Toronto says it is cap move

[kevin lok <kevin.lok@lycosmail.com>]

http://www.thestar.com/editorial/raptors98/20000210SPT01_SP-YOUNG10.html

Toronto Star Sports:

February 10, 2000


Moving day in Toronto
It was out with the old and in with the new yesterday as the Leafs and
Raptors both completed major trades.
Damien Cox and Chris Young review the deals:

Raps deal youth, in Williams, for some savvy, in Workman
HAYWOODE WORKMAN: SEASONED
Sometimes, looks and reputation can be deceiving.
Take the Raptors, please. They have been followed by this ``young team''
tag for far longer than necessary or warranted.
They got older yesterday, shedding Alvin Williams and the conveniently
injured Sean Marks to the Boston Celtics. In return, at least nominally,
comes Danny Fortson - he's Gary Trent all over again, an undersized
(6-foot-7) power forward who will be a free agent this summer and is a
1-to-99 shot to be going somewhere other than Toronto.
It's Haywoode Workman, the fellow who came for nothing in a waiver
pickup long anticipated, who is the new elder, just turned 34 and thus
is their seventh thirty-something, and the latest to audition to be the
``1.''
The search for a long-term point guard, then, isn't over. Workman is not
the answer, but if he functions as a defender on bigger guards and as an
emergency starter like he did in Milwaukee last year, the Raps will be
happy. Williams is gone and for his sake, any move is better than none
at all. He was the yo-yo in the rotation, in fashion for only long
enough to go out again. Did he get respect? Well, Williams and Marks
were told about the deal yesterday afternoon, as they readied to get on
the team bus for the Palace in Auburn Hills and watched Workman board
ahead of them.
So long, fellas. Thanks for the memories.
In the bigger picture, the Raptors actually gain something.
Williams had one more season after this one on his contract, and that
$2.2 million (U.S.) or so that would have been owed him next year can
now be used toward free agents this summer - including Tracy McGrady.
 It now appears with this move that GM Glen Grunwald will pull out all
the stops to re-sign McGrady, including using all he can in terms of
money. Last night, Grunwald went so far as to call that his ``first
priority'' for the summer.
If the Raptors can re-sign McGrady it could cost them the maximum $5.3
million - and still leave them, thanks to Fortson's expired deal and
others, between $3 million and $5 million to go after a group of free
agent point guards that include elders like Tim Hardaway, Mark Jackson
and Avery Johnson, and younger or less experienced types such as Bobby
Jackson, Howard Eisley, Jacque Vaughn and Anthony Carter.
But just one minute. The Raps have never, ever signed a big-name free
agent like a Hardaway. They're going to have to show 'em the money, and
the respect and support and playing time they never gave Williams.
So it's this spring, with the playoffs, and this summer, with the
free-agent stakes, where the real success of these twin moves will be
measured.

Can the Raptors make the playoffs this year?

For now, the Raptors think they have what they want. In Milwaukee last
Saturday, Butch Carter stood against the wall outside the Toronto locker
room and talked about his own wish list for the post-all-star break
Raptors.
``I think we're only one good player away from being in second place (in
the east),'' he said. ``Those other teams ahead of us are just older.
Our biggest negative is immaturity.''
Carter has obviously read a lot of Kipling, who once wrote ``the measure
of our torment is the measure of our youth.''
He got his wish yesterday. The measure of Carter's torment just went
down a notch.
And for the Raps, his Raps, the stakes just got a little higher.