"When we travel now, it's a little different, when we pull up to the hotel and there are hundreds and hundreds of people waiting, I'm not going to say it's like The Beatles, but it's different," Parker says. "You feel that excitement level where ever we go."

After three years of yeoman service with the Toronto Raptors , Parker landed in the catbird seat, signing a two-year, $5.4-million (all currency U.S.) deal with the Cavaliers to play alongside two of the most famous athletes in the world: Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James, and potentially ride all the way to an NBA championship. They'll be in Toronto for the Raptors' season opener, after playing the Boston Celtics tonight in their opening game. Former Raptors teammate Jamario Moon will be in town, too, as member of the Cavs.

"At the beginning it's like, there's LeBron and there's Shaq, but as you get to know them, like anybody you see - it sounds corny but it's true - they're just people," Parker said in a telephone interview. "They say funny things, they do funny things, they're not always right. ... I definitely feel like we're at that point where, yeah, there's Shaq, there's LeBron and you just go to work."

The Raptors are hoping that playing Hedo Turkoglu at small forward and some combination of rookie DeMar DeRozan and Antoine Wright at shooting guard will give them more than they got when Moon and Parker were on the perimeter for Toronto.

Parker is gracious enough to say the Raptors have improved - "top-to-bottom they're a better team" - but he'll be charged up to play his first game for his new team against his old one.

"I'm excited, it's like a free trip to a place where I called home for three years," he says. "It's exciting to go back and compete against your old team as well, but it's weird because I didn't play against very many of those guys."

The Air Canada Centre will be the sight of several homecomings this season. The flip side of Raptors president Bryan Colangelo's great roster makeover was that there's a Diaspora of recent Raptors spread around the NBA and - in a curious development - several of them have landed on teams with championship aspirations. This after being let go from a club that missed the playoffs last season and bowed out meekly in the first round the season before that.

Moon signed a three-year, $9-million deal with the Cavaliers to provide some defensive versatility. The Denver Nuggets, Western Conference finalists a year ago, added Joey Graham to their mix as a free agent and the former Raptor seems to have played his way into the rotation. In Dallas, Kris Humphries - sent to the Mavericks as part of the trade that featured Shawn Marion and allowed Turkoglu to sign in Toronto - was called the "surprise of the preseason, hands down" by Mavericks president Donnie Nelson and will see significant minutes as an energy player off the bench.

How does Parker explain the fact that players deemed not good enough for the 33-win Raptors have been picked up by teams where 50 wins is a near given and runs deep into the playoffs are expected?

Part of the reason, suggests Parker, is in the NBA, typically, teams go as far as their top players can take them. The role players that surround them are complimentary pieces that are counted on to add flavour, not provide the protein. In Cleveland, he and Moon are strictly role players on hand to help out O'Neal and James with the heavy lifting.

"For players like me it's all about getting in the right situation," says Parker, who is projected to start for the Cavaliers as Delonte West's mental health has been thrown into question after he was arrested last month driving a motorcycle with three loaded guns and charged in a domestic incident on the weekend. "When you're in the right situation you can seem a lot better than you actually are and when you're in a bad situation you can seem a lot worse than you actually are."

Parker may be being modest. The dead-eye three-point shooting, consistent defending and solid locker room presence he exhibited with the Raptors wasn't enough to lift the club to the NBA's elite, but to the NBA's elite - Parker also fielded serious inquiries from the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic in the off-season - those are exactly the qualities they need to support their superstar talent.

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TIPSHEET

Notes Raptors forward Reggie Evans looks no closer to returning to work. He remains in a walking boot and reliant on crutches after spraining the arch in his left foot on Oct. 14. Rosters had to be finalized last night by 6 p.m. EDT, but the Raptors still have a little flexibility. The next threshold in shooting guard Quincy Douby's make-good contract doesn't become guaranteed until Nov. 1. There is a possibility the Raptors could cut Douby and save themselves $600,000 (all currency U.S.), which would leave them about $2.4-million under the luxury tax threshold. With Marco Belinelli and Jack available to play minutes at shooting guard, Raptors president Bryan Colangelo might want to save the money and the roster spot to shore up his small forward rotation if an opportunity arises.

Next Cleveland Cavaliers at Raptors , tomorrow, 7 p.m. EDT

TV Score

Michael Grange