The ways we have of statistically measuring defensive play aren’t great, but O’Neal excels in virtually every area. He’s an excellent defensive rebounder, he blocks a ton of shots, and surprisingly he draws a lot of charges. To block a lot of shots and draw a lot of charges is rare, and says a lot about a player’s ability to rotate over in help. He also does all that while usually drawing the opposing team’s best post player, and while carrying a huge load on offense every night. In addition, his on/off court defensive splits have been extremely good the last few years, despite having an excellent defensive player (Foster) backing him up.

One thing though… since when is Jermaine O’Neal such a good defender?

The guy has never even received one DPOY vote. He has never made an All-Defense team. Why is he good defensively? Because his “defensive rating” is good? I saw a stat on 82games.com where it had him ranked high as a defender. Interesting, I said. Then I saw JAMAAL TINSLEY was rated the top defensive guard. Ron Artest and Jeff Foster were on the list too. Logic says the Pacers were good defensively as a unit, and as a result of that, all of the players received recognition as strong individual defenders.

I can’t remember watching him play D and thinking he was above-average at it. Then again, I feel like decades have passed since I last saw him play.

The fact is, the Raptors were good with Ford, then they played better when he was injured, and then they played terribly when he came back and didn’t want to take a back seat to Calderon.

You could even argue Ford is addition by subtraction with the way he pouted through the end of last year, but I’m not necessarily going to go that far. However, they traded from a position of strength to get a position of need.

I, also, have never liked O’Neal. I think he’s been overrated and misused for the majority of his career. He’s not a guy who can be the main offensive weapon on a team, he’s just not efficient enough. However, he doesn’t have to be that on the Raptors with Bosh around, and the difference between he and Randolph is that O’Neal is a fantastic defensive player. You can contend with a great defensive center, you can’t contend with a guy like Randolph.

btw, Parker is no worse than plenty of starting 2 guards on playoff teams. Michael Finley, Raja Bell, Keith Bogans/Mickael Pietrus, DeShawn Stevenson, Morris Peterson, none of them markedly better than Parker.

btw btw, 43 wins makes the playoffs in the East this year, write it down and mail it in. The last time 43 wins in the East wasn’t good enough for the playoffs? 1997. The East is better this year, but not that good.

What I see is a .500 team that basically swapped one talented but often-injured point guard for an overrated often-injured big man. I don’t see a nine-game improvement in the win column because of the Ford-O’Neal swap. I don’t.

Then again, I like Ford, dislike O’Neal, think Calderon is overrated (low ceiling for sure), dislike Bargnani, think Parker is a seventh-man, don’t care for Sam Mitchell, etc.

I think the fact the Raps had two strong point guards was the reason why this team OVERACHIEVED.

I say 43 wins, tops, this season. I don’t think they’ll make the playoffs.

Don’t kid yourself about O’Neal–he’s good on an irrelevant Zach Randolph-type level. He is not a difference-maker.

On the flip-side, let’s look at what Toronto gave up to get him: TJ Ford. While I wish him luck in his future endeavours and feel that he very possibly will fit in well somewhere, I would have traded him for a bag of used basketballs. With all the focus on O’neal’s knee, everyone seems to have forgotten that TJ Ford BROKE HIS NECK! After publicly stating he would retire from basketball rather risk his health, he came back to the team a cancer. He wouldn’t come off the bench. He was unhappy sharing ‘his’ minutes with near-allstar Calderon. He jacked wild, out-of-control shot after wild, out-of-control shots. He tried to -be- the offense instead of running the offense, like a point guard should. And he went public with his discontent, which turned out to be the final straw in the ‘team first’ environment that Collangelo is building. Bottom line on the trade: While both TJ and O’neal could be considered risks, the Raptors took the risk shoring up where they needed it in the defensively-minded, reboundingcentre instead of where they didn’t, at the point where they had depth.

Ford is the flashier player, Calderon is the better player. They lose some depth from losing Ford, but Calderon will play 5 more minutes a game or so and make up for most of that.

O’Neal will probably miss his fair share of games, but he’ll make a huge difference on the defensive end. He’s a perfect fit for this team because of everything he brings to the table as a defender. All the Raptors need is about 60 or so games, and to be healthy during the playoffs. Anything more than that is icing on the cake.

Starting five is: Calderon, Parker, Moon, Bosh and O’Neal. Factor in the games Bosh and O’Neal will miss. This is a weak squad, .500 at best. Losing TJ Ford will hurt–he’s really a money player.