Reply With Quote
yes he will be traded if HE IS HEALTHY
I posted this as a new thread because it is a new source-- Doug Smith from Toronto whom I trust:
Raptor's health the last sticking point in deal that would see Miami's Marion come to T.O.
Jan 18, 2009
Doug Smith
The Raptors are moving toward a significant mid-season trade that would ship Jermaine O'Neal to the Miami Heat for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks in a deal involving highly paid veterans unable to fit seamlessly into new situations.
Multiple league sources confirmed yesterday that talks have progressed to the point where the trade, although not imminent, could be finalized when the Heat are satisfied O'Neal is healthy enough to help them in their drive for the Eastern Conference playoffs.
How many more games it will take to convince the Heat is unclear, but the sources confirmed talks are nearly completed at the highest levels of each organization.
Raptor officials, citing long-held team rules, would not comment on trade speculation.
O'Neal, according to sources and various Internet reports, has told friends and acquaintances that he expects to be dealt to Miami. League sources tell the Star that nothing is expected to happen in the next 24 or 48 hours and it could be more than a week before any deal is finalized.
The Raptors have a home game against Phoenix today and start a three-game road trip in Atlanta tomorrow; the Heat played last night and today and begin a four-game homestand on Wednesday.
One thing is certain, and that is the Raptors are shopping the 30-year-old O'Neal, who played Friday night for the first time in 10 games in Toronto's loss to the Indiana Pacers after missing nine games with a knee injury.
Averaging 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, he has been effective but not overwhelming in a half-season after being acquired from the Pacers for T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic in a multi-player July transaction.
The emergence of Andrea Bargnani as a bona fide NBA starting centre – he's averaging more than 20 points per game – has made moving O'Neal and his contract – $21.372 million this season, $23.016 million next season (all figures U.S.) – a priority for general manager Bryan Colangelo.
Marion, whose $17,810,000 contract expires at the end of this season, hasn't fit perfectly with the Heat after being obtained last season from Phoenix in a deal for Shaquille O'Neal.
The 30-year-old is averaging 12.1 points and 9.2 rebounds and would be seen in some circles as a major defensive and rebounding upgrade at small forward for Toronto.
And the Raptors seem in desperate need of help.
The loss in Indiana was their fourth in a row and they hit the midway point in the regular season with a 16-25 record, 3 1/2 games out of the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
While the principals in the deal are O'Neal and Marion, Banks would be included to satisfy the NBA's arcane salary cap rules. Banks has been unable to find playing time for the point guard-starved Heat, who have been using rookie Mario Chalmers and journeyman Chris Quinn.
But he could get a chance to challenge Roko Ukic and Will Solomon in Toronto for backup minutes once the injured Jose Calderon returns.
The biggest problem with Banks is a bersome contract. The 27-year-old has two years and more than $9 million left on his deal after this season, leaving Toronto contractually obligated to a potential non-contributor when the best free-agent class in league history hits the market in 2010.
O'Neal told reporters in Toronto on Thursday he understood he'd be the centre of trade speculation and said he would be fine with moving, if he had to, after only half a season with the Raptors.
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/NBA/article/573052
yes he will be traded if HE IS HEALTHY
He's not playing today.
Marion was inactive for tonight's Heat game, as well.
The Raptors are getting a pretty damn good deal. O'Neal is broken and while Marion isn't that good, he's much more useful than what they are giving up.
Plus starting Marion next to Bosh and Bargnani will help defensively and on the boards. Bargnani won't be as much as a liability with two players next to him that can rebound and guard bigs.
I know that starting Joel Anthony made Riley desperate for a center but he's getting bent over in this trade . . .
The Raptors are morons. They should ask for Smush Parker to go with Marion, let them both walk next season, and save $28 million in committed salary and luxury tax hits. Banks is in no way worth the deal he has.
EDIT: Just saw Parker is only on the Heat's payroll, but not their team. They could accomplish the same asking for Magloire instead of Banks.
I understand the Raptors interest. They tried to get Marion from the Suns, and he is the type of player to play alongside Bosh and Andrea but I do get why Miami wants this at all.
I think taking on Banks is well worth the gamble. First of all, Banks sucks but Ukic and Solomon aren't very good either and with Calderon gimpy, they might actually end up needing Banks. He'd fit their uptempo wishes.
But Marion just fits too well with what the Raptors need. If he can rebound and do the dirty work for Bargnani, that could allow Bargnani to just concentrate on scoring.
Plus, Colangelo doesn't have time to waste. He's feeling the heat in Toronto. In all his time north of the border, basically all of his moves have been wrong. His two best players are players he inherited. Getting and keeping Marion is a better plan than hoping someone worthwhile will voluntarily go play in Canada. And even if Colangelo has some time left, he still has only a season and a half to convince Bosh to stay.
