khandor’s sports blog

Toronto is currently in 2nd place in the Atlantic Division, and in 5th place [overall] in the Eastern Conference standings, with a 26-23/.531 W-L record.

After starting out 7-13/.350, with a difficult road-heavy schedule, the Raptors have since played 19-10/.655 basketball, with an easier predominently home-based schedule, that has effectively balanced out their season to-date.

If the Raptors can now manage to play .531 basketball for the remainder of the campaign they will finish with an overall mark of 43-39, or 44-38, which should then be good enough to qualify for the Eastern Conference playoffs and earn a mid-level seed [i.e. #5 or #6].

In a 1st Round playoff series of this type the Raptors would then be most likely to face one of:

1. The Atlanta Hawks/#4, who were eliminated by the Cleveland Cavaliers [i.e. 2006-2007 NBA Finalists] last season [in the 2nd Round] and the Boston Celtics 2 seasons ago [in Game 7 of the 1st Round];

2. The Boston Celtics/#3, who were 2007-2008 NBA Champions; or,

3. The Orlando Magic/#2, who were 2008-2009 NBA Finalists;

each of which is a team with more experience than Toronto, having qualified for the post-season elimination tournament for the last two seasons.

If the Raptors are indeed able to compete successfully in this type of series … by winning at least 2 [or, possibly, 3] games … the challenge they would then face, in the off season, is trying to re-sign their best player, Chris Bosh, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this summer [July 1, 2010].

The NBA’s in-season trade deadline is now two weeks away [Feb 19], and the most important question on the minds of Raptors fans is:

QUESTION

Should Toronto make a trade, in advance of the deadline, in an effort to further improve their team right now, in hopes of being able to win their 1st Round playoff series this spring and, in the process, demonstrate to Chris Bosh that he will have a legitimate chance to compete for a league championship, in the immediate future, if he decides to renew his contract with the Raptors this off season, as a maximum salaried player? 

ANSWER

No, the Raptors should not make a trade of this sort, in advance of the deadline, in an effort to win their 1st Round playoff series this spring.

RATIONALE

Young teams like the Raptors need to be able to grow together, gradually, over an extended period of years, which involves taking 5 DISTINCT STEPS:

STEP 1. Learning how to make the playoffs, and then losing a 1st Round series;

STEP 2. Learning how to make the playoffs and, then, after making minor player acquisitions, advancing to the 2nd Round;

STEP 3. Learning how to make the playoffs and, then, after making a key player acquisition, advancing to the Conference Finals;

STEP 4. Learning how to make the playoffs and, then, after making another key player acquisition, advancing to the NBA Finals; and,

STEP 5. Learning how to make the playoffs and, then, after making minor player acquisitions, winning the NBA Championship. 

The Raptors’ current roster looks like this:

and is ”good enough”, as is, to compete successfully in a 1st Round playoff series this spring, if their GM and head coach can [i] create the proper atmosphere around their team, and [ii] use their resources effectively.

Stability is what the Raptors need most right now … and, to be able to find out exactly what they’ve got from their current group of players, when it comes to being battle-tested in a 1st Round playoff series against a veteran team like the Hawks, or the Celtics, or the Magic. 

What the Raptors do not need right now is increased Instability … in hopes of blithely skipping over Step 1 with this specific collection of players.

If Chris Bosh is actually the Right Person to lead the Raptors team into the future, then, he will decide on his own that Toronto is the best fit for him, and his long term goals/objectives, both, as a marquee player in the NBA, and as a person.

If Chris Bosh eventually makes the decision to resign with Toronto, the Raptors will then be in a “good” position to attempt to take Step 2 next year, after making minor player acquisitions during this coming off season. 

3. If Chris Bosh is not actually the Right Person to lead the Raptors team into the future, then, he will decide on his own that Toronto is not the best fit for him, and his long term goals/objectives, both, as a marquee player in the NBA, and as a person.

