Eric Williams wants to be traded

And though the Raptors didn't need another twist in their sordid saga, Williams delivered a zinger last night. Frustrated that his playing time has diminished to zilch, the highly touted veteran acquired in the Vince Carter trade said that he has demanded a trade through his agent.

"I need to get out of here, man," Williams said before the Raptors' 110-107 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. "If I'm not going to be a part of this team, I can go anywhere else and help a team out. I can go to New Orleans and help them out."

"I thought I was going to be a part of something, but I really ain't a part of nothing," Williams said. "So I'm pretty much wasting my f---in' time ... You try to be a professional, but f--- professionalism."

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the NBA who'll say a word against Williams. He's the devoted father of his 10-year-old son Raquiesh, whose mother, Williams' one-time girlfriend, was killed along with two other women in 2003 in a tragedy that has left a man in jail facing 14 charges in connection with the deaths.

Williams eschewed more lucrative offers to sign with the Nets so he could raise his child in the familiar environs of the family's hometown of Newark. These days, Raquiesh, better known as Lil' E, is living with Williams' mother in New Jersey.

"I ain't on the court, and I'm away from my family," he said. "That's just doubled the (pain).

Link

He'd even rather be in New Orleans

WTF is wrong with the Raptors? First Rafer, now Williams...
And what happened to Zo?

lol @ Zo, he was never expected to come, he's chilling in Miami collecting his paycheck.

He's in the Raps injury reserve.

I guess you could call it that, he never actually came to Toronto, but yea, he's on the "IL"

Good on him. I know alot of players needlessly bitch and moan about their playing time or wanting to be traded or whatever, but Eric's actually got a legitamate reason.

Zo is doing the same thing Jimmy Jackson did except Zo wasnt penalize by the Raptors, he is just chilling and waiting on a phone call from another team lol

Well he's just chilling and hoping the Raptors trade him or buyout his contract and give him money to go play for someone else and try to win a championship.

Phoenix can make another pointless trade acquiring him

Tough love by the coach. Williams... you don't produce, you don't play....simple as that.

Williams has been crap since he came here. He had a few good first games, but he suddenly forgot how to shoot. No big loss if he's traded, maybe someone will be dumb enough to give us a couple draft picks for him. (hint*Phoenix*hint)

Well, that's what Toronto gets for trading an All-Star player for a bunch of scrubs and several draft picks that might not amount to anything.

If we consider Eric Williams out of the team for nothing (waived or traded for a 2nd round pick), that would make a trade with Vince Carter (25.6 PPG / 6 RPG / 5 APG since he's a Net) for Aaron Williams (0.7 PPG in 5 MPG as a Raptor), hum

Well, if we consider that the Raptors can get a 2nd round pick for Eric Williams, and get with that pick the next MJ, then we would be able to tell that the Raptors were the winners of the trade.

Well you're forgetting the two first round picks Toronto got in that deal. The Vince trade was mainly just addition by subtraction. The Raptors are much better off using the 30 minutes a night that Vince used to jog around and fake interest, and give them to someone who plays a team game and is more reliable in difefrent areas of the game, like Peterson or Matt Bonner.

As well, it's not like Vince is making a huge impact on the Nets. He's still just playing for himself, trying to get his shattered image back together. Even without RJ, the Nets should be a playoff team with Vince and Kidd. They have enough depth to get by, barely, but they won't because when you have a guy like Vince, who decides to focus on his scoring and nothing else, you get what the Nets have now, a team that will barely be .500 by seasons end, and still only scores 90 ppg and gives up about 94-95.

All the while, Toronto is scoring more than they did with Vince, and their defense and rebouding have gotten better. Not to mention the fact that without Vince, Bosh has the opportunity to take over and become the player he was hyped to be.

If we consider Eric Williams out of the team for nothing (waived or traded for a 2nd round pick), that would make a trade with Vince Carter (25.6 PPG / 6 RPG / 5 APG since he's a Net) for Aaron Williams (0.7 PPG in 5 MPG as a Raptor), hum

Vince wasn't going to put up those numbers as a Raptor, he could've put up 20-5-4 with more consistent minutes, and if he had played more home games with us, but when he didn't preform well early he didn't get the late game minutes. He was too up and down in his performances, he'd have a great effort game [vs Miami], then have a game like the 2nd game vs Portland this season where Derek Anderson killed him.

Even with him putting up just 20-5-4, it's obviously still better than what we recieved, but it happens. Too many Raptor fans want to just think it was a one sided situation, when he was here, he was a cancer and was causing all the locker room problems, and he leaves, and their's still problems. Everyone says the Raptors gave him all he wanted [contract wise], but also at first sign of an problem and injury, everyone from the media to fans went against him. The divorce was long coming from the previous years, and was jsut sparked by recent events, Carter was unprofessional about it [stupid too], but the Raptors have become the staple of unprofessionalism the last 2 years.

As well, it's not like Vince is making a huge impact on the Nets. He's still just playing for himself, trying to get his shattered image back together. Even without RJ, the Nets should be a playoff team with Vince and Kidd. They have enough depth to get by, barely, but they won't because when you have a guy like Vince, who decides to focus on his scoring and nothing else, you get what the Nets have now, a team that will barely be .500 by seasons end, and still only scores 90 ppg and gives up about 94-95.

