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Trade Ford? For what, to who and how?

Michael Grange, March 28, 2008 at 8:50 PM EDT

Really quick: Among the many comments and emails on Friday's column that the time had come to trade T.J. Ford were a few – understandably – wondering for what, to who and how. I can't claim any insight in this regard -- that's Colangelo's job, though off the top of my head the Heat might be looking for a good veteran point guard. Another scenario suggested to me was Donnie Walsh – who everyone is expecting to take the Knicks' president job – making a run at Ford for a team that needs a true point. For who? How about Jamal Crawford? If the Knicks end up hiring Scott Skiles as coach, it's unlikely Crawford would be well-received based on their days together with the Bulls in 2003-04, Skiles's first in Chicago and Crawford's last. The salaries match; the Knicks need a point guard. Crawford would give the Raptors an end-of-shot-clock scorer who can play both guard positions.

Stranger things have happened.

  1. Roger S from Canada writes: The sudden chorus of 'trading TJ Ford' from GlobeandMail, Toronto Star and Toron Suns are strange, I mean, those definitely can not be considered as favors to Jose Calderon. What they did is trying to help out Bryant Colango.
  2. andy c from Canada writes: shouldn't you be following the game grange?
  3. robert krizman from Canada writes: I think that Colangelo would want to move TJ to the western conference so that TJ doesn't come back and hurt the Raptors.

    Two teams that may need PG help and which might make sense are:

    1. The Clippers sign and trade Corey Maggette to Toronto for Ford.

    2. TJ and 1 of Kapono/Nesterovic for Chris Wilcox and 1 of Earl Watson/Luke Ridnour.

    Michael, does any of this make sense?
  4. Optimistically Cynical from Toronto, Canada writes: Come on Grange.

    Crawford is a chucker and plays very little defense. The guy would be a great option as a 6th man on a good team, IF, he was convinced to seriously reign in his shot selection.

    He's not nearly enough of an upgrade.

    I'd rather trade TJ for the 10th-15th pick in the draft and a trade exemption than do this.
  5. Ian Sorensen from Canada writes: Do us all a favor and give it a rest.
    Why don't you stick to your job and let Colangelo do his.
    I'm getting so sick of this anti-TJ movement within the Toronto media.
    Frankly, it's disgusting and completely unprofessional.
    Can't you think of anything else to write about?
    You do know that the playoffs are a couple weeks away, right?
    This team has bigger issues than what they might be able to get for TJ.
    And cut the guy some slack.
    He was the best player on the team and he goes down with a career threatening injury.
    He could have taken his millions and walked, but he risks paralysis to come back to play for this team and all he gets is grief.
    You should be ashamed of yourself.
    I used to have a good deal of respect for you, but these last few days you've shown your true colours, and they're not pretty.
  6. Guy MacPherson from Canada writes: Anti-TJ movement in the media??? After a season-and-a-half of the most uncritical cheerleading, it's about time! He was the best player on the team? What team are we talking about, because it sure wasn't the Raptors. Ever. He's an okay player, but nobody any team should build around. You can't just respect the media when they protect your favourite player then lose respect as soon as they start to look critically at his game. They should have been doing that all along.
  7. Roger S from Canada writes: Regarding TJ's valuation, the following is my post for other thread:

    So, New Orleans blew out TJ Ford's Toronto team. The plus/minus stats show stunning result:

    Past five games plus/minus
    ************************************
    TJ as starter:
    New Orleans TJ Ford -18 Calderon 14
    New York TJ Ford -3 Calderon 9
    Detriot TJ Ford 1 Calderon 10
    *************************************
    TJ as backup:
    Detriot TJ Ford -14 Calderon 5
    Cleveland TJ Ford -13 Calderon 6
    **************************************
    Average: TJ -9.4 Calderon: 9.2
    *************************************

    The result suggests that TJ Ford hurt the team and played loser's game for every minutes he was playing, no matter Ford as starter or backup. Even more, TJ Ford and Calderon were completely neutralized each other with average -9.4 vs 9.2 plus/minus points.

    Bench TJ and fire Sam Mitchell immediately.
  8. j k from Canada writes: Any of you media types going to have the balls to ask Chris Bosh why he is all hat and no cattle when it comes to the 'aggressive confidence' and 'tough defense' he likes to bleat about?
    He is still too passive and weak when confronted with REAL competition but now that he has called out his team mates, he looks even worse for being so ordinary...you want to be the big shot on a team, you'd better be better than ordinary when you play the big boys.
    Starting Kapono again brought back all the bad memories from the beginning of the year when Bargnani alone was thrown under the bus...
  9. Guy MacPherson from Canada writes: I think Bosh was including himself when he was being critical of the team. He didn't say only he was playing tough. I've heard Parker say the team didn't play aggressively, etc., after a loss, too. The implication being that he, too, didn't. Yes, there should be a follow-up: Why didn't you, as an individual, play aggressively, etc? But it's a common post-game comment. What else are they going to say? Don't read too much into Bosh's comment. Yes, he should be held accountable, too, but I think he knows that.
  10. j k from Canada writes: Bosh said 'when I give up the ball'...that was implying no one else stepped up....
  11. Guy MacPherson from Canada writes: Fair enough. And I think he's got to learn (or relearn) to not hang on to the ball for so long. He'll get his points naturally if he just moves the ball quickly and others will score easier, too.
  12. Tyrone Slothrop from Toronto, Canada writes: Grange, you've been a reasonable and thoughtful voice the Raptors since the debut of your blog (and, to be fair, probably before that, in print, but I didn't particularly pay attention to your 'voice' before your blog, as you wrote more news than opinion pieces), but I'm extremely disappointed with your knee-jerk 'Trade TJ' nonsense. The fact that Jose did something classy doesn't automatically make TJ expendible, or a locker-room cancer, or a player incapable of improving.

