Built Ford Tough

The bottom of the East is going to be terrible next season so it is definitely possible. The Magic, Heat, Celtics, Hawks and Bulls are clearly locks for the playoffs. The Bucks will most likely be a playoff team next season as well. That leaves the 7 and 8 seeds wide open. I would imagine that the Bobcats will get one of those spots assuming they play the same way that they did last season but that 8th seed is wide open. There really isn't a whole lot seperating the rest of the East. It wouldn't surprise me at all if any one of the remaining teams in the East snuck into the playoffs wit the exception of probably the Wizards and Pistons. I can defintiely see the 8th place team having a record of 10+ games under .500 though this season. The top teams in the East are defintiely going to be beating up on the bottom teams and I think a team may sneak into the playoffs with a record of something like 35-47. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect the Cavs to be able to get a record around there assuming they make good use of their TPE.

Raptors vs. Phoenix is on Raps TV right now, for those of you that are interested. The game has already finished and this is a replay, but I didn't watch it live. Raptors are up 23-13 with 2 minutes left in the first. DeRozan has attempted around 8 free throws already as he has been driving by Taylor Griffin at will. Joey Dorsey has been dominating the glass and has about 7 boards in 5 minutes. He also has 4 points I believe. Ed Davis has 4 points, a couple of boards and had a very nice block as well. He hasn't really been given many touches on offense but his defense has been solid so far. He did make a nice left handed hook shot over two defenders though. Sonny Weems has played basically the exact same way that he did during the season. He has hit a couple of mid range jumpers, missed a three and got to the line I think 4 times, going 2-4. DeRozan and Weems have been the majority of the Raptors offense though, which is what we expected.

As far as I know, the TPE expires exactly a year after you originally receive it, so the Raptors TPE will expire July 9th, 2011.

Ahh, good old Sir Charles, telling it like it is. I also found his comments about Bosh being a very good player but not a great player interesting. I don't know if I classify Bosh a great player or not. If he plays like he did during the first half of last season then I don't think really think it is arguable that he isn't a great player, but if he plays like he did during the 2nd half of the season (other than that one two week stretch or whatever it was) and continues to fade down the stretch, I don't know if you can classify him as a great player. Then again I seem to have a higher opinion of what "great" or "superstar" or other terms like that than most people. I think those terms get thrown around way too easily. One thing that may work for or against the Raptors (depends on which side of the "rebuild" vs. "retool" spectrum you are on) is that the East is going to probably be pretty bad next season outside of the top 5 (Miami, Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta and Boston). I guess you can throw Milwaukee into that mix of clear playoff locks as well. Outside of them though, the East is going to probably be pretty pathetic with Toronto, Cleveland, Indiana, Detroit and Washington. All of these teams look like they are going to be pretty "turrible" next season, at least with how their rosters are right now. I don't know if Toronto is going to be bad enough to win the Harrison Barnes sweepstakes though. Hopefully they get lucky in the lottery becasue I think Colangelo will make the team just good enough to not really be a part of the Barnes sweepstakes. Also loved the shots he took at the Leafs and Blue Jays. Toronto sports just can't to do anything right lately.

Nope, they got a TPE. There were two seperate deals made. Toronto got their 1st back and Miami's 2011 1st as well as a TPE for whatever the first year salary that Chris Bosh will have. Cleveland got 2 1sts from Miami (I'm guessing 2013 and 15), 2 2nds and a TPE for whatever the first year salary that LeBron James will have. Whenever you make a trade with a team that is under the salary cap and the salaries don't match, whatever salary that the team under the cap absorbs is given to the team other team in the trade as a TPE. So say Bosh's first year salary is $14M, the Raptors got a $14M TPE (and the Cavs would've got a $14M TPE from trading LeBron as well). Hypothetically, f the Heat would've sent Beasley to Toronto in this trade, the TPE would've been about $9.5M because it would be Bosh's salary subtracted by Beasley's salary. That is why, among other things, some people didn't want Beasley in the trade because it would've lowered the value of the TPE. I'm not sure if you knew how TPE's work or not, so sorry if you knew all of that. EDIT: I just read that Bosh's starting salary is $14.5M so the Raptors will get a $14.5M TPE.

The difference in the Turkoglu trade is that the Raptors also had salary going out and not just coming in. The Raptors sent out Kris Humphries and Shawn Marion while had the incoming salaries of Antoine Wright, Hedo Turkoglu and Devean George. The incoming/outgoming salaries is what enabled the Raptors to preserve their rights and exceptions because technically, they traded salary off of their own roster to match the salary that they were receiving. Miami doesn't have any outgoing salary in these trades so they need the cap in order to absorb the incoming salaries. The reason why Miami is giving up these picks is because by having the higher raises, it makes it easier for these three to take a paycut initially which in turn gives them more money to use to fill out the roster for this season. James, Wade and Bosh will be willing to take a larger initial paycut in order to allow the Heat to fill out the roster because they will have bigger annual raises to make up for the initial paycut. At least that is the way that I look at it, which makes perfect sense, at least to me.

