TORaptor4Ever

I wouldn't agree with that at all.

TRULY elite SGs (guys who can avg. close to 25/5/5) are incredibly rare and are almost always "franchise players".

Players like those are NOT "easy to get".

thought

six of one half a dozen of the other i'd say...SG and C are probably the two hardest positions in the league to fill right now.

carp

Disagree.... we got offered one in the preseason and all they were asking for was a potential franchise center. I'd trust OKC more than I'd trust the logic that SG is harder to fill. Had JV been any more developed they'd have had to offer two franchise SG's.

Raptors1995

Good centres are hard to come by. They don't come by often. Trading Valanciunas for someone like DeRozan for example wouldn't be wise. But for someone to say that you wouldn't trade Valanciunas right now for Harden, that's just insane. With Harden we would have someone who can score, create his own shoot, good first step, playmaker, rebounder, good defense, gets to the line, can run a final play for etc
With Lowry and Harden our backcourt would be solidified.

If they wanted Jose and Valanciunas for James Harden, we should have done it.
Lowry
Harden
DeRozan
Bargnani
Drummond (Drafted Drummond over Ross)

Bargnani wouldn't have the pressure to be the go to guy and could relax. We could trade him if we liked. I would trade DeRozan for a more natural 3 guy.

Aamir

And getting a center who will most probably average 20/10 in the future is easy to get? DeMar might not average those numbers but it's very possible for him to average 22/5/3 even next year which isn't far off from elite.

carp

and you're relying on less youth as well... I'm surprised this didn't go down... but they love JV and Casey also fell in love with Ross as well..... I could see Ross being similar to Harden... Harden struggled coming out as a polished collegiate player too.... but in terms of this team, we needed more now.... as we're seeing the collapse in full as a result of not making enough moves....

Grizz

If the scenario was us giving up JV and Jose and Ross and coming away with Harden and Drummond, I think you'd have to do that. JV very well could become a max level player, but Harden already is. Drummond has enough potential to ease some of the sting from losing JV as well.

I have all the hope in the world for JV but I think you have to take that.

Raptors1995

Ross is a good player and good defender. He will never be at the James harden franchise type level though. He never had an explosive first step and can't do many of the things harden does even in the NCAA. However, he can develop into a Shane battier type player, who's a great defender and can hit shots which is still valuable.

TORaptor4Ever

That's a big "if"... we'd be talking about JV being at least equal to or perhaps better than Bosh.

I love JV, but I wouldn't feel comfortable taking that gamble. If you make the trade and get Harden you have a surefire top tier SG.... no matter what happens with JV.

If you pass on Harden and JV doesn't pan out (or simply become another Ed Davis/Amir type) you've lost BIG TIME.

jeffb

Exactly! How often is this team going to have the opportunity to get a player of that caliber? Pairing him with Lowry in the back court would have been amazing.

FLO

Don't worry guys, in a few years we'll find out BC turned down the Ross pick and Bargs for Harden.