ideal lineup

I've been saying "trade Vince" for nearly two years and finally people are agreeing with me. It all started when my housemate foolishly suggested that Vince was better than Kobe Bryant. Imagine that -- at some point people actually thought Vince was even in the same league as Kobe Bryant!

Then I suggested Steve Francis was better than Vince, still no one believed me.

Then I thought Ray Allen was better than Vince, once again, no one believed me.

A man once said "Vince Carter: Half man, half amazing". Then another man changed that to "Vince Carter: Half man, half season". Today I say "Vince Carter: Half-ass".

Look at how far Vince has fallen, down to the point where he is equated to the lowly Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Shareef will produce as well as Vince, in fact a lot better numbers, but Shareef is a life-time choker. He is the last player you want shooting the ball when you need to score.

But the beauty of these trade talks and the reason I hope they come true, it because Shareef's contract ends this season, along with the fact that we rid ourselves of Jalen Rose's massive overpaid contract. It means we clear cap space and in the offseason we start building around the real star of our team, Rafael Araujo.

Okay so I'm kidding, of course I mean Mr. Chris Bosh.

This is how I would like to see the Raptors spend their money for next year:

C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas
PF: Chris Bosh
SF: Morris Peterson
SG: Michael Redd
PG: Rafer Alston

Signing Ilgauskas will be the biggest key to next season. Toronto has a huge serbian population that will get Ilgauskas enough reason to want to come here. I would venture to say that Toronto's Serb community is the largest outside of the Serbian countries, similar to our Chinese community. A starting frontcourt of Ilgauskas and Bosh will promise ourselves a playoff team for the next decade.

Michael Redd is an underrated player. He is basically a poor man's Ray Allen, only younger. He, like Ray Allen, does it all but doesn't have back problems. In fact, he was the reason Milwaukee was willing to trade Allen away to Seattle in the first place.

There are many possibilities at the shooting guard that we can take. All we need is a player who is capable of scoring 25 points, only need him to give us 15. The potential for 25 is all we need, in case Ilgauskas or Bosh have a bad game here and there.

Yes kids, this is a dream lineup for us, but I think we can do it with the right incentive and motivation.