Thoughts of the Jermaine O'Neal Trade

After last year's disappointing first round playoff defeat to the Magic in 5 games, I was one in the camp who thought that Colangelo was not going to alter the chemistry of the Raps; his only change maybe being adding big man presence through the draft. There were many names that intrigued me, Roy Hibbert, Kosta, and the Lopez twins easily come to mind now. Even though each of these players brought different strengths to the table, ultimately I was pretty sure that none of them would be difference makers for this team, especially this upcoming year. So it was a pretty big surprise to me when the Raptors announced that they traded T.J Ford, Rasho, Basten and Rights to our '08 first rounder (Hibbert) to Indiana in exchange for Jermaine O'Neal.
My initial thoughts of this trade were joyous, finally we have someone to play centre and shift Bosh back to power forward. This also allows Bargs to be the first man off the bench and to spell relief for both guys. In 28.7 minutes a game, Jermaine averaged 13.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists but played for only 42 games. The last four seasons, he has played 44, 51, 69 and 42 games, legitimizing concerns of his future health. However, over a 5 year period prior to that he has played between 70 and 81 games every year, so we may just have to watch and determine which Jermaine we are getting in terms of health. He has been a 19+ point scorer for seven years before falling to 13.6 ppg last year. Judging by his career shooting percentage numbers, he has never been an 'efficient' scorer, never average more that .500 % in his career. Injury concerns was one of the major incentives why Indiana were willing to trade him along with his bloated contacts and his presence being a constant reminder of the brawl at the palace.

T.J. Ford, really became his own as the point guard leader of the raptors over the past two years. The beginning of last year he was the unquestioned starter and split minutes pretty evenly with Calderon until that horrible injury by Horford (I don't care if he did it by accident, there was no point challenging that play anyways). After that Calderon really took the reigns of the team and Ford was relegated to bench. He didn't like that, and the chemistry of the team really began to sour and this was a key reason for us limping into the playoffs and subsequently losing in the first round. It was clear that one of either Ford or Calderon needed to be traded as they both thought they should be starters. Ford was given the short stick. His stats for last season were in 24.8 minutes 12.1 ppg, 6.2 assists and 2 turnovers in 51 games. He was a quality player and a nice change of pace from Calderon but he still took too many shots when sometimes a pass was the better option. Having said that, he was, sadly, one of the few raptors who could actually create his own shot.

Rasho was actually one of my favourite players on the team last year because of his total consistency and professionalism. He truly fit in with that team and his baseline J from 10 was automatic. He played good defense and was servicable in offence, but he did contribute to our lack of athleticism and as a result, he really wasn't much of a help-side defender. He had a good basketball IQ and knew how to play the game smart. His stats were 20.9 mpg, 7.8 points, 4.8 boards and 0.2 blocks in 71 games. Solid, solid back-up centre in my opinion.

Basten was actually signed from Indiana and really didn't play much for the Raps and the first rounder was used to entice the Pacers into taking the deal. Hibbert looked good from what i've seen in his Georgetown days and I think his best case is a slightly more athletic Rasho sans the IQ. He needs to work on the offensive part of his game to be successful.

Now, I think this was a good trade for both teams. Toronto has never had such a interior presence on defense who can challenge the opposition if the perimeter player got beaten. However, as Sam Mitchell pointed out in the globe that Jermaine should not be there to defend every play and the onus is on the primary defender to get the stop and for Jermaine to help if needed. Jermaine can also score, but often resorts to low percentage shots. The hope here is with working with Bosh, he can focus primarily on defense and the let the game run through him on offense, and not force his own. Essentially, the raptors traded depth for the potential of a former all-star defensive player with injury concerns. It remains to be seen if Jermaine can re-create his peak years and avoids his injury troubles. If not, the Raps have a huge 20 million hit on the cap for the next two years. For Indiana, they get to really rebuild on the fly with TJ and Rasho. Hibbert is an interesting prospect and Basten looks great on the bench already. They have a nice starting five in Ford, Jack , Granger, Dunleavy, Rasho/Foster with good depth.

Athletes LOVE coming up to Canada to play, from Antonio Davis, to Vince Carter and probably the most out-spoken character being Alonzo Mourning, what a great guy. In all seriousness, athletes view Canada as some lonely outpost from the rest of the league and this has never made any sense to me. Even as an objective person I would rather play in the city of Toronto than say Oklahoma City, leaving out teammates, playing style etc. It was actually really refreshing to see Jermaine actually wanted to come to Toronto. He was excited to play alongside Bosh, and said we could actually compete for a title next year. Hold up big guy, we're about a year from that, but I like the optimism.

Jermaine actually fits in really well defensively with this team, though any position could concievably be upgraded besides Bosh. Our perimeter defenders have been poor keeping the man in front of them, and O'Neal could now cover as the help defender. When this happens, Bosh (or the other power forward) must switch to O'Neal's man and the rotation needs to start with respect to the other players. Also, O'Neal can block tons of shots, making driving players think twice before coming into the lane. Finally, instead of Bosh battling two and sometimes three offensive players for the defensive rebound, he will have a buddy thats really good at grabbing boards. This will limit second chance points and thats always a good thing. I am forseeing a lot of man-to-man coverage with the occasional shift to a 3-2 zone.

Offensively, he is one who could make our team really dangerous. Teams cannot just gang up on Bosh when he gets the ball on the low post, as he could pass out of it to the open shooter or Jermaine, who would be standing at the top of the paint. At times, Jermaine also may be double teamed, and this could be a case of pick your poison. Either try to contain the two forces (Bosh and O'Neal) down low with extra bodies and leave the shooters open (Calderon, Parker and Kaps) or let the two big man wreak havoc. Also, O'Neal has been average-to-great in grabbing offensive boards, which will give us the ability to reset and grab second chance points.

In essence, O'Neal has the potential to change the entire make-up of the team. He can instill a defensive mentality a la Kevin Garnett while also helping out the spacing for offence, letting Chris Bosh, Calderon and in particular Kapono shine. Raps might not be considered 'soft' anymore with O'Neal patrolling the paint. I want to finish up with an article I read of Jermaine O'Neal in ESPN March 24. He talks about how he had to fight since being drafted and traded from Portland to become 'the man'. One quote that he said stuck out with me. "But the more I play, the more I see being The Man isn't scoring 20 and getting 15 rebounds every night. It's making everyone around you better." I think this is going to be a good year for my Raps.

Thanks to NBA.com and ESPN.com for the stats of the players and the article on Jermaine O'Neal.