BC swings for fences, brings Hedo to TO

Bryan Colangelo is clearly swinging for the fences in hopes to Keep Bosh happy in Toronto. On draft night he decided to go with the somewhat raw kid Demar Derozan, an athletic SG who seems to have star like potential. Not done there, he decided to bet it all on Hedo Turkoglu:

After changing his mind on Friday, Hedo Turkoglu has accepted a five-year, $53 million offer from the Raptors, sources told ESPN.com.

Bryan basically stole Turkey-Glue from Portland, who had a deal in place for one of Orlando’s best players last season. For the money being offered, it’s a pretty big risk. Hedo is a 30 year old second tier star. Having him on contract for 5 more years could be a move Bryan later regrets.

The move was likely made because Marion was playing hard ball with the Raptors. He wanted Hedo like money, and no one thought he was worth that anymore. To be fair, Marion does rely on his athleticism much more than Hedo does, so is far more likely to see a serious decline in his game.

However, because of the way the cap is worked and because the Raptors owned Marion’s rights, they could have re-signed him and still had the league’s Mid Level Exception to offer (which is a little over $5 million). Since the Raptors opted to use cap space to sign Hedo, they gave up the ability to use that exception. Thus, unless the Magic decide they want to (sign and) trade Hedo for Marion, the Raptors just chose Hedo over Marion, some $5 million player (had interest in Kleiza), and maybe even Carlos Delfino too. This route would have made Toronto a much more balanced team, so Bryan will have to work over time to fill out the very thin Toronto roster with only peanuts to offer free agents and scrubs like Banks and Humphries to offer in trades. Filling out the roster should be a very difficult task. Especially after failing to fill the roster around Jermaine and Bosh last season.

So the odds are possibly against Bryan and the Raptors, but the fact remains that he probably did snag this season’s best free agent. Hedo should compliment Calderon extremely well since it’s pretty obvious that Calderon needs help creating for others. Hedo should get Calderon quite a few more open threes as well, much like he did for Jameer Nelson.

Hedo also fills Toronto’s serious need for a guy who can control the ball and create for himself and others during crunch time. He seems to make the right decision more often than not, which can not always be said about Calderon or Bosh. His end of game heroics alone could very well mean 5-10 more victories considering the Raptors often struggled when the opposing ‘D’ clamped down. Hedo will relieve a lot of the offensive pressure off Bosh and Calderon, while making it virtually impossible to double team anyone in the starting five; especially if DeRozan can shock some and contribute more than expected right from the start of the season.

The attention the remaining starters will demand on the perimeter will certainly open up the lanes and allow him to slash to the basket more easily. Because of a lack of depth, DeRozan will likely be forced to start right away. DeRozan is definitely excited as he earlier tweeted, “Is Hudo really coming to T Dot? Really hope so!” While “Hudo” was probably a typo, the nickname seemed to quickly catch on with several message boards. He must realize how ‘Hudo” will make things much easier for him.

It remains to be seen if the Raps will be good enough (and if they can stay healthy enough) to challenge for a top 4 spot in the East just yet. Even just making the playoffs should be a fair challenge. What does seem certain is that Bryan isn’t ready to give up just yet. He’s swinging for the fences and hoping for a home run. This might just be another one of his quick fixes that doesn’t pan out down the road (and he has a few of those), but the confidence he shows is contagious and seems to have a lot of fans expecting the best!

The biggest question now is whether or not Hedo will wear his #15.

Showcase: Pizza Libretto

True Neapolitan pizza at its finest!! A creative and authentic pizza joint located in the heart of Toronto’s hipster community. There’s nothing quite like fresh, creamy mozzerella over thin crust pizza. For $15 a pie, you can’t ask for much more. The Duck Confit pizza is a fan favorite and the Rapini is just as tasty for the vegetarians out there. Because of its location, you can expect an artsy crowd. Libretto is a social gathering place perfect to share a bottle of wine and enjoy some authentic Italian pizza. It helps that the staff is so friendly and experienced.

I really enjoyed my first visit to this place, and it certainly will not be my last. From the three pies I sampled, I think it definitely needs to be thrown into the discussion when talking about Toronto’s best pizza.

Located 221 Ossington (just off Dundas).

BJ Ryan Pitches a Good Inning!!

Blue Jays win, Blue Jays win!! The inning didn’t mean much, as we went on to beat the White Sox 8 to 3, but it was great to see BJ pitch a good inning regardless!! Especially since it was his first game back from his time on the DL. He did walk the first batter, but still struck out 2 and got a fly out to get out of the inning. ps. I love old school Fridays!! Have to love those uniforms. Really does take you back to the Glory Days with the Jays a top their division and Cito Gaston on the bench!!

Drake live in Toronto

Beautiful!!

Love that he’s getting so much love. Beautiful to see the crowd sing so much of the song. Definitely a big tune!