Actually, it doesn't. All this really does is give Bosh and James the 6 year deal with the 10.5% increases. The Heat only owned Bird Rights on Dwyane Wade and Joel Anthony (I think, not 100% sure). They still have to absorb James and Bosh's salaries (ie, they have to renounce to all of their free agents). They can't exceed the cap to sign Haslem and won't have the MLE to use. Since everybody is taking a paycut, it doesn open up more salary for the Heat to give to Haslem though, but they still don't have his Bird Rights because they need to be far enough under the cap to absorb the incoming salaries from Bosh and James. Haslem is going to have to still take a decent paycut in order to stay in Miami though, unless James, Wade and Bosh all sign for like $13-14M a season or something, which would give them around $6M to use on Haslem (I think, not 100% sure). Also, the Miller signing is possible because of the Beasley trade. They basically used the salary that Beasley would've made plus a bit of left over cap (from all three taking around a $800K paycut) and gave it to Miller. Again, I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think that is what happened with that signing. I could obviously be wrong, but I am fairly certain that the Heat still won't have Bird Rights on anybody and won't have the MLE to use just because of these S&T's as it basically the exact same as a signing except for the formality of getting the players the 6 years. There is now salary being outputted and is basically a glorified signing for the Heat.

The O'Neal/Marion trade. The Raptors traded Jamario Moon, Jermaine O'Neal and a lottery protected 1st (until 2014) in exchange for Shawn Marion, Marcus Banks and $3M. In regards to what I want the Raptors to do with their TPE, I honestly have no idea. I want to see them just use it and get a decent young player on a team that is looking to dump salary, but that won't happen for obvious reasons. I have no interest in Arenas at all. Getting Collison would be nice, but if given the choice, I'd much rather draft Kyrie Irving than get Collison at the expense of taking on Okafor and having $40M+ a season tied into Bargnani, Okafor, Calderon and Turkoglu. I like Okafor as a player but taking his contract on and having that much money tied into average players, well, that would make me suicidal. I want this used to help along the Raptors rebuild, but since we know Colangelo is going to do everything in his power this season to save his job (and MLSE probably will keep him around) a rebuild isn't likely to happen. I just pray that he doesn't take on a contract like Rip Hamilton or Gilbert Arenas. That would be too much for me.

Here is what is posted on RealGM http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/68033/20100709/raptors_cavs_to_each_receive_two_first_rounders/#ixzz0tF8qTSnt Looks like it will only be one 2nd rounder but who really cares considering it will be one of the 3rd last picks in the draft.

Looks like the Cavs are going to agree to do a sign-and-trade for LeBron and they will get the Heats 1st rounder in 2013 and 2015 as well as two 2nd rounders and the $15M or so TPE. He also says that the cavs are going to be looking to make use of that TPE immediately: http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/68033/20100709/raptors_cavs_to_each_receive_two_first_rounders/#ixzz0tF8qTSnt

On paper they may be the best trio ever, but how about we actually wait until they play a game together before labelling them as the best trio to ever play basketball? They probably will go down as one of the best trios to ever play together, but calling them that already is an insult to trios like Bird, McHale and Parrish or Magic, Kareem and Worthy or Russell, Cousy and Hondo or Erving, Malone and Toney or West, Baylor and Chamberlain (over the hill Chamberlain, but still) considering that these trios were all some of the best at their respective positions during their time (Toney had 4 really good years from 81-85) and managed to lead their teams to a championship(s).

So the sign-and-trade for Bosh is a done deal (well I don't think it has been officially announced or anything but it is supposedly done) from what I have heard and the Raptors will be receiving: Miami 2011 1st Their protected 1st back $14.5M TPE Colangelo has gone on record saying that he won't be rebuilding this team and is going to look to use this TPE to make moves that get them into the playoffs (aka moves that make them not good enough to actually make the playoffs, but good enough to not get a top 7 pick in the draft). He mentioned targeting disgruntled stars and trying to lure them away from their current teams and doing things like that. So who do you think Colangelo will target? Gilbert Arenas? Emeka Okafor and Darren Collison? Andre Iguodala? I'm glad the Raptors got their pick back and got something in return for Bosh, but I have to admit, I'm nervous about Colangelo having a $15M TPE to use, haha.

From Michael Grange's Twitter: Found that pretty funny that Johnson basically got $10M more than he was expecting to get. I actually believe the exact comment was that he was expecting $25-30M but either way, it just goes to show that even he thought Colangelo outbid himself.

It is from the Marko Jaric trade and I know that it was heavily protected whent he trade first happened. It might still be top 10 protected in the 2011 draft and then become unprotected in 2012. I think the protection wears of next season though, but I'm not 100% sure.

From what I've heard: Wade is getting the 6 year max with an opt out after the 5th year. Bosh is getting the 6 year max with possibly an opt out after the 5th year. James is getting the 5 year max with an opt out after the 4th year. I haven't heard anything about them taking paycuts since Beasley was moved and the cap was higher than expected. They might all take small paycuts to make it easier to fill the roster out though, but it would probably be like $1M less for each of them. Miami and Toronto have agreed to a S&T so that Bosh can get the 6 year max, but I'm not sure if he is getting an opt out or not. I would expect he will, but I'm not positive. I could be wrong, but from everything I have read and heard, it sounds like this is how the contracts are going to break down.

