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It might not, on paper, look like a legitimate NBA championship contender, but Colangelo has to balance any deal for immediate improvement against the long-term financial grief a trade might cause. Taking on a long-term salary commitment when the team's finances are set up to create a chance to tweak the roster each summer would be folly given the need to keep that future flexibility. Colangelo has created a payroll that will give him leeway each summer to add a piece or keep someone whose deal will expire, moves he feels are more important to sustained success than making one big splash that may or may not work.

At least for the foreseeable future, it would be foolhardy for the Raptors to replace Calderon with Ford in the starting rotation.

Heat coach Pat Riley referred to Calderon as a "revelation'' in the wake of Toronto's dismantling of Miami and many NBA observers felt the Spanish sensation should have been an all-star selection.

With stable management and a young, improving team on the court, it can be said that the future of the Raptors never looked any brighter.

That said, we remember saying something similar when Carter and McGrady were leaping tall buildings, oh, about 500 games ago.

FIRST GAME

Nov. 3, 1995 -- Alvin Robertson hit a three from the corner to fittingly open the scoring for a franchise that has long relied on the 3-ball and the Raptors beat the New Jersey Nets 94-79 at the SkyDome.

And any concern that Ford might be shying away from contact as he returns to the basketball court after missing 24 games with a neck injury this season were quickly put aside as Ford kept hurling himself into the likes of Joey Graham or Jamario Moon, bouncing off and counting the basket and the foul more often than not.

It would be easy to figure that coach Sam Mitchell would love the extra time to work with his team. Of course, it would also be wrong to think that.

"We're used to playing every other day," Mitchell said yesterday. "The thing about practice is what do you do? You can't kill