If Chris Bosh eventually makes the decision to sign with another team, then, the Raptors will still be in an “okay” position … i.e. with his vacant salary slot … to once again try to accomplish Step 1, in the gradual process of building a legitimate contending team in this league, over a number of years.

The major problem with this specific scenario is that this is precisely where the team has been before, on more than one occasion, during the Raptors’ first 15 years of existence:

A. With Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady;

B. With Vince Carter and Chris Bosh;

C. With Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani;

and, subsequently,

D. With Andrea Bargnani and DeMar DeRozan; etc., etc., etc.

Each time the Raptors have gotten to this same point before …

they have somehow managed to !@#$%^&* it up, royally, by trying to ”Swing for the fences”, prematurely, and in hopes of skipping Steps along the way.

Hopefully they [i.e. MLSE, Bryan Colangelo, and Jay Triano] have finally learned their lesson and, this time, are finally able to exercise the type of sound basketball judgment it takes to eventually build a legitimate NBA championship contending team in Toronto.

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For the Raptors …

It is time to batten down the hatches.

Let the current season play out.

Allow Chris Bosh to make his own call.

And, sail the ship forward, regardless, on a straight [and well-charted] course. 

In this world, it takes time, to build something truly worthwhile.

What can the good folks who run Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. [MLSE] possibly have to learn from an individual owner like Jerry Buss?

Buss has put up some numbers by Roland Lazenby [January 17, 2010]

This season marks the 30^th anniversary of the self-made Buss acquiring the Lakers and the Great Western Forum from Jack Kent Cooke in a deal so stunning that Sports Illustrated hired accountants to investigate how Buss arranged the financing. After scratching their heads for weeks, the accountants conceded defeat. They never did figure out his fancy tricks.

Buss immediately recognized that he better listen to then-Lakers GM Bill Sharman, who advised that Cooke’s organization draft an unorthodox guard named Magic Johnson.

Magic propelled the Lakers to the league championship in the first season of ownership by Buss, who promptly told the television audience that he had worked so long and hard to win the championship. It sounded ludicrous, but Buss was talking about his years amassing the wealth and know-how to acquire the team.

He always said he bought the club just because he couldn’t get the tickets he wanted. Buss immediately understood that he should listen to Sharman, a Hall of Famer as both a player and a coach.

To this day, the low-key Sharman’s influence within the Lakers remains a key factor, despite the fact that he’s well into his 80s. Each season he writes a report on the team and its personnel that is to be read only by Buss.

“Sharman has always had considerable influence,” team consultant Tex Winter confided last year.

That may help explain the numbers that Buss has put up in three decades of ownership. His Lakers teams have won nine titles and appeared in the league championship series another six occasions, In his 30 years of ownership his teams have played for the big cheese 15 times, numbers not even close to being matched in the modern NBA, or any other modern pro sport.

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Lesson #1.

Find a highly respected former player and coach, who is a member of the Basketball Hall Of Fame, and retain his services as a ”special consultant”, answerable to no one else but you.

Lesson #2.

Listen closely to what this special consultant actually has to say about the game, itself, and the people who happen to play, and coach, and GM, it.

Lesson #3.

Prioritize ‘championship success’ above all else.

Lesson #4.

Do exactly what your “special consultant” tells you to do.

Lesson #5.

Stay the heck out of the way …

by occupying yourself with whatever sort of distraction might be necessary to keep your fingerprints off the day-to-day operations of the team, even if this means embarassing yourself by spending ‘quality time’ with a bevy of bouncing beauties less-than 1/4 of your own chronological age …

except, of course, when the REALLY BIG decisions MUST get made, usually involving OBSCENE amounts of $$$, in which case you become a “tough as nails” ruthless barracuda who …

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Lakers’ Buss knows when to hold’em [March 2, 2008]

has done whatever it takes to bring this city [Los Angeles] a championship.

“What’s kept me going is my competitiveness,” he says. “I really, really do want to win.”

We forget this because, as he walks through the Staples Center tunnel with a colorful shirt and a laughing date and a pleasant handshake for everyone, he seems like just another L.A. dude.

