Goodbye Gherardini?

[white men can't jump]

Kawhi Leonard would've been a nice consolation prize

But Bismack Biyombo would not.....

Colangelo, though, truly showed the courage of his conviction. That stands even if the pick is a bust. It is easy to say before a draft that you are going to draft the best prospect available; it is harder to do when that means waiting longer for him than everybody else. (Bismack Biyombo, next on the Raptors’ board, also might have stayed in Europe for an extra year; he went seventh to Charlotte.)

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/...-of-nba-draft/

Like most people, I was skeptical about Jonas at first (just took sleeping on it to change my mind though) because I knew little about him. But man, if there was one player I was hoping the Raps wouldn't take, it was Biyombo. So glad that didn't happen.

[Nilanka]

It was Kemba and Leonard on my list....but like you, that's because I didn't know anything about Jonas pre-draft.

I remember someone on here saying that Biyombo would be as good as Dwight Howard :|

[white men can't jump]

It was Kemba and Leonard on my list....but like you, that's because I didn't know anything about Jonas pre-draft.

I remember someone on here saying that Biyombo would be as good as Dwight Howard :|

Ditto on the bold.

And yeah, the Biyombo hype scared me to death. Every time I watched highlights my thought was that he's a 5 to 10 year project to be Ben Wallace in the absolute best-case scenario....so not worth a top 10 pick (or you know, top 30).

[NoPropsneeded]

I remember someone arguing with me that Biyombo will be better than JV... good times

[mcHAPPY]

It was Kemba and Leonard on my list....but like you, that's because I didn't know anything about Jonas pre-draft.

I remember someone on here saying that Biyombo would be as good as Dwight Howard :|

And that is what gets lost on so many when talking draft picks. Their value and potential is maximized when the odds of them reaching it - for the majority - is very low.

Biyombo has shown to be a serviceable big at best thus far.

[planetmars]

My biggest relief was that we didn't end up drafting Vesely. A forward that can't shoot is a really bad omen. I recall Ford thinking that the Raptors were going to draft him and I'm so glad that didn't happen.

[RandomGuy]

Shocking news.

[Soft Euro]

Gherardini in my opinion was the reason why we drafted JV. JV's buyout was a big issue for teams that passed on him (like Cleveland). Toronto despite the buyout went ahead and drafted him. Gherardini has ties in Europe and he may have been able to agree on a buyout for 1 year as opposed to 2 or 3.

I could be wrong, but I honestly believe that if Gherardini was not around then we would have drafted someone other than JV in the first round.

That's what I thought as well. As far as I know he was a big part of the scouting and all that in Europe and it's very likely he had a big hand in selecting JV.

[Puffer]

That's what I thought as well. As far as I know he was a big part of the scouting and all that in Europe and it's very likely he had a big hand in selecting JV.

If Gherardini was why the raps drafted Bargs, Garbo, Jose, Parker and JV, then it is too bad he is going. The only one of those that didn't work out well was Bargs, and that isn't on Gherardini, that is on BC for keeping him 4 years too long. If he had been traded rather than offered a big contract, might have got something back that had value. Hard to see that happening now.

[planetmars]

If Gherardini was why the raps drafted Bargs, Garbo, Jose, Parker and JV, then it is too bad he is going. The only one of those that didn't work out well was Bargs, and that isn't on Gherardini, that is on BC for keeping him 4 years too long. If he had been traded rather than offered a big contract, might have got something back that had value. Hard to see that happening now.

Jose was brought in by Babcock.. Gherardini was brought in by Colangelo.

[Soft Euro]

If Gherardini is (co-)blamed for Bargnani, I don't think it should be for bringing him in, but for how he has developed. With his talent, there was (is) no reason he shouldn't be a solid nba-player and I don't know what his role has been in that part (it might have been big, I really don't know anything about that).

[slaw]

If Gherardini is (co-)blamed for Bargnani, I don't think it should be for bringing him in, but for how he has developed. With his talent, there was (is) no reason he shouldn't be a solid nba-player and I don't know what his role has been in that part (it might have been big, I really don't know anything about that).

Gherardini has been like the Phantom of the Opera for awhile now.

When he first arrived he was lauded as a great hire and it seemed to pay immediate dividends with Parker and Garbo coming over and signing in Toronto. Then, he basically disappeared. I guess that's not uncommon for an assistant GM but he clearly wasn't the average asst GM. Remember the rumours about him taking over the Knicks or Nets?

I have no idea what, if anything, he contributed to the Raps but I have to say that, based on Toronto's lack of success with international players compared to other teams, I don't think we're losing the King Midas of European basketball....

[drizz]

we used to see a lot more of this:

[drizz]

oh yeah and there was this: