Colangelo Ranked 27th Best NBA GM By SBNation

[Brasky]

Jermaine O'Neil (incredibly washed up and injury prone) and Hedo (never more than an average player to begin with) should never have been acquired in the first place. It's not that these moves made sense at the time but just didn't work out. They were terrible acquisitions at the time and there was no way in hell they were gonna work out.

Besides their skillsets being poor fits for the team, these players were simply not nearly as good as Colangelo thought they were. It's seems he based his evaluations of said players on J.O.'s pre multi injury form, and Hedo's small sample '08 playoff performance.

[Hotshot]

After weighing in all the circumstances of teams success vs faliure and looking at all the other GM's positive actions/negative actions, I would put Colangelo in the top 10 GM's in the league.

The article missed the mark by a long shot.

[insight_tor]

I am sick reading this non-sense: "Pat Riley is a genius"! He was just lucky that CB4 decided to go Miami and than LeBron followed. The Miami three mi-amigo gang up was the work of the three players, not the genius of Pat Riley.

[Apollo]

I would give him top 20. He's done it in the past, been somewhat successful, but he hasn't done it lately. He hasn't been able to find success without Steve Nash. No way I can place him in the top ten based on what I've seen here in Toronto. Spectacular trades that didn't happen is as good to me as spectacular championships that didn't happen. Most of his major trades in Toronto have been disasters.

[SirChillyMost]

I couldn't agree more with the facts pointed out in relation to BC's Raptor tenure. He may not be 27th but he's in the lower echelon of GM's in my mind as BC has proven to be more hype than actual substance. He has make sideways transactions over & over again plus he failed to acquire another upper echelon player or a real NBA center to play along side of Bosh- an injured JO doesn't cut it and we all know that Bargnani is a 7ft stretch 4 that BC is trying to move back to his natural PF position by acquiring a certified NBA big man. Not to mention that BC just extended a PF (Amir) & drafted one as well (Davis)- some people never learn.

This is BC's Raptor vision manifestated 4 plus years later- Bargnani as the Franchise. From Division champs to Conference chumps all under BC's watch not to mention that Bosh has gone MIA- to Miami that is. Bosh is now the best 3rd option in the NBA while Bargnani is currently Toronto's 1st option offense.

BC should trade just Bargnani, Calderon, Evans, Banks (I actually like Banks), Bellineli plus the TPE for a real center along with quality experienced veteran talent (like Barbosa) to surround the Young Gunz (Demar, Ed, Sonny, Amir, Jarret) with and roll with it.

BC:

You're blind, you can't see
you need to wear some glasses like D-M-C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVNzmb_eWyI

[Arsenalist]

I am sick reading this non-sense: "Pat Riley is a genius"! He was just lucky that CB4 decided to go Miami and than LeBron followed. The Miami three mi-amigo gang up was the work of the three players, not the genius of Pat Riley.

Yup, remind me again the gap in championships between the Lakers and Heat. Riley preaches defense, I give him that, but he hasn't one a championship without at least three Hall of Famers on the roster (Lakers). I fully believe the refs singlehandedly won the series for Miami against Dallas.

Some of the same critique can be applied to Phil Jackson, but the man has produced for two different teams and the last two championships have been especially impressive.

[Buddahfan]

Yup, remind me again the gap in championships between the Lakers and Heat. Riley preaches defense, I give him that, but he hasn't one a championship without at least three Hall of Famers on the roster (Lakers). I fully believe the refs singlehandedly won the series for Miami against Dallas.

Some of the same critique can be applied to Phil Jackson, but the man has produced for two different teams and the last two championships have been especially impressive.

Everyone wanted to fire Doc Rivers butt before the Big Three and Thibodeau showed up.
Casey always said that any manager could have won with the players he had when he managed the Yankees.

I have discussed at some length in at least one previous post on Raptors Republic the affect, both positive and negative, that coaches can have on the teams that they coach. The problem is that even if they have an impact, which I do believe they do, there is no way to measure it objectively. The only way that one could get a good measure is to have two coaches coach the same team at the same time in alternate universes where everything else was a constant. Now some geek could probably come up with a computer program based upon the personality and coaching decision history of each coach and then run the program with various coaches coaching the teams to see what the theoretical impact would be on the results. It would be very interesting if the enough variables were included and they were accurate.

[Arsenalist]

Everyone wanted to fire Doc Rivers butt before the Big Three and Thibodeau showed up.
Casey always said that any manager could have won with the players he had when he managed the Yankees.

I have discussed at some length in at least one previous post on Raptors Republic the affect, both positive and negative, that coaches can have on the teams that they coach. The problem is that even if they have an impact, which I do believe they do, there is no way to measure it objectively. The only way that one could get a good measure is to have two coaches coach the same team at the same time in alternate universes where everything else was a constant. Now some geek could probably come up with a computer program based upon the personality and coaching decision history of each coach and then run the program with various coaches coaching the teams to see what the theoretical impact would be on the results. It would be very interesting if the enough variables were included and they were accurate.

Things coaches can definitely control:

- Overall team strategy.
- Game management (mismatches, breathers, etc.).
- Personalities.
- Motivation.
- Team spirit.
- Setting execution guidelines in key situations.
- Effort (not entirely but to some degree)

I think Phil Jackson's greatest feat has been to convince superstar players to play a team-game. Doug Collins got fired in Chicago for the "Get the f*ck out of the way and give the ball to Mike" strategy and the Laker coaches in the 1990's couldn't figure out how to handle Kobe and Shaq either. He handled a personality like Rodman when he was a disaster in San Antonio. Beyond the obvious skill of X's and O's (which have always been more influenced by assistants than head coaches), a great coach has to have these intangibles and Jackson has them in spades.

