Bryan Colangelo's Best and Worst Moves in Toronto

The following is a run-down of Bryan Colangelo's best/worst moves as the Raptors GM. Due to Jamario Moon being an obvious Sam Mitchell suggestion, I'm going to credit that to Sam.

Best Moves

1.Trading Rafael Araujo for Kris Humphries

This deal will go down as one of the more underrated deals in franchise history. The very presence of Araujo was a negative reminder of the mistakes made under the previous regime.

To his credit, Colangelo realized this quickly and turned an absolutely worthless player into a player who he nearly traded for a mid-first rounder in the 2007 NBA draft a year later.

Not bad. Humphries has his flaws, but he's an NBA player who happens to be someone the Raptors are banking on to produce in case of any injuries to their paper-thin front court this season.

He's also a lot younger than Araujo who will sadly be touching his thirties in the not too distant future.

2. Signing Anthony Parker

Parker made his return to the NBA as a Toronto Raptor and quietly became one of the better shooting guards in the NBA.

His play is measured by his leadership, intangibles, and his ability to keep defenses honest with his shooting. To date, he's the best perimeter defender the Raptors have had since Doug Christie, having to guard the opposing team's best player on a nightly basis.

He isn't going to be mistaken for an All-Star, but he's a consummate professional. He's earned every dollar of his bargain contract. This is far more than we can say for some of the other players signed under the Colangelo era.

3. Carlos Delfino for Two Second Round Picks

Two second rounders netted the Raptors an active wing player who was on some nights the only bench player providing any sort of production. I certainly think he could have started.

He gave the Raptors a fearless slasher who admittedly settled for the perimeter shots far too often. Regardless of the fact that he's no longer with the club for reasons unknown and has been replaced by the worst player in the northern hemisphere in Hassan Adams, the season he did play for the club was worth two second rounders and some.

4. Hopla effect

Dave Hopla's magic was one of the forgotten stories of the Raptors magic season in 2006-07. Not only did players like Jose Calderon and Parker turn into better shooters from game-to-game, the entire team seemed a little more confident in their jumper. 

The mechanics of some players were tweaked. It certainly is beyond me why he's no longer an assistant. I suppose the club felt John Lucas was more valuable.

5. Trading Charlie Villanueva for TJ Ford

Say what you will about the talented Villanueva, the initial returns on the Ford trade saw a clear sweep for Colangelo. Not only did Ford thrive under Mitchell, leading the Raptors to 47 wins, Villanueva struggled in every way with injuries, defense and consistency.

The long-term of this deal remains to be seen, but I'm a firm believer that while Villanueva is probably a more talented offensive player than both Bosh and Bargnani, he has serious issues mentally and defensively which will always lead to him being an average starter at best.

6. Trading Matt Bonner and Eric Williams for Rasho Nesterovic     

You're able to get a solid defensive presence, rid yourself of Eric Williams and his broken game and the price is Matt Bonner?

Granted the Spurs had Nesterovic's contract in mind when they dumped him to Toronto, but the overall impact of Nesterovic during his two season in Toronto was enough to justify losing the likable Bonner.

7. TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, Maceo Baston, and 17th overall pick for Jermaine O’Neal

Place me in the camp which feels that O'Neal's best days are long gone, and at this point the Raptors have traded for a solid veteran defensive presence who just happens to be making more money than all but four players in the league.

The long-term goal however was worth throwing in a few first rounders if needed. With O'Neal's contract coming off the books in 2010, he becomes one of the most tradable assets from next summer till the 2009-10 trade deadline.

The Raptors could get back a few TJ Ford level talents for the value O'Neal is going to have as an expiring six time All-Star. 

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?

5. Reactionary Management

This is another Kapono point, but also goes to one of the positives in O'Neal. Why is it that the Raptors seem to abandon their plans after every playoff loss?

They lost to New Jersey because Bosh was beaten up inside and the outside shooters were unreliable. They go out and get Kapono the next day. They lose to Orlando because they can't contain Dwight Howard? Enter Jermaine O' Neal.

I wonder if Colangelo is seeing something I'm not, and perhaps it'd be safe to say that given his resume he probably is. But reacting to other teams is a bad principle in managing teams.You have to find a way to have other teams react to you. If you have a vision, go for it.

He started out this way with his extremely unconventional, yet bold idea that he could turn Andrea Bargnani into a center who would then be a match-up nightmare. Signing Kapono and to a lesser degree trading for O'Neal really show a short-sighted approach. However, as underlined with O'Neal above, he may have other things in mind.

6. Bargnani with the First Overall Pick in the 2006 NBA Draft

I'll go on the record here and say at the time of the draft, I felt that the best player from the 2006 draft in 2012 would be either Andrea Bargnani or Tyrus Thomas. I've always felt my evaluation for talent was pretty good prior to the emergence of Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay.

However, even today I feel that Bargnani is the player with the highest ceiling, and alongside Roy, has the highest chance of reaching his ceiling. That said, was he a number one overall pick? No. He was a project.

Even as he plays well, you can easily see many areas which he could easily add on. He's a player with virtually no limitations. He has the right size, the right coordination, right shoulders, right length, right shooting touch, right quickness, right hands, and right feet to become a superstar player in the NBA. He's also deceptively athletic, although he may lack explosiveness.

That said, he was far from ready for the NBA. While he was extremely gifted offensively, his development as a big-man was closer to that of a high-school freshman.

Considering these things, Colangelo still made his love for the young Italian so transparent that by the time he drafted Andrea, Andrea was already shopping for a house in Toronto.

When you consider the possibility that they could have let him slip and traded down, you have to be a little upset at the lost opportunity. In Colangelo's defense, the three teams rumored to be most interested in Bargnani were the Raptors, Bulls, and Suns.

It certainly didn't help that the Bulls were picking at number two and that Andrea filled an even bigger need for them than he did for Toronto. When you consider the Bulls' lack of belief in LaMarcus Aldridge as a prospect, one might assume that Andrea Bargnani was sitting on top of their draft board as well.

7. A Colossal Scouting Blunder

I'm not quite certain if there is a bigger supporter of Italian basketball than myself. Despite this fact, when the 2007 NBA draft rolled around I was absolutely indifferent to the deal the Raptors had in place with the Heat to grab Marco Belinelli if he should be available at the 20th pick in exchange for Kris Humphries.

I didn't think Belinelli would be an NBA starter and felt that even after his solid summer league that his game was far too one-dimensional. The Warriors selected Belinelli at 18 and the Raptors held on to Kris Humphries.

At this point, I think I nearly broke everything within my reach, watching a perfectly great opportunity to get a potential All-Star level player that late in the first round.

There were basically two players I was praying the Raptors would target. The more unrealistic option was Julian Wright. The one option Colangelo carelessly looked past was Rudy Fernandez.

There he was. Your starting shooting guard for the next ten years. He was an international player to boot. I can't imagine how a team so high on international scouting and drafting became so consumed with the one-dimensional Belinelli that they essentially overlooked the next Manu Ginobili.

This was a chance to turn Rafael Araujo into a lottery- caliber player. Making this move alone would justify ten bad moves. Instead, they refused to give up Humphries who at times thinks he's the second coming of Kareem, and allowed one of the best young teams in Portland to pick him up.

It's in a strange way fortunate for opposing teams that Oden seems to have been the wrong pick for the Blazers, because had he been the right pick, they would be winning championships until Barrack Obama's son was in office by the way they were drafting.