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“At some degree, it pains me to feel that this is the perception of this team, but at the same time it puts us in a position to prove people otherwise and it gives us something to play for,” Colangelo says. “It gives a young, prideful, energetic and enthusiastic group something to shoot for. It's a fresh approach, much more so than a team that just expects to be good and goes out and doesn't play hard night in and night out. And it's more of a team that's ideally suited for Jay (head coach Triano) to continue to grow with as a coach.
“Already you can see a different approach from him, you can see a different approach and effect, positive effect, that that's had on the team and how this team plays together, how they like each other, how they're, again, more enthusiastic about the process. I think at the end of the day — again, we were probably a team last year that I would argue was a 50-win team that missed the playoffs and underperformed — this year we absolutely are a team that has lower expectations but will need to overperform to make the playoffs.
“Whether or not we make the playoffs is an unknown; again, there is no expectation. I would personally like to think that we are driving for that as a goal and I think that should be the goal each and every time we step on the floor.”
“Already you can see a different approach from him, you can see a different approach and effect, positive effect, that that's had on the team and how this team plays together, how they like each other, how they're, again, more enthusiastic about the process. I think at the end of the day — again, we were probably a team last year that I would argue was a 50-win team that missed the playoffs and underperformed — this year we absolutely are a team that has lower expectations but will need to overperform to make the playoffs.
“Whether or not we make the playoffs is an unknown; again, there is no expectation. I would personally like to think that we are driving for that as a goal and I think that should be the goal each and every time we step on the floor.”
“I haven't necessarily won that elusive championship — lots haven't – but I've had my share of success along the way and I felt like Jay was the right coach for this team at the time and I still feel that way.”
“I just don't think you can ever be afraid in a position of decision-making. Being a key decision-maker in a process, you've got to be willing to put yourself out there, subject to criticism, subject to failure, subject to success. You can't be afraid of what the consequences may be because it could influence your thought process. You have to make decisions based on a philosophy and principles that would lead you to believe it's the right decision. And if something does go wrong, if it's the wrong or incorrect decision, I think I have a knack for making due.
“A perfect example was the failed experiment with Hedo Turkoglu. It didn't work out and rather than sit around and try to beat my head against the wall and make it work, it was pretty clear that ship had sailed so we needed to make a deal to salvage what we could and you could argue that we got a younger player, a better player — or contributor, let me soften that — and tremendous financial relief, short term and long term.
“It worked out in a favourable way for us. I love the fact that there was even more knowledge with respect to who the individual was, what kind of key character guy was coming in, and thus far Leandro (Barbosa) has been a great fit for this team.”
“A perfect example was the failed experiment with Hedo Turkoglu. It didn't work out and rather than sit around and try to beat my head against the wall and make it work, it was pretty clear that ship had sailed so we needed to make a deal to salvage what we could and you could argue that we got a younger player, a better player — or contributor, let me soften that — and tremendous financial relief, short term and long term.
“It worked out in a favourable way for us. I love the fact that there was even more knowledge with respect to who the individual was, what kind of key character guy was coming in, and thus far Leandro (Barbosa) has been a great fit for this team.”
“If I was given all the same circumstances, and again no foresight as to what the outcome was, I still think I'd make the same deal. So am I sorry or do I regret doing it after the fact? Yeah. But you can never operate with that foresight, you can prepare and you have as much information and you put that information into the equation and you try to decide what that outcome might be but that outcome has to play itself out. And in this business, there are so many variables that are a factor.”
“Last year, there was a pretty strong notion that we should either trade Chris Bosh and get something for him while we could or do something to try to keep him.
“Well, we went out and arguably made a pretty big splash.There was a lot of discussion about it, mostly positive, that came about when we went and got the Turkoglu transaction completed. Again, it was an attempt to try to make the most of the situation that we had under present circumstances and as recently as Feb. 15, when we went to Dallas for the All-Star Game, we were sitting on a franchise record-tying 29 wins and everything seemed kind of on-track.
“A lot changed from that point forward, some of it explainable, some of it not explainable. I don't want to rehash the past and the reasons and what might have been but it fell at that point.
“Even the notion that we didn't get anything for the departure of Chris Bosh is a little bit of a misconception in that we still have what's known as the trade exception as a possible means of getting better or acquisition of assets, players or assets; and we have our pick back, which was given up previously, and another pick that could potentially be packaged or utilized in some other way.
“We didn't get nothing but I can assure you, for all the people who say we should have gotten something when we could, there weren't a lot of deals that were presented to us or that were available to us even 12 months earlier. ... There was never a deal where we would have said, ‘Wow, we really need to trade Chris to get this done.' Especially not knowing what the future held.
“We played it out. We didn't exactly replace 24 (points per game) and 11 (rebounds per game) but we took a step in the direction towards recovering from that departure and loss by getting some things back and also having less financial restraints.”
“Well, we went out and arguably made a pretty big splash.There was a lot of discussion about it, mostly positive, that came about when we went and got the Turkoglu transaction completed. Again, it was an attempt to try to make the most of the situation that we had under present circumstances and as recently as Feb. 15, when we went to Dallas for the All-Star Game, we were sitting on a franchise record-tying 29 wins and everything seemed kind of on-track.
“A lot changed from that point forward, some of it explainable, some of it not explainable. I don't want to rehash the past and the reasons and what might have been but it fell at that point.
“Even the notion that we didn't get anything for the departure of Chris Bosh is a little bit of a misconception in that we still have what's known as the trade exception as a possible means of getting better or acquisition of assets, players or assets; and we have our pick back, which was given up previously, and another pick that could potentially be packaged or utilized in some other way.
“We didn't get nothing but I can assure you, for all the people who say we should have gotten something when we could, there weren't a lot of deals that were presented to us or that were available to us even 12 months earlier. ... There was never a deal where we would have said, ‘Wow, we really need to trade Chris to get this done.' Especially not knowing what the future held.
“We played it out. We didn't exactly replace 24 (points per game) and 11 (rebounds per game) but we took a step in the direction towards recovering from that departure and loss by getting some things back and also having less financial restraints.”
“I love the fans in this city and I love the passion that they show for the sport and for the Raptors in particular. I love the fact that no matter where we go, there's a following of Raptors fans. And the people I interact with, the people that I see, the people I meet in the streets — and I am out a lot to see people — they've been fantastic and supportive. I can't ask for anything more than that.”
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