I wonder how linked Bayless, DeRozan, and Calderon's fates with the club are. While we have little in the way of alternatives, we risk walking into next summer with

- Jose Calderon entering FA
- Jerryd Bayless entering FA
- Demar DeRozan entering restricted FA
- James Johnson entering restricted FA
- Gary Forbes entering FA

That's most of the wings and guards on the roster who need a new contract.
How would that influence both the way they play, and any ability to obtain value for them during the season?

How would you handle the situation pre-emptively this off-season?

There are ways to use a countries colours that are more creative then others.

http://www.sportslogos.net/league.php?id=1
http://www.sportslogos.net/league.php?id=7
http://www.sportslogos.net/league.php?id=6

Two examples I see of patriotic logos are the Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL) and Winnipeg Jets(NHL). I am assuming that a"Blue Jacket" is some sort of military uniform. Similar to the New England Patriots (NFL) logo. They've both worked some flag elements in with the military theme. I think that works, since the concepts are linked in my mind (no military with out a country to represent).

For the Jets' new logo, they've got the a gray jet superimposed on a red maple leaf. I see less integration between the jet element and the red flag unlike the Patriots and Blue Jackets. Still willing to give it a pass since there is the link between Avro Arrow and made in Canada.

The Houston Texan's logo takes it up a step further, with no flag whirling around, its part of the coloring of the buffalo with a star replacing one of its eyes. An example of an logo that integrates red, white and blue poorly is the Washington Wizards logo. They need to go back to the drawing board on that, it's a fragmented mess.

The problem that both the Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors ran into was too many colors going on at once. The 2008 update of the Red Dinosaur logo, replaced the purple elements with black, and thus reduced the total number of colours used in the logo by one. The Raptor Claw took it much further but cutting things down to two. The Memphis Grizzlies logo uses three shades of blue, and I thought that was a creative touch. The recent trend in the NBA has gone towards team logos that are created using two colors if possible.

via www.thesportsdesignblog.com

http://www.thesportsdesignblog.com/2011/05/17/team-colors-by-sport/

(Description of how the above graphic was created, and the significance of the circles can be found at the above link. There is one for the NFL, and MLB as well. Please click on the image for a full size version that's easier on the eyes)


A good example of two colour use is the Golden State Warriors logo. Able to work the bridge in there, plus the ring around it, while sticking with blue and yellow. An example of too many colours is the Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks logos. Why can't we just take the fact that the timberwolves live among trees on faith, do we really need the row of pine trees there? Less is more.

What sorts of logos in professional sports are you a fan of and what about them makes them stand out to you?

Available Raptor Jersey breakdown at the NBA Store

One has the choice of (at the moment):

Leandro Barbosa (4):
-authentic home/away
- replica away

Andrea Bargnani (2):
- Authentic away
- Replica away

Demar Derozan (1):
- Authentic away

http://store.nba.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2806597&cp=1421567

As a contrast (using active players only, where the number of unique jersey options is in the brackets):


Indiana Pacers
- Danny Granger ( 5) or Tyler Hansbrough ( 1)

OKC Thunder
- Kevin Durant (13), Russell Westbrook (6)

Charlotte Bobcats
- Stephen Jackson (3) Gerald Wallace (1)

Cleveland Cavaliers
- Antawn Jamison (6), Mo Williams (2), Lebron James (1)--- Toddler replica away jersey :-)

Minnesota Timberwolves
- Kevin Love (4) Michael Beasley (4) Ricky Rubio (3)

Miami Heat
- Dwayne Wade (22), Lebron James (21), Chris Bosh (15)

LA Lakers
- Kobe Bryant (28), Pau Gasol (17) Ron Artest (10), Derek Fisher (8), Andrew Bynum (3),
Lamar Odom (3)

Boston Celtics
- Rajon Rondo (19), Paul Pierce (17), Kevin Garnett (16), Ray Allen (12), Shaq (9), Glen Davis (1), Nate Robinson (1)

Notes:

The fact that two out of the three Cavs jerseys are for players that don't play there anymore is just sad. Almost as sad as the Bobcats having no CURRENT players with Jersey's available.

