Last Friday, about 3:50 pm, just I was packing up and getting ready to leave the office, I happened to be browsing http://www.realgm.com/boards. In one of the threads, there was a post about VC going to New Jersey. Before this, there has been no rumour whatsoever about VC going to NJ, tt was always Portland, New York or New Orleans. So imagine my surprise when I opened up the thread and read something to this effect : “It’s done …”.
I quickly went to the end of the thread and behold, a link to one of Canada’s sport sites, which reported VC going to NJ for Aaron and Eric Williams, Alonzo Mourning andamp; 2 first round draft picks.
My initial thoughts were: “why?”. Aren’t those guys backup role guys, and didn’t Alonzo ask NJ for a trade to a contender? Last time I checked, the Raptors were in 2nd last position in the weakest division of the whole NBA, and didn’t seem like they were in a rush to win the championship this year. The 2 draft picks seemed the only redeeming thing, but then I found out that these were going to be mid-round picks at best.
A quick analysis of this says that Rob Babcock must be out of his mind. Trading a 27 year old, 5 time All-star for three 30+ year olds and probably mediocre picks. This couldn’t be the best value the Raptors could get for Carter could it? I mean, VC has lost value, but is his worth that low right now? Unless… another trade is in the works, maybe someone wanted Alonzo as part of another deal. So I just let that thought pass for the weekend.
After almost a week, still no news on Alonzo, many people are saying he might not report in at all. The other trade that people have been waiting for doesn’t seem like it will materialize anytime soon. Eric Williams has played a couple of games since that trade, and he seems a nice fit for the current Raptors, rebounds well, plays hard, and can score a bit. Aaron Williams has gotten something like 12 minutes in 2 games, so can’t judge him yet.
I’m trying to be positive about the Raptors even though it’s hard. If Aaron Williams and Alonzo don’t play, and the Raptors don’t improve their scouting and draft badly the next 2 years (nothing suggests they will draft wisely at all, case in point: Rafael Araujo), it will seem like the trade was only VC for Eric williams, which hardly seems fair. But again, maybe another trade is in the air, maybe Jalen will be traded, Alonzo bought out of his contract and sent somewhere. The Raptors could save cash and go for big name free agents in the next few years, and who knows, Rafael Araujo will turn out to be great in 2 or 3 years and team up with Chris Bosh to form something like Shaq andamp; Garnett for us… maybe the next 2 or 3 draft picks will then turn out to be like LeBron, Dwayne Wade andamp; Dirk Nowitzki… That seems like a dream, but considering the drama that has been unfolded around the Raptors this season, a fan deserves to dream.
RSS