Building the Raptors, Part One

(A Raptors fan (left) takes exception to a Calderon-doubter)

Below is an email that I received today from a good friend and longtime Raptors fan; a guy who landed us playoff tickets to game two of the Nets-Raps series last year; a guy who has the most profoundly unintelligible personalized Raptors jersey on earth (look for him some day, it's jersey number one and the name reads "TMSIBIT"):

dude,

just wanted to tlel (sic) you that there's no way i'm going to a playoff game this year. i probably shouldn't go, but this team doesn't make me want to go either. season's been a total drag. they're such pussies and. (sic) yeah, that's what they are. they're pussies.

I don't blame him. This came after a thoroughly unconvincing win over Indiana - a game in which Toronto made Marquis "Delinquent" Daniels look like an athletic chessmaster and a game in which the Pacers pulled a 14-year-old kid from the East York YMCA and asked him to start at point. Prior to Indy, it took the Raps one-and-a-half games to make adjustments against the New York Knicks. These adjustments included actually getting up on Jamal Crawford's shot and Bosh learning how to pass out of a double-team. No, the season hasn't been a total drag but, yes, the Raptors are "such pussies."

Except for Bryan Colangelo. It took a man with Alec Baldwin-like brass balls to not make a major move before last week's trade deadline. Not quite two full seasons removed from a 27-55 season, Raptors fans are accustomed to miracles. They've already cultivated an image as "Truthers" drawing their halberds at the mere thought that Jose Calderon didn't deserve to make the all-star team. They seem to believe that this team is one slashing small forward away from a championship. For that reason, and several billion others, they are not NBA general managers. Our general manager, however, has a plan as predictable, yet clever, as a teen horror film.

The entire Raptors' payroll is designed around the post-trade deadline 2008/09 season. This isn't to say that the Raps will have cap space next year, because they won't, especially after re-signing Jose Calderon and (probably) Carlos Delfino. When you're an above-average team in the NBA you will never have cap space; your mission becomes less about signing new pieces than upgrading on existing pieces. Pieces like Anthony Parker, Jorge Garbajosa, Rasho Nesterovic, Joey Graham and Maceo Baston, all of whom have expiring contracts next season that total $21,719,184. It's hard to believe that Joey Graham and Jorge Garbajosa would look good to anyone, but when you're a team that's saddled with a slightly overpaid veteran while needing to rebuild, those two men will look like ice-cold motherfucking beers.

* * * * * *

Part Two will follow soon, looking at Calderon and Delfino's relative worths.