Fans of some successful teams show more love for their role players (Lakers, Celtics, although not the Mavs, Miami, or Spurs)

Ricky Rubio is in select company, as the only player in my unscientific poll who has a jersey available without having even played a game. John Wall, Evan Turner, and Gordon Hayward were the only rookies that had a jersey available.

Biggest snub: (Eric Gordon of the Clippers (while Kaman has 1), Marc Gasol of the Grizzlies (while Conley has 1)

With the NBA, add another person to work with Colangelo sure. But it seems to me that the physical and athletic requirements to compete in the NBA ensure that there is a narrow pool of talent from which everyone is drawing from, onto rosters that don't have many non-active spots. Mix in the fact that there is no minor league for any player that has been under contract for more then two years. The trend is that potential additions to your team are usually on the roster of another team. The NBDL, which supposedly is the minor league of potential NBA talent, it just doesn't seem to see many undrafted players working their way up to NBA rosters. Would one not expect that the top players in the DLeague, who are usually older and thus free to sign with anyone, would get called up frequently and signed to year long contracts? I don't follow football, but it seems like the ultimate example of players that aren't even drafted that can rise up and contribute significantly to a team's fortunes.

The NBA seems like a league where if you wash out, you can either compete for a injury spot or make good money as a featured part of a European team. But the flaws that kept you from sticking in the League rarely get fixed after the fact, at least to the level that you can win a job outright at a future training camp. I would use the example of players that seem to have all the tools, but don't have a decent shot. Or a PG that is too shoot first. For players like these, I would expect that experience overseas or in the minors would help them address that issue that's holding them back. But that just doesn't seem to be the case.

It seems the best a NBDL player can hope for is a series of 10 day contracts. And the ones that are signed near the end of the year seem to be players that are raw, and are looked at more as projects for a team's coaching staff while being stashed on the inactive roster. What is so wrong with our developmental system that players that aren't able to improve their standing in the league after extended time in it. A player that leaves school after his freshman year should be able to spend a few years in the NBDL and pick up the kind of skills and experience that would have been honed in the college environment.   

While adding another experienced front office decision maker is great, I would be MUCH more excited about having us buy our own NBDL team. Staff it with our own people, and have one player development type (ie Alvin Williams) spend one week a month on site monitoring developments as a sort of minor league GM. I had mixed feelings before, thinking that the right franchise had to come on the market (ie proximity to Toronto) since you want to buy the right franchise and stick with it from here on out. But if the money's there, then they shouldn't hesitate. They could even strike a compromise with the Bakersfield owners. ie They retain control of concessions, parking, most of the business side. Raptors foot the bill for the coaching staff. In exchange, we have full control over coaching decisions and roster decisions for both Raptor and NBDL contract players. Would also add some meaning to summer league, since players we like can stick with our minor league team and have the leg up on other competitors for an open roster spot. For a candidate for a ten day callup, I would rather it was a player from a team controlled D-League team that was running a similar system, who perhaps had gone through training camp with the parent team. More cohesiveness, and hopefully reduce the learning curve. Win - win all around.

If teams needed added incentive, perhaps give each team two NBDL designated player slots in the new CBA. These players rights belong to the NBA team, and thus these players can't be called up by anyone else. They are also free of any age restriction. In exchange for the lack of freedom,  the player's salary is exempt from the NBDL tier system, so they could earn a wage closer to what they would earn overseas.  These slots would not count against a teams fifteen man roster UNTIL the player is called up. An added benefit would be creating some internal competition among the farm team players, to be able to attain the designated player slot and higher paycheque. At the moment, it SEEMS as if players in the NBDL are spending most of their mental energy worrying about showing themselves for other teams, with no link to the NBA parent. This could lead to the kind of selfish behavior that makes teams reticent to send their young players down to develop ie its a "guard driven league".