We forget that he had the smarts to help engineer the NBA’s deal of the season by getting rid of Kwame Brown . . . because, well, you see that seemingly empty house across the narrow street from his house?

“Kwame Brown lives here,” Buss says, shrugging. “Seriously. We used to hang out. We’re friends.”

When is the last time an owner admitted that his team makes him cry?

Jerry Buss says that when the Lakers are playing well and Staples Center is rocking and the city is embracing his baby, he is moved beyond words.

“It’s a tearful experience sometimes,” he says.

His team can also make him so mad, he will storm out of his box in silence.

“I’ll say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m just so angry now, I can’t talk,’ ” he says.

Jerry Buss doesn’t own the Lakers, he lives them, from filling the front office with his family to filling some of his players with unabashed love. Maybe this is one of his secrets? The team isn’t run by him, it is him?

—————————– 

Presto!

PS. The Los Angeles Lakers [32-9] pay their only visit to The Big Smoke this season on Sunday, January 24 [i.e. later on this week]. Raptors fans should mark the date down on their calendars as, unfortunately, Showtime, doesn’t happen in these parts with the degree of frequency that befits a world-class city like Toronto. 

The word “benchmark” has the following definition:

bench·mark (bnchmärk)

As was mentioned yesterday, last night’s contest between Toronto and Milwaukee should have been viewed by each team as a pivotal game, and an early season barometer for where their respective franchise stands in relation to the other middle-of-the-pack squads in the Eastern Conference.

Toronto Raptors 95
MILWAUKEE BUCKS 117
Complete Game Summary

By no means should the Bucks be viewed as an ideal, or even an up-and-coming, franchise in the NBA, at this point in time. Milwaukee has:

- a talented, young Starting-calibre PG
- a defensively stout young Starting-calibre SF-PF 
- an all-around solid Starting-calibre C

who they can build around moving forward …

- a solid, experienced, head coach

who they can build with moving forward … and,

- a dead-weight former “franchise player”

who is no longer a major part of their team with a fairly hefty contract that is due to expire in just 2 years

- a slew of good-but-still-far-from-being-very-good back-up players on their roster

who they can use to fill in the gaps, while hoping to field a highly competitive team, on an annual basis …

and, then, prescious little more than that.

Yet, last night, playing their 3rd game in 4 nights, after losing 8 of their previous 9 games … they were still able to dismantle the Raptors on the strength of [a] Brandon Jennings first-half scoring exploits, [b] solid team defense, and [c] individual offensive contributions from a host of different back-up players [e.g. Ersan Ilyasova , 17 pts; Roko Ukic, 17 pts; Carlos Delfino, 14 pts; Luke Ridnour, 15 pts].

Raptors fans who thought that their team’s recent 3-game winning streak was an authentic indication of a “righted ship”, heading toward the upper-middle region of the conference standings, sometime soon, were simply being delusional, once again. 

The road victory over Washington [7-12/.368, 10th/EC] was an overtime decision that could have gone either way at the end of regulation and at the final buzzer when Gilbert Arenas inexplicably missed an open lay-up.

The road victory over Chicago [7-13/.350, 11th/EC] was a relatively meaningless encounter against an opponent that is currently in free-fall … coping with [I] debilitating injuries to 2 key rotation players, both of whom are solid defender/rebounders, at their respective positions, and [II] the loss of their leading scorer from last season [i.e. Ben Gordon, who was not retained, as an UFA, this past summer].

The home victory over Minnesota [3-19/.136; 15th/WC] was secured in the final 90 seconds, when a 3PT shot from Antoine Wright [3FG% = 30.2] found the bottom of the net to push the Raptors’ precarious lead from 2 to 5 points.

On the other hand, last night’s game against the Bucks was a different beast entirely.

The Bucks were looking ahead at their next 3 opponents … i.e. vs the Blazers, vs the Lakers and @ the Cavaliers … and not liking what they saw, at all.

