Free Ballin’

Continuing my NBA VIEW

Toronto Raptors:

No fans are in worse shape than Raptor fans.  You know Chris Bosh is going to leave.  You know it, don’t you?  Toronto’s management is in an awful position (of their own making,) trying to figure out a way to entice Bosh to stay.  He says he loves it in Toronto, but I can almost hear a sarcastic grin when he says it.  Maybe it’s just history.  I don’t know if it’s just the Raptors’ awful management—really, how many good decisions have they ever made?  Ever?  I think it’s pretty clear that Bryan Colangelo’s father was doing all the heavy lifting in Phoenix—but they’ve never been able to attract big talent.  And if player’s find Toronto aversive, in itself, then the only way to convince a guy of Bosh’s caliber to stay is to put together a serious contender.  I think it’s pretty hard to leave a contender.

So what does Toronto do?  Forget how after years of Bosh playing out of position at center, or playing next to a crap center, the Raptors used a first overall pick to draft Andrea Bargnani, a 7-footer who doesn’t rebound or defend.  What’s unforgivable is paying him huge money when after three years he has only started to show indications that he might develop into a pretty decent scorer (if he can shoot over 45% from three, because the guy can’t do it in the post) who doesn’t rebound or defend.  And this when there was no market competition for Bargnani; and the guy had an effing year to go before being a restricted free agent.  Amazing.  Go ahead and convince Bosh to stay by offering to squander his prime years—and Jose Calderon’s—with expensive mediocrities, like Hedo Turkoglu.  It’s actually codified in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that at least one NBA team must sign one player (or more) to a deal so absurd, that’s untradeable from the day it’s signed.  Really, there is no single team in the NBA that has less of a clue right now than Toronto.  Memphis could sign Allen Iverson to a max contract today and hire Chris Wallace to be their GM (oh, wait…) and their future would look vastly better than the Raptors’.  Bill Simmons says the most fanatical fans he hears from are Raptors fans.  If half of them stick it out through post Bosh years with this team, they’ll prove him right.

And the Raptors is a stupid name.  I feel like I need to remind people of this, frequently.