| "Raptor Restructuring..." (February 19, 1998)
Oh those crazy Raptors. Where should I start. The Toronto Raptors were sold to the Toronto Maple Leaf Organization. Without going into great detail, the Leafs and Raptors had plans to build separate buildings, but could never agree on terms to share one. Now with the Leafs buying the Raptors, there will be only one building for both teams. The Leafs, if people outside Canada are reading this, have more money than God. They are totally loaded and have some big financial backing, like a major bank, construction magnate and the Ontario Teachers Pension board. Needless to say, this purchase will not strain their collective purse strings. What this does do is relieve some financial pressure from Allan Slaight, the former owner. He was partners with John Bitove, the point man in getting the NBA franchise in Toronto. Slaight bought him out when Bitove started making some poor business decisions. Slaight didn't want a basketball only building. He bought out Bitove with the purpose of making a deal with the Leafs and then finding another partner. The Leafs were not willing to share with the Raptors and more important would never be a secondary tenant to the Raptors, which was the rumor. Isiah Thomas tried to buy the franchise but did not have the financial backing to do so. The Leafs-Raptors deal is worth a reported $400 million, which includes the team and the stadium (team = $120 million and the stadium = $280 million). Zeke couldn't muster this kind of scratch, besides, it's been reported that he low balled Slaight. First off, Slaight isn't stupid and second, he was never cash strapped as most reports have said. He was never in any financial trouble and with a big bank as a minority owner in the team, he never had to worry about money. Rumors are created when reporters speculate, based on unconfirmed statements by ex-General Managers and ex-Players who expressed resentment to the team. Why didn't they go after any free agents or make deals? Because they have no money. It's the most obvious one, right? How about, no one wanted to deal with Thomas as a GM because he had made some shrewd moves and no GM wanted to be fleeced by him. How about, the Raptors didn't have much to trade? Which is true. How about, the Raptors weren't that much under the salary cap because of the strict NBA guidelines for expansion teams, which say that an expansion team salary cap is lower than other NBA teams for financial reasons, in their inception. Slaight was fine. Let's just say, the rumor and innuendoes killed him. With the Leafs as the Raptors new owners, trust me, if someone says the Raptors are cashed strapped, they are full of crap. The Leafs have plenty of money. Besides, in a year the new arena will be ready and that's a cash cow.
The day after the Leafs bought the Raptors, Damon Stoudamire was finally traded. Good riddance. I've been reading articles recently about what he has to say about Toronto and the Raptor organization. Man, is he bitter. Before talking about the trade, let's talk about this guy. He went to a great team player, future all-star and corner stone of the franchise to well, bickering 90s athlete. Damn him. He publicly lashed out at Glen Grunwell, the new GM, for his lack of basketball acumen. He lashed out at Allan Slaight saying he didn't have a commitment to winning. He said he met him three times, when Slaight came into the dressing room. Does the CEO of MSG Enterprises come down and visit the Knicks? I doubt it. Slaight had other interests besides the Raptors. That's why he hires a GM and president, to run the damn show. He owns several radio stations and doesn't even have a full time residence in Toronto. I don't what the hell Stoudamire is saying there. There are some owners who are hands on and some who are not. There is no direct correlation between hands on owners and winning. Jerry Buss never walks into the L.A. Lakers and chats it up with Shaq and talk about their commitment to winning. Jerry West does. He's the president. So Damon basically has been bashing the Raptors and the worst was when he publicly demanded a trade. Before it was only rumor. But days before, he publicly demanded a trade, which lowers his trade value. His bickering makes it difficult for teams to send players to Toronto (see Kenny Anderson) and makes it hard for the Raptors to get fair market value for him. If you want to back track about 7 months, Damon was heralded as a team player when he and Isiah didn't agree on a contract, because in the 1998 off season the Raptors would go after a free agent and use the "Larry Bird" clause on Damon and the Raptors would be so much better. Sounds great doesn't it? Except, the reason there was no deal was because Damon and Zeke were millions off. Damon wanted $90 million over 7 years, similar to Gary Payton and Zeke was offering about $70 million. This has nothing to do with Slaight here. It's a matter of economics. Zeke basically said, we're not making any head way and we'll wait until the off season, otherwise it could get ugly. When Zeke couldn't buy the team and left. He always wanted to own the team, and when he couldn't afford it, he sulked and left saying how the team had no money and Slaight told him he couldn't make expensive moves. My guess is Zeke and Damon had some discussions before Thomas's resignation and told him to get out. Damon started to sulk when Thomas left. I wonder if Damon used his brain to realize this.