The Bucks are a solid middle-of-the-pack team this season:

[Ratings as of Mon Dec 05, 2009]

In last night’s game, key [revealing?] stats included:

When an opponent converts 3.5% more of its Total Shot Value, creates 5 more Possessions and a Points per Possession differential of 0.168, it indicates that your team was out-classed in a number of different ways.  

1/4 of the way through the regular season schedule, what should now be a legit concern for the Raptors organization, and its fanbase, is what you see when you look at the following two charts; appraising [i] where these two teams were last night:

and, then, [ii] where it looks as though they might be headed in the immediate future:

When the 2009-2010 off-season arrives and Chris Bosh sits down to evaluate where his chances might be the best to effectively challenge for a future NBA championship, realistically, do you think that he is going to perceive the Toronto Raptors as the No. 1 place for him to accomplish this goal in the no-too-distant future?

A team which might even be considered as beneath the decidedly “average” Milwaukee Bucks on the authentic depth chart in the East this season?

The Raptors next 4 games are:

Fri Dec 11 vs Atlanta [QR = 30; QIR = 9]
Sun Dec 13 vs Houston [QR = 42; QIR = T-13]
Tue Dec 15 @ MIAMI [QR = 42; QIR = T-13]
Wed Dec 16 @ ORLANDO [QR = 17; QIR = 2]

Legend: QR – Quality Rating [PDR/Points Differential Rank + PAR/Points Allowed Rank + RDR/Rebounding Differential Rank]; QIR – Quality Index Ranking [#1-30]; as of Sun Dec 06.

When assessing the relative strength of these 4 opponents, it’s imperative that the Raptors [10-14] get their act together quickly, substantially improve their Team Defense, and win their up-coming 2 home games … or, face the very real possibility of amassing another extended losing streak [i.e. a 5-gamer this time] and an inauspicious W-L Record [10-18?].

What Toronto has done so far this season is no way to go about convincing Chris Bosh that he should actually re-sign with the Raptors, as one of the premier unrestricted free agents in 2010.

To paraphrase something once said by Yogi Berra, noted philosopher :

“Sometimes, it really does get late early out there … in the process of pursuing one’s own UFA.”

The Raptors would do well to not forget that Life Truism this season. 

For the benefit of Raptors fans everywhere …

The Toronto Raptors and the Stats Revolution
“I remember once having a conversation with a top executive with the Toronto Raptors. I asked her about the stats revolution in basketball and she just kind of shrugged and said, ‘It’s interesting, and we look at those things, but you have to understand that for our purposes, it’s all [about] character.’ The thing that separates players is that some have a work ethic, some don’t; some are coachable, some aren’t; some party all night, some go to bed early. From her standpoint, it’s all those intangibles.”
- Malcolm Gladwell

In reading this quote we have to remember… the Raptors have never won more than 47 games in a season, and have only advanced past the first round of the playoffs once.  Perhaps (just perhaps) there is more to player analysis than focusing on the ‘intangibles.’

One last observation… once upon a time I noted that the owner of the Raptors tried to get his general manager in basketball to read The Wages of Wins.  Maybe he will have more luck assigning our second book (am I being too snarky?  Sorry about that).

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as well as Misters Peddie, Colangelo, Gladwell and Berri …

For the benefit of those who may not have read it yet …

Can Toronto Build a Winner Around Bosh
When we put the entire picture together, it doesn’t look too good for fans of Toronto.  The Raptors will still employ the services of Calderon and Bosh, and these players produced about 21 wins last year.  And it’s possible that Turkoglu, Jack, Evans, and Johnson can contribute another 15 wins.  After these players, though, who else is going to produce significant quantity of wins?  And if no one else produces much, how will Bosh believe that the Raptors are building a contender?

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is a first-rate take by David Berri on the Raptors’ current situation.

