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Indiana Pacers won't match Jarrett Jack's offer to play in Toronto, which means we can officially welcome Jack as a new Raptor. It's not a huge signing, like with Hedo Turkoglu, but it's definitely great news. If you look at the previous season what happened when Jose Calderon got injured and we had no legit NBA point guard to back him up, you will see what I mean.

Wonder how much time it takes for people to start bitching about another 'point guard controversy'. We used to have 2 good point guards with TJ Ford and Jose Calderon, but it didn't make people happy at all. If you read all the rumors, you would have found out, that Jose and TJ were in a constant war about the starting job for the Raptors. Surprisingly, trading TJ to Indiana, created another 'war' between TJ and Jarrett. Even more surprisingly, that move didn't make us a better team. Wait, it didn't even keep us on the same level. Figure that.

About year ago, before we traded for Jermaine O'Neal I had a discussion with my husband about the Raptors roster. Although he is mostly a hockey fan, he's been watching sports on regular bases for longer time than me, so I felt he will be more of an expert on this subject. We still hadn't signed Jose Calderon and I was getting anxious if he was going to be a Raptor for the following season. My hubby suggested that we should sign and trade El Calderon or get rid of TJ, because you don't keep two good point guards in the same team. This statement made me completely perplexed - why do you fix something that ain't broke? I always took the 'point guard controversy' with a grain of salt and I didn't see the logic of keeping only one good point guard and filling the backup position with an unproven player. What happened later, unfortunately proved me right. Sometimes your heart gives you a better hint than 'expert advice'.

So I let myself be led by my heart in this season. I loved the Hedo deal from the beginning, and, although I was a little concerned about our bench, I believed it will somehow get sorted out. I didn't really care that much, about other blogs screaming that the signing would certainly be a doom for the Raptors. And it got sorted out.

Jarrett Jack is another signing that makes some people shake their heads looking at the price tag. I don't care. If this is the price, we had to pay, to secure him, I'm fine with it. If the news create another controversy, I won't care either. Believe me, I don't really give a fuck, if Jarrett Jack sleeps with Mrs Calderon. We have two good point guards in our roster, and what they do in their spare time is none of my business as long as it doesn't interfere with their actions on the court.

Also, I can sleep easier now, knowing that Jamario Moon will be shooting ill-advised treys for the Cavaliers, not for the Raptors. I was slightly worried about the possibility of bringing Moon back, but luckily he will be signing with Cleveland if Miami don't match the offer. Yes, he is athletic, he can dunk and rebound, but I can live easier without that goofy smile after a missed trey in the crunch time with 18 seconds on the shot clock. Good luck in Cleveland, Jamario. Let's see how much of the ball you'll get with LeBron James and Mo Williams on your team.

I'm looking forward to the next season.

The offseason blows

The off-season blows big time and it's rather difficult to open Twitter, when there is nothing even remotely connected to the basketball in the trending topics. It must be even more difficult for players like Big Baby Davis, Andre Miller and David Lee, who are looking at their phones and waiting for any call.

Celtics load their team like there was no tomorrow. Their new target is Marquis Daniels, who will come in a Sign & Trade with Scalabrine or take the biannual exception. Trail Blazers don't have that much luck. Although, they have money to spend, they continue to fail to sign any player at all. After Hedo Turkoglu made his decision in favor of snowy Toronto winters, the Blazers signed Paul Millsap for an offer sheet, only to be kicked in the nuts again, this time by Utah Jazz, who decided to match the offer.

Mark Cuban's lawsuit have been dismissed, Antoine Walker didn't have luck with gambling and Richard Jefferson left his bride at the altar. That's the kind of news we are being fed lately. It's dry bread and water for those of us, who are hungry for any NBA news. I would prefer rainbow trout and Chianti, but that will have to do, unfortunately.

Dwyane Wade jumped out on Twitter lately with a promise of some news. Of course news were crappy, he changed Converse for Nike, which doesn't make any difference, if you're not interested in yet another puppet commercial. He didn't say anything about Lamar Odom, although the rumors make us believe, that Wade is trying to convince the Heat team and Odom to remarry again.

Yao Ming bought himself a team, and it might be the only basketball related activity, that will be left for him. He just cannot catch a break with his injuries, which is such a pity, for he is one of the best centers in the game and has a heart of a warrior.

Josh Childress is going back to Greece, and there is a remote possibility that he will take Nate Robinson with him.

Magic spoiled Marcin Gortat's hopes to be a starting center for the Mavericks. Marcin wasn't happy at all, especially when the Magic signed also Brandon Bass, pushing the Polish Hammer even further on the bench.

