Lots of speculation – including that by fans in three NBA cities – ended on Monday with the signing of prize free agent Stefano Mancinelli by Armani Jeans Milano. Italian media had reported that Mancinelli’s agent was entertaining offers from the Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors and Portland Trail Blazers for the forward, but Mancinelli will instead be staying in his home country for two more years.
"It’s not just me," Colangelo said on the telephone. "I’m getting glowing reports from USA Basketball about Jay. I’m getting glowing reports from Mike Kryzewski and (Colangelo’s father) Jerry Colangelo about what he’s doing at the U.S. camp.
"It’s one thing when you think you see something. It’s something else when others see the same thing you do. It just feels good. It feels good in terms of our relationship, it feels good in terms of the structure of our team. You need certain things to be successful and coaching is a big part of it. I just see a guy growing into the job and I can’t wait to get going."
So, rumour has it that if Denver we’re to rescind their qualifying offer to PF/SF Linas Kleiza. That the Raptors will attempt to pursue him. Now, there is 2 things that would have to happen before the Raptors could even make an offer to Kleiza.
A: The Denver Nuggets would have to rescind their qualifying offer to Linas. The only reason they would do this would be that they want to remain from paying the luxury tax.
B: The Toronto Raptors would have to dump salary by waiving a player(s) or most likely trading away (a) player(s) for just draft pick(s) or cash considerations.
Althought we should be worshiping Bryan Colangelo’s moves, some of them might not pan out the way the Raptors wanted. With the exception of a few, we still are a VERY poor defensive team. The best defender is our starting lineup is a rookie (Demar Derozan). However, I’m not throwing us under the bus, just saying that we might not be as good as expectations. Hopefully Demar develops into the player we all think he can be.
Just a reminder that the NBA schedule will be released at 1pm this afternoon. Check back for our thoughts on how it plays out. It’s been said that we play Cleveland in our home opener and Orlando in the 2nd game at the ACC.
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