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What surprised me most about the news that the Raptors traded Jason Kapono to the Sixers for Reggie Evans was the fact that Bryan Colangelo actually found somebody to take Kapono off our hands. I maintain that he was the worst player in the NBA who played over 1500 minutes this season. I think we all felt a similar emotion when Colangelo traded Rafael Araujo to Utah for Kris Humphries and Robert Whaley in June 2006. But hey, you know what they say — one man's trash is another man's... well, Hoffa was still trash but the Jazz didn't know that at the time.
It's pretty obvious how this trade addresses a need on each team. Philly finished dead last in the league in three-point shooting this season — a full 12 percentage points behind the Wizards. Toronto's rebounding improved when Shawn Marion came to town but they were still 22nd in rebounding differential for the season. Kapono can definitely shoot and Evans can certainly rebound, so it's easy to see how this move makes sense for both sides.
Aside from the toughness and rebounding help Evans brings, his contract expires at the same time as Kapono's (in 2010) and offers a savings of around $2.5 million total. Whether he's the second or third PF on the team, I don't expect he'll average more than 15 minutes per game in Toronto because he's one of the worst offensive players in the NBA, so you're essentially playing 4-on-5 on that end when he's on the floor. Of course, Kapono is one of the worst defensive players in the league, so you could say it evens out.
Evans is a knucklehead and a thug (and a nut-grabber) but he understands his role and you certainly won't accuse him of over-estimating his offensive ability, Hump-style — Evans has averaged 5.7 field goal attempts per 36 minutes in his NBA career compared to 11.8 attempts for Humphries. And with his prowess on the offensive boards (his offensive rebounding percentage of 14.9% would rank seventh all-time — behind Jeff Foster and ahead of Popeye Jones — if he had another 4,935 minutes under his belt), he could prove very useful coralling wayward shots from the Raptors' myriad perimeter shooters.
Adding Evans to the rotation means that it's extremely unlikely that both Kris Humphries and Pops Mensah-Bonsu will be on the Raptors' roster next season. To be honest, I'm not convinced that Evans is better overall than either of them, but he's here now so one of the remaining two "hustle guys" is almost surely gonzo.
I'll close with a fun fact about Evans: On March 10, 2006, he had zero points and 20 rebounds for the Nuggets, against the Raptors. Since the 1986-87 season, he's one of only three NBA players to accomplish that weird statistical combo — Marcus Camby did it once in 2007 and Dennis Rodman did it seven times. 
Note: Join Tas Melas and I for the NBA Finals Game 3 liveblog on theScore.com at 9pm EST.
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