http://hoopsaddict.wordpress.com/2007/06/07/interview-with-caliper-ceo-dr-herb-greenberg/
June 7, 2007


Dr. Greenberg: Chris Bosh was a guy who we grossly underestimated. We never said that he couldn’t do it; we didn’t see how good he could be through the test. He’s one of the very few who I would say we underestimated. In basketball, we underestimated Karl Malone. We didn’t say "don’t draft him," but we didn’t say he was a "can’t miss." We just sort of said, "If he’s got the talent, go ahead." He and Mitch Richmond  are the two that I can name that we didn’t see the superstar in them. We saw positive things, but on balance, we said, "It’s neutral. If you love him, go ahead." It wasn’t like, "Stay away from him." ...

Almost as a balance to the Chris Bosh thing: did you read the article about Bargnani? That’s the kind of thing we’re very, very proud of. We did some … I wouldn’t say "arm twisting," because they liked him, but they knew they’d get a lot of criticism for drafting him. I can tell you right now: He will be one of the top eight or ten centers in NBA history. They’re happy with it, we’re happy with it. In fact, a lot of that Raptors team: Mo Peterson was one of our picks, about six or seven kids on that team were our picks.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=espnmag/bargnani

February 28, 2007

For years, NBA teams have used the Caliper Profile to evaluate potential draft picks. The Caliper is a personality profile used by numerous corporations and organizations to measure one's capacity to excel in specific situations. Over the past 24 years, Caliper has assessed more than 20,000 athletes, including NBA players from Detroit, San Antonio, Denver and Phoenix. Colangelo has long been sold on the system. When he heard how Bargnani measured up, he nearly dropped the phone.

"They said his upside and potential were off the charts," Colangelo says from the tunnel of the Air Canada Centre as Bargnani drains a three against the Cavaliers. "They said, 'Out of all the athletes we've profiled, we've never seen anything like this.' "

The test showed that Bargnani is virtually oblivious to what others think of him. And his tremendous ability to block out such potentially negative pressures enables him to focus completely on the task at hand. So the expectations and anxieties that come with being the No.1 pick, or the only Italian-born player in the league, or even taking a game-winning shot, don't even register with him.

IMHO

The things that Bargnani was supposedly good at could have been a double-edged sword. Greenberg danced around his Bosh answer. Maybe they thought Bosh lacked the innate confidence of Bargnani, as if that's the only means to success? I don't know. At this point in time, its clear that one player put the work in to better himself physically and skill-wise. As a rookie, was Bosh was one of the skinniest player's I've ever seen rock the Raptor colors, aside from maybe Keon Clark.  He also came in as a freshman, the youngest Raptor since ... Tracy McGrady?.

What kind of work does Bargnani put into his weaknesses?

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Raptors-GM-thinks-Bargnani-can-become-a-good-reb?urn=nba-wp1713
Tue Apr 19 2011

At one memorable point in Bryan Colangelo's end-of-season press conference on Monday, the Raptors GM referred to Andrea Bargnani, the club's starting centre, as "the enigma of enigmas, to you and many." Colangelo called the Italian "far from a perfect player." And he was only getting warmed up.

    "I don't know if he's ever going to be a better defensive player than he is. Can he be a better rebounder? Absolutely," Colangelo said of Bargnani. "And that becomes, I believe, a mindset. It's something that we talked about. It's a little late to be having this conversation now, as I indicated to Andrea post-season. We know he can rebound, but he doesn't focus on it. . . . That's a desire thing. And that's something he's going to have to come to grips with."

Waiting one year will cost us the chance to resign DeMar, and Ed Davis


This is a concern that we all have. No doubt about it. When the Raptors have drafted someone promising in the draft, the picks have been so spaced out that the overlap between them has been minimal at times, let alone both hitting their peak at the same time. Tracy McGrady was only here for Vince's first year. Vince was only here for Bosh's first year. And Bosh was only here for DeRozan's first year. Bosh was present for Charlie V and Graham, but they just didn't develop into players that could play a strong supporting role. Same with Bargnani up till now. So I would argue that 2003,2005,2006, we had the chance to have the players stick around long enough to determine if they were worth keeping around.