The OK City Thunder waived guard Earl Watson, who might be joining the Pacers, hence giving us the hope, that Jarrett Jack will wear Raptors uniform next season. There is no logical reason for Pacers to pay 20 mln just to get another point guard. They have time till Tuesday to make their decision. Hope we won't get the treatment Blazers are getting. Although we have Douby to backup both guard position and he had a major impact in the Summer League games, I still don't feel him as a first guard from the bench. He hogs the ball way to much, and while it may work in the Summer League games, where all the players try to steal the show, it won't be working in the team concept. Roko didn't improve and Marcus Banks... You just hope that he can somehow disappear and take his contract with him. There is no reason for him to be in the NBA.

Ugly Boys Raptors?

Yesterday night, on Twitter, Sarah [ticktock6] from Hornets Hype raised a valid point - trading Arron Afflalo from Detroit to Denver seriously shakes the hotness spread over the NBA. Pistons are definitely falling out from the top 10, first losing Allen Iverson to free agency, then trading cute Arron.

This made me think - where are the Raptors in the rankings? And it is not very optimistic. We've been known for losing lots of hot players in last years: Mo Pete, Vince Carter, TJ Ford, even coach Sam Mitchell's classy suits. The last loss of Anthony Parker only adds to our misery.


The core of Bosh, Bargnani and Calderon remains the same. Not stunningly hot, are they? Well, Jose can look rather cuddly on some photos, but he ain't no All Star in Hottie Contest.


With the new additions to our roster, you can make a case for Jarrett Jack's sweet smile [please, Pacers, don't match the offer!!!] and DeMar DeRozan's physique, but it really gets thin after that.


Our hope lays in signing Carlos Delfino which is still remotely possible.


So, is the era of Ugly Boys Raptors coming? I guess so. Hope they will be known for their good play, not for the looks.

About the Summer League and Toronto Point Guards

Yet again, I decided to put my family life on the edge for basketball, like it was before with the March Madness and playoffs. I got myself enough beers, take-out phone numbers handy, paid the $15 ransom to the NBA and started getting excited.

Although strangely familiar to the game I love to love, it's difficult to call them basketball games. It's a rookie watch. I don't really care who wins and by how many points, I'm more interested in personal performances, to see what we're getting for the next season.

First game for the Raptors was against Lakers, second against Pistons.

In the first game Smush Parker looked better as our point guard then Ukic or Douby, although he screwed it up in the second game. Ukic is not an NBA point guard. Neither is Douby. Roko simply sucks and Douby hogs the ball as a wannabe Allen Iverson. He scored 21 points in the second game, but didn't bother very much with dishing the assists.

Brent Petway was channeling Pops Mensah-Bonsu in game 1, trying to prove us that D-League plays better ball than Raptors second unit. Like we didn't know it before. He didn't have very much impact in the second game, which had most of the offense going through the guards.

DeMar DeRozan looked rather good in game 1, his jumper not bad, some high-flying. Had some problems with ball in the traffic, but nothing to raise serious doubts. He really warmed up in the game 2, though, 20 points, 4 rebounds. I didn't see him as a game starter after first game, but in the second game, he got his rhythm going and might be as good as advertised. I have to see more games, to know him better.

Patrick O'Bryant is a misunderstanding. Luckily, he comes cheap. He is soft as a kitten, soft enough to make other Raptors players look like hockey thugs.

Other notable rookies:

- Detroit seems to hit a jackpot with their rookies: both Austin Daye and DeJuan Summers are simply killing it.

- Stephon Curry is a definition of a volume shooter. As Golden State Warriors seem to have more shoots available than your standard NBA team, he seems to be a good fit there.

- Tyreke Evans lives at the free throw line. He drives, drives and drives. And his impressive wingspan seems to extend from one end of the court to another.

- Brandon Jennings sucks.

- After watching (or half-watching) 8 summer league games, my huge book about C++ starts looking tempting. Basically the games are not really exciting.

After 2 games it was easy to notice, that our backup point guard position screams for an NBA worthy player. If Marcus Banks was watching these games in TV, he must have been thinking that his year was coming and he'd get some playing time. How wrong he was. Raptors offered 4 year 20 mln sheet to Jarrett Jack. Jack is a solid backup combo guard. Maybe the money is too big, but on the other hand it can put us on the safe side, if Pacers want to match the offer. They may not be able to offer him this kind of money.

Jarrett Jack as a Raptor puts Marcus Banks on the top of the LVP (Least Valuable Player) run this season. Oh, wait, wasn't he already there? Jack is also Bosh's buddy from Georgia Tech. Another move to seduce Chris in staying in Toronto?