The salary cap concerns are valid but Colangelo is the same GM who traded for Rasho even though his entire salary ate into salary cap room they would have had. It's now literally too late for him to care about their financial situation. If Toronto loses Bosh, that could be the death of the franchise.
Good trade for both teams if JO can actually play a few months healthy.
Marion absolutely does not fit in with MIA and what they are trying to do. JO is sort of redundant alongside Bosh, all TOR needs is someone that can board and block shots for them and Marion does that well. The team taking the most risk is obviously MIA because JO could get sidelined again and not play at all.
If that's the case, then you have to resign an old Marion for what will likely be some pretty ridiculous money. That's a risky proposition to me. I don't see any reason Marion would get along better with Bosh than he did Stoudemire. I'd hate to sign the guy and have him act like a spoiled brat in Toronto just like he did in a perfect situation in Phoenix, and then have Bosh walk because he was sick of the jealousy on the team. Then you're left with an aging crybaby on a big contract and no future. Marion just seems like a huge can of worms to open on a team already in chaos.
But they are getting O'Neal's $22 M for next season and he has missed already 12 games this year.
Dealing O'Neal could prevent Raptor implosionhttp://www.thestar.com/Sports/NBA/article/573209Among the scarce evidence of Jermaine O'Neal's presence at the Air Canada Centre yesterday, other than a club report that he was receiving treatment for his sore right knee and probable for today's game in Atlanta, was the Louis Vuitton satchel beside his locker. The bag was packed.
On a day when the headlines suggested that O'Neal's days in Toronto could soon be at their end – that a deal to send O'Neal to Miami for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks is the Raptors' wish, pending Miami president Pat Riley's command – it was a fitting image.
The proposed trade, if it happens as reported, would be more patchwork than masterwork. Then again, Bryan Colangelo, the Raptors president and GM, has essentially changed jobs in the months since last season's first-round playoff decimation against the Orlando Magic. Once an architect with a compelling vision, he's now a repairman with an unenviable to-do list. And the roof, to paraphrase a classic lean-times utterance by former Raptor Tracy McGrady, be leakin'! Yesterday's 117-113 loss to the Suns put the Raptors, losers of five in a row, 10 games under .500. They haven't looked more ramshackle since Rob Bab was happily slapping mud on his straw hut of a roster back in 2005-06.
How did it go so wrong, so quickly? Clearly the summertime trade that brought O'Neal to Toronto for T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic and a first-round draft pick, panned in this corner as it happened, is a failure. Colangelo spoke before the season of his belief that O'Neal would fill a hole in the club's defence and rebounding corps – but they're as bad as they've ever been in both categories. Colangelo figured O'Neal would complement Chris Bosh, the resident all-star, but O'Neal, when healthy, has largely been an older, slower duplicate to Bosh.
And though O'Neal is a public-relations genius who unfurls a yarn with the skill of 100 spin doctors, you can't help but think that his unwillingness to play through pain and his diva-esque demeanour have been at least partly responsible for the palpable lack of chemistry on this season's squad.
So it's agreed: unloading O'Neal before the trade deadline, which comes one month from today at 3 p.m., is a necessity. This club isn't any good as constructed, after all, and its window to get better is rapidly closing. Bosh, of course, can become a free agent in the summer of 2010, when there is expected to be a glut of attractive-market teams wielding salary-cap space to woo high-profile free agents.
Moving O'Neal, whose mammoth contract doesn't expire until 2010, moves up the timeline for a major shakeup. With Marion's salary of about $17-some million (all figures U.S.) coming off the books after next season, the deal would help put Colangelo an estimated $14 million under the salary cap to make creative trades or sign free agents from a class that could include the substantial talents of Hedo Turkoglu, Ron Artest, Carlos Boozer and Lamar Odom.
Nothing's done, of course. Miami is reportedly talking with other suitors for Marion, Dallas among them. And there are those who'd suggest Colangelo should keep shopping for better. Taking back the barely serviceable Banks likely means there'll be a $4-plus million player at the end of the bench next season. But such is the price, sometimes, of patching holes in a hurry.
What's certain is that, while Colangelo would surely frame the trade as a talent injection for a playoff-bound stretch run, this season is going nowhere. Sneaking into the post-season would not amount to success for a club that's lost in the first round two times running. And if next season does not bring a breakthrough, there's a chance Bosh will be weighing the merits of leaving some $30 million on the table to exercise his free agency somewhere else.
In other words, Colangelo must attend to that dripping roof in the coming month, or the franchise's very foundation could soon be crumbling under him.
They have resorted to starting Anthony Parker at PG.
Jermaine is a horrible fit in Toronto and all he does is get injured and keep Bargnani on the bench. With Bargnani playing well and emerging, Jermaine must go.
And yes, Marion will help on the boards which will make him a great fit with Bargnani.
Yeah but at worst Jo comes off Miami's cap in time for the 2010 offseason.
Suns traded banks and marion for O'Neal last season while the heat are gonna trade the same persons for another O'Neal, what a joke.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
