There’s something about Bryan Colangelo that gives the impression that he knows what he’s doing. The rewards of leading a team to two successive exits in the first round of the East continue to pile in. Colangelo was appointed to the Canadian basketball board of directors yesterday which is so nice and such a cool endorsement of the Raptors. Still can’t figure out why Glen Grunwald didn’t get the same respect after leading the team to a playoff win and a hairs breadth of within the Eastern Conference finals when the East was actually strong. People have to stop looking at Colangelo as the one who saved the Raptors franchise when it was Wayne Embry who set the situation up nicely for him.
The Jorge Garbajosa buyout talk should make you wonder why we’re not trading his expiring contract as part of a package. Its a good question that deserves its own discussion. I’m thinking the Garbajosa situation is too big of a mess for a team to take on, dealing with slimy insurance agents, Spanish federations and lawyers can’t be an attractive situation. 4.3M isn’t chump change but you might end up spending that much in lawyer fees after you acquire him.
I don’t know if Colangelo is blowing smoke up our asses but he looks to be picking at the #17 spot and there’s no indication of him moving that pick. Granted we have no idea who we’re going to pick but even if we did why the hell would we let others know? Best to let other team think we’re very, very high on Joey Dorsey and might even be crazy enough to pick him at #17. Teams would believe us, after all we did majorly fuck-up a #1 pick…Oh sorry, I forgot how Bargnani will make him eat my words and my blog and then shit on my computer.
Not only are the Knicks in love with Danillo Gallinari but their brothers from across the bridge are said to be considering him too. They’re however much more reserved about him because of his defense and European background. Kiki Vandeweghe talks about an important part of player evaluation:
“What you’re looking for in most workouts is how they compete against somebody. So it is difficult when he’s by himself shooting. I went over to watch him. We’ve seen him on DVD. So we’ve seen him play, but you always want to see him play competitively against somebody close-up . . . because you can’t see him compared to the better players from the U.S.”
Aah, good to know he’s not just looking at potential even when drafting at #10. A players’ competitiveness and the emotion he plays with have so much to do with how good he’ll be that it should count as 50% of the evaluation. Vandeweghe is obviously looking well beyond his natural talents to see whether he can be an NBA success, something we probably should’ve done with Bargnani. Uh oh..forgot about him making me eat my words.
So David Stern says that NBA refs don’t manipulate the outcome of games, well, maybe they should. Last night’s Lakers collapse means the series is more than likely over unless Kobe finds the Jordan in him and Pau Gasol decides to stop being run over by just about anybody.
There’s a nice article in the Sun Sentinel about teams that have had to pick #2 and how much they’re dependent on the first overall selection. I get a feeling that online publications are aware that there are a whole lot of bored Raptors fans looking to hit their websites. Dime Mag compares Chris Bosh to Kevin Garnett in one line but manages to give the article title a Chris Bosh theme.
Have a nice day.