[Buddahfan]

Things coaches can definitely control:

- Overall team strategy.
- Game management (mismatches, breathers, etc.).
- Personalities.
- Motivation.
- Team spirit.
- Setting execution guidelines in key situations.
- Effort (not entirely but to some degree)

I think Phil Jackson's greatest feat has been to convince superstar players to play a team-game. Doug Collins got fired in Chicago for the "Get the f*ck out of the way and give the ball to Mike" strategy and the Laker coaches in the 1990's couldn't figure out how to handle Kobe and Shaq either. He handled a personality like Rodman when he was a disaster in San Antonio. Beyond the obvious skill of X's and O's (which have always been more influenced by assistants than head coaches), a great coach has to have these intangibles and Jackson has them in spades.

I agree with you list. I would just expand on "Game Management" though I am sure that you would include these two in your expansion of it.

1. Game rotations - Not all rotations are dictated by mismatches or breathers eg. starting rotations. Though some coaches have been known to let mismatches dictate their starting lineup eg. Michael Curry - Pistons.
2. Play calling - Not only during timeouts but a number of coaches call in action plays. As I recall SVG does this.

[DoNDaDDa]

BC has taken enough heat.. this GM ranking is BS. sure BC has overpaid a few FA & made some trades that never panned out but name 1 GM who hasnt made mistakes & been criticized for it. the fact is it is easier to blame the GM when things go wrong rather then the players or anyone else. CB4 was the franchise player & team captain & im sure any move BC made would have been run past CB4 & the rest of the MLSE first & they should bear part of the blame aswell if BC is. but in all honesty most of the signing & trades were being hailed as the birth of a super power by most in the media & fan base before it all went wrong. most people in T.O need to remember how it was b4 BC arrived & just be happy we dont still got Rob Babcock or Isiah Thomas as GM.

[Frankthetank]

Rating BC as a general manager can be measured in multiple ways. One method that hasn't been looked at is the record the raptors had before he became GM, compared to the record Colangelo's raptors have.

2003-33 wins
2004-33 wins
2005-27 wins
colangelo era
2006-47
2007-41
2008-33 wins
2009-40
Looks like Colangelo is above average GM to take a team averaging 31 wins a year for the last 3 years to average 40 wins a year over the next 4 years. All in all at least BC try's to put a winner on the court even if he does make a few mistakes along the way.

[Apollo]

BC has taken enough heat.. this GM ranking is BS. sure BC has overpaid a few FA & made some trades that never panned out but name 1 GM who hasnt made mistakes & been criticized for it. the fact is it is easier to blame the GM when things go wrong rather then the players or anyone else. CB4 was the franchise player & team captain & im sure any move BC made would have been run past CB4 & the rest of the MLSE first & they should bear part of the blame aswell if BC is. but in all honesty most of the signing & trades were being hailed as the birth of a super power by most in the media & fan base before it all went wrong. most people in T.O need to remember how it was b4 BC arrived & just be happy we dont still got Rob Babcock or Isiah Thomas as GM.

You can't just ask who has made mistakes. You need to ask how many mistakes have the elite GMs made? Your point is like me defending a compulsive liar by saying, "hey, don't worry about it. Who here has not told at least one lie? See, we're all a like. You told a lie once, I told a lie once, this guy over here tells 52 per day, we're all the same."

Rating BC as a general manager can be measured in multiple ways. One method that hasn't been looked at is the record the raptors had before he became GM, compared to the record Colangelo's raptors have.

2003-33 wins
2004-33 wins
2005-27 wins
colangelo era
2006-47
2007-41
2008-33 wins
2009-40
Looks like Colangelo is above average GM to take a team averaging 31 wins a year for the last 3 years to average 40 wins a year over the next 4 years. All in all at least BC try's to put a winner on the court even if he does make a few mistakes along the way.

Colangelo took over a team with cap space, a young star, some cheap complentary pieces and a 1st overall pick. The guy before who you're comparing him to took over a team with one of the highest cap numbers in the league and hardly any of the big bread earners were actually playing in games.

Colangelo had everything set up from the get go. Babcock entered an impossible situation. Big difference. Your comparison does not work. Colangelo dug himself a hole due to his decisions. Babcock jumped in somebody else's hole and couldn't dig himself out.

[EaseMyPain]

Agreedu

I have always thought that Babcock caught everyone's s..t unfairly. He had a bad situation with bad contracts and bad chemistry as a result of Grunwaldm trying to please VC. BC created a similar condition by trying to satisfy CB.
What Babcock had was a long range plan and zero charisma. BC has has charisma, but no plan. He is amuch better Gm based on the interest h creates. Summers withBc are more interesting than the games.

[Balls of Steel]

It seems to me that based on my observations, BC's ultimate downfall was be the drafting of Andrea Bargnani. That and the fact that he could not find a suitable partner for Bosh (that on was not his fault as he didn't draft him).

[drizz]

I've noticed in the past few seasons that the support for BC goes up in the summer when he makes a few moves, but his stock seems to deplete over the course of the season when things don't pan out and/or he makes rash decisions that don't work out.