    TJ is a talented player who lost his starting spot due to injury, played poorly as a back-up, and now has his starting job back. For a variety of reasons not limited to Bosh's injury, the team's play of late hasn't been great, and TJ's flaws were magnified during a rough stretch a couple of weeks ago. Since then, TJ has largely returned to the in-control, speedy floor-general that we saw at the start of the season (remember those days? When you and Doug Smith were still in love with TJ?), and yet you want to ditch him.

    Your 'Trade TJ' column piece was half-baked and ignorant, and it's disappointing to see you continue. Either come up with some new arguments that actually have a shred of logic or evidence, or knock it off.
  13. Guy MacPherson from Canada writes: Oh, Tyrone... TJ lost his starting spot due to injury, true. But he was headed that way anyway. And many of us thought he should have lost it long, long ago. This idea that he was the star or the second star really was a figment of his own imagination. You say he's returned to being an in-control speedy floor general. Unfortunately that doesn't jibe with reality, but you're entitled to your opinion. He's more in control lately, but as a floor general he's not doing his job. The team is consistently being outscored when he's on the floor. You may say that's because he's playing against other starters, but the fact is the team was being outscored when he was coming off the bench, too. There's no other way of looking at it. Even last season when the team was winning more, the team would get in a hole when he was on the court, then Calderon's unit would come in and get the lead back. This isn't personal. The guy is a good guy. He's just not all that he thinks he is.
  14. Rob K from Oakville, Canada writes: Tyrone, how can Michael Grange's article be a knee jerk response. Michael has been a big supporter of TJ's talents. You have completely missed the points that Michael made in his article about why TJ needs to be traded, namely:

    1. TJ has said he's not prepared to be anything other than a starting PG.

    2. More importantly, TJ indicated that he won't be happy/accept a platoon situation where he plays 24-28 minutes and splits time with Calderon. How can he dictate what his playing time is - that is up to the team.

    3. It doesn't make sense for the team to invest so much money into 2 PGs.

    4. TJ is injury prone and it therefore makes sense that he be the one who is traded.
  15. Tyrone Slothrop from Toronto, Canada writes: Guy;

    All of your points are fair - we can agree to disagree on the relative merits of what TJ brings the table, but I don't think you're being unreasonable in your argument. I think Grange is though - I'll get to that in a second.

    Rob K;

    I think Grange's column was a half-baked response to Jose asking the coaching staff to go to the bench and reinstate TJ as the starter. In the narrative that MLSE constructed, Jose was the hero, so someone needed to be the villain, and Grange both pointed out the narrative and endorsed it. As you point out, Grange has long defended TJ. Obviously, he's come to the conclusion that he was wrong to continue defending him (not that journalists should necessarily be defending or attacking particular players, but they do, and here we are).

    In terms of the points that Rob K reiterates on Grange's behalf (unless Rob K actually is Grange, in which case he should stop risking his job to refute readers under another guise), those are the same points that have been made by pro-Jose/anti-TJ fans for over a year now. None of it is new. Grange's position is.
  16. Rob K from Oakville, Canada writes: Tyrone, the one key point which is new is TJ's suggestion that he won't be happy/accept a platoon situation. Also, the recent events/issues with TJ have had some effect on the chemistry of the team and inevitably the relationship between TJ and Calderon. I don't want to speak for Michael but I expect those points may have influenced his decision to support the decision that the team needs to consider a trade for TJ.
  17. Roger S from Canada writes: If a player was not started by coach, he just took all possible shots he can in 4th quarter in return, what are you going to do with him?

    Every organization should bench the player behaved like this. Unfortunately Raptors organization set a very bad example, instead, they reward him a starter position. Lose of moral standard will let this organization down.
  18. Vinthulan N from Canada writes: J.R SMITH OR MIKAEL PEITRUS. JR SMITH is fast n can play pg but mainly SG (very clutch) MIKAEL (blocker boards n can replacce BOsh really good)

    Crazty thing is that Mikael wanted to play in toronto
    btw KEEP JOSE n TRADE TJ!!!!

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