photo taken by flickr user The CJM. source is here: http://flickr.com/photos/thecjm/84033610/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)On Wednesday night, Steve Nash orchestrated a sign-and-trade deal that sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Raptors made the high offer to the 38-year-old Canadian point guard, but missed out on him anyway. That the Raptors could not land this particular player is promoting some pretty egregious misconceptions:
1. The Toronto Raptors cannot sign free agents: The last time the Raptors went after a marquee free agent with an expensive offer, they ended up signing him. Just because Hedo Turkoglu’s season in Toronto was a colossal failure does not erase the fact that they beat out overtures from other teams to land him. They overpaid, sure, but so do most teams in free agency. Moreover, the Raptors got their two best players in franchise history, Vince Carter and Chris Bosh, to sign second contracts with the team.
2. NBA players don’t like Toronto: In fact, Toronto is frequently mentioned as one of the favourite cities of many NBA players. For one, Milwaukee Bucks point guard and Los Angeles native Brandon Jennings: “I just love the city of Toronto, man. It’s a great city. The people are great here. There’s always something to do. It’s a great city.” Meanwhile, Raptors restricted free agent Jerryd Bayless is looking into buying a home in Toronto, regardless of whether he comes back to the Raptors next year: “Some of my closest friends are here. They’ve shown me, and I’ve fallen in love with it. I want to make it my home.”
3. The Raptors will always be as unattractive as they are now: The Bulls have been the best regular season team in the Eastern Conference for two years. How did they do it? Not by making a bunch of free agent signings and spending themselves into contention. In 2007, the Bulls landed Joakim Noah in the draft. In 2008, the Bulls landed Derrick Rose with the first-overall pick in the draft. In the 2009 playoffs, the Bulls pushed the Celtics to seven games in an entertaining first-round series. In 2010, the Bulls then hired Tom Thibodeau to coach and had enough in place to get Carlos Boozer (who has been a disappointment, by the way) to come to Chicago. In that order, that is how they became good. After Michael Jordan retired, the Bulls struck out repeatedly in free agency, missing out on Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, among others. Does anyone want to argue that Chicago is not a desirable city? There are only a handful of teams that will consistently be able to draw free agents: the Lakers, Knicks and Heat. Recently, the Nets and Clippers were able to encourage star players to force trades to them (and Brooklyn has still failed to land Dwight Howard). In both cases, they already had one star in place (Deron Williams, Blake Griffin). Everybody else has to do it the same way: by drafting well, trading well, hiring good coaches and getting really lucky. The Raptors have never been good enough for long enough (one playoff series victory in 17 years) to jump to the above conclusion. Saying that they have is a self-pitying lie.
4. You can’t win a championship without being able to land marquee free agents: Exactly two teams have been spurred on to title runs by signing superstars in free agency: The 2000-02 Los Angeles Lakers, via the 1996 signing of Shaquille O’Neal, and the 2012 Miami Heat, via the 2010 signings (acquisitions, technically) of LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Nearly every other championship team has been built on the foundation of draft picks and trades: the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, the 2009-10 Lakers, the 2008 Boston Celtics, the San Antonio Spurs, and so forth. In the case of the Lakers and Celtics, they were able to trade for stars (Pau Gasol for Los Angeles, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett for Boston) only because they already had other stars on their rosters (Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant). Additionally, the Celtics had been bad enough for long enough that they had significant assets (draft picks, past, present and future) to trade.
5. There is no way Bryan Colangelo can recover from this: Colangelo is in a precarious position, but the general manager is nothing if not resourceful. The Raptors will try once again to pry Kyle Lowry from Houston, which will be more difficult now that former Rockets point guard Goran Dragic is off to Phoenix. The Raptors could make a play for Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, although it is tough to envision a scenario in which New York does not match an offer sheet. The Raptors will also be active in the trade market, kicking the tires on players such as Jennings and Memphis’s Rudy Gay. Colangelo is in a very tough place, but that does not mean he has no move left to make.
