Jack, 25, is a defensive standout, capable of guarding both backcourt positions well.
He would likely be the sixth man, backing up Jose Calderon at the point, while also seeing some minutes beside him.
Jack is also a close friend of Chris Bosh, dating to their season together at Georgia Tech.
The offer might be too rich for the cap-conscious Pacers, who still have point guards Ford, Travis Diener and A.J. Price on their roster.
Adding Jack at the very least puts pressure on Ukic, the second-year Croatian guard who has been spotty during two games in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas and suggests that Marcus Banks, who was acquired by the Raptors from Miami along with Shawn Marion, isn’t likely to be on the roster come training camp.
The Raptors sill have about $7-million to spend before they bump up against the luxury tax. It’s expected their next priority will be to sign a veteran big man, with former Raptor Rasho Nesterovic an oft-mentioned target.
Henry Thomas, who represents Wade and Bosh, said his clients are looking forward to evaluating extension offers from their teams.
"You can editorialize about the numbers that you’ve heard from the NBA as far as what they projected the cap will be," Thomas said. "I’m aware of what the NBA has projected. They say that’s a good-faith projection. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I don’t know. But everything relevant to the guys making the decisions whether they should extend their contracts now or not is going to be evaluated."
When we put the whole picture together, it appears the Raptors will employ the following starting line-up in 2009-10: Calderon (PG), Wright and/or DeRozan (SG), Turkoglu (SF), Bosh (PF), Bargnani [C]. Last season the NBA veterans in this line-up combined to produce fewer than 30 wins. So unless these players improve dramatically, or the team finds very productive players off the bench, it’s hard to see how this team improves dramatically. And that’s true even if Delfino returns to Toronto (although if Evans returns to what we saw in the past there might be some hope this team can get past 40 wins).
It would appear that Bryan Colangelo is recruiting some former Georgia Tech stars to make Chris Bosh happy. Reports are circulating that the Raptors have offered former Georgia Tech point guard Jarrett Jack a contract. I guess this is what you do when trying to sell your franchise player that he should stay in the city that drafted him for the long term. It always amazes me that the organizations sell their souls for certain players, when in actual fact it should be the other way around. I imagine when there were fewer professional sports jobs available, players would go the extra mile for the organization and be happy that they were getting paid to play a sport that they loved.
He would be a major upgrade for the team and though they have multiple players who can play the point, none seem to be candidates for the job over the course of a 82 game season. Indiana was already flirting with the tax limit and may be handcuffed at this point unable to match the offer. The Pacers did try the tandem PG strategy with Jack and TJ Ford (a scenario that had played out in Toronto previously with Ford & Calderon) and by seasons end Jack had won the starting spot. Going forward though, seeing that they have a ton of money tied up with Ford and Tinsley, it’s very unlikely they pony up the cash to keep Jack in Indiana.
Ok, this team is asleep. Calderon got hurt, Jermaine O’Neal was completely ineffective on both sides of the ball, they couldn’t go inside, they KINDA went outside, with Calderon out they couldn’t execute, they fired their former Coach of the Year, and this team de-railed. I could not have been more wrong about this team. But my man-crush on Chris Bosh persists… I really want him to come to Detroit.
Once again there is further proof that the Canadians are trying to become the dominant country in North America as news reaches us from the “Associated Press“. The Toronto Raptors have reportedly signed restricted free agent guard Jarrett Jack to an offer sheet said to be for 4 years and worth $20 million. Jack just finished season number four in the NBA his first with the Indiana Pacers. He spent his first three seasons playing for the Portland Trail Blazers. Jack put up the best numbers of his career this past season averaging 13.1 points, 4.1 assists and 3.3 rebounds a game.
Nesterovic, 33, spent last season with the Indiana Pacers (averaging 6.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game) after being dealt from Toronto in the Jermaine O’Neal-T.J. Ford deal. He knows a role here would be as a backup and he’s fine with that; he also knows there will be no rush to get things done. "I know the first week (of free agency) is to get the stars done and the big names," he said. "I can wait."
The Raptors have offered Pacers guard Jarrett Jack at four-year, $20 million contract.
The money is a tad rich for a player who would likely not even be a starter in Toronto, but overpaying a bit is necessary, or else the Pacers will match the offer sheet for the restricted free agent.
Here are some pros and cons and interesting facts about Jarrett Jack:
Toronto’s Summer League team is one of the worst I’ve had the pleasure of watching up close and personal these past few days and it’s a bit scary to think that several of its members played key roles for Toronto last year. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise then that the Raps failed to make the playoffs and struggled when they had to rely on their bench group.
