With the Bryan Colangelo extension likely to happen let's take a look at the BC era here in the T-Dot...
2006...The Toronto Raptors win their first division title in franchise history. That was the first time a Canadian-based NBA team had won a division title...now Bryan Colangelo is given the keys to run the franchise...what sort of upswing path did he put the Raps on?!?! Let's take a look at the successes (mostly failures) of the BC era...
When BC took over the franchise in 2006 there were likely 7 franchises in the entire Association that had a brighter outlook than the Toronto Raptors...San Antonio and the Cavs made it to the NBA Finals (players like LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli, and Tony Parker all elite even then)...Detroit still had their core together from their 2004 Championship squad...Utah had Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur, Matt Harpring, and very young talent like Deron Williams/Paul Millsap/CJ Miles/Ronnie Brewer...Phoenix had Amar'e, Nash doing their All Star thing, and young Leandro Barbosa and The Matrix Shawn Marion combining for 36 points per game...Dallas had Disco Dirk, Jason The Jet Terry, and young talent like Josh Howard and Devin Harris...Houston had Yao and T-Mac and remember in 2006 these 2 had significant relevance in the Association...
5 years later that list of 7 has grown significantly...25 teams in the NBA currently have a better record this season than YOUR TORONTO RAPTORS...4 teams (only) are stacking more L's these days...and of those 4 (Cleveland, SacTown, Minny, Washington) I would rather have the roster of 3 of them rather than the Raps...
Washington has a future All Star in John Wall...also other young talent like JaVale McGee, Nick Young, Al Thornton and Jordan Crawford
Minnesota stacks L's at an amazing rate, but their future does look bright with Ricky Rubio (likely to come from overseas next season) Mr Double-Double Kevin Love (K-Love currently averaging 21 points and 16 rebounds per games...wow wow wow), plus a lot of young high-upside potential players...Luke Ridnour and Darko Milicic each are 7 year NBA vets, but the rest of the roster is extremely young and has potential
Sacramento has 2 future All Stars in Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins, plus a lot of young talent like Omri Casspi, Marcus Thornton, Francisco Garcia, Jermaine Taylor, and Jason Thompson...
The only roster in the NBA I like less than the Raps may be Cleveland...and even the Cavs have 2 Lottery Picks in this upcoming draft so even they are about to infuse youth and talent to their roster...
The best Raptor in the BC era has been Chris Bosh...BC did not draft Bosh, and of course he completely mis-managed the Bosh situation by not trading him when the value for return assets was there...the best draft pick of the BC era has been Andrea Bargnani...many Raptors fans disagree, but I am a Bargnani fan and I like his upside...teams do not have an answer for a 7 foot shooter like Andrea...problem of course is that Colangelo has struggled mightily to put pieces around Bargnani...in the BC era we as Raps fans have held out hope, and then said goodbye to the likes of Jamario Moon, TJ Ford, Rasho, Juan Dixon, Primoz Brezec, Linton Johnson, Maceo Baston, Darrick Martin, Jason Kapono, Jake Voskuhl, Roko Ukic, Willie Soloman, Patrick O'Bryant, Quincy Douby, Marcus Banks, Nathan Jawai, Hassan Adams...a ton of yikes there...high profile moves like Jermaine O'Neal, The Matrix, Marco Belinelli, Jarret Jack, Hedon't Turkoglu all were disasters too...
I like the drafting of Ed Davis and DeMar DeRozan the past 2 years, but I ask you how do you see those moves? Do you give BC credit for adding 2 future starters for this organization? Or do you think that any GM would have taken these players if they were available as late as they were in the 1st rounds?!?! The former is a W for BC...the latter means anyone could have made those picks so no credit for you BC...
I also like bringing in Sonny Weems and Amir Johnson...jury still out on Reggie Evans and Linas Kleiza (injuries)...I don't think BC's most recent acquisitions of Jarryd Bayless, Alexis Ajinca, and James Johnson will be franchise-altering (I do like James Johnson though)
BC was humiliated not once, but twice this past offseason by trades and FA signings he wanted to do that were ultimately squashed...to this day I find it unforgivable that BC did not know the NBA rules and thus the sign-and-trade of FA Matt Barnes was rescinded by the NBA...ridiculous BC...
Also unforgivable for me was the trading of Jermaine O'Neal and that massive contract for Shawn Marion...the Raps should have kept that contract and used the significant $$$ when that contract expired to go after FA's in this past summer-o-fun in the NBA...instead BC orchestrated it so he would have $$$ to spend the year before...you know the year where Hedon't Tukoglu was the best FA available (Good Lord)...BC has said himself that the organization may never recover from that major tactical error
While we are talking about things that I cannot get past with BC, let's touch on the Head Coach situation...To fire Sam Mitchell is one thing that you can debate as far as justified or not, but to have Jay Triano as his replacement is ridiculous...Triano is not an NBA Head Coach...to have him under contract to do so is uninspired...when Triano is finally fired we will all note that he will never be an NBA Head Coach again (great assistant, but not the guy to run the show)
The monstrous hole on this roster as far as being able to provide toughness and consequences in the paint that existed when BC took over 5+ years ago remains every bit as problematic...JP Riccardi was the Jays GM for 7 years and he never was able to get the organization on the right track at SS or C...same here for BC and getting talent for the low post...
For me personally when BC gave FA $$$ to Jason Kapono a few years back I lost my faith in him right there...It was actually Chuck Swirsky who talked me off the ledge of creating a Fire BC campaign (like anyone would listen to me, but still!)...now there is no way on God's green earth that I would ever suggest that I know more about basketball than the Swirsk, but he gets to watch sensational b-ball these days in ChiTown while we as Raps fans play the role of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day...same lame roster moves over and over again by BC and his bwoy Maurizio Gherardini...3 playoff wins in 5 years...not 3 playoff series wins (which still would be bad), but in fact 3 games...pathetic IMO...
Why on earth is MLSE looking to extend BC?!?!
Send me your thoughts on this, or any other blog entry... craig.ballard@hotmail.com
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