Built Ford Tough

I think that Houston is Bosh's third choice at this point. I think Chicago is his number one choice and after Chicago his second choice would be wherever the hell LeBron ends up. Despite his talk about wanting to be "the man" on a team, I believe he intends to team up with LeBron or Wade somewhere, particularly Chicago. If that doesn't work out then I think he will turn his attention to Houston because they clearly want him, are willing to offer him the max and work out a S&T with the Raptors to get him the 6 year max. The only question is will the Rockets be willing to part with the Knicks draft picks in a S&T deal because I can see Colangelo holding out for those and not agreeing to do anything unless they are involved, or at least one of them combined with Brooks. I think Bosh is using Houston as a backup plan in case things fall apart in Chicago or somewhere with LeBron/Wade, or he is using Houston as leverage to try and get Chicago to bite on whatever it is Toronto is asking for hin a S&T (I'm guessing Noah). Above all else though, I believe that Bosh's number one priority is to get a 6 year max and by the sounds of it, Colangelo is playing hard ball. He isn't going to simply hand Bosh over to another team in a S&T unless he is getting what he deems as a fair return for him. With New York and Miami essentially gutting their rosters (and NY supposedly signing Amare, effectively eliminating any chance of Bosh going there), Chicago being reluctant to include Noah and New Jersey focusing all of their attention on LeBron, all of a sudden Houston is looking very desirable for Bosh.

I don't think that either of these two would be on the Bulls roster come opening day, at least certainly not Bayless. I can see both of them being involved in a S&T package to lure Bosh to Chicago (LeBron and Wade also if the Cavs and Heat are willing to workout a S&T) or I could see Pryzbilla being a replacement for Noah if Noah is being flipped to another team in a S&T. I know that the Bulls have said he is untouchable, but I think they may change their stance on that if it gives them an opportunity to land all 3 of Bosh, Wade and James. Hypothetically though, lets say that Wade tells the Bulls that he will sign outright with them because he isn't worried about leaving the extra $30M on the table because he thinks he can make it up in endorsments or something like that, but he will only sign if the Bulls sign Bosh as well. Bosh then tells them that the $30M is a dealbreaker and he insists on a S&T because he knows he won't get the same endorsements that Wade or James would. The Bulls call up the Raptors and say that they want Bosh in a S&T deal and Colangelo insists that they only way a deal can be done is if the Bulls offer up Noah. The Bulls reluctantly agree to this and then trade Noah to the Raptors as part of the S&T for Bosh and then since the Bulls now have a hole at the 5, they move Deng to Portland and insert Pryzbilla into the starting center spot and he will play the defensive stopper, rebounder and shot blocker role while Rose, Wade and Bosh handle the scoring. Figure out a way to add James into this wacky hypothetical scenario of mine yourself though, because the only idea of mine is completely far-fetched (even more so than this one outlined above ) and includes Derrick Rose being traded to Toronto (Jack being sent to Chicago) so that they can give both Wade and James max contracts without having to make any other moves. Safe to say that probably won't happen (this entire scenario is pretty unrealistic in the first place though, haha). Anyways, I'm getting a bit off topic and cracking up crazy theories here, so I'll stop before getting completely crazy (if I haven't already got to that point). I don't even actually believe that this kind of scenario would play out myself, haha. I do think that Bayless is involved in this deal with the intention of the Bulls flipping him in a S&T though. That part I actually believe.

Jack makes under $5M ($4.8M) next season and doesn't make over $6M during any season of his contract. How many point guards of Jack's caliber are you able to get with an MLE deal? Add in the fact that he is 26 years old (turns 27 at the end of the year) and he is capable of starting on a lot of teams, especially teams with a ball dominant shooting guard/small forward which most contending teams have those. He is a very good shooter, solid defender, good leader, able to play both guard positions and is clutch. He is not your typical backup point guard and would be able to start on a decent amount of teams in the NBA. Steve Blake is going to be signing for the MLE for somebody this season. Jack is the better player than him (at the very least, they are equal but I don't see it) and is younger, but he is overpaid? Jack is on a very reasonable contract for a player of his skill set.

