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The Watcher said:
Mike James might have had a career year, but he was a shoot first pg and a very selfish player who was just playing for a bigger payday. With T.J. Ford, Toronto gets an unselfish player that'll feed Bosh and Bargnani and then when other teams start to compensate with double coverage, T.J. can convert on his own.



Mike James was a shoot first point guard, but there's nothing wrong with a shoot first point guard. I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions held by most basketball fans(and some analysts, as well).

I watched him a good bit while he was in Houston, and I followed his boxscores last year as much as I could. I didn't see anything that made me believe he was "selfish". He took 15 shots a game. Hardly a grotesque total, especially given the number of minutes he had to play, and the fact that the Raptors were terrible last year(no offense, and by that I mean both that they were offensively inept, and that I mean no offense to you, a Raptor fan). He was an effecient scorer, he didn't turn the ball over, and his assist rates were respectable for a player who didn't have many quality finishers to pass it to.

T.J Ford is a terrific athlete and an exciting player when he's on...but he's an awful shooter, and a lot more turnover prone. Unselfish as he may be, there will be a big drop in production. It isn't a sure thing that Bargnani will duplicate Villanueva's stellar rookie season, either.

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And after watching Mike James for a whole season, I can tell you that it won't be long until Kevin Garnett complains to coaches about not getting enough touches.



Garnett isn't a player that needs the ball to dominate, so that's pretty unlikely. Actually, I bet he's ecstatic to have another scorer on his team. The poor guy has basically been playing alone out there almost his entire career Shockingly, the one year management did get some quality players around him, they went to the conference finals. Amazing what not having a supporting cast of spare parts will get you.

I don't think James will be nearly as good as he was in Toronto, though. His 2006 season had all the signs of a classic fluke year.

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.