With every Raptors and Hawks fan still talking about the buzzer beater play by TJ Ford I thought I would start a topic of what you Raptor fans think they should do in the offseason to improve their roster? Should Toronto make wholesale changes like they did in the 06 off-season? Should we continue going with 2 point guards? Give up on Bargnani? Move up in the draft? My opinion is to definitely make some moves in the off-season if we get knocked out of the first round of the playoffs again. It's going to be hard to keep both Calderon and Ford for the development of this team because of the cap-space so we definitely have to trade one of them. I think Calderon could probably fetch the Raptors more as I believe his trade value is alot higher at the moment and a possibly sign and trade could happen. TJ Ford on the other hand is very talented but has had some very serious health problems over the years so this may drop his trade value. I really have not decided who I would rather see on the Raptors long term, but with the recent play of Ford and the consistency Calderon brings I really am not favoring one over the other. In terms of trades, I think Kapono and Rasho should be used to possibly get us another 1st round pick or get a higher first round pick possibly in the lottery so we could snag a stud SF or C for the future to play alongside Chris Bosh. Some players that I am looking at in the draft would be C DeAndre Jordan from Texas A&M and SF Nicholas Batum from France which are both projected to go late in the lottery. SF Donte Green is another player I looked at briefly and he could possibly be available for Toronto midway through the first round, and if we are lucky C Hasheem Thabeet could drop a couple spots to us. Although Delfino is either hit or miss game to game I would prefer the Raptors signing him to a 2 or 3 year contract for a little bit under the MLE. He is a good ball handler who could get into the paint and either finish or draw a foul, he is a great player coming off the bench and should be kept. Sometimes he gets a little shot happy but he is more then a one dimensional player so we need some versatility of the bench which he provides. Obviously the players kept would be either Ford or Calderon, Parker, Bargnani, and Bosh everyone else as far as I'm concerned is expendable. The coaching staff needs a serious shakeup as well. How often did you watch the Raptors this season and going into halftime the coaching staff always preach playing great team defense but no defensive adjustments are made to stop the opposition? Mitchell is a great motivator but his execution on defense and offense was really amateur and this season he was out coached far too many times. I partly blame him for the way Bargnani has produced this season as well. I thought I would spark up some discussion moving closer to the off-season and see what Raptor fans thought of the team.
I think a lot hinges on how we perform in the playoffs. Also, the luxery tax seems to be our salary threshold. So, the odds of us adding more than $15M to the payroll seem slim. Delfino's qualifying offer is $3M, and IIRC it hasn't been extended. So if we are planning on re-signing him and Caldy, and why wouldn't we?, the max we can offer them is about $11.5M combined, or $8 for Calderon and $3.5 for Delfino, considering the first round pick we need to sign. I made a post about our salary situation a while back where i postulated that our intention was to use our expiring contracts to add a big-money player. We have $20M+ in expiring contracts next year, including Rasho's valuable $8.4M contract and the $9M between Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbajosa. So, I think we'll see little action this summer outside of re-signing our players and getting our draft pick, and then maybe we'll see something significant come deadline time.
I know we've all assumed that we'll eventually use Rasho's expiring to get something this upcoming season. But, with how amazing he's played and how dependable he's been both on the court and in the locker room, would you consider letting him play out his current contract? If we keep him, chances are BC'd be able to re-sign him for pretty cheap (I'd be banking on a homecourt discount, considering he likes it on this team, has established himself in the city). Obviously this would be irrelevant if we set up an offer that's just too good to turn down. But I find that a lot of times teams really feel the pressure to turn that expiring into something tangible, and it doesn't always lead to the smartest deals.
I agree with you Chutney, Rasho's expiring contract seems very attractive next year but I dont see the harm in keeping him for the remainder of his contract. What if BC was to make a trade for a 8mil/year player that doesnt pan out and we are stuck with that player for an extended period of time? At this moment I am really frustrated with this team. They seriously have no urgency going into games that should be easy wins (Bobcats) and I hate Mitchell's interviews, the ones where he says he doesnt lose control because it would have a negative effect on the team. Common grow some balls mitchell, I want to see you yell at the ****ing players because they are honestly unmotivated. Right now I really dont care what happens, im still going to watch every game left possible but I could care less about this season as I have given up. Im with you Chutney, **** mitchell and **** this team, 14 loses out of the last 20 games is pathetic!