I agree with everything that you said, but I don't know if I agree with this. I don't think it is crazy at all that these two will be making more than Frye considering that they all bring more to the table than Frye does. Frye has his niche as a marksman and he is a great shooter, but outside of shooting, what else does he really bring to the table? He is a worse defender, rebounder, shot blocker and post player than both Gooden and Johnson. Also, Frye is in an absolutely ideal situation for himself in Phoenix. He was fading away into obscurity (averaged 12 minutes a game for Portland the season before going to Phoenix) before joining the Suns and having his career revitalized by Nash. His contract may be of nice value for the Suns, but if he is ever traded to another team, he may not have nearly as much of an impact considering his style of play, while players like Gooden and Johnson have basically the same value whever they are because of their style of play. I don't think it is crazy that Fryle is making less than the other two (especially considering it is only a$800K difference between Frye and Johnson). They all should be making around the same at least in my opinion. I do think that all of them are overpaid by about a $1-2M though. $5M per is probably about what they are worth, maybe a bit more for Frye (offensive players always get paid more) and a bit less for Johnson, although not much.

I have absolutely no interest in David Lee or Steve Blake. They are both solid players but are completely pointless on this team. The Raptors already have Jack, Calderon and Banks at PG so adding another fringe starting point guard for the MLE makes no sense. I like Blake as a player and think he would be a great fit on a contender like the Lakers or as a backup PG for a team like the Celtics, but on a non playoff team like Toronto it just makes no sense for them to go after him. He wouldn't be their point of the future and he doesn't get them into the playoffs or anything like that either. As for Lee, it is really a love-hate relationship. Love the rebounding, hustle and energy that he gives. Love how much he has improved his game since coming into the league. Love the passion that he has for the game. Hate him next to Bargnani. Hate his lack of defense. Hate paying him a lucrative long term contract. If the Raptors had a banger at the center spot I would be all for signing him, but a front court of Bargnani and Lee is just a disastor waiting to happen. Brendan Haywood actually makes sense for this team stylistically. He is a good fit next to Bargnani with his defense and rebounding. He would be a great veteran presence for the young Raptor bigs like Johnson, Davis, Alabi and even Bargnani. The Raptors are going to have a very young frontcourt next season and with the inevitable departure of Rasho Nesterovic, there is not going to be any real vet in that group, so Haywood makes sense there. However, the amount of money that Haywood will probably land in free agency won't be in the Raptors price range. I would be very surprised if he doesn't get more than the MLE, which is all the Raptors can offer, unless they get a TPE for Bosh and use that on Haywood. I also doubt Haywood would give much consideration to Toronto considering the fact that they aren't going to be anywhere close to the playoffs next season and with him going through what he did over the past couple of seasons in Washington, I don't see him leaving a winning environment like the one in Dallas to go back to that losing environment like the one in Toronto will inevitably be. I like all three of these players and would love to have any one of them on the Raptors in the right situation. The situation the Raptors are going to be in for the next couple of years is not the right one for any of these players though.

Wasn't Paul pretty upset after the Hornets fired Scott? For some reason I always got the impression that he was really fond of Scott and like him a lot. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/nba/wires/07/02/2030.ap.bkn.cavaliers.scott.1st.ld.writethru.0949/#ixzz0sZ1uxYIy http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/rumors/post/Chris-Paul-wanted-to-be-consulted-on-Byron-Scott?urn=nba,202335 I also seem to remember that at the time of his (Scott) firing there were reports of it being because of a mini feud with Paul. Based on my limited knowledge of the situation, I always thought that Paul and Scott had a great relationship with each other. Paul really gre under him as a player and they seemed to work really well together. I have always thought that Scott was a great point guard coach and seemed to always get a lot out of his guards. I don't think that Paul would have any problem playing with Scott again, but again, it is not like I have a lot of knowledge on their relationship.

