Bryan Colangelo Gets New Deal from Toronto Raptors
After months of uncertainty, on the day of the draft lottery, news broke that Bryan Colangelo will indeed be getting an extension.
His tenure as Raptors GM started on a high note as he led his team to the Atlantic Division championship and hauled in his second NBA Executive of the year honor.
He made some blockbuster moves in acquiring Jermaine O’Neal, Shawn Marion and Hedo Turkoglu, none of which worked out the way he may have hoped, but he showed initiative.
While all fans will agree that he has not done the best of jobs as Raptors GM, they can surely remember the Rob Babcock days and the stupefying ineptness of that era.
Is Bryan Colangelo the right man for the job?
Yes, while it is easy to rattle off a few names that may hypothetically be able to do a better job than Bryan Colangelo, one factor we have to account for is that Bryan Colangelo wants to be here.
How many of those other names do or would?
Bryan Colangelo is a bright basketball mind and he is a risk-taker, and as is the possibility with all risks, some don’t work out.
Bryan Colangelo is still one of the best minds in the business and he has a proven ability to make jaw-dropping trades with minimal assets.
What grade do we give his tenure thus far?
We have to give him a B-minus.
While we were tempted to give him a C-plus, the fact of the matter is that most of his ill-advised moves, excluding the drafting of Andrea Bargnani, were well received at the time.
Let us also remember that he had John Salmons commit to the Raptors, only to pull a Hedo-type flake and sign with the Bucks; he had a trade for Tyson Chandler and Boris Diaw nixed at the last minute by Michael Jordan and that he agreed to a deal with Matt Barnes only to find out that it was an illegal transaction.
What are his next orders of business?
His first order of business should be finding a taker for Andrea Bargnani, he now has the job security to admit his mistake and it is way past due.
Second, he has to address the point guard position, something that will likely be taken care of at the draft with the selection of either Brandon Knight or Kemba Walker.
Third, he has to decide what to do with Reggie Evans and to a lesser extent, Sonny Weems.
Is there hope for the Raptors?
Yes, there is.
With Bryan Colangelo at the helm hope is always just around the corner.
He has now reluctantly admitted that his Euro-ball vision for the Raptors was hopelessly flawed and is taking steps to change the organizational culture.
Now that Enes Kanter is out of reach, the Raptors will be drafting a point guard who can help take the team to the next level.
Adding Brandon Knight or Kemba Walker to a nucleus of DeMar DeRozan and Ed Davis promises that better days are ahead for the Toronto Raptors.
And Bryan Colangelo is the man to lead us there.
