What Went Wrong? And What To Do?

[Arenick]

Remember that great feeling we had before the all-star break? Where you could proudly tell a friend or colleague that you were a Raptor fan? When the Raptors were actually becoming a force in the East? Well what happened ? We didn't change any players, and stayed relatively the same, playing the same level opponents. Bosh may have been injured for a few games but besides that the team just felt different. There was no heart, no soul, and the effort just wasn't there. We may still make the playoffs, but that's just frivolous at this point, as we are not going to make it to the second round. So how do we fix it? It seems that Bosh might want to leave from a sub .500 team for greener pastures and when he does, how are we going to rebuild. Should we replace Triano and Colangelo? And with who? Who should we trade, sign and trade Bosh, or sign to be successful next year? Just wanted to hear other people's opinions about our mediocre team.

[Apollo]

- They started slow and had a tough schedule to start the season. v
- They then hit a weak part of the schedule and were healthy at the same time. ^
- Then then got banged up around the same time their schedule got tough again. v

This team started in mediocrity, had said mediocrity hidden by a weak part of the schedule only to be exposed once more when times got more challenging. Blame Jay, blame Hedo, blame everybody. I believe the fault deserves to be more on certain players than others but no one on the team deserves a free pass.

[dagon420]

I think Bosh will stay. Its good to be the franchise player of your own team. Plus I'm sure he trusts Colangelo to get us out of this mess quickly.

But whether Bosh stays or goes we need to trade Turkgolu, Calderon, Bellinelli and Andrea for some 1st round picks and/or good swingman or defensive bigman.

But I'm confident we can rebuild quickly, once our GM realizes that a European strategy is flawed. He is also a first-time GM on his own, don't forget. The coaches need to be fired for someone like Scott Skiles. Maybe Gheradini will also go elsewhere, but that could be asking too much.

[Kennay]

We need to get our own Mikhail Prokhorov/Mark Cuban/Jerry Buss

[Apollo]

Not sure how that helps. MLSE has never gone the cheap route over being competitive. The money is there, the great decision making is not.

[Raśl]

I think Bosh will stay. Its good to be the franchise player of your own team. Plus I'm sure he trusts Colangelo to get us out of this mess quickly.

But whether Bosh stays or goes we need to trade Turkgolu, Calderon, Bellinelli and Andrea for some 1st round picks and/or good swingman or defensive bigman.

But I'm confident we can rebuild quickly, once our GM realizes that a European strategy is flawed. He is also a first-time GM on his own, don't forget. The coaches need to be fired for someone like Scott Skiles. Maybe Gheradini will also go elsewhere, but that could be asking too much.

So the only problem with this team is the international members of the franchise. Not Amir inconsistent play and foul trouble, not Bosh's ability to defend the low post, not Wright's and Sonny's shot selection, not Jack tendency to play selfish from time to time, just the international players and members of the franchise?
What did Gherardini do to the team to deserved to be fired?

If you trade all of them, who do you think we should bring? or who do you think will want to be here?

[Roarque]

I don't pretend to be an expert here but didn't BC bring a defensive guru over from Pheonix to shore up Jay's lack of expertise on defense? My understanding is that Jay is the offensive genius and relies on Mark ( is it Mark?) to develop the defensive stretegy. Actually a defensive guru from Pheonix is an oxy-moron...when did Pheonix ever play defense? Fire him, not Jay.

Didn't BC bring in Euros because "they" loved Toronto and wouldn't lust to leave in free agency? Isn't the problem that Jay can't motivate Andreas and Hedo and Marco and Rasho ( wait, forget Rasho - he isn't really a Euro anymore since he's been through the NBA wringer) to play at a sustained NBA level for more than a few weeks. Where does Gheradini fit into that aspect of the puzzle? Get him involved or get him out of the way.

No, I like Jay - he stands in there and defends his guys and respects the media ( remember how painful a Sam Mitchell post game interview was?) so I want him to stay. He is a rookie at this pressure cooker and I for one think he withstood the pressure better than most. Besides, he won't cut and run like an American would should success make him desireable to Cleveland or Oklahoma City. Keep him.

As for Chris, I love the guy but he's headed home to his native land where most of the population treats him as a second class citizen and many of the rest pack handguns for back up in an argument. Canadians don't get the reasonns why he's prefer to live there but he would. And where he goes he will become the number two and then in 2015 he'll come back and tell Michael Grange what a big mistake he made. Yadda Yadda CB4. Yadda Yadda.

If Bargo could play consistantly like he did in Detroit and command the low post on D-fence then he could be one of the three towers. The other two? You got me but every championship team has three towers, not one, not two but three. One big dude, one jitter bug who can pass and one swingman who can shoot. Maybe Money Weems, maybe DDR, maybe Amir or who knows, with Chris gone maybe Hedo will have his own team to lead.

[Raptor Jesus]

I've never heard of a team transitioning from scraping by to contender. It took LBJ and 4 seasons of almosts and what ifs for the Cavs to have a shot.

Unlike the Cavs we're reading the same script, X franchise player can't get us deep into the playoffs. Buy X free agents. No improvement. X franchise player 2nd contract ends, with a promising rookie in the background. Rinse and repeat.

We need to wrap our heads around the fact that bringing 3 top tier players together in the same realm of experience and age is magic act only the best in the league manage. The other 24 teams are the stage hands keeping the spectacle alive.

[dagon420]

So the only problem with this team is the international members of the franchise. Not Amir inconsistent play and foul trouble, not Bosh's ability to defend the low post, not Wright's and Sonny's shot selection, not Jack tendency to play selfish from time to time, just the international players and members of the franchise?
What did Gherardini do to the team to deserved to be fired?

If you trade all of them, who do you think we should bring? or who do you think will want to be here?

Yea because those international members take up 30 million from the cap!

We need draft picks! We need to rebuild.

[dagon420]

And I just wanna say about Gheradini, what has he done? He is clearly a rookie GM in the NBA because his tactics haven't been working. Andrea, his big number 1 pick, didn't pan out, and then he overpaid him.

If only he would stick true to his guns and pick Jennings instead of Derozan. Then trade away Calderon for a decent SG/SF. We could be alright.