A piece of Colangelo genius

“Revamp” would be an understatment in describing what has happened to the Raptors roster so far this offseason. Raptors GM Brian Colangelo remains focused on collecting a winning team now. Obviously, keeping Chris Bosh in Toronto beyond next season is the top priority.

In order to improve upon a disappointing 2008-09 campaign (33-49), roughly half the roster was overhauled, with some fresh faces being brought in to shake things up, while maintaining their young foundation (Bosh, Calderon, Bargnani).

Because Colangelo is never shy to pull the trigger to improve the team, he continually gets one of those “love him or hate him” monikers as a GM. But it’s times like these where his genius is apparently, well… to some.

Of course, his biggest splash was landing Hedo Turkoglu, one of the hottest free agents available this offseason. Colangelo didn’t settle for just gutting half the roster to simply pay this guy roughly $11 million a season. Instead, he spent hours working out a complicated sign and trade deal with Shawn Marion, knowing they had no chance of re-signing him. This sign and trade (which involved the Mavericks, Grizzlies and Magic) swiftly allowed the Raps to send  away Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai and cash to Dallas, which somehow turned into Antione Wright and Devean George, two very capable role players, both of which have experience as starters a quality teams.

According to ESPN’s John Hollinger, here’s what the deal (with Colangelo being the mastermind) did for the Raptors:

“Toronto’s acquisition is now technically a trade, which means three things for the Raptors. First, they got a passable wing reserve in the deal in Dallas’ Wright. Second, Toronto didn’t have to renounce its rights to Carlos Delfino and can sign him as another quality wing. And third, the Raptors still can use their midlevel and biannual exceptions to round out their roster this summer.”

“This is huge for the Raps, as their roster otherwise would have been completely denuded. Now they can pursue some added frontcourt help with their exceptions and make a real run at the playoffs.”

“In fact, by getting only the trade exception, Orlando let the Raptors off the hook quite cheaply. The Magic got cash in the deal, and that always helps, but I’m amazed they didn’t get a draft pick or some other form of compensation for their trouble. They’ve enabled a conference rival to escape from a mess of its own making at shockingly little cost. Orlando is well over the luxury-tax line already and might never use the exception. And besides, it already had a midlevel exception available to use. The Magic should have demanded more to let Toronto off the mat.”

With these pieces in place (and possibly adding Jarrett Jack to the lineup?) the Raptors not only have a great head start to bouncing back from last season, but have the potential to make the East interesting for the likes of Cleveland, Boston and Orlando. Finally, what the fans wanted… an exciting offseason in Toronto.

Now will the Colangelo bashers please stand up? .:.