Colangelo’s performance so far has been a mixed bag (postive but slow progress) but he’s a quality GM who’ll come good if given time.
The number one pick was difficult. It was one of those years where there was no clear cut number one pick. There wasn’t even a group of five players. You had at least 5 players in consideration for that pick when you look at guys like Rudy Gay, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Andrea Bargnani, Tyrus Thomas. Maybe Adam Morrison – hey it could have been worse, imagine how the Bobcats feel? At the time I wanted Colangelo to draft Aldridge. I thought Roy was the best player in the draft but I liked the idea of Aldridge-Bosh together. When Colangelo picked Bargnani I thought fair enough that’s a solid pick, he’s an interesting player with lots of potential. Along with Gay I thought Bargnani had the highest ceiling in the draft. With no clear number one taking a guy with the high ceiling can be decent business. Now if Greg Oden was in the draft (darn High School rule) when he had the number one imagine where the Raptors would be now? The answer to that is something like where the Portland Trailblazers are right now. Imagine Bosh and Oden together with TJ Ford and a bunch of top shooters. Just bad timing. For my money it was the least clear cut draft with the most questionable potential guys at the top since Olowakandi went number one back in 1999. Very difficult. Just bad timing.
Also I have to give him some room on the free agency class of 2006. We had $11-12 mil in cap space that summer. Ben Wallace for $60mil? Eddy Curry $50mil? Nene for $60mil? Jason Terry for $50mil? Al Harrington $57mil? Peja Stojakovic for $60mil? They were the top names. I’m not going to squibble about not signing them. All of those guys have bad contracts that are harming their teams. I thought Colangelo was wise in not signing any of those guys. (Note: Rasho trade is down below)
Actually there was one free agent who I’d forgotten about that I was annoyed Colangelo didn’t sign and that was Caron Butler. Butler was signed on a very economical deal at $46mil over 5 years after putting up 17 and 5 the season prior. Very promising young player who was just starting to fulfill his potential. At the time I couldn’t believe it when Washington got him that cheap. Butler fell under the radar throughout the league, Washington should never have gotten such a good deal and I would have liked Colangelo to have done that. It was a bargain from the moment he signed.
I loved the TJ Ford trade. Classy point guard who was single handidly the difference between Milwaukee winning 26 games and making the playoffs. Very good starting point guard who can come in and help start a solid core. Worth noting I didn’t think too highly of Villanueva. The minute this trade happpened I thought Toronto would make the playoffs because TJ Ford was that good and would get the best out of his team like he did in Milwaukee. I couldn’t understand all the analysts outrage at the time, that was misguided.
I loved the decisiveness in letting Mike James go. The Anthony Parker signing was beautiful. Didn’t know much about Garbajosa so I had no opinion on that but he turned into a very nice pickup. I also liked that he gave Sam Mitchell time because I thought he was starting to turn it around the season before, and I liked that he’s given him an extension and kept him around. I liked the Freddie Jones pickup also but unfortunately that didn’t pan out. Jones showed some nice skills as a 6th man down in Indiana.
Things I didn’t like, well okay I need to give a short paragraph to one man in particular first – Jason Kapono. Terrible decision. One dimensional player who doesn’t play defense. Way too much money involved for that to be a good pickup. Why not just acquire James Jones? Better D, smarter player, also an excellent shooter and oh yeah he’s about 1/3 of the cost and will cost even less to re-sign. Again I did love the decisiveness, I loved how he went out on the first day of free agency and got the guy at the top of his list beating several other GMs to punch. Loved that. Pity it was Kapono at the top of the list though.
The things that bug me the most and non-moves. Not moving either TJ or Jose despite it being clear that it was a burgeoning problem and also that the roster had other needs which could be filled by trading one of them. Not adding a second scorer. Not finding Bosh a bona-fide all-star sidekick. Not hiring a big man who’d add muscle under the boards when it became appearant that Rasho wasn’t enough.
I’m segway onto Rasho I very much disliked this move simply because of the cost of his contract. Rasho was due $23mil over three years which was outrageous to begin with, but not only that, Colangelo decides to give up expiring contracts to land him. San Antonio were shopping him (needed to get quicker for Phoenix/Dallas) and getting no bites at the time, why give up so much? Raptors could have had $20mil of cap space had Bryan stood still for the year. I liked what Rasho was going to bring to the team and like what he does now but he’s overpaid and his contract has harmed the flexibility of the team. My guess is that he didn’t think the contract mattered so much since he was going to sign other free agents and TJ Ford to an extension which would eat most of the cap space anyway … he wasn’t going to standstill and wanted to make changes right away with Rasho being a decent placeholder to help smooth out the transition until he could land better pieces. Also worth noting that I would have rathered Przybilla than Rasho.
In conclusion, I think it’s a mixed bag overall from Colangelo. I’d say more positives than not. Regardless I’m not worried about it because he’s a top class GM who’ll always give the Raptors a good shot at building a quality team with a great deal or two. This situation can look very different very quickly with the right trade or two.
