Four moves the Raps should make before the deadline

BY MATT LAFLEUR

With the trade deadline barely a month away, the Raptors are about as cohesive as NBC’s late night team. Yes, for the moment Toronto’s in a playoff spot, but they’re stuck in a top-heavy Eastern Conference. It’s a situation many teams find themselves in this time of year, and for team president and general manager Bryan Colangelo there are only two ways to go.

The first, which I’ll get to in next week’s post, is to acknowledge you have no chance of competing for a title as currently constructed and to try and get the most for “franchise player” Chris Bosh before he leaves in the off-season. Not so much fun for Raptor fans.

The second option, which is the direction I’m taking today, is to trick yourself into thinking that with a couple moves you can compete with Boston, Cleveland, Orlando and Atlanta in the East. So, without further adieu, here are the four moves Colangelo should make before the mid-February trade deadline (in reverse order):

4.  G-F Antoine Wright ($1.8M per/1 yr) & C Patrick O’Bryant ($855,189 per/1 yr) to Pacers for G-F Dahntay Jones ($2.5M per/4 yrs)

The Raps flirted with Dahntay Jones before the start of the 2008-09 season, opting for Hassan Adams instead….whoops. During Denver’s playoff run last season, Jones’ shut-down defensive play showed he’s more than capable of starting for a winning squad.  On the Raps, a team with way more scorers than defenders, he would become the defensive stopper they so desperately need.  It would also give Toronto the flexibility to move rookie shooting guard DeMar DeRozan to the bench, a place where he’s better suited at this stage of his career.

As the first wing off the bench, DeRozan would no longer be burdened with having to make up for Hedo Turkoglu’s lack of effort, which has already become a sad, recurring theme for the season.  For Indiana, it’s strictly a salary dump, getting back expiring contracts and out of the last three years and $7.5 million on Jones’ contract.  Which, judging by Monday’s attendance figures, should be their main concern.

3. Plant illegal handguns in Turkoglu’s locker

Anything to get out of this horrible contract.  He showed up for the season out of shape and is now complaining about not being used properly.  Other than that, he’s been a great signing. For a team that’s been trying to improve their defense for the entire Chris Bosh era, Turkoglu was a questionable guy to bring into the fold (to say the least).

2. F Hedo Turkoglu ($9M per/5 yrs), G Jose Calderon ($8.2M/4 yrs) & 1st round pick to Warriors for G Monta Ellis ($11m/5 yrs) & F Corey Maggette ($8.9/4 yrs)

Golden State gets a starting PG and the perfect forward to play Nellieball.  By bringing in Calderon it would allow the Warriors to move Stephen Curry, who’s doing an admirable job learning to play the point on the fly, to his natural position of SG.  Turkoglu would get a fresh start in G-State and more room to play the way he wants, which is bringing the ball up court, taking bad shots and giving a half-hearted effort four out of five games.

Thanks to the recent play of Jack, it’s clear Toronto is better bringing Calderon in off the bench.  The 28-year-old Spaniard’s been injury prone the last three seasons and no longer justifies his high salary. By adding Ellis to the starting lineup, Toronto gets a ferocious scorer who attacks the basket at will.  His ability to score 20 in his sleep would also help replace CB4’s buckets if he bolts this summer.

In swapping Maggette for Turkoglu, Toronto would be getting one of the leagues best slashers and free throw shooters.  I believe him to be one of the more underrated players in the league and think management would take the same approach, banking on the theory that being on a playoff team would push Maggette to the next level. Hedo, perhaps hung-over from last year’s playoff run and a summer spent playing for Turkey, has been a colossal disappointment. A few more bad games and he’ll start hearing the boos from the ACC faithful.

1. G-F DeRozan ($2.8M/2 yrs), C Nesterovic ($2M/1 yr), PF Evans ($4.9M/2 yrs) & 2011 1st round pick (Toronto owes a 2010 protected pick to Miami) to the Wizards for     G-F Caron Butler ($9.8M/2 yrs)

The Wizards have seen their season go in a completely different direction than they thought it would after trading a lottery pick to Minnesota on draft day for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. Aside from shedding salary, Washington would get a promising rookie and a 1st round pick to use in their rebuilding process. DeRozan has been a pleasant surprise, and while you hate to trade a 1st round pick, you must give something up to get a quality player like Butler in return.

For Toronto, the move would likely push them into the conference’s elite.  A starting lineup of Bargnani-Bosh-Turkoglu-Butler-Jack would be scary in the East and at worst, the Raps would give Atlanta a run for the fourth seed.  Any time you can add a proven playoff guy with a high basketball IQ, not to mention a guy who can quietly score 15 to 20 points, grab five to seven rebounds, dish out three to five assists and get two steals per game, it’s a no-brainer.

Butler’s game suffered with the return of gun-toting Gilbert, but he’s a consistent veteran who would benefit from a change in scenery.  His toughness (nickname’s “Tough Juice” after all) and defense would be much more valuable to Toronto than any stat that appears in the score sheet.  Butler would also finally give the Raptors someone to match-up with Eastern Conference heavyweights such as LeBron, Pierce and Wade,  or at least someone make things more difficult for them. And, of course,Butler would serve as insurance should Bosh decide to leave Toronto.

Okay, our work is done. We’ve tricked ourselves into thinking these moves would make the Raptors contenders. Now if Colangelo could just trick the GM of one those clubs and pull off a big trade or two, we’d have something.

Next week I’ll examine potential moves involving CB4 should Bryan Colangelo decide to throw in the towel.

For The Steve Network, I’m Matt LaFleur.

(Steve Starr would like to point out that the opinions held by Matt Lafleur are his and his alone. He’d also like to point out that Matt LaFleur is not the son of Guy, and therefore, has never been dropped off at a hotel by his father to have sex with a minor. Glad we cleared that up.)