Since his arrival in the NBA, 6 seasons ago, Chris Bosh has firmly established himself as one of the very best Big Men in the League … with an individual game that’s unique, as an under-sized Center, and in need of support from a group of talented teammates. Unfortunately, what has also happened during this same time-frame, repeatedly, is that the team’s ownership group [i.e. MLSE] and upper management have demonstrated an inability to make sound basketball-related decisions around him, based on an over-riding Plan of Attack geared toward the building of a championship-winning calibre team in Toronto, through the proper acquisition and retention of Top Notch NBA talent, which includes executives, coaches, support staff and players.

Understanding exactly what the Boston Celtics actually did 3 summers ago to transform their team into a legitimate title contender:

———-

1. Retain the services of a very good and already-proven NBA head coach;
2. Hold onto their already-established franchise player [i.e. Paul Pierce];
3. Trade an upcoming top draft pick for a 2nd established franchise player [i.e. Ray Allen];
4. Include their younger burgeoning talent [i.e. i. Al Jefferson, ii. Ryan Gomes, and iii. Sebastien Telfair] in a major trade for a 3rd “stud” player [i.e. The Big Ticket];
5. Keep a bedrock player like Kendrick Perkins [C], as a building block for their future team;
6. Draft another young stud at the PG position [i.e. Rajon Rondo], who other teams over-looked/under-valued; and, then,
7. Filled out the remainder of its roster with very serviceable players with great attitudes who were committed to winning a championship above all else.

———-

means that all is NOT lost for the Raptors, as long as they begin to identify accurately what their actual strengths and weaknesses are, relative to their competition.

What “regular Raptors fans” need to do is spend some more time figuring out who on their team fits properly into the corresponding roles of Wyc Grousbeck [i.e. MLSE?], Danny Ainge [i.e. Bryan Colangelo?], Doc Rivers [i.e. Jay Triano?], Paul Pierce [i.e. Chris Bosh!] and Ray Allen [?], Kevin Garnett [?], and Al Jefferson [i.e. Andrea Bargnani!!!], etc., and less time putting down the 5th best player in the brief history of the team [i.e. CB4] and his designated running mate [i.e. El Matador].

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PS. Those who think that Danny Ainge [GM] was operating without an over-riding Plan of Attack, based on his Basketball Acumen, simply do not know how the NBA actually works, or how a team needs to go about building a championship-winning organization, at the highest level of competition.

re: How an astute NBA observer might expect the first part of the schedule to unfold for the Raptors this year

Game 14 – vs Orlando [Sun Nov 22]

The Magic’s 2nd trip to the ACC this season should prove to be more enjoyable for the visitors. Knowing full well what it feels like to play and lose a 1:00 PM game on Sunday afternoon, after spending the previous night in Toronto, should produce a much more determined effort from Orlando this time around … especially, with Rashard Lewis back in the line-up [i.e. following his league-imposed early season suspension]. 

Raptors expected W-L Record: L, 5-9

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PS. During the 2006-2007 season Orlando [40-42/.488; 3rd Southeast] and Toronto [47-35/.573; 1st Atlantic] finished as the 8th and 3rd seeded teams in the EC playoffs, respectively. Since then, however, the fortunes of their franchises have gone in completely opposite directions. 

2007-2008, Orlando [1st Southwest; Lost 2nd Rd of Playoffs to Detroit]; Toronto [2nd Atlantic; Lost 1st Rd of playoffs to Orlando]

2008-2009, Orlando [Southwest, 1st; NBA Finalist]; Toronto [Atlantic 4th; missed playoffs]

2009-2010, Orlando [plus .500?]; Toronto [minus .500?]

With:

1. Vince Carter [G-F] now in Orlando and Hedo Turkoglu [SF] now in Toronto;

2. Dwight Howard [C] in Orlando and Andrea Bargnani [C] in Toronto;

3. Rashard Lewis [PF] in Orlando and Chris Bosh [PF] in Toronto;

4. Jameer Nelson [PG] in Orlando and Jose Calderon [PG] in Toronto;

5. JJ Redick [OG] in Orlando and DeMar DeRozan [OG] in Toronto;

6. Stan Van Gundy [head coach] in Orlando and Jay Triano [head coach] in Toronto;

7. Otis Smith/Dave Twardzik [as the management team] in Orlando and Bryan Colangelo/Maurizio Gherardini in Toronto [as the management team]; and,

8. Rich DeVos [as the owner] in Orlando and MLSE [as the owners] in Toronto;

it is going to be very interesting to see how these two franchises compare over the next few seasons. 

