The Rise And Fall Of Colangelo's Raptors

What has gone wrong with the Raptors? Where to begin?

It all begins a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Actually, it begins in the spring of 2006 when Bryan Colangelo took over as the new general manager for the franchise. The actual answer cannot be distilled to any one source, but every story has to have a beginning, right? If I were to be truly detailed, I'd talk about how this began on a chilly night at the end of September in 1993, but that'd be too broad a scope for this article. So, Colangelo.
A full season removed from the Executive of the Year award for the 04-05 Phoenix Suns , the arrival of Colangelo in Toronto was seen as something approaching a godsend after the disastrous, but somewhat unfairly judged, tenure of Rob Babcock.
In short order, Colangelo drafted Andrea Bargnani, signed Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbajosa from overseas, brought Jose Calderon over from Spain (a legacy move from Babcock's tenure), and moved Charlie Villanueva for TJ Ford. Combined with the moves of Wayne Embry, who dumped Rafael Araujo on Utah and moved Matt Bonner and Eric Williams for Rasho Nesterovic, the Raptors suddenly looked entirely different. We had some size, some younger talent, some veteran talent, a definite infusion of perimeter shooting ability and defensive talent, and a real point guard to lead us for the first time in a while. Two, in fact.
The 06-07 season was a resounding success, tying the franchise record for most wins in a season and making the playoffs. Though the team was roundly thrashed by the Nets, it was still a successful season. Since then, injuries, other moves by management and a host of other factors have brought us to the Raptors and their current position: hanging onto a playoff spot for dear life with a .500 record and 12 games left in the season and the Chicago Bulls only 2.5 games behind them, scraping and clawing back towards that final playoff berth in the East and a chance to get savaged by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round.
The Raptors have collapsed over the past 15 games, going 4-11 in that stretch and plummeting out of contention for the 5th seed all the way to the last spot in the playoffs. The Raptors remain the worst defensive club in the NBA, so despite having one of the five best offenses in the league, they remain quite capable of relinquishing even large leads with little notice or resistance. More importantly, because the Raptors are still so reliant on jump shooting as opposed to slashing or post-ups, they have a very fickle offensive personality.
Of much greater concern, however, is how little the team gets from anyone not named Chris Bosh. The big trouble started for the team when CB4 went down with an injury. Bosh is currently averaging 24 ppg and 11 rpg, and when he missed a few games, the Raptors' offense stagnated and was unable to really do anything. Everything about Toronto's offense is set up by Bosh attracting attention, drawing fouls on his drives and generally taking over. There is no compelling isolation talent on the team after Bosh unless you want to call Sonny Weems or Jarrett Jack especially intriguing in that regard. While I respect their contributions to the team and believe both to be solid acquisitions, I don't find either to resemble a particularly strong candidate for second-option scorer.
Meantime, Andrea Bargnani floundered badly as the primary option. There are concerns that the team does not use him in a manner that would make him more capable of performing, but whether you call it the player underperforming or the coach making a mistake, the end result was the same: the Raptors struggled badly until Bosh returned.
Since his return, Bosh has not been playing especially well by the standards of his performance earlier this season; his rebounding has dropped in March to 8.8 per game, after averaging 10.2 or more in each previous month and 11.4 or better in all but one of those other months. After scoring over 29 points per contest in 5 games during February and while averaging 24 per game on the season, Bosh is averaging 21.3 points per game in March, shooting below 53% FG on a month for the first time since the two games he played in October. More tellingly, despite posting one of the best turnover rates of his career on the season, Bosh is averaging four turnovers per game over the last seven games, roughly double his seasonal average. He's been rusty and slow, looking awkward with his knee brace and not nearly as explosive as he has for the bulk of the season.
The key observation here is that as Bosh goes, so go the Raptors. There isn't sufficient talent on this team to really survive without him because there isn't a great deal of go-to scoring talent outside of Bosh himself. The Raptors are atrocious defensively with or without Bosh (moreso without), and their offense is considerably worse without him because he's really the only player on the team who can handle taking a high volume of possessions and be expected to convert them into points at an efficient rate. Bargnani is either incapable of this task or not yet prepared to do it, which is functionally the same to the team, and there are no other significant scorers. Hedo Turkoglu has been a spectacular flop, arguably one of Colangelo's worst moves in his time as the Raptors' general manager. A $10 million investment, he's playing not dissimilarly to the way he did in Orlando, though he's taking fewer shots per game. Ultimately, he's an over-30 player without significant athleticism, a weak individual defender who is a mediocre rebounder and not an aggressive scorer. Without Dwight Howard backing him up, he looks fairly plain and uninviting as a player. He, like Calderon and Bargnani, contribute negatively to the team's rebounding efforts from the starting lineup and presents yet another defensive hole in the team.
The question that must be asked is how long Colangelo will tolerate this state of affairs? Raptors fans grow weary of watching one of the worst defenses in the history of the sport and a team that seems to give forth lackluster effort on a consistent basis. The Raptors are fighting for a chance to lose their first round pick, since their selection in this year's draft is owed to another team unless the Raptors miss the playoffs. After serving up their 2008 pick in a trade, the Raptors are thin on young talent and the loss of that pick would make any efforts at rebuilding this franchise much more difficult. Beyond the fact that the Raptors are going to miss out on the free agent markets of both 2010 and 2011 because of committed contracts to Bargnani (his extension kicks in next year), Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu, there remains the looming specter of Chris Bosh's likely departure in free agency.

