20
TORONTO — It's been a while since anyone tried to connect the Toronto Raptors' shortcomings to those of Andrea Bargnani – roughly six weeks to be exact, the length of time that's passed since the season ended.
With the draft tomorrow night and the NBA on fire with trade rumours, the focus is naturally on the Raptors' future.
And let's face it, predicting the Raptors' immediate and long-term future would be so much easier if anyone knew exactly what they had in the enigmatic Italian.
Given he was the No. 1 pick in 2006, it seems fair to expect that Bargnani might be a budding all-star heading into his third NBA season.
Toronto Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani reacts after a committing a foul against the Washington Wizards. (Reuters)
Related Articles
Then club president Bryan Colangelo wouldn't necessarily be so intrigued at the possibility of adding the Indiana Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal – a kind of heavier, older, pricier and more injury-prone Chris Bosh minus the unquestioned work ethic, leadership qualities and determination to get to the foul line – in a trade for T.J. Ford and parts that has been reported, discounted and debated, but as of yesterday still had “some traction,” according to one Eastern Conference source.
Why? Well, as was pointed out above, after two full seasons Bargnani is more of a mystery than he was before he ever took the floor at the Air Canada Centre.
No one is completely ready to throw in the towel on the 22-year-old, seven-footer, though it's been balled up and ready to be tossed from this corner since about roughly January.
He's got talent, but that only gets you started in the NBA.
As the Boston Celtics proved, you can never really have enough size. They controlled the paint in the NBA final and have a championship to show for it.
So on that basis, a deal – reported to include Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and the Raptors' No.17 pick – would make some sense. The Raptors would create room for Jose Calderon to start and add a high-quality NBA big man who theoretically is due to play a 75-game season one of these years.
That they feel the need to upgrade their front line is proof that Bargnani is at least two years away from being a legitimate starting centre in the NBA, unless they envision spending nearly $44-million (all currency U.S.), which is the amount O'Neal is owed this season and next, for O'Neal to come off the bench.
After all, it's not as if the 41-41 Raptors are without other holes. Even with Bosh grinding his way to a very respectable 8.3 free-throw attempts a game, the Raptors got to the line less than the other teams in the NBA, averaging 20.2 trips a game, 10.5 fewer than the league-leading Denver Nuggets.
One of the cardinal rules of defence is to not foul a jump shooter. As a result, the Raptors, a team of almost nothing but, almost never make it to the stripe, or get other teams in foul trouble or get in the bonus or any of the other positive things that happen when an offence puts pressure on a defence by attacking the paint and the rim.
Bosh does a nice job of doing that from the frontcourt, but no one on the roster does from the wing position, which is why the Raptors' starting wings, Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon, combined to average 21 points a game.
That's like have a starting first basemen and a designated hitter whose preference is to bunt. It's just not winning baseball, or basketball, for that matter.
The other rumoured deal – Ford for the Suns softie Boris Diaw – would hardly address that shortcoming, either.
But because Bargnani regressed so remarkably in his second season and has shown no spark as a rebounder or serious interior defender in any case, the Raptors are left trying to plug more holes than they have patches. The opportunity to rid themselves of injury-prone and high-maintenance Ford and add one of the NBA's better big men (when healthy) might even fill one of them.
But dealing the No. 17 pick would mean the Raptors won't be able to draft an emerging wing prospect or trade up to get one, or even draft from the relatively deep pool of big men who might turn into the kind of aggressive, shot-blocking, ball-chasing frontcourt player most good teams have in their rotations and that the Raptors don't.
But that's what happens when a No. 1 pick – even one in a draft pool as shallow as the 2006 class, retrospectively – shows signs of not panning out.
Rather than a building block, you're left with a question mark and no clear answers.