Although this story first appeared last weekend, it deserves a special place [and a page of its own] in the “Site Map” of this blog.

The Leafs Abomination
“Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has massive resources, which is a good thing. I’ve seen a real lack of foresight in the use of those resources to really gain a competitive advantage. Personnel, scouting procedures, processes, development, all those things,” Button says. “I couldn’t fathom how pennywise and pound-foolish they were. I mean, if development and recruiting are going to be key parts of your operation – and they need to be – well, I’ll tell you what, you blanket the earth. You use your resources. If you can’t spend some of your resources on player acquisition (because of the salary cap), you spend it on developing players. You make sure you’re as sharp as anything. In my time there, I thought that was severely lacking.”

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Kudos galore to Dave Feschuk and Michael Grange, two of the best journalists who happen to patrol a sports beat in the Greater Toronto Area.

Mandatory reading for Maple Leafs and Raptors and TFC fans everywhere!

Related:

Winning Isn’t Everything

Burke rips into Heatley, agents
“For a player to quietly and professionally ask for a trade, that’s fair ball for me. For a player to pop off and say he wants out or leak it, in my mind you are now no longer interested in your team. If you’ve done that you’ve handicapped them, you’ve handcuffed the GM,” said Burke.

“As long as you are on that team, you owe them to maximize the asset, and once you’ve taken that step, sorry I don’t accept that.”

Burke said he would not deal a player who went public with a trade request.

“I’m not blaming Dany, this could be the agent,” said Burke. “When you have players come ask you for a trade, I tell the players, `Don’t finish that sentence, because once you ask, I’m going to move you.’ If a player says `I want out,’ you’re darn right you’re going. I’m not kissing anyone’s ass to play in my town, so to hell with you, don’t finish the sentence. My second rule is: If I hear about this, then you’re not going anywhere.”

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There’s a good reason Brian Burke failed to take the Vancouver Canucks to the Stanley Cup Finals.

There’s a good reason Brian Burke ran away from the Anaheim Ducks lickady-split in the aftermath of winning just 1 Stanley Cup … built largely on the backs of players who were mostly acquired by his predecessor.

Talk like what you see above, concerning this … i.e. “Don’t finish that sentence …” and, antiquated Rules of Engagement which read like, i.e. i.e. “If I hear about this, then you’re not going anywhere.” … are the characteristics of an ‘old school’ GM who is never going to succeed in a MAJOR WAY in the modern-day world of sport which exists today.

You can WRITE that call down in STONE.

Do you see Ken Holland making statements like THAT? How about Jimmy Devellano? Or, Lou Lamoriello? Or, Jim Rutherford?

Unfortunately, the Toronto Maple Leafs will repeatedly fail to re-build their once proud franchise under the mis-guided blustery Leadership Style of Brian Burke, unable to capture multiple Stanley Cups along the way … which they most assuredly have the resources to do … even though yours truly sincere hopes that that specific call is one that comes up nothing but snake eyes in the immediate years ahead.

Making a loud to-do over NOT having ANY interest in the acquisition of a player in the situation of a Danny Heatley, who is currently employed by ANOTHER team in the NHL?

Please.

Mr. Burke needs to give his own head a good shake and get down to the nitty-gritty business of actually building the Toronto Maple Leafs.

… then, perhaps, it’s high time the accused SHOULD be convicted.

Greed-driven MLSEL doesn’t deserve a single penny
Other than the sultans of Bay St., the days when it was possible for someone to take their family to a Leafs game ended about the same time the team paraded the Stanley Cup to city hall. Not that there has been a lot to see since MLSEL and the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund took control of sports in this city.