Mmmm....If you haven't noticed, the Nets have been a +.500 team since Vince joined them, and with that crappy roster and just Vince and Kidd, that's impressive.

All the while, Toronto is scoring more than they did with Vince, and their defense and rebouding have gotten better. Not to mention the fact that without Vince, Bosh has the opportunity to take over and become the player he was hyped to be.

Define "better", our rebounding improved because Araujo started playing more minutes, and Bosh stopped being passive on the boards and started actually grabbing some rebounds. The defense has not improved at all, it's actually gotten worse with those constant 30 point first quarters. The offense has improved due to playing weaker opponents and having more
home games, the Raptors had the toughest November and December schedule in the league, out of 31 games, 2 6 game road trips, 18 games vs West, 21 games vs +.500 teams, and only 3 scrub team games: Warriors and New Jersey X2.Since then, out of 19 games, 6 vs West, 0 road trips, 9 games vs +.500 teams, and 6 scrub games: Bucks X2, Bobcats X2, Hornets and Warriors.

With Vince the Raptors scored 101.4 PPG at home and gave up 95.9 PPG [+5.5]. On the road 4.9 PPG and gave up 101.0 PPG [-6.1].

Without Vince the Raptors score 103.6 PPG and give up 99.8 PPG at home [+3.8]. On the road, 98.9 PPG and give up 106.5 PPG [-7.6].

The Raps played more games on the road than at home for the first 25 games of the season. With Vince we had 15 Road games and 7 Home Games. Without him we've had 15 home games, and 10 road games. The change hin team performance is all about schedule, not much else has changed apart from that and Bosh killing everyone in sight.

With Vince:
At Home: 5-2 [.714]
Road: 3-12 [.200]

Without Vince:
At Home: 10-5 [.667]
Road: 2-8 [.200]

*Their were 4 games where Vince was in T.O. but not playing, 3 home games and 1 road game, Raptors went 1-3, winning their only game on the road

Vince needed to go, but let's not try and justify the crappy trade, it wasn't good, I didn't think it was good when we first got it, and it's not looking any better now. 2 mid-first round picks for Vince aren't "super". Our Philadelphia pick will be between the 9th-12th or the 15th pick. If Philly makes the playoffs it will be 15th, if not it will be between 9th-12th, and hopefully 9th. Denver's pick is for next year, and they should be in the playoffs next season, so it will be about a 18-20th pick, or if they don't make it, a 12-14th pick.

What fgrep is saying is totally right. Vince needed to go, but you dont trade him for virtually nothing. It was a dud of a deal, and the could have at least attempted to get someone like Jamal Magloire in the deal, rather than two late first round picks. The only good thing i can think of comming from this deal is the progress Chris Bosh is making as the team's goto guy.

Mmmm....If you haven't noticed, the Nets have been a +.500 team since Vince joined them, and with that crappy roster and just Vince and Kidd, that's impressive.

Having Carter and Kidd on the same team is impressive regardless, and having Toronto still put up wins here and there without an All Star (Bosh is still improving, but he's not an All Star yet) is impressive as well.

I think Bosh right there as being an All-Star, he's been averaging like 20-9 on 48% shooting since Vince left. Jalen Rose has probably been our most important player offensively though, especially down the stretch in games. He's the only true "go to guy" on the team, when things broke down many games, he would be the one to come in and score 10 points in the 4th and hit the go ahead basket.

Bosh's development is the hidden surprise in the deal, apart from that, we didn't get anything.

Good on Williams.....hopefully he'll get traded, it'd be good for him. I take it a playoff team would be interested in his defensive skills.

There's no way there was a better deal on the table for an already injury-prone former star, who was currently injured at the time. I assumed that everyone already knew that the trade was always going to be for expirings and draft picks. They were never going to get someone like Marbury or Eddy Curry, more like Penny Hardaway or Othella Harrington.

The two draft picks will probably be either mid teens, or since they are lottery protected for next season, they eventually be lottery picks two or three years down the road. With these picks they can do what teams like Boston or Atlanta have done over the past few seasons with the multiple picks they picked up, adding more depth and young talent.

Out of the last three games, Eric Williams only played one of them, and in this game he came to 5 minutes. 19.9 minutes per game in Toronto, compared to New Jersey (this season) 35.2 minutes per game, and even when he came off the bench from Boston he played much more. But why the fuck didn't Sam Mitchell let him play the last two games?

In my opinion, it is the best for him to get as fast out of Toronto as possible. Would be nice to see him back in Boston, as a replacement for Walter McCarty.

The two draft picks will probably be either mid teens, or since they are lottery protected for next season, they eventually be lottery picks two or three years down the road. With these picks they can do what teams like Boston or Atlanta have done over the past few seasons with the multiple picks they picked up, adding more depth and young talent

Well their not neccesarily lottery protected, Philly's is Top 8 protected, so the best case scenario would be for them to not make the playoffs and have the 9th pick, I'm crossing my fingers for that one

Denver's is Top 12 protected, again best case would be no playoffs next season and 13th pick, not too sure if that one will happen though.