Toronto Raptors:

No fans are in worse shape than Raptor fans.  You know Chris Bosh is going to leave.  You know it, don’t you?  Toronto’s management is in an awful position (of their own making,) trying to figure out a way to entice Bosh to stay.  He says he loves it in Toronto, but I can almost hear a sarcastic grin when he says it.  Maybe it’s just history.  I don’t know if it’s just the Raptors’ awful management—really, how many good decisions have they ever made?  Ever?  I think it’s pretty clear that Bryan Colangelo’s father was doing all the heavy lifting in Phoenix—but they’ve never been able to attract big talent.  And if player’s find Toronto aversive, in itself, then the only way to convince a guy of Bosh’s caliber to stay is to put together a serious contender.  I think it’s pretty hard to leave a contender.

So what does Toronto do?  Forget how after years of Bosh playing out of position at center, or playing next to a crap center, the Raptors used a first overall pick to draft Andrea Bargnani, a 7-footer who doesn’t rebound or defend.  What’s unforgivable is paying him huge money when after three years he has only started to show indications that he might develop into a pretty decent scorer (if he can shoot over 45% from three, because the guy can’t do it in the post) who doesn’t rebound or defend.  And this when there was no market competition for Bargnani; and the guy had an effing year to go before being a restricted free agent.  Amazing.  Go ahead and convince Bosh to stay by offering to squander his prime years—and Jose Calderon’s—with expensive mediocrities, like Hedo Turkoglu.  It’s actually codified in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that at least one NBA team must sign one player (or more) to a deal so absurd, that’s untradeable from the day it’s signed.  Really, there is no single team in the NBA that has less of a clue right now than Toronto.  Memphis could sign Allen Iverson to a max contract today and hire Chris Wallace to be their GM (oh, wait…) and their future would look vastly better than the Raptors’.  Bill Simmons says the most fanatical fans he hears from are Raptors fans.  If half of them stick it out through post Bosh years with this team, they’ll prove him right.

And the Raptors is a stupid name.  I feel like I need to remind people of this, frequently.

Toronto gets Evans: I find this amusing because it’s a deal to help facilitate Andrea Bargnani’s development.  I haven’t seen much of Bargnani and don’t feel like I can opine on his upside, but it does actually seem like he might become a real scorer.  However, he also must be the worst inch-for-inch rebounder in the game.  Evans, on the other hand, is as good a rebounder as anyone in the NBA.  And he can’t do anything else.  I really love mix-n-match trades.

Philly gets Kapono: This deal is entirely about Elton Brand.  I was totally in favor of the Brand signing, and though it doesn’t look good, so far, I think it could still work out.

I didn’t see a lot of the 76ers with Brand, but then, nobody else did either.  The guy played 29 games before his injury, but from all accounts he seemed like an awful fit for the team.  Bill Simmons even named him the least valuable player in the NBA (his contract being a major factor.)  Eh, I think it’s just way too early to call the move a failure.

As for the fit, it’s on the team to create a roster around the qualities of their franchise player, and to get a coach whose system compliments him.  And yet, I’m not suggesting that the roster is unsuited to compliment Brand’s talents.  29 games and a coach who has almost been fired almost every year of his coaching career?  You have to give it a chance to work.  And, well, they will, because Brand is signed for a long, long time.

One thing I’m curious about was hearing that a major conflict was that the 76ers had a lot of runners and jumpers (without jumpers) and Brand was strictly a half-court guy.  This surprised me because Brand used to be plenty capable of running and jumping.  Hell, you have to be pretty damn athletic to block so many shots at his height.  The only other guys (I can think of) his height who block so many shots are super-freaky athletes Josh Smith and Andrei Kirilenko.  But hey, Simmons has a good eye, and he’s had Clippers season tickets for a while, so maybe he’s right; maybe Brand can’t run like he used to.  Or maybe Bill’s just used to seeing him coached by Mike Dunleavy.

Anyway, I still think Brand could work out well.  New coach Eddie Jordan should help, nicely.  In DC, Jordan had a few very talented scorers who weren’t all that into passing or playing defense, and not much else.  With those pieces he eked out a winning record; now he has some serious talent, and I think he’s a solid choice to figure out how to put the pieces together.

Oh, Kapono.  He got traded, right?  He’s there to shoot, what else?  He can shoot the lights out, pass, and nothing else.  But creating space for Brand and pulling up for transition three pointers is really all he has to do to contribute.