The Tragedy of Toronto: The Continued Irrelevance of the Toronto Raptors

Raptors fans were hopeful that with some prudent management, the Raptors could make the playoffs in the 12/13 season. As optimistic as Raptors fans were, the optimism quickly gave way to despair during the offseason.

In classic BC fashion, he attempted to woo a 38 year old Steve Nash to the Toronto Raptors. While a sure-fire hall of fame player and the greatest basketball talent Canada has ever produced, Steve Nash is undoubtedly on the downside of his career as Lakers fans were witness to this season.

In a bid to sign Steve Nash , BC made a $20 million, 3- year offer to Landry Fields in order to prevent the Knicks from working him into a sign-and trade with Phoenix. Landry Fields was a player coming off his 2^nd season in which he regressed as a player.

But whatever, the Toronto Raptors were going to sign Steve Nash to a 3-year, $36 million contract! Never mind the fact the Raptors already possessed an efficient pass-first point guard in Jose Calderon, we were going to acquire Captain Canada himself!

Then Nash signed with the Lakers, leaving the Raptors with Landry Fields and his shiny new 20- million- dollar contract.

Regardless , the Raptors still had significant cap space available. Feeling the need to acquire another point guard in lieu of Steve Nash, BC traded the Raptors’ 2013 1^st round draft pick, as well as Gary Forbes, to Houston in exchange for Kyle Lowry. While certainly a very able point guard, the Raptors still possessed Jose Calderon, who was entering the last year of his contract and arguably a better pass-first guard than Lowry. Many pundits brought into question the controversy of having two starting calibre point-guards on vying for the top-spot on the team.

Regardless, the Raptors line up for 2012/13 was set. Andrea Bargnani was kept with the belief that he would expand on his mythical 13 game performance and lead the Raptors to a competitive season. Many believed that he should have been traded during the off-season when his trade value was at an all-time high.

With the Raptors about to start the season, BC was optimistic about their chances, proclaiming that, “This year, you come in with different priorities and objectives. . . . If last year was about developing, this year is about winning, more so than ever”.

With these sterling expectations, the Raptors got out of the gate, lost their first game and promptly signed their 4th year player, Demar Derozan, to a 4 year 38 million dollar contract extension set to kick in next season.

If there is any deal that exemplifies the utter futility of upper management since 2006 it is this one. BC signed a player known as a volume shooter with a below average PER on the last year of his contract to a $38 million extension one game into the season. Instead of letting the season play out and evaluating Demar Derozan’s growth in a contract year, BC jumped the gun to sign a player with a sketchy track record to a massive extension. Meanwhile, the Raptors had just drafted a similar player with arguably a higher ceiling than Demar in Terrence Ross. Needless to say, contracts like Derozan’s are why lockouts happen; executives betting against no one in particular to sign a player to a contract they aren’t worth.

From this point on, it was all downhill for the Raptors 2012-2013 season.

Following this deal, the Raptors bucked all optimism by going 4-20 to start the season. Bargnani proved ineffective once again and went down with injury. Kyle Lowry showed up out of shape and was beset by injury woes and both were replaced in the starting line-up by Jose Calderon and a young Ed Davis. Davis made the most of the opportunity and led the Raptors to a bit of a recovery in the months of December and January behind some efficient play.