SSBA

THE TORONTO STAR
Doug Smith
April 30, 2005

Toronto--

Despite the the recent five game losing streak, there is alot of reason for optimism around the Toronto Raptors' locker room. At the trade deadline this past week, Raptors' General Manager/Coach trevc3 went out and got two more players to help this team. The first was a deal that saw veteran center Greg Ostertag leave town, along with 3 draft picks. Out went the old, in came the new- 23 year old power forward Drew Gooden.

"Gooden is the type of guy that is gonna help us alot this year, but his major contributions will be in years to come. He's a capable small forward, which is pretty important to this team with Mihm at the 5 and Boozer at the 4. As long as Gooden resigns with us, he's gonna bring alot to the table next year and the years after that," said trevc3.

With the B potential, Gooden is expected to get better. He is averaging 13.8 points per game and 9.0 rebounds per game. Many Raptors were very happy to see Gooden be brought in. Carlos Boozer was especially happy.

"I remember, back in the College days when we [Duke] played Gooden [Kansas] in the Final Four. His strength was something that really blew me away. He's not that big of a guy, but he's really strong and really quick. I mean, the Kid is a B inside, A- defender and B rebounder. All it could take is one training camp for that to be B+, A, B+. And that would be 20/10/3 territory."

Gooden was not available for comment, as he was working out with trevc3, but issued a brief statement through trevc3 after the workout.

"Drew told me to tell you all that he is estatic coming here. After getting bounced around, from Cleveland to Seattle, he was hoping he would be moved again to a contender. He loves the atmoshpere here, and he loves the fact that we are only going to get better."

The other move made by trevc3 at the deadline was an even bigger move. trevc3 brought in two time all-star point guard Baron Davis to lead this team to the promise land. Davis is leading the League in minutes played, and assits per game. Davis was an all-star in 2005 and in 2006, and was named to the first team defensive team in 2005. He struggles at times with turnovers, but those have been reduced since he donned the Raptors' uniform. trevc3 had this to say about Davis:

"Obviously it's said to see Luol [Deng] go. I think that kid is going to be a very special player some day. And I thought Sam [Cassell] was doing a pretty good job running the team. But Baron is a two-time all-star, averaging a double double. Plus, he's only 25, and to top that all off, he has B potential. It's not unrealistic to think that Baron could be a B, B offensive player, with A handling and A+ defense. That would be unchartered territory."

Davis was also unavailable for comment as he was reviewing tapes of the last 5 games, all losses. Those games were horrible, but the Raptors remain in fifth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race, just 1.5 games out of 4th, and home court advantage.

The Raptors may not have a Championship-calibar team this year, but with starters the age of: 25, 22, 23, 22, 25, they have a bright future. And with potential of C,B,B,B,B in the starting lineup, they will only get better.

The future indeed looks bright in the Big Smoke.

I think we ought to start to put some articles up on the Main Site. That way there would be more visitors to the League, and we could weed out some of the non-active GM's and replace them with others.

Thanks for all the comments, hoe-bags. No wonder no one writes articles here.

Articles are linked to on the main site.

and we do weed out the non-active gm's.

and i fail to see how articles bring people to the league.

and how much do you expect us to comment on an article pumping up your moves?  It's essentially what we say in the threads for completed trades except in another format.

Power rankings / rookie rankings are a lot more effective and will get more comments because they involve the whole league... And you still have a chance to pump your team up in the process  :D

I read it because of our trade. I like the bolded names, that was a good touch. However, flagrant lies don't work: no one believes that you work out  :wink:

BTW, Cassell is very happy to leave his legal troubles behind in Toronto:
http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0718/1582781.html

He also told the Hornets GM that he's happy that he can go down to Bourbon Street because, according to Sam, "The drunker they get, the better I look!"
He is especially happy that the ladies are too drunk to read about his recent "honor":
http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=257&SectionID=1

Yeah, articles that involve more teams will get more comments.

It would be the first step in making the main site more presentable. People go there, find a nice site, want to join.

And we don't do THAT great of a job weeding out non-active GM's. CelticsGM hasn't been replaced yet, and his team is suffering because of it. A few tweaks in the depth chart could make that an ok team.

that's hilarious Hornets, it's great

Lol, too bad the Hornets traded Tskalidis

Bah... We all know Doug Smith is a big homer... ;)
Lol...

How can he not be, when the future looks this good :)

Actually, I would say the now looks very good, as does the future...
But the Raptors have one weakness...  And that is outside shooting.

In fact, right now, the Raptors may be the worst perimeter shooting team in the league (Ellis is a B, Davis and Rogers are B-'s)

It will be interesting to see how that affects you ;)
Doug Smith forgot to mention that   :cheers:
Told ya he was a Homer   8)

As I said, they are linked to on the main site.  

