How Would Raps Manage to get a GM?

According to Yahoo(!) Sports, the Raps are in search for a GM to run the business for the organization. The Raps front-runners for the jobs are Ed Stefanski, Jeff Brewer, and Dennis Lindsey. Today, I will be doing an analysis on these GMs and their history in the NBA.

Ed Stefanski:

Ed Stefanski is the current GM for the Philly 76ers and was a GM in New Jersey. He was also drafted as a player in the NBA in the 1976 draft. He was drafted by the Sixers for the 10th pick. As a GM. he did a pretty good job. Even though he gave a ridiculous contract to Elton Brand, he made some good draft picks in the past few years in the mid 1st round, drafting Marreese Speights in the 2008 draft for the 16th pick, and drafted Jrue Holiday in the 2009 draft as the 18th pick. They both turned out to be great role players. One turned to be a good rebounder, giving 110% of his effort every game and gave the Sixers great size when coming off the bench. The other turned out to be a tough young PG. In his first year, he was assigned as a role player and when Andre Miller left, he was promoted to be the starting PG the next year hoping hg will be part of the Sixer's future. He also made some good trades like trading Sammy Dalembert to the Kings for Andres Nocioni and Spencer Hawes which gave them a young shooting center and a good veteran in Nocioni to learn from. The trade also gave them some Cap Space this off-season. He also made a deal that landed Darius Songaila and Craig Brackins for Willie Green and Jason Smith. Again, this gives the Sixers some Cap flexibility and gives them a big man who is cheap, works hard, and have the potential to be a good player in the league. So Ed thinks more about the Cap Space future wise. The Raps are a rebuilding team and they are looking towards improving the team using money for free agents and trades. I think Ed's brain could help this team in a big way. 

Jeff Bower:

Jeff Bower was a GM for the Hornets for quite some time. Bower made changes to the franchise so they can start rebuilding. He traded away his star Baron Davis to Golden State in 2002-2003. He suddenly had family things he had to do. His daughter was born in January 2003 and he had to leave the GM spot from the Hornets in 2003. He came back at 2005 and drafted Chris Paul in the 2005 NBA draft as the 4th overall pick. The Hornets started to make a run for the playoffs in the 2007-2008 season when they acquired Tyson Chandler in a deal that sent J.R Smith to Denver. Earlier, when they were still in their rebuilding process, they signed 3-point specialist Peja Stojakovic and had a David West on the team as well. As they were jammed pack with Tyson Chandler, Peja, David West and their franchise player Chris Paul. They went on the get a 56 win season in 2007-2008 and defeated the Mavs in the first round of the playoffs. In the semi-finals, they got defeated in game 7 against the Spurs and further on, they didn't to well during 2008-2009, 2009-2010. Bower was also a head coach as they replaced Bryan Scott(fired) in 2009-2010 season for their disappointing start. Bower is the GM that can pull out those big deals that could improve the team right away. This could also help the Raps bring a Vet. all-star on the team. 

Dennis Lindsey:

Dennis is the current Spurs assistant GM though I don't really think that he would be interested to run the office in Toronto. He turned down GM jobs for Phoenix and Minnesota so it would unlikely to see him in Toronto but you never know. Dennis join the Spurs in 2007 and helped R.C Buford choose some really good 2nd rounders for the Spurs. The Spurs had Tiago Splitter in the 2007 draft, George Hill in the 2008 draft and DeJuan Blair in the 2010. This year, they chose the Canadian Cory Joseph(late 1st round) which I think was a huge steal for them. Though, I wasn't happy how they traded George to Indiana for the 15th pick in the draft which turned out to be Kawhi Leonard. Though he did help out the Spurs in one decent trade getting Richard Jefferson from Milwaukee. Overall, the Spurs really just stayed with the same core group in Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. No huge trades that helped the team but the draft picks helped the team alot. I don't really know how this would really affect the Raps in a good way because of the lack of trades and moves this team did. Lindsey was also apart the Houston Rockets for 11 years as vice president of basketball operations/player personnel and personnel video coordinator/scout. Before joining the Rockets, he was an assistant coach for a certain amount of College teams. He was also a starter at the Baylor University as well as he lead them to the NCAA tourny in 1988. 

