416 Sports

The Toronto Raptors have gotten off to yet another disappointing start to their season. Their loss last night to Memphis was their sixth in a row, and have them sitting at a division-worst record of 3-13.

I had looked at 2012-13 projections on various websites during the off-season, many had pegged Toronto to be a better team than last year, and quite a few had Toronto squeezing into the final playoff spot. If their current record is any indication of how they'll end up, I wouldn't be betting on a championship.

One has to wonder why the Raptors have been performing so poorly this season, and seasons in the past. My thoughts - it may be time that the Raptors part ways with President and GM of the Toronto Raptors, Bryan Colangelo. Truthfully, it's hard to even hear myself say those words. I like Colangelo as a front office face. His knowledge and sports/business sense stems from his sports guru father, Jerry Colangelo, former owner of the Phoenix Suns, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, the Arizona Sandsharks of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, and the Arizona Rattlers of the AFL.

Colangelo came to the team in February 2006 and made a flurry of trades within a few months of being hired which turned the Raptors from a 4th place team to a first place team. But lets take a look at their seasons after that:

As you can see the Raptors did well in his first season, but their record has slowly gotten worse since he began.

So could coaching be the problem? Let's examine that.

Coaching

There have been three head coaches that have lead the Toronto Raptors in the Colangelo era: Sam Mitchell, Jay Triano, and Dwane Cassey. The team started to under perform when Sam Mitchell was a coach, so they fired him. They continued to under perform while Triano was coach - fired. And now that Cassey is the coach, and they are still under performing! Do you see what I'm getting at here? Coaching is NOT the issue with the Toronto Raptors!

Players

Could it be the players' fault? Should Bargnani be blamed for all of Toronto's woes, having been drafted first overall and being constantly injured (by the way, he was out of the game last night with a sore ankle). DeMar DeRozan is an up and comer, but even he has shown inconsistency and is not overly progressing in his young career... but I'm patient and can wait a bit longer on him. Colangelo's big off-season moves were acquiring Kyle Lowry and bringing aboard Jonas Valanciunas. This wasn't really the ideal off-season that I was expecting from the Raptors. No big-name signings, no blockbuster trades. Lowry has been injured most of the season but returned last night, so should Lowry be blamed for the poor start to the season?

Taxes

Rumours suggest that players do not want to play in Toronto and have to pay higher income tax than if they played in the USA. Fair enough. So MLSE, open up the cheque book and start spending!

Ownership

We all know that MLSE has plenty of money to spend with the financial backing of Rogers Communications and Bell Canada, but they're just afraid to spend.

Anything can happen in professional sports, but it is up to the GM to cut the loss of an injured-prone player or a poorly developing player and continue to build. A good GM is one who can recognize when he's beating a dead horse before it becomes obvious. I have painfully watched the Raptors lose (seemingly) every game for the past two seasons and was excited for them this year because they were "supposed" to be better.

Brian Colangelo. Source: CBC.ca

At the end of it all, you can point the finger in so many different directions, whether it be the coach, the players, the Canadian taxes or the ownership. But the one person who is supposed to generally manage all of those components isssss... the GENERAL MANAGER! The GM is supposed to show players why they do want to play in Toronto and build a team with depth where injuries are not a huge fear. This is the GM's job, and if the team is continually losing and players don't want to come here, then I think the GM is doing a poor job and it might be time for Colangelo to be replaced.

Joseph Della Mora - Twitter

What a game tonight eh!?

Truthfully, I'm not a huge CFL fan, but I was really excited for this game and was happy to see the Argos win the 100th Grey Cup at home.

Like I said, I'm not much of a CFL fan so I don't have many comments about the game. However, one of my roommates (in a house of 6 guys) decided to leave town for Grey Cup weekend and left his door unlocked. First of all, it's a mistake to not join us in watching a major sporting event. Secondly, don't leave the house without locking your bedroom door.

Our idea was just to fill up his bedroom with balloons so that when he returns Monday afternoon, he will be greeted to a bedroom that he can hardly walk in to.

So, off to Wal-Mart to pick up about 400 balloons.