Leafs re-sign Kulemin to a 2 yr/$4.7M ($2.35 per year) contract. I like it. Kulemin is a nice two way player who has a some offensive potential. I believe his agent was looking for $3M per so to be able to get him at $2.35M is a very nice deal for Toronto. Their forward group is coming along now with the trade for Versteeg, the signing of Armstrong and now the Kulemin extension. It is hardly anything special, but it is starting to look like an actual NHL lineup, which is more than you can say for their group of forwards last year, haha.

You're delusional if you think he was only getting $4M a season. His game may only warrant $4M per season but that is clearly not what he would get on the market. He was getting at least $5M from somebody, possibly more when you take into consideration some of the other deals that were signed. Do you really think he would only get $4M a season considering that Darko Milicic just got $5M from the Wolves and Drew Gooden just got $6.4M from the Bucks? As much as we think that this deal is an overpayment, those two contracts that were agreed upon earlier in the day dictated the price of the rest these third tier big men free agents. EDIT: Also, take a look at last season and the contracts that Brandon Bass and Marcin Gortat were signed to. They were both basically in the same situation as Johnson was in entering free agency and both were paid similar amounts to what Johnson was given (Gortat a bit more and Bass a bit less I think).

How can you criticize the Bargnani contract now? At the time it didn't look that great (not terrible either compared to other centers around the league), but now it is looking like a pretty good contract considering Rudy Gay just signed for $16+M and you have players like Darko, Gooden and Johnson getting between $5-7M. If Bargnani was a free agent he would be getting more than $50M with all of the money that is being thrown around. He doesn't get anything less than what Aldridge signed for which was around $12M with increases I think. At the time Calderon's contract wasn't that bad either. He overpaid by about $2M or so but he was coming off of a damn good season with the Raptors and looked to be only getting better (he had improved his game each season since coming to Toronto). In hindsight, it is a terrible deal considering Calderon has proven to be incapable of handling the grind of being a startng point guard and he hasn't improved since signing the contract (he has regressed actually), but at the time of signing it I don't think it was really worth complaining about. Current day you can complain about it all you want though, god knows I do. As for the other two, completely agree with you, they were terrible deals then and are terrible deals now. This deal is basically being signed with the hope that Johnson is able to continue to improve and work out his issues as a player. He is basically beng signed based on potential, which is always a risky thing. I will say this, if Johnson continues to improve each year and reaches his potential, this may look like a pretty good deal in 4 or 5 years. At the same time, it could also look like a terrible deal in 4 or 5 years if he doesn't improve that much. Amir is pretty stoked to be with the team though.

I expected him to get more than he is worth, but god damn, this is a lot. When I saw the Gooden and Darko contracts earlier today I knew that the Raptors would be forced to drastically overpay to keep Johnson in Toronto though. I was expecting/hoping that they would give him something like 5 yrs/$27M. I thought that Johnson was worth aabout $5M per season so by my count, he is making around $1.8M more than he is worth. With that said, the market dictates the price and once Gooden and Darko were signed to their contracts, it was completely unrealistic to expect Toronto to be able to get him at $5M per. If the Raptors didn't give him this contract, I'm sure somebody else would've. I'm happy that he will be back with the team next season though. He was productive for the Raptors whenever he was on the court last season, but his problem was being able to stay on the court without picking up fouls. If he can sort out his issues with fouling and not being in foul trouble every game, this contract won't look too bad because he is productive when he is on the floor. Plus, he is still young at 23 and he never really got much of a chance in Detroit. I'm still not thrilled with the price though. At the end of the day, he was a 6/5 player on a team that missed the playoffs and giving him nearly $7M per year is a lot.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/17486/hedo-turkoglu-and-raptors-making-amends So it doesn't sound like Turkoglu is going anywhere. Turkoglu is probably comfortable coming back to Toronto now because of the fact that he is going to be one of the focal points in the Raptors offense and will probably be the player that the Raptors run their offense through. I think he realizes that with Bosh leaving this team is basically his for the taking now and he is going to love having the ball in his hands all of the time now. With it sounding like Turkoglu isn't going anywhere, it is absolutely crucial that the Raptors move Calderon though. Calderon seems like a great person and he seems to love the city of Toronto, but he and Turkoglu clearly don't fit together and can't play with one another. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Raptors let Turkoglu run wild next season in an attempt to showcase him for teams around the league. If he plays well enough, I can see the Raptors dealing him around the deadline to a contender. It makes sense for Toronto to do this though. His value can't get much lower than it is now so you might as well try to showcase him.

