khandor’s sports blog

There’s a tonne of information on-line right now but this one, courtesy of John Schuhmman, is as sound and concise as any:

Position-by-position: Top 5 free agents
As we’ve seen in the NBA Draft over the years, the best strategy is usually to take the best player available. You never know how draft picks will turn out, so selecting the guy closest to a sure thing, even if you’ve already got a similar player on your roster, is often the prudent way to go.

In free agency, though, teams pretty much know what kind of player they’re getting. Teams have seen what these guys can do and are able to better evaluate what they’re capable of and what they can bring to their team.

So the next few weeks will be about finding the right fit, both on the court and on the payroll.

———-

By position, the following players are under-rated [#, indicates where they should be ranked] in this year’s Free Agent class, according to yours truly:

POINT GUARDS
* Ramon Sessions [#1]
* Jarret jack [#2]
* CJ Watson [#6]

OFF GUARDS
* Anthony Parker [#1]

SMALL FORWARDS
* None

POWER FORWARDS
* Antonio McDyess [#3]
* Brandon Bass [#7]
* James Singleton [#9]

CENTERS
* Johan Petro [#4]

FINAL SCORE: Raptors 99, MAVERICKS 108
Complete Game Info

Down by 7 points at the half, the Raptors quickly closed the gap on the Mavericks to open up the 3rd quarter scoring on 3 of their first 4 possessions:

Full Play-By-Play

At the 10:36 mark, however, when Joey Graham [SF] was called for his 4th PF and was then replaced by Marcus Banks [OG/PG], the Mavericks responded by inserting James Singleton [F] into their line-up, replacing Eric Dampier [C]. After pulling down 5 Rebounds in the first half, Singleton collected 9 more in the 3rd quarter, which allowed the Mavericks to match-up successfully with the Raptors’ “small” line-up and still retain their Rebounding superiority.

When the Mavericks then replaced Antoine Wright [OG/SF] with Jason Terry [OG/PG], to further spread the floor, it was Toronto that could not match-up successfully with Dallas, as the home team opened up a 9-point margin … on the strength of [i] 2 Fts by Jason Kidd, [ii] a putback dunk by Singleton, and [iii] consecutive jumpshots by Dirk Nowitzki [one 2FG & one 3FG] … that it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

When the Raptors then chose to end the quarter with the following line-up:

1/Ukic + 2/Banks + 3/Kapono + 4/Bosh + 5/Bargnani

[i.e. Chris Bosh plus 4 non-Solid Rebounders]

any hope of a 2nd half comeback was eliminated, as the lead then ballooned to 15-points [75-90].

If/when you compare [B] where the Raptors could/SHOULD have been with their player roster for the 2008-2009 season and [A] where they stand today, in relation to a team like the Mavericks:

it’s quite stunning just how much the talent level of this team’s overall roster has declined this season.