MLSEL is to sports what the Titanic was to shipping. It makes lots of money, it’s full of all the beautiful people — and it always ends up dead in the water.

That this business — and it is business more than it is a sports enterprise — needs protection money after it has pillaged the local populace is an utter abomination.

It is not MLSEL that needs protection from Baum. It’s southern Ontario hockey fans.

They have had to watch a franchise that was once a national icon degenerate into a corporate logo for selling everything from concerts to condos. The hockey? Abysmal. And, that’s being polite.

The MLSEL mess doesn’t stop with just hockey. Everything they touch makes an ash of itself. Show me a Raptors star and I’ll show you a guy who left town in a huff — mostly because he got tired of being surrounded by garbage year in, year out.

They were lucky. They got to leave. The fans just got a ticket renewal with a price increase.

———-

What’s commonly known to as, “Going Yard.”

Kudos to you, Sir!

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“But, hey, how long does it take to figure out nothing plus nothing equals MLSEL?

And that’s what they should get.”  - Bill Lankhof
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Araujo pick set off chain reaction
I‘ve always considered the drafting of Rafael Araujo the Raptors’ original sin. It set off a chain reaction the team has never really recovered from.

Araujo, as every Raptors fan knows, was picked No.8 overall by Rob Babcock, who promised on draft night that the big Brazilian was “Not a stiff.”

Well, he was a stiff. One with small hands and short arms and - quite literally - no upside.

Missing at No.8 isn’t ordinarily the end of the world. It happens. And it says A LOT about the NBA that having the chance to pick the eighth - or in this year’s draft - the ninth best player in the world in a given year carries with it no certainty of success.

Tough league.

But the 2004 draft had its share of good players. One of them - Andre Iguodala - was taken ninth by the Philadelphia 76ers, as every Raptors fan knows.

Which is the problem: It’s not so much that Araujo was a bust, it’s that Iguodala represents exactly and - short of Kobe/LeBron/Wade - I mean exactly what the franchise needs.

He slashes. He defends other wings. He’s a one-man fastbreak. He’s a passable spot-up shooter. He’s very good playmaker and passer. He’s relatively affordable, at $12-million a year, which is pretty good value for a Tier 1A wing player in the NBA.

But you know all this.

Still, I’ve been thinking about Iguodala as I’ve [been] watching Mickael Pietrus with the Orlando Magic.

———-

In contrast, what this corner sees is that the specific time-line … i.e. Chain Reaction … for the de-evolution of the Raptors looks like this:

* Fired Glen Grunwald, Apr 1, 2004
* Hired Rob Babcock, Jun 7, 2004
* Drafted Rafael Araujo [No. 8], Jun 24 2004
* Hired Sam Mitchell, Jun 29, 2004
* Traded Vince Carter, Dec 17, 2004 [for exactly what, in return?]
* Fired Babcock, Jan 26, 2006
* Hired Bryan Colangelo, Feb 28, 2006
* Drafted Andrea Bargnani [No. 1], Jun 28, 2006
* Traded Charlie Villanueva for TJ Ford, Jul 1, 2006
* Traded for Carlos Delfino, Jun 15, 2007
* Signed Jason Kapono, Jul 11, 2007
* Traded TJ Ford & Rasho Nesterovic & No. 17 Draft Pick for Jermaine O’Neal & No. 41 Draft Pick, Jun 26, 2008
* Signed Hassan Adams, Jul 8, 2008
* Signed Roko Ukic, Jul 16, 2008
* Signed Will Solomon, Jul 28, 2008
* Bought out Jorge Garbajosa, Aug 10, 2008
* Fired Mitchell, Dec 3, 2008

33-49/.402, 14th place in the Eastern Conference

———-

April 1, 2004 [and, then, Dec 17] will live-on, in infamy … as a sort of very real, cruel JOKE … in the history of this franchise, purpetrated by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment [MLSE, i.e. Richard Peddie & Larry Tanenbaum].