s a slam dunk.

In fact, it’s far from it but I’ll avoid kneejerk reactions and give it time.

Today? I think they might have fallen in love with a guy a few years ago and had some blinders on when it came to him and what they were willing to pay.

Today? I think they are vastly improved at one position and much weaker at two others and that’s not progress, that’s just change.

Unless Bryan has more moves up his sleeve – and moves for this year, not in the summer – this trade makes them different but not a whole lot better.

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Oh, yeah: The refs.

Now, we all know I am far more supportive of NBA officials as many of you would like and I won’t rant about a call here and there because it’s often whining and not worth it.

But that being said, they blew the last Toronto possession like I’ve seldom seen a play blown. DeRozan got hammered – heck, I thought Anderson might have been hit on the scramble shot before DeRozan’s – and Dwane going off as he did won’t do anything except make him feel better, and a little less wealthy.

But what everyone has to realize is that Dwane finally snapped publicly not because he’s looking for calls, he was and is looking for fairness and he didn’t get it last night.

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Couple of quick housekeeping issues.

The askdoug@thestar.ca e-mail is up and operational, I’m told. I can’t get access to it until the chipheads get at my machine tomorrow but I’ve missed hearing from some of you and hope there are all kinds of interesting missives there when I can look at them.

Oh, and it was odd not doing an IGBT, missed some of you. But it was necessary and we’ll be back tomorrow night.

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And, finally, before I head to the airport to rush back and hopefully get to practice in time to get more reaction (it’s doubtful that Gay will get there in time to talk to us today), there is just one more question:

How is Delta going to screw me today?

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Comments

[nasko]

@Ken B, that's right, Jose is a second stringer, just ask Kobe and the Lakers'.
It absolutely beats me when people make statements like this.

Blogger's note: You and me, both. Thanks for calling out a lack of knowledge. It's shocking

[J]

1. Jose is probably my second favorite Raptor of all time (after Alvin Williams). Please convey, if possible, how much he will be missed. As much as I would love for him to come back during the summer, I highly doubt he will for the same reason I didn't think he'd resign if we kept him. I'm almost certain some team out there will offer more money and more playing time, and his love for Toronto notwithstanding, it'll be a lot more attractive than splitting time with Lowry. I wish him all the best, and hope he takes the Pistons to the playoffs.

2. If competent SFs grow on trees, as someone mentioned, then Canada has been a desert wasteland the last however many years.

3. Rudy's contract sucks, but to characterize him as over the hill, when he's not even three years older than Davis, is ridiculous. He hasn't even reached his prime! If he continues to produce like the last 40 games, then yes, this will be a bad deal; if he produces like the previous six years, then it will be a steal talent-wise (albeit expensive cap-wise).

4. We should have continued to build through the draft? Unless we acquired a high first-round pick via trade (and to do that we'd have to give up something of value, and I don't mean Kleiza), we were likely to be without a first rounder this year. By the time we drafted in 2014, either our team would have taken another step forward (thus resulting in a late lottery/mid-1st round pick, and those are always crapshoots), or we would have been so bad for yet another year that it would have been a moot point.

[Hope Caper]

New look in the blog Doug. Very blocky but clean. Great blog and well put.

I have watched this team for 18 years and drama seems to be a constant companion. I don't have the encyclopedic memory you have of coaches and players but certainly the good ones have stood out.

And Jose was a good one.

I agree on the Ed Davis comment as well. A solid basketball player who deserved better consideration.

Before the trade I had, based on rumour, concluded that I would lose all respect for Bryan if he pulled the trigger on this deal and second thought has not changed my mind. He says he is not done trading and you have to wonder what he is working with. In order to trade Bargs he will have to eat salary and to acquire talent he is going to have to spend money. Both solutions needing what he doesn't have-salary cap.

Truly if Bryan comes out of this smelling like a rose he is a magician.

I don't think I have felt this bad for the franchise since the Isaiah Thomas years. Great hopes to only crash and burn.

[sportschic]

Bryan really boosted Mother Star's visit stats today!

After a day's reflection, I'm still sorry to Jose go - and a lot of that has to do with the person he is, as well as the fact that I think he's under-rated by many. Also sorry about Ed Davis, but I can see that you don't get something without giving up something, and his value is pretty high right now. I guess Bryan gambled that Jose's expiring contract is worth more to him as trade bait than it would be in the summer as cap room. I don't know what free agents would be out there that would have been of interest to the Raps, but Bryan has wanted Gay on the team for a while, so I can see that from a purely pragmatic point of view. Of course, he hopes the move means he will be around this summer. As I said yesterday, I'll wait to see how it works out for the team, and I wish Ed and Jose the best. Couldn't Bryan have found him a nicer destination than Detroit for Jose, though?

[DaveB]

Interesting people want Bargs traded and like Gay. Both are similar players with good offense and poor defense. Both stop the ball. Both have regressed the past couple of years. The only player from the 2006 draft that has remained healthy,continues to improve and is an All-star is Aldridge.

[J]

@PS:

Since you asked (and this is IMHO), the Wins Produced "metric", like all the other fancy, new metrics (PER, Win Shares, etc.), doesn't really add anything super innovative to the statistical dialogue. The thing we need to remember is, in the end, it's just one person's preferred set of statistical weights applied to existing stats, and depending on how you weigh certain stats, certain players will go up or down in value.

Some food for thought:

- Yes, Gay's WP48 this season is below average (0.040), and it shouldn't take an advanced stat to tell you he's struggling this year, but the two previous seasons he was above average using the same stat (0.119 and 0.142).

- If we trust in WP48, we must also accept that DeRozan is terrible. His four seasons in the league have posted WP48s of 0.050, 0.028, -0.030 and 0.045 (from his rookie year to the current season).

- According to WP48, this season is Ed Davis' weakest yet (though only marginally), and despite his struggles the past two seasons, we'd be fools to trade Fields for Kobe Bryant, even if Bryant had the same contract. Fields has a far better WP48 than Kobe over the past three years (only this year is Kobe *marginally* better than Fields). Also, the Heat would really benefit from a duo of LBJ and Jimmy Butler instead of Wade.

- Lastly, the Raptors would win far more games if they went with Bargnani at SG (playing his normal style of offense, but defending SGs), but not nearly as many games as they would if they could somehow clone Andre Drummond four times and field a starting lineup of Drummond, Drummond, Drummond, Drummond and Drummond. That team would likely go undefeated. BC really dropped the ball there.

Hope the above examples can demonstrate that the WP48 stat must be taken with many grains of salt.

[Avinash]

So sad to see Jose go. Boss is a promising piece. But I just wanted to acknowledge and thank Jose for playing his heart out night in and night out. A consummate pro. He may well be THE favourite Hero yet. Jose is gone. Long live Jose!!

Doug thanks for the blog as always. A real cool hangout. It's like a pub you can visit any time of day and or night. Cheers.

[John D.]

Jose and Ed - you guys are what good people should aspire to be. Thank you for your solid contributions to this city - on and off the court. Class acts through and through. Your new teams and fans will surely appreciate you both. Unfortunately, tall foreheads make moves we don't always agree with - such as this trade and The Star's silly changes to what was once a must stop news source website that looks like so many outhers out there now. Here's hoping Rudy finds his 'A' game here in T.O. and The Star works out whatever it is they are trying to work out with this website redesign and figures, hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it (unlike the Raps who are obviously in need of some more maintenance). Good luck to everyone involved in all the changes. Everyone needs it.

[m]

The new font is painful. I have to stop reading, I'll check back in a week to see if there is any improvement, See you later.

Blogger's note: Bye