And switching to the current situation, we have Bargnani drafted in 2006, then DeMar at 2009, Ed Davis at 2010, and Jonas V at 2011. Draft picks almost always sign the second contract they are offered as restricted free agents. The Raptors recently exercised their option on the 2012-2013 season for both Demar and James Johnson (2009 draft class).

Demar will be going into his last option year (2012-2013) when Jonas V plays his first season in the league. Ed Davis will be going into his third season. Resign DeMar as a restricted free agent in the 2013 offseason, and then the clock starts ticking for real. In contrast to Bosh, DeMar will be signing that second contract with promising prospects at C (Jonas V), PF ( Ed Davis) along with the 2012 pick. Bosh signed his second contract in the summer of 2006, and played the 2006-2007 season with a collection of veterans forming both the core and the bench of the team. He could grow with TJ Ford at PG, and Bargnani at C, that's it. Guys like Anthony Parker, Garbajosa, and Rasho had either plateaued or were on their way down in terms of performance.

For the sake of argument, let's go with that oft stated maxim that "a player is what he is by his third year." That means that Jonas V will have shown his NBA game in 2014-2015, two years into DeMar's second contract, and into the first year of Ed Davis' second contract. Yes, he doesn't get to his third year before both DeMar and Ed Davis have reached RESTRICTED free agency. However, (under the old CBA) most teams either resigned their restricted draft picks to a long term deal outright, or matched an offer from someone else. Hypothetically, DeMar or Ed Davis could play out their qualifying offer, and become outright free agents, however that is a fear that is present regardless of how good any team is. If Jonas had come over, would we be panicking about Ed Davis being a restricted free agent before the 2012 pick reached his third year?

Our "modern" development clock starts with DeMar. When he's looking at our present and short term future, players he goes to war with next two years, he's looking at Amir Johnson (2005), Bargnani (2006), Jerryd Bayless (2008), James Johnson (2009), and Ed Davis (2010), just barely. Regardless of whether Jonas V came over or not, DeMar was going to play out his rookie deal before ANY 2011 pick reached their third year. It's the reason why the line is set after Ed Davis.

The 2011(Jonas V) pick and 2012 pick don't impact our fortunes during the next two years, they are part of that next wave, that helps fortify two more positions and propel us to another level of performance. They are the guys that DeMar will look at when measuring what kind of prospects the team has for support from internal sources once he's signed that second contract. These guys are part of the Raptors long term future. 
 
The Raptors are better served by looking to free agency and trades to improve the team over the next two years, and evaluating draft picks towards best player down the road. This was the tactic they took when drafting DeRozan in 2009, while passing on more experienced options like Gerald Henderson or Terrance Williams. And in that case, there was arguably MORE pressure to improve right away, since Bosh was finishing his second contract on his way to free agency, not restricted free agency. If you're going to draft high upside players, they tend to need most of their rookie contract to find their form. And that lengthy development curve can be the bain of a GM who's other players are ready to go right now. I will gladly delay NBA arrival by one year if it means having a chance at a better prospect in the long run. Its the other players on the roster, not the 2011 pick, that should bear the responsibility of improving their games, and the team's performance next year.

The Euro influx into the NBA is significantly weighted towards bigger players, ie 6'9 and above. How often are European guards in general drafted in the first round vs European bigs? And a large portion of that is 7-footers.  I think the genre of Euro player that should set off alarm bells is "jump shooting big" or "perimeter oriented 7-footer". These players usually lack toughness, and were designated scorers in Euroleague, with other players handling the responsibilities for rebounding, defending etc. When they are asked to take on those responsibilities for the first time at the NBA stage, several issues come up.