Answers are few and far between for Raptors fans, but the picture painted of their franchise's future is not for the faint of heart.

lol, this is an article from RealGM but whatever. It's still a good article nevertheless.

What Happened?

they traded vince carter and cant get pass the first round ever since...
and they never will...

nah they just havent got any PROPER help for chris bosh, they had
to go and get caulderon (or watever) turkoglu etc.
jarret jack was a good choice but i dunno
they need to develope or get a slashing guard/foward
who can be the second option
or maybe even just develop sonny weems
and demar derozan...

well bargani wasnt a complete disaster
even though they had the chance to pick up
brandon roy or someone

no dear its not a complete disaster they must have one cahnce

The "Rise" part never happened...

92 wrote:

The "Rise" part never happened...

Lol I'd have to agree on that

2006-07 they won the division and were the 3 seed on the East but my homestate Nets upset them in the 1st Round

the Raptors never been past the 1st Round so I can't say they've ever really rose

Eff Ben wrote:

lol, this is an article from RealGM but whatever. It's still a good article nevertheless.

Raptorschat.ca actually!

Scottie Pippen HOF wrote:

92 wrote:

The "Rise" part never happened...

Lol I'd have to agree on that

2006-07 they won the division and were the 3 seed on the East but my homestate Nets upset them in the 1st Round

the Raptors never been past the 1st Round so I can't say they've ever really rose

They did once hahaha. After NY took it to the Raps in the 1999-2000 1st Rd of the NBA playoffs. The following season, the 2000-2001 season the Raps returned the favor and beat NY in the 1st Rd of the playoffs. It was the last time the Knicks had a winning record and the only time TOR advanced to the 2nd Rd of the playoffs. In that season's semi's AI-VC had an epic showdown, but AI took it.

Oh yea I remember that they won Game 5 at the Garden to advance when Game 5 was the deciding game

I should've added since VC left they never made it past that

Scottie Pippen HOF wrote:

I should've added since VC left they never made it past that

SRF SRF SRF SRF SRF SRF

Raza wrote:

Scottie Pippen HOF wrote:

I should've added since VC left they never made it past that

SRF SRF SRF SRF SRF SRF

whats SRF?

oh yeah i remember that epic battle between VC & A.I.
A.I. scored like 40 then VC scored 40 then A.I.
scored like 50 and 9 steals then VC scored 50
then it came down to one shot in philadeplhia

VC gets the inbound pump fakes, shoots
and MISSES!
i was gonna cry but i didnt like the raptors then
and i still dont

Hey dude u remember everything

Good article

Raptors were good for 1 season but then failed in the playoff,the VC curse is still working....

It has nothing to do with VC!

It is because the GMs past/present always make mistakes when it comes to player or coach acquisitions. Some notable mistakes include Sam Mitchell, Hedo (duh lol), Patrick O'Bryant, trading VC for nothing in return (it is not the losing VC part that bothered me; it is what the Raps got in exchange for him), paying Jose/Bargnani more than they deserve, Triano, etc.

If the GM/ownership made smarter decisions...then this would not be an issue. Yes, VC led the Raps to minor success but he is not the reason why the Raps suffer to this day...