The facts:
Belinelli, 23 year old SG, Going into 3rd NBA year
George, 32 year old SF, Going into 11th NBA year
Contracts:
Belinelli owed $1,547,640 in 2009-2010, Team option for $2,380,270 in 2010-2011
George owed $1,600,000 in 2009-2010, FA in 2010
Read between the baselines:
The contracts are matched up and the YEARS are almost the same. George will be a free agent next year and it will be up to the Raptors to decide if they want Belinelli for a 2nd year in Toronto; if not, they can turn him lose to the hyped free agent class of 2010.
Belinelli is a SG and could probably start alongside Jose Calderon, Hedo Turkoglu, Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani. Other players who can play SG on Toronto are: Demar DeRozan (Rookie from USC), Hedo Turkoglu (A Guard/Forward), and Roko Ukic (2nd year player form Croatia). Scouting reports from HoopsHype on Belinelli: "Great outside shooter, good athlete, great leaping skills, good ballhandling skills, very coordinated, should attack the baseket more, not very strong." Barring any other pickups or trades, I'd say Belinelli has a great chance at being inserted into the starting lineup.
George is a SF and if you know the Goldenstate Warriors, they have a lot a lot a lot of swingmen SG/SF type players. These players include: Kelenna Azubuike, Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, and Anthony Morrow. The Warriors usually play a lot of swingmen at once and have Brandan Wright, Anthony Randolph in the mix as well. I can only assume that with a starting lineup that may look something like: Monta Ellis, Steven Jackson, Corey Maggette, Anthony Randolph, Andris Biedrins with any of said athletic swingmen, Devean George will get minimal playing time and may get lost in the shuffle.
HoopsHype's take on George: "A good role player, plays good defense and is a decent rebounder for his position. His outside shot lacks consitency. Mediocre ballhandling skills."
The Warriors could always use more defense. Last year during the season, they ranked 28th out of 30 in Defensive Efficiency giving up 110.1 points per 100 posessions. Compare that to Orlando who ranked first giving up 98.9 points per 100 possessions. Devean George could provide some above average defense on some of the opponent's better offensive threats. Devean George was known as a good defender in his championship Laker days, but that was 7-9 years ago. Does he still have it? In his last two years on Dallas, he's average only a little bit over 15 minutes a game. He'll probably get the same amount of minutes on Goldenstate. That being said, he WILL be an upgrade in defense over Belinelli.
Some more facts: The Warriors have a lot of guards/shooting guards with the addition of Stephen Curry and Acie Law to go along with Monta Ellis. Perhaps they decided that Belinelli was the oddman out but I can't help but think they could have gotten something more than Devean George. Unless of course, they honestly think he can help their defense on the wings.
Those are the facts. And that's one way to read between the [base]lines.
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