Bryan Colangelo's Best and Worst Moves in Toronto

The Mistakes

1.  Keeping Sam Mitchell

I've formed many theories as to why Colangelo opted to keep Mitchell. Initially I thought Mitchell was his scapegoat in case the team failed to make the playoffs.

Then I thought that he was pressured into giving Mitchell a shot by Wayne Embry who's stated that he's a big Sam Mitchell supporter. Now I just think he's doing it to mess with my head.

Firing Mitchell and risking a collapse at this point is far too risky with Bosh's free agency so close. Bosh and Mitchell have developed a Popovich-Duncan type relationship, and unfortunately, as long as Bosh is happy with his production, he's unwilling to look at the larger picture in terms of how Mitchell's actually dealt with players other than him, or how Mitchell's dealt with the actual coaching aspect of being a coach.

2. Failing to trade Calderon to Address Wing position

I don't think it's a secret at this point, that in six games we know more about Jose Calderon than we have ever known before.

We know he can shoot at a great clip. We know that he plays a slow-down tempo and limits careless turnovers.

We know that he cannot get into the paint off of his own creation ability and that his penetration comes from picks set by his bigs. We also know that Coby Karl could probably spin him on a crossover, and that virtually any point guard in the league is licking their lips looking at him on defense.

He can only knock down so many jump-shots. At some point, the point is abundantly clear. He can't keep players in front of him long enough to have his interior defense help him out. What has it led to?

Jermaine O'Neal on the bench with cheap fouls game after game, calling his agent to get him a Spanish-English dictionary and look up the words "D up Motha f*#$er!"

Had the Raptors kept Ford, they could have dealt Calderon who's value was inflated tenfold for a quality wing player.

Instead, they've managed to squander their opportunity to net a return on the young Spaniard, and given that opposing coaches are sending third stringers into the game to attack him--and they're succeeding, I'm going to assume the word is out.

3. Jorge Garbajosa Mess

Initially, the Raptors had a solid veteran presence in Garbajosa. He brought out the best in both Bargnani and Calderon on and off-the-court. However, he basically gave them three quarters of a season.

In the grand scheme of things, the Raptors basically paid Jorge Garbajosa about twelve million dollars for 67 games of solid veteran presence. What a disaster.

4. Jason Kapono signing for the Full MLE

I absolutely can't understand why Jason Kapono was paid the money he was when there was clearly no one within millions of dollars competing for his services? Who did the Raptors outbid?

Was this the extra incentive to play in Canada? Not only did they overpay for a player they could essentially have gotten for half the price in a trade the following year, they got a three-point shooter who refuses to shoot threes.

I do agree that Kapono could flourish in the right system, but isn't it up to Colangelo to evaluate that prior to signing him long-term to a bloated contract he'll never live up to?

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