If there is something I've learned from the Raptors Euro-Experience, it is that trying to teach a perimeter oriented big to improve the hustle areas of their game is a risk that I'm not comfortable taking. That's something that comes from inside (see Evans, Reggie)

 Another issue is due to a lack toughness, since others handled the less glamorous duties. Once they reach the NBA,  they sometimes end up having to play one position down from their true position, and can't cope when they are at a disadvantage across the board as an athlete. Bargnani can handle playing center if one was rating his physical tools including athleticism. It's a lifetime of being coddled as a big SF that keeps him from holding his own in that area. Contrary to what some believe, interior defense and rebounding are present in the European game. It's just that Bargnani had nothing to do with those areas in Europe either. 

The fact Dirk Nowitzki kept on improving year to year is a testament to what a special person he is as a basketball player. I'd say the work he put  into his game (and progressive improvements) given his physical tools is in the same class as Nash. That kind of dedications is rare in anyone, North American or European. His ability to succeed as a perimeter-oriented big says MUCH more about Nowitzki then about the ability of any given jumpshooting big to transition to the NBA. He has only served to establish a ridiculously high best case for these players, one which is based largely on factors which were unique to Dirk and not generalizable at all. Part of what makes Ray Allen great is his unparalleled dedication to get up shots hours before anyone else is at the stadium. Just having a pretty shooting form isn't enough. Part of what makes Steve Nash so great is his great hand-eye coordination, and perhaps benefiting from his soccer background like Hakeem did with his footwork. Being ~ 6'2 and having great range on his three doesn't make Jimmer Fredette the next Nash. 

Drafting a European big that PLAYS like a big, that's a risk I'm comfortable taking. Maybe, it is something in the water, but Eastern European countries (Slovenia, Lithuania etc) produce more then their fare share of NBA sized bigman. Thus, as long as a European teenage bigman plays tough, I would not discredit their level of competition in areas like toughness, size, physical strength. It's likely they are being tested in these areas as much if not more then in say... mid-major competition, since they are often competing against men instead of solely college players.

If you have concerns about athleticism, I agree that there is no substitute in terms of athletic tests, then facing North American competition. However, those athletic advantages are lessened (ie vertical, quickness) as the player  bigger. There are few bigmen in general that have great verticals or quickness. Their size works against them in that regard. Given the scarcity of bigs that even reach that size, bigmen are in for a shock regardless of where they competed prior to the NBA. Players like Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Ben Wallace, they are very few and far between. Thus, you just need to deal with it and make adjustments when facing that calibre of athlete on both sides of the ball once you reach the NBA. A bigman that can't keep up with European competition athletically is a red flag. However, if they possess a certain base level, I would not count them out because their head doesn't reach the rim when they dunk. It is players in this scenario that benefit from being scouting at U-17, U-18, U-19 international competitions, where they are more likely to come across players that are at their level or beyond in terms of athleticism.

There are also strengths on the European side of the pond in terms of practice time and skills development. I believe the limit in terms of NCAA practice time is 20 hours a week. And they can't start practicing until a certain date (in september?) unless they are starting their pre-season with exhibitions out of the country. That is the reason why we have so many US schools travel to Canada, to play CIAU schools, get a jump on their training in the process. European teams have no limit on their practice time, and train for most of the year.

Big men go bust at a high rate regardless of where they're from. It's the product of what happens when so many kids in school can keep progressing solely because they're so much bigger and stronger then the competition. In comparison, a six-foot guard has a much harder road to travel on his way to elite level basketball.To typecast Europeans draftees in general as substandard, without looking a bit deeper at whether there are relevant subtypes can lead to teams missing out on great talent for what could to be superficial reasons.

Gotta be a factor on both ends.

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In a field where no one stands out, all positions were not created equal.

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I think someone who's "been there, done that" as a front line SG in the NBA would an ideal mentor for DeRozan. He only spent one season at USC, and hasn't had the chance to take on the demands of a leadership role. A mentor could help speed up the maturation process, and perhaps allow him to take on a share of the leadership mantle in a few years.

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From college books to play books, should DeRozan be handed the keys to a starting position? How would you manage DD's role in his rookie season. More after the jump.

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