BC is trying to remedy this situation and hopefully he’ll be able to complete the task without blowing the bank too much. With the salary cap expected to drop further next year, Toronto’s management team will have to be wary of this when making contract offers and I therefore wouldn’t be surprised to see many front-loaded deals.
40 Raps
who’s ready for som off balance, low percentage 22 footers? I know i am and i can’t wait to see the look on other raptor fans faces when they realize what a stupid mistake colangelo made by signing the euro goof for way more then he’s worth.
team never had a problem offensively, had a problem being out rebounded on a nightly basis and couldn’t stop anybody on the perimter. Now with turk they get worse defensively, they get even worse at rebounding, and their offence just added a bigger version of anthony parker that puts up far more shots and shoots a lower percentage.
offbalance 22 footers, i can’t wait
sure, the team will improve slightly. but only because bargani will play good offensively for a full season and jared jack will hopefully mask calderons pityful defence when he starts whinning about injuries again
once bosh see’s what a mistkae turk is, he will want no part in staying with this franchise ith that cap eating monster on the books for years to come. Bosh is gonna want no part in sharing even more of his touch’s with a low percentage scorer like turk
same song as last year. most raptor fans happy with medicore General managing, thinking this tteam is ready for big things. I mean, if turk as a FA was the plan all along, WHY NO JUST TRADE FORD FOR SOME EXPIRING CONTRACTS AND PICKS. this way the team would have gotten extra draft picks instead of trading a first to get oneal and trading another to dump him.
even a moron has a right for its own opinion. I apologize, but I couldn’t react better on your comments.
oh boo hooo
where will cowards like you be when i end up being right
this team has no use for turkoglu’s terrible offbalance perimeter jumpers. they still have nobody to guard wings. derozan is a rook for crying out lowd, he’sno stopper.
bargnani can’t rebound of defend, calderon cant defend, turk does not compensate for this. he gives us an overated chucker that leaves the team being more stiff and less able to run. he was not a fit for the style, he was not a fit for the defence , HE WAS NOT A GOD DAMN FIT PERIOD. desperate a$$ GM showing how desperate he is by burying the team in turks lowsy contract.
Say things don’t work out, Who is gonna take an old, declining turkoglu off our hands with a effen 10 mil per year contract? Portland?
its a joke and many raptor fans will wake up real fast when this team continues to go nowhere. of course they’re gonna win more games, bargnani will play well offensivly for an entire season and jack will help compensate for calderon horrid D. But this team will still be far, far, far from contending. not gonna happen with turk
So how would you have sorted out this roster, standonyour … whatever the eff? It’s easy to sit back and criticize from the sidelines when you don’t have cap restrictions, player availability, ownership demands and legions of screaming fans scrutinizing every move you make.
I am not a huge fan of Colangelo’s body of work in Toronto so far, but at least he’s making moves right now and addressing some (nearly all) of last years teams weakness (ie toughness [Reggie 'nut-grabber' Evans], back-up point [Jack], perimeter defending [Derozan and Wright]).
why are you so sure you are right??? Arrogant and moron, nice combination. And, unfortunatelly, you are not a Raptor fan, your enormous ego allows you to be a fan only of yourself.
Constructive critic is one thing, spitting on people is what you are doing. Give us what you would do, please…
Moron + Arrogant = Morrogant? :D
Looks like ahem, someone figured out how to trick and trip the ‘like/dislike’ system.
Bravo, sir. A round of applause.
However, the amount of time it took you to like your own comment well over 100 times (since it was deep in the negatives to begin with), and dislike every other comment (both positive and negative) made by posters that made you look bad…
You’ve gotta be some kind of loser to have that kind of time.
(Just saying.)
I’m not sure if this has ever been mentioned – but with the overhaul of the team, and considering how bad our record was last year, it’s pretty conceiveable that our win improvement will be substantial.
Since the coach of the year award seems to be inherently determined by the sole improvement a particular coach’s team has from one year to the next, by default, isn’t Jay Triano a primetime candidate to be coach of the year?
Who’s ready to set up the blog? :D
chemistry is an issue. I’m hoping we hear of most the team showing up in late August, early September to have “unofficial” workouts as a team.
Shoring up our defense has to be the one thing we must improve, both with BC’s remaining roster moves and just in general as a team. Without seeing improvement in that major area, I’m not sure the number of wins will swing as high as we can currently anticipate. We surely will win more since I think the talent level has jumped substantially, let alone depth, but we need to make stops in order to win games. I don’t think we have the firepower to outscore teams.
Chemistry was supposed to have been an issue the year Sam Mitchell won it, because we did a total overhaul on the roster that year too.
But I do agree, having it is clearly, undeniably better than not having it.
True..may have even been a bigger factor then since a number of players didn’t have NBA experience.
