"I am real excited [about Toronto]," he said. "I can’t wait to get started, get out there and live and get the feel for everything. I think that was the best situation for me. I told everybody the day before I got drafted. I told my mom and [everyone] I wanted to go to Toronto. And I got picked by Toronto."
DeRozan has emerged as one of the more impressive players in Summer League. At 6-foot-7, he has the legitimate size for a small forward, but his athleticism and length make him a matchup nightmare. Just ask Phoenix’s Taylor Griffin, who had to defend DeRozan on Wednesday.
Raptors vs Suns Hilights
The official paperwork was not in the Pacers’ hands until Monday, which gives them until next Monday to decide what to do with the sheet. The Raptors signed Jack to a four-year deal worth $20 million. In Toronto, he’d back up incumbent starter Jose Calderon. Last season, Jack and T.J. Ford split the starting point guard job for parts of the season but Ford was expected to be the starter next year.
"My owner’s coming into town next week to talk about it," Bird said by telephone. "And coach (Jim O’Brien) is coming back, too. We’ll talk about it. We have five days left."
DeRozan had a sensible answer for NBA.com when asked what the players could do to entice Bosh to re-up.
“We have to win. A player like Chris Bosh, all he wants to do is win.”
We go back to the question: how much have the Raptors improved? It’s a question with a subtext…will it be enough to entice Bosh?
I am beginning to think so. For one thing, the looming clouds in the economy and the first backslide in the salary cap in 24 years will put the brakes on what was expected to be a full-court press for talent in 2010. Dwyane Wade has signaled a return to Miami and the glut of talent beyond LeBron James (the list might include Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, Richard Jefferson, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Redd and Tyson Chandler) suddenly might have a dampening effect on the market.
Bosh, unlike James, has never indulged in “what-if” scenarios, the city and lifestyle seem to work for him. Most importantly, Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo has built a team with the potential to win 50 games.
It has been nothing but bad news for USC basketball lately. After DeRozan, Taj Gibson and Daniel Hackett announced intentions to turn pro, the Floyd scandal broke.
It appears DeRozan’s one-and-done move was the right one, and he confirmed as much. "I don’t regret anything," he said.
DeRozan, drafted ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors, has been one of the most impressive players in the summer league. He scored 20 points Wednesday and made the winning layup to lift the Raptors to a 74-73 victory over the Phoenix Suns at Cox Pavilion.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Baron Davis and Jose Calderon from the Toronto Raptors went to Changsha, central China’s Hunan province. Davis gave some signed gloves to the fans, and was busy filming what he’d seen in China with a DV camera.
The two stars also went to Hunan University to greet students. They watched China’s traditional lion dance, and put on the finish touches to the lions’ eyes, a Chinese custom meaning they are very important guests. They’ll next fly to Shanghai, the last stop of their Chinese tour.
As for Raptors first-round pick DeMar DeRozen … the 6-7 forward is looking good with averages of 16.3 points on 47 percent shooting through four games. He’s had two games of 20 points and another of 15, displaying a real know-how when it comes to getting to the basket and finding ways to put the ball in it once there.
DeMar DeRozan is far more polished than advertised. He uses his quickness to build his game. As Mike Moreau said in David Thorpe’s twitter thread, "Demar DeRozan really comes off the curl with speed, balance and elevation-very controlled. Will come off a decade’s worth of pindowns." He also rarely takes a bad shot — uncommon among rookies and in Summer League, and particularly uncommon among rookies in Summer League.
Alvin Williams – The former Raptors fan favorite joins Prime Time Sports to talk about his new role as an assistant coach with the team. Williams also talks about the transition away from his playing days and the newest Raptor, DeMar DeRozan.
International reports claim Carlos Delfino is seeking $5 million a season, too much for the Raptors. Delfino must be delusional if he thinks he can get that kind of money on the open market in this economic climate.
48 Raps
I’m starting to wonder if the numbers that are being thrown around for Carlos,could we not be looking at someone like Matt Barnes?
I could be wrong, but I dont think we have that ability, unless it was as a S&T. I believe the only reason we can resign Delfino is because of Bird Rights, the money wouldnt be there for any other player…assuming that JJ ends up a Rap, our choices are Delfino, or whatever remains with the midlevel, as well as, the low level exemption and any veterans minimums that we wanna go with
I like Delfino, but I’m beginning to think that looking to address other areas of the team that are in need of improvement (i.e. rebounding – as Arsenalist pointed out) would be more prudent than caving into Delfino’s salary requests/demands.