I kind of liked this trade. Gary Trent is a good low post threat, Alvin Williams is a young, promising guard and Kenny Anderson is a talented guard. Anderson threatened not to report. Personally, I would have let him sit and rot. The Raptors didn't have to pay his contract (because Paul Allen kicked in some money to cover it) and his contract ran for another 5 years. I would have screwed that punk, or at least, made a deal during the off season, and maybe parlay Anderson and some picks for a high pick. Guess not. Anderson, Popeye Jones and Zan Tabak were traded to Boston for John Thomas, Chauncey Billups, Roy Rogers and Dee Brown. The rumor is Dee Brown will be traded to Minnesota for Michael Williams, who never plays because he's too injured, and Chris Carr.
Very busy week, don't you think. So let's take a quick step backwards. After Damon was traded, the Raptors coach, Darrell Walker quit. He didn't like the way the Raptors organization was heading. I think it's because he had aligned himself so closely with Stoudamire that when Damon left, he had no allies on the team. Rumor has it, the players didn't like him. Walker rode Damon. He played him almost 40 minutes a game. Zeke, after firing Brendan Malone, said his reason for firing him was because he didn't play the young players and played Damon too much, with caused him to have some troubles with his knees. Walker played Damon as much as Malone. Go figure. Walker was a figure head. He was hired by Thomas because he was cheap, he was there and he would listen to Thomas. He also was in a position that if the Raptors sucked, which they do, Walker could take the fall. Thomas didn't want to hire a big name coach in the beginning because he knew the constant losing would be bad for the coach. Instead he tried to get coaches who were good enough to bring the team to mediocrity and then would replace him with a young, up and coming coach. Too bad that back fired. Walker said as a minority coach, he had to step down because he couldn't take all the heat for this situation. I think he just wimped out. He lost his star and his only ally on the team. The only reason the team listened to him after Thomas quit was because Walker loved Damon and Damon in turn respected Walker. He liked the fact Walker would let him take shots and run the show and give him a lot of playing time. Walker would rip every player, especially Marcus Camby and Carlos Rogers, but never Damon, neither publicly or privately. Walker was not a good coach. He might be, but he was and is, raw. Isiah Thomas had a grand scheme before this season. He got Bob Kloppenberg to bring in his vaunted trapping defense he created in Seattle and brought in the sophisticated triangle offense to run. Both are very difficult to run. The defense requires some superior athletes, which the Raptors have, but also requires basketball smarts, dedication, depth, and Gary Payton. The offense is even more difficult to run. Ask Dallas and Quinn Buckner. Most players don't like the triangle offense because it makes that player a cog, as opposed to a player. Look at Chicago, for example. Luc Longley gets the ball a lot at the free throw line and ends up dishing the ball to the deep elbow for open jumpers or the corner jumper. You can see how the system works and who does what. Some players aren't sold on just being that specific. The Bulls run the triangle about 50-60% of their offensive sets. The reason the Bulls buy into it is because they practice it, and have been doing so for years, they win with it and they have the ultimate bailout in Michael Jordan. In Dallas, Jason Kidd wasn't happy running the triangle because it hindered his natural play making and forced him to take a lot of deep jumpers. Jamal Mashburn wanted his one-on-one moves on the baseball but was forced to play too much in the low post or as a jump shooter. Jimmy Jackson didn't like it because Kidd and Mash had the ball too much. The Raptors, well, didn't have the talent or the dedication and got killed running it. That's why they had that big losing streak at the beginning of the season. They didn't know how to run their offense or defense. Walker should have better prepared them or told Zeke that the team would be unable to learn it. Utah doesn't run either a trapping defense or the triangle and they win. Even Miami is relatively conservative. They win. Thomas figured you copy from the best, but was smart enough to realize that the best teams have the best players, not the best systems. Put Stockton and Malone in the triangle, and they'd run it. Put Mike, Scottie and Dennis in a trapping system and they'd get 15-20 turnovers a game as well. Walker was just to inept and when Damon left, his bridges were burnt. The funniest thing is he thinks he'll get another NBA head coaching position soon. Like, this off season. Uh, no. Sorry. You sucked. You bailed when the team needed you. This is a guy with one year assistant coaching experience. 1.5 years of head coaching experience. He'll either end up as an assistant coach wherever Isiah Thomas ends up (maybe Denver, they need a GM) or maybe a college coach, in Arkansas, his home state. Does anyone know the head coach of University Little-Rock Arkansas?
