Bryan Colangelo Finally Derails the Sam Mitchell Rollercoaster Permanently

Late this afternoon, word trickled out from Raptorland that Sam Mitchell has been officially let go.

And while this may be an awkwardly-timed gesture, it appears to have been directly facilitated by the players themselves.

After suffering through what is being described as the most embarrassing loss in team history to Denver, the team held two ominously staged "players-only meetings"—one directly after the game, and one earlier Thursday morning.

This only served to underscore what last night's performance cried out to everyone who had witnessed the debacle—the players had finally given up on Sam.

It is a somewhat fitting end, in a 'Circle of Life' sorta way, to a coach who came in with a reputation of building strong player relationships, as an ex-player who knew the ins and outs of the professional game.

At his best, he has been given credit for developing a young roster and steering a franchise back to respectability that was teetering on the brink of disaster after a public falling out and subsequent expulsion of their franchise player. For this, he was rewarded with Coach of the Year honours.

Despite his successes in the post-Vince Carter era, Sam had never been able to completely escape the tainted reputation of being a middling or worse bench coach and a downright poor tactician, something he was never able to rectify by fostering a Tom Thibodeau-type sidekick.

The maddening inconsistency of role players punctuated by befuddling substitution patterns and the inability to game plan against individual high scoring opponents have become hallmarks of the Mitchell regime. But potential public and private scorn has often been evaded by Sam's continual deferral to the limitations of his roster, something GM Colangelo must have found wearing.

However, the considerably heightened expectations that came with this season appeared to lay the foundations for his dismissal. With a litany of nagging injuries building up on the roster, the team acquired one final inexcusable habit in the form of an inability to finish off opponents.

Sam himself probably realized he was coaching on borrowed time after a painfully-mediocre Nets team waltzed into the ACC and mounted a furious comeback after being pummelled early. And while it was Mitchell's ex-foil, Vince Carter, who came back to reprise his villainous role, ultimately sending the Raptors into defeat, it was a series of repeated fourth-quarter Raptor bunglings that sent his ex-coach into damage control. 

After more blood-letting at the hands of the Celtics, the hemorrhaging was addressed briefly in a pair of home wins against the Bobcats and the Hawks. It was this current road trip that would spell an end to one of the most tumultuous coaching tenures in Toronto sports history.

The Raptors organization were in no position to pull the trigger financially, and may not even be in a position to hire a high-profile replacement, who would expect a significant time and monetary commitment from the club. A best-case scenario for Raptor fans involves intern coach Jay Triano lighting a fire under the club, and righting the wayward ship for the remainder of the season.

But love him or hate him, endorse his firing or defend his status as victim, the organization had to realize there was a limited upside to keeping Sam around. Mitchell has proved, by his repeated tendency to get out coached by such non-coaching luminaries as Lawrence Frank, that he was not the man to get the Raptors near a Conference Final, never mind an NBA championship.

Most importantly, in this case, Sam had appeared to lose the endorsement of his franchise player. And with the 2010 free-agent bonanza looming, Bosh was the only thing that could keep Sam locked in Toronto.

Instead, Chris asked to get off the ride and Colangelo responded in kind.

Given that next week the Raps have a crucial home and home engagement with those same Nets, it's imperative that everyone on the team somehow get on the same page—or this season can be written off as a new low in Raptor history.