Step 2 - Making Changes - More on Bryan Colangelo's Future with the Raptors

Re-signing Amir Johnson was a must considering the team didn’t know what it would get from Reggie Evans or Ed Davis, had struck out on Tyson Chandler, and sorely needed some rebounding and shot-blocking beside Andrea Bargnani.

Amir Johnson was signed 11 days before the Chandler trade was attempted, and rumors leaked out. It was a couple more days before the trade fell apart. He is a good, young, developing player who has shown improvement every year he’s been here. Don’t know what else you want from an eye to the future point of view. He rebounds and shot-blocks, not to mention scores very efficiently – these are reasons to sign any player, not reasons to dismiss the signing as a short term fix.

Moving Hedo was also a no-brainer…

Moving Hedo was a no-brainer. But the return could easily have been an Arenas or Rashard Lewis with a long and massive contract – instead a deal was found and consummated that saw a useful piece with a shorter contract return – as such clearing future cap room with an eye to the future.

Wright one could argue was indeed a move made with an eye on the future, but remember that Marco Belinelli was hardly a 10-year vet. No, I’d say this move was made out of positional need (remember, the Raptors essentially had no SF with Hedo being shown the door) than a need to rebuild for the future.

The Julian Wright deal, at least in my eyes, was a low-risk, high reward situation. Colangelo had Belinelli on the team to evaluate up close, didn’t like what he saw (neither did I, to be honest), and traded a young player with (as he saw it) limited upside for a young player with unknown upside. These sorts of deals are made only with the future in mind, as it is a gamble based on potential. Also, at the time of the deal, the Raptors had signed Kleiza, and had Weems and DeRozan as potential backups at the three, since Barbosa was set to play the 2, and Jack was still with the team (and of course, Belinelli, up until the trade). As such, there was no gaping hole at the 3. In fact, your suggestion that not having a ‘true 3’ is pretty much void, considering this team’s recent penchant for playing tweeners at all sorts of positions – Hedo was a 3-4, Jack, Beli, Barbosa, Bayless are 1-2s, DeRozan, JJ, and Weems can all play both wing positions, Bargnani has been playing C, when he may well be a PF (who knows at this point). Even Amir was a bit of a 3-4 coming into the league. Besides Ed Davis and Jose, do we even have a ‘true’ anything on this roster?

And the Linas Kleiza signing?

This one was made firmly on improving the team in the short-term, a stop-gap if you will with only Julian Wright as a true 3 on the roster.

I agree that the Kleiza deal was more of an impact-now deal, but he was a player the GM liked, and got signed to a fairly reasonable deal (honestly I was surprised how reasonable it was – definitely an improvement from BC in that area) – unfortunately, injuries caused some issues with his play even before he went down for the season. He underperformed to be sure, but I’ll wait on his return to shape before I judge that deal too harshly – the biggest detriment to his contract right now is his serious injury, and injuries can happen to anyone.

Oh…and of course, the big fork in the rebuilding season potato comes from the fact that during out time at the Raptors’ pre-season media session Colangelo refused to call this season a “rebuilding one.”

Ummm… he’s gotta sell tickets. People don’t want to hear that the team is rebuilding. Even if the illusion only lasts for a quarter of the season, and the hoi pilloi figure out that ‘retooling’ means rebuilding, the more early ticket sales the better. If he had no one signed on the roster, and planned to play a bunch of promising 5-year-olds until they developed into superstars, he STILL wouldn’t come out and say he was rebuilding during preseason – that’s front gate suicide.

I thought the Pistons had already claimed both second round picks from the Delfino trade but going over recent draft history, apparently not.

So Toronto has only their lottery pick to use this season, which is a tough pill to swallow considering this is definitely a year where a ruby (not diamond) in the rough could land in the early second round.

In response to comments here and in previous threads I’ve read and this article along with previous ones…

1. We have been willing to judge BC poorly based on the fact that the team HE put together produced a 22 win season. Yes, 22 win seasons suck. However, if he had made a trade or a signing that put us at 35 wins, would we be saying he did a better job this season or a worse job? Judging a GM of a rebuilding team based on # of wins is ridiculous. Judging them based on the direction they’ve chosen? Much more appropriate.

2. I think BC is probably not into advanced stats like most of us, and takes stats like scoring average more seriously than he should, but I think we take tiny comments he makes way out of proportion. The Kobe comparison wasn’t the brightest one but everyone (including BC) knows that Derozan isn’t the next Kobe. In fact, his next comment involved something like, “I hope Derozan works on his 3-point shot. With his work ethic he could really be great. Do I think he’ll ever be an elite 3-point shooter? No. But I hope he’s listening to this and uses it over the summer as motivation.” It’s very evident he can see that Derozan can improve and should improve. He mixed in praise with constructive criticism. The Kobe comparison is being blown out of proportion.

3. The “Andrea can be a better rebounder” comment: Anyone in the world can become a better rebounder at any point in time. Especially when there’s so much room to improve. He didn’t say “Andrea will be a great rebounder”. He mentioned things about how rebounding is a “desire” issue and is related to effort. These are all sentiments we can agree with. I know there are games when I’ve seen Andrea play with more passion – defend better, rebound better, even take charges. Andrea CAN improve. Doesn’t mean he will – but doesn’t mean BC is lying to us.

4. This is an extension of my second point – BC probably uses stats like scoring average because the average fan can more easily relate to these things. It’s unfair to evaluate BC’s basketball knowledge based on press conferences. It is MORE fair to evaluate his basketball knowledge on his transactions. Some have been terrible, some have been great. You swing and you miss sometimes. For all we know there may not have been better deals available at the time of a certain signing, and inaction was probably not an option, given the fact Bosh’s contract was going to end.

5. RE: Derozan being taken earlier in the draft – Yes, he probably would have been. Your counterpoint was that a lot of players would also be taken earlier, but for the most part, they are all very good players. Grouping Derozan with them does not put him to shame.

I enjoy a lot of the things I read on this site and I respect the knowledge of a lot of the commenters and writers…your opinions are clear, and that’s fine, I just think it would be beneficial to see the other side of arguments.

If you’ve taken the time to read this, thank you lol