From my earlier post it may seem like I think Sam Mitchell is the only reason this team has struggled so far this year, but I want to assure you, that’s not the case.

I think Bryan Colangelo needs to bear a chunk of the blame, and of course, the players do too.

Here’s how I break it down: Mitchell: 40%; Colangelo: 35%; Players: 25%.

I covered Mitchell’s part earlier: Team wasn’t prepared for games, no offensive creativity, bad/no playcalling down the stretch, odd substitution patterns, team appeared to be tuning him out.

The players deserve blame, of course, because clearly, they did not come to play every night. And you can lay some of that on Mitchell, for not preparing them, but at some point, as Mitchell said the other day, guys just need to come and play hard without being told to - that’s part of being a professional. And on top of that, you have players not answering their roles on offense (Calderon not turning the corner on screen and roll, Kapono not shooting threes, Moon not driving, O’Neal shooting too many fadeaways) and making dumb mistakes (Solomon leaving his feet to pass, Hump and his running one handers, etc.). They gotta accept responsibility too.

As for the rest, well, that’s gotta be on Colangelo. I talked about it a while ago, how this thin roster was not constructed with enough flexibility to make any moves, so if it stunk, we were essentially stuck with it. Also a problem that in today’s NBA, where the bigger bodies and advanced medical analysis mean more missed games, that it was considered a good idea to run with a 12-man roster.

And it’s been borne out, obviously, that there is a serious deficiency at the wing positions and that there is no one on the bench to help and no moves to be made to bring help in.

Here’s where I think BC’s biggest mistakes came:

1) First of all, letting Carlos Delfino walk away.

Now, I know they couldn’t re-sign him without going over the tax and you can absolutely argue that he’s not enough to go over the tax for. And of course hindsight is 20/20. But comparing him to the other wing players: He slashes more than Moon, Parker and Kapono combined, and although his overall shooting percentage was low (40%), he shot 38% from three and I guarantee that with regular, consistent minutes, he wouldn’t force as many shots.

Furthermore, he can play backup point guard. You could have brought in Roko, left Solomon to rot in Europe, and had Delfino as your third guard. And, he can rebound - 4.4 per game in 23 minutes is an excellent number.

Most important, he was a better defender than Kapono and equal to Moon and Parker last year. And since both of those guys have taken a step back on defense (which couldn’t be predicted, I know) Delfino surely would have been a better option right now.

Most important… he was the only guy on the team last year other than TJ Ford capable of his creating his own shot. Again, not always good shots, but again, with consistent playing time…

Either way, the Raptors now don’t have a single soul who can create, no one who can defend, a crappy backup PG, and a three point shooter who won’t shoot threes. Delfino could have helped out in every case. (The Raptors still hold Delfino’s rights, but by all accounts, his contract is 3 years/$12 million dollars without any out clauses. Meaning he’d have to negotiate a buyout to get out of his deal before 2011. Doesn’t seem likely.)

2) The other mistake, a much larger mistake, was buying out Jorge Garbajosa’s contract.

This was huge for two reasons. Number one, if - and I admit it was a big if - Garbajosa was able to get healthy and play, he could have provided the physical perimeter defender they sorely need. He’s also, as we all know, an incredibly smart basketball player, a good hustle and energy guy, who provides a lot of the “intangibles” the Raps are missing. Again, I don’t know if he’d ever be healthy enough to contribute (I note he’s averaging 9 points and 4 boards in Russia, but that’s a little different from NBA competition) but why not keep him around to see? And surely, another veteran presence around the locker room couldn’t hurt, could it?

But just as important (more important maybe?), he had a $4.3 million expiring contract. Even if he couldn’t play a minute, as we all know in today’s NBA, expiring contacts are like gold at the trading deadline, and having small contracts (relatively speaking) to trade gives you even more flexibility advantages. This is exactly the type of asset we don’t have to trade! Any team looking to dump salary would have looked right here, with $11 million in Garbo, Graham and Parker available, plus Hump and his two years. And you don’t think taking back an expiring or two would make a longer contract like Kapono’s more attractive in a package?

Why in the world Colangelo thought it’d be a good idea to buy out an expiring contract, instead of trying to trade it, is beyond me. Maybe it was outta respect for Garbo, but come on. This is a business. And this was a bad, bad GM move. I mean, seriously. This was like a Rob Babcock move. The Raptors got absolutely nothing out of this, except what, a savings of about a million dollars? Chump change. I’d rather have a trade asset.

So, those two mistakes were huge contributors to the problems the Raptors are having:

• They have no perimeter D - which both could have helped with;
• The bench is too thin - obviously, a couple of veterans never hurts;
• They have minimal trade assets - Garbo’s contract, if not Garbo himself, would be of value;
• The roster is at the minimum, so they can’t do a 2-for-1 trade - again, more bodies, more tradeable assets, means a trade is more likely.

Now, another factor was drafting Nathan Jawai in round 2; I know second round players are absolute crapshoots, but it might have been nice had they chosen a guy who could at least attempt to play. Sigh.

If he’d kept Delfino, kept Garbo, left Will Solomon under whatever rock he was under, drafted a raw 7-footer whose only job would need to be “hack Dwight Howard,” we’d have a 14-man roster with better perimeter defenders, more fouls to give, and some bargaining chips. And BC still could have brought on Hassan Adams to play cheerleader!

Instead we’ve got three good bigs plus Hump, five mediocre swingmen, a good PG backed up by a rookie and a guy who would struggle to make the D-league. Oh, and a 7-footer who hasn’t dressed once.

And next-to-no bargaining power to make a trade.

That, my friends, is all on Colangelo.

Should the roster be producing more wins? It looks like it - it looks like some playcalling and offensive creativity, combined with sustained effort, should have won at least two more games already this year (and avoided struggling in the close games they almost blew). So yes, I do believe - at this point - that a coaching will help.

But if this team continues to flounder under Jay Triano, if Triano puts in some new sets but they still struggle or appear listless, then it’ll be clear - it’s not the coaching, it’s the roster. And BC is going to have a hard time fixing it, because he’s left himself so few options.

Tags: Bryan Colangelo, Jay Triano, Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Coaches, Toronto Raptors, Transactions.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.