I do think Colangelo makes sure his choices aren’t mental cases, which is a plus, but I still think Jose plays better when, in his head, he thinks he knows where his teammates will be or cut to as he comes up the floor. That will take a while to get used to for him. I’ve just never considered Jose to be a creation guy.
rap of the day…simple and perfectly put.
Website? Do you mean FireJayTriano.com or Triano4COY.ca? Or should we buy both sites and then link one to the other?
– Chris
LOL.
I was initially suggesting the Triano4COY, but I do like the contingency element you’ve brought in!
BC likes the trial and error method of team building. Don’t worry, he’ll get it right eventually.
Just a quick thought on this years expected opening day roster vs. last years pre Marion trade roster.
Key hold overs Bargs and Calderon will be improved, and Bosh will at worse be consistant
J.O. will be replaced with Rasho wich is a bit of a step back, but J.O. was only a mild plus player who was in and out of the line-up. Rasho will likely play 80 games and be passible as a starter if Bargs goes down
Moon replaced with Hedo. Major upgrade, even on defence.
Loosing Parker and replacing him with athleticism, lower IQ and youth (DD and Wright) is a small and tollerable step back.
Every other aspect of the team is greatly upgraded. The bench guard play of Jack and Delfino is in contrast to the play of Soloman, Kapono and Joey. The rebounding of Evans replaces Humps front court minutes.
The coaching staff addition of Ivaroni is at least cause for optimism.
If there was hope for a 50 win season last off season, I say, let’s get those hopes up again!
The proclamation from Wages of Wins augurs poorly for the Raptors’ prospects for the upcoming season, as I seem to recall that this method was used to successfully predict last year’s dismal outcome. I’m not a Colangelo hater nor am I a fanboy. I’m an action guy and from this perspective I appreciate that he is willing to make bold moves. On the other hand, I think his record where it comes to his boldest moves, i.e. those that involve high draft picks or starting-quality players, is not great.
People will be quick to cite Marion and Stoudemire as saavy draft picks. OK, not bad, but not hall of fame careers. Even Babcock managed Bosh, Villanueva and Calderon.
I’m saying I enjoy the dramatic helmsmanship but I remain skeptical of the net result. I don’t expect a frontline that features Turkoglu and Bargnani for the next five years to win a championship. Maybe a playoff round or two but no rings, my friends.
Where Colangelo seems to excel is in sourcing cheap production in creative ways. It’s possible that in rounding out the bench he finds the Raptors a hidden gem that can mask some of the deficiencies of our “star” euros.
It might be true what you say, but it’s not impossible that one of those hidden gems you mention might already be on his way.
Your last sentence made me think of the Tim Chisholm column (that RR linked to yesterday) “Wright could be just what Raptors need” (TSN 7/11/09). He makes a pretty good case for Antoine Wright possibly being an ideal player for what the Raptors might need here and now. He also mentions how it’s funny how these ‘ideal’ players (for the team they find themselves on) sometimes end up getting there just to round out financial considerations. Maybe Wright will end up being another one of those.
“Where Colangelo seems to excel is in sourcing cheap production in creative ways.”
I agreed with this in year one. He brought some players in that were a risk and a head scratcher for some fans. However, the last 2 years he certainly hasn’t lived up to that statement. He needed exactly that power last year to make this team a playoff contender and he failed miserably.
Unlike most, I’m still not a believer in Pops. I love his energy, but I also loved Jamario’s, but also realized that energy sometimes took away from his ability to play both ends of the floor with positive outcomes.
Spots 8-10 or 11 will win you games that aren’t automatic Ws going in. Those spots are what we need Colangelo’s talent in.
It’s hard to not fall in love with a 23% Total rebound rate, including 22% on the offensive boards. Ofcourse, he was borderline trash everywhere else in this very limited sample size, but on a team that is looking absolutely DESPERATE for rebounding – right now quite possibly the worst offensive rebounding team of all time, so long as Bargnani and Hedo play big minutes – I would much prefer the undersized Pops on the end of the bench instead of Patty O.
Grunwald drafted Bosh
I stand corrected.
Demar just said on Twitter that he has picked his favourite 7 nicknames.
“Top 7 nicknames thus far:DeMarvel, DeMarsMan, D2, Double D, D Ro, DoubleOrNothing, Heir Canada. Vote which is the best/suggest a better one.” – DeMar DeRozan
which do you think is the best?
Can RR make a poll on this later?
My top 3 are: 1. Heir Canada, 2. D Ro, 3. D2/DeMarsMan.
maybe there should be a moratorium on DD’s nicknames until he, y’know, plays a real game? would it be too much not to over-hype a raw 19-yr old?
yeah, thought so…
With you 1000 per cent. Too much shoe-horning of handles onto players these days. Let it happen or, god forbid, not happen in its due course.
