Strange Eastern Conference Trades
The Juan Dixon trade was a personnel move which saw Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo move a guy who didn’t want to be in Toronto anymore. Dixon, a guy that can’t play the point, is undersized at the two and a streaky shooter, was loved by few and but had the benefit of having a short term contract. So Colangelo, with his resources, was able to trade away Dixon to the Detroit Pistons for a seven footer.
Primoz Brezec is not a player that will dramatically change the Raptors’ fortunes and this will not go down as one of Colangelo’s finest moves. Despite standing seven feet, having bounced around the league in the past few seasons, Brezec is probably not the tough rebounder Colangelo was looking for. At the end of the day, I still believe that Colangelo’s decision to extend Joey Graham’s contract made him a less valuable commodity today than he may have been otherwise.
Of some importance was that Colangelo talked in his press conference about his attempts to secure a third string point guard. But Colangelo was unwilling to take on a heavy contract, nor was he willing to part with a draft pick. To all this, I say good job, as any third string point guard will not be worth it when next year starts and the Raps have Roko Ukic inthe lineup. Also, as it turns out, there just weren’t any good free throw shooting big men available on the market, and while Brezec has shot 70% from the line, his stats in just about every other category have dropped significantly. Nevertheless, with an expiring contract, the Raptors retain their flexibility for this off season in the case that Jose Calderon asks for the moon come free agency.
The other trade in the East that happened this afternoon was interesting to say the least. The three-way involving Seattle, Chicago, and Cleveland was particularly interesting for its lack of actual change. It doesn’t appear to answer any questions fans had this season, if anything it only brings up more questions.
Is Delonte West the solution to your problems?
Will Ben Wallace be that much of an upgrade from Drew Gooden when you have such difficulties scoring at times?
Even without Ben Wallace the Cavaliers sat in fourth place in the league in terms of rebounding. Gooden was no slouch on the boards and was fairly active on the offensive end as well, and the Cavs now swapped him for Ben Wallace, who comes with a huge contract and horrible free throw percentage. Taking away an injury-prone Larry Hughes and over-the-hill Donyell Marshall for Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, and Delonte West was a pretty good move, but at the end of the day, the team still lacks a decent point guard. With all their money now tied off for a few years, this iteration of the Cavaliers is going to have to make it past the Celtics to be considered successful, and I’m not sure they have a strong enough team on the offensive end to compete with the defensive abilities of the Celtics.
However, does that make the Cavaliers a stronger team than the Magic or Raptors? With some consistent three point shooting and a few good rebounders, it sounds like the Cavs might have made significant changes. As far as name-brand recognition, the players the Cavaliers received definitely add to their overall recognizability. But at the end of the day, it’s about chemistry and building a team that can produce in the playoffs. Have the Cavs really improved that much? At the most, the team has sacrificed contracts, youth, chemistry, perimeter defense, and free throw shooting to get interior defense, rebounding, size and three-point shooting. Most glaringly, the Cavs have yet to address their point guard situation and ball handling.
I’m just not sure that these series of trades make the Cavaliers any better and believe that the Raptors should have a fairly good shot at overtaking them before the season is done.
Comments
By idiot on February 21st, 2008 at 10:28 pm
to quote somone:
Lebron had had his fill of the Drew show …he’s just not a winning player …he’s a guy that should never be on the roster of any team looking to compete and win at playoff time …all the guys we got back are WINNERS.
I can say this, Ben Wallace knows how to play a defensive game, one we need desperately next to Z. I think Wallace is a godsend for Z …he is the EXACT type power forward that Z has needed next to him since he’s been here.
Plus, the type center that gives Z fits on the defensive end, os the exact type that Wallace is dominant against. We don’t need offense from our power forwards much ..we’ve needed a polished defensive stalwart at the power forward position. Joe Smith is another local guy that is kind of like Wally …his deal ends and we have a good shot at keeping them both longer term at much reduced salaries ….plus decent defense and offense when we need it.
WE ARE SO DRAMATICALLY IMPROVED DEFENSIVELY I CAN’T PUT IT IN WORDS RIGHT NOW.
But, outside of not getting the 1st rounder, we ended up with all the little tweaks we wanted at the very end ..and I truly believe we are a far bettr team now than we were a couple hours ago.
Our team defense is the huge beneficiary right now, and our offense to a lesser degree ….but, we are now a far better team on both ends.
Delonte West can defend the point position at least as good as Hughes because he’s quicker …plus, he’s a far better outside shooter. Wally is what he is ….he’ll again spead the floor better for everyone..
And what did we really lose here ? Drew is a non-entitiy in my mind …pretty much a zero in my eyes. Donyell, Ira, Shannon, and Simmons …offered us very little.
By Anthony RapFan on February 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 am
I believe the Cavs have brought two glaring one dimensional players that will start for them. They will be ‘HACK-A-BEN’ed at key moments in the game and every forward in the east will do whatever they can to drive at Wally, and Moon better pick up the memo on that as well. Cavs are in somewhat of the same contract HELL as before. For Cleveland fans at least can stop watching Larry Hughes clank his shots. James might develop another migrane, but in a different fashion. This is as risky as the Shaq or Jason Kidd Trade.
By Kinnon Yee on February 22nd, 2008 at 4:30 am
Anthony - I completely agree. I was talking with a few buddies and we were all scratching our heads about this one. I mean, let’s just say Ben Wallace DOES come back into form from about two years ago, how much does that improve the Cavs anyways? I’ve always seen the Cavs as a team that’s lacked balanced scoring and Ben doesn’t address that. If anything, he’s a huge liability on that end. Yes, Joe Smith might have a little something in the tank, but I’ve never seen anything out of him that indicates he’s much better than Hughes. Wally’s a great pickup because Donyell can’t shoot anymore, but Wally’s an even worse defender than Donyell is, and on a Mike Brown team, that just might not fly. And man, I really don’t believe in West. I know Cav fans and a lot of people around the league are going to go ga-ga over this trade, but I just don’t feel it. I completely agree with you that it has the same kind of risks as the Shaq and Kidd trade. Good observation.
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