| Doubling Down On Jarrett Jack Authored by Christophe Reina - March 10, 2010 - 1:13 pm
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The takeaway from spending a little bit of time around the Raptors in Los Angeles on Tuesday is that this feels like Jarrett Jack’s team.
Jack was signed to a four-year, $20 million with their MLE money in a move that Indiana failed to match and much of the NBA failed to recognize the significance of at the time beyond the fact that he played with Chris Bosh for one season at Georgia Tech. The move appeared, to many, to be a high priced offering to Bosh one summer before his free agency.
As much as Bosh is Toronto’s best player and one of the best half dozen players in the NBA, he doesn’t impact either the game or the locker room with a leadership presence the way Kevin Garnett did a couple years ago or LeBron James does now.
While the Raptors were on their way to giving back an eight-point halftime lead to the Lakers in the third quarter, Jack scored 13 of the team’s 26 points, on a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor and six-for-six from the line.
Because the Toronto froncourt is loaded with face-up offensive players in Bosh, Andrea Bargnani and Hedo Turkogu, the immense value of Jack’s dribble penetration and 12.1% draw foul rate compared to Jose Calderon’s 6.1% is evident.
Statistically, Jack and Calderon are strikingly similar players with their per minute production and shooting percentages being nearly identical with the exception of the former being the better rebounder, penetrator and the latter having a superior assist/turnover ratio.
If Calderon were playing with a more extroverted franchise player, his full potential as a starting point guard would be maximized. But Jack’s assertive control of the game and ability to create his own offense complements Bosh’s occasional passivity more appropriately.
Jack and his influence over this team represents just how different the Raptors are in terms of personnel in comparison to the one that was eliminated in the first round of the 2008 Playoffs by Orlando in five games.
Outside of Bosh (2003), Calderon (2005) and Bargnani (2006), no player on their current roster was on their team on January 1st, 2009.
Bryan Colangelo has essentially turned T.J. Ford, the draft pick that became Roy Hibbert, Rasho Nesterovic, Jason Kapono, Jamario Moon, Carlos Delfino, Anthony Parker, Roko Ukic and Maceo Baston into Jarrett Jack, Hedo Turkoglu, Antoine Wright, Reggie Evans, Marco Belinelli, Sonny Weems, Amir Johnson, Marcus Banks and Nesterovic again.
The Turkoglu acquisition wouldn’t have become possible if not for Ford becoming Jermaine O’Neal, who became the expiring contract of Shawn Marion. While I like the clever additions of Wright, Belinelli, Weems and Evans, the money spent on Turkoglu is already regrettable. I’m not in the camp to dismiss what he is capable of, especially in the playoffs, but his floor presence largely feels counterproductive.
Even though the rest of the team looks different, Bargnani looks much the same as he did during his rookie season, with only marginal offensive improvement.
Bargnani has flashes, as he did in the second quarter against the Lakers, where he looks like one of the best 20 offensive players in the NBA. He scored 13 points in that quarter on 5-of-6 shooting (2-of-2 from distance), capitalizing on clean looks when the Lakers were slow to rotate and also by putting the floor on the deck a little bit.
But that surge was bookended by a 1-for-6 in the first quarter and an ineffective two points in the third when he disappeared.
Rookie Season
TS%: .546
AST%: 5.1
TRB%: 9.2
USG%: 22.6
Current Season
TS%: .554
AST% 5.1
TRB%: 10.4
USG% 22.2
The lack of any real change is even more dramatic compared to Bosh’s second season to his current season.
Second Season
TS%: .547
AST%: 8.6
TRB%: 13.5
USG%: 21.7
Current Season
TS%: .595
AST%: 11.6
TRB%: 18.4
USG%: 28.4
Bosh is enjoying an across the board uptick in his numbers during his seventh NBA season, but he was already, like most players, essentially the same player by his fourth season that he is now. Bargnani is of course in his fourth season and there is nothing to suggest that he’ll improve in any meaningful way.
There have been very few players who can shoot the ball from the perimeter the way Bargnani can, but his numbers are far closer to a good season of Channing Frye or a bad season of Rashard Lewis than they are to Dirk Nowitzki.
With Bosh slowly getting his fitness back, the Raptors are still a playoff team capable of beating anyone outside of Cleveland and Orlando in the Eastern Conference.
Beyond the current campaign, I’m not sure where the Raptors can turn in order to improve their team beyond trading Calderon for a higher impact wing scorer (1) while handing over the point guard duties to Jack completely.
Calderon is still one of Toronto's better players and even though Jay Triano occasionally flirts with playing the two of them together in the backcourt, it is a proven failure. Since the Raptors could only possibly giveaway Turkoglu and Bargnani is worth more to them than any team would be willing to give up for him, Calderon represents their best opportunity to do something beyond rearranging deck chairs.
Note
1.) The urgency of Toronto’s need for a better wing scorer does depend on how they expect DeMar DeRozan to develop. He had played more minutes than I was expecting, but we’ve seen very little to suggest anything more than a fourth or fifth offensive option. He could evolve into a more dangerous scorer once his role changes, but it is unlikely to replicate the impact of a 20 per night player.
There aren’t too many teams that need a $9M point guard, especially since John Wall will displace a starting point guard somewhere. Here are a couple potential Calderon trading partners that could create a package to benefit the Raptors:
- Calderon to New York for Eddy Curry’s expiring contract and Wilson Chandler.
- Calderon and potentially cap filler to Portland for Joel Przybilla’s expiring contract and either Nicolas Batum or Martell Webster.
- Calderon and cap filler to Philadelphia for Thaddeus Young and Samuel Dalembert.
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