Well the Raps make their final decision in the next few weeks or so? Can Bryan think about who to hire and who is the best fit for the office. We shall see during the summer.

Byes :)

Jonas V vs Kosta Koufos?

While I have been talking about Jonas V, an "ally" told me that Kosta Koufos, who played in the U18 World Cup had similar numbers to Jonas and also won the MVP in the final round, winning the championship for Greece. Also beating Serbia. He averaged about 26 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks during the World Cup in 2007. He was drafted by Utah and he was drafted 23rd overall in the 2008 draft. He started the season with the Jazz and now ended up in Denver, being what he was always good at. A bench warmer. Today, I will be comparing Koufos to Jonas and see if Jonas will be a draft bust.

Strengths:

Jonas: What I noticed about Jonas in the World Cup U19 and U18(watched a video on him) is that he runs like a maniac for a guy that's 7 foot. Jonas also has long arms which could easily help him block shots. Again, he is 7 foot and he has a 7"6 wingspan. In the videos, I observed him carefully on how fast can he roll off of a pick. When I saw him set a screen, he quickly and lightly pushed off of the defender to have an effective roll which gave him a open lane. If Jose and him worked out the pick and role situation, it should definitely work. With Jose's awesome passing and Jonas's great finishing skills, they should be a great 1 & 5 combo. There is another reason, he is a really good finisher around the rim, he has that light touch when it comes to making hooks and putting the ball back in the net. We all should know Jonas is a good rebounder and blocker. No need to talk about that :D.

Kosta Koufos: Koufos a well grown man weighing about 265 lbs. He is strong post player who likes to attack the rim. Koufos is also a 7 footer with a 7"6 wingspan so he is pretty long as well. If you watch Kosta carefully in his U18 World Cup, he would like to take the mid range jumper. What I like about his jumper is that he can make that jumper consistently in front of player's faces. He could just spot up and make that shot. He also has a good dribbling ability that would allow him to create his own inside shot. Kosta is also a really good offensive rebounder too.

Negatives:


Jonas V: There are a couple of things that Jonas needs to work on during the off season. First, he needs to work on his english because he is going to Canadian country where they speak english quite a bit. Now, he needs to work on getting stronger and bigger. He is pretty skinny and he weighs only 215 Ibs for a 7 footer. He is going to get dominated by those stronger big men in Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, etc etc etc. Jonas also needs to work on some of his posts moves. Jonas has that same post up move. Posting up ans spinning to get him some space for a layup or a dunk. He also needs to work on his mid range shot. He started taking those shots during the U19 World Cup and he actually made some of them. Jonas also needs to learn how to dribble and driving from outside to finish inside which would help him bring his game up to the next level.


Kosta Koufus: Koufos is not a pick and roll guy. He plants his feet in the paint or in a mid range spot. He needs to work on setting picks and rolling off to take him game to the next level. He also needs to work on running, getting in better shape. He doesn't look like he can run the floor like Jonas can. Alot of big men can run the floor, Amare STUD, Andrea Bargs, Nene, Al Horford, Josh Smith and more. Then again, he does weigh 265 lbs. He can still work on running up and down the floor though. He also needs to know how to finish at the rim while taking contact. When there are defenders around him near the rim, he should either pass is out or take a dribble and take the layup or dunk. He is 7 foot, he is strong and big. He needs to know how to use his strength.


Comparisons:

These are some small things that could really add up to their game. One, Jonas is a good free throw shooter. In the U19 World Cup, he averaged about 89% at the free throw line in nine games and Kosta averaged 63% from the line in 50 games this season.  Jonas is also a better hustler. I noticed that he grabs some loose balls in the videos I saw. Kosta is probably better at getting offensive rebounds, but he doesn't hustle. Jonas is also much more athletic than Kosta. With his running ability/athleticism,  he could be a dominant player in the NBA. Both of them have excellent spacing around the court which will help players get a open lane.  Jonas is also shot efficient shooting probably 85% or 90%  of those shots as hooks, layups or dunks. He gets them in though. He shot almost 60% in U19 World Cup. Kosta averaged 48%. However, Kosta is in the NBA and the competition is more hard than it is in Europe. I am just pointing those things out though. Jonas is going to be a much better player overall in the NBA in my opinion.