Very good move for the Bulls. His shooting is desperately needed to space the floor, especially after the Bulls traded away their only 3 point threat in Hinrich (and he was streaky). He isn't exactly ideal as a starter considering his lack of defense, but his shooting is going to be a welcome addition to the team, along with Boozer. The Bulls struck out on the big free agents, but they have quietly had a solid offseason, all things considered.

Thornton was traded to the Wizards in that 3-team trade at the deadline that sent Jamison to the Cavs. I would also expect that Eric Gordon would start at the two over Foye. Unless the Clippers want to use Gordon in the Jason Terry role off of the bench (although he isn't exactly the same kind of player, but you know what I mean), I would expect him to start as he is clearly the better player than Foye is. The Clippers have a promising lineup though. They've done a nice job of adding solid pieces through the draft over the past few years (Griffin, Gordon, Jordon, Bledose and Aminu) and getting some capable vets to compliment the youngsters (Butler and now Foye and Gomes). I'm not expecting them to make the playoffs this season (it depends on Griffin), but in a year or two, if everything pans out how you would expect it to, I think that they will definitely be a perennial playoff team. Next offseason is going to be huge for them considering they own the Wolves unprotected first and will probably have cap space to use as well. I've always liked the Clippers dating back to the Miles and Richardson days, so it is nice to see them finally not [expletive]ing everything up, haha.

I don't remember when it was said, but I loved this comment from him (it was released to the Italian Media, but I don't remember it mentioned to North American media): I think that the language barrier is still preventing him from letting loose. He has made some pretty funny remarks like these two and when he made that comment about being a great rebounder and then laughing afterwords as he wasn't able to keep a straight face.

I trust Eric Smith on this as if I recall correctly, him and Bonner were pretty tight during Bonner's time in Toronto and have kept in touch after he was traded. There was talk about Bonner wanting to return to Toronto so that also adds to the validity to this as it means that Bonner and Toronto won't have ae reunion. I wonder if Bonner will get overpaid or if Buford will put an end to the run of drastically overpaid big men signings this summer.

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/68018/20100709/raptors_offer_to_kleiza_is_front_loaded/#ixzz0tDpzQfe5 How highly does Denver value Kleiza? I'm really not liking this as it is looking more and more likely that the Nuggets aren't going to match this offer sheet. On the bright side though, at least the contract would be front loaded and decrease as time goes on. It will be unpleasent for the first year or two, but at least it won't be increasing along with Calderon, Turkoglu and Bargnani's contracts creating even more of a cap hell for the Raptors.

Prediction on the terms? I'll say 5 years, $50M. We are going to be seeing a lot of horrible inflated contracts handed out by teams like New York, New Jersey and probably Chicago now that all of the big name free agents have been locked up. Their going to be scrambling to at least salvage some sort of talent out of free agency now and it will result in some good players being drastically overpaid. I'll wait and see the terms before making any comments on the signing itself though. I like Felton going to New York in terms of a fit and his talent level, but I get the feeling I am going to hate the money he will make.

And the overpaid big man streak continues... FYI: The Nets signed Thomas to an offer sheet but the Bobcats matched it almost immeidately, so I guess the balm can be placed on the Nets and not the Bobcats for this overpayment.

If this is true, my respect for Bargnani definitely just went up a notch. I found this on RealGM and then went on Facebook to see if it was true, and it seems like it may be. Anyways, this was on his Facebook page:

Will you pay for my plane ticket to Toronto? Pretty please? He was a class act when he firt came into the league. He was a young, shy, computer loving slightly nerdy kid who just so happened to be pretty competant at basketball. Media around the Raptors compared his demeanor to that of Tim Duncan (doesn't talk a lot and does his business on the court etc...). Then when Carter got traded and the team was basically handed to him on a silver platter, his personality started to change. Whether it was his new found fame (being selected to All-Star games, making All-NBA 2nd Team etc...) or this was his true personality finally showing through, who knows, but once Carter was moved and the team was handed to him, he started changing. None of it was ever as bad as these past few months on Twitter though. If he wouldn't have made all of these comments I'm sure he would still be cheered his first trip back to Toronto, but you can pretty much forget about that now. I live in British Columbia so I don't know the mood around the Toronto area, but judging from the reception of him around message boards that I read and even the media that covers the team, it sounds like he will be getting a Carter-esque reception when he comes back to the ACC. Should be entertaining to say the least seeing the Raptor fans boo Bosh with all of their hearts while looking up at the scoreboard and seeing that they are down by 50 and then starting to drink theirselves into a suicidal depression after realizing that Andrea Bargnani is now the best player on the team.

I absolutely hate James leaving Cleveland and hate him playing alongside Wade and Bosh (mainly Wade) even more but at least James hasn't made these kinds of comments about his former team and is handling his departure with much more class. Bosh has basically been making comments like these ever since becoming a free agent and then he thanks the Toronto fans only to make another comment like this one directed towards Toronto.