khandor’s sports blog

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 …

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

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.

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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

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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]. 

If this most recent bit of news is, indeed, accurate …

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Time running out on MLSE’s Peddie

The winds of change are blowing at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., and Richard Peddie soon may be swept out the door.

The change involving Peddie may not necessarily have anything to do with the impending hiring of Brian Burke as president and general manager of the Leafs — maybe as soon as late this week — but it’s likely. And Peddie likely is on his way out at the end of the season.

Peddie has been under fire for failed sporting decisions — primarily the hiring of Rob Babcock and John Ferguson as inexpensive and inexperienced general managers for the Raptors and the Maple Leafs — and has been put on notice with a changing and more aggressive board of directors. And while he has clung to the job on the basis of the financial strength of the company, there are those who look at failed television networks and other problems within MLSEL and figure the time is right for change.

This won’t happen quickly. Peddie has been a marvellous survivor, but time is running out.

THIS AND THAT

Name to know: Erol Uzermeri, the newest board member of MLSEL, and unlike his fellow Teachers’ Pension Plan flag wavers, isn’t happy just to get a parking pass and dinner at the directors’ lounge. He, not chairman Larry Tanenbaum or Peddie, is considered the power broker on the board and not interested in the status quo …

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then it’s a godsend for the dedicated and beleaguered fanbase of the Maple Leafs and the Raptors.

An unequivical Halleluiah! … should be the Word of the Day, in Raptorville & Leafs’ Nation, if this specific action ever comes to pass, and a coronation ceremony planned for Erol Uzermeri, should he truly be able to clean house at the very top of MLSE.  

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Oh, when will THEY … ever learn?

Unlike some others in the hoops’ blogosphere …

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Black is the new Red: Raptors unveil new third jersey
Olympic medalists Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon unveiled the Raptor’s alternate road uniform Thursday at Air Canada Centre in front of fans, guests and some guy named Matt Devlin. They look pretty slick.

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for this corner, keeping this franchise solidly IN THE BLACK … majorly in the BLACK, in fact, to the Raptuous Tune of Big-Time profits … is all it’s been about for the Dinos, since the shift in ownership, several years ago, from the original John Bitove/Isiah Thomas group to the all-encompassing conglomerate control of the parent company known as Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment [MLSE].

In terms of black unis, to these eyes, this style belongs, first and foremost, to the original San Antonio Spurs, then les infants terribles Orlando Magic, and best of all to the 6-time World Champions, Chicago Bulls, of a different completely era.

In today’s game, however … when organizations like the Lakers and the Pistons and the Celtics [etc.] - historically talented and championship-worthy NBA teams - are choosing to keep their focus on things like winning and tradition, this corner takes particular note … in sharp constrast to some other otpp-rich-and-larry-come-lately-wannabee outfits, without a single appearance in an NBA Finals to their credit yet, but a slew of less-than-.500 finishes, and a number of seasons with 1st Round Playoff exits … who seem most intent, not on doing what’s necessary to build a championship calibre NBA team, down-the-road for this franchise … e.g. like acquiring the best available young talent [i.e. Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge or Rudy Gay, in the 2006 NBA Draft] with considerable upside for their roster … but on making the MOST MOOLA possible, for their ownership group, while distributing an insidious and lethal does of treadmill-status-camoflaging Kool-Aid to their rabid fan base, year after year after year after …  

IT SIMPLY MAKES THIS STOMACH WANT TO WRETCH. 

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Black is NOT the new Red for the Toronto Raptors.
Far from it.

BLACK is simply the colour it’s been ‘about’ for this ‘outfit’ since that ownership transfer took place, behind closed doors … only difference is, now it’s also on full public display, merchandising style, for everyone else to see for themselves.

Make no mistake about it.

The recent goings-on at Bay & Lakeshore (where the headquarters for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment [MLSE] are located, at the Air Canada Centre [ACC]), are rotten to the core, involving both of the professional sports franchises operated by this organization, i.e. the Maple Leafs and the Raptors.

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re: Maple Leafs

There’s no Wing-ing it with Leafs’ new strategy
If you were to ask Ken Holland, GM of the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings, to identify the quality his scouts look for when it comes to the annual entry draft, his answer would be succinct.

“Skill,” he’d say, just as he’s said it many times before.

Nine teams followed that mantra when it came to making selections with the top 10 picks of the NHL entry draft on Friday night.

One did not.

That team would be your Maple Leafs.

Peddie era continues to linger like a bad smell
Like a bad odour, you just can’t make this guy go away.

From the day Peddie ascended to the power position of having both the Raptors and Leafs report to him in 2003, the hockey club has gone straight downhill. You’d think his bosses might wonder why there hasn’t been a Stanley Cup playoff game at the ACC since 2004.

Instead, he’s managed to survive. Again.

Wilson hire raises red flags
Of more concern, however, is that this might be an indication that Fletcher has grown fond of grasping the levers of power again and intends to keep the job permanently. He denies this, but also said recently that he would not be the one to hire the next Leaf coach.

So the story keeps changing. Hiring an expensive, big-name coach like Wilson certainly isn’t evidence of a caretaker administration, that’s for sure.

If Fletcher wanted the president’s job and would hire a GM, well, that might work. But the original plan, to hire a new president and GM, remains the most sensible plan with the greatest chance of success.

re: Raptors

O’Neal deal a step backwards
Colangelo built the seven-seconds-or-less Suns, but so much for sticking to the vision. The bog-it-down Celtics are the NBA champs. The Suns are ripping to shreds what Colangelo wrought. And Colangelo, in acquiring a hobbled O’Neal à la Phoenix’s Shaq, has chucked the dream, too.

Perhaps even worse, another of Toronto’s perceived advantages – the in-house knowledge of European talent – is moot. Talented Euros aren’t yearning for the lagging U.S. greenback.

“They’re fighting back a little bit,” said Colangelo of the European sides.

The Raptors, by contrast, are doubling back in the direction of the Babcock era, without cap room to yield more talent. Not that Colangelo is about to show up in Dockers, not that they’re a laughingstock. But a year ago the GM was billing his team as more carefully constructed than some disposable fashion. Suddenly his killer wardrobe is looking far more thoughtfully put together than his roster.

Jorge Garbajosa gone from Raptors
“After a long, difficult and sometimes emotional process stemming from a traumatic injury to a key player, it was concluded that parting ways was the best thing for both Jorge and the Raptors organization,” GM Bryan Colangelo said yesterday.

The move ends the lengthy, contentious negotiations between Colangelo, Garbajosa, the Spanish Basketball Federation and its insurance company.

Draft’s just like pant-leg debate for the Raptors
Colangelo, to illustrate the difference, bent over and grabbed the cuff of his skinny-cut trousers and held it next to Mitchell’s ankle. The contrast in the silhouettes was cigarette to fat cigar, and Colangelo made a joke at the expense of the coach’s choice, quadruple-pleated and roomy. Mitchell, meanwhile, was not shy about defending his haberdasher’s handiwork.

“Dude, I’m a big guy. I’ve gotta have some room to let my (self) flow. All my pants fit like this,” said Mitchell. “Those pants Bryan had on, I told him he looks like a maintenance man …”

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This is an organization that …

* Lies through its teeth … habitually

* Is riddled with internal cross-wiring

* Has no legitimate plan in place to ever win a League Championship

and

* Is primarily concerned with making oodles of money for its ownership group.