HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

One of the names most often cited as likely to be moved at this year’s NBA trade deadline is that of Toronto Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani. His inability to keep pace with the Dwane Casey offense and his lack of defensive intensity had him looking out of place long before an injury took him out of the lineup. Several rumors have surfaced involving Bargnani, including a Carlos Boozer swap with the Chicago Bulls, but Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo also isn’t ruling out the possibility that Bargnani could grow to fit the team after all. He had the following to say to USA Today Sports’ Sam Amick:

“We began this year with Bargnani as our No. 1 scoring option. He’s now No. 3 because Rudy has arrived and DeMar (DeRozan) has emerged. Now Bargnani is No. 3. There’s talk about possibly moving him – and again we’ve talked about it, not for talent reasons but because maybe sometimes a change of scenery is the best thing for somebody. But sometimes a change of scenery can happen just by redecorating the room.

“That has happened with our situation here, in that Bargnani goes out with an injury, we make a fairly significant trade, which changes – really – the complexion of the team in two ways. It takes a pass-first, controlled point guard in Jose (Calderon, who was traded from Toronto to Memphis to Detroit in the deal) out of the lineup, it thrusts Kyle (Lowry) back in – where we had intended to have him. And you bring in Rudy, who clearly is a No. 1 scoring option, and DeMar has emerged.

“All of a sudden the outlook and the presence of a guy like Andrea is entirely different now. He’s not relied on as a No. 1 guy. He has never been paid like a No. 1 option, but people wanted to criticize that he couldn’t handle that role. I’ve always felt like he’s been slotted in salary-wise as a No. 2 or No. 3. Maybe he’s kind of fitting in nicely now.

“If a trade doesn’t occur before the deadline, or even this summer, maybe it’s because we figured out that with the evolution of the team he is the right guy to be a part of this team. He’s been through the hard part. This may be the easiest part ahead of him.

“I would say (the situation) is fluid. There may have been an outright cry (to trade him) externally, whether from the media or the bloggers, to make a deal. But internally, we’ve always said that we recognized that a change of scenery may be helpful for him and maybe beneficial for us. But we always recognized the talent, and I believe that – in some of the trade discussions I’ve had – the market recognizes the talent. And we didn’t want to do something just to do it.

“If a deal presents itself that makes sense, we’ll go ahead and move. I would say that, had he not injured himself early, it would’ve been much more likely that something would’ve happened. By virtue of him getting injured and returning with a handful games left prior to the trade deadline…there just may not have been enough runway prior to the deadline to get something.

“That’s not to say all those conversations are completely done right now, and again I’ve had open dialogue with his agent and Andrea acknowledging that maybe it is the best thing to happen. I’ve said, ‘There’s no lock that this is going to happen, so we need to make the most of it in either case.’ If he stays, he’s got obviously a new outlook with the acquisition of Rudy – the changing landscape, if you will. Maybe we find out that it’s the best thing for him and for us.”

It could be that Bargnani as a number three options works out better for the Raptors than dealing him ever could.

— Bill Ingram