Dan Hamhuis to the Vancouver Canucks. Not sure of the salary numbers as of yet, but I would expect something along the lines of 6 yrs/$30M. I think this is the end of Willie Mitchell in Vancouver, which was expected, but also Kevin Bieksa as well. I can defintiely see him being traded before the start of the season to a team that misses out on all of these big defenseman free agents. Vancouver needed to improve their defense and by signing Hamhuis and trading for Ballard is going to greatly improve their defense. EDIT: Apperantly his contract is $4.5M but they haven't announced how long it is for yet. It looks like he took a hometown discount to come to Vancouver as he is from Smithers I think.

What is the point though? He is a restricted free agent and the Grizzlies offered him basically the max. No other team would be able to offer him anymore than what the Grizzlies did so any contract offered to him by another team would've just been matched by the Grizzlies. No point in dragging this process out when he was clearly going to stay in Memphis. Even though this is clearly overpaying on the Grizzlies part, it was pretty clear that they would have to overpay in order to keep Gay in Memphis. After all of the dust settles with the big stars, Gay was going to get this kind of offer anyways. I like seeing him stay in Memphis though. It is good to see these small market teams being able to keep their players and be willing to spend the money to keep them.

Henrik Talinder signs with New Jersey for 4 yrs/13.5M. He obviously isn't going to be able to replace what Paul Martin would've given the Devils this year as Martin is the more talented player, and they are different kinds of players. The Devils needed to find a replacement on defense though. Kurtis Foster signs with Edmonton for 2 yrs/$3.6M as well. He will be a serviceable replacement on the powerplay if they move Souray. He is a nice powerplay guy. Doesn't give much else, but he has a hell of a shot. Might be a bit of an overpayment, but Edmonton needs to fill out its roster. The market dictates the price though. He is also a great story coming back from a broken femur.

What the hell do you expect Morey to say? He is trying to sell his team to Bosh just like every other GM is going to try and sell their team to him and every other free agent that they are interested in. Of course he is going to say something to make his team look more appealing than competitors. What do you want Morey to tell Bosh that he should sign in Miami and not even consider Houston? Yeah, what an assclown he is. How dare he try and sell Houston to Bosh and say something negative about the almighty Heat.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5346148 I don't really see this happening at all. The only scenario that seems plausible is a double S&T with Bosh gong to Phoenix and Amare going to Toronto, but that makes little to no sense. If the Suns aren't willing to pay Amare the max, why would they be willing to pay Bosh the max? Another scenario is the Raptors trading Bosh to Miami or some other team for a TPE and then the Raptors would use the TPE on Amare. But why would Amare go to Toronto for whatever sort of TPE Toronto gets when he can get more money to play for a better team, whether it is Miami, Chicago or New Jersey. I don't doubt that the Raptors are interested in Amare considering the Colangelo connection, but I would be absolutely shocked if Stoudemire actually ended up in Toronto.