The Cavaliers might be interested in getting Joey Graham. Seriously, is this a move to keep LeBron in Ohio? Or maybe they want to replace Bron with Joey, when he heads to New York?

Paul Millsap signed an offer sheet with Portland. If Utah Jazz doesn't match, we will have helluva of a Trail Blazers team next season.

Top 10 hits you'll never find on LeBron's IPod

Do you remember the NBA commercials with the funny dude, taking bus tours to different players? They were pretty funny, and I recall especially one with LeBron listening to the music for his 'warrior-like attitude'.



Although he was found listening to such a non-warrior-like song, there are still some hits he will never add to his IPod:

1. Katy Perry - I kissed the rim
2. Dire Straits - Brothers in slams
3. Chamillionaire - They see me dunkin', they hatin'
4. Aerosmith - I don't wanna miss the tape
5. Phil Collins - Another day in posterized
6. Queen - Another tape bites the dust
7. Rage Against The Machine - Renegades of dunk
8. Rage Against The Machine - Dunkin' in the name of
9. Led Zeppelin - House of the rising slam
10. Evanscence - Bring tapes to life

Did I mention that Summer League basketball is pretty boring? There's not much to write about, but I will post something later.

The new CBA by Tigercub

So, DeMar DeRozan signed his name under his first NBA contract and we have our Pizza-man in T-Dot, also. We knew that already, but how we got Hedo is another thing. Bryan Colangelo with help of other executives created rather complicated deal. Like 'I didn't sleep 5 nights in a row, to figure it out' complicated deal. It includes 4 teams and basically looks like that:

Raptors get Hedo Turkoglu, Antoine Wright, Devean George and bunch of salary cap exceptions.

Mavericks get Kris Humphries, Shawn Marion and Nathan Jawai.

Grizzlies get our second round pick, dollars and Jerry Stackhouse.

Magic get dollars and trade exception.

Why make it so complicated, when BC could have offered Hedo a contract, saving himself some sleepless nights? I'll give you the clue: it's not because we wanted Wright and George so hard. The answer lies in the magical word 'exception'. Yeah, this is what we were losing by just signing Hedo Turkoglu. But the CBA is obviously written by somebody who loves the word 'loopholes'. Before you understand it, the new CBA comes and it starts allover again. We're waiting for another ankle breaking set of rules in 2011. Why not make it simple and honor the players of 2000's in the same time, by this understandable and straight-forward set of exceptions:

The Anderson Varejao exception. Salary: the yearly income of an average wig producer.

The Eddy Curry exception. Salary: the yearly income of your local McDonalds restaurant.

The Allen Iverson exception. Salary: yearly number of sold benches.

The Ron Artest exception. Salary: the number of sold out rap albums by a player in discussion.

The Kevin Garnet exception. Salary: yearly income of an ear-plug store.

The Glen Davis exception. Salary: number of yearly sold Pampers packs.

The Baron Davis exception. Salary: money made by the movie '300' in the first month.

The LeBron James exception. Salary: yearly income of a local video store.

The Nuggets exception. Salary: the average price of tattooing a whole basketball team (coaches, trainers, execs included).

The list can go on and on. It doesn't use the complicated language of lawyers. But it still lets you spend more than you're allowed. Like when you're a girl using your husbands Master Card.

We will miss you, Anthony

It seems that Anthony Parker is moving to Cleveland. Although not a super star, he will be sorely missed in Toronto. I met him once in person - he was a very nice and classy person, with the sweetest smile. I get he will be teaching LeBron now how to behave. Some lessons on modesty and classiness can also go to Mo Williams.


If Andy Varejao got a dollar for every flop, how much would he earn? The answer is here. 50 mln for Hedo or Bargnani doesn't sound that crazy anymore? Right.

S&T Marion with Dallas is on its way. We still need another team to complete our threesome and let us grab some dollars for adding players to our bench, which will definitely not include Pops nor Delfino, as we renounced the rights to them. If we have luck, it might also be our chance to get rid off Kris Humphries or Marcus Banks.

Zaza Pachulia goes back to the Hawks, Spurs sign Haislip and McDyess, Jennero Pargo heads to Chicago, Dahntay Jones to Indiana.

More signings here. And here.

The Rockets get exception for injured Yao Ming. Hey, what about Tracy McGrady? Every team that ever had him on a roster or even thinks about trading for him should get exception, too. Just like that.

I might have forgot: Free Jordan Crawford! #freejordancrawford