As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong."If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: 'It seemed a good idea at the time.'" -Rebecca West
Bryan Colangelo either laughs or weeps at this quote after the Raptors 2008-2009 season.
I mean, it DID seem like a good idea at the time, right? You're a playoff team, on the verge of contention. You have a legit superstar in Chris Bosh. You have an up and coming point guard in Jose Calderon, a core of veterans alongside sharpshooter Jason Kapono, and a young stud in Jamario Moon. All they needed was to jettison that black hole, T.J. Ford and minimize that bust Andrea Bargnani. And if they could do all that and upgrade their frontcourt with some muscle, that would be idea.
Enter Jermaine O'Neal. Enter the meltdown.
The season started pretty well. The Raptors won their first three games. Which is nice for them. And some people were talking about Chris Bosh as a potential early season MVP candidate. Then it was as if the entire universe that provided the structural base for the existence of the Toronto Raptors collapsed inward, leaving nothing but an echo of Sam Mitchell's continuous cursing as drifted into unemployment.
Now, in situations like this, it's never helpful to assign blame. But man, is it fun. Let's begin shall we? There were problems with defense to begin, which quickly spread to effort in whole. The issues ranged from Jose Calderon to Chris Bosh to Jose Calderon to Jermaine O'Neal to Jose Calderon ... you get the idea.
Calderon was granted the coveted point guard duties this season and T.J. Ford was shipped out to Indiana for O'Neal. Unfortunately, Calderon was exactly what the fans thought he would be. The kind of reliable point guard who doesn't commit any of the blindly idiotic things Ford occasionally attempts. Unfortunately, he also struggled to make plays, attack the basket, or defend in any consistent manner. Meanwhile, Jermaine O'Neal was brought in to be a monster down low. The effort was there. The talent was not at this point in his career.
So now there's expected to be some pretty significant changes up north over the summer. Anything is considered possible, from bringing in Steve Nash to sending out Chris Bosh. The team abandoned the Jermaine O'Neal experiment before the trade deadline and brought in Shawn Marion to mixed results. As has been the case with Marion since he left Phoenix, when he's good he's pretty good and the rest of the time it's just disappointing. There's no telling if Marion will be back but he's made it clear he doesn't like how this whole "losing every night, constantly losing, lose, lose, lose" thing (turns out Phoenix isn't crazy about it either. Steve Kerr seems to like it quite a bit, though).
There have been bright spots. Andrea Bargnani turned around a season into something bordering on great. When things are clicking, Bosh is sublime. And Calderon ... no one can really figure out what happened to Calderon. So maybe it'll turn around next season... right?
When people look back at this season, the Toronto Raptors will be remembered as either a bizarre failure of too many good things or the obvious result of a sham being discovered. Bryan Colangelo's going to have to pull an MVP out of a hat to pull this thing around next season.
