BasketballMaking the case for Colangelo

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The move to acquire Jermaine O'Neal, right, is arguably a blemish on the resume of Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo . (Ron Turenne/Getty Images)

Losers of eight straight through Tuesday, I feel like addressing the 13-32 Toronto Raptors and the building chorus of attacks on general manager Bryan Colangelo.

A sports GM ultimately has one job and that is to assemble a group of players that is capable of winning games. In some sports and in some markets, this is easier than in others.

In the NBA, teams live and die by the salary cap. One bad signing or trade can literally screw a team for several years. By this logic, Colangelo has been a failure. But it's worth pointing out that it's one thread of error that has caused most of this aggravation.

It started with trading T.J. Ford to Indiana for Jermaine O'Neal in 2008. Acquiring O'Neal was a horrendous idea, but it settled any debate over who was the Raptors point guard of record. Ford can blame his decline on injuries, and whether you like Calderon or not, Colangelo made the right choice between the two.

O'Neal led to Shawn Marion, and that situation brought us Hedo Turkoglu. None of them provided the Raptors with what it was hoped they would - a consistent secondary scoring threat behind Chris Bosh. In O'Neal's case, Colangelo should have known better. With Turkoglu, he got a whining man-child who seemed more interested in Yorkville clubs and pizza than basketball.

Beyond that however, where can you find fault in Colangelo's body of work in Toronto? For publicly believing that he could build a team around Chris Bosh?

While everybody knows you can't build a championship team around Bosh, you also have no choice but to build your team around your best player, which is what Bosh was. Finding a star on the wing isn't easy.

Drafting success

Can you attack Colangelo's drafting with the Raps?

Not really. His first pick in 2006, Andrea Bargnani, actually stands the test of time. While three years ago it was easy to say Brandon Roy was the true number one in that draft, injuries are now decimating his career. That leaves LaMarcus Aldridge (poor man's Bosh) and Rudy Gay as the only decent options from the top ten of that draft that Colangelo didn't take(the best player today from the '06 draft, Rajon Rondo, was picked 21stand therefore passed over by 19 other GMs).

In 2007, Toronto didn't have a pick because of the long-forgotten Lamond Murray for Yogi Stewart trade under Glen Grunwald. The 2008 draft falls under "mistake" because of it's tie-in with the aforementioned O'Neal/Ford blunder. Roy Hibbert was chosen by the Raps and flipped to Indiana for their second rounder, Nathan Jawai.

DeMar DeRozan in 2009? Seems to be panning out. It's too early to make the call on Ed Davis this year.

What has to be taken into consideration when looking at the Raptors' draft deficiencies over the years is their lack of second-round picks, which goes back to before Colangelo. Through various trade throw-ins Toronto has washed their hands of numerous number two selections, a place where other teams have mined players like Carl Landry, DeAndre Jordan, Glen Davis and Gilbert Arenas.

One criticism thrown at Colangelo is the calibre of players he's used the mid-level exception on. But people tend to forget that he's also deft at trading bad players and bad contracts for something generally better. He somehow traded Rafael Araujo for two living, breathing human beings, one of whom in Kris Humphries became a valuable contributor to a playoff squad.
He got Reggie Evans for Jason Kapono, a deal that would be an absolute steal if Evans hadn't been hurt most of the past year. Getting Leandro Barbosa for Turkoglu managed to salvage some correction to Colangelo's biggest mistake, even if Barbosa is simply a modern-day Mike James - a scoring guard on a bad team.

As for Colangelo's signings, Jorge Garbajosa and Anthony Parker seemed to work at the time. Jarrett Jack filled a need and was intended to placate Bosh. Calderon's contract was questionable, but bear in mind he almost managed to trade it for Tyson Chandler. You can debate whether Amir Johnson is worth the money he was signed to last summer, but his contract is actually quite reasonable by NBA standards.

There's no doubt the Raptors are terrible. That's what happens when a team is in a rebuilding mode. It probably sounds like I'm defending Colangelo, but I'm not consciously trying to do so. However, perspective is needed. You can attack his offensive mindset, his perceived soft spot for Euros, and call him overrated. There's value to all of those.

Bad memories

But Raptors fans, like people in general, tend to have woefully short memories. Does anyone recall the guy they had at GM before? Rob Babcock once explained his first-round selection of Araujo as a result of the fact that he simply hadn't scouted higher-ranked players in the 2004 draft. Think about that for a second.

Colangelo's tenure has been marked by two events: The Bosh saga and the failed O'Neal/Turkoglu experiment. In the NBA, things like that derail teams. Star players wanting to play in Toronto is a subject for an entirely different column (I'll get to that another time).

Yes, Colangelo should get an extension. And he probably will, because MLSE likes him. Give him the chance to try and finish rebuilding. I don't see a ton of comparable options out there to replace him, and quite frankly I wouldn't trust MLSE to find them anyway.

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