Back to the first big trade, for a second. Gary Trent has expressed his willingness to stay with Toronto, as has Alvin Williams, but I think, since both are free agents, they're happy to get some serious playing time and show their wares. Don't be surprised if they both walk. Remember, Toronto does have cap space and can resign Trent without regard to the cap. So he can get more from Toronto. And I don't care what anyone says about the tax situation. They're full of crap.
Let's get this out in the open. The reporters in the United States have totally blown this out of proportion. This is terrible investigative journalism. Yes, the tax rate is higher in Canada. But in Ontario, the tax rate is decreasing. Thanks to the provincial government, who are on a tax cutting binge, the taxes will be lower next year as well. Also, the taxes are higher for good reason. There is socialized health care. So the next time a basketball player gets sick, he doesn't have to pay for the doctor. Did you know that when Warren Moon was playing for the Edmonton Eskimos in the CFL, he had to pay six dollars when his wife had their first child. Find me a hospital in the U.S. where it would be that cheap. We have more social programs, but that's not of concern to the basketball players. Sure taxes are higher. I wonder if Roger Clemens knows that. How about all the other free agents the Blue Jays signed (Randy Myers, Darren Fletcher, Jose Canseco, etc.). I wonder if Doug Christie, Carlos Rogers and Walt Williams (all who signed long term deals last year) were aware of the tax situation. I wonder if Doug Flutie realized he'd lose so much money. They came to Toronto because the money was good, the city is good and their respective organizations are good. But in the Raptors case, when the team started to go down hill due to poor play, injuries, poor coaching and controversy, the tax situation was brought up. I don't know who said it first, maybe Damon, but it's not a big deal. First, players are only taxed on the amount of days they actually work in the city. So the days when the team practices and plays in Toronto. So how many days is that? 41 games, 2 or 3 exhibition, and maybe another 50-60 practices. That's about 125 days. So players will get hit at the higher tax rate for about 35% of their salary, otherwise, it'll be at the American rate.
Ok, now that I've gotten all that off my chest, it's time for some trade analysis. The Raptors got rid of Walt Williams and Carlos Rogers. Both were signed to long term deals after last season, which coincidentally were career years. Doesn't it always seem that players have career years when their contract expires. Rogers is well, useless. He's too skinny for power forward play and too untalented for small forward play. He's a good player to run a trapping defense and he can run. But he's not a good shooter or ball handler. He's a decent role player but a great character player. Walt Williams has not shown any of the skills that he was supposed to have. When he was at Maryland, he was supposed to be the next Magic Johnson and even ran the point in Sacramento. He is now, just a shooter. He can shoot the three pretty decently, but is too slow to ever be a great defensive player. He doesn't like to bang down low, although he is a pretty big guy, for a small forward. And most importantly, he's overpaid. But in the NBA, who isn't. Maybe Michael Jordan. While I would have liked to see Damon stay with the Raptors, he had to go. After he left, he said he would have stayed, even after Isiah left, if the owner and GM had talked to him. As I said before, owners tend not to talk to players, even if it's a star like him. I wonder the CEO of Nintendo hangs around with Ken Griffey Jr. I doubt it. Damon didn't get it. He's an employee. He works for the Raptors, he doesn't dictate terms. He said Glen Grunwell never talked to him about their future, I'm sure this isn't true. But when Zeke left, Damon was gone, no ifs ands or buts. Damon did say he had a feeling, when his contract talks broke down in the off season, that something was wrong. You know what was wrong Damon? You wanted Gary Payton money after two seasons. Payton paid his dues. He's the best defensive player in the NBA. He's an all-star, all-NBA, and led his team to the NBA finals. What have you done? I think he was MVP of the Rookie Game. That's a big deal, isn't it. It's like being valedictorian of summer school. Obviously Damon will be missed, but he was to be replaced by Kenny Anderson. Rogers never played and Walt was injured, although he was the only legitimate three point threat.