In terms of getting someone to drive to the rim, someone to handle the ball outside of Calderon, we’ve seemed to addressed this part well in Turkoglu, Jack (assuming Indiana chooses not to match over the weekend), Douby etc, so Delfino isn’t AS required. If anything, he might also take away from DeRozan’s playing time and subsequent development (assuming we also play Antoine Wright). I’m not suggesting that Delfino wouldn’t make our overall SG corps better, but considering DeRozan IS better than advertised, and considering we have a lot of what Delfino brings elsewhere on our team, I’m not 100% sure that benefit > redundancy, furthermore, in light of his apparent injury.
I’m thinking, with the bit of cap room we have, maybe we should make a run at a big man we can sign relatively on the cheap like Melvin Ely, James Singleton, or Ike Diogu, among others.
Out of the above three though, I’m most partial to Singleton mostly because he’s a 3/4 with excellent rebounding skills. The 3/4 part is the kicker here, since we avoid redundancy. Considering the imminent signing of Rasho with the LLE, we’ll have solid rebounding backups at the C, PF (Evans), and SF (Singleton) positions. I’ve checked, and he’s listed as an FA, but I’m not sure if he’s caught on with any team yet.
Okay, I just google searched Singleton to see if anything recent popped up on him, and I got linked to a Tom Chisholm article suggesting the same thing. Here I thought I had novel suggestion going on, but I guess not.
I’ve also realized that my comments are really long. That’s also what your mom said about my…
…comments. :D
Delfino is not worth 5 mill a year. I think he would be lucky to get 3 mill a year the way people are spending money right now.
Well, all he needs is the Raptors to bite and luckily the Raptors are big fans of giving out inflated contracts.
The interview with Boogie was really good. If he can teach any of the raptors to show half as much heart as he did, we will be in for a good season.
He is my all-time favorite Raptor
word to big bird.
Just want to say this is by far the best Raptors site on the net. I used to start off my day checking the Star first but now this is my first stop. Excellent work by all who are involved.
Thanks Sean….we appreciate the compliment, especially considering the site isn’t even a year old as yet.
Still some more stuff to come. Be sure to swing by for the live blogs and the chats once the season starts.
I have to agree with Sean this site is great. It was the place to be when it came to keeping up with the raps during the terrible season that was mostly on TSN2.
Thanks again and thanks to Rapman below.
We’ve had bad days in this comment section from time to time, so always nice to scroll through and see some appreciation as opposed to, well, non-appreciation.
You guys have been posting great comments and having great discussion amongst yourselves. Considering it’s offseason and we thought this place would go through a lull, it’s amazing…so much so that we are putting up some of our highest views and poll votes ever.
You readers and commenters deserve just as much credit and we all thank you as well.
For sure. I’m pretty impressed and I told a bunch of my friends about it who are starved for daily Raps info. Definitely keep up the good work and I’ll check out out those live blogs when the season starts…..
My two cents…. I can’t justify Carlos for 5 mil. As much as I appreciate his game, I just think that is a little too much. My bet would be on Barnes as well….
Good lookin’ out and I appreciate the hard work…
wtf?? 5 mil for delfino? we dont need him. i think wright will be suprisingly good for us at the 2. if he could start for the mavs he can play for the raps. we should go after another high energy rebounder or klieza!! a big wing that can do everything and he wants to come here
yeah, i think some people are forgetting about Wright and that he started 53 games last year in a tough western conference, and with a team that one 50 games.
i think he’s easy to forget about because his numbers aren’t spectacular, nor does he necessarily stand out in any aspect of his game. But he is a solid wing player, he’s a good slasher and still has some hops. I think he gives the raps another dimension.
and by “one” i mean “won”
jesus christ.
