Colangelo Continues to Deal

You guys may want to check out Malcolm Gladwell's blog. He is one of the truly innovative thinkers of our time...a Canadian, a writer for the New Yorker and surprisingly, a huge basketball fan.

Bill Simmons devoted a whole story to him, and he recently posted the following on his blog.

http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/

It's very interesting.

Junk for Junk. The salaries basically balance out-don't worry about the roster spot, chances are the Raps will waive Whaley sooner rather than later (he's making almost no money.) Good luck to Hoffa, I hope he can rekindle his BYU fire down in Utah . . . (the only place he's ever received a standing o' in the NBA)

I now am beginning to understand the power of having Bryan Colangelo as the GM. He got not 1 but 2 players for Hoffa and cut salary!! Pure genious and im pretty sure Whaley will be waived either way they both come off next year i think. Humphries looked better last season than Hoffa did so overall i am thrilled to get rid of more memories from the Bbacock Era!

Why not keep Whaley and use him as a 3rd center...give gim a chance he is a big body with 5 fouls. a nice shot, I can see us keeping him. especialy when we get rid of E-will and A-will and al lthe players who we don't use. This was just a signal that Babcock was down to buisness. but Hoffa will lite it up in Utah becasue no one else is on the team to help out much other then Bozzer and Okur as big men. So Hoffa will come some PT next season and will probably step his game up.

I still had some sort of hope for Hoffa. At the end of the year with n opressure he started playing ok. Why not keep him around as a banger. A 2nd or 3rd center. THe guy had some pretty nice passes. I think i saw he avered 2 points and 3 rebounds per 12 min...if we gave the guy some time I would have been happy with 6 points 9 rebounds in 30 min.

All in all, i wish Hoffa the best. The fans here obviously got on him, and the pressure affected him. I also do not blame babcock as most do, because the team NEEDED a center. He drafted for position, not skill or potential. It just didnt pan out. If we always drafted by the best player available, then we would have a team like atlanta...and well, the records speack for themselves.

But this trade is a good thing as a move for BC. IT gets the fans on his side even more by getting rid of Hoffa, and it also proves that is looking for, and will make trades

Good luck Hoffa.

Hoffa was a project and more but he wasn't develped properly by the Raptors. There was no role model for him to learn from on the team and he should have been sent to the D-league along with Pape. When Colangelo finally brings in a solid centre, Hof would have someone to learn his position from. Someday he will be a useful back-up 5 in this league. Good luck Hof.

Does anyone who posts on this site know how to spell?
Copy your reply BEFORE posting to MS Word - F7 - copy the corrected version back here THEN submit.

I'm pretty excited. I never thought my grade 9 English teacher Mr. Ganley was a Raptors fan.

In response to scott, you are right that the Raps did need a center when Hoffa was drafted. But if I do remember correctly did we also not need a PG? You are right that skill was not involved in the selection criteria for that pick.

What was your other point?.."If we always drafted by the best player available, then we would have a team like atlanta".. If we assume that the Hawks current roster consisted of players post 1995 that THEY drafted. They could throw out:

Boris Diaw
Josh Childress
Jamaal Tinsley
Jason Terry
Alan Henderson

Bench: Dan Dickau, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith, Jumaine Jones, etc.

Seems to me that would be a pretty decent team (start whoever you want). I guess the point is that a good GM and the right coach goes a long way in the NBA. IMO with BC here, we are in good hands.

See ya later Hoffa, all the best back at home!

Not a bad trade. Hoffas was lost in our offence, defence, timeouts, everywhere for that reason. If Humphries can even provide 8 points off the bench he'll be a huge improvement.

You guys hear about that CV3 or first overall pick for Jamal and Mo Williams? Not sure if that's such a great move.

I'm getting on the Tyrus Thomas bandwagon, he's the truth.

what's this , a spelling bee contest. it's over kokstar.a girl from nj won it .

hoffa might still wind up a 1st class center with coach sloan's guidance.
the ballers colangelo got in return for hoffa are not good . why not trade him for wallace . hoffa got more tatoos than ben?

well 1 guy gone hoffa

now eric williams is next

any news on signing jaywilliams
if not any other free agents on the radar?

hoffa was the worst ever raptor in history

Other than Andre Iguodala, who else would you have drafted instead of Hof after the 8th pick? (Though I must admit, Andre would have been pretty sweet, and I was yelling at the TV screen for Andre, oh well... if Babcock could have only heard me)

Hoffa the worst Rap?

Umm Alec Radojevic? [We could have had: Correy Maggette, Ron Artest, James Pose, Andrei Kirilenko]

Michael Bradley? [We could have had: Brendan Haywood, Jamaal Tinsley, Tony Parker]

Chris Jefferies? [We Traded Tracy Murray + Rights to Kareem Rush (20th pick) for Lindsay Hunter and rights to Chris Jefferies] or we could have drafted Tayshan Prince or kept Rush

Interesting takes on who the worst Raptor of all time is. UStat you mentioned some bad draft picks but how about some of our free agent signings like the "Banger Brothers" and Nate Huffman. Yikes. And actually the Raps wanted Tayshaun but Detroit grabbed him before he fell to Toronto with the 27th pick they had acquired from the Lakers.

Well Franchise, as a season tix holder for 4 years (had to give them up 2 years ago.. couldn't take it anymore), we've seen some "BAD" Raptors!

Countless nameless guys like:
Kornell David
Rick Brunson
Jannero Pargo
Lloyd Daniels
Tim Kempton
Brad Lohaus

Then there was hype like:
Vincenzo Esposito (Another draftee I forgot)
Shawn Respert
Jimmy King
John Wallace

The Big men:
Mamadou N'Daye
Garth Joseph
Eric Montross
Lonny Baxter
Sean Marks
Jerome Moiso

Former Stars (which we didn't really get to see):
Hakeem Olajuwon
Rod Strickland
Lamond Murray
Alvin Robertson

Those that didn't show up:
Alonzo Mourning
Kenny Anderson

And the one that almost became the worst Raptor of all time:
Ed O'Bannon (COME ON FESS UP those of you that booed at the draft in 1995!)

So my vote as the worst Raptor (that you've heard of and may remember)... has got to be a tie between:

Vincenzo Esposito. Our first Vince and a big man who supposedly could shoot and bang a little in the NBA. Signed from Italy, he was supposed to solve our problem down the middle (notice the theme huh?). If Dirk was in the league then, I'm sure we'd compare Vincenzo to Dirk. Hello, welcome Andrea Bargnani? Grazie e andiamo Andrea! (No I'm not Italian)

And the tie is with another European 5 spot who was supposed to solve our big man issue: Aleksandar Radojevic. This 1999 12th overall pick, 7'3 Centre drafted from Barton Community college, played 12 games in Utah in 2004 and is now playing with Olimpia Larisa in Greece.

Really, the tie also goes to all the other big men that have come and gone (Moiso, N'Daye, Joseph, Baxter, Acie Earl)

So for all you Hoffa Hate-ahs out there, you have a short memory or are 4 years old because you're not old enough to remember that it's just Deja Vu all over again.

i still think huffa is the worst raptor and no im not 4 years old, huffa had so much playing time and so little stats and defensive stops, like come on rafer alston had more blocks then huffa last season, plus huffa had so many turn overs that were terrible and unforced