He's big, he's bald, he's Alex Auld! Best line of the day so far. I'm not surprised with the Leafs signing Armstrong. I think everybody saw that one coming. He is exactly the kind of player that Burke would target. $3M might be a bit too much for him, but I don't think you could've signed him for much less than that, so I'm not too worried about it. Niittymaki to San Jose is interesting though. Are the Sharks hoping that he is their new number 1 next year or are they going to pursue somebody else to create a platoon situation. I don't really think that Niittymaki is the kind of goalie that will lead a team to a cup, but then again, I wouldn't have believed that Niemi or Leighton would be starting goalies on Stanley Cup Finals teams either, so who knows.

You are making it sound like acquiring Beasley is a great thing for the Raptors now when three weeks ago it was a terrible fit, so yeah, I think you have changed your position a bit there. So what then, the Raptors should just throw together a rag tag team of players that don't fit at all with the other pieces around each other? You also said this was a bad idea for the Raptors when I mentioned that hypothetical 3 way trade with the Raptors, Wolves and Bulls. You made it sound like Raptor fans shouldn't be happy with Jefferson in that hypothetical trade, but now you are trying to convince us all that we should be thrilled with trading for Beasley who is a worse fit than Jefferson offensively and defensively? Beasley is not only incapable of playing center, but Jefferson is a superior rebounder to him and neither of them are worth anything on the defensive end of the floor. At least Jefferson compliments Bargnani on the offensive end of the floor with his post game. Beasley doesn't compliment Bargnani offensively, defensively, on the glass or anywhere else, so why exactly should I not want Jefferson but be thrilled with Beasley? Yeah, Beasley is younger and doesn't have a long term contract like Jefferson, but it is not like Beasley is every going to develop into a player that compliments Bargnani. Like you said, Beasley may look decent on the defensive end of the floor when he is playing alongside Jermaine O'Neal, Udonis Haslem, Dwyane Wade and on the 6th best defensive team in the NBA in terms of DRTG and the 2nd best team in terms of OPPG, but throw him on a team with Andrea Bargnani covering his [expletive] from the center spot, Hedo Turkoglu and Jose Calderon playing perimeter defense and he is going to look a hell of a lot worse. Without the great help defense of the Heat, Beasley's defense is going to be exposed. What exactly is Beasley's value as a player? All we know is that he is a talented former 2nd overall pick who teams have questions about his attitude, work ethic and things like that. I don't care what you guys as Heat fans think, teams are obviously scared off by Beasley because of these kinds of things. I'm not saying that he has no value at all, but I guarantee that his value isn't nearly as high as you guys think it is. These concerns may be unwarranted in your guys opinions, but when multiple teams seem to be hesitant to trade for Beasley, it suggests that his value may not be as high as you would like to believe. There is nothing wrong with that as many fans overvalue players on their favourite teams, but just because you may think that Beasley has a decent amount of value doesn't necessarily mean that Beasley has that much value. Hell, I could be undervaluing what Beasley's value is and I could be in the minority thinking that he doesn't have all that much value. Fair enough. It is not like one of us actually know what the truth is to all of these rumours. Like I said above though, I'm one to believe that if there is smoke, there is fire and there has been a lot of smoke around Beasley. Also, clearly Riley is not going to openly say that he is shopping Beasley. He may want to dump Beasley for more cap room, or he may not, but either way, I find it very unlikely that he would openly say that they are shopping Beasley because that lowers his value. If the Heat are looking to dump him for salary room, but in the process gain a pick or some other future asset, he isn't going to come out and admit that he is shopping Beasley because if he