ESPN: Raptors Will Insist on Noah, Not Settle for Deng

[Tim W.]

I will agree him moving out of town tailors a lot of the arguments towards finding reasons to not want him, but in the same vein people who have been watching him for 7 years also are subjective about what he actually brings to or takes away from the table.

People get caught up in his stats, 24-10. Those are awesome stats and he did it with really good percentages, but he was in a contract year (red flag) also taking it to the hole more than he ever was and as a result his body broke down by the end of the year.

I don't think anyone expects him to put up those numbers again, 21-9 is much more realistic and even then the NBA records book is littered with players who can put up big numbers on a bad team. See Mike James.

Bosh has put up 20+/10 numbers consistently, and he's done it on playoff teams and he's done it on lottery teams.

If the raps could resign him to a 3 year deal, that would be perfect, but there is a reason he wants the 6 year deal, he knows his body won't hold up. The Super max contract is like a progressive gambling strategy, it might work for a while, but sooner rather than later you are going to crap out.

That's complete and utter speculation. Is that why Wade wants a 6 years contract, or LeBron? Players who tend to miss a bunch of games a year are incredibly common. It doesn't necessarily mean their body will give out. Everyone jumped on the debunked rumour about Bosh's knees a couple of months ago, but there's absolutely no evidence to support it.

Last year was a huge eye opener for me. He put up monster stats and the raps usually lost. He couldn't handle back to backs and he always blamed his teammates when the team came up short, which while potentially true is not a chapter in a team leader handbook.

Well, this is anecdotal evidence, and not fully supported. Many times, when no one else on the team was performing, Bosh had to score more, and the team lost. This is not a indictment of Bosh, but of the rest of his team. A quote Isiah Thomas made A LONG time ago has stuck with me. He said that if he's scoring a lot, that's bad news because it means his team is not playing well.

Besides, Bosh had some big games and they won, as well. There were many, many times last season when Bosh brought or kept the team in contention for the win.

Bosh has peaked, he might plateau for a couple years or he might plummet. Noah is still getting better, played hurt last year and brings all the intangibles that I value in a player. GM's and organizations focus far too much on what a player has done and don't focus enough on what he will do.

I can only assume you were one of the people who thought giving Johnson his contract was a good idea. I did. And the idea that GMs are not focused enough on what a player will do is not reality. GMs too often focus too much on a player's potential, which is why guys like Villaneuva, Rudy Gay and others have recently gotten contracts far more than they are worth.

What it really comes down to is that while Bosh is supremely talented I don't think he gets it and I think Noah does and that more than makes up for the talent disparity. On the right team with the players (Wade and/or Bron) Bosh might win a ring, but the raptors desperately need everything that Bosh can't provide, thus I feel Noah is a more valuable piece to the raptors than Bosh.

You're not judging Bosh and Noah by the same criteria. You criticize Bosh for not being able to carry a team when you don't ask the same of Noah. A team built around Bosh will have more success than a team built around Noah. Noah is a role player, albeit a very, very good one, but Bosh is much, much more talented. Would Noah help the Raptors? Absolutely. I'd love for the Raptors to be able to get him. He definitely brings what the Raptors need, but it's not Bosh that is the biggest weakness, it's Bargnani. Bargnani is the complete opposite of Noah. The Raptors biggest weaknesses are also Bargnani's, not Bosh's.

You replace Bosh with Noah and the team is not going to be better. They will still have many of the same problems without more moves being done. You will still have rebounding problems because Noah isn't any better a rebounder than Bosh, and while the defense would improve, you're still going to have defensive problems with Bargnani on the floor, especially playing the four. And Noah certainly isn't going to be able to manufacture points like Bosh does, nor is he going to create double teams to allow Bargnani open looks.

You replace Bargnani with Noah and the team improves quite a bit. The rebounding goes from poor to good, as does the defense.