http://thestar.blogs.com/raptors/2008/06/plenty-of-talk.html Doug Smith, reporting from Sam Mitchell's pocket, is claiming the Raptors are aggressively pursuing Indiana Pacers big man Jermaine O'Neal. The Raptors are supposedly dangling TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, filler, and the 17th pick. O'Neal has two years left on his contract at $21.4 and $23-million per season. TJ is owed $8-million for next season and Rasho is owed $8.4. To match salaries our package needs to be 75% of the value of Indiana's package, which it is, meaning we don't need to include a player like Joey Graham. O'Neal can play centre. We'd need a back up point guard if we were to make this deal, hopefully somebody better than John Lucas III or Roko Ukic. I suppose it means Bargnani would play small forward or he would come off the bench as our first big.
Really, really interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about Jermaine O'Neal. He's always been a great defensive pf/c with solid post skills. But those injury problems the last couple years worry me. We'd be going "all in" for the next couple seasons, when you look at O'Neal's salary, and I'm not totally convinced that he's the type of player that's worth doing that. Also, I'm very skeptical about Smitch's ability to integrate two first options into an iso-heavy offense. I like what Colangelo's thinking though. We'd be giving up relatively little in this deal when you think about it.
I hope you guys get him. He still remains one of my favorite bigs in the league. Love his style, and how he never makes the news, very quiet. Kind of like Duncan.
Would be interesting to see a Bosh and JO duo. But i think that the Raps need more of a RJ type player who scores and is an outside threat so he could free up space for bosh inside.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#1_Yinka_Dare_Fan @ Jun 23 2008, 10:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I like how RJ+Krstic+21 couldn't get him, but Ford+Rasho+17 is being considered.</div> Why wouldn't it be? TJ plays a position that's much harder to fill and a constant need for this Pacers team, whereas they already have Granger at the 3. Also, he has a more reasonable deal. Rasho's a huge expiring contract. And the 17th is before than the 21st pick. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (kobe23)</div><div class='quotemain'>Would be interesting to see a Bosh and JO duo. But i think that the Raps need more of a RJ type player who scores and is an outside threat so he could free up space for bosh inside.</div> We were the best 3 pt. shooting team in the league last year, with two of the NBA's best shooters on our roster (Parker and Kapono). Spacing is not a problem.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (kobe23 @ Jun 23 2008, 11:35 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Would be interesting to see a Bosh and JO duo. But i think that the Raps need more of a RJ type player who scores and is an outside threat so he could free up space for bosh inside.</div> He's not a terrific shooter.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors have held discussions about a possible trade involving Jermaine O'Neal and T.J. Ford, according to reports in the Indianapolis Star and the Toronto Star. The Raptors -- eager to move an unhappy Ford and make Jose Calderon their starting point guard -- also would include center Rasho Nesterovic and possibly their first-round pick in Thursday's draft, both newspapers reported. One sticking point might be O'Neal's health. He played in 42 games last season because of a left knee injury, though Pacers officials said recently that O'Neal is healthy, according to the Indianapolis Star</div> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3457325
ESPN now picking up on this: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors have held discussions about a possible trade involving Jermaine O'Neal and T.J. Ford, according to reports in the Indianapolis Star and the Toronto Star. The Raptors -- eager to move an unhappy Ford and make Jose Calderon their starting point guard -- also would include center Rasho Nesterovic and possibly their first-round pick in Thursday's draft, both newspapers reported. One sticking point might be O'Neal's health. He played in 42 games last season because of a left knee injury, though Pacers officials said recently that O'Neal is healthy, according to the Indianapolis Star. O'Neal, a six-time All-Star, averaged 13.6 points and 6.7 rebounds a game last season, and is currently working out in Las Vegas. A second issue might be the financial burden O'Neal poses. He is set to make $21 million this season and $23 million in 2009-10. Multiple reports surfaced this past weekend about a possible trade that would have the Raptors sending Ford and their first-round pick (No. 17 overall) to the Phoenix Suns for forward Boris Diaw.</div> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3457325 This is a very interesting trade for both teams. I don't see why Toronto would need to give up the 17th pick at all though. Indy is having plenty of trouble trying to dump JO and get anything half decent in return. With this trade they get a very solid PG and a big expiring contract, is anyone really going to offer anything better than that? I do like how Colangelo is thinking though. JO and Bosh would potentially be a great pairing in the frontcourt. JO does bring the size, bulk, defense, shotblocking, rebounding, etc. that the team will need to compete with the Celts, Pistons, western conference teams, etc. JO obviously can score but like someone else mentioned before hes turned into a pretty nice mid-range shooter now which will help him play alongside Bosh and the rest. A core of Calderon, Bosh, JO, Parker, Kapono, Bargs, 17th pick is a pretty good one. Indy also makes out pretty well though. They dump JO, get a good PG out of it and an expiring contract. This allows them to use their pick on PF/C with their PG need filled and they'll have a decent young core of Ford, Granger, Dunleavy, 11th pick (B. Lopez? A. Randolph? D. Jordan?)
if Toronto trades the pick, Indy wins if Toronto keeps the pick, Toronto wins cause ford is one injury away from career ending and Rasho, rocks but still and JO is a good defender and IF he stays healthy, if could be very beneficial
also remember Smitch also started to learn how to use J-Kap in the playoffs expect good numbers from Kapono next year
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jun 23 2008, 01:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I was under the impression that BC wasn't dumb enough to trade for JON</div> but he also has an extremely fragile Ford and JO is a post defender i'm not fully for this trade but more for it then the Diaw trade
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BasX @ Jun 23 2008, 02:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>and JO is a vastly overrated post defender</div> Fixed The last guy Bosh should be around is a soft, fade away jump shooter like JON. Bosh needs to learn to be tougher and not to shy away from contact
O'Neal IMO is about 80% DONE. agreed with whomever gets the #17 pick is the winner. TJ +17 for an oft injured JO is overpaying IMO. TJ +17 for Boris "i'll play hard tonight if I feel like it, but really don't count it and don't get excited if I do, I'll take the next 10 games off" Diaw is highway robbery.
I don't see how we don't have more leverage than the Pacers in this situation. TJ's got a shaky history, but Indiana's been trying to deal Jermaine for a couple years now with no success. While both have similar injury problems, O'Neal's contract is infinitely worse than Ford's. The only reason I could see Colangelo doing this is because of the timing of the contracts (as Bas mentioned, Jermaine's expires at the same time as Bosh's). BC tends to manage the risk around his moves by making sure the contracts coordinate with one another. In this case, he's be scrapping a 3-year plan (most of our contracts expire after this season) for a new 2-year plan (a core of Jermaine and Bosh would expire at the same time). Either way, the possibility of failure wouldn't handicap us for a significantly long period of time.
The only thing JO can do is defend the post, and he is pretty good at it. He can't rebound, and he is a horribly inefficient scorer.
