Around the League and Raps Choices

Oh great... Here we go again


The NBA had announced that there will be a lockout for the 2011-2012 season. We still don't know that if the players have a season or not. It is still not decided that if the players are going to miss games or just miss all 82 games. How will this affect the league? How will this affect the fanbase? How will this affect the players? We will find out right now. Later on, I am going to talk about the Raps and there choice in the draft and potential free agent signings




Well, there is a lockout after all. I'm not that happy, neither is David Stern, nor the fans and players. Actually, the players can deal with it. Well first of all, I'm disappointed to stop watching basketball for a few months. I'd really like to see how the rookies well do this year. Guess I/we might have to wait a bit to see. But this is a great opportunity to improve on there skills and have coaches talk about their style of play and talk about the plays there going to be setting up. David Stern and Adam Silver are both disappointed with this but they were expecting this to happen. They said on Thursday that no deal has been close to being done. But now, I think they have work out some cap space issues and if there is going to be a season(with less games) or not.

Than there's the fans. Boy, they are going to be disappointed that they are not going to see Blake Griffin shine with his flashy dunks, the dynamic trio in South Florida, and especially have a chance of not seeing the Mavs go for another championship. I can even imagine in my head that the fans are really mad about this but hey, this had to come and I thought this was kind of coming as well since for the past 2 weeks, talks had gone no where. So fans got to suck it up.

Now for the players....and speaking of Mavs, how does this affect Jason Kidd. He said that he could go for another "2-3 years" during the presentation of the Mavs winning the trophy. Will he retire? Will he go to Europe? Will he go to the gym everyday and continue to work on his game and go on a healthy diet (lol)?
Who knows...We will just see about that later on. Speaking of Europe, will all the superstars go to Europe? Well, Ron Artest for the Lakers had reportedly that he might go to Europe for a year and he started to list some countries including China, Japan and UK. Though it is a good idea to go to get into good shape for the 2012-2013 season. Again, we will see later on during the summer.


Now as for the Raptors...I am pretty disappointed with their pick. Like I am pretty pissed. Choosing another big European was the wrong way to go. But that was during the draft. But when I checked on Raptors.com, I saw that this guy, Jonas Valanciunas, had 23 points, 11 rebounds, a block and an assist in 25 minutes of work in the Under-19 exhibition game over U.S beating them 108-75. I was like "wow, this guy can be really good piece to our puzzle", if he work on some things. Ok, first off, if he is going to play for a Canadian team, god he needs to know how to speak English. Not to be mean or anything, but there is going to be alot of media talk during his career. Then, he needs to work on getting stronger because he is going to get pounded in the paint as a center. Lastly, people say he has defensive potential, well, let's see that during the 2012-2013 season. I can't wait to see this guy play.


Well now, Raptors have some free agent targets this off-season and i have a hunch on who those free agents are. 


1. Samuel Dalembert


2. Tyson Chandler


3. Thaddeus Young


* Unrestricted 

^Restricted




Samuel Dalembert*

Well, I don't think that Sammy needs alot of money to sign a contract. He is right now 30 and he is going to retire in about 6-8 seasons so I think giving this guy a mid-level exception for about 3 years will be good. He will have some inside presence for the first year and the next two years are for Jonas Valanciunas so he can be a defensive mentor for him. I think Sammy will be a great fit for this team. But there is one catch, there are alot more teams interested in this guy including Miami, NY and even Boston need there center needs. So the Raps have some competition on them.






Tyson Chandler*

Yeah, um, this guy was a target for the Raps for 2 years now and he is going to be hard to get. Last year, a deal broke down that would land Tyson, Boris Diaw and Leondro Barbosa in Toronto. Sadly, the Raps only landed Barbosa(who is going to stay for one more year. He pick up his player option but now, there is a chance he might go to Europe). Now, they have there chance again but this time, it is really hard because he just won a trophy with Dallas and they might have trouble with the money since Barbosa exercised his option. Chandler right now is leaning towards Dallas. Chandler is another guy who will bring defensive presence. With Dwayne Casey as head coach as well, he knows what to expect from Chandler and Chandler will know what to expect from Casey.










Thaddeus Young^


Well, he is a restricted free agent but can Philly match any teams deals when they have 2 huge contracts in Elton Brand and Andre Iggy. They might not have a chance. But with the Raptors cap space, they might need to have a sign and trade situation here... which they might send someone or maybe even use that trade exception and maybe also send a player like James Johnson. Hey you never know what will happen. Young will bring excellent offence to the Raptors SF spot and is instantly a starter. He has pretty good defence and he often likes to drive to the rim and he also likes to rebound too. To me, he reminds me of a better offensive Shawn Mario who was a Raptor and actually did well on the team. So he will fit perfectly if the Raps can reach him.






Some others are NeNé*, Marc Gasol^, Greg Oden^, Andre Kirilenko*, Tyshaun Prince*, Chuck Hayes*, Jeff Green^, Shane Battier*, Kris Humphris*, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute^ and Chris Wilcox*.


Well, no more NBA games for awhile. Tear Tear :(


Bye folks :)