Yea!!!! Kleiza, I think we are seriously pursuing him. What is Delfino thinking! 5 freaking million? BC proposed 4 mill a year, which I think is still too high, and…. he rejected it. I want to see anyone else propose him 4 million!
we should make a push for big baby, he can be a force on the glass, be a nice back for either bargs OR bosh, hes got the mid-range (which we really don’t need from our back up C), and showed some decent post moves on dwight in the playoffs…this move will solidify us in the BIGS category…n focus on other issues..his market might be a bit high rite now…maybe 5 mil a year…but baby is a better buy than delfino at 5 mil any day…
Ps. wright could be a stud…during his stint in dallas he did a good job D-ing continuously, while being seeing limited offensive touches…this guy can be a solid back-up…to DeMarsMan Derozen ofcouse
As much as I don’t hate Davis, I really don’t he will have chemistry with any of our guys. Our team members socially are much different from the Boston players, which is really weird. Plus we can get Linas Kleiza for much less, he wants to come here, and he might even be a bigger contribute.
btw..two words for our SG problems…. Von Wafer
geez BC saves the Raptors some money and exceptions with the Turkoglu deal and everyone thinks we can sign like 4 or 5 more guys all of a sudden! Quite a swing from the weekend that the Hedo deal was leaked, when we all thought BC was gonna be handcuffed by the pending move. Raptors Republic and other Raptors sites should thank BC for figuring out a way to be able to sign 2 or 3 more decent guys. If he hadn’t I am sure the speculation traffic would not be as good. My 2 cents, hopefully Jack will come to us, Rasho next and then we get Delfino (for less than the $5 million he is asking of course), if not Carlos, lets try for Matt Barnes.
(I don’t count Pops since he will probably sign for the league minimum)
I guess I did mention 4 guys! Oh well! I’ll bet he does it! GENIUS!!!!!!
Pops will not be back….guaranteed
Well, we (RR) know that BC is not to be thanked, but Otis Smith is. He is the one that allowed the Raptors to have enough wiggle room to add guys.
We also know that Steve Fruitman deserves more credit than BC from the outset of the deal.
Yes, BC was a member of the “committee” of this deal, but he alone is not the king of it.
How can you say BC shouldn’t be thanked? He facilitated the trade happening. He could have had an ego and not listened to Fruitman’s idea. They extended the idea to Orlando for sure (Otis Smith did not want to do it), so just the fact that the organization was able to finagle the deal with all parties included (especially a reluctant Magic organization) is an accomplishment in itself. Also instead of trying to take credit for the idea, which he probably could have, he allowed credit to go rightfully to Fruitman. I am trying to diss RR that was not my intention at all. I was just saying that because the deal went down the way it did, it has allowed this site to have more threads about the speculation on who the Raptors can try to sign. If it had gone down the way we all thought it would that weekend, then it might have been all summer league coverage, Bosh twitter crap, etc. and not the juicy stuff, ie: free agent acquisition speculation! I am glad and thankful for it all, including RR first and foremost. This site is a lifeline for me to get my Raptors info. I used to live in Toronto right up until about 3 months ago. They get hardly any coverage here in Florida, so your site is vital to me, as it helps keep me up to date with what is going on up North with my only my most favourite (notice Canadian spelling) sports franchise, future, past and present. Thanks.
BC is a genius!!!!! One of the best moves ever done by a GM! However, I think the Turk deal is a bit too long. Right now he is 30 and in his prime. His game will be going downhill from now on. He will be 35 and getting 12-13 mil/year, which I think down the line will be costly because he won’t be as good!
Alt, hook up the live stream link! lol
it should be working…I just tried it.
Heres whats gonna happen, Delfino and raps will settle on 2-3 year deal for $4.5 mil per (which is too high), and then we will sign rasho for vet minimum or LLE. If Delfino doesnt sign, we are looking at an additional veteran for the minimum…
who’s watching?
that put-back dunk by DeRozan was just dirty. oh man, this kid is sick.
The feed just started working at half time. Derozan is looking great.
I don’t think Colangelo liked that last minute shot by Douby at all (even though he made it). That was a horrible shot and he’s lucky it went it.
Did this announcer just tell Derozan to enjoy the sun now because he won’t see much of it in Toronto?
the f@ck???
WOW.
Americans are assholes, because of media people in US think Canada is like an another very sad planet!
Let’s not generalize…let’s just leave it at those ignorant commentator douchebags are assholes.
Lest we forget, a few of our beloved Raptors, including DeMar DeRozan are American.
Just sayin, lol. :)
Alt I have a question for you.
