Come this weekend, much of the Raptors organization will set up camp in Las Vegas. It'll be a fitting setting for a prelude to a coming season that amounts to a roll of the dice. There was no end of hyperbole slung yesterday around the Air Canada Centre, where Chris Bosh and Jermaine O'Neal, the incumbent all-star and his newly acquired front-line running mate, were likened to the new-era version of Tim Duncan and David Robinson, the duelling seven footers who led the San Antonio Spurs to a couple of championships together in 1999 and 2003. The similarities aren't exactly striking: Neither Bosh nor O'Neal, for one thing, stands seven feet. They're both 6-10 or so. And seeing as Duncan and Robinson own between them three MVP trophies and six championship rings, Bosh and O'Neal, with zero and zero, respectively, have more than a couple of inches to make up. The trade that sent T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and first-round draft pick Roy Hibbert to Indianapolis for O'Neal and Nathan Jawai can be viewed as a win-now move, and this corner is usually all for those. But this stroke obviously isn't as bold as the one made last summer by the champion Boston Celtics, who committed to exceeding the luxury tax – spent money to make money, in other words – while surrounding their big acquisition, Kevin Garnett, with the right role players. The Raptors, committed to not exceeding the tax threshold, have no freedom to fill out a roster that's looking awfully shallow. So this is a go-for-it-now move that doesn't go far enough – if, that is, the championship is the goal. And perhaps this is the kind of roster a risk-taker like Bryan Colangelo, the Raptors GM, was destined to be left with after his best bets backfired. Many of his moves in his two-plus years in Toronto have been gutsy, but also fraught with long-term downside that has often come home to roost. Similarly, trading a first-round pick for a soon-to-be 30-year-old like O'Neal is a gamble a lot of elite teams don't make unless it puts them on the title's doorstep. More
Fuckup made a name for himself ragging on Vince Carter, then again by doing the same with Babcock. Now he's stuck on that note because he doesn't know what else to do. I've got a suggestion for him--die in a fire.
Why is he such a jackass? He doesn't like anything. BC could trade for Kobe, LeBron, Paul and Dwight while keeping Bosh, JO and Calderon, and Feschuk would still find some problem with it.
Its not even the fact that he's negative. I can stand pessimistic writers. Lord knows, our city lacks them. He just gets all cynical about the most retarded things. Everyone knows press conferences are just used to put the team spin and send a happy vibe out to the fans. Only a dumbass would dissect every single statement made in these conferences and try to shoot them all down. Feschuck is that dumbass.
Well he sounds like a dumbass. He criticises the Raptors for taking a chance at JO but praises the Celts only because adding KG put them over the Luxury tax. It would only make sense to criticize the Raps in that case if say Baron Davis or Maggette was willing to sign with the Raptors for the MLE and they turned it down.
I don't get the criticism for a team that's unwilling to go over the luxury tax. That's a perfectly acceptable boundary to work around. Sure a couple teams don't give a crap about it, most the majority of the teams in the NBA do. Hell, the Spurs have been mindful of it for years while they continue to contend.
