The AltRaps Blog

Trust.

Faith.

Two things that all professional sports teams ask of their "most important fans", the season ticket holder.

Looking back over the years of poor play, poor won/loss records and Keon Clark moments, I had pledged my support to this team, travelled to see them and committed double digit percentages of my salary to go to every game since the inception of the franchise. I was mocked by friends, my optimism sometimes mocked on usenet, but I remained a supporter.

We finally get rewarded with our first ever top draft pick. We had a new GM that was the talk of the NBA. The Raptors were finally squarely in the spotlight down south. Add to this some cap space and we were set to really make inroads.

Flash forward a year and a half. We have our first division championship banner, we have 4 players participating in AllStar weekend, and we should be returning to the playoffs. All positives. Sadly, they might be the only positives.

We are coming up on the trade deadline in a year which major trades are being done at a fantastic clip by teams either looking to improve for this year and next or teams looking to clear space in order to re-load for the future. At first blush, you might wonder why a team with the positives listed above would need to make a deal, but dig deeper and watch the games and the reasons begin to roll off the tongue, if not the table.

The question is, what do we have that we are willing to part with that someone else wants? Juan Dixon seems to be the only viable answer. No way does this team trade TJ or Jose. Bosh is untouchable. Kapono is overpaid for the length of his contract and Rasho is attractive to a re-building team, but what do we get back in return?

Anthony Parker? Getting on in years with only one year left on his deal. Worth the small time rental? Joey Graham? Maybe in a package with Juan, but again, for what in return?

As mentioned today in the media, we have to hold on to our pennies if we are looking to pay Delfino (already getting a $1mil raise via a qualifying offer) and Calderon. As I’ve said previously, I’m sure Calderon wants to come back, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see a team who has no regard for cap penalty or a team looking to push us near the cap try and drive up the price and force Colangelo to match. Don’t forget, we are only 2 years away from Bosh’s opt-out, so anything we do now has to be looked at for future ramifications, something I’m convinced Colangelo has no feeling for.

People scoffed at me last year when I kept hammering home the salary cap and our lack of mobility in driving through this wilderness…and that was before the Baston signing and the Humphries extension.

Bryan’s vision crash and burned in Phoenix. He came here, assured three guys they were the cornerstone and promptly traded one. He then insisted on a run & gun game, which had to be scrapped 10 games into the season. He rode the fumes of an overachieving team to a first round playoff embarrassment. Now, we are on par in won/loss to last year, but in an eastern conference that is playing poorly and is arguably now weaker than a few weeks ago. We have lost our division title, our glaring weaknesses last year have not been addressed and only recently has Colangelo admitted that rebounding may be a problem.

Trust.

Faith.

Fans have shown that to this team over the years. It is time to repay us with something better than a mediocre team containing a 3pt champ who barely sees the floor, a financially soothing rookie starter that wouldn’t start on any other contending team, an overpaid centre who keeps being touted as there for the playoffs (and averaged an amazing 14min, 3pt, 4reb playoff series last year), and a million dollar dunker who was supposedly brought here as an insurance policy in case Bosh got hurt, but barely even played when Bosh WAS hurt.

A questionable #1 pick that we might just be training for his next team and a lot of cap space flushed down the toilet.

You have my trust Bryan. You can trust me when I say if you don’t come out with a solid plan, you will be down even more "real" season ticket holders than you were this year…including one who has been to more games than your Super Fan.