Do Something!!!!!!!!

A pathetic loss to the Nets on homecourt. Outrebounded 54-38. By whom? Bosh and O'Neal were dominated by a frontcourt of Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson and Josh Boone. Who? Exactly.

The Raptors exhibited no toughness, no athleticism and built a house with the bricks their jumpshots became. No more than a house. They built a castle in the fourth quarter.

This team is going nowhere. Quite frankly they stink. A game against Dallas on Wednesday to close out an 0-3 homestand. Bravo.

West coast roadtrip begins this Friday and includes a number of godawful teams like: Oklahoma, LA Clippers and Sacramento.

If those games are lost, we may as well give up on the season.

Hey BC! You think it's time to make a move yet?!?!?!?!?!?

Painted into a Corner?

The Raps took another on the chin last night, this time during a nationally televised game in the States on ESPN, by a score of 114-87 against the vastly superior Utah Jazz. A rousing debut for Triano! Sam lost by 39 but Triano only lost by 27! Maybe Van Gundy could only lose by 15? I jest. Could it be that Sam was not the problem? Well, the early results certainly look that way.

I’m not the only pessimist either. The usually upbeat Raptors HQ have already gone on record and stated “Frankly I don’t think BC is going to be any happier with the results brought about by this coaching change.”

Lets not worry too much about the game yesterday or the one coming up on Sunday against Portland and their jealous inducing roster of young, top-tier talent. Instead I will take a crack at trying to figure out exactly what the hell Colangelo is going to do with this mess. I figure there are 3 potential routes he could take for the rest of this bumpy looking season.

Option 1: Tinker. Based on the fact the Raptors bench is horrible he could try to tinker with the backups. After all, the Raps had been successful the past two seasons by utilizing a deep bench. His trade chips include Joey, Hump, Kapono, Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon. In other words, he’s in a weak position to bargain with these characters.

Colangelo was quoted this week as saying he has been scouring the trade market “for a big.” A BIG?!?!?! What about a small forward, shooting guard or backup point guard???

That comment ranks pretty high on the scale of “nonsensical GM smokescreen language” I hope. In fact, a big man is the only thing they don’t really need.

The question becomes, is this enough? Maybe taking a character risk on a guy with athleticism like JR Smith to replace Parker could pay off? Could bringing in some minor reinforcements help right the ship? Ummmm. Dubious.


Option 2: Trade One of the ‘Big Four’ now. When I say this I am fully aware that it will not be Bosh or Calderon - which leaves Bargnani and O’Neal.

O’Neal likely won’t be dealt now due to his health concerns and the fact that his contract is MASSIVE. His deal will be much more valuable next season when teams are acquiring expiring contracts in the hopes of making a run for Lebron James. Read: New York Knickerbockers. There is good reason to believe that O’Neal’s contract will become a Raptors treasure chest at that point.

Which only leaves Bargnani. Is it even conceivable that Colangelo and Gherardini could give up on their pet project to go in a different direction? He has been showing signs of life this season and there is reason to believe he could be worth a fair amount on the open market.

What if the Raptors could ship out 3 or 4 players (including Bargs and Kapono) to Golden State and receive in return a package that includes two or three players from this group: Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike, Brandon Wright, Marco Belinelli, Marcus Williams. What about the Bulls, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Clippers or Wizards?

Option 3: Wait it out. Colangelo could potentially make Triano grind this mediocre team into a low playoff seed and subsequently be demolished in the first round. Then in the offseason drop the nuclear bomb that will include:

A) Hiring a new coach. The smart money is on Etorre Messina leaving CSKA Moscow to come over. It has been speculated on by such diverse sources as Draft Express, Michael Grange and Italian newspapers as recently as yesterday.

B) Trading the aforementioned O’Neal contract for a goldmine of talent and promoting Bargnani to starting center.

C) Sign a couple of free agents who should be in the league – ie not guys like Hassan Adams and Will Soloman, while also trying to avoid overpaying for bums like Kapono.

D) Using their draft pick to actually select someone useful.

E) Finding themselves an identity. Are they a free-wheeling offensive club or are they going to be a more traditional half-court team? Bosh, O'Neal and Calderon seem to fit better into the latter category, yet Colangelo has been talking about how he wants Triano to get them some easy transition hoops. I'm a tad bit confused.

Option 3 is a risky strategy because of the fact Colangelo has already acknowledged how important it is for him to keep Bosh happy. I see this option as the least likely of the three. I'm hoping for 2, but expecting Option 1.

What do you predict?

And so it begins...umm...now what?

When a general manager is hired it is usually the case that they try to put their stamp on the team early. To build in the image and fashion that fits with their philosophy of a winning franchise. It is one of the most interesting sides of professional sports in the contemporary information era due mainly to the fact that, let's be serious, we all think we could do this job as well, or better, than they do.

After beginning to write this post it just kept growing and will need to be divided into two distinct parts. Today we will give the introduction to the background of the GM situation and tomorrow proceed with our predictions on how we see the Leafs roster evolving.

A couple of years ago Brian Colangelo breezed into Toronto with a revolutionary new team concept that he had invented in Phoenix. The idea was to have an up-tempo fast paced team that Sam Mitchell promised would take “mo shats” and enthuse the fans. Big Papa Colangelo shipped out the old junk quickly. Exiled were the pets of the old regime like Charlie Villanueva, Eric Williams, Matt Bonner and Hoffa.

In came a new team of high character players that could shoot and who would be reinforced by a European supporting cast. In the short-term it was hugely successful. The mid-term results have been less positive – yet still too early to fully judge. It should also be mentioned that the off-court stability and confidence he has brought to the franchise is an added bonus sorely lacking since their birth in 1995.

Contrast that with the Leafs side of things. John Ferguson came into the General Manager position just after the NHL had been re-tailored to encourage offense and bring the fans back after the lockout. Being the visionary that he was (sarcasm) he began to sign big, strong, over the hill players like Eric Lindros and Jason Allison who were now dinosaurs in the new league. He furthered this brilliant (more sarcasm) plan by re-signing fan favourites like Kaberle and Tucker to big contract extensions that included no-trade clauses. Let’s not recount the rest of his steps. The downward spiral has been too painful.

Now quickly jumping to the present. Regarding the Leafs of December 2008, we should ask ourselves, what do we expect from Brian Burke?

He has stated “We require, as a team, proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence.” I’m not normally much of a fan of Don Cherry, but I think Grapes said it best on Saturday night when he said “I don’t know exactly what that (Burke’s quote) means but I think we can expect him to put together a tough team.” Since I don’t have a dictionary handy, I’m going to guess that Cherry’s translation into the vernacular is correct. Thankfully, unlike Cherry, the new GM does not have any inherent misconception that all Europeans are soft or that Kingston is the center of all civilization.

In spite of our eagerness to see the new regime make some moves, we must also respect the fact that Burke has a self-imposed ban to not make trades during the Christmas season. This period will begin December 9th or 10th. It is too tough on their families he believes, which to me sounds noble. In any case, it looks unlikely he will pull the trigger on any big moves before January rolls around. Or do I speak too soon?

Even if he does make a move, we have few more weeks to watch the current incarnation of the Leafs get out-muscled and out-talented more often than not as they slowly fall further out of playoff contention. Or does a Toskala hot-streak coupled with the fire lit by the Burke regime redirect the blue and white back into the playoff hunt? One of the more interesting sub-plots to the season for me will be how much longer they can stay ahead of the uber-disappointment who make their home in our nation’s capital. Go Sens!

Come back for part two tomorrow when we break down the roster!