Hedo Turkoglu and the Raptors: A Match Made in Hell

(Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)

We’ve seen Andrea Bargnani struggle when he wasn’t a clear second option on offense. Jose Calderon’s entire game is about ball movement and keeping defences honest with his jump shot. Bosh is a black hole on offense and requires isolation situations to be effective. Hedo Turkoglu is being brought in as a creator and will need to have the ball in his hands as well.

At this point, if the Raptors don’t deal either Jose or Bosh to strengthen their defence and create some touches for youngsters DeMar DeRozan and Andrea Bargnani, they’ll be headlining the John Wall sweepstakes pretty soon.

Not to mention, they’ll be stunting the growth of the two players they’ll be looking to build around in the event that Bosh leaves in DeRozan and Bargnani.

The roster as it’s currently structured doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense. There is a complete overlap in abilities, incompatibility in regards to players meshing with other players, and a disturbing message being put across to the fan base, which is: we don’t care if we’re the worst defensive team in the league provided we can score.

The option of adding Delfino and Marion gave the Raptors both depth and defence. Adding Turkoglu robs them of flexibility, depth, defence and rebounding, and does so for a player who doesn’t necessarily fit in with the team’s top-three players.

This move wreaks of desperation and haphazard planning. It screams that the team is looking to make noise at whatever cost necessary in order to show Chris Bosh they’re serious about contending.

Well, not only will they not be contending for a very long time unless one of DeRozan or Bargnani accelerate their learning curve dramatically and become All-Stars, but they’ll be paying $53 million  over the next five years to one of the most over-rated players in recent memory.

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