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Have you ever noticed that if you remove one of the Ns from "Bargnani" and re-arrange the letters, it spells "Bargain?" I hadn't realized this until this morning when I found out that Andrea Bargnani has agreed to a five-year extension with the Raptors for an estimated $50 million.
I haven't always been Bargnani's biggest fan — particularly during the entire 2007-08 season and the first half of last season — but the 23-year-old earned this contract with his performance from December 31 onward. Why December 31? Just check his game log from that date onward and you'll see that a switch was flipped in our tall paisano.
From that game until the end of the season (47 games in all), Bargnani averaged 19.1 points, six rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game with a .469 FG% and a .435 3P%. Those aren't All-Star numbers, but they're pretty damn good. Add in the fact that he's seven feet tall and only 23 years old, and $10 million per season seems about right to me.
There are undoubtedly detractors who will say that Bargnani hasn't really proven anything yet over an entire season and Colangelo should have waited until his contract was up in 2010 before making an offer. The problem with that logic is that if Bargnani develops into a 20-and-7 guy next season — which is certainly within the realm of possibility considering how he played in the second half of last season — then $10 million a year isn't going to cut it anymore and the Raptors will be competing with a bunch of teams with capspace.
There's no question Bargnani still has work to do on his rebounding and defence — there really isn't any excuse for a seven-footer to grab only 6.1 rebounds per 36 minutes like he did last season — but he's made sigificant strides since his horrible sophomore season and brutal first half of last season. He's become a legitimate offensive threat with his talent for raining threes combined with his newfound ability to back down smaller players in the post and dribble-drive past slower players his own size.
Will he ever be an All-Star? It's not that much of a reach when you consider that there really aren't any other centers in the Eastern Conference besides Dwight Howard with the ability to average 20 and 7. And when you look at it that way, $10 million per season for a potentially perennial All-Star is actually a pretty sweet deal. 
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