The Fifth Social: Stay Away

Unless you’re thirty or older, I would stay away from The Fifth Social aka Easy on the Fifth. I “went” there a few weeks ago to celebrate a friend’s birthday. She got there maybe 30 minutes before my party and got in easily. Meanwhile, my party and I strolled by arround 10:30pm and were told that we would have to wait at least 2 hours to get in. After waiting over 30 minutes quietly, we saw the powertrip Bouncers continue to let people in without even waiting. All were clearly above the age of thirty, so maybe it was a money thing. We then tried offering cash to get them to allow in the birthday girl’s boyfriend (25 years old). The bouncers turned us away and continued to spew more and more BS as they let more and more people go straight in – even with a huge line behind us. All they were letting in were women and old dudes – none of which were particularly good looking. So unless you belong to one of those two groups, I advise that you stay away.

My Toronto

Toronto’s downtown core boasts an exciting nightlife and vast variety of cultural tastes and experiences. Both Bloor and Yonge Street provide quality shopping for the average shopaholic, while College Street and Kensington Market – both very dear to my heart –  offer delicious meals at reasonable prices. Kensington Market is a must see, as it is home to some very unique specialty shops. There’s a great variety of food available including, but not limited to, Chilean Empinadas, Mexican Burritos, Jamaican Beef Patties, Turkish Delight, and grand selections of fresh cheese or fish. College Street, home to Little Italy, meanwhile, is full with great bars and Italian restaurants. It’s hard to go wrong at either location. My personal favourite place to eat in Toronto is a small Latin American restaurant, ‘Tacos el Asador,’ located in Korea Town (on Bloor Street) that serves very Authentic and unique Latin street eats. It does not take much to find similar great places that serve unique and delicious dishes – usually at fairly reasonable prices. Toronto’s great mix of cultural flavours is really what sets it apart from most other cities. In addition to the different tastes already mentioned, Toronto has some of the best Thai food available scattered around the city. For those who are more about the party scene, Toronto’s clubbing district is very popular with the night owls of the city; and has several popular night clubs to choose from that vary in crowd and genre of music. Surrounding the many clubs are larger restaurants that cater to big and rowdy groups. If you find yourself wandering these parts very early in the morning, you can be sure to see huge lines of people waiting for their hotdog from one of the many street vendors.

Big Summer for the Raptors

Well, the Raptors decided to stay with Jay Triano, making him our head coach for the next three years. Hopefully it works out better than Bryan’s very similar decision to re-ink Sam Mitchell soon after he was hired as our general manager. Jay’s a great guy and the team seems to love him, so I’m happy with the signing. Doesn’t change the fact that we need to improve our assistant coaching staff and 8 man rotation. No matter who we signed as coach, we weren’t going to see much improvement unless those two things were done anyways.

The big question now becomes “What do we do with Bosh?” He’s been a great face of the franchise and a great person in general, so hopefully we can work an extension this summer. If he’s still not convinced, it’s probably time to trade him. I hate to say it, but it’s true.

We couldn’t have asked him to represent Toronto better than he has. He’s a good all-star, and I get the feeling he would make for one helluva sidekick. I was hoping his strong showing at the Olympics would mean a different Chris Bosh, but he’s still blaming everyone but himself and rarely looks to take advantage of what the defense gives him.

I mean, he couldn’t take advantage of being guarded by Collins, Rashard Lewis, or Mikki Moore in our last two playoff appearances. He has no problem calling out Bargnani, yet at least Bargnani looks to exploit mismatches whenever he can. It’s not surprising that he had a sub par game against the Suns without Amar’e.  When is this guy going to get a clue? All he could do is blame the refs for not calling Shaq on camping out in the paint yet he lets a bunch of no name PF’s get the best of him? Why not take advantage of the worst pick and roll defender in the league?

Is he ever going to be able to take his game to the next level? Is he a true franchise player?

It just seems like our roster is so flawed that we should maybe consider trading him. If our team is going to be built around Bosh and Calderon, I feel that we absolutely need a Joe Johnson or Roy type player to be responsible for the bulk of the creating. Since getting such players is such a difficult task, I would be open to at least discussing trading Chris Bosh.

If we keep him, I’ll be happy. I just hope the Raptors do a better job surrounding him with better and more agressive players because it doesn’t seem like our core will ever be able to get it done on their own. There’s a very real possibility that Delfino comes back as a Raptor this summer, but all signs are pointing to us losing Marion. Because of the way the cap is worked and because of the salaries we already owe, a lot depends on what we do with Marion.

Unless Shawn Marion walks, we don’t have the cap space to bring in the talent that will likely be needed to keep Bosh happy. Keeping Marion, bringing back Delfino, and signing a Varejao or Childress to the MLE is probably the best we can do TALENT WISE. If Marion does walk, it’s going to be hard to steal a Marvin Williams or Ron Artest just to try to keep Bosh happy. It basically comes down to the fact that it’s going to be very difficult to convince Bosh to re-sign next summer if he’s not convinced this summer. There’s not a whole lot we can do in one year – unless Bargnani and/or Calderon set the league on fire, of course. On a side note, I really hope we extend Bargnani’s contract this summer.