I heard some rumors about Klieza coming to the Raptors. How close do you we are, and how much do you think he will be getting?
BTW I love this website. One of the limited sources to the real uncensored news.
Great Job
Last I heard (which was yesterday morning) they weren’t really talking. AP was the first option, but he walked. Now Delfino’s agent knows the Raps want his client and can spend $$ with no regard to the cap. BC is reluctant to use too much on Delfino, so they are at a stand still. If they don’t knock down the wall, Kleiza is one of the fallbacks. Again, though, agents know the Raptors have some money, so they are aiming high coming in.
I think you see Delfino in a Raptors uniform before you see Kleiza only because of BC’s comfort level. I think if Delfino takes 4-4.5mil, it’s sewn up and then BC goes at midlevel talent to provide the finishing touch. If Delfino isn’t here, it’s because money won out.
Wouldnt the midlevel basically be at like 0.7 million (again assuming JJ signs)?? thats below vet minimum….whats bc gonna get with that???
I said “midlevel talent” not midlevel money.
One or two pieces can still be moved or packaged together to bring someone in…doesn’t have to be additional salary.
Could be a reason why the pick in the Marion/Hedo deal was 2016. Gives us room to add a first or second rounder in an earlier draft to an existing roster spot and move it for a 8th-10th type talented player.
I’m loving how I’m seeing green everywhere beside the comments!
Everyone’s putting forth very astute points, and keeping things positive/funny/light-hearted in general as well.
I genuinely think this site has far and away some of the most intelligent Raptors fans out there.
This is why this site is so freaking awesome.
By the way, I fully anticipate this point getting a lot of red :P
Trust me, I’d dislike someone stating the obvious too.
Altman here is another question to you, haha lots of questions.
Would you rather have Kleiza on your team or Delfino if you had to choose. How much do you think Kleiza would want to come to the Raptors, and could we afford to get him instead of Delfino?
I don’t know why but I really think Kleiza could be really good in the Raptors uniform. First of all he is just stepping into his prime, and he would get much more minutes than he did last year with the Denver Nuggets if he comes here. Also he would fit in very well in our very ethical team and city.
Kleiza’s likeable becuase of his hard-nosed intensity, leading to tough defense and rebounding. Those traits are traditionally well respected, but also fill a big void for this version of the Raps. What’s more, he can score with the 3 and take it strong to the hoop for 2 points and the harm.
Maybe we should ask ‘what’s not to like?’…
Is it sad that Kleiza’s Rebounds per 36 is higher than Bargnani’s?
Awesome site guys, expecially love the Morning coffee and the post game reports.
I think the Raps knew Barg’s rebounding numbers before they offered him his contract !!!
Well, if he plays any minutes next to Bargs, its good!
With things between the Raps and Delfino not close and with people saying they would be “suprised” to see Kleiza as a Nugget next year (Hollinger of ESPN). Whats the chance the Raps preform a sign-and-trade just swapping the 2 players. They both wouldnt use any MLE $$$ because they were both signed with the team that had their Bird Rights.
I don’t mean to sound like a Delfino hater, but I’d much rather have Kleiza or Barnes. Not because they can come cheaper but because I feel that they will bring more toughness than Delfino. Delfino also had a shoulder injury which sounds a little sketchy. I strongly believe that BC will have much easier time negotiating with Kleiza or Barnes. We can offer them similiar contract as Dahntay Jones from Indiana Pacers ($11 mill – 4 years) 2.75 mill per year. Assuming that Jack will sign $20 mill – 4 years, which is $5 mill per year with Kleiza or Barnes $2.75 per year, this still gives Raps roughly $4.25 mill to work with.
*Raps currently have roughly 12 mill before hitting luxury tax
Doesn’t work.
The Raps theoretically have 12 Million, but they can only spend ~8 million on other teams free agents, plus minimum contracts.
The other 4 mill has to be Carlos, Pops, or nothing.
They have the 5.9M MLE, 1.99M LLE, and that’s it.
So, the MLE is effectively used up in Jack, roughly 1M left over.
So, they can sign a 1M player, and 2M player, but can’t combine it to sign a ~3M player.
Only other way for them to use that 12 Million is through trades. Which are hard to do since they are over the cap, and can’t accept extra salary, unless someone else wants Delfino at the 5M he wants, which I doubt.