In addition to the reported signing of Ukic, sources in Spain indicate that the Raptors may have come to an agreement in terms with Spanish point guard Jose Manuel Calderon. If this is true, Rafer is as good as gone from Toronto with the possible signing of Cook as the third PG, as we'll have a line-up of Ukic / Calderon / Cook for the PG spot. Calderon has a $2 million buyout clause though, so I don't know if we will be able to keep Bonner - which may point to a possible signing of Slokar. From what I hear on the realgm.com Raptors forum, Calderon would be an awesome pickup for the Raptors. Realgm.com Board Near the bottom of the page 3, there's videos of him posted and from what I can see, he seems like a clutch-shooter and an excellent slasher with decent passing ability, not to mention that he can dunk too Some of his team-mates include Macijauskas, Scola (whom the Spurs drafted in second round) and Andres Nocioni. If Babcock manages to trade Rose and Alston, I'll be more than happy because I'd rather see the young guys play and grow together rather than having the vets complain and still manage to win only 30 games. I can't wait for Friday to come around!
That gives us a solid point guard spot, where we were once weak. I wouldn't trade Rafer immediately. I know Ukic and the rest have great potential, but its always best to remain cautious. Let them prove themselves first and then you can trade Alston for another 2-guard or a 5. There's no need to be hasty, since you never know with rookies.
Still, we will have to trade or dump people to open up roster spots. I also happen to believe that players possess the most value in the off-season and it'll be easier to trade Rafer in the off-season than after the season starts.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Banks:</div><div class="quote_post">You don't actually think we can get rid of Rafer Alston right now, do you?</div> I do. For a.... Steve Nash
lol^ Rafers very tradeable, for a starting pointguard hes pretty cheap and effiecient (sometimes) but we cant expect another starting player in return
just a thought, why dont you guys keep alston, and bring in jason williams. wow! then you guys can start your own And1 Raptors Tour!
Why would we sign yet another PG in Jay Williams when we're reportedly signing Calderon? It's not like we're gonna win too many games this season so I'm perfectly content with the PG lineup of Ukic / Calderon / Cook and letting them develop.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting InstantReplay:</div><div class="quote_post">lol^ Rafers very tradeable, for a starting pointguard hes pretty cheap and effiecient (sometimes) but we cant expect another starting player in return</div> Yea so basically you're asking for a bench player with a big contract who likely is past his prime. I rather have Rafer Alston thank you very much.
If it comes down to signing all four of them, we could stick one of them in the NBDL for a while. When Ukic shows that he's starting material, you could try to trade Rafer.
We definately have to keep rafer, he definately showed signs of being the perfect pg we needed, i forget who it was against, but he got 11 assists, and something like 1 turnover, if we just sign a bunch of pg's, to give him a run for his starting job, i think it may motivate him to play harder, and less selfish. Sign whoever we want, but I think we should keep alston just incase, and if he doesn't play better, and Ukic, or someone else is capable of taking it over, then trade him.
Well we know that he has the potential to be better than Alston at that, but why be so hasty? I'd be much happier if they waited until Ukic showed that he can play in the NBA before we got rid of Rafer. For all we know our all three of our pg's might not be as NBA ready as we think.
^ exactly, keep rafer, see how things go, if he plays like he did in the begining of the season, then i'd take him over alot of other pg's in the league, my only point is see how things go with the other guys before trading rafer, i mean ukic might get seriously injured in training camp or something, delaying his developement. Keep him for now and see how things go, if it turns out that we don't need him, then it would be logical to trade him.
Trade Rafer for someone like Jason Collins. You guys need a guy that ACTUALLY plays center badly, and the Nets need a shooter and someone to backup Jkidd. I don't know if the salaries would match up though...
Collins is slow and undersized, not quite what we need. There's no point in trading Rafer now. We need an established point guard running our team. We can't expect to give all the responsibilities to Ukic right away and throw him into the fire like that. Let him develop off the bench and keep increasing his minutes when he's earned them.