did that, no team is going to give him any sort of future asset because they know that Riley would want to get rid of him. Again though, this is completely speculation on my part and neither of know what the real story is. And you have yet to explain to me how wanting a $16.5M TPE and a draft pick or two is being pessimistic? Why is it so wrong of me to prefer having that flexibility for future moves instead of trading for Beasley, Chalmers and Anthony, which puts the Raptors baiscally right at the salary cap (depending on how much Anthony gets they wold be anywhere between $53-55M)? Assuming that they re-sign Amir Johnson, they would be over the cap with this trade by around $4-5M. You guys are constantly going on and on about how it baffles you guys that I would prefer this to having Beasley, Chalmers and Anthony, but have yet to explain once how exactly it is baffling. Look at it this way,: Lineup w/ Beasley, Chalmers and Anthony PG: Jack/Calderond/Chalmers/Banks SG: DeRozan/Belinelli SF: Turkoglu/Weems PF: Beasley/Davis/Johnson/Dorsey/Evans C: Bargnani/Anthony/Alabi That lineup is right at the salary cap and has 16 players on the roster. Lineup w/ TPE and draft pick PG: Jack/Calderon/Banks SG: DeRozan/Belinelli SF: Turkoglu/Weems PF: Davis/Johnson/Dorsey/Evans C: Bargnani/Alabi Not as talented of a roster, but they aren't over the salary cap and would have a $16M TPE to work with which can net them a point guard like Collison or be used to sign a free agent. Basically, it gives them more flexibility. So please explain to me why exactly I am being pessimistic for wanting that in return for Bosh than the Beasley, Anthony and Chalmers deal? Yes they are, lets be real here. Chalmers would be the Raptors 3rd string point guard and the Raptors already have a similar player to him in Marcus Banks. Chalmers is more appealing because he is younger and cheaper, but take the contracts out of the equation and he isn't a significant upgrade over Banks, at least based on his play this past season. A third string point guard is a spare part. As for Anthony, he played 16 minutes a game for the Heat last season. As far as I am concerned, a 16 minute per game player is a spare part. You can argue otherwise all you want and talk about how Anthony is some great rotatin player, but I'm not going to change my stance on him being a spare part. He may be a better player than what the Raptors will use their TPE on, but it goes back to him being a terrible fit in Toronto. Would I rather have Beasley at PF when the Raptors already have Bargnani, Davis and Johnson, or would I rather have, say, Darren Collison at PG? Beasley may be the more talented player than Collison, but Collison would have significantly more value on Toronto considering their point guard situation in comparision to their power forward situation. Again, sorry for not thinking that Beasley is some future superstar like you guys do and prefering flexibility over him. Sorry for wanting the Raptors to be able to get pieces that fit the roster and not have some cluster[expletive] of talent that doesn't fit with each other at all. Overall, I don't give a [expletive] if I am being pessimistic. I'm sorry if I don't think Beasley is the second coming of god like you Heat fans do. You see a lot more negative comments than positive ones because negative comments are warranted. I'm sorry if not being a blind homer for my team is a negative thing. From now on I'll just run around and sing the praises of any and everything Raptors related though. Raptors having $30M tied into average/slightly above average players for the next 4 years? Perfect, they are going to magically become stars. Raptors losing their franchise player? Great, who needs Bosh. Raptors making 2 playoff apperances in the last 7 years? Awesome, who needs the playoffs. Bargnani = Next Dirk. DeRozan = Next Carter. Davis = Next Bosh. Alabi = Next Mutombo Belinelli = Next Ginobili Happy now? Seriously, [expletive] off with this complaining about us being too pessimistic for your liking. I don't care what you say about me being too pessimistic. I'm going to be realistic when looking at my favourite team and not blindly toot their horn for every single move and clearly overrate them. You don't like it, too bad.