In return the Raptors received some decent players and some picks. Two first round picks in the 1998 draft, Portland's and New York's (if New York makes the playoffs) as well as Alvin Williams, Gary Trent and Kenny Anderson. Williams is a promising guard who can play both point and off guard. He's a good player. I don't know if he'll be back though. He's a free agent and will probably go to whichever team will pay him the most money. Gary Trent is an interesting player. He's a legitimate power forward, and allows Marcus Camby to move to the small forward. He's a good post player and strong as a moose. He was in Damon's draft class. There will be some bidding for his services in the off season and may leave, but I think the Raptors will want to resign him to save face and they can pay him more than anyone else due to the "Larry Bird" exemption, and the fact they have the deep pockets of the Maple Leafs behind them. And now Kenny Anderson. Never played for Toronto. Said he didn't want to. Sat home. The Raptors should have nailed his ass to the wall, but they did get something in return for him.
The next trade Glen Grunwell made was unloaded three players to Boston for four in return. The three who were traded was a person who would never play, Anderson, a person who couldn't, in Popeye Jones and a person who didn't have the ability to play in Zan Tabak. We know about Anderson, a talented, troubled point guard who is injured and is playing below potential. Popeye Jones is a player that the Raptors probably wanted to keep was the biggest loss to the team. He was only bruising player on the team, but with Gary Trent on the team, they didn't need Jones. Jones does things that don't end up on the score sheet, like set picks, boxes around and plays good defense. He's also a good rebounder. Zan Tabak is white and tall. You know the drill. I guess there is a law after all, for white seven footers to play in the NBA. He is best known as Hakeem Olajuwon's caddie during the Houston championship years. He also has a really bad crew cut. I'm sure that's not the only thing that will be cut by Rick Pitino.
The Raptors got two big bodies, one old body and a talented youngster. First, John Thomas gives the Raptors some muscle. He can bang and rebound. That's about it. I'm sure he's expected to play about 10 minutes give up his six fouls and set some hard screens. That's all they need. Roy Rogers is, well, a lower paid Carlos Rogers who blocks more shots. In Vancouver last year, Rogers blocked more than a shot a game in limited time. He can blocks shots. He can rebound a bit. Rogers and Thomas didn't get much playing time with Boston, but should get a bit more with Toronto, especially with the injured Camby playing in front of them. While it doesn't really increase their talent level, it does replace what they traded away and give them some live bodies who are athletic and young. Dee Brown is oft-injured and is saddled with a big salary. He has talent and if healthy adds a dose of explosiveness and veteran leadership. He's rumored to be traded. Who knows. I like Dee because he gives the Raptors someone who actually knows what's it's like to play in the league before 1995. He'll backup Chauncey Billups. Funny I should mention him. He's the key to this whole thing. He struggled mightily with Pitino's system. Billups should like Toronto's up tempo, go for broke offensively system. Besides, coach Butch Carter should hand the keys to the car over to Billups and let him go. He has a world of talent and can score in bunches. With Toronto, he doesn't need to be the distributor, because Doug Christie often takes the role of point guard in some sets, as does Tracy McGrady when he plays two guard or small forward. This is a left over of Isiah Thomas's desire to emulate the Chicago Bulls, a team that doesn't rely on point guard all the time (basically it was used when Damon was sitting or they wanted to run a play for Damon off a screen). I've seen Billups play, and he can score. The Raptors now have fourteen players on the roster. Alvin Williams got his knee scoped so he'll end up on the injured list. And I'm sure someone else will get some sort of injury. John Thomas and Roy Rogers always seemed to pull a hamstring or hang a toe nail or do something to warrant a trip to the injured list. Maybe the Raptors will cut their third string point guard Chris Garner. It would be a shame, because he's a decent little player, but when next season rolls around, don't expect too many of these players to be back. Three draft picks, free agency and a collection of NBA fringe-players means some major changes.
One or more of these players will probably be gone after this season: Garner, Shawn Respert (sorry, he'll be gone if the Raptors hold onto Dee Brown), Reggie Slater (the bull has no skills except strength), maybe Thomas or Rogers or both, Sharone Wright. Expect some deals in the off season to move up in the draft. The Raptors don't want to end up like New York two years ago with three rookies (Wallace, Dontae Jones and Walter McCarty) and no one plays. I expect a deal with the Portland and New York picks and a player to move up to the late lottery. For all you Raptor fans, pray for a good lottery ball. While they can't number one (see Expansion Rules to screw new teams due to Orlando's horseshoe-up-their-ass luck), they still can get number two.
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