Continue to have a good summer :)

Europe, Jonas & More!

It had been 10 days since the lockout had been announced and we are just sitting here, bored. For the past few weeks, not much had happened except for some signings in Europe and seeing the 7"6 big man out of China retire after 9 seasons in the NBA. Later on, I will be also talking about the Raptors future rookie, Jonas Valanciunas....Again.


As I said before, we're in lockout mode and players need to work on their game during the lockout. The NBA players are still considering if they should join a Euro team or not. Though some are already agreeing to join European teams. As the matter of fact, star Point Guard Deron Williams had decided to sign a 1-year deal with Turky including an agreement to join the Nets if the lockout ends in the middle of the season. So Williams might have a chance to play for the Nets for about 50 games. Maybe more. Maybe less. Who knows? There are other reports saying that the Raps Sonny "Money" Weems had signed with Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania for 1 year with no guarantee to return to the NBA until the European season has finished. Is this a good thing? Is it bad? Certainly not! This is a huge opportunity for Sonny to improve his game, get stronger, get bigger and show the NBA that he is worth a rotation spot for a championship team. The good part is that he will be a restricted free agent next year because the Raptors give him a qualifying offer. So the Raps can send scouts to see how Sonny is improving just like how Jonas is improving as well. 







Yao Ming's time in the NBA is over as the NBA had announced that he retired. Yao was drafted in the 2001 NBA draft as the first overall pick by the Rockets. Yao had become the first international player to be chosen as the first overall pick. Yao had started the season slow with his english and his game. When I watched a documentary of him as he struggled at the start of his career. I still remember how Charles Barkley said " If Yao scores 19 points in a game this year, I will kiss Kenny Smith's ass"... Yao did eventually, make Charles lose that bet and scored 20 as he was 9-9 against the Lakers. Eventually, Charles kissed Kenny's donkey. Funny moment :D... Ok back to business. After Yao's rookie season, he would keep on improving in the points and rebounding as he eventually averaged 25 points and 9.5 rebounds a game adding 2 blocks in 2006-2007. Though that was the year that he played only 48 games. Yao did have a horrific history of being injured. During his 9 seasons in the NBA, he was suppose to play 738 games if he was perfectly healthy. Though instead, he played 486. Therefore, during his 9 year stretch, he missed a total of 252 games. That is a bit more than 1/3 of his career gone. In 2009-2010, he had a terrifying foot injury that  made him lose the whole season for surgery. The following year when he was limited to 20-24 minutes a game, played only 5 games and eventually, had to deal with the foot again for the rest of the season. Last week, he officially gave up on his foot and announced retirement. Yao averaged 19 points, 9.2 rebounds and about 2 blocks per game during his career. He was a 8 time all-star though he only played 6 of the 8 all-star games. He was on the All NBA Second team 2 times(2007, 2009) and the All NBA Thrid team 3 times(2004, 2006, 2008). Yao Ming will always be remembered by the NBA.

Here is an update on how Jonas was doing in the U19 World Championship. He lead Lithuania to the finals to face Serbia. Jonas and Lithuania knocked them out with ease and won the U19 World Championship with the score being 85-67. There are some things that I was impressed from Jonas. Jonas was the MVP in the U19 Series averaging 23 points,  about 14 rebounds and 3 blocks in 9 games. I loved how he played great defence as he blocked a number of shots during the Championship. In the last game against Serbia, Jonas had 36 points, 3 blocks, 8 rebounds and went to the line 14 times and made 10 of his free throw shots. He also went 13-18 from the field which was also impressive. I love how Jonas has a really high FG% and FT%. I would love to see this guy attacking and going to the line often in the NBA. Hope for him to improve in Europe as he will get bigger and stronger. We will see how impressed we are during the 2012-2013 season when he will be in a Raps uniform.   

Now What?

Ok, so lockout is here(told you about it in the last blog) and....now what? What should the Raptors do.?...They still have some very bad contracts on there hands that they can trade(e.g Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargs, Amir Johnson and Linas Kleiza) and they could think ahead of time of next years free agents which brings me into more questions. Who will we sign next year when Barbosa is opting out and who should we trade this year to think about the future? We will see right now.

