"It's great that the Raptors aren't as bad as everyone figured they'd be but now they have to either make themselves that bad or get good enough to matter."
- Tim Chrisholm
The title is not in any way connected to the last win although they lost a few key players in the process. Chrisholm's latest article has made me think about what's been on my mind since the beginning of the season. I call it the "30-win" trap, and it happens to be the impetus for the article.
The team has exhibited the expected "Jekyll and Hyde" syndrome but overall isn't as bad as what most people think. Come to think of it, BC isn't a bad GM in hindsight. Before the flames come out of people's nostrils, allow me to elaborate.
BC has assembled a team that many people would think by now is achieving better than most expectations. As a matter of fact, the Roko Ukic / Carlos Delfino for Amir Johnson / Sonny Weems, Barbosa for Turkoglu & Bayless for Jack trades are some of the reasons for the unexpected play of this team.
Certain NBA pundits predicted the Raptors to challenge the futility record. Bob McCown went as far as saying that the Raps wouldn't win 8 games! I personally thought that they're a 30-35 win team, which led me to the trap theory.
Many teams that finish with this much wins is usually not good enough to make the play-offs (and in the odd chance that they did, they's be blown away to smithereens in the first round). Also, with 30 wins, they're not bad enough to land the top 5 in an otherwise super-thin draft either. So the dilemma begins and it begs three important factors:
1. Is BC (in hindsight) a really good GM for assembling a team that without Bosh is achieving much better than expected? Is he steering the ship in the right direction?
2. Is Triano a better coach than many would give him credit for (with more wins than the Clippers, New Jersey, Washington, Minnesota, Cleveland and Sacramento)? Also, the team ranks 26th in points against (a mild improvement from last year with Bosh).
3. What to do with a roster that could potential win 25 - 30 games? Do we build to make the first round or strip further away to go the bottom (to complicate things, teams that suck all the time like the Clippers and Minnesota are not meeting success despite their access to the # 1 draft pick on almost an annual basis)?
If you have 3 moves to make between now and the end of the season, what would you do?
- Tim Chrisholm
The title is not in any way connected to the last win although they lost a few key players in the process. Chrisholm's latest article has made me think about what's been on my mind since the beginning of the season. I call it the "30-win" trap, and it happens to be the impetus for the article.
The team has exhibited the expected "Jekyll and Hyde" syndrome but overall isn't as bad as what most people think. Come to think of it, BC isn't a bad GM in hindsight. Before the flames come out of people's nostrils, allow me to elaborate.
BC has assembled a team that many people would think by now is achieving better than most expectations. As a matter of fact, the Roko Ukic / Carlos Delfino for Amir Johnson / Sonny Weems, Barbosa for Turkoglu & Bayless for Jack trades are some of the reasons for the unexpected play of this team.
Certain NBA pundits predicted the Raptors to challenge the futility record. Bob McCown went as far as saying that the Raps wouldn't win 8 games! I personally thought that they're a 30-35 win team, which led me to the trap theory.
Many teams that finish with this much wins is usually not good enough to make the play-offs (and in the odd chance that they did, they's be blown away to smithereens in the first round). Also, with 30 wins, they're not bad enough to land the top 5 in an otherwise super-thin draft either. So the dilemma begins and it begs three important factors:
1. Is BC (in hindsight) a really good GM for assembling a team that without Bosh is achieving much better than expected? Is he steering the ship in the right direction?
2. Is Triano a better coach than many would give him credit for (with more wins than the Clippers, New Jersey, Washington, Minnesota, Cleveland and Sacramento)? Also, the team ranks 26th in points against (a mild improvement from last year with Bosh).
3. What to do with a roster that could potential win 25 - 30 games? Do we build to make the first round or strip further away to go the bottom (to complicate things, teams that suck all the time like the Clippers and Minnesota are not meeting success despite their access to the # 1 draft pick on almost an annual basis)?
If you have 3 moves to make between now and the end of the season, what would you do?
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