As Raptor fans we can all take comfort in the fact that DeMar DeRozan is indeed working hard on his game and will be a force to be reckoned with by opening night, because he was clearly too busy to spend no more than two seconds figuring out a list of nick-names for himself.
Okay, they all came off as a bit corny (I mean, really…Double D???), but when I read Heir Canada, I was sold.
1. Heir Canada
2. DeMarvel…why stop there? Why not DeMarvelous!
3. DeRisin DeRozan (on a slam dunk?)
Yeah I got to agree… forcing a nickname on someone always sounds cheesy. A name will come up… it always does.
It’s only cheesy to force nicknames on to someone when I do it.
J-Killah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, it was better than the “JO,” “AP,” “JK,” “CB,” “AB” that he also busted out. At least some semblance of a thought went into J-Killah.
his nickname is diamond derozan
its already been settled
I’m hoping he earns the nickname the “Da Razor” for his ability to slash and cut through the paint…time will tell.
Now if he can posterize VC with a nut-hugging tomahawk then we can start the “Heir Canada” whispers.
I kinda agree that this team is built to be a 1 or 2 round pony in the playoffs. Given what we’ve seen from Bargs though, I think in 5 years he probably will be good enough to be the starting center on a championship team (im thinking in 5 years his numbers will be about 25 pts / 8 brds/1.5blocks a game on 48/37/90% shooting), but hey i got a thing for kinda unathletic white guys, cause i am one.
It is no secret that Jack and T.J. Ford did not get along last season. The feud reportedly started because of a girl, that wouldn’t be the first time that happened between NBA players.
Source: http://pacersplace.com/ (blogsite)
matt devlin is the greatest anouncer of alltime. he saved us from swirsky
Devlin is god
Swirsky was a bit of a homer, but at least he kept it entertaining throughout all the losses.
Devlin’s way more objective, and from a pure basketball point of view, I like that. But man, when paired with Rautins, and the Raptors not so good brand of basketball last year, it wasn’t exactly the ideal combination to watch/listen to.
not matt’s fault he had to compensate for leo
i became a fan of devlin’s the minute he forced those shoulder pads on jack when he whined about devlin being physical behind the mic. jack was pissed, devlin just forced on the pads without jacks consent. it was awesome
With this many changes, hard to say where we stand next year, but now we are a few months removed from the 08-09 campaign, which was gut-wrentchingly awful, there are quite a few reasons to get excited again:
1. Calderon is healthy (or so he says). Getting a healthy Calderon back should be the biggest improvement of all – remember those turn-on-a-dime slashes to the basket? We didn’t see that all last year. His confidence was gone; he passed too often; he toned down that kinetic energy that electrified the team. He did make a few FT though. Regardless, he’s the key.
2. If we can stay competitive into the all-star break next year, hopefully Bosh stays motivated. He was a disaster after the first 12 weeks. Not from a statistical perspective, but his energy changed. He took bad shots late in the game. He settled too often for long-range jumpers instead of driving. He made too many stinky faces when he didn’t get a call. I am hoping a more competitive team will bring out the best in Bosh. I’m not sold on him yet as a leader.
3. Bargnani emerged last year, and no chance he regresses next year. He still looks clumsy but he got some swagger in his step over the last few months – he’ll be dominant next year. I feel it. Maybe not Nowitzki dominant like we all hoped but he’ll continue to improve and I bet a lot of that improvement comes on the defensive end. He’s beginning to realize his potential.
4. Our bench sucked last year because we had no point guard. Ford/Calderon tandem was our superpower in 07-08. Our 2nd unit did circles around the 2nd units of our opponents. It was hilarious. It went from our biggest strength to our most glaring deficiency. The Jack signing has the potential to do wonders. Remember, Jack replaced T.J. last year. Great move.
5. We had the worst 2-3 combo in the league last year and we just got the best 3 available in the free agent class. I’ve read many blogs and board comments about how Hedo takes crappy shots and doesn’t share the ball. So did Vince. Maybe Hedo does make bad decisions, but he’s a massive upgrade to what we had before. We’re still SOL at the 2. I hope Jack comes off the bench.
6. We are still in the process of improving. I hope Delfino’s injury isn’t too significant and I would love to see Rasho back.
For an offseason coming off possibly the most disappointing year our franchise has had, hats off too BC for being bold and remodeling our team. I like our chances to make the playoffs and that’s all we can ask. Maybe we catch fire. But man how good do the Celtics look after the Rasheed signing? And I like the VC move in Orlando. Should be a good year.
I really dont wanna see Rasho back!