Donyell

Marshall

The Raptors could use him after their no-show loss to the Clippers last night. Don’t activate him until he has a game under his belt.

Marshall, who was placed on the injured list yesterday, is expected to be ready for next season.

Somebody has to be the odd man out in Toronto’s rotation, it’s just impossible to believe it’s Marshall. The 31-year-old could still start and average close to 14-and-10 for a lot of teams. You’d think Toronto would be one of them. He’s not worth a roster spot the way he’s being used.

Removing Vince Carter from the equation didn’t do enough to help Mitchell, apparently. “Whose minutes do you cut?” he asked. “We’ve had only two guys in the last few games who haven’t played and those guys haven’t done anything not to play. It’s not that they haven’t played well. We have a lot of guys who do the same things.” Mitchell’s first problem is his two best players - Jalen Rose and Donyell Marshall - are coming off the bench. He also appears uncertain as to whether the Raptors should begin playing for next season. As a result, Mitchell says looking at guys like Rafael Araujo, Matt Bonner, and Pape Sow is hard because Loren Woods hasn’t done anything to lose minutes, and Aaron/Eric Williams deserve to play (correction: HAVE to play to avoid a PR fallout from trading Carter). Sam needs to buck up and make some command decisions. The front office could help him know which way to go by making a decision on whether to trade Rose.

''It’s fairly active, but not any more than average,’' said Babcock. ''There are a lot of discussions going on, but the chances of anything happening out of those discussions are always slim.’' Babcock said he’s fine with keeping Donyell Marshall, whose professionalism will help the young players through a sure-to-be depressing second half, and who could either re-sign this summer, or free up cap space if he leaves. As for disgruntled Eric Williams, it’s not sounding like the interest is out there.

Marshall was one of the few Raptors to play well, also contributing three blocks.

The Bulls turned down the offer, but they still may be talking with the Raptors.

This possibility has appeared in papers in Toronto and Seattle. While it wouldn’t be the headliner of the day, it would be one of the more interesting deals. The Sonics covet Marshall for his back-to-the-basket power forward play, and the fact he was a college teammate of Ray Allen. Radmanovic has been compared to Detlef Schrempf, and like Schrempf may just need to find the right circumstance for him to break out.

Marshall’s injury apparently isn’t going to have any impact on his production.

Corie Blount started in his place and had nine points and 10 rebounds.