Who Ya Got: The Raptors’ Andrea Bargnani Or Suns’ Channing Frye?

May 25, 2010, 5:07 PM UTC

Over at SB Nation’s Raptors blog, they’ve put together a pretty excellent look at Andrea Bargnani, the former No. 1 pick, and likely the team’s best offensive weapon next year (assuming Chris Bosh moves on). The simple question that underpins much of the discussion: How good is he?
To answer the question, they compare Bargnani to the Suns’ Channing Frye—a seven footer with similar range and production—and ask a number of SB Nation bloggers to choose, before leading their own breakdown with the help of synergy sports. It’s really good, intensive analysis, and you should check it out in full.

Some more thoughts and excerpts after the jump.

Obviously this isn’t a good time to be touting Channing Frye, who’s currently shooting 1-20 in the Western Conference finals, but remember: He makes only $2 million, where Bargnani is currently headed for a $50 million extension. Raptors HQ summed up the discussion among various SB Nation writers:

From the discussion, I think it’s safe to say that the masses reached the following conclusion; they’d rather have Bargnani all things being equal, but Andrea’s current contract doesn’t provide the value that Channing’s does, and combined with Toronto’s other mess of contracts, it looks even worse.
In addition, the blogger discussion did nothing to dissuade me from my original belief regarding the Bosh/Bargs frontcourt pairing...it ain’t gonna work. A closer look at his offensive game last year, using Synergy Sports’ technology does nothing to disuade that notion.

And while I don’t have much to add beyond what’s said in the article—my take: “Bargnani’s bad enough on defense to cost you some games, but not good enough on offense to win you some games”—I will always maintain that “Andrea Bargnani” sounds like an smoking hot Italian supermodel, and for that reason, the “real” Andrea Bargnani will always be a letdown.

It’s not about Andrea Bargnani vs. Channing Frye, it’s Andrea Bargnani vs. someone like model Andrea Lowell... And there’s just no way he’ll ever win that battle.