Raptors send T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, and the no. 17 pick to the Pacers for Jermaine O'Neal's bum knee.  Word on the street is the rest of Jermain O'Neal will also be thrown in to sweeten the pot.  I like this deal for both teams.  Now we can go back to a league where only one center is jacking up 3's (Mehmet Okur) instead of two (Mehmet Okur and Andrea Bargnani).  For what it's worth though, Okur made more 3's last year than Nowitzki.  Interesting. 

I like this move for Toronto: They now have a second big who is not afraid to occasionally step inside the 3 point line.  Hopefully, this also signals an end to the Bargnani "experiment".  BTW, methinks Bargnani would be a nice fit in LA alongside Pau Gasoft.  Furthermore, they can now finally play their better point guard as their starters and can run him 34-38 mpg.  They lose the 17th pick in the draft and also had to absorb a ginormous salary.  But they will either have a 23 million expiring in 09/10 (bigger than our own 20 million expiring in that year).  Assuming they let him come off the cap, this gives them another 10-11 million in cap relief for the summer of 2010.  This becomes key if Bosh opts out and they don't give Bargnani the qualifying offer and sign no other players beyond 2010.  If all this occurs, they are on the books for a paltry 6 million with first dibs on Bosh.  Goodness.  We thought we were set for that summer.

For Indiana, they now have two starting point guards who each play about 40 games a season (Tinsley and Ford).  No word yet on if they're planning to move the 10 and 17th picks to obtain Livingston and fill out their starting point guard "rotation".  Also, it gets rid of O'Neal, which will likely make Pacers fan finally happy and break the last lingering link to the Pacers of old.  They also obtain another draft pick.  Good deal all around.

Another interesting result: the term "O'Neal's expiring contract" will be thrown around about 340384324823784932 times in 2009/2010 with reference to both our O'Neal and their O'Neal.  Five years ago, who wudda thunk it?