The deal's dead, apparently, and the proposed transaction sending Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal for T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, and the 17^th pick in Thursday's NBA Draft still had plenty of holes to it (Jermaine makes 21.3 million next year, T.J. and Rasho combine to make just under 16.7, and the salaries have to nearly match) even at it's peak, but it was a nice idea while it lasted.

The Indiana Pacers desperately need to rebuild. The team blew its chance to start over during the summer of 2006 when the cap situation was right ("we'll just re-acquire Al Harrington, that'll change things ...") and the trade value of certain players wasn't at nil ("I'm sure Jamaal will turn it around - on and off court!"), and the team has to get something for O'Neal while it still can.

I'm not sold on a 25-point guard with a big contract and a bum back being the best option, but at this point you might need to grab what you can get that doesn't include the words "Marbury" alongside the phrase "expiring contract."

On Toronto's end, the deal would have helped on so many fronts. Though the first you may have expected, it should be said, sits a few steps down the imagined list. Done in cur-sive.

Because the Raptors, contrary to what you might assume with the team's overall image and Chris Bosh pulling in but 8.7 rebounds per game, were pretty darned good at keeping teams off the offensive boards last year. And that's not a fact skewed by the team's slow pace, the Raptors did hold their own ... save for the playoffs.

Yes, Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic had their way with Toronto on the offensive glass last spring, and though the Magic and Raptors have created a budding rivalry over the last few seasons, teams should not be in the habit of making huge moves as a way to prepare for one potential playoff opponent.

That still shouldn't have stopped them from pulling the trigger, though, providing Rasho ended up as the second-best player Toronto sent away. I'm a Rasho fan, and I'm not underestimating him; but I do understand that trying to fill in the space between O'Neal's salary and the salaries that Toronto was sending out could result in an eventual bum move for the Raps. Either way, O'Neal's presence was needed.

Toronto was 14^th in defensive efficiency last season, and the team's biggest failing was its field goal percentage defense. Sure, the opposing mark of 45.8 percent landed Toronto at 15^th in the NBA, but that mark is rarely telling - you could give up 44 percent from three-point range, lose by 20 every night, and still bring that overall field goal percentage down a bit.

Naw, go with eFG, where the Raptors were a pitiful 23^rd in the NBA. That accounts for three-point percentage, and though the Pacers were last in three-point percentage allowed last season ... well, shut up. I had a point going there for a while.

Oh yeah, O'Neal missed most of the season. There's my point. Either way, the deal is more or less quashed for now, but it would have been nice to see it actually go through. The Pacers truly have to start rebuilding, the Raptors can move up a notch provided they add a defensive stopper at any position, and Jermaine O'Neal needs to start living life as a guy who only has to think about his own offense a few times a quarter. Not as a go-to guy.

This isn't to say O'Neal won't move on, and not to say Toronto won't either trade their 17^th pick somehow or move up in this week's Draft, but it makes sense that both Indiana and Toronto would think twice about the relative health of the two best players in this deal. Creaky frames like these just don't suddenly get better, and for good.

Does Toronto fall back on a similar deal that would bring Boris Diaw (for Ford) aboard? If that rumored deal went through, it would seem to signal that Toronto was abandoning all hope of being a balanced, great-offense/solid-defense club in favor of a brilliant-offense/rubbish-defense outfit. That's what sounds right, but Diaw can really lock down when his head's on straight. His head's never on straight, but ... BESIDE THE POINT!

Kurt Thomas helped quite a bit, but it's worth pointing out that before Thomas' injury in the last (only?) season that Diaw was playing smart, aggressive basketball, the Phoenix Suns were ranked second in defensive efficiency midway through the 2005-06 season. Just saying. He can block shots, move his feet, rebound, and help with the best of them. He takes charges, too, but I hate bigs who take charges so that's a demerit in this guy's coloring book.

On top of that, the Raps would get to keep Rasho (stop it) while clearing minutes and locker room headaches by officially handing the keys over to Jose Calderon. I can't see anything wrong with it, other than the whole "trading for Boris Diaw"-bit.

Tomorrow ...

Assuming Pat Riley hasn't traded for LaPhonso Ellis and Brian Grant, we'll go over the Miami rumors.