Terrible signing. Gooden had a very solid finish to the season last year with the Clippers, but that was during a contract year on a terrible team. Gooden isn't exacly known for bringing a consistent effort, especially after he has received a long term deal. He fills a need for the Bucks because Sanders isn't capable of jumping right into the NBA, but Gooden is not the kind of player that you give a long term contract to. I wouldn't have given him anything more than 2 or 3 years to ensure that he isn't going to become complacent.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/01/1709675/the-heat-is-finally-ready-to-blast.html I like this more than the other rumoured deal simply because I think that a $16M (or $16.5M or whatever the starting salary of a max contract is for Bosh) TPE is more valuable to the Raptors than Michael Beasley or anything else Miami could offer Toronto. If the Raptors didn't already have a glut of bigs on the roster then maybe Beasley would be more appealing but with the way that the Raptors roster is constructed, Beasley is simply a terrible fit. It would also be nice to get that draft pick back as it is looking like Toronto is going to be pretty terrible. I'm honestly not holding my breath that this team will be a playoff team before the protection wears off and it would completely suck to not only give the Heat Bosh and take back a terrible contract in Banks, but giving them a lottery pick as well. That would be too much for me to handle, haha. If the Heat throw Beasley into this deal, I can live with it I guess. I'd try to squeeze them out of another draft pick if Beasley is involved though. As long as the Raptors get their pick back and a fairly large TPE, it is about all I can hope for when it comes to a S&T. The TPE will still be large enough to be able to possibly make that trade for Collison that BasX mentioned, so it will essentially be Bosh for Collison, Okafor, Beasley and the Raps 1st, assuming that the Heat insist on Beasley being involved so that they have more cap room. Regardless of what happens, Colangelo is going to look like such a moron if Bosh goes to Miami. Not only did he basically hand them the cap room they needed to get Bosh on a silver platter by trading them O'Neal and taking Banks off of their hands, but the best asset he is going to get in return is his own damn pick. That is hilariously painful.

It is funny how I am being pessimistic about the Raptors possibily acquiring Beasley. Do you recall making these posts? So Beasley went from being a terrible fit and not what the Raptors need to being a great pickup for Toronto now? Beasley is talented, not once have I disputed that. Beasley has potential, not once have I disputed that. Beasley is also a terrible fit in Toronto, especially alongside Bargnani who is not going to be leaving. Beasley is a terrible defender, which the Raptors are trying to address this offseason. Beasley is a tweener forward who can't defend power forwards are small forwards. Beasley is obviously not a part of the Heat's furture plans. There is a reason why his name has been mentioned in so many rumors. I don't care if you believe them or not, where there is smoke, there is fire. If a players name has been mentioned as many times as Beasley's has over the past couple of months, you better believe that there is at least some validity to them. Stop acting like the Heat are doing some huge favour for the Raptors by allowing them to acquire Beasley when The spare part comment wasn't the best choice of words on my part (I was refering more to Chalmers and Anthony, but my apologies for not making that clearer),. I simply meant that Beasley doesn't fit in with Miami's future. And again, is there really anything wrong for me not being in love with Beasley and prefering a TPE and a draft pick instead? I just love how I have a different view of a player than you guys and apperantly I am a complete idiot for thinking that. Is there anything wrong with me not thinking that Beasley is this future superstar like you guys do or thinking that Beasley is a terrible fit in Toronto?

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/67642/20100630/raptors_rule_out_taking_back_deng_for_bosh/ I like hearing these kinds of things. I like Deng as a player, but taking back long term salary at a non-position of need, especially when you are already paying Turkoglu, Calderon and Bargnani so much money makes no sense. The only player that would interest me from Chicago would be Joakim Noah. If the Raptors couldn't get Noah in a S&T, which I highly doubt they could, I would rather see them get a TPE and draft picks then take on a contract like Deng's.

I'm sorry if I would rather have a massive TPE instead of acquiring spare parts. Beasley is the only thing worth mentioning in that package, and he is an absolutely brutal fit in Toronto. What I love the most is this though: So let me get this straight, Chalmers is now a "very nice trading chip"? Wasn't he criticized constantly all season long by you guys? I seem to remember something called "The Chalmers Effect" that you guys would always talk about and how he was so horrible, but now he is a nice trading chip? I just love how I am way too pessimistic because I would rather have a massive TPE and a draft pick instead of the Heat's spare parts. That is awesome.