The Raptors appear likely to miss the playoffs for the fifth straight season, and there are questions about whether GM Bryan Colangelo, who has presided over all five lottery trips, will be back after his contract expires this summer. Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, as part of his leaguewide roundup, shares thoughts from Colangelo on the state of his team. The GM takes an optimistic tone, one shared by his key acquisition this season.
"Since I’ve been there, I’ve loved it," Rudy Gay said. "It’s been great. The fans are great, and it’s a great organization. I love it so far. Instead of complaining about it, you’ve got to embrace it. It’s by far not a bad situation."
Here's what Colangelo had to say:
On the rebuilding process and patience regarding a Jose Calderon trade:
“We started a process two and a half years ago when Chris (Bosh) left, and rebuilding’s not fun, not for the faint of heart. But you know, you take these steps and you try to put yourself in a position to make steps. I think by virtue of us being real patient and strategic the last couple of years, this past summer we had a chance to pick up Kyle (Lowry) in a deal, and we had a chance to follow it up with (Gay). That doesn’t happen if we had done something differently with Jose last year."
On the team's improvement:
"You’re talking about a team that’s really young. You’ve got a changing dynamic, you’ve got new faces. Right now, there’s a little bit of a settling-in process for everyone to kind of understand what we have. But what we feel we have after the horrendous start (4-19) is a playoff-caliber team because we’re playing .500 ball. But I think this team is going to get much better just through internal growth."
On Gay and the ability to recruit free agents to Toronto:
“There is a higher level of credibility with Rudy on our team — call it star power the great talent that he is. I’m going to tell you that the guys we’ve had in Toronto love the city, love the way they’ve been treated, and it’s a top five North American city, hands down. Let me tell you something, it’s cold everywhere on the East Coast. And it’s not as north as everyone thinks."
Colangelo declared he was ‘building around Bosh’. so he passed on Aldridge, Marc Gasol (whom he knew from Asst GM Gherardini’s Benetton team, where they’d gotten Bargnani the year before) traded away Hibbert needlessly in the brutal O’Neal deal (and dumped soon after), and went out of his way to trade for or sign as free agents TJ Ford, Jarret Jack, Jerryd Bayless, Jason Kapono, Hedo Turkoglu, Jermaine O’Neal , James Johnson, all long gone. While dumping 1st round picks in a variety of ill-conceived trades and signed more forgettables like Linas Kleiza & Landry Fields to big $$$ and now trading next year’s 1st round (lottery) pick for the inneffective Lowry . While drafting the brutal Bargnani, DeRozan, Ross, as lottery picks and trading away another lottery pick Ed Davis. So our payroll is clogged with under-achieving guys and bloated contracts. Now he’s trying to unload his famous #1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani but there are no takers unless it’s a bad contract like Boozer’s. ‘Stacking’ forwards & now wings while ignoring good PGs and centre draft prospects. The ‘plan’ that just never ends. Or wins. Go Raps.
Certainly it was good to get Gay, but you’ve given away your ‘quarterback’, Calderon, and now you will have to find a way to get another…Calderon through free agency?
I think rap’s should pick up Calderon next year when he’s a free agent. He loves Toronto and prob would come back. Calderon is prob the most underrated point in the league. His assist to turn over ratio is ridiculous rap’s need a smart point or else they are all over the place