Well, in my last blog, I gave you a list of free agents we should target for but since Barbosa picked up his 7 million contract, we don't have alot of Cap Flexibility to sign those players. Maybe those role players but Thaddeus Young, Tyson Chandler, Andre Kirilenko and Nene, not even close. But Chuck Hayes, Jason Collins and Luc Mbah a Moute might help the team. Those are for short term. But with Barbosa opting out next year, then this could be a whole new thing for next free agency. Well, not really. Jerryed Bayless is going to be a restricted free agent next year and since he is young, we are going to pay him big time. Than we have Jonas to sign a 5th draft pick deal. We most probably will have another lottery pick this year if there is a NBA season and that is going to take up some space as well. But we a few pieces to work with to get a expiring contract in a trade. If we can trade Bargs and Calderon for a few expiring contracts and a few bust-out players, we can give our young gunz like Ed Davis the start at PF and Jonas and be slotted in center right away. Than say we can get a veteran SF or draft Harrison Barnes from North Carolina or maybe even rely on the skills of James Johnson. You never know.


I think the Raptors main goal right is get a star on the team. It looks like Demar Derozan is well on his way but still needs to expand his range outside and his defense needs to improve tremendously. With the help of Dwayne Casey I think he will get there. Now to build around him is hard cause usually, teams have a decent big man on the team to build around with the back court. If Ed Davis and Jonas can do that in 2012-2013 than I think this team is set with some role players.


Things to do when in the 2011 and the 2012 offseason:


1. Work with Demar and help him get better at defense 


2. Work with big men like Jonas, Ed Davis and Amir at post moves and defense.


3. Help Jerryd Bayless become a true point guard


4. Get a good back up point guard


5. Get a veteran to lead the team and some role players


6.  (if they dont do this in the 2011 offseason) Trade Bargs literally and maybe Jose because of his horrifying contract

I will explain who to get next off season. Goran Dragic is the best role player/true point guard player. He is a unrestricted free agent next year and I think Dragic(who was learning from Steve Nash) will really help the team run the offence more smoothly for someone coming off the bench. Now, get a veteran. I think Eddie is the best veteran to get at the point guard position. This guy, who have been into the finals 3 times(as far as I know) and won 1 ring, has really positive energy. He is also always ready to play. He gets in and does what the coach asks to do. If its bringing some offence, he will shoot the three. If it is replacing a injured point guard, he will play like a productive point guard. Now if you are talking about shooting guard, I would bring back Barbosa with a smaller contract for 3 years. Give him about 4 million. I don't need to explain about him, we saw him play and he is great. That is all I need to say. Now for small foward, I would put Mickeal Pietrus cause again, he is always ready to play and when he comes in, he can bring that offence and defense. Just hope he doesn't get injured alot. For PF I think Amir has been in the league long enough to know how to defend and play at his position. At the center though, I think this guy is more of a role player. Ryan Hollins is a great long athlete and he brings such energy to the court and plays with heart. I think he is good solid defender, can teach Jonas that her should some positive energy every night and most impotently, how to play solid defense. Another veteran at C that the Raps can get is Jason Collins who is defensive minded and can play solid D on pretty much every big men in the league. He gives Dwight Howard a whole lot of trouble night in and night out which this team lacks. Defending in the paint was Raps biggest weak points that they must improve. So getting Collins would be a smart idea. 


Now for the role player. I think I covered PG, SG, PF and C but now SF we need to fix. In the 2012 class of free agents, there is no productive young SF that could help this team. But this year, they could take Earl Clark who was drafted 2 years ago. The Suns were really excited about this guy when they drafted him but turned out that he couldn't really fit in with the rotation. So the following year, he got traded to Orlando and he still wasn't in that rotation. Though when I saw some Magic games over the year, I saw this guy play and he played with great energy and he really liked to attack the rim. He needs to improve on finishing and making his mid-range jumper. The one thing I like about him is that he is 6"10 and he can ran the floor really well. He can easily guard SF and naturally, he plays SF. He can also rebound which I like as well. He is only 23 so there is alot of time to work with this guy and improve his game. I think if the Raps can sign him with a low amount of money, this could be a good acquisition.


So yea, these players could be Raptors but hey, it is just my opinion.


Have a good summer :D

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 :)