I'm not worried on the looks of the main page.  At all.  I'm looking to make the main page functional.  I'm not looking to market the league.  Nor do I think we really need to.  Look at our gm waiting list, and look how quickly we filled up positions when we started this league initially.  I haven't even gotten close to contacting all the people on the waiting list.  In fact, nobody's even replied to me saying they didn't want it yet.

I think you're far overstating the impact articles have.  The bottom line is that the jazziest site won't get any new members if nobody knows about the site.  There are no links from external websites to this league.  Not on the FBB main page, not anywhere.  So until I actually go out and look for people, new people aren't going to be interested.  A million articles or not.

We've had 2 inactive GM's (that by our criteria needed to be replaced).  1) Pacers last year, 2) Celtics this year.  We replaced the Pacers, and we'll replace the Pacers.  The key to a successful and active leauge relies on your ability to keep current GM's, not your ability to replace GM's.

The value articles have is to encourage discussion and debate.  Their recruiting value is so far close to minimal, IMO, it's not even funny.

And yes, his outside shooting is terrible.  Especially with Gooden at the 3. I think he loses site of that with his "we score inside" mantra, that you have to be able to pull defenders out from the paint in order to score down low.  As you can see with Tim Duncan, he was much more effective in San Antonio with Parker and Gnobili than he was in the Olympics with Iverson and Wade.

Yes, I lack some outside shooting. But I don't really care all that much. This is a winning team, wheter you all like it or not.

Ellis is a B outside shooter, could easily by and A- by the time he is done. And please, PLEASE dont forget about the 11 million in cap space this summer :)

That 11 million will go straight to Gooden.  And after that you won't be a player in free agency.

Don't be so sure. For one, Gooden has a greed rating of only 34. For two, if my win rating is comparable to some of the other teams with money, and a guy like Amare steps out, then I'm gonna be a player.

I would think you'd need all 11 million to have a chance at signing Amare, so its either Gooden or Amare.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. IF Amare steps out, I might NOT resign Gooden, and look to sign Amare. Then maybe I will still be able to get Gooden due to Bird rights.

O so we can do that?  Say I get Redd or Amare with my 13 mill cap space, can I sign Dunleavy as well with Bird Rights (thats if he signs with me)

If Amare signs before Gooden, on the next day he can be over the cap and offer gooden any deal, since he has his bird rights.

Of course, that means he can't sign Gooden until after Amare signs somewhere, so he risks a real chance at getting nothing.

Exactly. If Gooden goes first day, then I get screwed. But it's a risk I might end up taking, depending on my win rating.

I think, tonight I'm gonna do a huge article ranking some of the trades that have been made since we started. Won't that be fun.

Go ahead you attention whore  :wink:

Just kiddin, but yeah thats alot of work.  It would be great if you did one though, it should be interesting.  Number one would be the Mo Pete deal, then the Hoffa deal.

That's a real project, but it would be great to read.

Yeah, it will be hardcore. I might do it up tonight or tommorw night, We shal see.

Luckily, you have probably made half the trades, so it is easier for you to keep track then anyone else ;)

Seriously, that is a huge number of trades...  I know I do not have one player in my starting lineup that was there at the beginning...

That would be cool, something like a list of the top 10 trades. I know I've made some pretty big deals.  8)

I think here's what I'm gonna do: i'm gonna comment on all thr bigger deals that have gone down, like who got the better of the deal. Then I'm gonna do a top 10 deal list.

Probably coming tommorow night. Have a big essay I have to write tonight: Compare The Wars by Timothy Findley (book) and a war movie (I'm doing Enemy at the Gates)

Should be a great time.  :roll:

I'm doin a frikin essay as well, own topic again: Symbolism of Futility in 'The Metamorphosis' and 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'...

Writing essays blow, I'm good at them but I'd rather stick with the Sciences

I prefer Essays. I'm in two english classes, regular english with an 87 and Canadian Lit. with a 93.

To contrast that, I'm in biology, and have 54 :)

I'm one of those smartasses who gets 90's in highschool without doing any work, only to find out he's screwed in University because of his crappy work ethic.

Haha, I am just like that. Right now I'm a sophomore(high school, that is). I barely do any real work or study at all but I'm pretty smart so I get good grades. Once I have hard classes, whether it's junior year next year or in college, I think I'll be able to really buckle down and work hard. It's just not necessary to do that now...  :lol:

that's me.  Took me until my 3rd year to figure it out.

Are you goin to do your trade article today trev?

I'm working on it right now, but the Sixers game is going to be first priority come 8.