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Raptors Trade Devean George for Marco Bellinelli


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The Toronto Raptors’ intrigue with running a European-modeled franchise advanced again with a trade for Golden State guard Marco Belinelli, NBA sources told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday night.

 

The Raptors will send Devean George(notes) to the Warriors.

 

Belinelli, an Italian guard, was a favorite of Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo prior to the 2007 draft when the Warriors selected him with the 18th pick. Belinelli averaged nearly nine points a game for Golden State last season. He joins fellow Italian Andrea Bargnani on the Raptors roster.

 

George, 31, arrived in Toronto this summer as part of the Shawn Marion sign-and-trade with Dallas. He averaged 3.4 points a game for the Mavericks.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-belinelli072909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Edited by The Goods
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It's no secret BC has coveted Marco for a long time. I haven't seen the dude play at all, I doubt he is anything particularly special, if he was he'd be had for more than an expiring. Actually I just checked contracts and this is wack, Marco has a team option so he is basically expiring, the Warriors are trading a decent young player for a guy I heard we might be buying out.

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OMG amazing trade for raptors. I figured they would just buy George out, instead they flipped him for a semi decent player. And a 2 guard no doubt. Now the raptors will have a compitition between DeRozen, Wright, and Bellinelli for the starting 2 guard spot. I assume Wright will win it, but look for DeRozen to take over around december. These 3 players are able to play both the 2 and 3 spot, so this should be a fantastic trade for the raptors.

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This is a minor trade that has massive potential reward, and realistically, even if Belinelli never really pans out, he'll give us more then George would have ever given us this year. At 23 years old, hopefully Toronto will be the place for Belinelli to put it all together. This was a really nice pickup by Colangelo, we essentially add a young, former first rounder who was basically cast off because of Don Nelson not liking him, a massive steal in my opinion and something that will help our roster alot this season. This is a classic example of a trade that is low-risk, high-reward. Hell, this trade is a no risk situation.

 

I mean, Belinelli can completely [expletive] the bed in Toronto and it wouldn't even matter because he is a low paid player and its not like George would be getting any minutes this upcoming season anyways. They can give Marco some minutes and if he doesn't do anything with them they can simply just wait out the season and not excercise the team option that they have on him for next season but I do think that Belinelli will be able to give the Raptors some good minutes this upcoming season.

 

Belinelli is a very accurate shooter, and will make up for the loss in shooting prowess that they lost in Jason Kapono. However, the great thing is that unlike Kapono, Belinelli can actually do things other than shoot the three pointer and contribute to the team in other ways. He can create his own shot of fof the dribble, or he is very adapt at running his defender off of screens and getting open in that way.

 

He is a creative ball handler and you can give him the rock and let him create with it if you have to, which is a luxury that the Raptors have not had in their shooting guard since Vince Carter was with the team. Belinelli isn't extremely quick off of the bounce, but much like a lot of his European counterparts, he is very crafty with the rock in his hands. He can get into the paint and finish or look to dish it to a teammate out on the perimeter as he is a capable passer as well. Having Marco out on the floor is going to give the Raptors another player on the perimeter that, if they need him to, can create plays during various stretches of the game.

 

Defensively, he isn't anything special. He is a pesky defender that likes to get up on people, but he really isn't quick enough laterally to be able to afford to play this aggressive style of defense because whoever he is guarding is capable of blowing right by him. He isn't a liability and can get under his check's skin though, which can result in a couple of unforced errors or mental lapses during the course of the game.

 

I don't think that the Raptors plan on starting Belinelli and will most likely utilize him off of the bench, but if he does see some significant time with the starting lineup, I think that Bosh is going to love this move. Having Belinelli on the floor gives the Raptors another knock down shooter and opens the floor up more for Bosh inside. If the Raptors have a lineup of Calderon/Belinelli/Turkoglu/Bosh/Bargnani on the floor, they could put Jose, Marco, Hedo and Andrea all outside around the perimeter and have Bosh down low. Then they could dump the ball down low to Bosh and let him go to work. If teams don't double him he can simply take his man one on one and more often than not he will put the ball in the basket with his excellent offensive repertoire. If teams do send a second defender at Bosh, they will pay by giving up an excellent three point look to any one of the Raptors other 4 players on the floor, all of whom would be legitimate, knock down shooters from deep. Obviously they shouldn't do this all the time, but I definitely think that it is something that they should look into as it could prove to be an incrediably effective and potent offense.

 

It also gives Andrea Bargnani a fellow Italian and one of his good friends which is definitely another plus.

 

Another benefit of this trade is that the Raptors have some serious leverage when it comes to Carlos Delfino. If Delfino doesn't want to lower his ridiculous demands of a $5M contract, the Raptors can now afford not to sign him as they added some depth at the 2 guard position in Marco. Delfino is the better player than Belinelli is and I would rather have his superior defense and rebounding over Marco's more offensive oriented game just because the Raptors aren't going to have any troubles scoring the ball next season, but there is not a chance in hell that the Raptors should cave into Delfino's ridiculous demands and having Belinelli on the roster allows them to afford to not sign Delfino.

 

I love this trade on the Raptors behalf. Even if Belinelli completely sucks and doesn't do anything, its not like he is an expensive contract nor did they have to give anything up in order to acquire his services. It is a no-risk, high-reward trade for the Raptors.

Edited by Built Ford Tough
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man, I come home from vacation and this how BC greets me. I love this trade, the raps have been trying for awhile tog et him. Its funny cause Jammin and a few of us were talking about George, and then all off a sudden he gets traded.

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This is a great trade for the Raptors, I believe he should start right away considering his stiffest competitor for SG position is Antoine Wright.

 

More minutes, more touches, less worry, more confidence. Playing in more European style offense, he should be much more comfortable. He should flourish here and upstart his career... I predict 14 ppg on 42 3P% and an invitation to the three point contest.

 

And if he never pans out, it's not like they spent much to get him and add his contract is a team option as someone mentioned above is a bonus and if he has an amazing season, Raptors can exercise it on rookie scale contract. Double bonus.

 

 

I agree with Nets15VC, Raps are quietly putting together a great roster:

 

PG - Calderon

SG - Bellineli

SF- Turkoglu

PF - Bosh

C - Bargnani

 

Jack

Wright

Nesterovic

 

 

Great starters and very nice backups...

Edited by Snake
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LOL I completely forgot about DeRozan...

 

I think DeRozan should start but Belinelli should give him a good challenge. It's unlikely both will become a bust... especially DeRozan.

 

I think that the Raptors are going to give DeRozan the starting spot next season because having him on the floor with Calderon, Turkoglu, Bosh and Bargnani will make it so that he doesn't have a lot of pressure on him. He can just go out there and play defense, hit shots when the opportunities present theirselves and just get a general feel for the game rather than have him come off of the bench where he would have to assume a more prominent role.

 

I say that they give DeRozan the starting two guard spot, but limit his minutes to around 15-20 a game on average. Then they will have Belinelli come off of the bench and provide an offensive punch with the second unit.

 

They can also play DeMar at the backup small forward spot (as well as getting some backup shooting guard minutes) if they want to start Belinelli/Wright or have DeRozan come off of the bench.

 

Regardless of what they ultimately decide to do, it is certainly nice as a fan of the Raptors to see that they have options at the wing positions, which was definitely not the case last season as Parker was the only reliable wing player that the Raptors had last season and he is not a 30 mpg player anymore.

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