Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Raptors' Offseason

The 2008-2009 season was definitely a disappointing season for the Raptors. With high expectations at the beginning and ended up 13th (out of 15 BTW) in the Eastern Conference with a record of 33-49, that just hurts. One positive that came out was Bargnani, he surely improved his game a lot - averaged 19 dime a game since Feb - Hope he can maintain his momentum going into next season.

So, what should the Raptors do in the offseason?

Here's my recommendations (updated - June 24, 2009).

1. Re-sign Marion to a 21 million 3 years contract (if he does not want to stay with the Raptors, do a sign-and-trade).
2. Re-sign Parker to a 7.5 million 3 years contract - Larry Bird Exception.
3. Re-sign Delfino to a 9 million 3 years contract - Larry Bird Exception.
4. Trade Marcus Banks + Joey Graham (Expiring Contract) + Future 2nd Round for Andres Nocioni
5. Draft in the following order of preference.

James Johnson 6-8/235 F (most likely)
Demar Derozan 6-6/211 F
Jrue Holiday 6-3/205 G

8. Use some of the Mid-Level Exception on a quality point guard (to come off the bench for Jose).

Bosh/Evans/Humphries/Jawai
Bargnani/O'Bryant
Jose/Ukic
Marion/Parker/Johnson
Nocioni/Delfino

Our starting unit is almost the same as this year and our second unit is just that much better. Sweet!