Toronto Raptors Ramblings

B-Co speaks in riddles....but read between the lines

Some Babble from B-C0....a few nuggets between the lines:
B-Co dropped a whole lot of nothing on us tonight, only 24 hours before the draft. In summary what we heard was that he's down to 2 players and none of the offers we've heard so far are still on the table. B-Co was very adament that we can't simply trade down to #5, get a good player and hope to get Italian Boy Bargnani.

BRACE YOURSELF RAPTORS FANS WE MIGHT ACTUALLY USE THIS PICK! This would be a huge disappointment. I don't think anybody in Raptorville is too jacked about #1. I'd rather get excited about somebody with "tremendous upside" at #5 and have another 'asset'. Alas that is not the message today. So my advice is to start mentally bracing yourself about getting excited about a White Player who is over 6'10. I repeat...white and over 6'10. This does not break my golden draft rule about tall white guys for several clauses kick in. One he's not from this continent. Two, he's not a true centre, i.e. he's a jack the three centre. There in lies our only hope.

The rest of the press conference made me feel a bit better, as you can rest assured B-Angelo will be wheeling and dealing come July 11th (when free agents are out there and cap is offiically set). There were lots of hints that the Raps have got lots of guys in 'pencil' for deals down the road, potentially involving this draft pick. Here are some snippets from a man who can take a simple question and turn it into an 8 minute speech.


"we've got a lot of areas we need to improve"
"Who is the best asset, to maybe make a trade or something to do later"
"We are focussed on trade and free agency"
"We are going to use the pick"
"We may do things subsequently"
"July 11th we can sign free agents"
"Any trade we can do now is limited"
"lots of deals you talk about now changes a lot when July 11th and the tax is set and cap space is known"
"sometimes you can predict someone has space i.e. us, The Toronto Raptors, we can committ to deals"
"conversations continue"
"we have targeted some players in the free agency market"
"we've got names in pencil"
"it's not a banner free agent year"
"still need our current guys to take a step up"
"we are not good enough to draft around positions"
"we are going to use the pick"
"there is critical information that is not open to the public. It could relate to personality traits, personality tests or other personality things you get a gut feel on when you are meeting with players. That's where we are today, and how we've come down to 2 players"
"if someone comes forward and knocks us down we might make a deal but at the end of the day we have no viable options right now"
"to be very clear to move the pick outright we would have to get an all-star calibre player. lots of names are thrown around but how do we rate those players"
"players we have asked for are not available. rest assured we are approaching teams on all starts"
"to move down we'd need a good middle ten pick (i.e. top 10) which would require a prospect and a pick. a good prospect. at this stage not situation is presented itself"
"moving down to select one of our two candidates is NOT possible. the speculation that we can move down and get our guy is not a realistic scenario. There is a lot of disinformation being thrown around which hopes we believe that"
"the most glaring scenarion is that we can move down to 6th and get Italian Bargani...no way, he's gone. I saw a mock draft where he's on the board at 10. no way. roy, morrison and gay, it's all the same."
"I don't know how to play poker to be honest. I have watched it, but I can't spend the time to learn"
"I believe you never outright lie. You may not tell them everything"
"I don't have to lie at the #1 pick"
"If I were at 6 or 7 I'd sure want to know what Toronto is doing"
"the only people who get rich at draft time are the phone companies"
"Roy, Morrison are probably the two most ready players in terms of impact"
"Gay and Barjani and Tyrus as the greatest upside. Each has strength and weakness"
Bargani is playing against grown men in Europe and he isn't embarrasing himself.
Gay and Thomas have played phenomenal games at the highest level of awareness (NCAA tournament)
Morrison, I watched 3 games straight and he threw up 43 against Michigan State.
He wants to win at all costs. But there is a lot that goes into the process. You project on a ready basis now and you need to say what is the ceiling.
"rest assured all the thoughts - personality, medical,
"we have film of the inside of joints of all playesr at this point. our doctor came in and gave us a full run down of everyone we are looking at"
"we have a lot more footage and information on the Euro's now. Give Donnie credit because he had the database of where guys started and where they came. Dirk Nowitzki didn't start like the Dirk you know now. Consider him to a guy like Barjani and there is a lot of footage that everyone has seen. When he played in Toronto he probably first came to light. He's grown an inch or inch and a half since then.

posted by WG @ 7:42 PM